Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"I don't know either... Half an hour ago, Eirin suddenly said she had to meet a distinguished guest and asked me to excuse myself. I originally wanted to stay in the house and play games, but for some reason all the game consoles broke down, and I couldn't fix them with my abilities. So I had no choice but to go out, and when I passed by your house, I happened to see you and Alice..." She sighed sadly. "You can imagine what happened next... How could I possibly ignore something so interesting? So, after you fell asleep, I was busy studying those two discs, and naturally, I knew nothing about anything else in Gensokyo."

Mokou's lips twitched slightly.

"Don't you think... this is a bit too much of a coincidence?"

“Yes, it’s quite a coincidence. And then?” Kaguya looked at Mokou helplessly. “I have a total of 1,033 game consoles in my collection, and they all 'mechanically malfunctioned' at the same time. The only person who could do this silently in Eientei is Eirin—and since Eirin wants me to leave Eientei, do I have any other choice but to pack my things and leave obediently?”

“…Well, it seems we can only rely on ourselves then.” Mokou sighed softly, rubbing her forehead in melancholy. “I have a feeling that this ‘Dark Souls’ world hides secrets and dangers unknown to us. Perhaps we will soon witness this…” She glanced around at the graveyard, which she had completely cleansed with her flames just minutes before; the undead that could make ordinary people's legs go numb were now gone without a trace—“the danger hidden beneath the calm surface.”

“I feel the same way,” Kaguya agreed, extending her hand to her.

"cooperate?"

“Let’s cooperate.” Mokou grasped Kaguya’s outstretched hand. “I’ll be on the front lines, and you support me from the rear.”

"Good suggestion, but it's not easy to run dungeons with only Warrior and Mage in the Warrior-Mage-Priest trinity."

“I remember there’s a rule in this world about summoning ghosts,” Mokou shrugged. “If all else fails, we can always ask the clergy here for help. Like Sirius or Ego. I don’t think we can’t even beat Gundyr. After all…”

She took out the rusty broken sword and deftly twirled it.

"The quality of our weapons reflects the quality of our enemies. An enemy that can be dealt with by 'bleeding out' us, I think we should..."

"I must remind you, the grooves on this sword are for reducing its weight," Kaguya promptly offered a 'kind' hint.

Mei Hong's face darkened, and the broken sword immediately melted away.

"I'm just a country bumpkin, my limited knowledge isn't a problem!" She swung the jet of blazing metal with a 'whoosh' as ​​it slammed into a pitiful tombstone, creating a shallow crater the size of a fist. "It's not like this is required knowledge; no one says I have to know it!"

"The Fujiwara family is all crying." Kaguya covered her mouth and chuckled.

"Let them cry their hearts out! What's it to me!" Mokou stomped her foot, wanting to fly but forcibly suppressing herself. She found the direction of the Ash Judge, lifted her foot, and strode away without looking back.

Kaguya covered her mouth and followed lightly, making a victory sign with her other hand without any attempt to hide it.

—We've won back a point!

Mokou's face turned even darker as a result.

The result was that she walked in a straight line, smashing everything in her path—withered trees, tombstones, rocks, and cliffs—to pieces with sheer force. The burning flames flowed freely under her will, scorching and melting the earth into rolling lava. To the two ladies' surprise, they didn't find the campfire—which, in the game, should have been located on a cliff—until they reached a fog-shrouded plaza. And they couldn't even light it.

This was to be expected, since there wasn't a single spiral sword stuck in the campfire. If it weren't for the large number of dead corpses that caught their attention, and Kaguya's coincidence in identifying the undead ashes that served as the base of the campfire, Mokou alone probably wouldn't have been able to find the base of the campfire at all.

“I think we might have to kill Gundyr and get the Spiral Sword before we can use it to light a campfire,” Mokou said, resting her chin on her hand. “And I suspect that as long as we gather enough fuel, we can light a campfire, rather than having to plant the Spiral Sword in a specific spot.”

"I agree with that." Kaguya nodded in agreement. She covered her nose and used her Hourai Jade Branch to search for loot on the corpses that had been burned to ashes by the Phoenix Flame. She had thought she could find the legendary Black Flame Pots that were supposed to be a beginner's gift, but after Mokou's flames swept over a few of the stronger corpses and caused several powerful explosions, she decisively abandoned this pointless strategy.

The Ashen Judge is weak to fire, but there is probably no fire more intense than the flames of the Phoenix here. She searched high and low simply out of nostalgia, but in the end she found nothing of any use—no elemental vials, no elemental fragments, no souls of varying sizes gathered together—she even took the time to look for the small valley where the giant crystal lizard was hidden, but still found nothing.

"I'm getting a little bored," the black-haired girl yawned softly. "While the structure of this enclosed space is novel, the enemies inhabiting it are far too weak. It might be sufficient for mortals who have been accidentally reincarnated into this world for gradual training. But for me, it's utterly insignificant."

She gently shook the jade branch in her hand, and the last few zombie soldiers who were blocking the thick fog with short swords or crossbows were instantly torn into hundreds of thousands of rice-grain-sized pieces by the sudden shockwave.

"Perhaps we should quicken our pace?" A ball of flame appeared in Mokou's hand, and with a push forward, it transformed into a thick, giant snake that plunged into the thick fog—causing the dense white fog to sway slightly, revealing a wide plaza and blurry figures within it.

“You know, Mount Hourai, sometimes I find literary works called ‘fan fiction’ in the old archives. Some of these ‘fan fiction’ stories are similar to our current situation—basically, one or more ordinary mortals, or mortals with some cultivation achievements, accidentally come to the world of Dark Souls. And probably to emphasize the plot conflict, when they encounter Gundyr, they are often taught a lesson by an unimaginably powerful enemy.”

Mokou looked at the writhing white mist in front of her, tilted her head slightly and said, "Do you think we might encounter a similar situation... like those weak zombies before, were they all just bait to lure us into a trap, waiting to give us a good beating in this first boss battle?"

"I think it's possible, but I don't think there's any need to worry too much. It's just a mere Ash Gundyr, at best it becomes Hero Gundyr. In the end, it's just an increase in strength and speed, and with my Eternal and Fleeting abilities, it can't pose much of a threat to us. Besides—"

Kaguya clapped her hands lightly.

"Even if it really does become very strong for some strange reason, at most it can only kill the two of us three or five times. It only has one life after all, and the Penglai people and the Ashes never need to care about problems that can be solved by spending their lives."

“What you said makes a lot of sense.” Mokou nodded, then took a deep breath and stepped into the thick fog, with Kaguya following closely behind.

A few seconds later, the square behind the fog came into clear view of the two of them.

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

Mokou stopped in her tracks, standing at the edge of the thick fog, her gaze fixed ahead.

“Hey… shut-in girl,” she said softly, “if I remember correctly, every Gundyr should be a guy who carries a halberd, wears armor, and looks like an ancient warrior.”

"...I remember it should be like this, that's right."

"But why is the man standing in the middle of the square now holding a big red machete, with a handsome face but looking like he hasn't woken up yet? And why are my hands and feet shaking uncontrollably?"

"I am too!"

Transformation, Section 3: It's impossible for a human to defeat a gorilla!

After a period of... somewhat long time.

In the very beginning.

An awkward atmosphere filled the air. The two Penglai girls sat facing each other on the stone coffin lid, which had been closed for the 135th time. They looked at each other, and a sense of helplessness and exhaustion, like tiny wings, swirled endlessly in their hearts.

"I'm dead again." Mokou held her chin, looking melancholy. "Not counting the time I hit the wall, this should be the 135th time."

"Me too," Kaguya, sitting opposite her, sighed in unison. "I had absolutely no chance to fight back; I was beaten into two little pancakes."

The two looked at each other speechlessly, only tears welling up... Well, theoretically, this level of setback shouldn't be enough to make them cry. For the people of Penglai, who can resurrect infinitely, this level of death is nothing. It's just a matter of starting over. And as long as the second attempt shows even the slightest improvement over the first, victory will eventually be theirs.

However, the biggest problem now is the lack of progress.

Despite their meticulous planning, they couldn't have foreseen that a mere Ashen Judge would become unreasonably powerful to such an absurd degree. And to disprove this implausibility, Mokou and Kaguya paid the price of a total of two hundred and seventy deaths.

Ah, that's right. The two of them challenged the 'Ash Judge' 135 times together. And without exception, they were easily wiped out each time by the man who didn't look like Gundyr at all, but was actually blocking Gundyr's path.

The first time, Mokou and Kaguya had barely realized something was wrong when they were slashed into four pieces.

The second time, Mokou and Kaguya rushed in after preparing themselves mentally, only to be slashed into four pieces by a single blow.

The third time, Mokou pushed the Phoenix's blazing flames to their limit, while Kaguya took out her personal treasures and used her abilities of eternity and fleeting moments to create a barrier on herself constructed from spacetime turbulence. After ensuring absolute safety, the two cautiously entered the fog gate... and then, with one slash, they were cut in two, then with two slashes, they were cut into four pieces.

The fourth time, Kaguya racked her brains, digging deep into her memories to retrieve a set of Lunarian secret techniques, which she used to bewitch and control all the undead in the graveyard. Then, Mokou imbued all the undead's weapons with flames. Once everything was ready, the two of them drove this undead army to charge towards the thick fog, not seeking victory, but hoping to buy some time with the sheer number of their army, allowing them to find a glimmer of hope in the men's modus operandi.

This time, the man didn't even draw his sword, nor did he pay any attention to the legion. Instead, he charged towards them with a speed far exceeding the reaction limits of the two Penglai people—one punch, two pieces of bread. Two punches, four pieces of bread. The small fry were instantly crushed into pieces by the wind pressure generated by the sonic boom.

The fifth time, the two Hourai warriors, having learned their lesson, decided to strengthen the individual combat capabilities of their legion before launching another attack. They manipulated all the living corpses that had been resurrected with their deaths. Gathering them together, they used their curses and undead bodies as raw materials to create a colossal war weapon ten meters tall, capable of shattering mountains and splitting the earth with a single movement. Kaguya named it Undead Warrior Unit-01, and then the two of them hid inside the weapon's strongest chest cavity, becoming its pilots and charging into the dense fog. And this time…

The man swung his sword at the weapon from a hundred meters away, and the poor machine split into two large pieces. One piece contained Kaguya, and the other contained Mokou. Then the man lowered his sword and raised his fist.

One punch, two platters. Two punches, four platters.

After the two girls regained consciousness, the sky was familiar again.

The sixth time...

The seventh time...

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

For the 135th time, using all the soil, all the stones, all the air, and all the living and dead things in the entire enclosed space of the cemetery—a super-powerful, invincible, meticulously modified, enhanced, enchanted, and amplified Penglai-exclusive version of the Undead Warrior (number unknown)—it carried two Penglai girls with the resolute determination of burning their boats and charged forward into the thick fog. And then…

Crimson flames erupted from the man's body. With a single step, he shattered space and arrived beside the 'Superb, Invincible, Hand-Cutting Modified, Re-modified, Enhanced, Enchanted, Amplified, Penglai Exclusive Edition Undead Warrior, Unknown Number'. Then, he swung a punch at this massive weapon of war.

The result was the same as the previous 134 times, with no change.

The colossal war machine, whose name was practically a ploy to pad out the word count, transformed into two giant pancakes. The two Penglai people hiding in the control center became two smaller pancakes. And their fighting spirit and drive, too, vanished with that punch, becoming two even smaller pancakes.

everything is over.

When the people of Penglai opened their eyes again, the cemetery, from which all its mass had been extracted to forge weapons of war, had returned to its original state. A dim sky, staggering corpses, the low cawing of crows, and a dilapidated graveyard. The two awakened girls silently closed the stone coffins that had served as stools, then sat on either side, exchanging a silent glance.

“I don’t think we can beat that guy.” Mokou said dejectedly, her head hanging low. “Although I hate to admit it, I have to say that the thing that looks like a man is a being of a higher level than us, even higher than the Hourai people and the Phoenix. There’s no way we can win by brute force.”

"I feel the same way." Kaguya, standing beside her, also looked melancholy. "The previous times were one thing, but that last time, the aura that man exuded reminded me of a battle from a distant era. That was the first time I saw Eirin fighting desperately. And that man... was even stronger than Eirin in that state."

"And that monster hasn't woken up at all. It's been fighting us with its eyes closed the whole time, relying on instinct," Mokou added, further dampening their already low morale. "That means there's no possibility of verbal negotiation either. That thing just stands there, using its life instinct to eliminate any living or dead creatures that dare to approach... Hey, shut-in girl, do you Lunarians have any secret techniques to block out its instinctive perception? Use your brain a little more, maybe we still have a chance?"

"If I could come up with a solution, I certainly wouldn't waste my breath on you." Kaguya was too exhausted to even roll her eyes. "I've tried everything I could—distorting light, concealing blood energy, absorbing sound, reducing my presence, even infiltrating spatial rifts, or just throwing a maze spell at the opponent's face—I've tried it all. In the end, it's all the same: being punched or slashed in two, and then the broken pieces are crushed into pieces?"

She leaned back and fell onto the lid of the stone coffin.

"I'm exhausted and all I want to do now is sleep. Turkey, if you want to die again, so be it. Anyway, the space will be restored after we both die. Once I've had enough sleep, I'll commit suicide to wake you up."

However, Mokou also collapsed.

"It's not like you're the only one who's tired. I'm totally confused too." Mokou squinted slightly, looking up at the sky. The gray sky was devoid of any celestial bodies or traces of the sun or moon, as if this entire world consisted of only this one space.

There was only one path, but it was a dead end. There was no way they could defeat the man whose consciousness had fallen into a deep sleep. And if they couldn't defeat him, they wouldn't be able to reach the next destination.

She sighed softly.

"Hey, you shut-in girl, are you still awake?"

"I can hear you."

"Don't you think there's something wrong with this world? It's supposed to be Dark Souls, but there's no Elemental Bottle, no Soul Cube, Gundyr has become some kind of nonsensical humanoid monster, and that man doesn't have a Spiral Sword stuck in his chest—even if we do manage to defeat him, we can't go on without the Spiral Sword."

"Who knows?" Kaguya's voice was filled with exhaustion. "Let's wait until we can defeat him. Or maybe we can find a way to get around him... Even without the Spiral Sword, at least we can meet other people after we reach the Firelink Shrine. Perhaps they will have a solution?"

“That’s true…” Mokou sighed softly and closed her eyes.

However, I still feel somewhat uneasy.

[I arrived here because of the discs Alice gave me, and she left two discs behind. Kaguya was also brought here by Eirin Yagokoro. This means this trip was definitely part of their plan. Both Alice and Eirin Yagokoro are meticulous individuals who plan ten steps ahead for every step they take, and when they do act, it's earth-shattering. Therefore… our current situation couldn't possibly be outside their expectations.]

Just like no reliable game company would overlook a bug that causes players to get stuck in the starting area, it's definitely not normal for the two of us to be stuck before the Firelink Shrine. Is there something we missed? Or...?

[...Is our predicament here one of the goals of these two behind-the-scenes manipulators?]

Transformation, Section 4, First Move

The bell rang.

The embers, devoid of fire, began to revive.

A powerful hero who can decide the fate of the world will emerge from the ashes.

But the hero was unable to pass the initial trial for a long time.

Without heroes, destiny cannot move forward.

However, a bell that has rung once will not rung again.

Because the other bells will ring sooner or later.

The second bell, which should have rung, was placed in the location of an old painting.

The painting is called—