WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
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◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 130: Le Petit
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The paper was cheap.
But the handwriting on it was quite elegant.
「This letter began in Solion Impel...」
The moment Pelerian saw that line, he burned the paper.
He had heard that an irritating letter trend was spreading, but he never imagined it would reach even him.
“Damn it, do these bastards have nothing better to do?”
Annoyed, Pelerian swept back his hair.
There were not many places he could call a sanctuary.
That was ironic, considering he had built hundreds of Dungeons for himself across the continent.
They were all laboratories or important facilities meant to help him achieve his great purpose.
They could be Pelerian’s outposts, but never his sanctuary.
Tombstone Dungeon, built within the Demonic Realm of the Mountain Range.
This place, secretly constructed beneath it, was exceptionally precious to him.
After all, Pelerian had built it for his own end.
He visited from time to time, and the thing he did most often in this sanctuary was read the letters that had piled up.
If someone asked whether the Heaven-Defier had friends to exchange letters with, the obvious answer would be no.
But from another perspective, perhaps he had quite a few.
“Whose name did this come under...? Jenkins?”
The back of the letter read, To Mr. Jenkins.
That was a name he used in Solion Impel.
Somewhere in Solion Impel, there would be a small house where a wizard named Jenkins lived.
Letters placed in its mailbox would eventually be delivered to Pelerian.
He had other false identities scattered throughout the continent’s major cities as well.
“Genie” in that desert, “Hegemony” in the East, and even “Arthur,” “Riddle,” and “Pendragon” besides...
To be honest, Pelerian the Fairy Mage was not popular.
That was an undeniable fact.
Still, he had made friends under several identities he had used while concealing himself.
Very occasionally, letters arrived from them.
They could pile up rather nicely, but...
There were not many today.
Then again, he had more than one or two identities. Those relationships had begun decades, even centuries ago.
All the short-lived folk among his few friends had probably died by now.
“Have I lived too long?”
Pelerian muttered that, then flinched at his own words.
Lived too long?
Elves did not say things like that.
Elves far older than him were still alive and well...
Perhaps Pelerian had spent too long out in the world.
Perhaps that was why he was no longer very elf-like.
“...Elf. Yes, what use is being an elf?”
He closed his eyes for a moment.
Fwoosh.
The letters scattered about the room all burned away at once.
It was elemental magic that had reached the realm of the divine.
He had thought reading his accumulated letters before dying would make for a rather romantic end.
But now, he realized it was not.
From his fingertips to his wrist, Pelerian’s left arm had turned pitch-black.
It was the price of failing to make contact with “chaos” as a mage.
What Heaven-Defier?
Even his final struggle had ended like this.
The poison of chaos was spreading from his left arm, and it would kill him...
Still, he was only leaving a little early. He was not afraid of death.
This terrible emptiness was the problem.
“Spirit.”
-Yes, Lord Pelerian.
The Magical Spirit’s voice came from the receiver on the desk.
“When I die, burn it all and destroy it all. Leave nothing behind.”
-Should I stop the experiments?
“Yes. Stop them all.”
He had truly considered changing bodies.
But after seeing the completed Chimera that imitated an elf, Pelerian had been deeply shocked.
It was neither elf nor monster. It was merely a grotesque Chimera.
Why had he entertained such a thought, even for a moment?
Probably because the world he believed in had collapsed.
‘Make the elves great again...’
Elves who had stagnated and were dying away.
He wanted to save a race going extinct like a stagnant pond slowly drying up.
He wanted to find a way for them to evolve into High-Elves.
But the moment he learned all of it was meaningless.
The moment the motivation that had driven him all this time vanished.
Pelerian collapsed.
A journal lay before him.
「The end lives and breathes in the imperial underground garden.」
A dark shadow had fallen across the entire continent.
「Only now have I realized that civilization has little time remaining. If it cannot be stopped, every living intelligent being will die before long. Elves will be no exception...」
If he had not personally infiltrated the imperial palace.
If he had not seen the Monster of the Apocalypse growing beneath it, he would never have believed it.
All civilization on the continent would perish? He would have dismissed it as the ravings of conspiracy theorists.
In any case.
All those troublesome matters were over now.
Pelerian felt death approaching.
His body temperature was rapidly dropping.
Clatter.
The glass slipped from his right hand.
Strong liquor, which he did not usually drink, spilled across the floor.
He remembered the ending of a tragedy he had liked.
‘Raise your glass. Death awaits you at the door, sharpening its blade.’
What play was that from?
The light slowly faded.
Darkness pressed in.
In the words of those Eastern monks.
Pelerian was crossing from this shore to the other shore.
Just as he was about to sink into an eternal sea of mist.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The receiver on the desk flashed as it sounded.
Only a very few people could contact him through that receiver.
Pelerian’s eyes snapped open.
This message came from his nemesis.
Caspian.
That human Archmage had sent Pelerian a message.
The cipher displayed on the receiver flashed at a speed an ordinary person could never follow.
Pelerian’s expression changed by the moment as he watched it.
“...Heh heh, he says he’s coming for me.”
Pelerian’s reaction to Caspian’s message was...
“He’ll trespass into my territory and save my life? How dare that little wretch...!”
Mockery and fury.
Either way, it was the opposite of accepting death.
That must have changed Pelerian’s mind.
He could not sit here and wait for salvation from an enemy.
Even if Pelerian died first, he could not let his nemesis see him die alone and miserably.
Pelerian’s pride would not allow it.
He rose from his chair.
He staggered, and his vision swam.
The poison of chaos spread from his left hand.
Pelerian placed his right hand on his left forearm.
His forearm froze white, then came cleanly off as if cut by a blade.
He sacrificed his left arm to buy a little time.
Thud.
The severed arm fell onto the chair.
Its hand still clutched the receiver.
Thanks to a precise combination of spells, not a single drop of blood fell.
Pale-faced, Pelerian glared at the desk.
Caspian would surely find this hideout and enter it.
That dreadful little thing had always exceeded Pelerian’s imagination.
If so, Caspian would find the severed arm and the receiver here.
There was something Pelerian had meant to give Caspian anyway.
He pulled a key carved from gold from his robes and set it on the desk.
He was about to leave without hesitation, but then turned back.
Taking out a pen, he scribbled something in his journal.
Thinking that Caspian would read it someday if he returned.
After writing it, Pelerian left the Dungeon without hesitation.
Even he did not know what he should do next.
He had no idea how long he could prolong his fading life.
But if he survived, he would return.
His resolve may have been firm.
But Pelerian never returned.
* * *
Written in the Elven language in the journal were the words:
「Caspian, you shall take neither my favor, nor my debt, nor my corpse!」
The handwriting was bold and flowing.
How could one sentence contain such an obstinate personality?
I knew that the human mage Caspian was Pelerian’s rival, though actually a far greater mage than Pelerian.
They certainly were not close enough to call each other comrades.
They must have been enemies, yet for some reason, it said that Caspian had intended to come save the dying Pelerian.
Why?
-There is no way we were that close. Never!
According to Pelerian’s incomplete memories, it was impossible.
‘That’s what you think, sir. Maybe this Caspian person was actually kind? An admirable person who saves even an enemy?’
-Pfft! What nonsense. That bastard is a bloodless, heartless psycho and a bundle of defects.
If he had simply flown into a rage, that would have been one thing, but the fact that he laughed like that made it seem true.
Anyway, looking at what was here now...
‘It looks like Caspian never came here. Or maybe he couldn’t.’
-I see...
Pelerian’s journal, the golden key, and various other objects remained untouched.
There were no signs of an intrusion either.
What had happened here?
Did that mean Pelerian was still alive?
The journal said death was unavoidable, but who knew.
‘Still, there’s a lot of shocking stuff here.’
-There certainly is.
It was a journal containing the secrets of the world.
The most surprising part was, of course...
‘The continent is going to be destroyed soon...’
-I gave up on the evolution of elves...
Pelerian and I were surprised by slightly different things.
Still, the reason Pelerian had given up on his lifelong wish was because he had discovered that the continent would be destroyed, so it was along the same lines.
‘The imperial palace means the one in the Empire, right? What does it say is in the underground garden?’
The journal said that “the end” was living and breathing there.
Was the end an Epithet for some kind of monster?
-The end refers to a monster capable of destroying the continent.
‘Is it like the Calamity?’
-There are monsters called Calamities as well.
Among Named Monsters, the especially remarkable ones are called this Calamity or that Calamity.
They say some monsters can destroy a small kingdom by themselves.
As if I could believe that. If there were so many monsters like that, would not the continent have been destroyed ages ago?
The power creep was ridiculous. It was no different from Dragon X eventually claiming that even Krillin could destroy the planet based on power levels.
-But the end is different. The Monster of the Apocalypse will one day destroy the continent. Prophecies like that have been passed down in many forms since long ago. Every religious order has received such an oracle at least once.
‘No matter how strong one monster is, how can it destroy the entire continent? It would take ages just to travel from one end to the other.’
I was not mocking it. I was genuinely curious.
-No one knows what form the Monster of the Apocalypse will take, but they say it has no limit to its growth. It devours other things without end and grows stronger by that much. In the end, even other monsters will submit to it and become its limbs. If that is true, then perhaps it is not impossible.
No limit to its growth.
That sounded exactly like me.
‘They’re raising something like that in the imperial underground garden? Why would they do that?’
-How would I know? I can hardly believe it in the first place...
It was an absurd matter that even Pelerian himself had struggled to believe.
Still, Pelerian proper, Pel-proper for short, seemed serious.
Then when exactly was the world supposed to end?
Pelerian’s lifelong wish, “the evolution of elves.”
If he had abandoned it, the remaining time probably could not have been long.
I eagerly flipped through the journal.
Then I found the part that stated how much time remained!
「Perhaps the time given to us is... approximately twenty years.」
Twenty years.
That was not a particularly short time.
For an elf, I suppose twenty years was nothing much.
Thank goodness, there was still plenty of time.
‘Wait.’
Something suddenly occurred to me.
‘Wouldn’t twenty years have already passed?’
-Oh... You’re right.
Startled, I looked at the journal and saw the sentence continued on the next page.
「...Or at the latest, within 120 years. Oh, inevitable death. Strong liquor already drunk.」
Sigh. Elves.
Had we already entered the path to destruction?
I did not know.
If I ever had a chance to visit the imperial palace.
I wanted to meet that end fellow in the underground garden.
Maybe it was a nice fellow who had no intention of destroying the world.
Though I would probably never meet it.
-Take that key.
The key carved from gold.
Looking closely, it was difficult to even call it a key.
It was bent and warped, like some peculiar work of art.
-It is a key to the Royal Bank. One for a special vault that can never be forged.
‘He was going to give this to that human mage. What’s inside?’
-I do not remember. We will find out when we open it.
Pelerian said that confidently.
If I entered a bank and held out the key, asking the bankers to open the vault, what would they say?
‘Aah! A snake!’ Or, ‘Please take a number first.’
I would think about that later.
Honestly.
There was something I cared about more than the destruction of the world right now.
‘Let’s evolve first and think about it later.’
-Yes, well, do that.
For the first time in a while.
It was time to evolve.
* * *
※ Evolution Precautions.
-Evolve in a safe place.
-Evolve with gratitude.
-Choose carefully what to evolve into.
As long as I kept those three things in mind, evolution would not be a problem.
Pelerian’s underground Dungeon was unquestionably safe.
It was built very sturdily, and a collapsed stone pagoda covered it from above.
I settled down and went to sleep for an exciting evolution.
Once I fell asleep, the evolution options would appear.
If there was something good, I would pick it and evolve immediately.
That was what I told Pelerian before falling asleep, but...
Ssssk!
I had no choice but to wake up again in confusion.
-Why? What is it?
‘Uh, the evolution works differently than usual?’
The options still appeared.
But this evolution would not be over after I got a good night’s sleep.
‘It says it’ll take around thirty days.’
-Hoh, so you’re a pervert.
‘I’m not!’
-No, I mean metamorphosis, when insects or animals change form.
‘Ah!’
In other words, like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly or a mosquito larva becoming a mosquito.
Would I evolve over a full month, like becoming a pupa?
-This situation has actually worked out well.
‘You’re right.’
It would not be easy to evolve for thirty days out in the dangerous world.
Being trapped underground had turned out to be a good thing instead.
-I will organize my thoughts, so go evolve.
‘All right.’
Then Pelerian slipped into the ring.
Isil, sitting in a flowerpot, twitched.
‘Hmm... Do you want to stay inside the ring too?’
If it took thirty days, Isil would get hungry too.
Stay safely in the Subspace.
After putting Isil and various other things into the Subspace, I tried evolving again.
Soon, drowsiness swept over me.
* * *
*「You have fulfilled the special conditions for evolution.」
*「You can evolve.」
──────────────
【From Crystal Crown Python Lv. 50+++】
1. 【Little Python-Head Wyvern】
──────────────
Oh, gods.
A chance to change species had arrived.
Translated literally, I could become a little snake-head wyvern.
Was it because two Wyvern Queens had mistaken me for their child?
──────────────
2. 【Crystal Double Crown Python】
3. 【Big Head Serpent】
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Oh!
A Serpent!
I could finally evolve into a Serpent.
But would Big Head mean I would become a giant-headed snake?
I did not want a giant head...
Would I lose my Crown if I became a Big Head Serpent?
That would be a huge problem.
──────────────
4. 【Little Prince Serpent】
──────────────
It had been a while since I had seen the modifier “Little.”
Would that make me small again?
Still, that modifier sounded strangely familiar.
Little Prince, hmm... I felt like I had heard that somewhere before.
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