Kaelthar slowly blinked and looked around, there was neither sun nor night in the sky, only a pale gray fog stretching endlessly and swallowing everything, the air was heavy, dirty, suffocating, as if every breath left a thin layer of ash in his lungs, everything within his field of vision appeared slightly distorted, as if it had lost its natural form, distant silhouettes trembled as though detached from reality, shapes bent at unnatural angles, as if the world itself was quietly decaying and that decay was slowly spreading before Kaelthar's eyes.
"Where am I," Kaelthar muttered, his voice coming out dry and hoarse, as his mind struggled to piece together his last memory, the final thing he remembered was being inside Elder Ring: Nightreign, fighting the Night Lord in an incredibly brutal battle for the entire day, pushing himself to his limits, dying over and over again, trying to go just a little further each time, yet in the end he had still lost again, right before attempting one final run he remembered closing his eyes for a brief moment to rest them, intending only a few seconds of break, but now… he had awakened here, in the middle of an unfamiliar, distorted world, with no idea how this transition had happened, and an unexplainable unease slowly began to creep into his chest.
As Kaelthar tried to understand what was happening, a sudden and overwhelming pain pierced his head, so intense it felt as if his mind was being torn apart, his legs almost gave out but he forced himself to remain standing, countless images suddenly exploded before his eyes, each one crashing into the next, fragmented memories piling over each other, unfamiliar faces, unknown places, dark corridors, blood-stained stone floors and cold gazes were forcefully engraved into his mind, every image carried a heavy meaning yet remained incomprehensible at the same time, then words, titles, insults and whispers began to echo, "the bastard child of the Varnis Family," "Tarnished," "one who lost Grace," echoed in his mind as if fragments of a life that did not belong to him were being forcefully embedded into his soul, these were not just images, they came with emotions, humiliation, loneliness, rejection and a suppressed rage, all flooding into Kaelthar's mind mercilessly, as the boundary between what was real and what was foreign slowly began to blur
Kaelthar remained motionless for nearly five minutes as he digested all these memories, the pain in his head gradually fading while his mind finally began to piece everything together, he could now clearly understand the owner of the body he was in, the name was the same as his own, Kaelthar Varnis, a sixteen-year-old boy born from a one-night relationship, his father was alive but their bond was distant, cold, almost nonexistent, once they had been a small and ordinary family that owned a modest workshop, surviving through simple production, unnoticed by the world, however this ordinariness did not last long, Kaelthar's grandfather Varnis possessed an extraordinary foresight far beyond that of ordinary men, he had predicted that Queen Marika and Godfrey would initiate a great war to spread Grace, and for that reason he made a gamble that others would call madness, taking on debts so massive they were nearly impossible to repay, risking everything he owned and his entire future to gather an enormous stockpile of raw materials over the course of a year, while other workshops desperately tried to secure materials once the war began, the Varnis family had already finished their preparations and immediately started mass production, weapons, armor and war equipment were produced without pause, and as demand surged, their wealth multiplied rapidly, thus a once insignificant family rose in a short time into an incredibly wealthy and influential house.
As for himself, he was nothing more than a bastard born from a woman whose identity was completely unknown, never truly accepted within the family, his status was strangely positioned slightly above servants yet clearly below those of true Varnis blood, neither fully cast out nor truly acknowledged, this gray existence forced him to live a life of quiet humiliation and neglect, however everything changed one morning, when Kaelthar awoke having lost the light of Grace, the divine spark that once resided within him had completely vanished, leaving behind nothing but emptiness, if this fact were to spread, it would damage the family's reputation, his father understood this very well, yet he lacked the cruelty or courage to directly eliminate him, he was a cowardly and indecisive man, thus he chose a more subtle solution, Kaelthar was quietly removed from the family lineage, his existence erased from official records, and then he was given worn-out armor and a low-quality sword before being sent on a one-way journey to the Lands Between, this so-called exile was nothing more than a slow execution, because for a boy like Kaelthar, who had never even properly held a sword before and knew nothing of combat, the Lands Between were no different from the embrace of death, perhaps even more cruel
Although Kaelthar had only just stepped into the Lands Between, the scene before him deeply terrified him, this decaying world suffocated by gray fog, the ominous echoes coming from afar and the shapeless shadows were unlike anything he had ever known, he was still young enough to be considered a child and his chances of surviving in such a cruel place were almost nonexistent, the fear and despair rising within him quickly became unbearable, unwilling to suffer any longer, he gripped the cheap, unbalanced sword with trembling hands, the cold metal seeping into his palms as he closed his eyes for a brief moment, then with a single decisive motion he slit his own throat, his blood flowed out rapidly and warmly as he collapsed to his knees, his vision darkened and within seconds his consciousness faded completely, however this was not the end, it was the true beginning, because the moment the life within that body extinguished, Kaelthar's consciousness took its place, reborn in a foreign world, within a foreign body, yet now with an existence that fully belonged to him.
Kaelthar froze in silence for a few seconds, his eyes fixed into the void as his mind tried to process everything, his thoughts gradually becoming more absurd, then he took a deep breath and slightly tilted his head back, speaking in a hoarse voice, "No… no, this has to be a joke," he muttered to himself, his voice both tired and strangely calm, "Seriously… someone must be messing with me," a bitter smile formed on his lips as they trembled, "I'm just a 21-year-old final-year university student," he continued, as if saying it out loud could somehow change reality, "My biggest problem was finishing my end-of-year project… just a normal guy staying up late drinking coffee and working on presentations," he paused for a moment, then looked at the decayed, fog-covered world around him, distorted silhouettes and warped reality reflecting in his eyes as his expression slowly collapsed, "And now…" his voice slightly rose, "You're telling me I have to survive in one of the most brutal universes of all time, Elder Ring, with this weak, fragile body," his shoulders dropped as he shook his head, "Seriously… you couldn't even give me a character creation screen," he muttered, letting out a faint, frustrated laugh, "No stat distribution… no tutorial… at least a beginner's guide or something," he stared into the gray fog in the sky, remained silent for a few seconds, then sighed, "Great… just great, I escaped finals week only to end up in a death simulation"
At that exact moment, while his thoughts were still scattered and he was trying to come to terms with the absurdity of his situation, a strange sound suddenly echoed within the depths of his mind, as if it wasn't coming from the outside world but whispering directly into his consciousness, mechanical, emotionless and disturbingly clear, Kaelthar's body slightly flinched, his brows furrowed and his eyes widened for a brief moment, his heart began to race instinctively as he looked around, yet there was nothing, the sound was not external, it came directly from within his mind, as if reality itself was mocking him…
Beep…