Dusk (BL Light Novel)

A small click echoed, and the room suddenly brightened. On the opposite side, I saw Retaking standing next to a small switch on the wall.

[System] The white luminous entity is exposed to light—its ego begins to blur!
Right as the system log popped up, the mob struck me. Its piercing attacks, which had been strong enough to knock the breath out of me earlier, now felt significantly weaker—almost comically so. Excited by the possibility, I attacked the long-tailed tit.
Its HP, which had been crawling down at a snail’s pace, now started dropping at a visible rate. The damage numbers were also nearly doubled.

[Party] Retaking: ah
Retaking gave the white fluff a few soft taps and let out a sigh in chat. I took my hands off the keyboard for a second and pressed into my temples a couple times. The tension drained from my body as the realization hit: we didn’t just waste nine minutes like total idiots this time.
[Party] Honeybread: burst now
[Party] Honeybread: i don’t wanna kill another trash mob ever again

As my message went through, Retaking began hammering away at the now-bright and fluffy long-tailed tit. The mob’s HP melted like snow. It was deeply satisfying.
The long-tailed tit, which had been desperately pecking at me, suddenly puffed up. No matter how much we hit it now, its HP refused to fall below 1%.
Its body swelled like a ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) balloon being filled, growing so large it looked ready to squash us or punch through the ceiling. Huffing and puffing like it had made up its mind, the bird let out a sharp beep! and dropped to the floor with a heavy thud. I instinctively rolled backward using my dodge skill.

[System] The white luminous entity swells grotesquely, asserting its ego!
The system log flashed up, and the now-house-sized fluff monster spread its wings. At that size, I’d say it had the right to “assert” whatever it wanted.
Then the monster folded its wings down. Was it about to attack? I raised my guard, ready to block. But the massive fuzzball didn’t attack. Instead, it curled in on itself like a real ball of fluff, began rocking back and forth, and then—without any warning—rolled at high speed in the opposite direction from where I stood.

The room, already cramped, shook like an earthquake had hit. The wall the bird rolled into crumbled pathetically, creating a path forward.
Beyond the narrow, winding tunnel forcibly cleared by the oversized bird, I could see a brilliant white chamber that looked like a banquet hall. Once the long-tailed tit arrived, it stood up and glanced nervously toward the hole it had created, as if checking whether we were following.
That was clearly the end of the trash mob phase. Time for the boss fight. Personally, I preferred one giant boss built from layered gimmicks designed to obliterate us over mindless waves of repetitive trash mobs. Anticipating the next mechanic, I stepped into the tunnel.

The chamber where the long-tailed tit waited looked ornate but strangely reverent, like a holy temple. The way the mob stood at the far end of the space—no one could mistake it for anything but the second boss. But still, with its round, fluffy bird form, it was oddly adorable.
We’d taken a few hits during the trash phase, so I had a sense of its patterns. Even if it had been promoted to boss status, its basic attack mechanics probably hadn’t changed much. I figured we’d manage this one too. I waited for Retaking’s re-buff.
But then—something unexpected happened. The long-tailed tit, which had been waiting for us to initiate, suddenly turned around on its own.

It wasn’t unheard of for bosses to aggro first without players initiating, but I’d never seen one literally turn around like that. At least not in Dusk. If it were story-triggered, it should’ve cued a cutscene...
Puzzled, I watched as the long-tailed tit suddenly started bouncing around like it was happy. Then its puffed-up body rapidly deflated and it zipped around the chamber in a frenzy. The whooshing sound of air escaping trailed behind it, growing louder or softer depending on its position.
Like a balloon flying around with the nozzle open, the bird darted erratically through the chamber. As its body shrank, so did its speed. Eventually, the tiny white fluffball came to a stop in the very center of the room. It gently landed in mid-air, as if perching on some invisible branch, and chirped contentedly.
Wasn’t that supposed to be the boss? I thought, approaching the center.

[- Abrea: “In front of you, look out!”]
Just as I got closer—possibly close enough to pull aggro—Abrea shouted, and my character froze in place. No matter how frantically I mashed the WASD keys, I couldn’t move.
Meanwhile, the bird fluttered away, and the serene background music shifted to a new melody I’d never heard before. At the same time, something that had been invisible until now began to appear before our eyes.

The thing the bird had perched on… turned out to be a white finger. A long, pale finger. From the smooth back of the hand to the thin wrist, where bones subtly protruded—the entire arm began to materialize in a soft, holographic shimmer. And then, the rest of the figure followed.
Its hair, parted precisely down the middle, was stark white with not a single stray strand. Its skin gleamed, and its long eyelashes shadowing its closed eyes were just as snowy. The silk-like wings on its back emitted a diamond-like gleam.
Everything was so blindingly white that it didn’t even seem human. There was even a subtle halo-like glow. Despite wearing a tattered stola and robe, the sheer divinity radiating from it was undeniable.

The background music ramped up. A quiet but unwavering introduction flowed into a full orchestral melody, layered with Gregorian-style chant. It was haunting, grand—like a game OST meant to make your skin crawl.
Even the lyrics were indecipherable, in some made-up tongue. The only thing that broke the immersion was a faint static that kept cutting in at irregular intervals—just loud enough to put you on edge.
Could this be the final boss? Sometimes dungeons only had two bosses instead of the usual three or four, and with this thing showing up and a full main theme track… it had to be.

It looked stupidly strong. I mean, what the hell? First boss was a dumb stone golem, and now this holy celestial figure? I was still grumbling internally about the whiplash when a dialogue bubble popped up over the white thing’s head.
But nothing was written inside. No text. No symbols. Just a blank bubble. Its lips were clearly moving—it was saying something—but no sound came out, and no words appeared.
What the hell is this?

[Party] Retaking: Hey, Bread
[Party] Retaking: Check your chat log
Retaking, who’d been silent until now, suddenly spoke up and urged me to look at the logs. I switched over to the full chat tab—and froze.

　　　 : 　　
Except for the lines Retaking had typed, the most recent system entry was completely blank. Just an empty line.
[Party] Honeybread: uh?
[Party] Honeybread: is this a bug?
[Party] Retaking: The speech bubble is blank, and the chat log has no text. Even the minimap—there’s no icon for it, mob or NPC
[Party] Retaking: And when I click on it, nothing shows up—no name, no classification

I glanced at the minimap. He was right. Normally mobs or NPCs would show up with some kind of indicator. But this white thing wasn’t there. No circle, no blip—nothing.
It didn’t even have a name floating above its head. Unless you manually disabled the setting, all characters—player, mob, NPC, or item—would display their name by default. But this thing showed nothing.
And yet, it was interactable. When I hovered my mouse and clicked, it became a target. A health bar appeared at the top of the screen—but the name field was blank. If this wasn’t a bug, it had to be a deliberate move by the devs.

Has the dev team been watching horror movies lately? What the hell is this?
[Party] Honeybread: this has to be a bug right?
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. I typed out a message to Retaking. He didn’t respond at first, like he was analyzing everything seriously. Then the party chat started filling up quickly.

[Party] Retaking: I thought it might be a bug too…
[Party] Retaking: But honestly, Dusk almost never releases content with bugs like this. And this wasn’t a rushed dungeon, either.
[Party] Retaking: At first, I figured the enemy voice line playing earlier was just one rare slip-up. But… would they really ship a dungeon with two major bugs?
[Party] Retaking: I don’t think so. I think this is intentional—like a planned, in-game effect.
I was still reading when something moved in the edge of my vision, pulling my attention from the chat window.
The white being, who had stood perfectly still with its eyes closed like it was asleep, now had its eyes open and was looking straight at us. Its right eye burned yellow, like the sun, while its left was a pale blue set in black sclera—a Bia racial trait. It struck me that maybe it was supposed to represent the sun and moon.

Then, with a slow but deliberate motion, it lifted its hand and curled one finger toward us.
And right at that moment—
a massive white glowing needle appeared above Retaking’s head.