Nightfall - The Time When Everything Ends (1)
The day after Nightfall’s DLC pre-order site went down.
Yujin had deliberately skipped streaming the day before, letting a full day of silence build before he finally went live. The overall director had begged him to wait until the feverish interest and focus surrounding Nightfall’s DLC had cooled a little. Listening to the man practically hyperventilating with deference, Yujin had thought, Do we really need to go that far? Still, with the director groveling that hard, there was no real reason to refuse.
“Fine. We’ll do it that way.”
Yujin answered as if he were doing them a favor. Beside him, Winter watched the whole exchange with an expression of pure disbelief.
That decision was the decisive reason the chat exploded the moment Yujin started streaming today. Between the “Demon King” video uploaded to his MuteTube channel and the interview with Nightfall’s overall director, interest in “Streamer Soma” had multiplied several times over.
“Twiha, everyone. Good to see you. I’m Soma.”
Meanwhile Winter, drowning under the tsunami of chat messages, glanced at the current viewer count and her eyes went wide.
O-one hundred thousand?
Barely five minutes into the stream and they had already broken 100,000 concurrent viewers. Even if Yujin was currently the hottest topic on the entire internet, the fact that this many people had piled in before the broadcast had even properly started was insane.
How many streams has he done so far… roughly four?
Pulling 100,000 people from the opening of only his fifth stream? If she had told the Winter of a few days ago that this was possible, she would have snorted and told herself to stop talking nonsense.
“Hmm… Originally I planned to just power through to Nightfall’s ending today… but I should clear up some of your questions first. Does anyone have anything they’re curious about?”
“Ah, you mean the part where I fought the stunt performers. That wasn’t scripted. We were having a genuine, honorable duel. I can swear to it.”
“UnbearableVoidOfTheHeavenlyThrone, thank you for the donation. But a line you want? What line?”
Watching the chat devolve into pure chaos in an instant, Yujin scrunched up his face. He knew exactly what the viewers were memeing about. But who was there left to blame at this point?
It was his own fault for falling for the overall director’s sweet talk that “making the game commercial a little cringy is actually better.”
“W-well, it seems like there aren’t any more questions, so I’ll launch Nightfall now!”
The moment Yujin made the declaration, the world around him began to reassemble itself. In the blink of an eye he was standing near the summit of a tower half-collapsed from the aftermath of a fierce battle.
“You have arrived, Master.”
Yuria, who had been sitting nearby, rose and offered a polite greeting the instant he appeared.
“I would like to ask whether you rested well… but unfortunately it seems we do not even have time for such conventional greetings.”
As she spoke, Yuria raised a finger and pointed toward the turbid sky above.
Kuuuuuuung—
There it was. Far beyond the heavens, a black, murky hole had been punched open. From that black hole something that looked like thick black sludge was slowly oozing out.
Looking at the sight, Yujin felt an instinctive chill.
That sludge… it’s essentially the same kind of existence as a Ruler.
He didn’t need Yuria’s warning to understand. If that sludge was allowed to keep leaking from the hole, the world itself would be destroyed by that alone.
“That hole has already become one with Arkham. In other words, it cannot be erased by any physical means.”
“So there’s really no way at all?”
“Only one method remains to us now. We must eliminate the very culprit and origin of that hole in Arkham’s sky—the Calamity God.”
Yuria squeezed her eyes shut as she continued.
“But charging into R’lyeh as we are to destroy the Calamity God would be nothing short of suicide. The Calamity God is the grandson of the Outer God ‘One Who Dwells on the Border’ and a direct descendant of Nug, of the line of Chaos itself! His power is incomparable even to ordinary Rulers. If you face him head-on… the probability of Master’s victory would be vanishingly small.”
With those words, Yuria held out two books toward Yujin.
“However… if you make use of the two grimoires we found in this tower, you can strengthen your power and raise the chances of victory. By borrowing the power of this Livre d’Ivon and the Cthaat Aquadingen.”
Yujin frowned but still accepted the two grimoires from Yuria. The instant the books touched his hands, an overwhelming flood of power surged into his body.
“The Livre d’Ivon will transform your body into a ‘descendant of the Calamity God,’ while the Cthaat Aquadingen will remake you into a ‘being of the deep.’ In exchange… Master will obtain power incomparable to anything you have possessed before.”
The final branching point concerning the fate surrounding Arkham has occurred.
If you accept Yuria’s proposal and take in the power of the grimoires, you will gain the last hope of saving humanity.
Which grimoire’s power will you take?
1. Livre d’Ivon
2. Cthaat Aquadingen
Once again a branching point related to the ending floated before his eyes. It seemed the type of ending available would change depending on which of the two grimoires the player chose.
No matter what the viewers were screaming about in chat, Yujin paid them no attention. He simply stood there, deep in thought. After a moment he seemed to reach a decision and gave a small nod.
“First… I will not choose the Livre d’Ivon. We’re about to go fight the Calamity God. Becoming a ‘descendant of the Calamity God’ to do it would be a little embarrassing, don’t you think?”
“But… that doesn’t mean I’ll choose the Cthaat Aquadingen either. I just saw what a ‘being of the deep’ looks like from my little sister earlier, and it was completely disgusting.”
“I have no desire to become a fish and reek of the sea just for power. Therefore, I will choose neither of the two grimoires.”
Shwaak—!
Without the slightest hesitation, Yujin sliced both grimoires apart with the holy sword.
“From this moment on, I will defeat the Ruler using only the power of a human.”