WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 127: Agape

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Stab!

"Agh!"

I screamed as blades stabbed me in quick succession.

It hurt.

No, this really hurt.

It hurt too much to endure just by trusting my coat's protection.

How many dozens of times had I been stabbed?

Every hit was insanely strong, and my coat was in tatters.

How many people had I moved so far?

A little over twenty, I think.

How many were left...

No clue. They were mixed in with the demons, so I couldn't tell.

Whoom!

"Kieeeek!"

"Why did you come with me too?!"

I cut down a Legion demon that I had accidentally brought along with the holy sword.

"Huff! Huff! Huff!"

Just as I tried to catch my breath, the mercenaries who had moved with me rushed me with daggers.

"Come on!"

I leaped through space and went back.

Among the hundreds, thousands of demons, I caught glimpses of Templar Order members and mercenaries here and there.

"Ah, just come closer!"

I sprayed holy water, melting the demons around me, then fired the holy sword through them.

At least weapons transformed into sacred relics couldn't hurt people.

Magic was the problem...

Fwoooosh!

"Urgh!"

Flames spread across the mercenary who had been hit by a spark. I grabbed them while they writhed from the heat, threw them into a patch of forest I had spotted nearby, and came back.

The Legion demons had realized what I was after. They slipped between the Templar Order members and mercenaries.

They meant to attack before I could grab them and leap away.

Their plan worked perfectly. Unlike before, I couldn't grab several people at once and leap.

Then I'd take them out one at a time.

Whoom!

I leaped through space again and again.

It was far less efficient than before, and that meant my spiritual power was draining faster.

The one saving grace was that I had slaughtered and absorbed thousands of demons in the dungeon.

It had been an achievement I shared with everyone, including Pastor Park, but the demons' souls had all been absorbed into me.

That had strengthened Gari too, and left me overflowing with spiritual power.

If I kept killing demons and absorbing their souls along the way, maybe I could use Spatial Leap forever.

"..."

Nope.

The souls of the demons I killed now weren't being absorbed by me.

It had worked before. Why not this time?

Probably Paimon.

Paimon's authority, its dominance, was stopping the souls of dead demons from passing to me.

Unless I defeated Paimon, there would be no new supply of spiritual power.

"Phew..."

Even so, I leaped through space.

I forcibly grabbed them one at a time, threw them outside the dungeon, and came back.

Stab!

"Ugh!"

My leg was cut.

The parts not protected by my coat were left scarred by demon blades.

Blood sprayed everywhere, and I limped, but Spatial Leap still worked.

"Die!"

I took the blade meant to kill me with my body, grabbed the attacker, and leaped.

Even after being moved far away, they were still bewitched by Paimon and still trying to kill me.

Stab!

Sometimes I got stabbed before I could even leap.

"Huff... huff!"

I was getting tired.

My coat was shredded.

I could endure blunt impacts somehow, but every so often, the sensation of a blade slicing my flesh was chilling enough to make my skin crawl.

The courage prayer... I wanted to recite it, at least, but I couldn't spare the spiritual power. I needed it for Spatial Leap.

Gari was barely holding on against Paimon, and Eight-Foot Sister...

Grrr!

Pooo!!

Oh, damn. This was bad.

Benkei's Iron Staff seemed to have slipped from Eight-Foot Sister's grip and lay on the ground, while Mountain Lord had her pinned down, trying to tear out her throat.

In that moment of danger, I leaped behind Mountain Lord and grabbed her crown.

【Kyaak!】

At the same time, claws swung at me.

I leaped through space and landed over the stream in the valley, but Mountain Lord's attack didn't stop.

Wham!

The impact sent me flying.

I struck the stream and skipped across it like a stone.

"Urrgh!"

It hurt! It hurt so fucking bad!

Was I alive? How was I alive after getting hit by a house-sized tiger?

"I, I'm al... I'm alive..."

My coat was wrecked, but my underclothes had held up.

Long live the Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox...

【Grrr!】

Mountain Lord instantly regained her stance and charged me again. I used Spatial Leap once more.

"Huff... haaah..."

【Poo!】

Eight-Foot Sister ran toward me.

As I caught my breath, I spoke to her.

"J-just... protect me a little longer..."

【Po, pooo!!】

Eight-Foot Sister grabbed me and ran somewhere.

I couldn't open my eyes because I couldn't breathe, but I heard something being swung through the air.

She was probably swinging the iron staff.

"Phew, phew..."

I was tired.

Really tired.

How many times had I used Spatial Leap?

I think I stopped counting after thirty.

And how many times had I been stabbed?

My coat was full of holes, so I couldn't tell.

That first axe strike had been too hard.

One arm wouldn't even move. It might have been crushed.

Screeech!

"Die!"

There were so many.

There were really fucking too many.

Once the Dragons came down, they could wipe all these things out at once, right?

It felt like three minutes had passed. Why hadn't they hit yet?

I had lost all sense of time.

I was hurt. I was tired. I wanted to go home and rest.

Lord.

I don't know.

Haven't I done everything I can by now?

Can't I just take my people and run?

Just this once?

"..."

There was no answer.

I wished You would say something at times like this.

I wished I could just do as I was told, without any responsibility resting on me.

"Just a little longer..."

Really, just a little longer.

I will try.

* * *

He vanished, then appeared.

He vanished, then appeared.

Yohan moved across the battlefield, choosing only people before vanishing and appearing again.

It was clumsy and simple.

There might have been a better way.

But he had no time to think.

No brilliant idea came to him, nor was there some useful new technique to employ.

Beleth, the demon of love.

That was not how its power was meant to be used.

A demon's love was selfish, possessive, obsessive, exclusive, binding, and compulsive.

If Yohan were to exercise Beleth's power, he should not have exercised it this way.

Paimon, the demon of authority.

To oppose the authority of infamy and continued existence, he should have broken that authority with a thoroughly selfish and binding love.

Such were demonic powers.

Their uses might be great and convenient, but they contained malice.

Therefore, Yohan's method was wrong as a use of demonic power.

The demon's love and Yohan's love were different.

His was a devoted love, a giving love, a serving love, an unconditional love that expected nothing in return.

Not a demon's love.

The love Christ taught His disciples.

The love He had told him to extend to everyone.

Agape.

"J-just one more! One more!"

Things people could rationalize according to circumstances and give up on.

Things they could push onto someone else.

Things they could choose to flee from.

Things they could say, "Just this once," about.

Because he could not do what anyone could do.

"One more! One more!!"

That was why he had been chosen as the last king in the Book of Kings.

* * *

"H-how many?! How many are there?!"

Drool dripped from my mouth.

Or was it blood? I didn't know.

I leaped through space and arrived in front of someone, but my hand couldn't reach them.

My arm wouldn't move.

So I headbutted their helmet.

It felt like my skull would crack, but I had made contact.

Whoom!

I leaped through space.

It was some forest I didn't recognize. I tossed them down roughly and leaped back.

"Huff! Huff!"

I couldn't see anyone anymore.

No, they were there, but they were hard to spot among the demons.

There weren't many left...

"Screeeech!"

The Legion demons charged at me with sharp, murderous intent.

Should I dodge with a leap? My spiritual power was running on fumes...

Just as my decision came too late, the head of the demon rushing me vanished completely.

【Pooo!】

It was Eight-Foot Sister.

She had broken through the wave of demons, swinging the iron staff as she approached me.

I spoke to her as she held me.

"S-Sis... how many are left?"

【Po...!】

I still couldn't understand her words, but I understood what she was trying to say.

That I had done enough.

That we should run now.

Or was that just what I wanted to hear? I didn't know.

"We've come this far... Let's finish it while we're at it."

But what came out of my mouth was the complete opposite.

Eight-Foot Sister didn't say anything else. She swung the iron staff and broke through the demons.

Crack! Splat!

The gruesome sounds of flesh bursting and bones breaking rang by my ears.

Eight-Foot Sister carried me toward where the people were.

Once more.

I leaped again.

"Ugh..."

My vision spun.

Was it because I had lost too much blood?

Or because my spiritual power was gone?

I didn't know.

There was no measured number. All I knew was the feeling that things were dangerous.

"Just one more."

Lord, let me save just one more.

────!

The phone had been ringing for a while.

Was it really, really dangerous?

I didn't know. Just one more.

"Urrgh!"

【Po!】

Breathing out painfully, I raised my bloodshot eyes to Eight-Foot Sister.

She was crying.

They say a beautiful woman looks beautiful even when she cries.

"Any more?"

I couldn't finish the question.

Something rose into my throat. It felt like vomit.

But Eight-Foot Sister seemed to understand anyway and shook her head.

Right. Then.

Whoom!

【Po?】

My vision flashed, and the background changed.

A forest.

【Poo──】

Before Eight-Foot Sister could reach for me, I leaped through space and returned to the dungeon.

Inside, the giant Paimon and Gari were still fighting, while Legion demons surged toward me.

"Gariiiiiii!!"

Ttak?!

Gari looked back as I screamed with everything I had.

It was time to get out.

Ignore everything and come to me.

Gari understood my intent and rushed toward me.

Paimon gave chase, and the Legion demons charged at me, but Gari was slightly faster.

Ttak!

I reached out to Gari, intending to leap the moment I made contact.

But then.

"Ah."

It wouldn't work.

My spiritual power had run dry.

Screeeeeeeeeech!

A sound came from the sky.

In the instant something tore through the sky, burst through the clouds, and came plunging down.

Boom!

Something pierced the ceiling and crashed down.

The Dragons had arrived.

KABOOOM!

A deafening blast.

The explosion and shockwave that followed shook the entire dungeon and heaved up the floor.

Walls. Ceiling. Pillars.

Everything collapsed, ripping apart everything around us.

【Kwooooooo──!!】

Paimon let out a monstrous howl.

But the third Dragon that plunged down pierced it from the front.

Rumblecrack!

The ground collapsed, and a cloud of dust covered everything.

Sound vanished. I could see nothing.

My consciousness also... vanished.

..........

..........

..........

..........

..........

..........

"Urk!"

I opened my eyes beneath a pile of dirt.

My whole body hurt as if it had been shattered, and I was covered in blood and soil.

"I'm... alive?"

Why was I alive?

I soon found out why.

"Gari?"

Gari lay sprawled on the ground.

Come to think of it, Gari must have swallowed me at the moment of the explosion.

Had Gari endured the shockwave alone for me?

Then what about Paimon?

I turned my head.

"...This is insane."

It was regenerating.

Its whole body had been torn apart and its flesh blown away after taking a direct hit from a Dragon, but it was still regenerating.

That immortality attribute was seriously fucking broken.

What should I do?

There wasn't much time.

Once it finished regenerating, it would rush over to kill me.

The holy sword? Other sacred relics?

I didn't think I could take them out of Gari.

All I had left on me was...

"Phew!"

I crawled across the ground.

The Dragons had pulverized the floor and shoved me down into the underground.

That meant the dragon node was surprisingly close.

"Phew!"

My legs wouldn't move.

So I had to crawl with my arms, but my crushed shoulder blade left only one arm barely usable.

My stomach hurt.

Had I been stabbed there?

I had been stabbed more than once or twice. It wouldn't be strange if my whole body was full of holes.

"Urrgh!"

My arm hurt.

Every time I braced against a sharp rock or something to move forward, it felt like being stabbed with an awl.

Crack-crack-crack!

An ominous sound reached my ears.

It was the sound of that thing regenerating.

I had to reach the dragon node before it finished.

────

A gaze.

I felt a gaze.

Paimon's? No.

Far below, in the underground depths of that bottomless abyss, another king waited for the Malevolent Site to be completed.

It felt as if that thing's naked gaze was crawling over me.

So what? What could you do besides glare at me?

In the end, I was the one in this world.

I was the one who could move, even if I had to crawl.

I was the one who could banish all of you from this world.

I drove the Holy Nail into the dragon node, raised my fist with all my strength, and slammed it down.

"This is my Father's house! Get out, you bastards!"

At that moment, a pillar of light shot into the sky.

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