[Asuna: Thanks for the invite, I was scared unconscious.]
"Um... are you... all right?"
Asuna trembled as she tried to crawl to her feet, then crawled toward the other person.
"Hmm...?"
Only then did Asuna notice that the other person seemed to have died long ago.
Before her, strange writing spelled out words Asuna could not understand.
And when Asuna shifted her gaze to that line of text, a narration appeared on the screen.
—"Even if guidance has long been shattered, please become the Elden Lord."
That was what it said.
[Image: Even if guidance has already shattered...]
"Is it talking about... me?"
Asuna stared blankly.
She knelt before the other person.
After her initial panic passed, Asuna finally settled down.
After taking several deep breaths and completely calming herself, Asuna slowly rose to her feet.
She picked up the rapier she had dropped in her panic, then walked to the chapel doors.
"This is—!"
The moment she pushed open the doors, golden light flooded her vision.
Looking ahead, Asuna saw a massive tree that looked as though it were made of gold.
The enormous Golden Tree stood at the edge of the sky, supporting this world.
[Image: The Golden Tree at the start]
This world was vast and desolate.
That was only natural.
Though it was Elden Ring, it had mostly just borrowed from it.
Many other aspects had been changed.
Most importantly, this world's "map" was much larger.
The Lands Between alone could not accommodate tens of thousands of players.
So during its design, this world had adopted a DNF-like structure. The raid content and progression were contained within individual map instances, while players gathered in city hubs.
Asuna had provided most of the designs, but much of the content had actually been completed by the staff, such