Rune Resonance

"What are you trying to do?!"

Melina immediately appeared and stepped in front of Lin Luo. She did not know why, but she had already been feeling somewhat uneasy. Seeing Ranni's desire to attack Lin Luo made her unable to hold herself back.

Lin Luo looked at Melina in surprise. Even he himself probably had not expected her to react so strongly...

"Who are you?"

Ranni raised an eyebrow. Having risen from her wooden chair, she still did not look very tall, giving off an oddly adorable impression...

"A Tarnished's witch?"

"Why are you a spirit?"

Ranni's Rune actually fluctuated slightly, and the cause was the woman before her.

(I'm going to make a bold guess here. Some say Melina is Marika's spirit, while others say Melina is Ranni. I lean toward the latter, so Lin Luo's romance arc can be wrapped up. A harem? We don't do that here.)

Melina also felt the Rune within her surge. She had not felt this when she had merely been residing within Lin Luo, but now that she faced Ranni directly, this strange Rune resonance seemed especially abrupt.

Yet Melina paid no attention to any of this. She simply shielded Lin Luo behind her as though protecting her own child.

Lin Luo found the state of the two women somewhat strange, but he had no idea why. In the previous loops, Melina had never met Ranni...

He had imagined countless ways for the two of them to meet, but this was the one he had least wanted to see!

The atmosphere gradually became tense, and they were on the verge of fighting. Lin Luo felt the situation slipping out of control.

"Good girl, come back..."

Lin Luo slowly stepped forward and took Melina's right hand. Without allowing her to refuse, he directly moved in front of her.

This time, he truly met Ranni's gaze.

They were not far apart, but this time, Ranni's eyes held only confusion and coldness.

Perhaps Ranni had been wrong, but her proud nature and her identity as a demigod absolutely would not allow her to apologize.

Besides, for an ordinary demigod, not immediately trying to seize Destined Death upon seeing it was already the height of mercy. Ranni merely suspected Lin Luo's purpose in coming here.

If Lin Luo had belonged to another demigod, she would absolutely have kept him here today!

Sensing the faint killing intent in Ranni's eyes, Lin Luo knew that things might have gotten out of hand.

Just as Lin Luo did not know what to do.

The Black Sword in his hand began shaking violently... Lin Luo seemed to feel that the Black Sword was excited?

There was only one possibility: the area was filled with Death Runes, and this was inside Ranni's rise...

Then the Death Runes could only be...

Lin Luo suddenly turned around. Melina's left eye had opened, and her dusk-blue iris was filled with endless deathly stillness!

Ranni was stunned as well. To her shock, the Rune of the witch before her had resonated with hers. No—even the Tarnished's Rune resonated with hers.

Ranni's Rune began leaking out of control. She did her utmost to restrain it, but it had no effect at all.

Melina bore the Erdtree's blessing and the seal of the Death Rune.

Ranni bore the power of the Stars.

And Lin Luo possessed all of these powers. By coincidence, each of them was connected, more or less, to the two women.

Three different powers slowly merged. Runes surged, and the sky gradually changed from azure to gold before finally becoming a field of deathly stillness.

The three of them seemed to lose consciousness, standing frozen where they were...

What appeared before Lin Luo's eyes was an endless starry sky. Every star had its own god.

But Lin Luo could tell that nearly all those gods were watching this tiny corner of the world, as if something there held a deadly temptation.

At the center of the Stars lay the Lands Between.

Yet the Lands Between were wrapped in an expanse of black. Lin Luo could not make out what it was, and just as he tried his hardest to see clearly.

A pair of blood-red pupils emerged from the darkness.

The owner of those pupils let out a roar.

Lin Luo did not hear what it said. His vision went dark again.

But he saw it—it was a Black Dragon chained to the Lands Between!

The scene shifted again, images flashing before Lin Luo's eyes like a slideshow...

Marika swung her stone hammer and shattered the Elden Ring. The Black Knife organization assassinated Godwyn.

The war against the ancient dragons, the war against the giants, and the Shattering war appeared before Lin Luo again and again.

He did not know how much time passed. Lin Luo had nearly lost all sense of time in this world.

This time, he saw what he had wanted to see...

After Ranni used the Death Rune to kill her own body, Lin Luo clearly saw her soul split into two.

The Death Rune was carried away by the other half of her soul as it flew toward the Erdtree.

Marika noticed that this fragment of soul was extraordinary. By then, she had already prepared herself to overthrow the Greater Will. She infused a portion of her own Rune into that soul and engraved deep within it the command to guide the Tarnished to become Elden Lord.

Lin Luo suddenly understood. Ranni was Melina...

And at this moment, what Melina saw was:

She saw Lin Luo battle Malenia, dying again and again, until he obtained Miquella's Golden Needle.

Melina did not know why Lin Luo was so persistent. She could only continue watching.

After Lin Luo died countless times, he grasped Miquella's Golden Needle and smiled happily like a child.

Seeing this, Melina revealed a joyful smile.

But later, she could no longer smile...

Lin Luo embraced the Frenzied Flame. Though she constantly tried to persuade him otherwise, Lin Luo ultimately chose the Frenzied Flame.

Melina said to Lin Luo, "If you become the Lord of Chaos, I will personally deliver Destined Death to you!"

Lin Luo did not answer. He merely burned himself before the Flame Cauldron...

Even though the pain was unbearable, Lin Luo still wore a faint smile.

Finally, she watched Lin Luo struggle bitterly against Dragonlord Placidusax in the City of the Sky.

At the center of the platform, he thrust the Golden Needle into the top of his head.

Only then did Melina understand everything Lin Luo had done...

Melina's nose stung, and she did not know what to say.

And in the end, Lin Luo followed Melina's wish, chose to become Elden Lord, and restored the perfect Golden Law...

Finally, Lin Luo sat upon the throne and said with a trace of tears in his voice,

"Melina, I hate that you're like a block of wood!

Even if you had just said, 'Help me,' I would have happily gone to die for you. But you called it a transaction. Who do you think I was leaping through heaven and earth for? I didn't want to clean up the demigods' messes, and I didn't want to spend all day diving into dungeons to kill copy-pasted filler enemies. I only wanted to feel like you needed me. (crying)

I fought my way from Caelid to the Altus Plateau. If staffs could chip, I'd be holding a chainsaw by now. I've killed miners for ten years. My heart has become colder than the crystal ore in those dungeons. Melina, what are you going to use to repay what you owe me here?!"

(A post from an internet user... Uh, copying and reposting it should be fine, right? Right?)

Hearing this, Melina finally broke down in tears, and they soaked her linen cloak...

Perhaps, even without this, the future would still have ended this way...

Melina tightly grasped the Crystal Tear Necklace against her chest, silently thinking to herself.