Chapter 237

Chapter 236 – The Brightest Darkness – 1

With its mouth wide open, preparing to unleash a pitch-black breath downward. It was a posture I had seen somewhere before.

As soon as I realized this fact, my head reacted instinctively. In the game, once the breath pattern appeared, I had to run like crazy to escape the attack range.

‘…It won’t be the same here.’

However, it was evident that the same method wouldn’t work here. Back then, the creature that devoured the world was gigantic, but it was within the bounds of common sense.

Now, the scale was entirely different. One of its eyes was roughly the size of the sun floating in the sky, so even if I tried to run, I doubt I could escape.

While I was contemplating, its mouth opened wider, and the dark energy grew stronger. Then, the pitch-black breath was shot out.

This breath, which could be called darkness itself, rushed toward me, melting the ground and destroying everything in its path. Flowers, grass, and trees melted in real-time.

The lateral range was at least dozens of meters wide. There was no space to escape, so I had to come up with another plan.

‘I never thought I’d be tested so quickly.’

I took a deep breath, just like when I practiced the draconic language, and assumed a posture. If this method didn’t work, I’d be in the same state as the nature melting down there.

I braced my stomach and shouted loudly.

“Scatter—!!!!!!”

One of the five draconic phrases I learned from Parnari, “scatter.” In the game, it merely blocked the breath, but here it was a completely different technique.

As the draconic phrase collided with the black breath, the pitch-black energy literally scattered. Each entity that formed the concept of breath collapsed completely.

The destructive force, having lost its focal point, couldn’t withstand for long. The darkened scenery ceased to expand.

‘It worked.’

It connected. I sighed in relief internally.

Once the draconic phrase is imbued with a concept, the difference in power becomes meaningless. Since I commanded it to “scatter,” the existence that constitutes the world has no choice but to obey, unless it’s the same draconic phrase.

I stood my ground and gazed at the red eyes floating in the sky. Perhaps surprised by my action, they momentarily contracted before starting to shrink.

The red sphere that rivaled the sun reduced to a reasonable size, and soon its appearance below its neck took shape. It was familiar, and it looked just like I remembered.

—I thought it was a last-ditch effort… but was it not…?

Thoughts swirled inside me. Unlike the time when I was barely holding on to keep my head from bursting, I felt no burden now.

It must be either that I regained some power or that I had learned the draconic language.

I glanced at the spot where the goddess had been pushed down, but she still showed no sign of returning.

—Familiar energy… Now I understand… The human who protected the world… That sealed away the memory… It’s unbinding now…

“If it’s a familiar energy, then you know who I am. Tell me. Who am I?”

This was also a question for myself. The goddess, who was supposed to provide an answer, had disappeared, while this creature seemed to know the answer.

—The first immortal… The one who inherited the mission… The one who suppressed the curse…

“……”

—All… paths you have walked…

Hearing these words erupt from the mouth of the creature that devours the world gave me chills. All three referred to the protagonists of the Brightest Darkness Series one by one.

The first immortal appeared in the world of Brightest Darkness 1.

After a very long time, the protagonist of Brightest Darkness 2 opened their eyes.

The protagonist of Brightest Darkness 3, who suppressed the immortal centipede while maintaining their sanity.

Thus, respectively being the first immortal, the one who inherited the mission, and the one who suppressed the curse. This creature was referring to those three as my past, meaning that I had directly experienced it.

Puzzles that were merely conjectures were coming together piece by piece.

‘Now that I’ve lost my memory, this is what it looks like.’

—But… it’s meaningless…

“Meaningless? What is?”

—It’s already too late.

And as its eyes shone red, something charged at me. My body instinctively reacted, but it was too late to take any action.

“Rewind—”

Before I could even use the draconic phrase, an enormous impact hit me. I crashed onto the ground, smashing through the nearby terrain and sliding back for quite a distance.

The overturned dirt rained down on me, dirtying my uniform. As my head grasped the situation, a sharp pain flooded throughout my body. Especially my back hurt much more.

“Kugh…?!”

I gasped for air. I had hardly ever felt such intense pain before, so it hurt like hell. It was a sensation I hadn’t experienced in ages.

I soared backward for some time, and after smashing two large trees, I could finally stop halfway through a third tree.

Leaves rained down on me from above.

“…Cough.”

A dry cough escaped my mouth. I didn’t seem to be dying since I wasn’t coughing up blood.

I examined my body. My previously pitch-black uniform was a mess with grass, dirt, and leaves, and there wasn’t a single part of me that didn’t hurt. Thankfully, my bones and flesh appeared to be intact.

‘What just happened? I was attacked, but…’

It was indeed the creature that devours the world that did this to me. However, it had only briefly shone its pupil, and I hadn’t seen any other movements.

I was lucky to have been able to recite even half of the draconic phrase. If I had failed to react to that previous attack, I would surely have been smashed to pieces.

Wobbling, I propped myself up with my hands and stood. The creature that devours the world remained standing at a distance. With its size, it was quite visible.

As the pain subsided to a reasonable level, rational thoughts began to form. I had definitely taken that attack that had pushed the goddess back.

‘…Am I still alive?’

When I stood on the ground, a tingling current flowed as though I had been elbowed. It seemed I wasn’t dead yet.

“Are you okay? You?”

As I steadied myself, I heard a woman’s panicked voice from above. Someone had perched down right next to me. With the shock of landing, her large chest swayed greatly.

She was undoubtedly the goddess of this world, with pitch-black hair and dual-colored eyes of gold and silver.

Although she moved frantically, the cloth covering her nipple and genitalia showed no sign of falling. It was as if they were glued on tight.

From the way it swayed gently in the wind, it didn’t seem like they were firmly adhered, yet they appeared as if they wouldn’t reveal anything at all.

“As you can see, I’m doing fairly well.”

“I’m so sorry. I tried to cast a protective barrier, but I was too late… I was worried you might have been hurt.”

The goddess sighed in relief, her eyes glistening with tears.

“Since it seems you know who I am, I’ll skip the explanation about myself. You’re the god of the Holy Kingdom, correct?”

“For now, yes. But right now, I’ve lost almost everything to that creature, so I’m barely something you can call a god.”

It was embarrassing, akin to her clothing. I barely suppressed my urge to voice that thought.

“Then, may I ask one more question? Are you the sun or the moon?”

“…Pardon?”

The goddess froze in her tearful state.

“I’ve been curious about this for a while, and it worked out. I heard there are two deities of the Holy Kingdom, the sun and the moon, but where did one go that you’re facing that creature alone? I asked last time, but you deflected it. This time, I really need to know.”

“……”

At my question, the goddess looked around helplessly. She didn’t seem gloomy, but her expression was slightly complicated regarding answering.

From her expression, it seemed she hadn’t been killed by the creature. If that were the case, I would have to apologize.

“W-well…”

The goddess continued to stammer. By this point, I began to find it somewhat strange.

When I asked whether she was the sun or moon before, she couldn’t answer, and there had never been an instance where the two appeared at the same time. Given that her clothing was half gold and half silver, and her eyes were dual-colored… Could it be?

“…Could it be that there was actually just one from the beginning?”

She nodded. Her head moved up and down. This was surprising in itself. I had firmly believed there were two, but could it be that the sun and moon were actually one?

“But then why were you acting like there were two?”

“There’s a reason deeper than the ocean…”

“Answer.”

“The creature abandoned by the goddess, that’s why.”

“…That creature?”

The response was completely unexpected. What did the creature abandoned by god have to do with the goddess playing two roles?

“Uh….”

While I was frozen in shock, the goddess turned hastily.

“I’ll explain this in detail later. This isn’t the time!”

As a golden light barrier appeared before us, the breath collided. The barrier was overwhelmed, with both sides quickly melting away and a sinister black smoke rising.

“Ugh…!”

The goddess gritted her teeth, frowning. Droplets of saliva trickled from her lips. Even keeping the breath at bay was taking a toll on her. Cracks spread throughout the barrier, and her hands trembled.

It seemed she couldn’t hold on any longer, so I shouted with all my might.

“Scatter—!!!!!!”

The barrier included in the draconic phrase and the breath dispersed into the air. The goddess looked at me with surprise.

“When did you learn draconic phrases…? Have you finally regained your power?”

“Regained my power? What are you talking about? Didn’t you return it to me?”

We both stared at each other in astonishment. Both of us seemed to be thinking, ‘What on earth is she talking about?’ Neither of us understood what the other was saying.

“I? Me?”

“When we parted in hell, you said you’d help me, right? I thought you had left some power for me to fight that creature while also helping me awaken!”

“Of course I said I’d help you! But I was far too busy trying to stop that thing from rampaging, so I couldn’t possibly focus on anything else! It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help; I simply couldn’t!”

‘No, the goddess said she returned it, right?’

This clearly contradicted what Nix had said. The goddess intervened, but she claimed to have returned my power, not raised it. This would mean Nix was incorrect.

As we all stared blankly at each other, the goddess suddenly exclaimed, “Ah!”

“I think I understand what happened! It means your body began recalling the memories before your head!”

“…Is that a good thing?”

“If it had been in the past, that would have given that creature a foothold, so it would have been bad… but it’s already too late, so we should focus on regaining our power as quickly as possible.”

Boom! The giant body descended with such a sound, interrupting our conversation. The mixed black and navy body approached us. Its scales were smeared with golden and silver divine power.

It wasn’t waiting for our conversation to end; the goddess seemed to be stalling for time by creating some distraction.

—A last-ditch effort… pathetic… it has failed…

“Shut your mouth. We haven’t lost yet.”

—Didn’t you lose…?

In an instant, its emotions were expressed, and the very ground shook under their weight.

Giant trees that looked like they were several yards tall fell in the opposite direction of the creature that devours the world, while flowers and grass were all crushed, unveiling the barren earth beneath.

—Are you trying to use a mere human… as your last hope…? Disgustingly vile… abhorrent…

“…”

The goddess bit her lower lip slightly. I wondered what she meant by using me. By the looks of her reaction, it seemed the goddess had some guilt about it.

—Human… Do you know what it did to you…?

“I know. It sent me to a different world, three times. No, actually, all three times were in the same world just at different times.”

—Do you know what you went through in that world…?

“Well, I can’t say I know. I had my memories completely wiped.”

At that moment, a mocking emotion intertwined with its thoughts.

—You endured countless pains… and countless deaths… it ruined you… human… think of the reason your memories were erased…

I had anticipated this to some extent.

Unlike the protagonist of Brightest Darkness 4, who reached the ending without any deaths, the protagonists of Brightest Darkness 1 through 3 were immortal and died countless times.

If I had experienced the same, I must have died an unfathomable number of times. It wasn’t surprising either.

The protagonists of the Brightest Darkness series could die over and over yet rise again without a hitch, serving as a metaphor that characters don’t give up as long as the player doesn’t.

Likewise, I wouldn’t have given up either. That’s why I must have seen the ending.

—The cause of your ruin… pretending to care for you… is a grand hypocrisy…

“…”

Just before the goddess hung her head, I interrupted.

“So?”

My answer seemed to be entirely unexpected, as her round eyes widened in shock.

And it appeared her vertical pupils were also similarly surprised.

—Do you not understand… human…?

“No. I understand it all too well. The goddess brought me here, and thanks to you, I’ve been through hell and back. It’s odd that I wouldn’t understand.”

I pulled out the wingless nightmare. I wasn’t sure if it could injure the creature, but with the goddess beside me, it should work somehow.

Even so, it’d at least be enough to show my will.

“But what does my struggle have to do with you unilaterally concluding what I should feel?”

I aimed the tip of my sword at it. The red vertical pupil contracted slightly.

“Goddess.”

“…Yes.”

“Well, I have a lot of things to go over. But I’ll wait until everything is over to hear the rest. Just tell me one thing right now. I’m about to lose my mind to find the answer after failing to get it twice.”

“…Understood. What is it?”

“What was the Brightest Darkness series?”

“That is…”

The goddess, who had been hesitating for a while, quietly opened her mouth.

“…It is what you experienced in my world, created in the concept of your world.”

“Ah, so it’s not that I was embodied into a game world but that the world I was embodied into was turned into a game by the goddess. The protagonist’s actions are, in fact, my actions.”

“Yes, that is correct…”

So that’s why it seemed strange.

I hadn’t acted as the protagonist by being embodied into the game; instead, the Brightest Darkness series was the game created from my experiences.

Now that all the pieces were put together, I felt a sense of calm wash over me. Lately, I had been dealing with so many complicated feelings, but for the first time in a while, my mind was clearer.

“I don’t know why you made it a game, but like I said before, let’s postpone that for later.”

I aimed my sword at the creature. My attitude seemed to irritate the creature that devours the world, and it growled in displeasure. The already chaotic surroundings turned upside down once more.

“Right now, defeating that creature is the top priority.”