The dark night sky was sprinkled with stars, like a magnificent, adorned ribbon.
Crackle—!
The campfire burned. Dry wood snapped, sending up plumes of smoke. The high heat roasted the meat on a simple wooden rack. The aroma of spices made one's mouth water and stomach growl.
Nidhogg took a bite of the slightly hot meat, chewing with pleasure. The meaty flavor overflowed. Then, thinking about it, he tore off another small piece and offered it to Torrent, who was lying on his side nearby.
Torrent showed him his big teeth, rejecting Nidhogg's "well-intentioned feeding." Instead, he took the initiative to stick his horse's mouth into the pack beside him, rummaged through it, grabbed an apple himself, and slowly enjoyed it.
"A vegetarian, haha." Nidhogg laughed, continuing to enjoy the meat. "I like vegetarians the most. They don't share meat and can be emergency food when needed."
Torrent ignored Nidhogg's daily nonsense, focusing on his apple.
After Nidhogg finished a piece of meat and took another sip of water, he realized his teasing of Torrent was going nowhere. With the spirit steed ignoring him and no one else around, he suddenly felt a little lonely.
Suddenly, an idea struck him. He rummaged through his pack, took out the doll he had received earlier, "Petite Ranni," and held it in his palm.
Miniature Ranni perfectly replicated Ranni's appearance: the snow-white witch's outfit, four light blue little hands and feet on her slender legs. But she was just a puppet, lacking the agility and beauty of the real person.
"Ranni, since you unleashed the 'Dark Moon' at the moment of the Eclipse months ago and saved us, you left this doll and haven't appeared since. What does that mean?"
Little Ranni didn't answer Nidhogg, as usual.
Nidhogg gently pinched Petite Ranni's little hands and feet, but he didn't mind her silence. He hadn't expected her to answer his question anyway.
"I guess you, like Melina, are biding your time. Otherwise, you wouldn't appear for a while and then vanish... Of course, your appearance was very timely and helped me a lot."
Miniature Ranni still kept her little head down, enduring Nidhogg's poking and prodding. She didn't answer, didn't object, didn't move. Her wide, snow-white witch's hat almost covered her entire miniature, exquisite body.
"Torrent might know something, but unfortunately, he doesn't speak human language. Although Ranni is like an ice cube and Melina is like a block of wood, they're still much better than a strange hoofed creature that doesn't understand language."
Torrent, who was gnawing on his apple, paused and gently kicked Nidhogg's rear with his hoof.
Seeing that Petite Ranni was still ignoring him, Nidhogg shrugged, pinched Little Ranni's little hands and feet, and was about to put her back in his pack.
Suddenly, Nidhogg saw Miniature Ranni slowly lift her head, her left eye open, and look at him.
"Alas, I didn't expect you to be so annoying. Or do you have a habit of talking to dolls? Well, well, I wasn't going to talk to you in this form, but since you're so persistent, fine."
Little Ranni's hands and feet moved, breaking free from Nidhogg's rough fingers. She stood up in Nidhogg's palm, slightly raised her head, and her voice remained as noble and dignified as ever.
Nidhogg's eyes widened in surprise. "Ranni, you're really alive."
Little Ranni sighed softly and said, "Since you've noticed some anomalies, it's fine. Just like before, I need your help, and you need mine."
Nidhogg didn't reply. He just looked at Miniature Ranni with expectation.
Little Ranni noticed his silence and gaze. She first looked at him strangely, not understanding what he meant.
It wasn't until Miniature Ranni understood the anticipation in Nidhogg's eyes that she couldn't help but feel a little awkward. Then she sighed again, indulging the guy's strange request.
"You have humiliated the witch, Ranni. I will not let you off..." Miniature Ranni recited the classic lines, as if she had lost most of her strength, slumped a little, and her little head tilted to the side.
"Alright!" Nidhogg cheered happily.
Little Ranni shook her head, completely helpless.
"Every time I think I know you well, you always manage to break the lower limit and do something completely unexpected."
"I wasn't wearing anything. I just came to put on my Dark Moon ring. When I wanted to leave the Junction with you later, I was wearing clothes. But here I am in this ugly platinum son outfit..."
Then Miniature Ranni turned her head back, a smile appearing on her sapphire-like face.
"But actually, there's no other way. Who made you my lord? A lord willing to go with me to the stars, to betray everything, to leave everything, to stay away from the border... I am also glad that you are my lord."
It turned out that at the Junction where the Elden Ring was located, there was a powerful deity named Marika.
But in fact, she was just a more powerful outer god, an agent of the Greater Will at the Junction. She became a god through the Golden Order and was also bound by it.
Marika had many descendants, called "demigods." Among the demigods, only Ranni, Miquella, and Malenia possessed the dignity to become gods of the next era, and they were called "gods."
Each god and human would have a messenger of the Greater Will—the "Two Fingers"—responsible for guidance. But in fact, they controlled and prevented anything from deviating from the path of the Golden Order.
All three gods could become gods at the Junction after Marika. In general, the Elden Lord was the partner of this god, regardless of gender.
However, Ranni rejected this fate. She stole the Rune of Death from the Elden Ring, used it to kill herself, left her body as a god-human, and then quietly fell into slumber, waiting for the right moment.
After that, Ranni met Nidhogg, a Tarnished who had lost his grace, and entered into a cooperative relationship with him, aiming for him to become the Elden Lord.
Nidhogg awakened her mad brother, Radahn, who had stopped the fate of the stars, and killed the assassin assigned to her by the Two Fingers, allowing her to meet the Two Fingers and break the shackles of fate.
In the end, Ranni killed her Two Fingers, and when Nidhogg became the Elden Lord, she joined with him to step toward the stars, abandoning the Golden Order of the Junction in favor of the order of the stars, the moon, and the cold night.
Of course, this was from Ranni's perspective, based on everything that had happened along the way.
Nidhogg had also had a premonition of this situation.
When Ranni first appeared in the ruined church on the hillside, she had introduced herself as "a pleasure to meet you."
However, both Ranni and Melina had repeated some things said at the Junction, and many unusual changes had occurred. At that moment, Nidhogg had his doubts.
Only now, he and Ranni had officially clashed, and they hadn't met for the first time. This was a continuation of the development after the end of the "Age of Stars" in Elden Ring.
It wasn't that there were many weeks, but this week wasn't over yet.
Having received the answer he wanted to know, Nidhogg finally got serious and asked, "What happened after I stepped into the starry sky? How did we end up in this state? Why is Melina involved?"
Hearing these questions, Ranni couldn't help but roll her eyes at Nidhogg. "Why is Melina involved... Don't you know what you did to her? And indeed, you've lost a lot of memories."
Nidhogg didn't feel that he had lost most of his memory, but he had done even worse things to Melina. For a moment, he didn't understand what exactly Ranni was referring to.
To avoid self-destructing, Nidhogg could only ask cautiously, "Ranni, maybe I really have forgotten. Why don't you remind me?"
Ranni snorted softly, with a slight chill, and said, "If Melina knew you had completely forgotten about this, she might be able to breathe a sigh of relief and wouldn't have to think about how to get along with you now."
"However, although Melina objects, it would be interesting to remind you to think about it. So I'll tell you."
"To prevent Melina from carrying out the mission arranged by Marika—to use her soul as kindling and burn the Erdtree—you deliberately ran into the sewers of the royal capital and obtained the frenzied flame from the Three Fingers."
The Two Fingers and the Three Fingers were messengers of the Greater Will, symbolizing the order of law and the chaos of madness, respectively. They were opposites: one wanted to continue the age of law, the other wanted to destroy the world and return to primordial chaos.
"Melina couldn't forgive you for the madness, so she decided to part ways. After that, you used the frenzied flame and yourself as kindling to ignite the Erdtree, and at the same time, you entered the rift between time and space."
"Immediately after, when you defeated the original Elden Lord, Placidusax, the Dragonlord, you used Miquella's needle to free yourself from the state of madness and avoid losing control and becoming the 'Lord of Frenzied Flame.'"
"Oh—" Nidhogg suddenly understood. "So that's it."
Then he shook his head again. "I still don't understand. Melina is also involved."
Petite Ranni continued:
"Because, although she claimed to part ways with you, after the Erdtree was burned, she probably understood your intention in obtaining the frenzied flame. She was angry with you, but she didn't hate you."
"Although she still didn't want to meet you, she didn't miss the moment you became the Elden Lord. When the final moment came, she was watching you from nearby..."
"Naturally, when we boarded the star voyage hand in hand, an accident occurred. The Greater Will was also in the stars. It easily captured us. Melina, who was there, was also forced to intervene."
"None of us could be a match for the Greater Will. All three of us were severely wounded because of this."
"Among them, you were the most seriously wounded and fell into a complete coma. Next were Melina and I, but we both maintained a certain level of consciousness and memory and knew what happened later."
"The Greater Will didn't completely kill us or send us back to the Junction. Instead, it turned you into a wedge to invade another world, just like the meteor it originally dropped on the Junction."
"It sealed Melina and me within your shell, coexisting with you, while simultaneously embodying the magical and incantation abilities within your body. Then it cast us all together into this world."
"As for its goal, it was naturally to cause the land of the Junction to coincide with this world and allow the Golden Order to come to this land, just as it originally came to the Junction."
"You are the wedge intersecting this world with the Junction. You are also the center of the Elden Ring ceremony."
"This ceremony is a battle ritual. You will regain the power of your prime, that is, the power of the Elden Lord, by fighting former enemies, and at the same time, you will face bottlenecks."
"Because the power of the Elden Lord alone is clearly insufficient to deal with the most powerful God of the Abyss in this world and its messengers. After all, It and Its messengers have been preparing for so long."
"The Greater Will believes that, whether you want to or not, you will again walk the path of Marika, allowing the power of the Erdtree and the Golden Order to spread throughout the world, thereby seeking power capable of resisting the gods of the abyss."
"Even if you fall on this road, the Erdtree will use everything you have accumulated so far as sustenance, take root in this land, flourish, and implant the faith and blessings of the Golden Order."
"This is also the reason why the invaders from the Junction want to kill you. They are either in a state of madness and chaos or intend to seize or control the power of the originating Golden Order over you."
"Melina and I cannot regain the power of our times because our spirits are severely traumatized. So we can only go dormant within your body and silently accumulate restorative power."
"When you regain a portion of the Elden Lord's power, Melina and I will awaken one by one. We will also be able to help with our accumulated power when needed, and then go back to sleep."
Hearing this, Nidhogg couldn't help but recall many past events.
When Flora wanted to talk to him, the conversation was forcibly interrupted, and Melina suddenly appeared.
At that moment, Nidhogg had also asked Melina why she had suddenly appeared, but Melina hadn't answered directly and had vanished again.
After that, he remembered that Melina had released her accumulated incantation power in the Dark Realm, and Ranni had released her accumulated magical power during the Eclipse. Then they had both disappeared for a long time, almost identically.
Miniature Ranni gently intertwined her four hands and folded them around the slender waist of her snow-white robe.
"This is the whole truth. I have thought about many things clearly during my periodic awakenings. Melina wakes up more often than I do. She will also add some details, and we roughly understand what's happening."
"When we learned that you had lost some of your memories, especially those related to the Greater Will, we understood that this might be an opportunity for you."
"Because we don't know whether the Greater Will is influencing your sanity, or whether we should let it develop as it did with Marika when we were at the Junction. At most, It sent a few messengers to guide us."
"Therefore, Melina and I took turns observing your condition while awake. In the end, our judgment was the same. Again, just like before, It believes that you will walk the old path of Marika."
Petite Ranni concluded her words.
Nidhogg thought for a while and had to admit some things.
If the current situation continued, to fight against the God of the Abyss, against the God Hand and the Apostles, he could only rely on spreading the Golden Order and the faith of believers.
Such an outcome was probably one of the three main endings—the "Age of Despair."
"Don't put too much pressure on yourself." Petite Ranni whispered to Nidhogg. "It was I who dragged you onto this path of betrayal, got caught by the Greater Will in the stars, and caused this current situation."
"In any case, whether it's me or Melina, we have already understood that we will go with you to the end."
Nidhogg thought for a moment, nodded, smiled again, and said, "Yes, the Age of the Golden Order is better than the Dark Ages. At least we have the opportunity to secure a foundation and seek new hope based on that."
Petite Ranni quietly looked at Nidhogg. After a long time, she smiled softly and said:
"You are always like this. So... you will be my one and only, eternal lord."
Her voice grew softer and softer, soon turning into a whisper. Her entire doll body slumped into Nidhogg's palm, clearly having gone dormant again.
This was another farewell without saying goodbye...
Nidhogg pinched Petite Ranni's little hands and feet and couldn't help but touch the golden brand on his chest.
After finishing his apple, Torrent also comfortably nudged Nidhogg's back with his forehead.
"I know." Nidhogg said to Torrent. "I know you will fight alongside me, just like before. Don't worry, I'm not planning to give up prematurely."
"The battle ritual, regaining the power of the Elden Lord, and the fate of following the old path of Marika? Hmm... Then let's see how things are said later."