Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

However, all she saw was blank space; something unknown had blocked all her means of observation. And soon, she lost even the ability to observe.

The merging of the worlds has come to an end.

And so the first act of the script unfolds.

........................

You can tell just by looking at the word count...

Transformation - Section 1 - "An Eastern Chronicle"

But one day, fire broke out.

Differences appeared from the flames.

Cold and hot.

Life and death.

And of course... light, and darkness.

....................................

The bell rang.

Amidst the scattered and desolate cemetery, the heavy stone coffin slowly moves.

Countless corpses crawled out of the ground, their eyes empty, their tattered robes fluttering in the wind. Withered hands gripped rusted weapons, and they staggered across the earth, emitting low, hungry growls—fine dust drifted from between their limbs with each step, leaving patches of white frost-like traces on the ground.

They moved slowly and were not numerous. Several withered grey and white hound carcasses trembled in the cold wind blowing through the grave. It seemed as if a flock of crows was cawing, and following the faint sound, tiny sparks seemed to be drifting in the direction of its source.

The spark gently clung to the back of a corpse.

"...There really is such a thing."

Silently, the corpse was reduced to ashes in the sudden surge of flames. The withered limbs that had been gripping the weapon crumbled, replaced by a slender hand, which then connected to the limbs, leading to the form and appearance of a young girl—Fujiwara no Mokou, with a complex expression, grasped the rusty sword that the corpse had been holding.

"The material is unidentifiable, there are no inscriptions, and no handguard. There used to be a blood groove, but it has been corroded to the point that only a shallow line can be seen. The blade is broken, but the main part is very neat and straight—it is a standard weapon. The need for a blood groove means that it is designed to deal with enemy units that can be killed by 'bleeding'... Is the enemy weaker than expected?"

Mokou casually twirled her sword, the resulting air blast triggering a small-scale air explosion. Wind blades, almost tangible, shot outwards along the trajectory of her swing, instantly piercing through several corpses that had turned to look at her from the commotion.

“My physical strength isn’t restricted, and my skills and experience are working perfectly. The memories in my mind are also intact…” She frowned, and a layer of flame ignited on her outstretched hand. “Energy is also usable, and there’s a faint ‘qi’ in the air that I can utilize. I’m probably at my peak right now… Hmm, there’s one more thing I need to confirm.”

She bent her knees and jumped to the top of a tree in front of her.

“You can jump…” Mokou frowned slightly. “And killing the zombies didn’t allow me to absorb any ‘souls’… Is it because I’m not immortal that I can’t do it? Honestly, although I don’t know what Alice is up to, this incomplete experience is really unpleasant. If that’s the case…”

Her gaze swept across the dilapidated graveyard before her.

"It's much larger than in the game, but this should be the original Nameless Graveyard from Dark Souls III. So, there should be my Elemental Vial nearby—where is it?"

The girl's senses expanded outwards, and she easily found the stone altar where the Elemental Flask, a crucial item in the game Dark Souls, was located. However, upon arriving there, she found nothing.

There are no elemental bottles, nor are there any physical light orbs like in the game that can be picked up.

"Is it because it changed from a game into reality? Then I remember the monsters here should also be carrying elemental vials." Mokou gently rubbed her head. She wasn't good at thinking, but deducing the cause from the result was still within her capabilities. Her gaze swept around, and several streams of flame, like living things, found all the living corpses she could sense under her will.

The next moment, hundreds of torches blazed brightly in the graveyard. With a series of soft popping sounds, everything Mokou could sense that could move died instantly. Their deaths brought nothing with them—no fallen 'souls,' no empty elemental vials; Mokou gained nothing from this operation.

"...I guess I can't rely entirely on the game. Ugh, my head hurts." She slapped her head in annoyance, the frustration of not having the elemental bottle making her chest feel tight. She decided to ignore all this and headed straight for higher ground, following her memory.

If Mokou remembers correctly and the world's deviation isn't too drastic, then simply following the mountain's contours will quickly lead her to the area containing the first bonfire and the first boss fight. That Ash Judge gave her 'very thorough care' when she first started playing the game, so much so that she later created a separate save file specifically to daily thrash this guy who had given her so much trouble. But now…

"I doubt that guy can withstand a single blow from me."

The girl sighed heavily; the joy of arriving in this other world had quickly faded. She wasn't afraid of death or failure, but this unchallenging adventure left her with little interest—after saying goodbye to Alice, she took the two discs, lay down on the bed, and closed her eyes, thus remaining completely unaware of what happened afterward.

"Did I have too high expectations? Or have I not seen the true face of this world? Ughhhhh, what is Alice doing?! She whetted my appetite and then gave me this shoddy mess! I'm going to suffer! Suffer! Suffer!"

"I didn't come here for a spring outing!"

The next moment, Mokou's entire body suddenly burst forth with intense flames! The flames surrounded her, forming the shape of a phoenix around her. With a flap of its wings, it soared into the sky thousands of meters high, and at that moment, many details in this area were fully visible.

She saw the entire cemetery, the mountains below, and at the end of the mountains connected to the altar of the Ashen Judge and the Firelink Shrine behind it. Although they were ten or even a hundred times larger than in the game, they posed no obstacle to Mokou at this moment!

"At least I still have the Fire Keeper to lick!"

She let out a clear cry, and her phoenix form flapped its wings as it swooped down towards the Firelink Shrine! She traversed the vast graveyard, passed through the fog-shrouded mountain ravines, and in an instant, she arrived at the outer edge of the Firelink Shrine. She could even clearly see the giant tree!

then……

With a 'splat', the soaring phoenix crashed into an invisible wall. Mokou's protective energy and physical enhancements crumbled upon contact with the wall. Her frail body, now completely unprotected, smeared a large patch of deep red blood onto the wall.

——'YOU DEAD'

The girl's vision was immediately plunged into darkness.

..............................

"I refuse to accept this! What's the meaning of this invisible barrier?! Come at me head-on if you dare!" Mokou suddenly jumped up, and a familiar scene appeared before her. Once again, she saw that vast cemetery, and once again, those staggering corpses. And behind her was that familiar stone coffin.

She is dead.

And he died in an extremely shameful manner.

Since ancient times, the first encounter with the Soul series transmigrator who uses the invisible wall to kill is probably unique to her.

Her only consolation was that no one else witnessed her embarrassing first encounter and subsequent death. Especially not a certain otaku girl; Mokou simply couldn't imagine the exaggerated reaction a certain otaku named Houraisan Kaguya would have if she knew about this.

She'll definitely say something like, "Oh ho ho ho, you stupid turkey, you actually ran into the wall and died!" She definitely will!

Mokou's eyes twitched, but the next moment, her intuition told her that she had better look back now.

So she turned her head away.

A face that she knew all too well, so well that it was etched into her very being, appeared before her.

"Hello, you stupid turkey that crashed into the wall." A girl with long, straight black hair, who wished to remain anonymous, covered her mouth lightly, her shoulders shrugged, and her eyes crinkled into crescent moons as she looked at her.

"Kaguya Houraisan!!!!!"

Transformation, Section Two: The Judge of Ashes

Kaguya Houraisan, a homebody, the princess of the Lunarians, and Fujiwara no Mokou's eternal enemy—the last one being somewhat alleviated by her long time in Gensokyo. But an enemy is an enemy, and as the saying goes, 'the one who knows you best is your enemy'—when Kaguya appeared in Mokou's sight, the latter immediately understood the cause that led to 'Kaguya Houraisan appearing in this world'.

"You entered my room while I was asleep and took the CD Alice gave me." Mokou stared at the uninvited guest in front of her and said with certainty, word by word, "Houraisan, you are a thief."

"Who, who's the thief?!" The guy in front of her, who was all smiles just a second ago, suddenly bristled. His long, flowing hair, which had been draped behind him, sprang back violently! "You two were talking so loudly, and you didn't even put your things away properly. Whose fault is this?!"

“But I didn’t invite you into my house.” Mokou took a step closer. “You stole my things.”

"I didn't steal! I only touched it! I just touched it very lightly with my finger!"

"Oh, you admit it."

"You—!" Kaguya was furious, and her small fist clenched tightly as she was about to smash it down.

"The thief was planning to kill him to cover his tracks?"

"You dare to silence the people of Penglai for me to see!"

“You know you can’t silence the people of Hourai.” Mokou lightly tapped one fist against her other hand. “Then we can reach an agreement. I know what you don’t want others to know, and you saw what I don’t want others to see. So…”

The girl tilted her head slightly and smiled.

"……trade?"

Kaguya, standing opposite Mokou, drew her Hourai Jade Branch with a 'whoosh' and went into defensive stance. A surge of powerful energy emanated from her entire body—her eyes widened, and she whispered warily, "You're not a turkey! Turkeys aren't that smart!?"

However, Mokou simply watched her silently, without uttering a word, while the phoenix's unique crimson flames slowly drifted out from between her fingers.

"........."

"........."

“…Deal.” Kaguya put away the Hourai Jade Branch, looking dejected.

"I hunt geese all day long, but a goose pecked my eye..." she muttered softly, her spirits low.

"Stop flattering yourself, you shut-in. The odds between us are only 169,771 to 169,333. You've only beaten me a few hundred times... Besides, I'm not some idiot who only knows how to use brute force." Mokou glared at Kaguya, annoyed. "And ever since Alice came back from that unknown place and made a verbal promise with me, I've been doing rehabilitation exercises, so it's only natural that I'm stronger than you now."

"Waaaaah... I had such a great first-mover advantage..."

"If you want to cry, turn around and go cry somewhere else." Mokou glanced at her, reached out and touched the stone coffin beside her, closing the lid and turning it into a chair. She hopped up and nimbly sat on one side of the coffin, leaving the other side for some pretentious fellow.

"But if you've cried enough, then we can discuss the issue of that invisible wall."

"Waaaaah... I was actually taught a lesson by a turkey..."

"Can you stop acting like a grown-up... Is it really necessary to dwell on such a trivial matter like this?" Mokou's temples bulged with veins, and she clenched her fist before forcing herself to relax it. She let out a heavy breath and tried to soften her voice as much as possible.

"Alright, even if you win this time, I concede. Now we should get down to business..."

“It was me, it was me first, I was the one who came first... Whether it was teleportation, waking up, or—” A hand suddenly pressed on Kaguya’s shoulder, and an unsettling aura forced her to shut her mouth.

She looked up, her eyes brimming with tears, at Mokou's expressionless face.

"Mount Hourai." Mokou's voice was as calm as still water.

"……Uh?"

"Since you're so eager to be beaten to death, then I'll reluctantly—send you on your way!"

—Mokou suddenly unleashed a sonic-barrier-breaking jab, blasting Kaguya's head apart.

..........................................

"...Actually, what you bumped into wasn't an invisible wall. It was some kind of solid spatial barrier. If you look closely around, you'll find that you can't see anything more than five kilometers away. That's because this area has become a closed space. It looks spacious, but our only usable area is this cemetery."

Kaguya rubbed her head, looking at Mokou with a mournful expression as she cleaned the bloodstains from her hands with flames. After receiving no response, she let out a soft hum. But she continued explaining their current situation to Mokou.

"You can think of this cemetery as a crystal ball. We are like two ants who appeared inside the ball through some unknown means. You can see things outside the ball within a certain range from inside, but if you want to get out, the only way is to leave through the pre-existing passage inside the ball."

"Can't we just break the glass?"

"Have you ever seen an ant that can bite through a crystal ball?" Kaguya looked at her with a 'you just don't understand' look. Then she gently tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Even if you have seen that kind of ant, this 'crystal ball' isn't just any ordinary crystal ball—directly attacking the spatial structure of this area will trigger a counterattack from the entire space. That's why when you, Turkey, ran into it, you ended up as a turkey pie, not with a big bump on your head."

"So that's how it is..." Mokou let out a soft sigh, finally understanding the truth of her death. "Then the only way for us to leave here is to find that passage—I think that passage should be the normal way to play the game, the path that will only open after defeating the Ash Judge."

“That’s right, exactly.” Kaguya nodded. “I was about to walk into that plaza when I saw you, Turkey, crash headfirst into the spatial wall and die. That’s why I rushed back…”

"Watching the joke?" Mokou glanced at her, then changed the subject before she could retort: ​​"Leaving that aside for now, Houraisan, did Gensokyo undergo any strange changes before you came in? I closed my eyes and went to sleep right after Alice left... Now that I think about it, I feel like things aren't that simple."

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw Kaguya's aura suddenly become low and somber.