WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈
Episode 104
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It wasn't anything to be particularly proud of, but I wasn't all that motivated for this operation.
The Death Priests and hunters had their own social circles to maintain. I was only here to go along with them.
The other participants seemed to feel much the same.
So who was the most motivated?
When I asked Bellion, the answer came easily.
"Reallos, of course."
"The Lizardman Hunter Lord?"
"Yeah."
Reallos was the one who had Kwatum under his command.
Naturally, he had to be incredibly strong.
From what I'd heard, Reallos was the most powerful Hunter Lord in the Lizardman dimension.
In effect, the Hunter Lord closest to an emperor.
"Reallos has history with Modus..."
Come to think of it, Modus had been a Lizardman before becoming undead.
It was already a small world, and they had even come from the same race.
A clash between the two must have been inevitable.
"I thought Modus had already finished getting revenge."
Bellion snickered.
"Where does revenge ever end? It's a wheel that keeps turning."
Now that Bellion mentioned it, that was true.
Apparently, Reallos was planning to attack Modus's main base alongside the Death Priests.
As we headed to meet them, one of the Death Priests spoke to me.
"Hey! You're human, right? All the bullets bought from your dimension are defective!"
Was that about the trash ammunition North Korea had sold in the Dimensional Shop?
Thinking about it, the Goblin Merchants had been willing to accept that stuff.
It was probably cheap because it was defective.
"Ah... Our dimension doesn't officially sell ammunition to other races."
My voice came out so cold and formal that even I was surprised.
A complaint had come out of nowhere, and I instinctively gave a bureaucratic answer meant to avoid responsibility.
The Orc hunter looked a little flustered.
"I-Is that so?"
"Yes. The people selling it are anti-state criminal groups, so be careful. If you give them gold, it'll come back to us as bullets!"
It wasn't a lie.
"Ah, I understand..."
"Are you an idiot? If something's listed that cheaply, you should suspect it first."
The mood lightened a little as we reached the meeting point.
Swish.
I kept lifting the lantern and checking for Reallos's army.
It felt like I'd been given a new toy.
'Is that them?'
A mass of fairly powerful soul lights was approaching.
Soon after, heavily armed Lizardmen appeared in orderly rows.
They all seemed to be hunters, and there were quite a lot of them.
The Death Priests were a small, elite force, but even so.
"They're here."
"Hmm? That Lizardman at the front doesn't have any color at all?"
Kwatum was completely white, but Reallos looked pale, as though every trace of pigment had been drained away.
Did Lizardmen have albinos too?
The aura I felt was unmistakably that of a Hunter Lord.
Reallos spoke to Gillius as the group's representative.
"You showed up on time. I almost want to tell the other Hunter Lords to learn from you."
"And you aren't late for once."
Gillius replied with a mocking edge, and Reallos smirked.
"Do you not need my army?"
"You need us. Once the situation settles, Modus will target you first."
"... Where will we begin the attack?"
When I looked toward his subordinates, Kwatum approached me with an odd smile.
That expression said Kwatum had something in mind...
I got it.
Kwatum wanted to show off his connection with a Death Priest in front of the other Lizardmen.
The whole team must have reported being defeated by a Death Priest, yet Kwatum had some nerve.
Then again, the other Lizardmen couldn't say much.
Their leader had come to join hands with the Death Priests.
"Aren't we seeing each other a little too often lately?"
"Yeah, way too often."
I answered halfheartedly, but Kwatum continued casually.
"You still have that potion from last time, right?"
What was this, some kind of drug addict?
Still, it didn't feel too bad to have my Alchemy skills recognized.
"I do. Want to buy one?"
"How much?"
In the end, I took the money and sold Kwatum a potion.
Of course, I hadn't merely sold it.
It was a special formula I had prepared for Lizardmen, just in case.
Their bodies were very different from humans, so I wanted to see whether it would work.
Without realizing it, Kwatum had become part of a biological experiment.
Even after receiving the potion, Kwatum stayed nearby.
Goloks, the Orc Death Priest Hunter Lord, approached from farther away.
"The operation will begin soon. How do you think it'll go?"
"... Isn't the plan a little careless?"
For the first time, I spoke honestly.
Yuki asked, "Which part?"
"The part where we attack the other cities to lure Modus out. Will he really take the bait that easily?"
Modus was a cowardly lord.
There was no guarantee Modus would come out just because cities recently subjugated by him were attacked.
Modus could easily stay holed up and blame the other Hunter Lords instead.
They had said they wanted to separate Mortis and Modus in the first place.
There was no way that would be easy.
Considering Modus had fed Mortis Regeneration Spore Mushrooms, Mortis probably wasn't a Lich.
Without a Soul Box, Mortis couldn't resurrect.
Would Modus really leave someone like that behind so easily?
Last time, Modus had left the main base to personally kill Aratib, but that had been a surprise gamble.
It was a plan meant to catch us off guard.
It wouldn't work twice.
Modus had to know that too, didn't he?
Goloks nodded in agreement.
"That's right. But it was the best option."
"What? You knew there were flaws in the plan?"
"Of course. Why are you only saying that now?"
That was because I had never intended to put much effort into this operation.
It would have been different if I were participating on my own.
But I was acting as a team leader now, and I couldn't put my team members in unnecessary danger.
If something went wrong, I'd run immediately.
"I thought you seniors had already thought it through. Then what about you, Goloks?"
"Didn't I say this was the best option?"
Certainly, the plan was solid despite its flaws.
Even if Modus hid, it could break the momentum of Modus's forces.
Still, wasn't it too obvious?
People said a strong army didn't need schemes, but...
Seeing Goloks's strange expression, I finally realized something.
"The best option... This was the only plan the Hunter Lords would accept?"
"That's right."
The Hunter Lords weren't idiots, so they must have known.
The chances of Modus being lured out so easily were low.
But for those who didn't want to shed blood, it wasn't a bad plan.
No, it was probably ideal.
If Modus truly came out, they would suffer real losses.
Their individual burdens were small, Modus's forces would definitely be weakened, and even if they ran away halfway through, no one could blame them.
They were all moving separately, after all.
Only Reallos, who was genuinely serious about bringing down Modus, had set out to attack the main base.
"From their perspective, this really is the best option..."
Was this really okay?
As we set up a sniper position in a favorable spot, Goloks and Kwatum followed us.
"You looked like you weren't planning to take this seriously, but you brought quite a lot of gear."
"Could you move over there?"
"No. Interesting things happen when I'm near you."
"Ah, is that so..."
They were treating me like some monkey at a zoo.
From the looks of it, Kwatum wasn't particularly motivated either.
Modus was the enemy of Reallos, Kwatum's lord.
For someone as ambitious as Kwatum, it was probably better if Modus stayed alive.
"The operation begins soon!"
It felt strange looking down at the undead city from our sniper position.
They seemed to be living diligently enough, but the city itself constantly gave off pollution.
Though human cities weren't much different.
"Modus is inside, right?"
"We've kept watch on the Tower the whole time. There hasn't been any movement for days. We're certain."
"It's time."
Bwooooo!
A grand horn sounded in the distance.
The undead in the city began moving busily.
Their own city wasn't under attack, but they must have received signals from the other cities.
Before they could deploy, though, bad news arrived from our side.
"What? Ellas is retreating on their own? The attack only just started..."
"The Dwarf force has stopped its siege as well!"
Had even ten minutes passed since the operation began?
That was far too fast.
"The northern Dwarf force has fully retreated, leaving only siege weapons and a small detachment behind!"
Only then did we begin to understand what was happening.
One Death Priest said, "I have to go! I just received word that Magical Plague is spreading through my homeland!"
"Magical Plague?"
"Aratib's work!"
"Huh..."
The Magical Plague Aratib had been so proud of.
Modus had taken it all for himself and put it to use.
Then Modus released it at this exact moment.
Aratib had probably built the infrastructure for spreading it beforehand.
Aratib had been more than capable of that.
Modus had subdued Aratib's soul and taken over that infrastructure entirely.
The allied force was already unstable.
There was no way they could continue the siege while their home dimensions were under attack.
They said the best defense was a good offense.
I didn't usually agree, but this time, the saying was right.
"Team leader! Doesn't that mean we're in danger too?"
Kim Yuna asked urgently.
My mind began racing.
"... No. Our dimension is safe."
"How can you be sure?"
"They wouldn't have had time to build the infrastructure in the first place. Aratib and Modus didn't know anything about our social system or culture."
They had sent many spies like Millon to Earth.
But Aratib died before those efforts could bear fruit.
More importantly, the mana density in our dimension was too low.
It was an unfavorable environment for Magical Plague in the air.
The plague would run out of mana and dissipate naturally before it could properly spread.
"Ah, right. That was the case..."
"See? Our communicator is quiet. Nothing's happening on Earth."
Even when Aratib had spread it personally, the infection stopped once its mana supply was cut off.
It was obvious what would happen if the remnants tried to spread it.
Gillius muttered in a voice that sounded ready to devour someone whole.
"That bastard Modus... He was quiet for a while because he was preparing this. He was one step ahead of us."
"Damn. Should I go back too..."
As Goloks shifted anxiously from foot to foot, Reallos looked over his subordinates and spoke.
"Do not be shaken. I expected this. Our homeland is safe."
What?
Was that just bluster?
If Reallos had truly expected it, why hadn't he warned the other Hunter Lords?
No... Thinking about it, Reallos might really have known.
The other Hunter Lords were competitors anyway.
There was neither duty nor reason to warn them.
If they fought Modus and weakened each other, Reallos would be the final victor.
"As expected, Your Majesty. I never could have imagined it... This must be the difference in our standing."
Kwatum rubbed his hands together as he spoke.
This bastard was a complete flatterer in front of his superior.
The desire to rise through the ranks was so obvious that I couldn't even bring myself to criticize Kwatum.
Reallos drew a sword and spoke to Gillius.
"It doesn't seem like we'll have any more guests. Let's proceed with the attack."
"You mean it?"
"I wasn't expecting much from anyone except you people anyway."
Reallos knew it too.
If he dragged this out, more Death Priests would leave as well.
He had to push forward with momentum.
"If we attack, the others will join us sooner or later."
"Why?"
"They're Hunter Lords, after all. A Hunter Lord who gets beaten and does nothing won't last a single night before being driven out."
Reallos spoke with absolute confidence and raised his sword.
"Take up your weapons! Let us seize what belongs to Modus!"
"... Inform every force. We will attack Modus as planned. Anyone with courage left, join us."
Gillius sent out the message and picked up a weapon.
"Let's go. We must capture the Tower as soon as we enter. Otherwise, we have no chance."
They had said we needed to separate Modus and Mortis first.
But they weren't separated at all.
It felt like the operation had already half fallen apart before it even began.
Still, I felt like I'd get pelted with rocks if I said anything now.
"Hajun, stay here with Juwon."
"All right. We'll prepare to snipe, so give us a signal over the communicator."
"Don't overdo it!"
We reluctantly moved with the rear of the formation.
Footnotes:
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