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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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When the shadows and abyss that had risen from the explosion subsided, it became bright again before his eyes.
“Ugh. Ptoo, ptoo.”
He stood there, wiping his face with his palm and repeatedly coughing to spit out what was in his mouth.
All sorts of strange tastes filled his mouth.
He kept dry heaving.
Having been hit by the explosion right in front of him without any defense, all kinds of things had entered his mouth.
Horrifyingly, he even felt something like granules being chewed.
He spat it all out.
“Ah, damn. That really scared me.”
After getting the situation somewhat under control, harsh words escaped his mouth involuntarily.
With his whole body covered in black liquid and even some entering his mouth, it was impossible not to swear.
“What, it died in one hit?”
What had just happened was a special death animation that could only be seen when dealing the final blow to the Creature Abandoned by God with a blessed weapon or holy spell.
If killed with ordinary weapons, magic, or black magic, it would just disappear as if melting away, but if killed with a blessed weapon or holy spell, it would disappear with a death cry as if exploding like that.
Since it was just a death animation, it didn’t harm the character.
Of course, it dealt 0 damage.
It was just that the player outside the monitor would be startled by the final scream and explosion sound.
That was why if there was any sign of it dying, he had planned to back away and wait until after Solar Eclipse wore off before killing it, but he hadn’t imagined it would die just from being stabbed once.
‘…Nothing can be done. It’s my fault too.’
Given that its body had melted from a single sword strike, he should have considered the possibility that stabbing its head might kill it in one hit.
He had forgotten about that, resulting in this outcome.
While spitting out what was in his mouth, he approached the monster’s corpse.
Something shiny was lying where the corpse had been.
It was the item dropped by the Creature Abandoned by God.
‘Looking at the result, it’s not bad. Though I did take quite a risk.’
Although it was the final boss he had killed hastily like cooking beans in a lightning fire, putting aside everything else because the Pope of the Sun had suddenly mentioned the DLC dialogue from their first meeting, looking at the result alone, it was quite good.
No, it wasn’t just quite good, it was excellent.
As it was the final boss of the DLC, a massive amount of experience points was guaranteed, and the performance of the weapon that could be made from the item it dropped was also quite outstanding.
Of course, it was just good enough to use as a main weapon, not at the level of being called overpowered like the weapon he was aiming for, but it was perfectly fine to use as an intermediate weapon.
He walked into the center of where the corpse had been and picked up the item left there.
‘I’ll have to visit the alchemy workshop later when I have time.’
Processing the item obtained from defeating a boss into a weapon was impossible at an ordinary blacksmith’s shop.
He needed to visit the alchemy workshop, which existed in only one place in the entire field, but since it wasn’t particularly urgent, he planned to postpone it for now.
There were too many things he had to do before that.
After stuffing the item into his empty potion pouch, he turned his gaze to the new passage that had appeared as the wall crumbled.
It was the entrance to a new area that opened after clearing the Creature Abandoned by God boss fight.
Although it was a small area added as a bonus concept, it was generally better to visit if possible.
As it was a place that could only be accessed after clearing the final boss of the DLC, the experience points from the mobs there were enormous, amounting to nearly two late-game bosses if all were killed, and above all, there were several pieces of equipment and items that could only be obtained there.
Although the equipment and items were mostly useful for clerics and thus not very useful to him, the experience points that could be gained from the field alone were an enormous reward for him.
‘It’s a shame the mobs don’t respawn.’
Sadly, the monsters in that area didn’t respawn.
It was a one-time area, so there was no need to come twice.
If it had been a place where mobs could respawn, he could have just stayed in the Holy Kingdom and gone back and forth here, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
‘It will take a bit more time to go around there and come back up, but…’
He glanced up at the ceiling.
To kill all the mobs in the newly appeared area would probably take another 1.5 to 2 hours.
‘There’s no guarantee I can come back here either.’
He looked around.
The statue that originally served as a quick travel and checkpoint in Brightest Darkness 4 was nowhere to be seen.
This meant that if he carelessly left here, he might never be able to come back.
A magic circle had appeared in the center of the boss room, but that was a one-way exit that only allowed leaving.
The Popes would have immediately noticed that the monster had died, so they might be wondering why he wasn’t coming out, but that could be explained later.
Explanations could be given anytime as long as he got out of here, but if he left and couldn’t come back in, missing out on all that experience there, he would regret it for the rest of his life.
Having made up his mind, he stepped into the newly created passage.
‘Surely nothing will happen, right?’
They would probably wait without saying anything for about 2 hours.
Especially the Popes, they would be too busy rejoicing with each other to have time to worry about him.
—BOOM!
“What was that just now?!”
“Your Holiness, we need to evacuate—”
“No. There’s no need for that.”
With a bang, the barrier blocking the underground of the Holy Kingdom shook greatly.
Stella and Selene hurriedly tried to evacuate the Pope, but Floretta politely stopped them.
Because the explosion that had just occurred was not a threat to the Holy Kingdom.
Rather, it was closer to a sound signaling how the long battle that had taken place inside had ended.
Floretta could instinctively realize.
The fact that the fragments of abyss and shadows that had been weighing so heavily on her body until now had disappeared cleanly, without leaving a single particle.
‘Ah… That person… truly…’
Floretta suppressed the tears that were about to pour out.
It wasn’t the moment for that yet.
The moment to truly rejoice would be after the person who had gifted a future to Floretta and Luna appeared safely.
Only after thanking that person, praising that person, and commending that person’s actions could she truly shed tears of relief.
It shouldn’t happen until then.
If that person had made some great sacrifice in exchange for granting freedom to Floretta and Luna, they couldn’t purely rejoice.
“Inquisitor of the Sun, Inquisitor of the Moon. Please check the barrier. We have no need to be alarmed at all.”
Floretta pointed to the barrier enclosing the path to the underground of the Holy Kingdom.
The sacred power felt from the barrier, the white light containing God’s power, was shining more brilliantly than ever before.
Stella and Selene, who had been flustered, immediately calmed down upon seeing this.
What did it mean for the barrier to shine brighter than ever before?
It was something that could be understood with just a little thought.
“Did the esteemed guest… succeed…?”
“…”
The two were dumbfounded.
They couldn’t even imagine that the monster that had been gnawing at the Popes’ hearts for so long would disappear so simply.
Not knowing how fierce a battle the person who entered there had fought, the expression “disappeared simply” might not be the right choice.
But at least on the surface, that was how it appeared.
Even the Popes had no proper method and had to prepare for one side’s sacrifice with tears in their eyes, but was it really over like this?
“I will prepare to welcome him.”
Floretta clasped her hands in front of her chest.
The abundantly protruding hills were gently pressed by her wrists, changing shape.
Her fingers intertwined, and her eyelids closed.
The shape of the building slowly began to disappear.
The barrier that had maintained its existence for hundreds of years completed its task and rose to the sky, transformed into brilliant light.
Where the barrier had disappeared, only the sky and vast earth that seemed desolate, as if nothing had ever been there, could be seen.
Nothing remained.
Literally, nothing remained.
“Um… Where did the pit go?”
“I don’t know either, Inquisitor.”
Stella and Selene’s voices stiffened.
The bright smile that had bloomed on Floretta’s face also gradually faded.
They had noticed that something was wrong.
The interior of the building in the three’s memories was not so flat.
There was a pit that extended endlessly downward, and it was filled with abyss and shadows.
But now, none of that existed.
As if it had always been like this, mocking the memories of the three.
It was impossible.
“…For now, let’s wait.”
Floretta spoke, trying to suppress the rising anxiety.
Waiting here wouldn’t make the missing pit reappear, but for now, they had to.
Stella and Selene were equally anxious.
They hurriedly approached where the barrier had been operating, and standing on it, they extended their senses to the limit towards the ground.
Nothing could be felt.
All that could be detected was earth and stone.
There were no fragments of abyss and shadows, not even a trace of the pit that had originally been there.
It was as if everything they had experienced until now had been a lie.
“There definitely was a path leading underground here, right? My memory isn’t wrong, is it?”
“The Inquisitor’s memory is not mistaken. And since mine is the same, put your worries aside. There was definitely a path to the abyss in this place.”
“But… why can’t we feel anything now?”
“…I don’t know either.”
Selene gritted her teeth.
At the moment, she truly knew nothing.
It was a great shame.
Her tightly clenched fist trembled.
“Let’s wait for now. As Her Holiness the Pope said, let’s wait. You never know. He might be lost and wandering around.”
“Understood, Inquisitor. We will wait.”
The two walked back to the Pope’s side.
Floretta, looking visibly unstable, was staring at where the barrier had been, her hands tightly clasped in front of her chest.
Time passed.
5 minutes became 10 minutes, 10 minutes became 20 minutes, 20 minutes became 30 minutes, and 30 minutes became an hour.
Even then, there was no sign of the path reappearing or that person returning.
“…”
As the situation developed like this, a possibility began to creep into Floretta’s mind.
Self-sacrifice.
That terribly unbearable possibility.
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[lol I can’t wait for him to just pop up outta nowhere and the commanders to be like oh yeah we knew he would come back lol]
Now he should receive angry worry segz from the popes and inquisitors for being late and making everyone anxious
Thx for chapter