Chapter 94
Chapter 94
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: The Vanished Pit
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As the shadows and abyss billowing up from the explosion finally died down, my vision cleared once more.
“Urk. Ptui, ptui.”
I wiped my face with my palm and stood there coughing nonstop, spitting out whatever had gotten into my mouth. A barrage of bizarre tastes flooded my mouth. Dry heaves kept surging up.
Having taken that blast right to the face with zero preparation, all sorts of crap had ended up in my mouth. Horrifyingly, I even crunched down on something grainy. I spat it all out.
“Ah, fuck. That scared the shit out of me. For real.”
Once I’d more or less sorted myself out, curses spilled naturally from my lips. Covered head to toe in black sludge—and it had even gotten in my mouth—it was impossible not to swear.
“No, what the hell? Dead in one hit?”
That had been the special death animation you only see when finishing off a god-forsaken abomination with a blessed weapon or holy spell.
With regular weapons, magic, or dark magic, they just melt away. But with blessed weapons or holy spells, they let out an agonized scream and explode like that before vanishing.
It was just a death animation, so it didn’t harm the character. Damage was zero, of course. The player outside the screen just jumps at the final screech and boom.
That’s why, if it looked like it might die, I’d planned to back off far away, wait for the eclipse to fade, then finish it. I never imagined a single stab would kill it.
‘……No helping it. My bad too.’
Its body had melted from one sword stroke, so I should’ve considered that a head stab might one-shot it. Forgetting that led to this mess.
Spitting out the crap in my mouth, I headed toward the monster’s corpse. Something shiny lay where it had been—the item dropped by the god-forsaken abomination.
‘Results-wise, not bad. Though I took the risk.’
The Sun Pope had dropped DLC dialogue right at our first meeting, so I’d rushed the final boss like lightning frying soybeans, shoving everything else aside. But purely on results, it was pretty good.
No, not just pretty good—excellent.
As the DLC final boss, the EXP was guaranteed to be massive. And the weapons craftable from its drop item had top-tier performance.
Not main-weapon level, mind you—not the cheat-level stuff I was aiming for that makes you gasp. But perfect as a stepping stone.
I walked to the center of where the corpse had been and picked up the lone item left behind.
‘I’ll hit the alchemy forge later when I have time.’
Processing boss-drop items into weapons couldn’t be done at a regular smithy.
I had to visit the one and only alchemy forge in the entire field, but it wasn’t urgent, so I’d put it off. Too much else to do first.
I stuffed the item into my empty potion pouch, then turned my gaze to the new passage created by the collapsed wall.
The entrance to the new area unlocked after clearing the god-forsaken abomination boss fight. A small bonus zone, but worth stopping by whenever possible.
You could only access it after beating the DLC final boss, so the mobs’ total EXP came close to two late-game bosses. Plus, there were unique gear and items available only there.
Priest-only stuff useless to me, but the field EXP alone was a huge reward.
‘Too bad the mobs don’t respawn.’
Regrettably, monsters in that area didn’t respawn. A one-time-use zone you didn’t need to revisit.
If they did, I could’ve camped in the Holy Kingdom, farming it endlessly. What a shame.
‘It’ll take extra time to clear that area and head back up, but…….’
I glanced at the ceiling. Sweeping the new area’s mobs would probably take another hour and a half to two hours.
‘No guarantee I can come back here.’
I looked around. The statue that had served as fast travel and checkpoint in Bren 4 was gone. Meaning if I left carelessly, I might never return.
A magic circle had appeared in the boss room’s center, but it was one-way out only.
The popes would’ve noticed the monster’s death instantly, maybe wondering why I hadn’t emerged. But I could explain later.
I could explain anytime once I got out, but if I left and couldn’t return, missing that EXP would haunt me forever.
Decision made, I stepped into the new passage.
‘What could go wrong?’
They’d wait two hours without issue.
Especially the popes—they’d be too busy celebrating to care.
—BOOM!
“What was that just now?!”
“Your Holiness, we must evacuate—”
“No. That won’t be necessary.”
With a massive boom, the barrier blocking the Holy Kingdom’s underground shook violently. Stella and Selene scrambled to evacuate the pope, but Floretta politely stopped them.
That explosion hadn’t threatened the Holy Kingdom. If anything, it signaled the end of the long battle inside.
Floretta instinctively knew: the fragments of abyss and shadow that had weighed so heavily on her were gone, not a single shard left.
‘Ah…… That person…… truly…….’
Floretta suppressed the tears welling up.
This wasn’t the moment. True joy would come once the one who’d gifted her and Luna a future appeared safe and sound.
Only after thanking, praising, and lauding that person could she shed tears of pure relief. Not yet.
If that person had paid a great price for freeing Floretta and Luna, she couldn’t simply rejoice.
“Inquisitor, Interrogator. Check the barrier. There’s no need for us to panic.”
Floretta pointed to the barrier encircling the path to the Holy Kingdom’s underground. The holy power emanating from it—the white light infused with divine might—shone more brilliantly than ever.
Stella and Selene, who’d been flustered, calmed instantly upon seeing it. What it meant for the barrier to glow brighter than ever was obvious with a moment’s thought.
“The honored guest…… succeeded……?”
“…….”
The two were dumbfounded. They’d never imagined the monster that had gnawed at the popes’ hearts for ages would vanish so simply.
Not knowing the desperate fight inside, “simply” might be unfair. But at least from outside, that’s how it looked.
Even the popes had no solution, forced to accept sacrifice. Was it really over?
“Prepare to receive him.”
Floretta clasped her hands before her chest. Her ample bosom compressed softly against her forearms, shifting shape. Fingers intertwined, eyelids closed.
The building’s form began to fade. The centuries-old barrier fulfilled its role and dissolved into radiant light, ascending to the sky.
Where the barrier had been stretched only empty sky and vast plain, desolate as if nothing had ever existed. Nothing remained.
Literally nothing.
“Uh…… where’d the pit go?”
“I don’t know, Inquisitor.”
Stella and Selene’s voices grew rigid. The bright smile on Floretta’s face gradually faltered. They’d noticed something off.
The building interior in their memories hadn’t been so flat. An endless pit plunged downward, filled with abyss and shadow.
But now, nothing existed. As if it had always been that way, mocking their memories.
Impossible.
“……For now, let’s wait.”
Floretta tamped down rising unease and suggested waiting. The pit wouldn’t reappear from waiting, but they had to.
Stella and Selene felt the same anxiety. They hurried to where the barrier had operated and extended their senses downward to the limit.
Nothing.
Only soil and stone registered. No fragments of abyss or shadow, not even traces of the original pit. As if everything had been a lie.
“There was definitely a path underground here, right? My memory’s not wrong?”
“The Inquisitor’s memory is correct. And mine matches, so rest easy. There was definitely a path to the abyss here.”
“But…… why can’t we sense anything now?”
“……I don’t know.”
Selene gritted her teeth. She truly knew nothing right now. A grave humiliation. Her clenched fists trembled.
“Let’s wait for now. Like Her Holiness said, just wait. Who knows—he might be lost and wandering.”
“Understood, Inquisitor. We’ll wait.”
The two trudged back to the pope. Floretta gazed unsteadily at the former barrier site, clutching her hands tightly before her chest.
Time passed. Five minutes became ten, ten became twenty, twenty thirty, thirty an hour. Still no sign of the path reappearing or the person emerging.
“…….”
As the situation dragged on, one possibility crept into Floretta’s mind.
Self-sacrifice.
That horrific possibility.