Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: The Moon Pope's Descent
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“……You wanted to meet me?”
What kind of messed-up situation was this? What the hell had I done to draw attention from not just the emperor, but now the Pope of the Sun?
Floretta ignored my bewilderment and kept smiling brightly as she fondled my hand here and there.
She stroked the backs of our hands together slowly, kneaded my fingers, and squeezed them tightly. Maybe it was because she was the Pope of the Sun, but her body heat felt incredibly high.
After fiddling with my hand for a good while like that, Floretta finally spoke.
“Because the god gave me a revelation. That light would soon come to me.”
‘Huh?’
The moment I heard Floretta’s words, something popped into my head.
It was the exact line that kicked off the DLC storyline in the first DLC, “Awakening Evil,” for The Brightest Darkness 4—if you bought it.
‘……But why is that line coming up now?’
Once I realized what the pope had said, I was even more dumbfounded.
If you played the game by the book, the trigger for that DLC only activated after you’d cleared a good chunk of the main story.
It didn’t randomly invite the player to the Holy Kingdom and start the story with “God gave me a revelation” when you hadn’t beaten the required bosses or progressed the main plot properly.
On top of that, the DLC story corresponded to the late-game areas of the main game, and my current specs were nowhere near enough to handle it.
Trash mobs were fine. The reason I was fretting over specs was purely because of the DLC’s final boss, the “Creature Abandoned by God.”
The boss room required wearing specific runes, and the boss itself only took proper damage from holy attacks, which half-locked your build.
But the real problem was that, ready or not, the moment the story started, the game basically turned into a time attack.
From the point you heard those words from the pope, you had to clear a total of 25 quests—main or side—or take down 5 bosses. Otherwise, the final boss would awaken underground in the Holy Kingdom, flipping the crust.
Once the final boss awakened, the Holy Kingdom fell, all quests tied to it became unavailable for that playthrough, and the Empire took massive damage, derailing the story big time.
If you left it like that, the ending locked into a hopeless bad end with no dreams or hope.
‘No way in hell that’s happening, fuck.’
A shiver ran down my spine. Sitting alone in a world where everything but me vanished, waiting to starve? Hard pass.
“Are you alright? You don’t look well.”
Lost in a spiral of negative thoughts, I snapped back to reality at Floretta’s voice. Her green eyes stared at me, brimming with concern.
“……I’m fine. Just lost in thought for a moment. My apologies.”
“No need. You have nothing to apologize for.”
Floretta covered her mouth with her right hand and chuckled softly.
“But you really are an unusual person. To think other thoughts even with me right in front of you. You must have a heart of steel.”
Only then did it hit me. Daydreaming in front of the Pope of the Sun? That was rude enough to get my head smashed by a mace on the spot, no arguments.
She’d reacted positively for some reason, so it blew over, but otherwise, I wouldn’t have left in one piece.
“Seems like you’ve finished your thoughts, so I’ll ask again. Has some of your confusion been cleared up?”
“…….”
Like hell it had. If anything, it was worse.
Suddenly, I had a mountain of things to do. Clear rune dungeons for the boss fight, hunt down holy weapons or buffs, grind EXP to pump up my Strength stat.
‘DLC story first and foremost.’
The awakening conditions were 25 quests or 5 bosses, but just progressing the DLC forced 13 quests and 3 bosses, so the real leeway was way less.
Plus, unlike the game where time only passed if you touched quests or bosses, here time ticked on with every breath.
Had to handle the DLC story ASAP.
“……Your Holiness, a revelation? From Delta?”
Finally shaking off her shock, Lize asked in a trembling voice. Her blue eyes shook without cease, flicking anxiously between me and the pope.
“I don’t know the details myself. How could a mere human presume to understand the will of a god?”
Floretta released my hand and smiled softly with gentle eyes. It was a smile so benevolent it soothed the viewer’s heart.
But it did nothing for Lize. Her head drooped, and her clenched fists trembled faintly.
“Could you share the contents of the revelation, Your Holiness?”
“If you wish. However, the revelations from the god are not whole. A single word or phrase can lead to dozens of interpretations. Is that alright?”
“Yes. It’s fine.”
I nodded.
I more or less had the interpretation memorized. As the pope said, it pointed to the player’s actions.
In the pro-human route, it described fighting the World Devourer. In anti-human, fighting the emperor or pope. In life-extinction, becoming the monster itself.
Of course, unless it was pro-human, you wouldn’t hear it in this mild atmosphere. You’d get it barely from the dying pope after her boss fight.
“In a place shrouded in darkness, a single bright light walks. Wherever the light touches, darkness fades, and countless humans follow behind, finding peace. Countless monsters lunge from the shadows, but all melt away in the light.”
“…….”
Huh.
That description shouldn’t come up in the Silver Dawn Knights route.
“At the end of the light’s path waits a being humans can’t even imagine. Yet the light does not falter, retreat, or hesitate—it presses on. The revelation ends there.”
“Then…… Your Holiness. That light…… it means Delta?”
“Interpretation belongs to humans, so there’s no fixed answer. But that’s what I believe. The day I first learned of that person, the god gave me the revelation.”
As Floretta finished, the knight captains’ gazes turned back to me. Eyes of every color fixed on me with tangled emotions. Great, more grilling later on what that was about.
‘Light, huh…….’
The interpretation was straightforward. The “being humans can’t imagine” Floretta mentioned was the World Devourer, final boss of BD4.
Unless you went anti-human or life-extinction, you always faced it, so that matched my expectations.
But calling the player “light” was way off. No way to hear that in the Silver Dawn Knights route, at least.
“Your name is Delta? You—”
Clack.
Her words cut off. A sharp clack of high heels echoed through the hall.
It wasn’t anyone here. Floretta stood still, the knight captains wore sneakers, and I sure as hell wasn’t in heels.
Floretta’s face gradually hardened. She looked somehow sorrowful, on the verge of tears. Definitely not a good expression.
Sensing the mood shift, we all turned to look behind us.
And froze in shock.
“You’re meddling needlessly, Pope of the Sun.”
Darkness drove out the light. More precisely, white light overwhelmed the golden. With each clack-clack of high heels, moonlight blanketed the surroundings. The shining sun faded weakly.
Silver spread through the gold. It felt like a full moon had descended from midnight right before us.
I’d never seen her face, but instinct told me who she was.
“……Pope of the Moon. To what do we owe the visit to this humble place?”
Pope of the Moon.
The name slipped from Floretta’s lips, and the atmosphere froze solid. Nothing but the clacking heels could be heard.
“You truly don’t know?”
A moon rose in the grand cathedral. A woman with deep silver hair walked toward the Pope of the Sun, hands clasped before her abdomen.
“Do you think clinging to futile hope will grant your desires? Do you truly believe that?”
The Pope of the Moon advanced slowly toward Floretta, step by step. Pope of the Moon and Pope of the Sun. Caught between the Holy Kingdom’s top powers, we couldn’t budge.
Her steps halted just a few paces from Floretta.
“Fate cannot be changed. Nor should the truth be ignored. Even for sun and moon, there is no path but the one already set.”
“If it can’t be changed, I’ll find a way. No matter what it takes.”
Floretta said with resolute determination.
“I will never abandon my sister—”
Slap!
Silence fell. It took a moment to process what happened right before my eyes.
The Pope of the Moon swung her right hand, her palm struck Floretta’s cheek, a sharp slap rang out, and Floretta’s head snapped to the right……
The knight captains gasped and froze the instant they understood. So did I.
The Pope of the Moon had slapped the Pope of the Sun. Hard enough to redden and slightly swell the spot.
But something was off. Floretta was the one hit, yet her green eyes brimmed with pity and sympathy. They even looked sad.
“Don’t call me that, Pope of the Sun.”