Orion had a feeling the woman looked familiar, even though the women from his last world couldn't hold a candle against her even with their filters and makeup.
"Marika..." He muttered the word, half asking whether he heard it right or if it was just a coincidence.
However, he knew the woman...
Nay.
The goddess in front of him was an exact copy of Queen Marika the Eternal from the game Elden Ring.
"So I'm in the Lands Between," he asked, already feeling dread creeping up his spine.
The real horror of a Souls-like game is only known by a person who has played it. Pretty much every other thing wished to kill you for no good reason.
[I fear such is not so. Though I find myself uncertain, it doth appear we are not amidst the Lands Between. Mine senses detect not the Erdtree's grace, nor the Elden Ring's potent sway. 'Tis as if the Higher Order's desires have been lost in this place.]
Marika answered, sounding just as confused as him, but at the end of her sentence, there was delight in her eyes.
A tone of joy, uncertainty, but excitement.
Orion for once was even more confused now. The woman in front of him was undeniably Marika.
So, if he wasn't in the Lands Between, the world of the Elden Ring game, then where the hell did he end up.
Panic suppressed until now by the shocking revelations one after another once again started to unveil.
"If it's not the Lands Between, then why are you here then?" Orion finally asked the question gnawing on his mind. It was the most obvious question.
[A curious query, good my lord. Where else should I find myself save by thy side? I am thy maiden, thy consort, thy goddess incarnate. Where, then, should my rightful place be, if not nigh unto thee?]
She spoke with not even a hint of deceit, her golden irises glowing with power, which Orion felt digging a hole inside him.
'What does that mean? Who decided that?' He wished to complain, but seeing the very unnerving eyes of the beautiful goddess in front of him, he wisely kept his mouth shut.
"And do tell why I'm your lord exactly?"
[Fufufufu... is it not obvious? Thou art my liege, for thou hast mended the Elden Ring. Thus, thou art become the Elden Lord, and mine Eternal Consort.]
She gave a genuine smile, one so bright that Orion—who was ready to call her out on her bullshit—stopped the words from escaping his throat.
'Mended the ring?'
'When the fuck did I do that?' His mind raced, half expecting that it was just a joke or a misunderstanding. Perhaps the one who did that was the previous owner of the body he was in.
But then his mind clicked.
He recalled the ending of Elden Ring he got almost three years ago. It was the most common ending where he became the Elden Lord.
Hey hey... now that he thought about it, he created a character much like the body he was in, with silver hair, reference taken from Vergil from Devil May Cry.
'Holy shit…'
Marika slowly knocked her head sideways. Cuteness and command could go so well together; Orion would never have believed it if he hadn't witnessed it firsthand.
Her eyes bore into his very soul, but there was a strange charm to her which he couldn't deny.
He let out a long sigh. It was obvious that even the self-proclaimed goddess didn't know everything about their current condition.
"Do you know how I'm alive, didn't I die?" he asked—a rhetorical question, since when did a 'ROB' character need reason, like ever, to reincarnate people left and right.
[Huff… thou canst still question me thus? Pray tell, how did mine Elden Lord—who smote not only Radagon but even the Elden Beast itself, and triumphed where so many of mine worthless offspring faltered—meet his end at the hands of those pitiful green whelps, creatures who scarce rise halfway to thy waist?]
She huffed, looking almost baffled at how it was even possible.
'Lady, that was a fucking game. This shit here is real. You expect me to bring down meteors or shit out of my ass.' Orion so wanted to complain but held himself back.
"I don't feel most of my power. Something's wrong," he muttered, for the time being not going into the nitty-gritty about how he wasn't the character he played three years ago in a game.
[Is that so…? Aye, no wonder.It seems we are indeed ensnared in quite a troublesome plight.I can sense neither the Erdtree nor the power of the Elden Ring flowing through my veins as once it did.Mine own body is absent from this realm; only my spirit endureth still.
Yet my bond with Grace remaineth, as doth thine. It was through me, serving as a beacon of Grace, that thou wert returned to life.
It seemeth our fates are bound together still, my….]
For the first time throughout the conversation, she looked not like the confident queen who almost felt like she was playing with him, but just like another helpless girl.
He even sensed a little worry in her tone.
He, for the sake of keeping his sanity, didn't dig into the entire no-body-only-spirit talk of hers. He didn't wish to know that all this time he was talking with a freaking ghost, at least not now.
"I see... then do you know where we are?"
[Nay]
Thought so...
"Are we still in that dungeon where those goblins attacked me?" he asked, as he for the first time cared to look at anything else but her and her glorious tits.
They were indeed in the dungeon.
'There has to be a way out then…'
[Aye… we are indeed.]
"Do you happen to know how to get out of here?" Orion asked hopefully.
[Nay… However, I do know this much: this place is rife with such creatures, monsters lurking in every shadow. Those little midgets are as vexing and bothersome as any imp born of chaos.]
She almost snarled.
Point noted—his new goddess didn't like monsters.
Sighing, this left him with the only option: to venture around and try to find a way out.
"So, since you're my goddess, do you have any powerful weapon or magic which I can use?" He once again asked hopefully. He had nothing but his clothes on him; he totally saw those little shits ripping him apart like earlier if he went barehanded again.
[Dost thou take me for a smith…? Or perchance one of those star-besotted Liurnians who wander about, prodding every crevice they find with their staffs?]
She huffed at his question, almost looking offended...
'So, you're basically useless…' he deadpanned...suddenly feeling quite sympathetic towards once HikiNeet from anime.
The goddess, though, seemed to catch the look he gave her, irritation rising in her. What did this boy who barely hit puberty think she was?
Looking at her with such eyes.
Huff… if this man wasn't her Lord, then she would have shown him why she was Marika the Eternal.
She was even baffled at how the same man was able to beat all her offspring previously and even her first husband, Godfrey and Radagon no less.
Did he really lose all of his strength? Marika couldn't help but question.
She wasn't in any better condition; her own powers were almost nonexistent here.
However, that didn't mean she couldn't do anything.
[If thy faith holdeth true, then may I yet teach thee the incantations of the Golden Order.] She suggested.
'Incantations huh…' he pondered.
'Didn't I need some sort of seal for that? Not to mention I don't even know if I can cast it with no magic at my disposal.' He once again sighed.
"Do you have a seal for that?" Still hopeful, he asked.
[Nay...]
Marika pursed her soft lips with a sigh.
"Thought so…"
Sighing, Orion was ready to look around for anything he could use for a makeshift weapon when suddenly he recalled what she first told him...
"Wait." He almost shouted and looked at her with heated eyes.
[My, to look upon me in such a manner… thou wouldst make even a maiden blush beneath that gaze. It seems thou art not so innocent as I first believed thee to be, my lord.]
Marika once again wrapped her hands under her breasts to emphasise them and spoke with a sultry tone. Half joking and half inviting.
'What!' Orion had no idea where that came from. He wished to ask something else. And by the way, what maiden?
Isn't she like ancient with bucket tons of kids roaming around…'
As if sensing he was thinking something indecent about her, the goddess narrowed her golden gaze at him in warning.
"Ahem… I… what I wished to ask is that didn't you tell me you're like my maiden? So, you know, I was wondering if you have the power to convert runes into power like those finger maidens." He asked, recalling he did kill those goblins, that outta give him some runes if the elden ring like setting still continues here—he should at least upgrade his level by a bit, right?
[Thou dost clearly underestimate me, dost thou not? To ask a queen whether she might perform so mundane a task. Yet I see well why thou wouldst ask it of me.Thou art in dire need of strength indeed.]
Marika looked away, huffed in indignation, but understood what he really wished.
[Come. Let me transmute thy runes—meagre though they be—into strength. The Higher Order knoweth well that thou shalt need it for the trials that await thee.]
"Awesome... finally some progress."
~o~
A/N: So, how are you finding the story so far? It's a bit slow at the start, but don't worry—I'll pick up speed soon enough.
Are you guys okay with Marika's Shakespearean English, or should I do the normal style? Do tell me.
Finally, give stone and comment.