Chapter 1: The Faded Return of the King

The most radiant blessing of gold, immortality.

The Goddess of the Erdtree, the eternal Marika, used her divine power to create the Erdtree and scattered its great blessings upon all of the Lands Between.

It was truly a realization of immortal life.

Even if the body aged or was destroyed, the soul would return to the Erdtree and be reborn.

Everyone believed that her reign would last forever, alongside the first king, Godfrey, and the demigods born of their union.

“Well, except for me.”

For some reason, I was reincarnated into this insane world, and I quickly realized it was the game world of Elden Ring.

Ah, but don’t misunderstand.

I’m not one of those crazy Soulsborne fans who poured thousands of hours into the game while running around as a naked pink character.

I just happened to watch the story videos of Elden Ring because the game was so famous and those videos were like movies.

Yet somehow, I woke up one day, reincarnated—or should I say possessed—in this unknown world.

Eventually, after a series of tumultuous events, I realized that this was indeed the world of Elden Ring.

‘Dammit, if they were going to bring someone here, they should’ve brought one of those hardcore Soulsborne players instead of me, someone who just binge-watched the story videos once.’

The moment I realized this, I could only let out a deep, deep sigh.

After all, even though I never played the game, I knew all the endings from watching the story videos.

You could become a king of a crumbling age.

Or open the Age of Stars and head off into outer space with your wife—oh, I mean, Ranni.

You could become a mad king and destroy the world.

Or become an emotionless figure who simply fulfills the role of a ruler.

Anyway, all the endings were insane.

Well, depending on how you look at it, the Age of Stars ending might be a decent one lore-wise.

But even that meant I wouldn’t be able to stay in this world.

In the end, it wasn’t much better than the other crazy endings.

And most importantly—

“Can I even reach those endings?”

To reach any of those endings, you have to defeat countless enemies.

While some enemies can be avoided, you must defeat the holders of Elden Ring shards, the Great Runes.

And the ones who possess those Great Runes are all demigods or beings with equivalent power.

The final boss is, of course, a god.

‘They expect me to kill a god?’

Yeah, right.

I’d need to hear something that made sense before even considering it.

So, as a faded Tarnished among many, I decided to live half-heartedly, leaving everything to its own devices.

But then, my only friend, that idiot, decided to open the worst bad ending route just to save his maiden.

In the process of stopping him and healing him, I somehow ended up killing one of the actual story bosses, the demigod Malenia.

And at that moment—
“Huh?”

I felt the blessing of the Erdtree completely vanish from my body.

At the same time, I realized that my existence had been completely reborn as something entirely new.

And with a Great Rune, the power of the demigod was ‘usurped’ by me.

That was probably when it all began.

The start of this insane ordeal.

Before I even realized it, I was killing other demigods.

Melina, the maiden who serves as the guide for the Tarnished protagonist, was by my side, loudly ranting about becoming Elden Lord.

No matter how I thought about it, the other endings seemed like disasters, so I decided to aim for the Age of Stars ending.

I met Ranni and helped her safely achieve her ending.

Of course, I wasn’t about to follow her into some weird outer universe, so at the last moment, I betrayed her and shoved her alone into the void.

‘The way she looked at me as she fell… it didn’t feel right, but it’ll be fine, right?’

Well, I figured I’d never see her again, so I didn’t care much.

Anyway, peace returned to Elden Ring.

I became the Elden Lord, and thanks to my friend who was crazy in love, Melina survived and became the regent, managing state affairs on my behalf since I was utterly useless at anything but fighting.

Basically, I was a figurehead. Or rather, a puppet king.

Then one day, I heard the news that Miquella, who was thought to be dead, was actually alive.

And so I arrived in an entirely unknown land, even to the lore of this world—a place called the Lands of Shadow.

There, I eventually confronted Miquella and even defeated the resurrected Radahn, who had returned with Miquella’s power.

[DLC ALL Clear]
[Thank you for playing Elden Ring.]
[Returning now.]

“Huh?”

And just like that, I returned.