Dusk (BL Light Novel)

Then, I practically fainted in shock.
This zone was clearly marked as a no-fly area, and yet my character crouched down, planted one arm on the ground, spread out his massive wings in a flight animation—and lifted off the ground.

[Party] Honeybread: wtf
Startled, I typed out a reaction in the party chat. Retaking, who had been scanning the hallway behind us, turned around and ran toward me.
[Party] Retaking: ????????????????
[Party] Honeybread: i can fly'';;
[Party] Retaking: Where did you fly from? There's only specific spots where flight is allowed, right?

I didn’t think there was such a spot. I just pressed the button, and I flew. I told him that.
A moment later, Retaking also spread his wings and lifted off like I had. It was the first time I’d seen Retaking fly. Atelierna was a PvP zone, but there were no flight areas, so unless you glided or activated a transformation, you never really got to see someone’s wings.
[Party] Retaking: I feel kinda dumb now… I mean, Adam did say you could just fly, but I really didn’t believe him.
[Party] Retaking: I thought you just took his word like a dumbass and happened to luck into it…
[Party] Honeybread: ?
[Party] Retaking: ?
[Party] Honeybread: ?
[Party] Retaking: ?

I was so incredulous I gripped my weapon. Retaking smiled sheepishly, as if tucking his tail, and said “ㅎㅎ” like it was a joke. Not like I could hit him anyway—we were in a party. I let it go because the way he backed off was kind of cute.
Now that we’d figured out how to get through the hallway, there was no need to waste more time. Just like we agreed, we both took off and glided down the corridor at high speed. During high-speed flight, you can bounce off the walls like springboards by hitting the space bar at the right moment, which boosts you to fly longer and faster—so both Retaking and I darted between the mirrors.
Before Atelierna got updated, this was how we used to move in flight-enabled zones. That was already a year ago, so it felt like ages. Since meeting Retaking, I’d basically lived in Atelierna, and even the farming dungeons where flight was allowed had become obsolete a few months back, so I hadn’t gone.

The fact that I was doing this nostalgic thing again—and doing it with Retaking—made it feel brand new. It was kind of like watching a modern dancer perform to traditional Korean music. Or… maybe not quite that. Anyway, it felt weirdly refreshing and familiar at the same time.
Retaking started bouncing left and right across the corridor walls, so I followed suit, and it looked amazing. At one point the light dimmed, and in the murky darkness, our wings shimmered in sync—it looked like a scene straight out of a movie.
This would make a killer clip. Retaking could rack up some serious views. It’d even help promote Dusk. I was seriously tempted.

By the time we wrapped up our little cinematic short, the corridor ended, and we reached a properly structured path. At the end of it, the waiting NPCs and spirits greeted us.
I landed first, but Abrea didn’t even glance at me. He looked… uneasy somehow. I tried talking to him just in case there was a hidden event trigger, but the only thing his script showed was an ellipsis. On the other hand, Retaking was chatting away in a surprisingly cheerful atmosphere.
While Retaking was talking with Adam, I stood a bit apart from Abrea, awkwardly lingering nearby.

[Party] Retaking: We’re supposed to go into that room
After finishing his conversation, Retaking walked toward the right and called back. Apparently, before we arrived, the spirit pointed to that room.
The room we entered was pitch black.

Like it was carved off from the hallway with a hard line, the space felt completely cut off, just darkness all around. A group of small, white, orb-like birds floated inside like ghost lights. They were tiny and cute—like long-tailed tits. But I had a feeling the damage they’d deal wouldn’t be so cute.
Inside the room, it was hard to even see our characters. Thankfully, we were a pair, so our wings glowed, and that made it easy to keep track of Retaking’s position.
This was the second mob wave. But unlike the garden, the map here was tight and the view limited, so scouting the mechanics beforehand seemed near impossible. Retaking must have known that too, because instead of explaining anything, he just said:
[Party] Retaking: I’ll re-buff you

(Note: re-buff = rebuff; renewing buffs or debuffs)
He layered some skills over me.
[Party] Retaking: I’ll walk around the room and see if there’s a mechanic
[Party] Retaking: Prioritize staying alive
[Party] Honeybread: okok

Following his command and with buffs loaded up, I jumped straight into the monsters.
The birds noticed me and swarmed in to attack. As expected, their damage wasn’t anything to sneeze at. Honestly, they hit even harder than the first mob wave. If you didn’t deal with the mechanic first, the moment a tank or healer dropped, it would be impossible to clear.
We needed to figure out what gimmick was hidden here, or else we’d be stuck like last time. But like I said, this space wasn’t like the garden—you couldn’t see much of anything in the dark, aside from the mobs.

I tried to keep myself alive while glancing around to see if anything stood out. And then… something felt off.
There was a strange dissonance. It hit me when I heard the hit sounds.
Normally, when you land a hit on multiple enemies, you hear multiple impacts. But even though my skill visibly struck multiple mobs, the hit sound only rang out once. The damage numbers on screen clearly showed that it was landing on multiple targets.

It was way too suspicious to brush off as “just my imagination.”
[Party] Honeybread: hey
[Party] Honeybread: are there
[Party] Honeybread: multiple mobs?
[Party] Retaking: ?

He replied like he had no idea what I was talking about. How was I even supposed to explain this?
I racked my brain, slowly poking at the keyboard to try and string together the chaotic mess of words floating in my head.
[Party] Honeybread: like
[Party] Honeybread: it shows dmg
[Party] Honeybread: but only 1 hit sound
[Party] Honeybread: like it’s hitting
[Party] Honeybread: just 1;;
[Party] Honeybread: and idk maybe i misheard
[Party] Honeybread: but my dusk years
[Party] Honeybread: experience
[Party] Honeybread: says no

Retaking didn’t reply for a while, like he was just staring at my chat logs. Since he didn’t brush me off, I figured he was seriously thinking it over. Meanwhile, I kept whacking the mobs, holding out. I wasn’t great at this kind of thinking—my job was just to hold out long enough for Retaking to figure it out.
Not long after, Retaking started moving. He steered his character toward a wall. Then he used a skill against it.
A loud crashing sound rang out—like glass or a mirror shattering. At the same time, three monsters near me vanished.

I wasn’t the only one who saw it. Retaking froze for a second, shocked by what he’d seen, then turned and started smashing the wall next to it too. The mobs I’d been wailing on, barely chipping their HP, started vanishing three or four at a time with each of his strikes.
[Party] Retaking: Break the walls
[Party] Retaking: I think the mobs are reflected in the mirrors and duplicated
The second I understood what he meant, I swung my sword at the wall behind me. A sharp shattering sound followed, and more mobs vanished in succession. Even my HP, which had been steadily draining from the birds’ pecks and claw slashes, suddenly dropped way slower.

I was floored. The devs who came up with this mechanic—and Retaking who saw right through it—both deserved mad respect.
[Party] Honeybread: holy sh*t
[Party] Honeybread: how’d you even
[Party] Honeybread: think of breaking
[Party] Honeybread: mirrors?
[Party] Retaking: you said it only sounded like one mob was getting hit
[Party] Retaking: if mobs were reflected in a mirror, they’d look like more than one, right?
[Party] Honeybread: damn
[Party] Honeybread: respect
[Party] Retaking: Did I do good?
This time, I gave him the praise he wanted.

[Party] Honeybread: duh;
[Party] Honeybread: if it weren’t for you
[Party] Honeybread: we’d be here all day
[Party] Honeybread: spamming AoEs like idiots
[Party] Retaking: ㅎㅎㅎ
He lit up like a puppy at the praise. It gave me a second wind to go around and smash every mirror clinging to the walls.
Over forty mobs were whittled down to just four in an instant. I thought we were done, but… the hit sounds were still only registering one enemy.

There were no mirrors left. So what were these last three being reflected off of? I blocked with my shield and used a counterattack skill. On the other side, Retaking, who’d been juggling healing and DPS, suddenly unfurled his wings. The glowing wings rose upward.
He flew up and began slowly hovering near the ceiling. Then we heard two more glass-shattering bursts. There were still two mirrors on the ceiling.
When the shards came crashing down, a serious chunk of damage landed. But just like that, we were down to a single mob.

[Party] Honeybread: wait
[Party] Honeybread: are you in MENSA?
[Party] Retaking: lmao
I asked him seriously, but he just laughed it off.
Now that all the mirrors were gone, the lone tit-bird mob flinched, stopped attacking, and started looking around like it was confused.

With just one left, we should finally be able to kill it. I started unloading my skills. Retaking, too, lined up his DoT skills and began stacking viruses onto the thing one by one with precision.
But despite all that, the mob’s HP barely budged—and its attacks still hit like a truck. If I took even eight hits without healing, I’d probably be dead. Clearly, smashing the mirrors wasn’t the end of the mechanic.
The way the last mob wasn’t taking /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ damage reminded me of the first mob phase where we had to wail on them for nine straight minutes. Maybe it was the same kind of mechanic?

While I was still thinking that, Retaking—who’d been silently hammering away—spoke up again.
[Party] Retaking: Try to hold out a sec
He stopped using skills and dashed off somewhere. He must’ve figured there was another mechanic to uncover and went to look around the room.

I kept myself alive with the occasional heal he tossed my way. The longer I fought, the more I got used to the bird’s attack patterns. I could block or dodge the big ones, but for unavoidable attacks, I had to eat them using survival cooldowns. Still, it was a hell of a lot easier than when we were swarmed by forty.
And just then, when the last bird sharpened its wings again and lunged at me...