WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Damned Transmigration ◈
Chapter 110: Calamity Star 3
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There was no time to scream. It was fortunate that he had not bitten his tongue. No, that he had not died.
An uppercut? A Rising Dragon Fist? His hazy, fragmented thoughts analyzed the attack he had just taken. She vanished, then he was struck. Had she slipped beneath him? He had felt nothing until he was hit.
It was a skillful attack. A fist that clean was enough to kill someone without even carrying inner power. Even if it did not kill them, it could shatter their jaw.
Lorelia’s fist broke nothing. It sent only Yuri’s consciousness and body flying with perfect precision.
“Come at me with the intent to kill!”
Lorelia leaped low and spun half a turn in the air. Her foot was already in position, aimed precisely at Yuri’s body as he fell backward.
Bang!
Her kick drove Yuri into a nearby pile of rocks. By then, he could no longer hold even his hazy, fragmented thoughts together, and he blacked out for a moment.
“This is insane...!”
Haryeong stared in horror at where Yuri had flown. Collapsed rocks were piled over him like a grave.
But she could not move to check on him.
Crimson eyes flickering with red light were watching Haryeong. Just being under that gaze sent chills down her spine.
Haryeong quickly gripped White Fang in her right hand and readied concealed weapons from her Subspace with her left.
“What incredible luck!”
Estor, who had been standing there with a dazed expression, let out a joyful shout. To think he could fight Calamity Star, a Martial Apex Venerable!
The fact that she had not killed Yuri in one blow meant Calamity Star was holding back tremendously.
In other words, this was a spar with Calamity Star!
Estor shouted and charged at Lorelia.
Whoosh!
Sword force condensed in an instant, forming Glimmerblade.
Lorelia liked his eagerness to attack at once and his quick judgment. She also liked that he did not hesitate to use killing moves just because this was a spar. The only person here who needed to refrain from every killing move was Lorelia.
Slashes from the Orsia Sword Saint Style filled her vision, but Lorelia did not retreat. She simply raised one finger and thrust it forward.
Boom, boom, boom!
That alone erased every slash and stopped the sword. Glimmerblade could not push back even a single finger. It trembled as particles of light spilled from it.
“Is this somewhere between sword force and a Light Sword? Surely you have not yet reached the realm of the Light Sword?”
“I have reached it, but... I need time to form a Light Sword.”
Estor answered as he pressed against her finger with all his strength, a line of cold sweat running down his face.
“Time! There is a common saying about that: time is gold. How much time does Sword Dragon need to form a Light Sword?”
“Three... no, about two minutes.”
When he fought the Withered Crone, Estor had needed three minutes of concentration to form a Light Sword. Since then, he had trained hard and raised his realm.
He could now form one in two minutes.
“This Lorelia is confident that she could beat Sword Dragon to death over a hundred times in two minutes! Do you not know how long and precious two minutes are in battle?”
“I know very well.”
“Form a Light Sword within one minute from now. If you cannot form one after a minute has passed, you will receive ten of this Lorelia’s painful punches for every second!”
Estor immediately gripped his sword. He had no idea how painful those punches would be, but after hearing the one-minute limit, he resolved to form a Light Sword within that time no matter what.
“A sneak attack!”
The dozens of throwing knives flying toward Lorelia’s back abruptly stopped in midair. Lorelia leaped over the frozen knives and appeared in front of Haryeong.
Her speed was beyond Haryeong’s understanding, but she swung White Fang before panic could take hold.
Swish!
The dagger coated in a thin layer of sword force grazed Lorelia. It had not truly touched her, but it looked as if it had. Lorelia’s evasion had been that narrow.
The moment her dagger missed, Haryeong swung the hand hidden in her sleeve.
A dagger shorter than White Fang shot toward Lorelia’s body. As Lorelia tried to evade it by the narrowest margin, the dagger extended ever so slightly.
It extended just enough to graze her. A shallow cut would be enough. Naturally, this type of variable concealed weapon was coated with poison.
Yet Lorelia’s hand caught it far faster than it could graze her. Haryeong’s slightly twisted hand went limp, and the dagger fell.
“What if this Lorelia had failed to respond and was cut and poisoned?”
“...You would have suffered pain that turned your senses inside out, then vomited blood and died within a few dozen minutes.”
“How terrible! Dark Blossom intended to kill this Lorelia?”
“You told us to come at you with the intent to kill.”
“There was absolutely no chance of this Lorelia being cut, and even if I had been cut, I would not have been poisoned! Still, that was an excellent attack made with the intent to kill!”
Lorelia was delighted by the killing move that used both poison and concealed weapons.
Clang!
The dagger on the ground was kicked upward by her toes. Lorelia caught it in midair and returned it to Haryeong.
“Let us put a little more careful killing intent into it this time!”
Bang!
Yuri, who had been buried beneath the rock grave on one side, pushed himself up. He had lost consciousness for a moment. Spitting out the blood in his mouth, he glared at Lorelia.
“It’s been a while since we met, and you had to...”
Once again, he could not finish speaking. Lorelia had vanished from his sight.
But he had already deployed Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death. Yuri focused on the external senses formed from a web of lightning energy and read Lorelia’s approach.
He detected her at the edge of his range, then read the path of her fist. An attack aimed at his cheek. As the fist was about to land, Yuri spun his body in that direction.
“Wow!”
He had not only redirected the punch at the precise moment it struck, but immediately linked it into a counterattack. Lorelia could not help letting out a delighted exclamation.
The path of Yuri’s foot drew a crimson line. Crimson Stream Kick, devised from Moonlit Reveller’s kicking techniques, surged toward Lorelia.
A bright smile spread across Lorelia’s lips.
Sword Dragon used a sword, as his title implied, while Dark Blossom of the Dang Family used concealed weapons and daggers. Truthfully, Lorelia did not like that.
A perfectly trained body was stronger than any weapon, so why hold one at all? Even a weapon made from precious Eterium could not compare to Lorelia’s fists.
“Excellent!”
That was why Yuri’s kicking technique delighted Lorelia. It had already been over two years since UrMumSpammer, Lee Su-hyeok, had transmigrated into this ruined world.
She had taught him the Heavenly Art of Annihilating Evil and Sacred Flame Release, hoping he would someday mature and bloom, but the path of a martial artist, especially an unarmed fighter, was harsh.
With a divine art, he could quickly pass through the lower tiers that eliminated more than half of unarmed fighters. Even so, Lorelia had thought there was a high chance he would grow discouraged and take up a weapon.
Look at him now. Yuri held no weapon. He was not even using only his fists, but attacking with his legs as well!
How admirable and delightful!
Still, Lorelia could not take a kick just because she found it delightful. Wanting to play along, she swung her own leg.
Clang!
Their legs collided. She could have severed his leg in that instant, but she did not.
“Come at me with the intent to kill!”
The cry she had made herself did not apply to Lorelia. To her, this fight was only a light test and assessment before she began teaching them.
Crack!
Their locked legs were forcibly dragged downward. The legs touching each other would not separate, as though they had been firmly glued together.
The instant Yuri’s dragged-down foot touched the ground, their legs came apart with a soft tap.
He could not retreat. Lorelia lightly stepped on Yuri’s foot. Beneath her bright smile, her fist moved.
Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death. Yuri saw through the close-range attack and tried to respond, but this time it was impossible. The instant his lightning energy identified the punch, it was already touching his body. He could not sense it and react in time.
Lorelia’s fist, moving only slightly faster, was quicker than Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death’s forced response.
‘Get your guard up!’
He had no choice but to do what he had learned in the waiting room. Yuri raised both arms together to protect his head and chest, curling his body slightly.
Thud, thud, thud!
A barrage he could have endured pounded against his guard. Even then, the lightning energy of Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death continued detecting her fists.
Then there were too many attacks. Far too many. His senses tangled together.
Crunch!
A fist pierced through the opening created by that tangled perception. He had neither sensed nor seen it. That made it all the more devastating as it shook Yuri’s insides.
The impact made his mouth fall open. The instant his guard broke slightly, a straight punch forced its way into the gap.
One strike to the center of his face. A turning hook into his left cheek. An uppercut sent his head back again.
“It is not a technique to disparage as a mere trick, but if you rely on it too much, your eyes will grow dull!”
He had focused on Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death and missed his chance to respond. It was a fair criticism.
The punches to his side and liver hurt more than the three consecutive strikes to his face. Yuri forced himself to keep breathing and lifted his head.
“I-I did it!”
A short distance away, Estor shouted in joy as sweat poured down his body while he condensed sword force. Just before a full minute passed after he began concentrating, he completed his Light Sword.
“Then come at me!”
Lorelia did not praise him for making a Light Sword within the minute as she had ordered.
There was no point in clenching a fist unless one swung it to strike. There was no point in gripping a sword unless one swung it to cut.
“Dark Blossom! And Yuri! How long are you going to stay seated?”
Haryeong prepared concealed weapons from her Subspace with a tense expression, while Yuri gritted his teeth and rose.
“Come at this Lorelia intending to kill me!”
Of course, they could not kill her.
If anything, they were the ones who nearly died. The three slumped onto the ground, looking no better than Beggars' Sect beggars as they gasped for breath.
Their ragged breaths carried a sickly sweet scent mixed with blood. Even as they breathed, the smell of blood clotted inside their noses was strong.
It was astonishing that none of them had broken a single bone despite being beaten this badly. That only showed how precise and delicate Lorelia’s violence was.
Yuri rubbed around his swollen eyes and looked to his right. Estor sat there with split lips and a face so swollen it looked as if his bone structure had changed.
He looked to his left. His eyes met Haryeong’s as she stuffed cloth into her nostrils. She immediately covered her nose with a hand, but Yuri did not even have the strength to laugh at her.
“Good work!”
Lorelia did not have a single injury, nor did she look disheveled. The only difference from before was that the bandages wrapped around her hands had turned completely red.
She removed the blood-dripping bandages and smiled.
“As you are called the Three Heroes, all three of you are very skilled! Since each of you specializes in something different, this Lorelia greatly enjoyed teaching you.”
“Teaching...?”
Yuri muttered in disbelief. It was fortunate they had only suffered minor injuries and had not died, but that one-sided violence was supposed to be teaching?
“Mm, to be precise, perhaps it was a taste of teaching? You destroyed the Evil God’s parish, and you helped bring deathlike pain and humiliation upon a Saint who absolutely had to die! This Lorelia has come on behalf of the Sect of Order to thank you!”
“Your thanks are beating us up?”
“This Lorelia thought long and hard about how to show you my gratitude! After much thought, I found the answer!”
“What... answer?”
Yuri asked again, half excited and half terrified.
“I will personally serve you by helping you obtain a martial artist’s joy!”
What was a martial artist’s joy? The three blinked as they waited for an answer. Lorelia raised her open right hand over her head and continued.
“What is the greatest joy for a martial artist? It is becoming stronger! Tempering the body! Storing mana and inner power in the dantian! Opening the middle dantian and Upper Dantian through steadily accumulated effort! Overcoming walls and rising to higher tiers! That is the greatest joy of a martial artist!”
The sun high in the sky rested upon her raised palm. Before everyone’s eyes, Lorelia slowly closed her hand.
Her white hand, stained with red blood, gripped the sun.
For an instant, Yuri felt as if the sun had vanished and the world had blinked.
In other words, she was going to train them.
“I did not take part in the fight against the Saint.”
Estor said gloomily as he kneaded his aching face.
“I have no reason to receive Priestess Lorelia’s gratitude.”
It seemed a once-in-a-lifetime chance to receive direct teachings from Calamity Star, a Martial Apex Venerable, was slipping through his fingers. Estor felt genuinely disappointed.
“What does that matter? You can work hard from now on!”
Lorelia opened the fist she had clenched and smiled brightly.
“There are more Saints of the Evil God! I do not know exactly how many, but there are probably more than five! That means there are at least five bastards to kill in the future. If the one who escaped comes seeking revenge someday, we can kill that one then!”
“Ah...!”
Deeply moved by those words, Estor straightened his posture.
“It’s good to see you again.”
Yuri grumbled as he rubbed at his throbbing swollen eyes.
“Do you not feel that way, Lady Lorelia? Surely I am not the only one happy and glad about this reunion?”
“What an upsetting thing to say! Yuri cannot imagine how much this Lorelia longed for our reunion!”
The fist that had swallowed and gripped the sun became a prayer.
Lorelia still wore pure white priestly robes, with beautiful silver hair and ruby-like gleaming eyes. Praying in that appearance, she looked like a saintess.
If not for the blood running down both hands.
“I did not expect us to meet again so quickly.”
Her smiling red eyes turned toward Haryeong and Estor. The most unexpected thing for Lorelia was that Yuri was not alone.
It was rare for Transmigrators to reveal their identities to those around them and act together. Even if much time had passed, Transmigrators were still feared and avoided by the people of this world.
What had happened? What events had they experienced together that led them to accept Yuri even after learning he was a Transmigrator? How much did they know?
“Have you been well?”
“I think I’ve been doing fairly well.”
“That is wonderful!”
Those stories were none of Lorelia’s concern. She had come here to show them a martial artist’s joy. So Lorelia only answered cheerfully and did not ask any more questions.
“Let’s go talk.”
Yuri knew what kind of person Lorelia was. He let out a deep sigh and rose with his aching body.
“Over there, just the two of us.”
Unlike Lorelia, Yuri had many things he wanted to ask.
The Heavenly Art of Annihilating Evil, a demonic art with a risk of self-destruction.
Why it was mistaken for the Heavenly Demon’s Divine Art, and whether its mnemonic verses were truly incomplete.
‘And the Veil of Deception is suspicious as hell too.’
Lorelia was the only one who could answer him.
Footnotes:
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