Chapter 240

Chapter 239 – The Brightest Darkness – 4

A massive claw brushed past the space right beside me. The sheer force of the passing claw ripped apart the ground beneath my feet. Shattered earth plummeted into an endless pit.

A black lightning crackled in my left hand and scattered forward along the trajectory of my arm. A beat late, thunder roared.

Charged with darkness, the lightning struck the head of the creature that devours the world, but it didn’t flinch and continued charging at me. I quickly leaped back to escape its attack range.

The very spot I had just occupied was chomped down on by its gaping maw. Its right arm swung horizontally, and its left arm came down vertically, then a breath burst forth from the twisted head on the right.

As it unleashed its breath, I plunged down over it and smashed the wingless nightmare right on top.

ㅡKaaahng!

However, my attack, boosted by the force of my fall, couldn’t pierce through its scales. It felt like I was swinging a steel rod against a solid wall. A tingling sensation coursed through my hands.

It twisted its body in annoyance. I created some distance to avoid being swept away by the unleashed shockwave.

‘What the hell… does this insane thing even take damage?’

I thought as I shook off the tingling sensation in my hands. It wasn’t that it had a strong defense; it simply felt like my attacks weren’t working at all. Its scales remained completely unscathed.

Moreover, the size difference was just too immense. While the creature that devours the world was definitely larger than a player, it wasn’t to this degree in the game.

Back then it was big, but at least it felt like I was up against a living being; now, it felt like I was up against a whole mountain. The sensation itself was different.

I knew very well where and how to attack. Its movements were exactly the same as in the game, especially since I had powered it up significantly through the Darkest Light Mod.

According to the goddess, she had recorded the action patterns of the creature that devours the world during her own battle against it, which served as the boss fight in Brightest Darkness 4.

Especially since the Darkest Light Mod was supposedly created by the goddess herself. She had mused whether it was even possible to merge so many enemy enhancement mods into one without any noise in the human world.

I couldn’t hear the details since time was tight, but it made me think that the goddess desperately tried to kill it.

‘Even if I can see the patterns…’

I understood them, but the problem was executing an attack after avoiding them. The sheer difference in physique made it impossible to close the distance after dodging in the same way as in the game.

No matter how much I tried to exploit openings, it just didn’t work at all.

Clearly, I had succeeded in more attacks on my end, and apart from the initial ambush, I hadn’t been hit at all, yet nothing seemed to change.

‘I guess it’s only thanks to the goddess that things are roughly even. If I couldn’t fly, I’d be totally screwed.’

I glanced at the goddess, who was now completely focused on assisting my movements while having entirely given up on attacking. I’d thrown every attack I could at the creature, but they’d all been thoroughly ignored.

No matter what she did, she couldn’t deal any damage, and since her attempts to draw its attention failed, she redirected her strategy to enhancing me and assisting my movements instead.

But as for me, I didn’t have any particular strategies up my sleeve. I merely dodged perilously while attempting to strike with a few ineffective jabs.

‘…Should I attack its mouth or something?’

I recalled the fleeting images I’d seen of its mouth when it opened to unleash its breath, a hue close to crimson shining within. No matter how tough its scales were, the insides wouldn’t be as tough.

‘Let’s give it a shot.’

It seemed like a decent idea. I spread black flames over the wingless nightmare once more. Dark flames ignited upon the blade, creating a shimmering haze.

‘Wait a minute. What if the goddess already tried this and it didn’t work?’

I hesitated, thinking about that. If the goddess had attempted to attack its mouth first and failed, then my plan was utterly pointless.

My contemplation was short-lived. A meteor shower began to rain down above me. Sure, they called it a meteor shower, but each star was practically the size of a meteor! I quickly maneuvered to get out of the way.

There was no time to sit around and think about my predicament. I could always come up with another strategy if this failed; at least I wasn’t taking any hits in the meantime.

If I had learned telepathy or some method of thought transmission, it would have been useful right now. I thought about shouting out to the goddess, but then I feared both she and the creature would hear me, so I abandoned the idea.

‘I need a way to attack rapidly while packing a punch…’

While calculating in my mind, I smashed one of the falling meteors, made up my mind, and positioned myself at the spot to draw the creature’s breath pattern.

The creature that devours the world charged straight at me. I waited for it to close in before swiftly dodging out to the side, perpendicular to its approach.

Had it been a pattern where it opened its mouth and charged from the start, it would have saved me a lot of time, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

As I slipped to the side, it didn’t follow me but shot upwards. Then it formed pitch-black orbs in both hands. I recognized this pattern from the game.

The creature that devours the world rocketed upwards, then like a rollercoaster, it dropped while unleashing its breath. The world began to dissolve like toilet paper tossed into the ocean.

The orbs plummeted to the ground. Ebon energy spread to the horizon. In the game, that would have been within a reasonable range, but here, it was way beyond that.

As I aimed to dodge upward to avoid the attack, its head turned to follow me. Like the letter V, instead of dropping straight down, the creature that devours the world released its breath towards me while soaring back up.

“Scatter——!!!!!!”

The familiar outcome unfolded before my eyes. It closed its mouth. Not yet. I charged straight at the creature that devours the world. The distance closed in a heartbeat.

The fight wasn’t taking place in the boss room, but aside from the fact that I was fighting in mid-air instead of on the ground, what I needed to do was the same.

I conjured a fireball made of black flames in my left hand and hurled it at it. It barreled right into it, shattering on impact. Taking advantage of the opening, I changed direction and rolled right up to its right foot.

The creature that devours the world turned its head towards its right foot. As if about to munch on me, it opened its maw wide. Everything was going according to my plan thus far.

Seizing the moment while its scales and teeth briefly exposed its interior, I struck with the wingless nightmare—

ㅡCrack!

“Guhuk?!”

Something enormous pierced through my abdomen. A beat late, overwhelming pain hit me like a ton of bricks.

I coughed, and a chunk of red spewed forth from my mouth. The taste of blood flooded my senses. A stench of fish invaded my nose, and liquid flowed back up my throat.

I felt my strength drain away completely. Slowly, I lowered my gaze.

A long, sharp thorn protruded from my abdomen. It seemed awfully familiar.

“Th-this… is…”

The blade of the wingless nightmare.

My eyelids kept wanting to close, making my vision quite hazy, but the shape was unmistakable. I turned my eyes. The wingless nightmare was still firmly grasping it in its right hand.

I turned my neck around with great effort to look back. The wingless nightmare that had pierced my abdomen was emerging from thin air. From absolutely nothing.

Struggling to keep my swaying head steady, I placed a hand on the part of my abdomen that had been pierced. The surface was smeared with blood and flesh. A crimson fluid trickled down from my lips, pooling on the surface and flowing sideways.

The blade was chillingly thick. It was so thick it felt as if someone had taken an H-beam and shoved it in me instead of a sword.

It had pierced from just below my pelvis up to right below my sternum vertically, while horizontally, only a sliver of my sides remained, barely connecting my upper and lower body.

ㅡHuman… foolish… and… beneath me….

Thoughts streamed into my mind. It was clearly mocking me. I only had the strength left to droop my body and listen.

Even if I had strength left, I wouldn’t have been able to speak through the blood filling my mouth.

ㅡThe false goddess… must have informed you… of my actions… my thoughts… you followed them….

‘…Did it know that its actions were being recorded?’

That meant that the reason I had moved according to the patterns from the game was a product of its manipulation. Of course, the reason for pulling such a stunt was clearly to mock me.

It was an obvious fact, as evidenced by the thoughts streaming into my mind.

I coughed again. As I tasted blood way too much, my tongue felt numb, and strangely, the smell of iron began to dissipate. Or could it be that I was bleeding so profusely that I was dying?

“You! You are!!”

From afar, I heard the goddess’s anguished and desperate voice.