Brightest Darkness – 2

“That is……”

Towards the hesitant Eclipse, I tapped the table with my finger, urging a response. Each time my fingernail, touching the marble, made a clear sound, Eclipse’s body flinched along with it.

“It was one of the byproducts that came along when I brought souls from your dimension.”

“One of the byproducts, you say? I’m not sure how that’s possible.”

“As you may know, I indiscriminately dragged souls from other dimensions to deal with the twisted beings.”

Since it was something I had just heard, I lightly nodded my head in affirmation.

“Because the situation was so urgent, during the process of bringing souls, some of the concepts attached to those souls also came over. What you mentioned is also one of those concepts that came over.”

In short, it meant that the damned blue steam engine coming over was not the Goddess’s intention.

“I understand up to the part you explained. Then, why did it remain in this world?”

“Now, the power disparity is clear, so there’s no need for it, but back then, it also used every means available to fight me. Then, it learned about the concept that came from another dimension, twisted it grotesquely, and threw it into my world.”

“Couldn’t Goddess-nim kill it?”

“I killed it again and again, countless times. I couldn’t tolerate this world being defiled. But… no matter how many times I killed it, it would rise again as if to show off.”

Eclipse gritted her teeth.

“It was a situation where I couldn’t back out just to kill that one bastard, so I had to be content with burying it underground, creating a dungeon, and trapping it inside.”

In the end, the World Eater was the cause again. I organized my thoughts, then suddenly a possibility came to mind, and I asked back.

“I also killed it a long time ago, so is there a possibility it revived?”

“That won’t happen.”

Eclipse looked at me and drove the nail in.

“It didn’t revive by its own power. It was because *it* continuously resurrected it. To annoy me and scatter my concentration, allowing it to gain an advantage in battle.”

“Now, the power disparity is overwhelming, so there would be no reason to do such a thing.”

“You saw it exactly right.”

I was worried I might have to face it again, but it’s a relief to hear that. Honestly, it wasn’t an experience I wanted to repeat.

“I understand that point. Let’s move on to the last question. Brightest Darkness 4, that is. What exactly is that game, and what is the reason you brought me here for the second time?”

The number of times that came out of my mouth was two, not four. It was natural since the misunderstanding had been completely cleared. Since I had been in one world from the very beginning, I couldn’t describe it as being dragged here multiple times.

“All the stories in Brightest Darkness 4 that you mentioned are constructed through precognition of the future.”

“Precognition of the future, you mean, like what you said about me falling when I fought that lizard?”

To put it simply, it happened just as the Goddess said. I literally fell downwards. There was no mention of dying, so I’m still alive and well, talking with the Goddess.

“That’s right. I foresaw countless possibilities that you might choose, and I compiled them all and put them into Brightest Darkness 4 under the concept of ‘endings’.”

“That means there could be a world where I annihilate all life, like in the endings of Brightest Darkness 4-“

“Absolutely not. That was merely a possibility, and it was already erased without a trace the moment you began to walk a different path.”

Eclipse firmly denied my concerns.

“The possibilities I see are a completely different concept from the ‘parallel worlds’ that exist in your dimension. If you choose a certain possibility, all the others become as if they never existed from the very beginning.”

That was a relief.

If all the endings of Brightest Darkness 4 were parallel worlds, I would have had to carry the lingering unease that there might be another world somewhere where I chose the life-annihilation route.

But her words meant that the moment I joined hands with Eclipse and chose the path of resisting the World Eater, as I am now, all other ending branches became as if they had never existed from the very beginning.

All those countless multi-endings of Brightest Darkness 4.

“If Goddess-nim can see the future, you would have known I would choose this option. Why were you so anxious then?”

“What I do is not prophecy, but merely the act of seeing possibilities. Therefore, from my perspective, every future is both something that can happen and something that cannot happen. The choice was entirely yours.”

I had been sitting for a while, organizing my thoughts, and once they were somewhat sorted, I opened my mouth again.

“What was the reason you created my actions as a game?”

It was the most fundamental question.

If I was the protagonist of the Brightest Darkness series, why did it have to be made into a game? What exactly was she trying to do by turning my past story into a game?

“That is……”

Upon hearing those words, Eclipse’s cheeks flushed slightly, and she looked at me with eyes full of affection.

“Because you made a promise to me.”

“Huh?”

“You said that even though you’re returning like this now, you couldn’t possibly stand not getting revenge after all the hardships I put you through. So, you asked me to definitely call you back here if the chance to fight that bastard ever came.”

What kind of person was my past self, anyway? After rolling and rolling and rolling, finally sacrificing my life to barely return to my original world, I asked to be called back because I wanted revenge?

Well, since it was my past self who said it, it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible. If the reason I was reincarnated and suffered so terribly was because of the twisted beings that bastard created, then it made sense to be grinding my teeth.

Rather, it was fortunate that I didn’t become a complete psychopath and merely stopped at a vow for revenge.

“I honored your request and created a type of simulator by reading all of your past and possibilities, so that your body wouldn’t rust even while you were losing your memories.”

“……And that simulator is the Brightest Darkness series.”

Perhaps the reason I was so engrossed in playing Brightest Darkness 4 was a kind of vengeful desire. A desire for revenge to strike a blow against the World Eater.

Of course, it was also because it was fun.

Given the situation, I could understand why I barely played Brightest Darkness 1 and 2. My body remembered the hardships I endured during Brightest Darkness 1 and 2, so I instinctively felt a repulsion.

By Brightest Darkness 3, I had been traveling with the Soul Guardian, Nix, so the repulsion must have been less.

That’s also why, as soon as I was dragged into this world, I could effortlessly mimic the actions of a game character and remain unfazed even after killing people.

Because by playing Brightest Darkness 4, I must have been reviving my old senses with my body, not just my mind.

And for as long as 10 years.

I leaned back against the chair. My thoughts, which I had just organized, became tangled again like a ball of yarn, and all sorts of ideas randomly popped up, making it disgustingly complicated.

‘No wonder the 5th installment never came out.’

The developers, who had a reasonably acceptable release schedule from the 1st to the 4th installment, hadn’t released the 5th for 10 years, and it turned out it was all because they had no data.

“……Then, what about the mods?”

Suddenly, my thoughts turned to mods. The mods that were the driving force allowing me to play Brightest Darkness 4 for 10 years. They said the Darkra mod was made by the Goddess, but what about the others?

“This world wasn’t changed by the concept called ‘mods’ in your dimension. It was like this from the beginning. Because I poured my heart and soul into creating it.”

Eclipse proudly puffed out her chest. In other words, it wasn’t that the mods installed at the time of possession were applied and overturned the common sense and concepts of the world; it was quite the opposite.

The appearance of this world, which I had thought until now was merely the result of mods, was actually real. All the NPC appearances in vanilla Brightest Darkness 4 were fake.

I felt as if common sense had been denied. I knew I shouldn’t look for common sense here, but that’s just how I felt.

“Even the items from my world…?”

“Yes. It was so that you would experience as little inconvenience as possible when you eventually came.”

Things like the air conditioner, electric fan, modern bed, and room structure that had seemed absurd at first glance. Even these weren’t products of mods. They were the Goddess’s consideration for me.

“What I have to say ends here. Now, the judgment… please make it yourself.”

Eclipse, having finished speaking, calmly closed her eyes. Although her expression was composed, as if she would accept whatever I said, she couldn’t hide the slight trembling at the corners of her eyes from fear.

‘In the end, nothing really harmed me, did it?’

However, I had no intention of interrogating Eclipse or getting angry. According to her explanation, she hadn’t really done anything wrong to me.

The claim that she called me four times and put me through hell was close to a lie, and kidnapping my soul without permission was merely giving a second chance to someone who had already died.

Furthermore, since she said she brought me back here because of my request, Eclipse’s only real fault was effectively neglecting the birth of the World Eater.

‘Good thing I didn’t get angry.’

If I had just gotten angry right then and there, I would have felt incredibly sorry after all the misunderstandings were cleared up.

“Goddess-nim.”

“……Yes.”

Eclipse opened her eyes and answered cautiously.

“Would you please come over here for a moment?”

Even though it was a situation where a human was giving orders to a goddess, Eclipse merely blushed, approaching me with an expression devoid of any hesitation or displeasure.

And then, she knelt before my feet.

I had only told her to come, not to kneel, so I was about to tell her to stand up, but then I saw Eclipse’s expression and stopped. It was a very familiar expression.

The expression that appeared on the Popes’ faces when they were aiming for something, openly revealing that they were greatly anticipating something. That was what appeared on Eclipse’s face.

I looked down at Eclipse, who was kneeling before my feet. I had felt it since I first saw her, but her attire was truly absurd.

The cloth covering her nipples swayed in the night breeze, and her bare buttocks, pressed by her heels, slightly swelled on both sides.

Her thighs and calves pressed against each other, simultaneously showcasing both firmness and softness. Between her simply closed thighs, there was only a single, extremely thin piece of cloth, so thin it looked like it would fly away with a puff of air.

“Goddess-nim.”

“……Yes, you.”

“What did you say I left behind when I returned to my original world?”

“You said you couldn’t possibly stand not getting revenge after all the hardships I put you through…”

“That’s right.”

I brought my right hand to Eclipse’s left cheek. Her body flinched, trembling slightly.

“But you know, Goddess-nim. In a way, don’t you also have a considerable share in the reason I went through such hardships? Because Goddess-nim brought me here.”

I cupped her cheek with my palm. I gently stroked her lips with my thumb, meeting her gaze. Eclipse trembled slightly each time her lips were caressed. Heated breaths escaped between her lips.

The affection in her eyes and the blush on her cheeks deepened further.

“Yes, yes… there is…”

“If Goddess-nim also has a fault, then it’s right to punish Goddess-nim too, isn’t it?”

“…….”

Eclipse nodded silently. Her face began to flush as if it would burst.

“So, I will ask.”

I removed my hand from her cheek and carefully tucked the strands of hair, which were sparsely clinging due to my recent touch, behind her ear.

“What kind of punishment do you think I will give Goddess-nim?”