"...You wanted to meet me?"
I wondered what the hell was going on. What on earth did I do that made the Pope of the Sun want to meet me and care about me, not to mention the Emperor?
Floretta smiled brightly and touched my hands here and there, not paying attention to my questions.
He slowly stroked his hands with the backs of his hands together, and sometimes he played with his fingers or wrapped them tightly. Perhaps because he was the Pope of the Sun, his body temperature felt extremely high.
Floretta, who had been playing with my hand for a long time, opened her mouth.
"Because God has given me a revelation. A revelation that light will come soon."
'uh?'
As soon as I heard Floretta's words, something came to mind.
This was the very line that announced the start of the DLC story that could be progressed upon purchasing the first DLC for The Brightest Darkness 4, 'Evil Awakens'.
'… … But, why is that line coming out now?'
I was even more dumbfounded when I realized what the Pope meant.
If you play the game according to the rules, the entry trigger for the DLC will be activated only after you have completed the main story to some extent.
This means that the player is not suddenly invited to the Holy Land and the story begins as if God has given them a revelation while they have not yet defeated all the essential bosses and have not properly progressed through the main story.
Even the story of that DLC was in the latter half of the main story, and it was far from being something I could touch with my current specs.
The trash mobs don't matter. The only reason I'm talking about specs is because of the final boss of that DLC, the 'Creature Forsaken by God'.
In the boss room, it is mandatory to wear a certain rune, and the boss itself only takes damage from divine attacks, so the equipment is half-fixed.
But the biggest problem was that the moment the story began, the game essentially turned into a time attack, whether the player was ready or not.
From the moment you hear those words from the Pope, if you clear a total of 25 quests regardless of whether it's main or sub, or defeat the 5 bosses, the final boss will awaken from the underground of the Holy Land and break the earth.
When the final boss awakens, the Holy Nation will be destroyed, all quests related to the Holy Nation in that round will be unavailable, and the Empire will also suffer massive damage, causing a major twist in the story.
If we leave him in that state any longer, the ending will be fixed as one without any dreams or hope.
'That's absolutely not possible, fucking hell.'
I shuddered. I was absolutely opposed to the idea of sitting alone in a world where everything but me had disappeared and waiting for the day I would starve to death.
"Are you okay? You don't look well."
I was struggling with the negative thoughts that kept coming up one after another, but Floretta's voice brought me back to reality. Her green eyes, filled with worry, were staring at me.
"...It's okay. I was just thinking about something else for a moment. I apologize."
"No. You have no need to apologize."
Floretta said that, covered her mouth with her right hand and chuckled.
"But you are truly a unique person. You can think differently even when I am in front of you. You must have a truly strong heart."
After hearing that, I realized, "Oh no. I was thinking of something else in front of the Pope of the Sun. It was rude. I would have no words to say if my head was smashed with a hammer right now."
I don't know why, but I got over it because Floretta responded positively. If not, I definitely wouldn't have been able to get out in good health.
"I think you've finished thinking about it, so I'll ask again. Are your questions somewhat answered now?"
"...."
There was no way it could have been resolved. If anything, it would have gotten deeper.
Suddenly, there was a ton of stuff to do. I had to clear the rune dungeon to prepare for the boss fight, get a holy weapon or find some buffs, and earn experience points to raise my strength stat.
'The DLC story is the top priority.'
The conditions for the final boss to awaken are 25 quests or 5 bosses, but if you only progress through the DLC story, you will definitely have to go through 13 quests and 3 bosses, so the actual limit is much lower than that.
Moreover, unlike in games where time does not pass unless you touch a quest or boss, now time will continue to pass even if you just breathe.
It would have been better to start with the DLC story first.
"...Your Holiness, a revelation? Delta?"
Only now, having recovered from the shock, Lize asked with a trembling voice. Her blue eyes were shaking incessantly. Her eyes, filled with anxiety, looked back and forth between me and the Pope.
"I don't know the details either. How could I, a mere human, dare to understand the will of God?"
Floretta let go of my hand and smiled softly. It was a very kind smile that made even the hearts of those who saw it feel at ease.
But it didn't seem to be of much use to Lize. Her head was bowed, and her clenched fists were shaking faintly.
"Could you please tell us the content of the revelation, Your Holiness?"
"If you wish, I will do so. However, the revelations given by God are not complete. Depending on the interpretation of a single word or sentence, dozens of conclusions can be drawn. Is that okay with you?"
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"Yes, it's okay."
I nodded.
If it was an interpretation, I had roughly memorized it. As the Pope said, the content of the revelation was indeed referring to the player's actions.
In the human friendly route, he is depicted fighting the world-eater, in the human hostile route, he is depicted fighting the emperor or the pope, and in the life extinction route, he is depicted as having become a monster itself.
Of course, except for the human friendly route, you couldn't hear it in such a moderate atmosphere. After the Sun Pope boss battle, you could barely hear it from the dying Pope.
"In a place covered in darkness, a bright light walks. Wherever the light touches, the darkness disappears, and countless humans follow it, seeking peace. In the darkness, countless monsters rush in, but they all melt into the light and disappear."
"...."
Oh, my.
If it was the Silver Dawn Knights route, that description shouldn't appear.
"At the end of the path that light walks, there is a being that is beyond human imagination. However, light never fears, retreats, or hesitates, but moves toward that being. Revelation ends with this scene."
"Then… Your Holiness. That light… means Delta, right?"
"There is no set answer because interpretation is a human task. However, I think so. Because on the day I first met him, God gave me a revelation."
As Floretta finished speaking, the knight commanders turned their gazes back to me. Their eyes of various colors were looking at me with all sorts of complex emotions. I was afraid that I would be questioned again later on, asking what I meant.
'Light... ... .'
The interpretation itself was simple. The 'being that humans cannot even imagine' that Floretta had mentioned was the word for the World Eater, the final boss of Blizzard 4.
Unless you take the Human Hostility Route or the Life Extinction Route, you will definitely face the World Eater as the final boss, so up to this point, it is as I expected.
However, referring to the player as light was quite different from what I expected. At least, it was an expression I had never heard before in the Silver Dawn Knights route.
"You said your name was Delta? You—"
-Again.
The conversation was cut off. It was because the sound of high heels echoed through the hall.
It didn't belong to anyone here. Floretta was standing still, the Knight Commanders were wearing regular sneakers, and I couldn't have made a sound with my high heels.
Floretta's face began to harden. She looked sad somewhere, and as if she was crying somewhere. In any case, it was definitely not a good face.
As the atmosphere became more tense, we also turned our heads and looked back.
And I was shocked.
"You are being useless, Pope of the Sun."
Darkness drove out the light. To be exact, white light drove out yellow light. The surroundings were covered in moonlight to the sound of the high heels clicking. The sun that had been shining down was fading away weakly.
Silver light spread through the gold. It felt as if the full moon that had risen in the middle of the night had descended and descended before us.
Although it was my first time seeing that face, I could instinctively tell who it was.
"...Pope of the Moon. Why did you come all the way to such a wretched place?"
Pope of the Moon.
As soon as the name came out of Floretta's mouth, the atmosphere froze. Nothing could be heard except the clicking of high heels.
"Are you really saying this because you don't know?"
The moon rose inside the cathedral. A woman with dark silver hair was walking towards the Pope of the Sun, her hands clasped in front of her lower abdomen.
"Do you really believe that holding on to a vain hope will bring about what you want? Do you really think so?"
The Moon Pope slowly took one step at a time as he approached Floretta. The Moon Pope and the Sun Pope. We, who were caught between the two most powerful men in the Holy Land, were unable to move an inch.
The steps stopped only a few steps away from Floretta.
"Fate cannot be changed. You cannot turn away from the truth. Even if it is the sun and the moon, there is no other way than to walk the path that has already been set."
"If I can't change it, I'll find a way. No matter what."
Floretta said with a determined look.
"I will never give up on my sister."
-Tsk!
Silence fell. It took a moment for me to comprehend what was unfolding before my eyes.
The Pope of the Moon waved his right hand, and his palm touched Floretta's cheek, a cracking sound was heard, and Floretta's head turned to the right...
The knight commanders froze, holding their breath as soon as they realized the situation. I did the same.
The Pope of the Moon slapped the Pope of the Sun on the cheek. Hard enough that the affected area turned red and swelled slightly.
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But something was strange. The person on the other side was clearly Floretta, but her green eyes were filled with sympathy and sorrow. She even looked sad.
"I told you not to call me that, Pope of the Sun."