The Brightest Darkness – 5

The Goddess flew radiantly towards me, but before she could reach me, she was covered by a strange red aura and stopped.

“Y-you… no, no…”

Looking with blurry eyes, the Goddess was on the verge of tears. Her expression was completely distorted, and large drops of water gathered at the corners of her eyes.

Both our bodies flew right in front of its nose. The World-Eater, who had gathered the Goddess and me together, conveyed its thoughts filled with mockery.

ㅡFalse god… this is the hope you believed in… it’s all your fault… and it happened because of you… speak… the feeling of everything you believed in… turning to naught…

“Because of me… *sob*… because of me…”

Finally, tears began to stream from her eyes. One drop became two, two drops became three, and soon, an unending waterfall flowed down her cheeks to her chin.

ㅡHuman… you are the same… did you think you could defeat me…?

“That mouth… *cough*, just shut up… because I feel utterly disgusting…”

If I had lost after fighting with all my might from the start, it might have been different, but it hid its power, played with us, and then won, so I felt twice as disgusted. My mouth was itching to spew out profanity.

ㅡWeak… and pathetic…

After that, it continued to belittle the Goddess and me. Saying things like it was impossible for us to win from the start, or why didn’t we just accept salvation and give up sooner.

The Goddess’s mental state was completely shattered, and I was half-dead, so dealing with us would be easier for that bastard than breathing.

But it didn’t do that. Was it trying to kill me by bleeding me out, or was it exploding with the arrogance and conceit it had accumulated through successive victories, thoroughly mocking us?

My strength was gradually draining from my hands. I was barely holding onto my weapon, but that was all. I felt like I couldn’t even lift my arm, let alone swing the weapon.

ㅡFalse god… look closely…

As if it had finally finished speaking, it pulled me closer.

ㅡThe human you believed to be hope… dying…

The Goddess didn’t move, her head bowed low. She seemed to have completely lost her mind. Even if she tried to move, she wouldn’t be able to because of the red aura wrapped around her body.

My head was forcibly turned. Right in front of me was a red vertical pupil. It was even more repulsive up close.

ㅡYour memories… I will absorb them all… and save your soul… Although you did not serve the truth… salvation shall be equal for all…

“Salvation my ass…”

I spat out a curse with a fading voice. The World-Eater, who lightly ignored my words, made its pupil glow brightly. Its entire body was covered in a red aura.

“*Gasp, cough*?!”

My first impression was that it just hurt like hell.

It wasn’t something that could be simply expressed with the word ‘pain’. They say burning pain is the most agonizing of all pains in the world, and it felt exactly like that, meticulously burning every single cell.

There wasn’t a single part of my body, from my fingertips to my toes, that wasn’t in pain. My body, which had been limp and near death, began to struggle, even forgetting the excessive bleeding, but it didn’t seem like I could escape the restraint.

Soon after, I felt something ‘reading’ in my head. I thought I knew what it was.

They were my memories.

“*Groan, ugh*…!”

Whether I struggled due to the terrible pain or not, it indiscriminately sucked in my memories. It felt like everything in my head was being churned into a mess.

I continued to writhe. If I moved violently with a huge blade stuck in my stomach, my upper and lower body might separate, leading to instant death, and even if I did, I couldn’t escape, so it was nothing more than a meaningless action.

However, the pain that covered my entire body paralyzed my rational thoughts. It was hard to endure it with a clear mind without even struggling.

“……”

The time of pain didn’t last long. As I lost consciousness, my struggles gradually subsided. Strength drained from my entire body.

I instinctively knew that if I fell asleep now, I would never wake up. Yet, even as such thoughts came to mind, it was hard to resist the overwhelming drowsiness. My eyelids slowly began to fall.

Finally, I closed my eyes, feeling something that had been blocking a corner of my mind shatter into pieces.

ㅡWhat do you think Requiem means, O Suppressor of Curses?

‘…What is this?’

A voice was heard from somewhere. I definitely didn’t remember hearing it before, but it felt quite familiar.

Even if I tried to recall memories, I didn’t have the strength to, so I just listened, limp.

ㅡIt is not simply the process of shattering a soul. It is a much broader concept.

ㅡThink about it. If Requiem merely shatters human souls, why would the Immortal Centipedes die along with them? They are merely abominations that use humans as hosts. If a host dies, they should just find another host.

‘…Indeed?’

Now that I heard it, it was strange. The Immortal Centipedes are literally immortal to any attack except specific weapons, so why do they get eliminated along with the human they’re inhabiting when Requiem is used?

ㅡRequiem (鎭魂) is not simply the process of shattering the souls of the dead to bring them peace. It is the process of severing everything connected to its essence.

ㅡTherefore, the Immortal Centipedes, which have merged with the essence, also cannot endure and collapse. To perform Requiem on souls forcibly held in the present world even after death carries that meaning. O Suppressor of Curses.

‘…’

ㅡYou don’t understand? Of course. If you could do everything perfectly from the start, why would I be by your side? Fortunately, there are plenty of practice partners in this world, so let’s start step by step from the basics.

Memories that had been suppressed and crushed in a corner of my mind burst forth like water gushing from a breached dam. Once started, the torrent showed no sign of stopping.

ㅡUntil your body is completely accustomed, remember just this one thing.

ㅡRequiem is the breaking of its essence.

With those last words, the voice that had been lingering in my head disappeared. But memories continued to pour in.

Things from the past, things from the past, and more things from the past. My past was this vast. There was no sign of it stopping or ending.

Among the countless memories of the past that surfaced, a single sentence I had repeated countless times in my mind flashed through my head.

‘Not yet.’

As I recalled those words again, my body surprisingly reacted first. My fingers instinctively tensed to grasp something precariously hanging between them.

Although I didn’t confirm it with my eyes, I knew what it was. It was proof that I hadn’t given up yet, and the culmination of countless hours of effort.

I couldn’t stay like this. I forcibly pulled my consciousness back from sinking deep into my mind. I couldn’t collapse here. I wasn’t dead yet.

A disgustingly large blade was still stuck in my abdomen, my head throbbed, and my body ached. But it was okay. How many times had I felt this sensation?

I ignored the pain. I pulled up what was precariously hanging between my fingers. A familiar weight and a familiar sensation were conveyed.

I grasped the Wingless Nightmare.

The Twisted Being had a question.

Despite having read all the memories held by the human in front of it, new memories were continuously gushing forth. It was a quantity far exceeding the memories of a single human.

If this were all, it wouldn’t have questioned it. It had already realized the human’s identity. The fact that it possessed memories of several people was not strange at all.

The reason it questioned it was because it simply couldn’t read the newly gushing memories. Even though it clearly recognized the world where those memories were formed.

This experience was a first. For an infinite amount of time, while saving countless lives across numerous worlds, there had never been a single instance where it couldn’t absorb or read those memories.

Thus, the Twisted Being strengthened its red aura. It squeezed the human, who was being toyed with until the very end and dying in despair, with all its might.

And nothing changed.

The unreadable memories still gushed forth like an inexhaustible spring, and the human was merely dying, but still not dead.

It was around the time the concept of ‘doubt’ firmly took root. The life, which had been as precarious as a candle in the wind and as faint as a well that had run dry, began to pulsate little by little.

The Twisted Being could not understand this either. A normal human would have sustained injuries that wouldn’t be strange even if they died immediately, and salvation had been achieved by absorbing memories.

How could it still be alive and moving after going through that process? Even though it only shared its soul and memories, possessing a completely different body from its past?

Before the newly arisen doubt could even fade, the human, who had gripped the object in its hand more tightly, showed movement. Strength entered the muscles of its entire body. It lifted its own head upwards.

Its jet-black eyes contained will.

It wasn’t surprising, as there were occasionally beings who stubbornly resisted and refused salvation in such a manner. Though it was the first time one had survived this tenaciously.

The small sword held in the human’s hand was raised. The sword that it had wielded desperately, not knowing its place, the sword that had been deliberately returned to it as an object of identical appearance.

The sword, which symbolized meaningless struggle and fading hope, was drawn vertically, and it didn’t take long for it to realize that the symbol was no longer meaningless.

ㅡ*Shing.*

With just the very simple action of drawing the sword vertically, the essence of the Twisted Being was severed. It felt the sensation of something that should be there being torn apart.

ㅡ*Kuaaaaaaaah!!!!!!*

A roar burst forth. At the roar the Twisted Being let out with all its might, the nearby space shattered and broke apart like dust.

It was an utterly terrible pain. So much so that it couldn’t even think of the human who had done this to it, the doubt that had just arisen, or the false god, a being it absolutely had to kill.

The only emotion comparable to this was the hunger the Twisted Being had felt when it was first born.

No, it was far worse than that. Because back then, at least it hadn’t gone berserk, forgetting everything like it was now.

ㅡ*Kuooooooooh!!!!!!*

Its mountain-like body twisted and writhed, going berserk. But no matter how much it twisted its body, no matter what knowledge it used, it couldn’t alleviate the current pain.

The red aura that had enveloped the false god and the human’s body disappeared. The huge blade that had pierced the human’s body also vanished.

The Goddess slowly raised her head, and her eyes widened at the unbelievable situation unfolding right before her, regaining her senses, but there was no mind to care about such things.

Because it was too busy screaming and wailing, feeling the pain of its essence being severed.

The Twisted Being instinctively chose to flee. It was the first time in an infinite amount of time since its birth into the world that it had acted purely on instinct, without rational thought.

Towards the dragon that frantically opened a nearby space and rushed inside, a dying voice muttered with difficulty.

“With this… it’s 1-on-1… you, goddamn lizard bastard…”

A warm divine power embraced its surroundings. The sun and moon clung to it as if guarding it. There was a hole in its abdomen wide enough to see the scenery behind it, but not a single drop of blood leaked out.

The Goddess, who had been looking at the human who finally couldn’t endure it anymore and fainted with a tearful smile, lightly kissed its forehead and let go of its hand.

Soon, the body, having lost its support, plummeted downwards.