'Elden Ring' Is Home To One Of Dark Souls' Most Mysterious Bosses

Elden Ring has no shortage of surprises, does it? Several weeks after its initial release, players continue to push the game to its limits, including completing a speedrun in just 12 minutes, a pacifist playthrough, and beating penultimate boss Radagon using a Dance Dance Revolution mat. Whilst I'm not exactly inclined to follow in their footsteps, I can appreciate what are undeniably impressive achievements.

FromSoftware's latest venture is the newest instalment in the developers' soulslike catalogue and one game in particular, Dark Souls III, shares a hidden connection with Elden Ring - and one which only the most eagle-eyed of players would ever notice.

Elden Ring is terrifying on a good day, but when you add Shrek, Thomas the Tank Engine and Elmo to the fray? That's pure nightmare fuel. Check out these unbelievably cursed mods here:

Upon its release in 2016, dataminers found a hidden code buried deep within Dark Souls III. The code referenced a boss named "SnakeSoul" who was cut for unknown reasons and never appeared in the final version of the game. What the character would have looked like, or what its fighting style would have been has remained a complete mystery, but mysteries have a way of unravelling eventually.

Solving the six year old conundrum, YouTuber ZullieTheWitch recently made a discovery when looking into the code of Elden Ring's Ulcerated Tree Spirit optional boss. With the appearance of a deformed tree, the big bad is located in the Mt. Gelmir region of Elden Ring's map and according to Zullie, the Ulcerated Tree Spirit is actually Dark Souls III's "SnakeSoul" boss as they both share the same AI.

Prior to Dark Souls III's release, promotional images teased a tree-like creature looming above the dark landscape but the creepy figure never actually appeared in-game. Well, now my Tarnished friends, you know exactly who that creature is.