Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 83

When we opened the door leading to the final room of the moonstone research lab, a staircase appeared.

As we climbed the stairs, I steeled myself.

Above awaits the final mid-boss, ‘Luna Sephirot’.

The trickiest part is the mental attacks – in the game they just briefly stunned the character, but experiencing them in this world is far worse than just being stunned.

The most accurate description would be that it feels ‘wrong’.

Not just unpleasant – it felt intensely jarring, like having residue or scars carved into your brain.

We opened the door at the top of the stairs.

A room as large and wide as where Blood Klifort was appeared.

In the center hung a massive inverted tree – its trunk and branches were white beyond white, almost bleached, while its leaves were a vivid blue.

It looked exactly like Blood Klifort from underground with its colors changed and attached to the ceiling instead of the ground.

“What in the world…?”

Sephira drew her sword in surprise.

A strange wave emanated from the holy sword Robera.

The bizarre change was noticeable even to a lower-ranked hunter like me.

“Why is your sword suddenly acting like that?”

Oscar asked.

“I’m not sure myself… this is my first time experiencing something like this…”

This is quite an interesting situation for me.

In Blue Paper Moon, Robera’s description included the phrase ‘sword descended from the moon’.

It probably means the sword itself was made of moonstone.

Not just Robera – there were also mentions that most artifacts might be related to moonstone.

However, artifacts could only be obtained in the late game, while Vile’s laboratory was visited in early or mid-game at the latest, so the timing never matched up.

I wonder if this is what happens when you bring an artifact here.

“It seems to be reacting to that tree… but I’m not sure about the principles or how it works. Let’s test it first.”

Sephira sent a blade energy wave toward Luna Sephirot.

But the blade energy dissipated into countless particles before reaching the boss.

And the particles flowed into the leaves.

“…?”

This is a pattern even I don’t know about.

While Luna Sephirot is basically immune to all attacks initially.

But there’s never been this kind of effect when blocking attacks.

Then beneath the blue leaves hanging upside down, a large spherical object shaped like a moon appeared.

This is a phase 2 pattern, but why is it appearing now?

Did it actually take damage earlier?

No, it didn’t seem that way.

To begin with, Luna Sephirot’s health isn’t meant to be reduced like that.

“Ah, aah…”

Oscar collapsed with a thud.

“That’s… dangerous.”

“What?”

“D-dangerous! Run away!”

He grabbed my pants leg while sitting on the ground.

“We can’t stay here! That’s-!”

Before Oscar could finish speaking, a bright light burst forth from Luna Sephirot’s moon.

That pure white light felt strangely cold, yet somehow nostalgic.

Like returning to a hometown long forgotten…

“No, no, no!”

Someone’s terrified screams grow distant.

[Come this way.]

Someone spoke.

[Here. This is where you belong.]

I need to go there?

[Yes. You don’t belong in this world. Have you forgotten?]

The world I belong to?

[You belong here. Come, come this way.]

I’m not sure…

[I said come here.]

That’s…

[Come! I said come! Right now!]

“…Snap out of it!!”

Another voice pierced my ears.

[Kyaaaah!]

“Gasp!”

A scream that felt like it was tearing through my brain snapped me back to my senses.

I saw Sephira aiming my rifle somewhere.

Thin smoke was rising from the muzzle.

I turned my head to look where the gun was pointed.

[Y-you…]

“Mr. Eugene, are you back with us?”

Sephira held out the rifle to me.

Seems she had borrowed my gun.

“Ah, yes…”

I took the gun and reloaded it.

Though it was almost reflexive, that small action brought me back to my senses.

Seems I was hit by a mental attack.

“Suddenly something came out of the moon and emitted a light that messed with our minds.”

[How dare you… how dare you…!]

A voice filled with bone-chilling hatred rang out.

The strange being that emerged from the moon was glaring straight at us.

Long black hair reached down to its waist and its skin was marble white.

On its face, missing one side, were features like eyes, nose and mouth that looked like dark blue stains.

And incongruously, it wore an ordinary white dress.

I’ve never seen such a being in Blue Paper Moon.

This seems too different to just be part of Hilde’s story.

Why would a mid-boss in a place like this be so drastically different?

With the It speaking earlier too, it’s hard to explain just by the protagonist’s gender being different.

Could it be because Sephira brought the holy sword?

Or is there some special event I still don’t know about?

[Don’t interfere!]

The woman who descended from the moon glared straight at Sephira with a twisted face.

An intense wave rushed out from her, washing over us again.

I immediately covered my ears, turned my head away, and even held my breath.

Blocking the five senses as much as possible increases resistance to mental manipulation.

A strange coldness ran down my spine and dizziness hit again, but not enough to lose consciousness.

“Huff…!”

After enduring the wave of mental attack and turning my head back, Sephira was already charging toward the enemy.

But she was empty-handed, without drawing her holy sword.

“Urgh…”

I grabbed Oscar’s shoulder as he swayed back and forth like he was completely drunk and shook him.

“Get it together!”

“Ack!?”

“You awake?”

“W-wait, what happened earlier…”

“Get up and fight. We need to help Lady Sephira.”

“Huh? Wha? What did I…”

Just as Oscar finally came to his senses, a violent crashing sound rang out.

When I turned my head toward it, I saw the enemy flying backward, presumably from Sephira’s punch.

Even without the holy sword, she’s still a higher-ranked hunter after all.

[Urgh… how…?]

The woman embedded in the wall got up trembling.

[You should have… seen a terrible nightmare…]

“I’m seeing one right now.”

Sephira spoke while walking normally.

“The smell of burning flesh, the stinging sensation on my skin – it’s all quite similar to back then.”

[H-how in the world…]

“But those memories weren’t just nightmares. Because…”

I couldn’t hear what she said after that as she dashed forward again.

I’m not entirely sure, but it seems she’s fighting without concern even while experiencing terrible visions from the mental attacks.

She’s incredibly tough.

[Damn it!]

When the enemy reached toward Luna Sephirot hanging from the ceiling, all its leaves rustled down and transformed into a pool on the floor.

Just like with Blood Klifort, something emerged from that pool.

But instead of Beasts, they all took the form of young girls.

They all looked at me simultaneously.

“Ugh!”

My head hurts.

Another mental attack?

No, it didn’t seem that way…

I’ve forgotten something… what was the reason… the moon was blue?

Ah, to remember someone…

“A-are you okay?”

Oscar caught my swaying body.

When human warmth touched me, I snapped back to my senses.

These mental attacks have been too intense.

How unsightly, after telling him to get it together.

“I’m fine now. More importantly…”

I pointed ahead.

Roughly three digits worth of moon girls had begun marching toward us.

Strangely, their gazes seemed to be fixed precisely on me.

I stomped down the familiar sensation welling up in my chest again and calmed my mind.

“Haah!”

When Oscar stretched both hands toward the moon girls, small magical power crystals showered out like buckshot.

But they didn’t seem to feel any pain even when pierced by the sharp fragments.

Rather, the smallest fragments even bounced off.

“Their magical power resistance is insane!”

Oscar shouted.

At least they share characteristics with the Luna Sephirot I remember.

More precisely, that’s how the mobs it summoned were.

Originally, Luna Sephirot’s summoned mobs, the Moon’s Apostles, didn’t look like these girls but had huge eyeballs with disgusting tentacles for limbs, and the main body couldn’t be killed until you defeated them in a specific order.

Even now, though it looks like Sephira is one-sidedly beating it up, the wound from being shot earlier had already disappeared.

The Moon’s Apostles hit you with unavoidable mental attacks just by getting close.

Fortunately, while getting hit isn’t hard to resist and they move slowly with low health, you just need to clear the surroundings and deal with them one at a time.

But these moon girls were ignoring Oscar’s magic attacks and approaching with quick steps.

“What about sorcery?”

“That kind of thing… I only know how to make fire.”

“Then throw that when I give the signal.”

“What?”

I swung a bottle of holy oil to spray it in a semicircle in front of us.

Oscar, catching my intention, launched a soccer ball-sized fireball at the holy oil spread on the floor.

Instantly, a wall of holy oil flames appeared before us.

In the original game, Moon’s Apostles were weak to fire damage and would try to avoid it no matter how it was summoned.

The moon girls that appeared now also stopped their advance when faced with the wall of flames.

“Keep launching fireballs.”

“You know fireball magic?”

“Just throw them.”

“Ah, alright.”

From behind the wall of fire, Oscar launched fireballs at the moon girls who couldn’t approach.

I observed if any of the girls had characteristics similar to the Moon’s Apostles.

“Hey, only that one has red eyes!”

Even in this situation, Oscar’s keen eye had found another strange individual.

He’s really good at this “spot the difference” game.

I found the red-eyed girl he pointed out and sniped her.

The silver bullet passed through the wall of flames and hit her head precisely.

As the shot moon girl collapsed, she turned to red dust that flowed up into Luna Sephirot hanging from the ceiling.

The situation progressed smoothly.

Sephira marked the enemy leader while Oscar and I found and dealt with the special mobs protecting the main body from behind.

And when we took down the seventh red-eyed special individual, Luna Sephirot fell to the ground.

[No! Come to me! I said come to me!]

All the moon girls vanished into dust as the enemy leader wailed while kneeling and clutching both shoulders.

“You’re noisy.”

Sephira kicked her away, and the great tree fell on top of her with a tremendous impact.

“Seems it’s over now.”

She said while dusting off her hands as she came back to us.

But for some reason, my eyes kept being drawn to where that girl had vanished under the tree.

What exactly was the moon yearning for?

What is it that I don’t know, or rather, have forgotten?

Though I felt like I had a thorn stuck in my throat, I couldn’t come up with any answers.