Samantha Weston, Sam to her friends, burst out laughing at one of Noel’s jokes, punching his arm a little too hard and causing him to swerve briefly as she said, “Fuck you! Dark Souls is less tactics and more about- NOEL WATCHOUT!” Though neither of them had much more time to react to the oncoming white truck that was coming at them.

A blinding flash was all they could remember before jolting upright in confusion. “...Wasn’t I just behind the wheel a second ago?” Noel asked as he looked around trying to make heads or tails of what just happened.

“I… I don’t know… W-where are we…?” Sam looked around, scared out of her mind.

“...The hell?” Noel asked as he reached up, realizing there was something around his head. Grasping both sides, he manages to pull it off. “...How’d this get on me.” he says as he looks over at Noel. “..And when did you get your hair dyed?”

“Huh? What are you talking about? Noel, when did you put those contacts on?” Sam asked, only just now noticing her own clothes. “And when the fuck did I get in my costume?!”

“Contacts? I’m not wearing..” Noel paused, noticing he was wearing a lot of armor. “...any?” he finished, even more confused than before.

“Oh fuck… Do… Do you think we died…?” Sam asked, tears biting at the corners of her eyes as she fought back her sadness.

Noel reached up to pull off one of his steel gauntlets before pinching himself. “But should being dead involve not feeling any pain?” Noel asked as he pinched himself again.

She blinked and pinched herself as well, yelping faintly as she did. “I… Wha…? Then what the hell happened?!”

Noel slowly got up, finding the armor to be oddly comfortable and light despite how heavy it looked. “I have no clue, it happened just..” he paused to snap a finger. “Like that.” he said as he looked around the dark forest. “...Wait.” he began as he looked up. “Maybe we went off the road and we got thrown out-... although that doesn’t explain why we’re dressed up and looking different...” Noel said as he slipped the gauntlet back on.

Sam took a steadying breath and got up with him before spotting a certain blue flower behind Noel, groaning as she realized what had happened. “Oh, no… No no no, please, god, no… This is NOT happening to us right now…”

“Let’s not panic, there’s got to be some logical conclusion to all of this, there just has to be..” Noel said as he started patting himself down, trying to find anything that’s familiar to him that he had on. Noel reached back and felt something. Taking a grip, he pulled out a coiled sword that instantly reminded him of something. Reaching up, he traced his hand over the blade; feeling the eerily realistic warmth. “..I have no clue how I’ve got the Firelink sword…” Noel said as he stared at it perplexed, only to quickly drop it. “Nothing is making sense...” Noel as he took slow steady breaths.

“Noel… Turn around…” Sam said, pinching the bridge of her nose as she grumbled about something to herself. Noel slowly turned as he too spotted the blue flowers. “...This isn’t making it any better. T-that’s the Poison Joke, but alot more detailed than in the show...” Noel said.

“Remember those fanfics I kept telling you to check out? I think something like that happened to us…” Same said as she patted herself down, finding a kris knife and a potion.

“...No way, surely that’s not what happened...” Noel said as he bent down to pick up the firelink sword.

“You remember wearing the red eye contacts while in the car…? Because I know I planned to go to the con with scarlet hair, not… Whatever it is I have now,” Sam said as she looked around, taking in the area with more detail.

“I don’t remember putting any on...” Noel said as he held the sword up, using its glowing embers to provide the two some light.

“Exactly… And we met truck-kun on the highway, going to a con, and suddenly wake up in a place that has Poison Joke? Means we’re in Everfree Forest, so we should get to someplace safe, right?”

“...So in a way, you’re saying we’ve been isekai’d…” Noel asked with a frown as he was familiar with the term ‘truck-kun’.

“Isekai’d, or Displaced. One of the two, sadly…” Sam turned back to him with a sad smile. “Guess we’re not winning the competition for best costume, eh?”

“Best?” Noel asked as he chuckled in amusement. “I think we’ve become it. I mean, I wasn’t wearing it, but I was thinking about it.” Noel said as he gave the sword some swings. “...Although too much like it.” Noel said as his thoughts caused the sword to ignite on fire, providing even more light. “...waaaaaay too much like it.”

Sam winced as she looked away. “Yeah… I hear you on that… And if I’m holding a Kris knife… Means I have Steal Gil.” Sam blinked as she saw a blue box appear in front of her saying, ‘Invalid Target’.

“I think I’ve got alot of new thoughts to sort out. Just holding this weapon is giving me a headache... Too many fire spells...” Noel said as he held onto his head.

“I… I can understand that… Oh, fuck I hope I’m not locked into thief… It’s such crap!” Sam said as she realized she didn’t know how to change jobs.

“At least you don’t have to work with knowledge that feels like someone using a jackhammer to push it in..” Joel said as he waited for the headache to pass.

“Yeah, true… But I’m not sure how long that’ll stay true if I can change classes…” Sam said, motioning for Noel to follow her as she started off in a seemingly random direction. Noel placed his helmet back on, feeling much safer with it on.

As they wandered, Sam suddenly stopped, unable to move as a Goblin stepped out of a bush, and was similarly locked in place, snarling at Sam and Noel. “Noel… C-can you move…?”

“..No, I can’t either.. What the hell?” Noel said as he tried to get his legs to move, but no luck.

Sam suddenly lurched forward as she noticed she could move again, blinking in surprise before running behind the Goblin and hitting it with her Kris Knife, sighing in relief as she, and Noel, saw a yellow -12 appear over its head.

“...This is that whole tactics thing you mentioned?” Noel asked as he gestures with his hand around. “That is somehow affecting us...” he said with a frown.

“Shutup and hit it from the side already! It hasn’t moved, that means it’s your turn!”

Noel tested his legs, noticing he can move now. “Guess I’ll be having a critical hit then?” Noel asked with a grin, hinting at Sam of what he was about to do. With Firelink sword in hand, he runs up behind the goblin, thrusting it hard into it’s back. The damage had become a glitched 36 as the world tried to correct itself to understand him. The hit was also a crit, which knocked the Goblin back a few feet, sliding forward without falling over. “It survived a backstab.” Noel said in surprise.

The Goblin, now that it was its turn, ran to Sam’s side, as she was closer, and released a flurry of blows, earning a nasty 50 floating over Sam’s head as she fell to one knee, gasping in pain. “F-fuck… That hurt… A-and backstabs don’t help you here, Noel! I th-think that is…” She popped her potion, a green 50 popping up and resetting the damage before she ran to Noel’s back, facing away from him.

Noel calmly raised his hand, allowing an orange flame to glow, soon letting it go as it gently floated in place. Noel had casted the Warmth spell, a passive healing per turn. “Just stay near the flame and it should take care of some of the healing.” Noel said as he kept his back against Sams.

The Goblin smiled deviously as it stepped forward into the spell and released another flurry, only dealing 2 damage that turn. Then a green 3 popped over its head. Noel took this moment to thrust his hand into the Goblin’s chest, lighting it on fire using the spell Sacred Flame, forcing it to lower itself onto its knees. Noel thrusted the flame through, dealing 50 damage to the Goblin.

Sam glanced back at the Goblin and blinked in shock as she saw the Goblin was at 2 health, then smiled as she stepped around to it’s side, and said, “Steal Gil!” What shocked her, though, was that the same blue box saying ‘Invalid Target’ popped up. “Uh… Steal… Souls?” was her next option, and to both of their amazement, it worked and and a Soul of a Lost Undead popped off of it.

“..Bwah?” Noel asked in confusion as the blue box looked a little scrambling to his sights, except for the soul item as it was in clear view. “I’m getting a little concerned now. I thought it was going to be like that one you love, but to include Dark Soul items?” Noel said.

“Y-yeah… If this world let me just steal a random Soul item…?” Sam said as well, thoroughly confused now. The Goblin yelled in pain as it fell over, dying from the burn damage as it’s turn started, a 6 jumping up over it’s head just before it did.

“Looks like a victory for us.” Noel said as he sheathed his sword onto his back behind the black shield.

Sam sighed in relief as she nodded in agreement, looking down at the white orbs floating over the dead Goblin. “So if I can steal the Soul generating items… And not Gil… Does that mean what I think it means…?”

“Seems like it.” Noel said as he approached the Goblin’s corpse, causing the orbs to be absorbed into him, causing him to shudder. “Ok, that is a weird feeling..” Noel said as they both saw a blue box pop up stating that they now had a Soul of Goblin in their inventory.

“Uh… What uh… What can you do with that, exactly…?” Sam asked, taking a small step away from her notification box, miffed that it seemed to stay equidistant away from her eyes no matter where she looked.

Noel checks out the item, soon getting a zoom in of the soul with a description by it.

Soul Of Goblin.

The soul of a monster that was driven by madness.
A diminutive species of goblin with large ears and an upturned nose. Surprisingly strong for its small size.

“..If it's anything like in Dark Souls 3, it can be turned into something. Don’t know what a Soul Of Goblin would become as I’m no Ludleth of Courland…” Noel said with a shrug.

Sam hummed in thought for a moment. “Didn’t you say you could use Boss Souls to make spells at one point…?”
“In Dark Souls 3, yea. Beating a boss granted you a soul you could either use to gain alot of souls, or ask Ludleth to turn it into whatever was available. A spell, a powerful weapon, a rare ring, but as I mentioned, I don’t know if I can actually do that.” Noel said.

“Well, in FFTA, which is what we’re based in if this little turd is anything to go by, there’s two classes that use those things. One, accessible to humans only, is a Blue Mage, and would give you the ability to copy certain beast spells, like Goblin Punch or Fairy Wind. Good luck getting hit by a willing Fairy with that, by the way. The other option, available to the Nu Mou only, is to have a Morpher use it to access a different set, some the same, some different. And by ‘use it’, I mean they would LITERALLY use the damned thing to beat people with it,” Sam said, waving her hand to banish the next three text boxes, mentally cursing herself for not reading them.

“Willing fairy though…” Noel said with a smile as he held his hand up. “There is a spell I just remembered that lets you turn enemies into allies, or rather make them think you’re their ally called Rapport.” Noel mentioned, causing a blue window to appear in front of Sam, explaining it to her.

Advanced pyromancy of Quelana, a daughter of the Witch of Izalith.

Charms the enemy, making them a temporary ally.

The living are lured by flame, and this tendency is elemental to the art of pyromancy. Lasts 30 seconds

“Hmm… Works like a charm spell then… Looks like it should be good, but neither of us are Blue Mages, are we?” Sam asked as she looked over the description.

“I don’t believe so, no. Those are all pyromancer spells that got forced into my mind.” Noel paused as surprise appeared on his face. “...It's definitely Dark Souls, but for some reason it's from a mod I used to play called Cinders. If I’m correct and we can get to a bonfire, it should let me gain access to a special menu.” Noel explained.

“Then we need to get to one, right?”

“Yea, but the issue is do they exist here?” Noel said as he looked about the first. “The ones from Dark Souls involve a bowl of bones with a firelink sword inside in it.” he said.

“And yet we’re using souls for currency. Care to argue that again?” Sam asked, hand on her hips.

“Well, it kind of is in Dark Souls, I don’t know why it is instead of Gil like it is in Final Fantasy.” Noel said with a confused shrug.

Sam sighed and turned around, as she felt a small pull from that direction. She then blinked as a thought struck her. “What if it’s not just one of the games…?”

“From what I’ve seen, it seems to be both, in odd harmony even though both games combat systems function very differently…” Noel said with a frown.

“Yeah… And I feel like Ponyville is this way,” Sam said as she kept going.

“I still can’t get over this is all happening now.” Noel said as he followed behind.

Sam glanced back and was shocked to see how much health he had. And was shocked by what she saw. How did he have so much resources?!

“...Is there something on my helmet?” Noel asked in confusion of the look Sam was giving him.

“I… Sorry. Your stats aren’t scaled right is all… Says you have just over 200 hp, something only really seen at high level melee tank units, and 50 mp. Something found at low to mid tier casters, but never at level 1 mages…” Sam said, explaining her confusion.

“Dark Souls 3 doesn’t follow the same logic since you get stronger by spending souls on your stats, although admittedly my level should be higher. I guess this world is trying to make sense of my stats? I mean my character had more than 2000 hp and my FP being around 500 if I’m remembering my save file correctly..” Noel said as he shook his head. “It’s been feeling weird to be literally my character as myself in real life.” he said.

“Tell me about it… But if there is a class system, I’ll need to master… Two thief actions, Souls and Exp should be useful for us at first. Then I plan to cover my bases and grab Counter… And maybe master Black Mage so I have some good offence and a decently powerful defense?” Sam said as she tried to strategize her loadout.

“Meanwhile while Dark Souls has a starting class system, you can pretty much be a jack of all trades in the mid or late game, I mean sure you can stick to a preferred playstyle, but the bosses will be an annoyance with some of them having resistances. For me though,” Noel began as he held up his hand as fire danced along his fingers. “Kind of a Pyromancer and Warrior, but not as tanky as a full warrior.” he said as the flame faded away.

“Hmm… So I’ll lock them down with Nin Tech, you hit them in the back? Wood Veil will immobilize them, and Sand Veil can blind…”

“Can do. This is all turn based now, so they can’t really do anything to backstabs, so I’ll be abusing the hell out of that,” Noel said with a grin. “...Ya know, it's kind of funny, I was scared at first when we woke up here,” he said.

“Heheh… Same. Though I’ll admit that the crit was shocking to me. Maybe backstabbing just has increased crit rate instead of increasing the damage like in DS3…” Sam said as she hummed in thought, trying to pull up her equipment page.

Noel reached up and removed his helmet again as he held it at his side. “How do you access your inventory though, is it a mind command or something?” Noel asked curiously.

“Um… It looks like you just focus on how you remember the system looking, and it… Just works…?” Sam said, thoroughly confused by now as it was the same menu system… But altered.

Focusing on bringing up his inventory, it too appears, but much like Sam saw. “...Guess we should call this menu Final Souls or Dark Fantasy?” Noel joked as he scrolled through. “...Even my rings are here?” he said with pleasant surprise as he started equipping them right away; making them appear around five of his fingers. “And no four ring limit either,” he said with glee.

Author's Note

If anyone gets confused of Noel's powers, they are from a modded playthrough of DS3 called Cinders.