Chapter 1230 - 534: Darkness

[Hero has acquired the special skill: Daughter of Primordial Night]

When the current region time is nighttime, you gain the special status: Indulgence of the First Night.

HP max limit is fixed at "100 + own level," unaffected by any form of suppression. When taking damage not exceeding R8 level, damage is fixed at 1. Upon entering battle, the surrounding environment is permanently transformed into: [Primordial Night]. When HP drops to 0, enter special status: [Chaos Unborn]. When dawn descends, acquire a one-time skill: [Dawn Creation].

Primordial Night: A nighttime immune to light attribute attacks, and any abilities that can produce light cannot be activated. Without the night's permission, no light can shine.

Chaos Unborn: Unaffected by any external factors. Until all life awakens, everything remains dormant in chaos.

Dawn Creation: Status fully restored, the first hit is fixed at maximum and converted into destructive damage. The initial void-breaking is also the beginning of newborn creation.

If the current region is in a pseudo-ultimate night state, unable to welcome dawn, a D100 time verdict is conducted, and [Dawn Creation] is transformed into [Singularity Dawn], where enemies within range with LV below the D value instantly die, and those above have proportional attribute deductions.

[Transformation: Primordial Dark Matter Spirit R8+]

Born before the world had taken shape, the primordial spirit in that first darkness.

In that darkness where the unseen, unheard, and untouched exist, only at the moment of the world's birth did it acquire a fleeting and unique concept spirit.

For it, which is inherently part of the world, the choice of rebelling against the world does not exist.

Therefore, it should have returned to eternal slumber upon birth, once more operating as part of the world, not as an individual spirit with independent consciousness, let alone entering into a contract with humankind.

But at the moment when the world itself bestowed blessings upon the maiden, amidst the countless divergences of the starry rivers of sand, at the point of gaining the potential for transcendence, the most primordial darkness glimpsed at her alone.

Thus, the spirit gave her all its love.

Even though the maiden will ultimately head toward dawn, even though she will eventually awaken, the spirit has no desire to retain or hold her back.

Because this moment is eternal, reality and illusion are intertwined, and eternity does not differ from an instant.

This is what is called the love of the world.

→☆→☆→☆→✧←★←★←★←

"Am I super strong now?"

Sitting inside the smoothly running bird carriage, feeling the newfound power obtained from colorful gemstones, the Hero with black hair and eyes couldn't help but utter this sentiment.

——Heroine's hair has become just like mine.

And her eyes are so dark.

Feels so mysterious!

Though the Noble Lady's impression of the Hero in nighttime status was simple, like this, the guards similarly noticed nothing unusual.

Yet, even through the eyes of the Hero as a Saintess nowadays, the blessings gained in this realm of possibilities remain unimaginably powerful.

The current her, in night battles, undoubtedly far surpasses her past self who received the Phoenix Blessing.

It's not that her strength or attributes took a qualitative leap, but simply because once night falls, the entire world becomes her home turf.

Even Goblins accustomed to dim environments cannot see in literal absolute darkness. Most magic creatures and humankind are the same.

But now, as soon as it turns to nighttime, she can extinguish all lights unconditionally, her own perception unaffected, and still be immune to most attacks.

Even though not yet tested in combat, as the Hero can perceive, unless beings at the level of Sea Shrimp take a swing, otherwise she with her night blessings can ignore most attacks and one-sidedly output against foes.

In other words, as soon as night descends, it's basically her one-sidedly beating up enemies.

Though this ability isn't without flaws, as the effect of the Primordial Night doesn't differentiate between friend and foe, even allies might be thrown into chaos in an environment deprived of all light sources.

But this blessing also brings her new transformations, and the capability of this transformation is enough to compensate for this drawback.

Dark Matter Spirit, once the same as Spirit of Void, is a spirit only existing in theory, unobservable.

Void Extreme is an anti-spirit, existing in the vacuum where matter and magic elements don't exist, an absolutely unobservable entity, let alone enter into a contract with.

And Dark Matter Spirit has similarities.

Invisible, inaudible, intangible, merely "possibly existent" matter named dark matter.

Presented as a concept in the void before magic elements filled and matter birthed, as background and foundation.

Unobservable, uncapturable, even unable to confirm existence, like simply replacing the word "nothingness" with "dark matter."

Thus, in the past, dark matter was merely babble commonly heard among Knowledge Addiction Mages, a hypothesis unlikely to convince.

And seeking spirits born of this hypothetical matter was considered utter balderdash.

However, on the journey of a Traveling Mage traversing numerous worlds and witnessing myriad wonders, this spirit was proven existent even before dark matter itself.

In a newly born plane, almost empty of everything.

Even for the Traveling Mage, trekking into such a plane was an extremely risky endeavor.

But if danger could stop her, then at that time, she wouldn't have spread her wings to fly away from the world that raised her, would she?

So without hesitation, after plunging headlong into that newborn plane, she observed the elves for the first time.

Darkness is the background of the universe, the foundation that carries all light.

In the newborn plane, light was a cherished commodity, and life was nowhere to be found.

And those elves of dark matter were beings born to gather light.

They would diligently collect the naturally born light, bit by bit, in the boundless void where even extraordinary perception could not function, and gather it together to condense it into stars.

When the star grew to the point where it could shine on the universe with its own power, the dark matter elves would naturally perish, and the dark matter composing their bodies would become the curtain carrying the stars, becoming part of the universe's background, difficult to observe and capture.

Clearly, elves born from elements and concepts are generally rarer than the elements themselves, yet dark matter elves are, in contrast, easier to observe than dark matter itself.

Though it was just a very brief observation, the Traveling Mage had to retreat from that perilous plane soon afterward.

Yet it was undoubtedly the first official record of dark matter elves in the history of the Gate Continent.

Widely written about in various journals, that account of the Traveling Mage's experiences became precious material treasured by many Pantheon Scholars and Mages, and the Hero had, of course, read it as well.

And though many mysteries remain unsolved, the Mages have made a deduction based on this record: dark matter elves may only appear at the dawn of creation or during the world's end.

Although the Hero does not intend to belittle it, objectively speaking, compared to the Phoenix Power she once obtained, which was still in its nascent stage, this favor from the original night was indeed much more formidable.

At that time, as a newborn Phoenix, she not only had to worry about the consumption of Magic Power, but her body was also only as big as a fluff ball. If she hadn't spoken up herself, the Noble Lady probably wouldn't have associated that fluffy ball with the legendary Phoenix.

But at this moment, having obtained a transformation of dark matter, calling her a juvenile Great Demon would not be an exaggeration.

If she considers the world blessing she received as an opportunity to prevent world destruction, then her gaining such a powerful transformation is not entirely incomprehensible.

Nevertheless, the Hero understands well. Rather than saying it's a blessing she might have received, it is better to say it is a greatly enhanced cheat ability under the Limit Breaking Curse.

Just as she as a Phoenix has long become far different from before, the blessing she received also needs growth given time and opportunity.

Even if she had indeed received this blessing from the night in the past, she probably wouldn't have had the current level of transcendental strength, but would need to develop step by step to reach the present state.

'...What use is strength, anyway? The destruction of this world is as good as guaranteed.'

The Depraved Hero huffed with some displeasure.

"In a huff?" The Hero chuckled softly.

"Don't worry so much. Even if there was no Phoenix Avatar initially, it doesn't mean I wouldn't be cursed after defeating the Corrupted Phoenix. At that time, wouldn't you still appear?"

'Why is defeating considered a prerequisite?' The voice of the Depraved Hero turned sharp, 'Are you trying to comfort or argue with me?'

The Hero just gave an ambiguous and meaningful smile, causing her other self to start grumbling with dissatisfaction.

'Damn, this mere body actually—'

Though her other self's grumbling was a bit annoying, even with the huge changes in the blessing she received, according to the subsequent schedule, she would still head to Lake Town, then to the Border, then to the Highland, and experience that series of stories.

These experiences should not change because of receiving a different blessing.

So theoretically, this simulation of potential scenarios should end here.

However, perhaps influenced by the Power of Forbidden Curse, no matter how long the Hero stayed in the Bird Carriage, no matter how long she chatted with the Noble Lady, the surrounding scene did not change at all.

[Possible unfoldings regarding the Moon——]

1.5.D Chapter

2.6. Tides of Gravity

3.7. The Moon Ship Against the Current

4.8. Grandpa's Sudden Illness

9. Notification of the Family's Conferment Ceremony

10. Great Success/Extreme Failure

D10=3

♛: The Moon Ship Against the Current