WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 90: Grave King Necledin (6)

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‘I thought it might be a buff-type Art.’

I never expected it to be a field Art.

And what an absurdly overpowered field it was, giving every attack an additional hit and splash damage.

A single Holy Calling sent wraiths exploding left and right.

Even when we attacked a wraith right in front of us, the attack reached Necreddin on the throne.

‘This is fucking insane.’

Aren's turn.

Shhk!

Aren used Deathblow on a wraith.

The first sword energy slashed through it, followed immediately by a copied slash that cut it apart once more.

Boom, boom, boom!

Splash damage erupted twice in succession, catching five wraiths in the explosions at once.

[Uuugh...!]

A genuine scream I hadn't heard in the previous attempts!

Lightning flashed through my mind.

When I awakened a new Art before the final battle with Varhatan.

Right before I activated Dual Art with Cecilia against Rose and Lilian.

It was the same feeling.

‘This is a Climax setup.’

As turns spun by without pause, we mercilessly tore through Necreddin and the wraiths.

The effect of Crimson Flame Array was extraordinary.

Not only Gale’s Path, but even Carving Sword had become an area attack.

Thanks to that, a single Carving Sword could stack two or three weak points at once.

‘What would happen if I used this with Cecilia's Dual Art?’

The firepower was so overwhelming that I could afford such a stray thought.

Maybe that was why.

Last time, Rosia vanished on the seventh turn, and we were all but defeated.

This time, we'd seized the advantage by the sixth turn.

When I looked up at Necreddin, it and the four wraiths already seemed unable to maintain their forms properly.

Sister Arisha's skin was splitting apart like parched earth, while Shellop's wraith still hadn't recovered its severed arm.

The battle was nearing its end.

All that remained was to finish it.

My turn.

The charged wave of Deathblow: Reversal from the previous turn swept through the wraiths.

It felt damn good.

[Kyaaaah!]

With a bloodcurdling scream, Sister Arisha's form crumbled like a sandcastle.

“Sister...!”

The other wraiths followed.

Barely able to hold their forms together, they blended into the background one by one and vanished.

Was this it?

‘No. It's beginning.’

From the spot where Sister Arisha had disappeared, a lich in a blackish-blue robe began to rise like a shadow.

Two horns protruded from its skull. Its skeletal frame looked too frail to support the weight of its robe.

Yet it was the true boss of this dungeon, radiating indescribable killing intent toward us.

[Interesting.]

Necreddin, the Grave King, had appeared.

Phase two had begun.

Ferocious demonic energy swept through the room like a storm.

The storm instantly shattered the throne Necreddin had been sitting on, then continued to grow around Necreddin.

Right. This was the Necreddin I knew.

Of course, there was no way its patterns would be the same as in the original game.

I'd already told the others.

From here on, everything was unknown.

Still, hadn't I experienced this over and over?

Attempts always revealed the answer.

‘For now, hit it.’

When Necreddin spread both arms wide, four ominous tombstones dropped from the air.

The demonic energy spread across the ground resonated with the tombstones, and skeletal monsters began crawling out of the earth one by one.

It was the summoning pattern used by the original Necreddin.

‘There's definitely more to it. Show me everything you've got.’

For some reason, though, gems began floating above the monsters' heads.

Necreddin hovered in the air, quietly retreating as it began chanting.

Huh? Something was strange.

Why was it following the original pattern exactly?

This bastard of a boss had restricted entry, screwed us over with wraiths, used poison, turned into a damage sponge, used Link, and even had a party-wipe attack.

Why had it suddenly become identical to the original game in phase two?

‘There still has to be something.’

My thoughts were interrupted by a blue gem appearing clearly above my head.

‘...There really isn't?’

While I stood there in disbelief, Necreddin began casting, and the skeleton soldiers charged toward us.

Their movements were clearly slower and clumsier than the wraiths'.

More than anything, now that the psychological pressure was gone, they posed no threat to us.

‘That bastard Climmud...’

Had that bastard really poured everything into phase one?

Because he was certain we'd be wiped out there?

It wasn't entirely wrong, of course.

‘Still pisses me off.’

I looked down at the Crimson Flame Array still spread across the floor.

This absurd field hadn't disappeared yet.

With a snort, I aimed my sword at the nearest skeleton soldier.

After easily deflecting four attacks with Just Guard, it was my turn.

“Carving Sword.”

Slash!

My sword cut through the monster's bones, and an afterimage of crimson Mana immediately pierced its upper body again.

[Weak!]

Then.

“Ashen Light.”

Boom, boom, boom!

The splash damage caused by the two attacks swallowed all the summoned monsters whole.

The blast reached Necreddin as well.

[Kieeeek?!]

Necreddin, which had been leisurely chanting from a distance, screamed at the unexpected area damage.

Its casting was forcibly interrupted, too.

“This isn't even a fight.”

I shrugged and looked at Aren, who was waiting for the next turn.

Aren and the other two merely tilted their heads at Necreddin's unexpected weakness.

I didn't have much to say myself.

“Sister Arisha was a hundred times harder than this.”

All I could do was tell them to crush it.

⁎⁎⁎

[Kieee...ek...!]

“What do you mean, kieeek?”

The light of Crimson Flame Array was fading, but it didn't matter.

Necreddin was already a wreck.

There were no monsters left to protect it, and its patterns were exactly as they had been in the original game.

The bombardment of spheres made from demonic energy was laughable compared to the wraiths' chained attacks in phase one, while Aren and I easily deflected the skull-shaped Black Flame spheres.

The monsters it kept summoning only made me think another trash mob had joined the fight.

Then Necreddin swung an arm again.

One last struggle. Wraith Wave rushed toward us.

It was a minor variable not found in the original game, a technique Negaloun had used, but that was all.

“Rosia!”

Rosia took Wraith Wave head-on.

That was the end of it.

‘Right. This is how it should be.’

This was exactly how difficult Necreddin had felt when I thought the three of us could handle it.

Without the fucked-up mechanics in phase one, we could've beaten it without Crimson Flame Array or Aren.

“Aren.”

“I know!”

While Rosia held on, Aren darted in and severed Necreddin's joints.

Crack!

At last, Necreddin braced a hand against the ground and dropped to its knees.

Stagger.

At that moment, the message [Attack!] appeared above its head.

A message I'd never seen before.

Did that mean a joint attack was possible?

‘This is how I should finish it.’

I'd put it into Stagger, and I'd also met the condition of forming Bonds with three or more people.

This was my chance to see the power of Fruition.

“Let's end this.”

At that moment, Necreddin, which had been kneeling, raised its head.

Its empty eyes swept over each of us in turn.

A chilling smile.

Cold ran down my spine.

This wasn't a pattern I knew.

“Everyone, get back! It looks like it has one more thing left!”

There was only one thing that usually came at this timing.

A desperation pattern.

But it was Mine's turn.

Desperation pattern or not, Necreddin wouldn't get another turn.

“Mine!”

Understanding what I meant, Mine immediately struck Necreddin with the final blow.

Boom!

The joints in Necreddin's kneeling body began to collapse on their own.

Then demonic energy burst out around it.

I naturally expected an attack to follow, but the demonic energy transformed into dozens of black chains and lashed out in every direction.

The black chains thrashed wildly across the battlefield.

I tried to strike them down with Just Guard, but the moment they touched my sword, they turned transparent and passed right through it.

They weren't attacks.

The chains whipped around as if searching for something, then stopped with a snap in front of Mine.

Then.

Clatterrrr!

The chains began binding her like enormous snakes. The moment they completely wrapped around Mine's body, Necreddin's gaunt skull split in half, still wearing that smile, and scattered into ash.

At the same time, Mine's body, bound in chains, went limp like a puppet with its strings cut. Rosia, who had taken Wraith Wave, did as well.

And before all our eyes, the blue gem blinking above Mine's head and Necreddin's red gem from moments earlier vanished at the same time, as if they had made a promise.

Crack.

Silence fell.

The ownerless chains dropped to the floor, followed by Mine's body.

“...Huh?”

A stunned sigh escaped someone's lips.

Maybe it had been mine.

“...Mine?”

Aren approached Mine's fallen body. Alicia, her face pale, followed behind her.

Aren shook Mine by the shoulder, but Mine didn't react at all.

She only stared blankly into space.

Alicia, who had pressed her fingers against Mine's wrist, stopped breathing.

“...There’s no pulse.”

“What do you mean...? C-can't we just heal her?! Mine! Use your healing...!”

Without hesitation, I gripped Renee.

Before the gems above our heads went completely dark.

Before the dungeon clear notification appeared.

[Unique Ability - Rewind Action 3 / 3]

I used my last remaining chance.

⁎⁎⁎

There had been one final trap.

A Take-You-With-Me Pattern.

It was probably a mechanic that took down whoever delivered the finishing blow along with it.

Defeating the boss was the condition for clearing the dungeon.

For that to happen, someone had to land the final blow.

And at that moment, someone would definitely die.

The clear itself would succeed.

That was the certain future.

But it would come at the cost of someone's sacrifice.

One of the four had to die?

That was no different from failure to me.

‘...No. There was that.’

The message only I had seen when it entered Stagger.

[Attack!]

I hadn't activated Fruition.

It was Mine's turn, and Necreddin had moved so suddenly.

What if the joint attack was the answer?

But I had no chances left to test it.

“What are you doing?”

“Is there anything else we need to prepare?”

Aren and Alicia's current figures overlapped with the Aren who had been weeping and the Alicia who had been devastated.

Then.

“Um, Halibal... is there a reason you need to keep covering my ears...?”

The Mine who had become a cold corpse overlapped with the Mine standing before me now, not knowing what to do.

‘Memories I have to bear alone.’

After having the three wait for a moment, I racked my brain.

No matter how much I thought, I couldn't find the answer.

Until now, I'd worried about whether the clear would succeed. This time, however, the clear itself was guaranteed.

‘This is fucked.’

Then.

‘If this chance fails and you rewind time once more, tell me this.’

Suddenly, I remembered what Alicia had said in the previous attempt.

“...Senior. Could you come over here for a moment?”

“Just me? What is it?”

Alicia had asked me to tell her something strange.

She had told me to say it to her if I failed.

Chronologically, this should come before I revealed my secret to everyone and reworked our strategy. She must have had a reason.

I looked directly into her eyes and repeated the words she had whispered to me.

“...Cue the lights.”

Alicia stopped where she stood.

Like a wind-up doll whose spring had been fully wound.

Then she began thinking for a long time.

I could tell her mind was racing furiously without needing to crack open her head.

Her tightly closed lips and trembling eyelashes were proof enough.

Then she broke the silence.

“...Heh.”

Alicia's shoulders began to tremble.

“Hehe... kuhuhuhahaha!”

She burst into mad laughter.

‘What? What the hell is happening?’

I was flustered.

Aren and Mine also looked dumbfounded by her sudden antics.

After laughing for a long time, Alicia slowly raised her head.

The laughter was gone, but her eyes shone brighter than they ever had before.

“Halibal.”

“Yes.”

“From now on, you may call me Alicia instead of Senior.”

“...What?”

After saying something I couldn't understand, she jerked her chin toward the boss room, and system messages appeared.

[Alicia Cyrus's Affection Level has increased.]

[Affection Level: 5 (Max)]

[Conditions for unlocking Unique Ability fulfilled.]

[Party Member Bonus with Alicia Cyrus has been officially activated.]

“Good. Let's go, for a happy ending.”

Footnotes:

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