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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“…You wanted to meet me?”
I wondered what kind of situation this was.
What on earth did I do that not only the Empress but even the Pope of the Sun wanted to meet me and pay attention to me?
Floretta, seemingly indifferent to my confusion, smiled radiantly and touched various parts of my hand.
She slowly caressed the back of my hand against hers, fiddled with my fingers, and firmly grasped my hand.
Perhaps because she was the Pope of the Sun, her body temperature felt very high.
After touching my hand for a long time like that, Floretta spoke.
“Because the divine has given me a revelation. A revelation that light will come before long.”
‘Huh?’
As soon as I heard Floretta’s words, something came to mind.
It was the very line that signaled the beginning of the DLC story, which could be played after purchasing the first DLC of The Brightest Darkness 4, “The Awakening of Evil.”
‘…But why is that line appearing now?’
After realizing the identity of the Pope’s words, I was even more dumbfounded.
If the game was played canonically, the trigger for entering that DLC would only be activated after completing the main story of the original game to a certain extent.
In a situation where I hadn’t even defeated all the mandatory bosses and properly progressed the main story, the Pope wouldn’t suddenly invite the player to the Holy Kingdom and start the story by saying that the divine had given her a revelation.
Moreover, the story of that DLC corresponded to the late-game areas in terms of the original game, and my current specs were far from sufficient to touch it.
Mobs weren’t an issue.
The reason I was considering specs was solely because of the final boss of that DLC, the “Creature Abandoned by God.”
In the boss room, wearing a certain rune was mandatory, and the boss itself only took proper damage from sacred-type attacks, so the equipment was half-fixed.
However, the biggest problem was that once the story started, regardless of whether the player was ready or not, the game essentially turned into a time attack.
From the moment the Pope uttered those words, if the player cleared a total of 25 quests or defeated 5 bosses, regardless of main or sub-quests, the final boss would awaken in the underground of the Holy Kingdom, grinding the earth’s crust.
When the final boss awakened, the Holy Kingdom would be destroyed, and all quests related to the Holy Kingdom would become unavailable in that playthrough, and the Empire would also suffer tremendous damage, greatly distorting the story.
If the boss was left in that state for too long, the ending would be fixed to one without any dreams or hopes.
‘That absolutely can’t happen, damn it.’
I shuddered involuntarily.
Sitting quietly alone in a world where everything except me had disappeared, waiting for the day to starve to death?
It was definitely out of the question.
“Are you alright? You don’t look well.”
After agonizing over the negative thoughts that kept piling up, I came to my senses at Floretta’s voice and returned to reality.
Her green eyes filled with concern were staring at me intently.
“…I’m fine. I was just thinking about something else for a moment. I apologize.”
“No. You don’t need to apologize at all.”
Floretta said that while covering her mouth with her right hand and chuckling.
“However, you’re truly a unique individual. To be able to think about something else even in my presence. You must have a very strong heart.”
Only then did I realize my mistake.
Thinking about something else in front of the Pope of the Sun?
It was an act of disrespect that I couldn’t complain even if my head was smashed with a flail right now.
I got away with it because Floretta showed a positive reaction for some reason, but otherwise, I definitely wouldn’t have left unscathed.
“Now that you seem to have finished all your thoughts, I’ll ask again. Have your doubts been somewhat resolved?”
“…”
There was no way they were resolved.
Rather, they had deepened.
There were suddenly a tremendous number of things I had to do.
I had to clear rune dungeons to prepare for boss battles, obtain sacred weapons or find buffs, and raise my strength stats by gaining experience points.
‘The DLC story is the top priority for now.’
The conditions for the final boss to awaken were completing 25 quests or defeating 5 bosses, but just by progressing the story of the DLC, you would inevitably encounter 13 quests and 3 bosses, so the actual limit was much lower than that.
Moreover, unlike in the game where time only passed when you touched quests or bosses, now time would continue to flow even if I just breathed.
It was definitely better to handle the DLC story first.
“…Your Holiness, a revelation? For Delta?”
Finally free from shock, Lizé asked in a trembling voice.
Her blue eyes were constantly shaking.
Her gaze, filled with anxiety, alternated between me and the Pope.
“I also do not know the details. How could a mere human dare to understand the will of the divine?”
Floretta, who had let go of my hand, smiled softly with gentle eyes.
It was a very benevolent smile that made even the viewer’s heart feel at ease.
However, it seemed to be of little use to Lizé.
Her head was deeply lowered, and her clenched fists were faintly trembling.
“Can you not tell us the content of the revelation, Your Holiness?”
“If you wish, I shall do so. However, the revelations given by the divine are not complete. A single word or sentence can lead to dozens of different conclusions depending on the interpretation. Are you still alright with that?”
“Yes. It’s alright.”
I nodded my head.
I had roughly memorized the interpretation.
As the Pope said, the content of the revelation indeed referred to the player’s actions.
In the human-friendly route, the scene of fighting against the Eater of Worlds was depicted, in the human-hostile route, the scene of fighting against the Empress’ or the Pope was depicted, and in the life extinction route, the scene of becoming a monster itself was depicted.
Of course, except for the human-friendly route, I couldn’t hear it in such a mild atmosphere.
It was something I could barely hear from the Pope who was on the verge of death after the boss battle.
“In a place shrouded in darkness, a bright light is walking. Wherever the light touches, the darkness disappears, and countless humans follow behind it, seeking solace. Countless monsters pounce from within the darkness, but they all melt away in the light.”
“…”
Wait.
That explanation shouldn’t appear in the Silver Dawn Knights route.
“At the end of the path the light walks, an entity that humans cannot even imagine is waiting. However, the light never becomes frightened, never retreats, never hesitates, and advances towards that entity. The revelation ended with this scene.”
“Then… Your Holiness. Does that light… mean Delta?”
“Interpretation is the role of humans, so there is no set answer. However, I believe so. Because on the day I first learned about him, the divine gave me a revelation.”
As soon as Floretta finished speaking, the gazes of the knight commanders turned back to me.
Eyes of various colors looked at me, filled with all sorts of complex emotions.
It seemed I would be interrogated again later, asking what this meant.
‘Light…’
The interpretation itself was simple.
The “entity that humans cannot even imagine” mentioned by Floretta was a term referring to the final boss of Brightest Darkness 4, the Eater of Worlds.
Unless you took the human-hostile route or the life extinction route, you would always face the Eater of Worlds as the final boss, so up to this point, it was as I had expected.
However, referring to the player as light was far from my expectations.
It was an expression I had no chance to hear, at least in the Silver Dawn Knights route.
“Your name is Delta? Youㅡ”
ㅡClick.
The words were cut off.
It was due to the sound of high heels echoing in the hall.
It didn’t belong to anyone here.
Floretta was standing still in her place, the knight commanders were wearing ordinary sneakers, and there was no way I was making high heel sounds.
Floreta’s face gradually began to harden.
She had a somewhat sorrowful look, a somewhat sobbing look.
Anyway, it definitely wasn’t a good expression.
As the atmosphere turned ominous, we also turned our heads to look behind us.
And we were astounded.
“You are engaging in unnecessary actions, Pope of the Sun.”
Darkness drove away the light.
To be precise, white light drove away the yellow light.
In sync with the click-clack sound of high heels, the surroundings were enveloped in moonlight.
The shining sun weakly faded away.
Silver spread through the gold.
It felt as if the full moon that had risen in the middle of the night had descended and manifested right in front of us.
It was a face I was seeing for the first time, but I could instinctively realize who it was.
“…Pope of the Moon. What brings you to such a humble place?”
Pope of the Moon.
As that name flowed from Floretta’s mouth, the atmosphere instantly froze.
Only the sound of clicking high heels could be heard.
“Do you truly not know?”
The moon had risen inside the cathedral.
A woman with deep silver hair was walking towards the Pope of the Sun with her hands clasped in front of her lower abdomen.
“Do you believe that the act of clinging to meaningless hope will grant you your wishes? Do you sincerely think so?”
The Pope of the Moon slowly took one step at a time towards Floretta.
We, caught between the two highest authorities of the Holy Kingdom, couldn’t move a muscle.
Those steps stopped only when they were a few steps away from Floretta.
“Fate cannot be changed. The truth must not be ignored. Even if it is the sun and the moon, there is no other way than to walk the path that has already been determined.”
“If it cannot be changed, I will find a way. No matter what happens, I will do so.”
Floretta spoke with a determined expression.
“I will never give up on my older sisㅡ”
ㅡSlap!
Silence permeated the air.
It took a moment to understand what had unfolded before our eyes.
The Pope of the Moon swung her right hand, her palm struck Floretta’s cheek, a slapping sound echoed, Floretta’s head turned to the right…
As soon as the knight commanders understood the situation, they inhaled sharply and froze.
I did the same.
The Pope of the Moon had slapped the Pope of the Sun.
And with such force that the struck area turned bright red and slightly swelled.
But something was strange.
Although Floretta was clearly the one who had been hit, her green eyes were filled with compassion and pity.
She even looked somewhat sad.
“I told you not to call me that, Pope of the Sun.”
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Thx for chapter