I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods

Side Story: Darkest Warrior – 2

The Darkest Warrior wasn’t just a boss that appeared with the ridiculously harsh condition of “check the status window after reaching max level”; actually, his existence had become known earlier than expected. Some players had used trainers to hit max level.

These players posted on the community about some strange guy showing up, and following that, sporadic encounters with him were reported.

However, reaching max level was not an easy task without trainers or cheats, meaning that analysis of the boss didn’t occur until about a year later.

The essence of the Darkest Warrior boss battle could be said to be “the player themselves.” It was all because of the weapons he wielded.

The most used weapon by a player before reaching max level. That was the Darkest Warrior’s arsenal— the most used melee weapons, ranged weapons, staffs, and sacred catalysts. A total of four.

If a player had never used a specific weapon type all the way to max level, that weapon type simply wouldn’t be summoned, and magic or sacred spells would only consist of those the player knew.

In theory, if a player only leveled up using bare hands, the Darkest Warrior would similarly fight with bare hands. That meant it required truly ridiculous amounts of time, hence he was treated as a joke.

Well, some players did appear who achieved that without cheats or trainers, but I was too busy playing the Darkest Light Mod to attempt that.

In summary, these factors converged to form the identity of the Darkest Warrior, a representation of the player themselves.

Collecting all weapons, completing every quest and story, defeating all bosses, achieving max level, and expressing the sense of loss that players feel when there’s nothing left to do.

However, since he symbolized the player, his difficulty was absolutely insane.

Even after using a trainer to reach max level on my first run and donning heavy armor with defense buffs wrapped around me, one touch from any attack meant death, and the combinations of patterns were virtually endless.

Moreover, there were no restrictions on the special abilities of weapons, meaning if I mishandled which weapon to wield, I could find myself on the receiving end of a consecutive 89-hit spinning attack without landing a single hit in the boss battle.

That was all based on vanilla standards. The Dark Light Mod? Forget it, handling that was impossible.

Of course, during my time lost in Brightest Darkness 4, I wasn’t thinking straight, so I managed to beat him.

‘……I didn’t expect him to show up here.’

I wore a wry smile watching the Darkest Warrior draw out the Wingless Nightmare. Why on earth did he appear?

He was a hidden boss that suddenly appeared after maxing out, with no hints, no breadcrumbs, and no backstory.

He just dropped down from the sky as if he had fallen, seeking a place to die and challenging the player to a one-on-one duel, just to be satisfied with getting taken down. That was all there was to his character.

In essence, he symbolized the player after reaching max level, so most users considered him just a form of fan service from the developers.

“Are you ready to fight?”

His tanned, attractive brown skin sparkled with elasticity. The tip of the Wingless Nightmare glimmered ominously in response. I sighed and spoke.

“I can’t fight here. Do you want to kill everyone around?”

“Are they important to you?”

“Not really, but I had a feeling I’d come all this way just to stop you.”

Hearing me, the Darkest Warrior simply stuffed the Wingless Nightmare away. Clank, the cross guard and sheath made a cheerful metallic sound together.

“Understood. Knight Commander of the Dark Night Order. It’s disrespectful to fight in a place where important people are present. So where shall we fight?”

For reference, the title he used is determined by story progression. If you’ve seen the ending, it will match that; if the main story is still ongoing, it will just be the character’s nickname.

Since I am the Knight Commander of the Dark Night Order now, that’s how he’s addressing me. Thank goodness he didn’t call me the Holy One.

“Three days from now. The time is noon. Come to the place I’m saying. I’ll mark it on the map for you.”

“Understood.”

The Darkest Warrior readily took out a map. I mentioned it hypothetically, but it turned out to be real that he would pull out a map to mark the battlefield in-game.

I circled a spot in the northern part of the Empire, and marked the building’s name and exact location as done in the game before handing it back. The Darkest Warrior carefully tucked it away.

“See you in three days. I hope you can take me to Sol Kaelum.”

And then he leisurely walked away. Perhaps because he was in heavy armor, there was no sign of the typical feminine sway that the women of this world tend to have in his stride.

‘……Sol Kaelum.’

I heard that this term means a heaven for warriors in this world, but honestly, I’m not entirely sure. I’ve never actually met an NPC who uses that term. I’ve only seen it mentioned a few times in the documents of the Holy Kingdom.

Among the NPCs who mention the term Sol Kaelum, the only living one is the Darkest Warrior. The documents state that the others are all dead. So, there were speculations that he was an incredibly long-lived person from the Holy Kingdom.

Nothing had changed compared to the game.

Right after the Darkest Warrior disappeared, I called for Eclipse.

“Why did he appear? I thought he was just a boss added for fan service.”

“Well, that’s….”

Eclipse appeared within a second once again, looking to gauge my reaction before starting to explain.

Long before I was tossed into the world of Brightest Darkness 1, Eclipse had created that creature to give one last irritation to that lizard, sensing it was gradually falling behind.

The reason he could mimic player stats was thus as well. He originally intended to absorb the power of the Creature that Devours the World, which was much stronger than the player.

Of course, while he knew the Darkest Warrior couldn’t completely duplicate its power or kill it, he still created it just to annoy.

The obsession with the place Sol Kaelum was also for that very reason. Essentially created for self-destruction, the idea was to design it in such a way that it could relieve some of the burdens of death by wishing for posthumous glory.

“That lizard is dead, right? So can’t we just get rid of it?”

“I have a slight… aversion to destroying something I created, you see… It didn’t attack me or anything, and up to now, it’s been quietly sleeping, so I thought it wouldn’t wake up again, you know….”

Eclipse stammered out a rationalization. So he didn’t want to kill the creature he had made.

Given that she was like that all along, I decided to let it slide. If she had a different personality, she wouldn’t have let the Creature that Devours the World be born in the first place.

“Even if it’s plotting to kill me?”

“You’re going to win anyway— aah!”

Eclipse inadvertently let slip a spoiler, but quickly covered her mouth in surprise. During that moment, it seemed she peered into the future.

I had a feeling that was part of the reason she hadn’t killed it too. Since I would win anyway.

She kept glancing at me, so I reassured her it was fine while subtly asking if the final line spoken after that creature died was true.

Eclipse responded that wasn’t the case, but she planned to directly gather its soul and turn it into a new human.

Nodding, I internally repeated the goddess’s name about ten times as I made one last request that contained a bit of revenge and mischief.

“Wh-what is this…?”

Finally reaching the climax, Eclipse wore a pained expression as a sticky liquid flowed down her thighs.

Looks like it’s working.

“Delta! Win!”

“It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen you fight, Delta.”

“Agreed. Since all the monsters are gone, there’s no reason to engage in combat anymore.”

“It’s also because we don’t often go outside. Recently, we’ve mostly just been together.”

I could hear the voices of the commanders from afar. Lize seemed to be happily cheering me on while the others were carefully exchanging opinions about the Darkest Warrior.

Each of them had five pizza boxes resting at their feet, with one in their hands. Not long ago, it had been chicken, but they had switched to pizza after claiming they had eaten enough.

“How about this picture? What do you think, Seraphica unnie?”

“Wasn’t the edge about seven pixels off, Evangelina? We need to retake it for perfection. Oh, but that doesn’t mean we have to delete the original. Let’s move it to another folder.”

“Video, video… Ah, got it! It’s being captured!”

“I’ll take a few more from various angles.”

On one side, Floretta and Luna were diligently snapping photos. Stella and Selene were recording videos, especially Selene, who was using shadows to shoot from all sorts of angles.

None of them bore any trace of tension on their faces. After all, it would be harder to imagine my loss.

“A human that can replicate the power of others… so it’s like a clone. No, it might even be a more advanced entity?”

“Omnomnom…”

Minerva was analyzing the existence of the Darkest Warrior very seriously, while Parna, who had come out of the Mage Tower after a long time, was munching on the pizza she had obtained from the commanders.

Parna’s head no longer bore any horns. She now resembled an human enough that it wouldn’t be out of place to call her one. Her lifespan remained unchanged, though.

“Aurora, how long do we need to play Brightest Darkness 4 to meet that thing?”

“Well, they said you’d need to reach level 883, so I guess it might take at least half a year? Even if we engage in level-up tricks.”

Kaiquilia and Aurora discussed how long it would take to reach the Darkest Warrior. Hearing it was exclusive end content for max-level players made them feel motivated.

Normally, if you played just like them, it would still take over six months dedicating 20 hours a day to nothing but Brightest Darkness 4, especially once you hit level 800, where each sliver of experience became hellish.

“Hehehehe…”

After ages of staying inside my blanket, Nix was gleefully snapping photos, grinning diabolically; I could tell she had a hidden purpose without her saying it.

I resolved to delete any photos that crossed a line if they existed.

“Commander will win, right?”

“Of course. If you don’t believe me, wanna bet? I’ll put all my savings on the commander winning.”

“You don’t even have that much saved up. You earn three times more than when you were at the Imperial Palace, so what are you spending it on?”

“Shut it. Is there anyone else who wants to bet?”

“Isn’t it a waste to bet when everyone will just put it on the commander? You fool?”

In one corner of the arena, the Dark Night Order was lined up.

The Dark Night Order had completely recovered thanks to the healing spells and sacred spells cast by Minerva and the Pope sisters. They not only recovered but looked even healthier than before.

The sight of ten reverse bunny guys and a hundred bunny girls sitting together with perked bunny ears, chattering away was a spectacle in many ways. Furthermore, about half of the bunny girls wore completely transparent outfits.

“Why did you call everyone? You said they’re important?”

The Darkest Warrior showed a subtle expression when looking at the spectators surrounding us.

“I told them about you, and they found it interesting. I called them to show them, especially since the battleground is a circular arena, right? It’s spacious, has a seating area, and is just incredibly wide. Isn’t that great?”

The place I chose for the boss battle was an arena. While it wasn’t a strict requirement to fight here, among users, picking the Darkest Warrior Boss Room had become a so-called ‘unwritten rule.’

The Darkest Warrior tilted his head while still adopting a battle-ready stance.

“There will be no surrender. Once it starts, one of us will have to die to end it. You understand that, right?”

“I know, so you don’t have to worry. Even if I die, I’ve told everyone not to interfere.”

“Are you planning to show your important people that you’re dying?”

It seemed he hadn’t considered the thought of losing even once.

Well, given the malice he had demonstrated, his confidence made perfect sense. It was the confidence a player who had hit max level in Brightest Darkness 4 would have.

Of course, that only applied to players who achieved it entirely through skill without cheats or trainers.

“A warrior who talks more than he fights before the duel may never enter Sol Kaelum.”

“……”

The Darkest Warrior frowned. Faint wrinkles appeared on his brown skin.

“Don’t regret it. To take me to that place, you’ll have to give it your all.”

“Regret? What’s that?”

As I spoke, I glanced toward where Laksia was. Our eyes met, and I grinned at her. Laksia seemed to flinch, probably wondering why I was acting like that.

When I teleported the Wingless Nightmare to the spectator seats, Nix eagerly picked it up from beside me. The moment the Darkest Warrior saw me put down my weapon, his frown deepened.

“Why are you putting down your weapon? You’re not planning to make me fight someone without a weapon, are you?”

“I’m not going to use it.”

There’s no need to wield the same weapon when facing the Darkest Warrior.

In most cases, players insist on using the same weapon to have an honorable duel, but not every user feels that way. Some prefer wielding stronger weapons or…

Others might choose weaker weapons.

“You said you wanted to go to Sol Kaelum, right?”

I maintained my smile while drawing a magic circle in the air to bring out another weapon.

“Eh? What’s that?”

About a third of the Dark Night Order turned to gaze at one spot simultaneously. That was the area where Laksia was.

With the growing murmurs of confusion, more gazes began to fixate there. It didn’t take long before the entire Dark Night Order was looking at Laksia.

“……!!!!!!”

Realizing the identity of my weapon, Laksia silently screamed in alarm.

“I’ll do it for you.”

In my hand was a broken longsword.

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