WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
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◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 128: Incineration
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My level went up.
No, not just that.
The Magical Essence Dancer had contained was so abundant that even after I reached the maximum level, my Magical Essence had become saturated.
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【Crystal Crown Python Lv. 50+】
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When my level went up, I got stronger.
In other words, I was stronger than I had been yesterday.
The problem was that my opponent was even stronger.
Dancer had been incredibly strong, but Failure was stronger still.
I must have kept my eyes open through sheer habit, even as I was flung away.
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【Test Subject No. 9 Failure Lv. 1?0】
【Traits】
[Imitation], [Copycat]... [Emotional Rampage]... [Magic], [Chimera]
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He sure stuffed Failure full of traits.
Had Pelerian's will been reflected in the thing he made?
If so, he really was greedy.
There had to be dozens of times the difference in our weight classes right now.
Whooosh!
Since that thing had kicked me, most of the energy inflicted on my body turned into kinetic energy.
I was flung away at nearly the same speed as the kick.
The delayed impact would hit the moment I struck the wall.
Maybe I would burst apart and become a flattened snake pancake.
That couldn't happen.
「You use Elastic Rampage Lv. 1.」
This was the time to focus on the “elastic” part, not the “rampage” part.
I couldn't control my movements, but instead of bursting apart, my body began to bounce.
Bo-bo-bo-bo-boing!
I bounced with the speed of lightning.
I clamped my mouth shut so I wouldn't throw up.
After bouncing around eight times, Failure surprisingly charged at me like a tiger and tried to kick me again.
I twisted my body with all my might in midair.
Their foot smashed into the wall instead of me.
Crash!
Dungeon walls were incredibly sturdy.
Yet that wall shattered like tofu.
That made me realize something.
‘That thing could have escaped the Dungeon!’
No matter how tough the Dungeon's materials were, they could have broken through a closed door with that much strength.
The reason they had stayed docile until now was obvious.
-...They must have thought the cage was the whole world.
The chimera had been thrown into the Dungeon so suddenly that they must have believed this place was the whole world.
That was why they had wandered the Dungeon without ever considering escape.
‘Once they got hungry, they would have eventually left.’
But how long could they have kept doing that?
The monster would have eventually been unable to endure the hunger and left.
Then, beneath bright sunlight, Failure would have revealed their appearance to the world for the first time.
Hmm, when I thought about it, Failure was kind of pitiful...
“Fail! Ure!”
Thud!
I got hit while pitying Failure.
Failure was ridiculously fast.
They had no sharp claws or blade-like shins.
They kicked and struck me with the primitive style of a child fighting.
“Disgrace! Shame! Failure! Faiiiry!”
Was Failure some kind of bogeyman?
They spat out words they had probably heard from Pelerian at random.
It was utterly bizarre.
The problem was that the bizarre thing was absurdly strong and absurdly fast.
I wasn't slow, but Failure was much faster than me.
Crash!
Thank goodness for Elastic Rampage.
Without it, my body would have burst apart and I would have died long ago.
Elastic Rampage had an effect similar to impact immunity.
Bladed weapons would have injured me, but punches and kicks did not hurt me much.
Bo-bo-bo-bo-boing!
The downside was that after bouncing dozens of times, it felt like my brain was being crushed.
‘Why did you make it so strong?’
-Ugh...
Yeah, a new body being strong and tough was good.
‘Take responsibility!’
-I will. I'll take responsibility.
I had no idea how he intended to do that.
As I picked myself up after being flung away, Failure roared and charged at me.
“Se-le-na!”
What are you even saying?!
-Aaah! Damn it!
“Sssaaah!”
「You use Heart-Eating Leap Lv. 5.」
I leaped.
Not toward Failure, but up, high above!
Failure passed through the spot where I had been.
Crash!
Failure smashed straight through the wall.
That bought me a brief moment.
「You use Stealth Lv. 10.」
This wasn't running away. It was a tactical retreat.
After all, I had been called an assassin of darkness in the Great Forest.
Failure failed to spot me.
-Go to the control room. Go to the control room.
I had been thinking the same thing.
After clashing with Failure, I knew for certain.
Dancer had barely been manageable, so there was no way I could defeat Failure head-on.
‘What do you think that chimera was made from?’
A chimera was a fusion of various monsters.
You could call it a comprehensive art form that gathered essences capable of expressing monster traits and created a new species.
-...Fairy.
‘Gasp!’
I knew the old man was terrible.
But had he finally gone so far as to mix his own race with monsters for human experimentation?
-I used my own blood, obviously!
Pelerian growled in defense.
‘No wonder it was ugly.’
-And... I don't know. Dragonkin and... the World Tree? Those are what seem certain, at least.
Good grief.
The concept was straight out of an elementary schooler making an original character.
A fallen angel descended from chaos and light, with dragon blood in its veins, who could see through lies with its left eye and see the future with its right.
Wasn't it a chimera loaded with that much absurdly overpowered backstory?
‘It would have been perfect if you had just left out the fairy blood.’
-They are still Failure. You can tell from the way they look.
That was true.
Loud crashes echoed from behind me.
Unable to see me, Failure seemed to be tearing through the place as they searched.
I barely reached the control room, but I was scared Failure would catch up any second.
I needed to finish this quickly.
I asked Pelerian.
‘We're using that method, right?’
-Right.
We understood each other without needing to say more.
If I couldn't fight Failure head-on, I just had to hunt them another way.
And after spending several days here, I had thought of something.
There was a method that would be more than useful in this situation.
-We should have burned it all down sooner.
Following Pelerian's directions, I adjusted the machinery in the control room.
I repeatedly pulled pins and turned dials.
No matter how much I tried, I had no idea how any of this worked.
-Restarting the Incineration Procedure.
-The Test Subjects have not been recovered. Incineration is impossible.
The Magical Spirit repeated what it had said before.
Because Jannil and the other humans had recklessly tampered with the machinery, the chimeras had been released.
That had stopped the Incineration Procedure already in progress.
And now.
Pelerian was trying to start it again.
This wasn't a suicide attempt. I had a plan too.
‘Isil, you can help, right?’
Because Isil was by my side.
There was no reason, nor any need, to take Isil's Flame Immunity with the Crown of Seizure.
‘Communion...!’
Isil could share skills with me.
Isil's Flame Immunity.
With that, I could safely endure the Incineration Procedure.
The question was how to restart the halted Incineration Procedure.
But Doctor Pelerian had a method.
-Damage has been detected in the Test Subject tank-
-The Test Subjects have not been recovered-
-The Test Subjects' life-support systems are being shut down-
The Pelerian beside me was only a fragment of a soul and had lost some memories.
Still, he was undeniably the one who had created this massive system and Dungeon.
I only operated things as he directed, yet the Magical Spirit's voice flowed out one message after another.
If the Incineration Procedure had stopped because the experiment was incomplete, then all we had to do was complete it.
-Transmitting experiment contents.
It was something repeated at other Dungeons as well.
Transmit the experiment contents.
To where Pelerian was.
Then where would the data sent from Tombstone in the Mountain Range go?
The crystal panel's light blinked in a complicated pattern.
Pelerian seemed to understand what it meant.
-Ah, below.
‘What?’
-Below this place. The Dungeon, underground... Was there an underground level?
I had looked over the crystal panel's map dozens of times, but there had been no underground level.
-It must have been hidden. The signal is headed down now. Either my corpse is buried underground, or there is an underground space.
Then...
At that moment, the Magic Spirit pronounced its judgment.
-Resuming the incineration and demolition procedure.
-Incineration will begin shortly.
-10...
Huh? Hadn't it been 30 seconds before?
The pounding sounds were drawing closer too.
Failure had relentlessly pursued me.
That sound was terrifying!
Uh, for now...
-Get into the vent! Let's go down!
That sounded best.
Just as I was about to slip into the vent.
Crash!
Failure finally appeared.
Failure's long, fairy-like ears perked up and moved toward me.
The way their ears moved so well definitely made them seem beastlike.
Our eyes met for only a moment.
Then I immediately shoved myself into the vent.
No matter how fast and nimble Failure was, they could not squeeze through the narrow vent.
I crawled inside like a loach.
-9... 8...
The countdown continued.
Pelerian gave directions, shouting, “Right! Left! Left!”
I wondered if he knew something, but then...
Clunk!
The vent suddenly widened.
Then it began dropping at a nearly vertical angle.
‘This doesn't seem like a vent!’
I had a reason for thinking that.
It was coated not just in dust but also in dirty soot.
The passage was far too wide to be for ventilation.
Seeing how it sloped downward as though something was meant to slide through it, it seemed more like a chute for throwing things away.
-If I remember right, the lowest part of the Dungeon is where waste gets incinerated and discarded.
‘Then is there a secret room below that?’
-Who knows...
Then this had to be a chute for dumping trash.
-7... 6...
A booming voice echoed from above.
When I looked up, Failure was sliding down as well.
Failure had followed me all the way here.
We had only just met, so why was Failure so determined?
Was it because of Pelerian's ring I was wearing?
“Shameful mooonster...!”
‘Happiness Is a Burning Heretic's Side Kick!’
Failure might have been fast, but they couldn't make themself fall faster.
Whether it was a wooden ball or an iron ball, they fell at nearly the same speed.
Until the passage ended and we fell, the distance between us did not close.
I landed with a thud.
Crash!
The much heavier chimera fell with a far louder impact.
Ash billowed up everywhere.
-4... 3...
Time passed even then.
I hurriedly got up and braced myself.
I couldn't share Isil's skill forever.
「Demon Hunter's Vine Isil uses Communion Lv. 2.」
「You share Flame Immunity Lv. -.」
Oh.
I could feel Mana being consumed at an incredible rate.
It had to be the same for Isil.
‘Isil, hold on tight.’
If fire was going to engulf the entire Dungeon, a tremendous blast of hot wind would follow.
The incineration would reach this waste disposal facility without exception.
-2... 1...
As the ash settled, Failure came into view.
Failure's grotesque body was covered in black ash, making them look like a demon risen from hell.
Failure looked to be in pain.
Maybe they truly were. They were a chimera, after all.
For some reason, Failure wanted to kill me, but I still felt sorry for them.
‘Why did you make something like that?’
-I know. I really want to kill the bastard who made that thing.
It seemed Pelerian had come to hate Pelerian too.
“Fail-ure, snake, fairy, Selena!”
‘I will scold Pelerian in your place.’
Goodbye.
-Starting incineration.
Then I heard a hissss.
Something was being sprayed from nozzles protruding from the ceiling.
The click must have been the ignition.
Flames spread with a speed comparable to a gas explosion.
In the span of a blink, the wide space was filled with flames.
A destructive shockwave spread from the sudden rise in pressure.
Boom!
I had already curled myself into a poop-shaped coil.
I had even activated Black Scales.
After spinning through the air several times, I managed something close to a landing.
Everything around me was glowing red.
It felt as though I had come down from the summit of a dwarven mine toward a lava lake below.
An unknown liquid continued spraying from the nozzles in the ceiling.
It fell below as a rain of flames.
Flames raged.
Fire overflowed.
A fiery hell had been brought into the mortal world.
Yet those terrible flames could not harm me.
This was the effect of Flame Immunity...!
Isil even fluttered their leaves as though they felt good.
What a hard-boiled vine.
Aside from the difficulty breathing, I did not feel too bad either.
Then what about the enemy?
Test Subject No. 9 Failure was engulfed in flames.
Failure was burning fiercely.
Yet they were not dead.
They stood firm despite the pain of fire clinging to their body.
They moved their mouth as if saying something.
I couldn't hear them through the raging hot wind.
But I could read their lips.
‘Failure.’
Was that the only word they knew?
Fine. I would free Failure from the pain of their birth.
The burning chimera approached me.
I approached Failure too.
There was plenty of room here.
「You use Giantification Lv. 2.」
Enough room for me to enlarge myself as much as I pleased.
I would finish this in one blow.
「You use Acceleration Lv. 7.」
「You use Heart-Eating Leap Lv. 4.」
My mouth had become larger than the chimera.
I bit down on the whole thing.
Crunch!
The burning creature could not resist.
So it was over in a single strike.
「You have defeated Test Subject No. 9 Failure Lv. 120.」
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