Elden Ring: Atai vows to have a perfect ending

Anastasia had never expected that my second attack would come so quickly. She was knocked flying by the hound's long fangs. She fell to the ground in a mess and rolled several times before she lay there motionless.

——······The power of my attack just now should not be this great.

——After all, it was just a copycat cross slash, and although it would leave the opponent no time to react, the power and accuracy of the attack still had room for improvement.

“Hehehe~” Anastasia’s shoulders twitched, and a still smiling voice came from below, “Amazing~ Really amazing, you are worthy of being the Faded One~”

She raised her bloody face and asked happily, "I really like you more and more! Can you tell me your name?"

——I always feel that this woman is a bit yandere.

“······” In this situation, I chose to shut up obediently.

Anastasia pouted her lips, shook her head and sighed, "Ah~ You are so heartless. I really want to remember you."

Just as she finished speaking, she clenched the dismemberment knife in both hands and rushed over like a savage leopard.

I took the initiative to turn the blade and leap backwards.

Combat skills——Wolf Attack Blood Dance!

As the red light flashed, the bloody blade slashed across Anastasia's body. Before the dismemberment knife raised above her head fell towards me, she had already fallen in front of me.

A golden rune floated over from Anastasia.

——This time, she should be completely dead.

I let out a long sigh, and soon a voice called out from behind me: "Zero!"

Laya rode Torret and ran over. After she jumped off the horse, she looked at Anastasia's body and asked in confusion, "Is she dead?"

"Well, the runes have all converged on me. I should be dead."

"Oh...but your fight just now was so fierce. I was a little worried when I saw Zero was suppressed at the beginning. I didn't expect you to turn defeat into victory so quickly." Laya clenched her fists and said excitedly.

——It seems that this girl didn’t run far at all, and she must be hiding somewhere to watch.

Never mind. I didn't intend to blame her, but explained, "It's nothing. The main thing is to take the initiative. Once Anastasia starts, her attacks will become stronger and stronger, and they will be endless and difficult to deal with. So, after keeping a distance, just adjust your strategy."

——It’s a pity that I haven’t obtained the war gray “Hunting Giant” yet, otherwise, it would be easy to deal with this kind of cloth armor enemy.

Walking into the smoke-cured church, the sight of Atai, who was brutally murdered by Anastasia, was truly horrible.

——However, you are emitting a faint glow of a prop, so please forgive my rudeness, Amen.

Two notebooks on the production of props and a talisman called "Holy Scorpion" were collected from him - two scorpions that had shed their skin were coiled together in a ring, and one of them had a heart-like object in its pincers... A heart? Perhaps that was why Anastasia had targeted him.

I spent some time digging a hole and buried the tragically dead A'ti on the spot.

When it was over, it was completely dark.

After the battle and seeing the scene of being disemboweled, I felt a little nauseous, but Laya seemed calm and ate the roasted lamb jerky I gave her with relish.

We walked down the slope behind the sword stone tablets opposite the Smokehouse Church. At the foot of the mountain was the Third Church of Malika, and further ahead was the foggy forest area of ​​Nimgefu.

According to the memory in the game, I soon found a trampled path in the bushes halfway up the mountain. Walking deeper, I found the side entrance of Gale Tunnel.

——It seems that in reality, most of the people who go to Gaileed pass through here.

——In that case, we don’t have to worry about the lava earth dragon.

He took Laya into the cave and lit up the blessing.

Sure enough, the gate leading to Gaileed had already been opened, and the door to the BOSS room was also wide open, and the lava earth dragon had naturally disappeared.

——·······I was scared to death before, but suddenly I felt a little lost.

——My famous sword Yueyin!

Going forward, you can hear all kinds of clanging and knocking sounds, and see skinny miners carrying large baskets on their backs mining the ore with great concentration.

Long-term work in the mines has made his skin as thin as stone, and his movements have become quite slow.

I held the hound's fang in my hand, protected Laya behind me, and approached carefully.

But the other party didn't even glance at me and just kept mining the stones.

"Oh, it's already now, are there still faders?" A strong voice suddenly came from above his head.

I raised my head alertly and saw a sharp knife coming down on my head. I subconsciously raised my brass shield, took the opponent's attack, and then pushed the man away.

The guy flipped over deftly and landed on the ground: "Oh? Did you block it?"

He was a soldier under the command of General Latan, the "Star Crusher". He was wearing a red and blue tubular coat with a lion holding a sword high painted on his chest.

The Red Lion Legion, after the decisive battle between "Valkyrie" Marlennia and "Starbreaker" Latan, ended in a loss for both sides, and the scarlet corruption completely polluted the entire land they were guarding, this group of brave and warlike warriors decided to stay here forever to suppress corruption.

At this moment, the "Red Lion" was holding a large sword in both hands. After taking a deep breath, he suddenly raised the sword above his head: "So what about this move?"

He slammed his sword to the ground, used it as a fulcrum, and somersaulted in the air, like a lion pouncing on its prey.

Fighting skill——Lion Slash!

——This move is quite powerful in the game, but it has a big flaw in reality, which is that it is easy to lose the target.

I quickly dodged to the side and watched the opponent's sword fall in front of me and hit the ground.

——At this time, raise your foot from the side and kick the opponent away.

As soon as I thought about it, the soldier turned around and swept towards me with his sword.

I also instinctively stepped back to avoid it, and I heard the other party muttering: "Your reaction is quite quick, so at least you have the ability to protect yourself."

"Huh?" I wondered if I had heard it wrong.

The soldier also put away his sword and continued, "Passed."

"Qualified?"

"Well, you are here to participate in General Ratan's battle festival, right? Then you should know that after passing through this cave, you will reach the land of Galid." The soldier snorted and laughed. "I'm not trying to scare you. If you can't even handle me, you will just be left dead on the roadside. That's why I did this test. Come with me."

——It turned out to be a test!

——The Red Lions in the real world are easier to deal with than in the game. After all, Gaileyd is the only one whose soldiers will prioritize dealing with monsters instead of targeting Atei.

Laya and I looked at each other and followed the soldiers.

They climbed up the stairs and entered a large cave. Apart from a few miners, there were no Red Lion Knights left inside.

"The day after tomorrow is the day when the festival will begin. In order to return the honor of the warriors to the general, most people have already gone back." The soldier seemed to have noticed that I was looking at a cave on the side, so he smiled and asked, "Why, do you want to go in?"

"Forget it, there's a big octopus in there, and I don't want to get into trouble." I shook my head.

——Of course, the real reason is that even the lava earth dragon has been dealt with, and the props in this cave should have been looted.

The soldier laughed heartily: "Hahaha, you are quite clear about it... But I don't think I have ever seen you before."

"Someone else told me." I smiled awkwardly and changed the subject. "By the way, since everyone is going to participate in the festival, why don't you go, brother?"

“······Well, there’s nothing to hide. After all, I’m not strong enough and it won’t help if I go.” The soldier’s tone was a little lonely.

He took us to the other end of the Gale Tunnel, which was a deep pit underground. We could see orange flames on the top and powder like sparks floating in it.

Torches were also used on the rock wall to illuminate each landing position.

——It’s time to go rock climbing again.

"Do you need it? A grappling hook." The soldier walked to a nearby box, intending to take out the props for us.

Just as I was about to take out the grappling hook that Roderica had given me from my pocket, Laya spoke first: "We are going up, right, Zero?"

"Yeah." I responded casually.

"Then leave this to me too~" After saying that, Laya's body slowly grew taller, and her belt automatically untied, and she was draped over her body like a shirt.

She even took the initiative to pat him on the back: "Come on, Zero, let's..."

Laya's words were stuck in the middle. The little idiot seemed to finally remember that there were not just the two of us here, there was also a Latan soldier!

“Ah...ah, that, that...” Laya panicked all of a sudden. She held her chubby face with her small hands, kept moving away from the Latan soldiers, and shrank into the corner, “I, I...”

"Oh, so amazing, it turns out this girl is not an ordinary person." The soldier was surprised with a hint of admiration.

"Eh?"

"Sorry, sorry, I underestimated you." The Latan soldier said with a smile, and skillfully threw the grappling hook onto the rock wall. After tying it to the protruding rock, he pulled himself up. "I'll go up and talk to my brothers first, and you can come up by yourselves."

Laya watched the other party climb up the deep pit of Gale Tunnel as nimbly as a monkey, and then turned to look at me in confusion.

——Well, after all, this was the second time the cute little snake had seen someone who was not afraid of her true form.

——However, there are many monsters and demons in Galid, and even ordinary soldiers are used to it.

"Laya, I'll leave it to you." I patted her on the back.

As usual, Laya used her retractable snake body to build bridges between various resting places for me to climb up.

When she reached the top, she gave other Latan soldiers a fright.

Fortunately, the soldier who came up earlier explained with a smile, otherwise, there would have been another fight.

The entire Gale Tunnel went much more smoothly than I had imagined, although the cost was nothing.

We followed the soldier from before and headed out of the cave. Even though it was night, the outside of the cave was still dark red.

The soldier spread out his hands and suddenly said in a loud voice: "Well, both of you, welcome to Gaileed!"