I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 123

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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When it comes to final bosses in games, most people want them to possess a level of power and gravitas befitting their position. After all, they are the ultimate challenge of the game.

It might be different if the boss was designed to be comedic from the start, or if the story consistently built them up as insignificant. But if the final boss fight was underwhelming, it was bound to receive criticism.

In that regard, the final boss of The Brightest Darkness 4, the Eater of Worlds, perfectly met the expectations of the players.

It was the only boss in BD4 with four phases, each with a distinct concept, and every single phase was insanely difficult, even in vanilla.

Its lore was flawless, its power was demonstrably shown in the game, and its changing concepts in each phase more than satisfied people’s fantasies.

Therefore, it was no surprise that modders who created enemy enhancement mods put extra effort into the Eater of Worlds.

The fact that there were over ten mods that only enhanced the Eater of Worlds spoke volumes. In particular, the Darkest Light mod combined all those variations into one.

But.

No enemy enhancement mod ever made the Eater of Worlds appear at the beginning of the main story.

—!!!!!!

A roar, no, a formless mass too immense to be called a mere roar, erupted from its maw.

Through the hallway window, I could see buildings cracking and even collapsing from the sheer force of it. It had shattered buildings just by letting out a roar.

I stared blankly at the crumbling buildings, dust clouds billowing into the air, then snapped out of it and started running.

I had to follow Cecilia’s orders and get out of the Imperial Palace as quickly as possible.

I hurried back to my room, grabbed the Bloodstained Sword, and checked Lize’s room just in case. The spot where her twin daggers usually were was empty. Fortunately, it seemed she had taken them with her.

I sighed inwardly as I headed out of the Imperial Palace.

‘Please, let me not have to fight it here.’

Fighting the Eater of Worlds itself wasn’t a problem. I already knew its attack patterns, and I had to defeat it eventually anyway.

‘No one can defeat it now.’

But fighting it here was a problem.

The Eater of Worlds was invincible until a specific quest was completed, making it completely immune to damage. And that specific quest didn’t appear until the very end of the main story.

The latter half of BD4’s main story was practically about the protagonist uncovering the truth about the Eater of Worlds.

In other words, it was impossible to kill it until that secret was revealed.

Even the protagonist was overwhelmingly defeated in his first encounter with the Eater of Worlds, unable to inflict any damage.

There was even a special gimmick designed just for that first boss fight.

‘But it’s okay for now.’

As long as the player didn’t actively interfere with the Eater of Worlds’s secrets, it wouldn’t become hostile towards humans.

The reason the first boss fight occurred was because of a misunderstanding.

The protagonist, who had been tasked with investigating a strange energy fluctuation, happened to stumble upon a secret related to the Eater of Worlds.

He only survived because the Eater of Worlds, after reading the defeated protagonist’s memories, realized that his presence there was unrelated to its secrets and left.

‘I absolutely cannot fight it now.’

I just had to make sure they didn’t read my memories and that we didn’t attack it first. If I was careful about those two things, we might be able to avoid a fight.

Because fighting the Eater of Worlds now was suicide.

“Delta! Are you alright?!”

As I exited the main gate of the Imperial Palace, the Knight Commanders, their expressions filled with tension, greeted me.

They were all in their uniforms, having left their armor at the mansion.

Next to them, the Golden Twilight Knights, clad in golden armor, stood in formation. They were armed with various weapons – swords, greatswords, spears and shields, axes. All familiar variations I had encountered in the game.

Next to the Golden Twilight Knights, knights in silver armor, and mages in robes, stood with grim expressions, their magic staffs clutched tightly in their hands.

These were probably all the forces deemed useful in a battle against a dragon.

“Of course I’m alright. What’s the situation?”

“It’s not good, but judging by the fact that you’re asking about the situation, you must have heard about it as well. So I won’t bother explaining.”

I smiled wryly.

Iris also frowned. I felt the same way. If it had been an ordinary dragon, there would have been no need for this kind of worry.

We had the Empress, who wielded the holy sword, the Archmage who had lived for centuries, her disciples, and the best knights in the Empire. Why would we worry about an ordinary dragon?

No matter how much of a natural disaster a dragon was, I figured this much firepower was enough to deal with it. And if things really went south, I could handle it myself.

The only problem was that if a battle with a dragon took place here, the Empire would suffer the consequences. But the Eater of Worlds was different.

Even if we brought in ten, a hundred times more troops, we wouldn’t be able to even scratch it, let alone defeat it, unless its invincibility was lifted.

Therefore, we had to avoid a fight at all costs.

“Aside from the troops gathered here, other knights are evacuating the citizens. Depending on when it arrives, we’ll have to brace ourselves for some casualties.”

Ordinary knights were nothing more than cannon fodder against a dragon. A single breath attack could wipe out dozens, maybe even hundreds of them at once. Staying here would mean certain death.

So what else could they do?

Naturally, they had to evacuate the citizens.

“The Empress is coming. Follow me, Delta.”

A blue magic circle appeared right in front of us. Seeing it, Iris returned to her position.

I followed behind her and stood where the other Knight Commanders were gathered.

Their expressions were taut with tension.

A pillar of light erupted, and Cecilia and Minerva appeared within it.

Everyone present knelt on one knee and bowed their heads in respect.

“Raise your heads. Don’t show weakness through pointless gestures.”

We straightened up. Minerva was still wearing her usual bathrobe-like attire, and Cecilia was fully dressed in the suit she had been wearing when she summoned me to her bedroom.

Seeing her outfit, I could roughly guess what kind of clothes it was.

‘A battle uniform.’

It seemed that the battle uniform the Empress wore in her second phase during the boss fight had been changed into a suit. After all, she only had two types of outfits.

‘…Wait. What was she doing in that outfit before she summoned me?’

If the Empress’s battle uniform had been changed into a suit, I wondered what she had been doing before she summoned me, wearing that outfit.

Had she been fighting someone?

“Everyone, prepare yourselves.”

Cecilia drew her holy sword and spoke in a low voice. It was a short command, but it was all that was needed. The mages, led by Minerva, channeled mana into their staffs, and the Knight Commanders raised their weapons.

I had to stop them.

I had to tell them that they couldn’t harm it right now, that attacking would only result in our own destruction. I had to tell them to wait, that there was a possibility of avoiding a fight.

‘But…’

I wasn’t sure if I could stop this.

The Knight Commanders might listen to me, even if they were unsure. But what about Cecilia and Minerva?

They were both showing a great deal of interest in me, but I wasn’t sure if they would listen to me and stand down in a situation like this.

Moreover, if I was really unlucky, the Eater of Worlds might hear me and become curious, trying to read my memories.

If that happened, we were all doomed.

‘…Let’s just observe for now.’

Even Cecilia and Minerva would want to avoid a fight with the dragon as much as possible.

They wouldn’t launch a preemptive strike out of emotion, right?

An ominously large shadow approached from afar. The mere act of it flying through the sky created a powerful gust of wind on the ground.

It looked similar to what I had seen in the game.

A massive head, the kind you would typically imagine a dragon having, two horns protruding from its head, and two-toned scales covering its entire body.

Four large wings, arms and legs that were pure muscle, and a long tail extending from its body.

‘…How can it be so big?’

Aside from its size, which was several times larger than in the game, its appearance hadn’t changed at all.

I was inwardly astonished.

In the game, the protagonist’s weapon could barely reach its head. But now, I wasn’t even sure if I could reach it even if I stretched my arm as far as I could.

Murmurs of unease spread among the Golden Twilight Knights. Some of them were already trembling, their weapons slipping from their grasp.

The other Knight Commanders didn’t look so good either.

Cecilia and Minerva seemed to be holding up better, but their grips on their holy sword and magic staff were tight.

‘So this is how it’s implemented.’

I had read documents describing how the mere presence of the Eater of Worlds instilled fear in all living beings. The protagonist was practically the only one immune to its effect.

I wasn’t sure if my current state was due to the fact that the protagonist in the game was unaffected by the Eater of Worlds, or because of the Dark Magic on me.

—ROOOOOAR!

The Eater of Worlds landed in front of us, spreading its massive wings. The impact of its landing alone shattered the surrounding buildings like twigs.

It had been clear that it was enormous even from afar, but its size was even more overwhelming now that it was right in front of us.

It was comparable in size to the Rock Centipede, which was as tall as a high-rise apartment building, or perhaps even bigger.

I had to crane my neck upwards just to look at it.

—!!!!!!

A roar, so powerful that it could hardly be called a sound, erupted from its maw. This time, I instinctively covered my ears. Not out of fear, but because it was simply too loud.

Thud.

The knights around me began to collapse one by one. Iris, Claudia, Erica, Lize, the Golden Twilight Knights – no one was spared.

The mages, weaker than the knights in terms of physical abilities, fainted first. Then the ordinary knights, followed by the Vice Knight Commanders and the Knight Commanders.

Finally, the Archmage, who had lived for centuries, and the Empress, chosen by the holy sword, collapsed as well, unable to hold on any longer.

“…….”

Just a single roar.

A mere roar swept through the area, and I was the only one left standing.

Its ominous red eyes turned to me.

The moment I saw its massive eyes, glowing with a sinister red light, my entire body stiffened. A single eye was almost as tall as I was.

And those massive eyes were nothing compared to the rest of its body. All I could think about was how ridiculously huge it was.

It was a truly monstrous creature. It was so unimaginably large that I couldn’t fathom how the protagonist of BD4 had managed to defeat it. It seemed like a single breath attack would be enough to kill me, no matter how hard I tried to dodge.

Its menacing vertical pupils focused on me. I was ready to draw the Bloodstained Sword and attack without hesitation if it showed any signs of trying to read my memories, regardless of the consequences.

If it read my memories, it would be game over.

It would have to kill me here to prevent its secrets from being revealed, and there was no way it would target only me with its immense size. The entire area would be obliterated.

If I was going to die either way, I might as well fight back with everything I had.

‘At least it doesn’t seem interested in fighting right now.’

For some reason, it was just staring at me intently, showing no signs of aggression.

A glimmer of hope, that it might just leave on its own, flickered in my mind.

—!!!!!!

As if to mock my hopeful thoughts, its maw opened wide, and a powerful roar erupted. I reflexively covered my ears. It was unbelievably loud.

It was already beyond human to describe a dragon’s roar as simply “loud.” But considering that everyone else had fainted, I truly was a special case.

Even the Empress hadn’t been able to withstand it.

‘That must have been… Dragon Language, right?’

According to the lore, that roar was the language of dragons, known as Dragon Language for short.

Unlike the Dragon Language often seen in fantasy, where words held power, it was simply a means of communication. Of course, “simply” was from a dragon’s perspective.

Therefore, both the roar I had heard in the hallway of the Imperial Palace and the one it had just unleashed after landing could be considered attempts at communication from the Eater of Worlds’s perspective.

The problem was that the humans listening to it couldn’t handle it and fainted, and even the protagonist, who could withstand the roar, couldn’t understand what it was saying.

To understand Dragon Language, you had to kill a dragon and absorb its power.

That was why slaying a dragon was a mandatory quest in the middle of the main story.

However, even if you understood Dragon Language, you couldn’t speak it. It was only natural, since the protagonist was a human, not a dragon.

‘So it just tried to communicate with me…’

At least it didn’t seem to be looking for a fight.

That was a relief.

However, despite my relief, there was nothing I could do in this situation. It had to change its method of communication if it wanted to continue the conversation.

I waited silently.

The Eater of Worlds roared several more times, then, as if realizing that the human in front of it couldn’t understand, it stopped.

Then, pure mana materialized before me and began to coalesce. The mana wriggled and gathered, taking on a human form.

Two legs appeared first, touching the ground, then a torso. Arms sprouted from its sides, followed by a round head. Finally, ears and a mouth formed.

It resembled a human-shaped shadow, mostly blue in color. To think it would go this far just to talk to me.

“How… peculiar…”

The shadow-like mana form spoke.

It sounded like a human voice, but there was something about it that made me tilt my head.

“You… don’t collapse… hearing our language… but you… don’t understand… our language…”

Its speech was halting, as if it was struggling to communicate through a form that was smaller than a finger from its perspective. But it was still understandable.

“Whether I’m peculiar or not, it’s… none of your business. So, why are you here?”

For a moment, I wondered if I should speak formally and respectfully to it, but I figured it wouldn’t make much of a difference to the dragon, so I decided to speak casually.

I doubted a dragon even had a concept of human etiquette.

“I came… to meet… a human…”

“To meet a human? Who?”

“A creature… created by God… but abandoned… by God… The human… who defeated it…”

‘No, me again?’

I felt a wave of dizziness.

To think it came to see me. The main story had truly gone off the rails. This wasn’t what I had in mind when I defeated the Creature Abandoned by God.

I had never imagined that my actions of dealing with the lord, just like in the game, would have such far-reaching consequences. It had practically been the start of all the deviations.

Cecilia’s interest in me, Stella’s visit, my journey to the Holy Kingdom, and my battle with the Creature Abandoned by God – it all stemmed from bringing that demon-possessed book.

And now, the Eater of Worlds had appeared because of it.

It was a truly hopeless situation.

“……How did you know that human was here?”

“Its power… was absorbed… by a human…”

Power absorbed.

It was a vague statement, but judging by the context, it was likely referring to experience points.

The experience points from defeating the Creature Abandoned by God were absorbed by me, causing my level to increase. So it wasn’t entirely wrong.

It wasn’t strange for the Eater of Worlds to be concerned about the Creature Abandoned by God.

As could be seen from the ending where the Holy Kingdom, and eventually the world, would be destroyed if it was left unchecked, the Creature Abandoned by God was the only being capable of rivaling the Eater of Worlds, aside from the protagonist.

Of course, it would be concerned.

But why didn’t it just crush the creature that posed such a threat?

Because even the Eater of Worlds couldn’t guarantee victory in the Abyss, its home ground.

It was incredible that the protagonist, despite using runes to prevent himself from being corrupted by the Abyss, had single-handedly invaded it and slain the creature.

And that protagonist was now me.

“And that human who absorbed its power is me.”

“Correct…”

“So, what are you going to do now that you know? Are you going to try to kill that human?”

“Kill…?”

The creature’s voice seemed to rise slightly, then it let out a roar. I had to cover my ears again.

“If you wish… I will… grant your request…”

“No, that’s not necessary.”

I flatly refused.

I didn’t want to be incinerated by its breath attack for giving an ambiguous answer.

“The reason… I came here… to see… with my own eyes…”

“To see who killed the Creature Abandoned by God?”

“That is correct… If that human… poses a threat… it must be… eliminated…”

The menacing glint in its eyes intensified, then faded as its vertical pupils returned to normal.

“However… the human before me… is weak… Much weaker than… the fallen humans…”

‘It’s true if we only look at stats.’

I was much stronger than when I had first woken up in prison as the Forsaken One, but from the Eater of Worlds’s perspective, there was no real difference.

Even Cecilia and Minerva, who were currently lying unconscious, would have overwhelmingly higher stats if they were converted to player stats.

And those were just humanoid NPCs or bosses. When it came to monstrous bosses like the Creature Abandoned by God, it was practically impossible to convert their stats to player stats.

Since the stat growth rate decreased as you leveled up, even if we tried, it would probably be tens of thousands for Health, thousands for Strength, and thousands for Durability.

Compared to those monsters, my measly level 62 stats were practically nonexistent.

‘Well, this is better.’

It was far better to be considered insignificant and overlooked than to be marked as a threat by the Eater of Worlds.

Just as I was praying that it would be fooled and leave,

“There must be… another power… The power… that defeated that creature…”

‘This is driving me crazy.’

I clutched my head as I heard its words change. It seemed it wasn’t planning on leaving just yet.

‘Why can’t anything go smoothly?’

I could at least try to fight other bosses, even if it meant complaining the entire time, but not the Eater of Worlds.

How could I possibly win when I couldn’t even damage it?

Moreover, now that it was much larger than in the game, a single breath attack from the sky would be enough to kill me.

What made it even worse was that such an attack pattern actually existed.

“I… desire… the truth…”

‘Damn it.’

Its eyes turned black.

At the same time, eyes appeared on the head of the mana human. They were vertical pupils, just like the dragon’s, glowing with a black light.

The moment I saw those vertically slit pupils, I hurriedly drew the Bloodstained Sword and swung. The blade cleanly decapitated the mana human. The severed head rolled across the floor.

The head rolled until it reached the wall, then stopped, facing the wall. But then, new eyes and a mouth formed on the back of its head.

The newly formed mouth on the back of its head moved, forming words.

“Why… did you… attack this…?”

‘…So it’s come to this.’

I had reflexively attacked because it was trying to read my memories, just like in the game. I had already prepared myself for this possibility, but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.

If it had been a conversation between humans, I might have been able to get away with the excuse that I had attacked first because it was acting suspiciously. But it was a dragon. A dragon with the power to destroy the world.

It wouldn’t realize that it was the one acting suspiciously. It would only think that I was hiding something because I had prevented it from reading my memories.

A similar situation had occurred in the game.

“Speak… now…!”

The eyes on the severed head widened, and the dragon’s main body glared at me with its red eyes.

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