WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 190: Breakthrough
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“...!”
The moment the crown was destroyed,
the hand I had extended toward the Fighting Demon God was severed as well. Blood sprayed everywhere.
I stopped time.
Fuck, what the hell was this...?
Even that didn't work?
When I tried to pull the Fighting Demon God into the Mindscape, the item was destroyed instead.
- This is divinity. Petty tricks will not work at all.
...I was beyond dumbfounded. I felt hollow.
The moment I released time, I used Teleportation to widen the distance again.
Clutching my severed wrist, I glared at the Fighting Demon God.
The Fighting Demon God still didn't even glance my way. It merely stared blankly into the air.
Just as I did when reading the Tower's messages...
The Fighting Demon God opened its mouth again.
“Yes, I remember everything. This is a world recreating the moment of my resurrection.”
...!
That thing had its consciousness now...?
The Fighting Demon God turned its gaze toward me.
“But I do not understand.”
“...”
“Answer me this. Why do you think the Tower made such an offer? It says that if I kill you here and now, it will give me another chance to challenge it.”
What?
I was taken aback by its words.
The Tower had made an offer to it too...? Telling it to kill me?
‘Was the Fighting Demon God a Climber too?’
I understood the situation in an instant.
The worlds within the Tower were worlds destroyed by the Tower.
Under normal circumstances, the Fighting Demon God of this world would have been resurrected safely. Just as it was now.
But had the Tower appeared in the future and defeated the Fighting Demon God as well?
I didn't know why it could maintain its consciousness so completely.
Perhaps gods could retain their consciousness even after being swallowed by the Tower.
The Fighting Demon God tilted its head.
“To return my divinity just to kill one insignificant bug...”
“...”
“Does that not mean the Tower considers you a greater threat than even I am? How unpleasant.”
Goosebumps rose all over my body.
I stopped time again.
The Demon King’s power did not work. Neither did the Mindscape.
It was impossible to take the God-Slaying Sword back from that monster.
Neither Sixth Sense nor Supreme Combat Sense worked, and I couldn't even react to its attacks. Weak Point Insight did not reveal a single weakness either.
There was no method left.
There truly was none.
[Special Item: Hourglass of Acceleration]
Select one of the following effects to apply permanently. Once selected, the effect cannot be changed.
1. Reduce the cooldowns of all owned skills by 70%.
2. Fix the cooldown of one random skill at 0 seconds.
One unused item came to mind.
[Would you like to use Effect 2 of the ‘Special Item: Hourglass of Acceleration’?]
I released time and, without hesitation, took out and used the hourglass.
The first effect had no meaning in this situation.
The only hope I could place my faith in was... choosing the second option and miraculously getting Radiant Incarnation.
Fighting it was impossible. I had to run instead.
That monster might be able to chase me even if I fled at the speed of light, but running until the clear time ended might be my only chance to survive.
But...
[The cooldown of ‘Skill: Elemental Arrow Barrage (Epic+)’ has been fixed at 0 seconds.]
“...Ha.”
No such miracle occurred.
It felt as though the Tower had passed down its verdict.
That it would not permit even the faintest hope.
That I would definitely die here.
I fired Elemental Arrow Barrage at the Fighting Demon God.
KABOOOOOM!!
Flaming arrows poured down endlessly and exploded.
I refilled my Willpower several times and continued casting Elemental Arrow Barrage without stopping, now that it had a zero-second cooldown.
When I finally stopped again,
the flames cleared, revealing the Fighting Demon God completely unharmed, without even the smallest scorch mark.
...It was only natural.
Even the Demon King’s magic had failed to harm it. There was no way my skills could work.
What... was I supposed to do now?
Then, the Fighting Demon God suddenly threw the God-Slaying Sword.
The God-Slaying Sword glided through the air and stopped in front of me.
I accepted the sword with a dazed expression.
“You seem quite eager to take this back.”
“...”
“Show me every last bit of struggle you are capable of, insect.”
Grayish-white energy gathered in the Fighting Demon God’s hand and took the shape of a sword.
I raised the God-Slaying Sword with a stiff expression.
I felt no humiliation or disgrace.
I simply could not give up like this. I was desperately trying to grasp even a straw.
I spread the Cradle of Light around me. The moment my severed hand regenerated, I activated Blood Frenzy and charged at the Fighting Demon God.
CLANG!
The God-Slaying Sword collided with the sword formed from the Fighting Demon God’s divinity.
With trembling hands, I pushed its blade away.
The blades collided again as we exchanged blows.
The Fighting Demon God could have attacked faster than I could react, yet it fought while matching its physical abilities to mine.
“I have long since reached a level where I need not rely on weapons, but I too favored the sword in the past.”
I tried to use its strength to deflect its sword to the side and strike at its flank, but it saw through me.
Instead, it used my strength against me. Its sword knocked aside the God-Slaying Sword and slashed across my side.
Ignoring the pain, I continued fighting.
The moment its sword aimed for my chest, I teleported behind it.
At the same time, I thrust the God-Slaying Sword toward its back, but it saw through that too.
Without even looking, the Fighting Demon God redirected its blade behind itself and pierced my wrist first.
I caught the sword as it fell from my hand with my other hand and aimed for its foot.
It saw through that too. The Fighting Demon God kicked the blade away, then completely severed one of my wrists.
...I poured every bit of swordsmanship I had honed thus far into the fight.
Even after training with Seri in the Mindscape, my skill had continued to improve, even if only slightly. I had never neglected my training.
But...
“For such a lowly creature, your swordsmanship is quite excellent. However...”
The Fighting Demon God’s sword crossed with mine once more.
Only my chest was split open, blood spraying out.
“I can see everything.”
No technique, trick, or shortcut worked against the opponent before me.
Even under completely equal conditions, the Fighting Demon God was overwhelmingly superior in pure swordsmanship.
With a single simple movement, it countered every desperate struggle I made.
It saw everything. As though it could see the future.
“Have you ever failed to notice the movements of an ant crawling beneath your feet? It is like that.”
My arms were severed, my legs pierced, and my torso slashed to ribbons several times over.
Wounds kept accumulating across my body.
The Fighting Demon God deliberately avoided dealing fatal injuries, slowly engraving helplessness into my body.
“Even if you repeated a hundred million lives, there is a difference in rank you could never reach.”
I clenched my teeth with a grind.
Whoooosh...!
I spread fog using the Pearl of the Mist Monarch.
I summoned Pli as well as knights using Calundi Citizenship. I brought out everything I could.
Destruction Beam, Hellfire, Plasma Bullets, and Elemental Arrow Barrage. I concentrated my magic skills on the Fighting Demon God once more.
Shhk!
With one sweep of its sword, the Fighting Demon God erased all of them cleanly.
Before I knew it, it stood in front of me and grabbed my neck, lifting me up.
“Ghk...!”
I tried to raise the God-Slaying Sword and aim for its heart, but...
My body felt paralyzed by some unknown energy. I could not move even a finger.
The Fighting Demon God muttered with bored eyes.
“I still cannot understand.”
Its grip tightened around my throat.
The pressure felt as though it would twist my neck apart.
Fwoooosh...!
I activated Armor of Karma.
But when the Fighting Demon God tightened its grip, the armor shattered like glass.
‘This is insane...’
I could feel death drawing near.
I was really going to die.
Die...
Fwoooosh!
My vision suddenly turned black.
Diul burst out from the bracelet and grew to the size of a giant. Darkness enveloped the Fighting Demon God’s body and squeezed tight.
‘Ruuuuuun...!!’
I realized that Diul had pushed its ability beyond its limit.
I desperately wrung out every bit of my strength to make the Fighting Demon God release the hand around my neck.
The Fighting Demon God let go.
My body fell to the ground.
...Not because Diul’s attack had worked.
It looked as though it had simply released me once in response to that desperate struggle.
Still gripping the God-Slaying Sword, I rolled across the ground, then used Phantom Shift to widen the distance from the Fighting Demon God.
Cough.
I raised my upper body.
‘Diul...!’
With a gesture from the Fighting Demon God, Diul’s form began to vanish.
At the same time, the Spirit Bracelet wrapped around my wrist shattered.
“Well, it matters not what that thing is trying to do...”
The Fighting Demon God’s voice rang out.
“If you have nothing more to show, I shall finish this. I will kill you and face the Tower once again.”
The Fighting Demon God walked toward me.
I stopped time.
...This was the end.
Feeling emptiness and despair, I realized it deeply.
The Fighting Demon God was right.
There was a difference in rank that could never be bridged, wider than heaven and earth.
Perfect and complete.
The pinnacle an existence could reach.
My opponent was a god.
This had been the predetermined outcome from the beginning.
There was no way I could win, no matter what I did...
The only struggle I could make was stopping time and postponing death like this.
‘...’
Then a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
I blankly stared at the Fighting Demon God in stopped time.
But... what exactly was this Time Stop Ability that worked even against such a tremendous being?
For the first time, I felt a deep doubt.
An ability that worked even against a god with divinity.
The conclusion was simple.
Perhaps...
My ability too...
As though possessed, I released stopped time.
Fwooo...
Light leaked from the hand holding the God-Slaying Sword.
I raised my palm.
The Floor 7 Hidden Route.
The place where the mysterious reward the Sage had given me instead of the Book of Omniscience had been absorbed.
The pattern emerged from my palm again, shining brightly.
* * *
Earth.
Person123 had accepted the Tower’s proposal and was carrying out the clear.
“...!”
People walking down the streets suddenly looked up at the sky.
“Huh?”
“J-Just now...”
Regardless of nationality or race, at the exact same moment, people around the world stopped and looked up at the sky.
Everyone on Earth, more than eight billion people, felt it.
A strange mental connection, as though they had connected with something for a moment.
The deeper a person’s reverence for Person123, the more strongly they felt it.
Ye Tianwei, who had been working in his office, shot to his feet in surprise.
His face filled with astonishment and emotion.
“Ah...!”
The same was true for the followers of Person123 Church praying in branches around the world.
They instinctively understood what this connection was.
“I-It is him!”
“Person123 is calling for us...!”
The followers began bowing frantically.
To answer the call of their god.
* * *
The shining pattern.
I finally realized what the Sage had given me.
This was... a vessel.
A Vessel of Divinity.
One of the conditions for godhood that the Demon King had mentioned.
At the same time, I felt a raging current flow into my mind.
Countless threads connected, bringing a sense of oneness with everything.
Its source was Earth in the outside world.
The reverence of more than eight billion people.
The faith they had in me.
- You... This is!
The Demon King’s cry of shock rang out.
I looked down at the God-Slaying Sword.
Fwoooosh...
The divinity of the God-Slaying Sword began flowing naturally into me.
Something hidden deeper than my soul revealed its presence as though stretching awake. It greedily absorbed the divinity and grew larger.
Something that had always been with me since birth.
I finally understood the nature of the ability that was like my very essence.
The ability to stop time.
It was a fragment of some incomparably lofty divinity.
I did not know why something like this was within me, but...
Every condition had been fulfilled.
An unprecedented energy began leading me into a new realm.
“...!!”
The Fighting Demon God’s eyes, which had held only boredom, filled with shock.
Its form blurred.
I stopped time.
The sword formed from divinity was right before my neck.
And then...
Blink.
“...?”
Had I just blinked?
Within stopped time,
I stood up, gripping the God-Slaying Sword.
After stepping back slightly, I looked at the frozen Fighting Demon God.
Then I thrust my sword into its heart.
Thunk!
The God-Slaying Sword pierced through the Fighting Demon God’s heart.
I released time.
“Did you see this too, Fighting Demon God?”
The Fighting Demon God stared at the sword embedded in its heart with disbelieving eyes.
“H...how...”
It reached a hand toward me.
I stopped time again.
I pulled the God-Slaying Sword from its heart, then swung it toward its neck.
When I released time again, the Fighting Demon God’s head flew through the air.
The corpse, its head and torso separated, began dispersing like smoke.
Before that happened, I absorbed as much of its divinity as I could.
Once the Fighting Demon God’s corpse had completely vanished,
I absorbed every last bit of divinity remaining in the God-Slaying Sword.
Crackle...
Characters flickered in the air as though an error had occurred.
Soon, proper messages appeared.
[You have successfully cleared the Hidden Route on Floor 17 of Nightmare difficulty.]
[The power of this floor is being completely absorbed.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
.
.
.
Within my newly expanded senses, I began to see things that had previously been invisible.
Refreshed. Liberated.
Feeling a freedom that such simple words could not fully express...
I could vaguely tell.
Only now had we reached something close to equal footing.
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