Ranni's goal had to be explained from the very beginning of this world.
Just as Mistrina once said, the first part of their stories was nearly identical. Back then, the underground world was engulfed in flame, and all life was one. Then—the Erdtree appeared. The fire separated, and from that, countless forms of life were born into this world.
But from that point onward, Ranni's version diverged completely from Mistrina's.
According to Mistrina, the Erdtree was born from the Crucible Fire—a god who protected the land. Thus, her people revered it as the "Mother of the Earth."
Ranni, however, told Duanmu Huai that none of this was coincidence. In truth, the birth of life from the Crucible was caused by the arrival of an external power.
They called it — the Greater Will.
According to Ranni, in the beginning, the Greater Will sent a golden meteor to the Lands Between, along with a beast that came with it. And with that meteor came the Greater Will's emissary—the Fingers.
The golden meteor brought the Erdtree, which divided the chaotic Crucible of life and reshaped it into a world of order and vitality. The once-unified life within the flames was separated by this new order. As Mistrina described, barren lands became verdant plains, the rivers of molten magma turned to clear streams. From there, life split apart and multiplied, ushering in a new age of order in the Lands Between.
But where there are people, there is strife.
When life separated, it was inevitable that tribes and beliefs would arise.
There were the Spiritmouse tribes and their faith, the forest sects of Mistrina, the deep subterranean cults of Stars and Full Moon, the dragon and storm cults—endless and varied.
And then, the Erdtree grew displeased.
Although Ranni spoke vaguely, Duanmu Huai understood the Greater Will's meaning well enough.
"I toil and cultivate this barren world for you all, and now you declare yourselves kings? So I worked for free, is that it?"
Thus, even within the Greater Will itself, two factions emerged on how to deal with these "rebellious creations."
One faction said, "These ungrateful bastards can't be tamed—let's just return everything to the Crucible!"
Basically, the "format and reinstall" school of divine IT support.
The other faction argued, "That's too cowardly! We must show them the true power of the Greater Will!"
So, naturally, the two sides fought each other first. The radicals who wanted to format reality lost and were sealed beneath Leyndell, the Royal Capital. The remaining two Fingers triumphed and established dominance over the Lands Between through the Law of the Golden Order.
What followed was just as Mistrina had told him—the Golden Order waged war on all other tribes. Yet, unlike Mistrina, Ranni explained the reason: this was nothing more than the Greater Will reclaiming its lost dominion.
The Law of the Golden Order was indeed overwhelmingly powerful, granting its believers endless blessings—that was why the Golden Lineage could reign supreme over the Lands Between. Other faiths' gods were either dead or useless, while this one always delivered miracles. Facing such an enemy would drive anyone to despair.
So the Golden Lineage, emissaries of the Greater Will, crushed the Giants, the Ancient Dragons, and every tribe or creed that dared oppose them, creating the absolute dominance of the Golden Order.
Yet, their triumph brought no joy—especially not to Queen Marika. The more victorious they became, the clearer it was: the Golden Lineage could never defy the Greater Will. They would forever be its mouthpieces.
To put it politely, they were envoys.
To put it bluntly, slaves.
After all, every gift they received came from the Golden Law, and that law was crafted by the Greater Will itself. Though powerful and prosperous, Marika understood the truth—her people were nothing more than pawns. If the Greater Will wished them to live, they would live. If it wished them to die, they would die.
There were already signs of this. Every Empyrean like Ranni had their own "Shadow," a supposedly loyal protector who would, without hesitation, execute them the moment they defied the Golden Law.
Clearly, the Greater Will foresaw the chance of rebellion and planned accordingly.
No wonder Ranni had come to Duanmu Huai instead of relying on her own followers—who knew when one of her "loyal" servants might stab her in the back?
And so, Queen Marika began her rebellion against the Greater Will.
To fight it, she first had to destroy the Golden Law, to weaken its hold upon the Lands Between. For that, she joined forces with Ranni and stole fragments of the Rune of Death from Maliketh, the Black Blade. When the Golden Law was forged, the Greater Will had removed Death from it—so naturally, to destroy the law, Death had to be restored.
Ranni then used her moon-born sorcery to channel the power of the Rune of Death into the Black Knives.
The reason Marika did not do this herself was simple.
Ranni's sorcery stemmed from the Full Moon—unrelated to the Golden Order—whereas Marika, as the Golden Order's avatar, couldn't act without alerting the Greater Will.
If she did, it'd be like walking up to your boss and stabbing him in the face. Not subtle at all.
And so, the Night of the Black Knives came, and Godwyn was slain.
That murder created an unfixable bug within the Golden Law.
The law decreed that Empyreans could not die—only mortals' souls would return to the Erdtree after death.
But the Rune of Death doesn't negotiate. Once marked, death is absolute.
Thus the law's logic looped into contradiction, creating a fatal error.
Godwyn's soul died, but his body lived on.
That bug caused the Golden Law to collapse—like throwing a wrench into a finely tuned machine.
And while that machine sputtered, Marika seized the chance and shattered the Golden Order herself.
However, her plan did not fully succeed.
Ranni didn't know what happened afterward—when the Order broke, the Erdtree sealed itself off completely. The Golden Lineage lost their god-queen, and the surviving demigods desperately fought to claim the vacant throne.
By succession, Godwyn's son Godrick should have been king.
…But, well, nobody respected him anyway.
Thus began the Shattering War—the demigods clashing for the throne. Godrick, who dreamed of becoming Elden Lord, got his royal ass kicked and fled to Stormveil Castle, where he began his grotesque grafting experiments.
Ranni didn't care for their petty squabbles.
No matter who won, they would just repair the Golden Order and remain slaves to the Greater Will. Marika was gone—likely destroyed in her rebellion—so Ranni had to finish what she started.
Her plan was simple: first, kill her own Two Fingers.
Every Empyrean chosen to inherit the throne was guarded by the Two Fingers—but that protection was also a leash. To gain true freedom, Ranni needed to sever it.
But the Fingers were the Greater Will's emissaries—ordinary weapons couldn't kill them. Only the power of Death could. And even Ranni couldn't wield that power directly.
Fortunately, she learned that the Eternal City once forged a weapon designed to kill gods—the very dagger Duanmu Huai had brought back to her.
With that dagger, Ranni could annihilate her Two Fingers, cut off the Greater Will's prying gaze, and then travel to the Capital to reshape the law itself, creating a new Order to forever banish the Greater Will's interference.
"...That is my plan," Ranni finished calmly, her eyes fixed on Duanmu Huai.
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"So your goal is to permanently sever the Greater Will's control over the Lands Between? What then? What happens after that?"
"The world will begin anew," Ranni replied softly. "An age without the Golden Law or the Greater Will's influence."
As she spoke, she glanced at Milphy—who by now was utterly dumbfounded by the flood of revelations.
"I know of the forest folk," Ranni continued. "Perhaps under their guidance, the Lands Between could flourish in a different way."
"And you?" Duanmu Huai asked curiously.
"I will leave," Ranni said, gazing out the window. "I will journey to where the true stars lie. This sky is false—only a reflection. I wish to see the real stars and the true moon. It may not be easy... but I will not give up."
"What? That's it?"
Duanmu Huai slapped his thigh with a grin.
"No problem! Leave it to me!"
"...?"
Ranni frowned, confused by how casual he was.
"Do you even know what I'm talking about? That's the realm of the Greater Will—the eternal land of stars and moon. Even I cannot be sure—"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Duanmu Huai waved her off. "You want to go to the stars? No problem. Leave it to me."
He patted his chest confidently, exhaling in relief.
So that was all? He'd thought she'd ask for something impossible. That's it?
No big deal.
To him, this kind of thing was like eating breakfast.
And as for cutting off the Greater Will? He had no objection. The so-called divine power didn't sound all that benevolent anyway. Better to deal with it once and for all before it could mess with his world later.
"...Do you really understand what I mean?"
Ranni stared at him skeptically. To her, the stars and the cosmos were distant, unreachable. How could this man speak of it so easily?
"Of course I do," Duanmu Huai replied, smiling as he extended his hand toward her.
"Deal?"
"..."
Ranni hesitated a moment, then reached out and clasped his hand lightly.
"I hope you don't disappoint me," she said softly. "To anger the witch Ranni... is a very grave sin."
(End of Chapter)