WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 254

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Carpe Diem (4)

Only a Transcendent could be compared to another Transcendent.

It was simple. No matter how unskilled or weak a Transcendent might be in battle, when people talked about that strength, one phrase always came first.

"Weak compared to other Transcendents."

Because the sentence "a Transcendent is weak" could never stand on its own. Transcendence was transcendence itself. A being beyond limits, beyond common sense, beyond ordinary perception, something close to divine. That was why they were called Transcendents.

A truly transcendent existence.

For an ordinary person to face such a being was almost impossible. If someone who had not reached Transcendence challenged a Transcendent, everyone would laugh and call that person a reckless brat who did not value their own life.

Courage and recklessness were not the same.

And when an ordinary person challenged a Transcendent, it was clearly the latter. A mistake only immature fools with no self-awareness would make.

Then what about him, here and now, challenging Transcendence? Najin asked himself that and shook his head.

No, not this time.

"Merlin."

"Yeah."

An explosion roared. It was the blast made when the beam from the Praise Horn's spear slammed into the ground.

"Can I do this?"

"Hm?"

Laughter rang out. Applause followed. It was the noise of clowns, split apart by the Sword Saint and crawling back up again.

"Well, honestly?"

Explosions, noise, shaking vision, clouds of dust.

"Hard, right? A Transcendent is still a Transcendent. That constellation, the Praise Horn, does not look weak either. Sure, the Sword Saint is covering you from behind, but... still, it is hard. A Transcendent is a Transcendent."

Najin did not listen to that noise. He listened to Merlin's voice.

"So it really is going to be hard?"

"Of course it is. But why does that matter?"

Merlin laughed.

"Since when has anything you did ever been easy?"

She placed a hand on Najin's shoulder. Then she stretched out her arm and pointed forward.

"What meaning is there in an adventure without trials? What value is there in a life without challenge? You clash, break, collapse, stumble, and still take one more step forward. That is life."

The Guide pointed out the path Najin had to walk.

"Where is the shortcut to Transcendence?"

Merlin smiled. Like an adult looking at a child, or a senior who had already walked that road, she smiled.

"The fastest path is the royal road. Yes, the one you are walking right now."

"You are not wrong."

"I guarantee it. I am the greatest guide in human history."

"Go."

Najin stepped forward hard.

"Like you always have."

As always, he swung his sword.

Twenty steps.

2.

Najin ran. He ran with his eyes fixed straight ahead.

Even with the beams fired by the Praise Horn, he did not turn his gaze. He made no move to dodge, no move to knock the beams aside.

There was no need.

Chaaaaaaak!

Sword Aura flew from behind Najin and split the Praise Horn's beam. It was the Sword Saint's Sword Aura. Long ago, Karan had told Najin to run. He had said he would open the path.

Sword Saint Karan had made his choice.

Closing distance with a body piled with wounds and fatigue was difficult. Then he would stand his ground and swing instead. He might not end the fight, but he could still open the road to the Praise Horn.

Najin was the one running down the road the Sword Saint made.

That fact filled him with joy.

Karan was not a man swayed by sentiment. He was not the kind to cloud judgment over private feelings. Karan gave Najin this chance because he judged that Najin's sword could inflict meaningful damage on a Transcendent.

Najin was glad. A Transcendent had acknowledged him, he stood on the same battlefield as the Sword Saint, and he had become a meaningful force.

He accelerated.

Eighteen, seventeen, sixteen.

Step by step he closed in. The Sword Saint's role was to block the Praise Horn's attacks, but Najin's role was to cut through the clown horde and push forward. Najin grew faster and faster.

He recalled the Sword Saint's movement from moments ago.

Flash. A blade soaked in light swept low.

The moment Najin brushed past the clown horde, their limbs were severed and fell. Linked strikes flowed like water and carved them apart. Footwork and swordsmanship meshed perfectly, and even while swinging, Najin did not lose speed.

"Hah!"

Watching, the Sword Saint let out a dry laugh. Had he really copied that after seeing it once? It was not a technique one learned so easily. The corner of Karan's mouth twitched, half disbelief and half delight.

So that was it.

Even in a moment like this, Karan felt joy. As if competing with Najin, he sped up too.

Flash.

For every swing Najin made, Karan swung three times. Bundles of pure white Sword Aura knocked away every attack the Praise Horn fired at Najin. Flashes burst again and again and swept across the stage.

Dust rose. The ground shook. Flashes sparked in succession as Transcendent attacks crashed into Transcendent attacks. Then, boom. Najin's next step thundered out.

Ten, nine, eight.

Crossing several meters in one bound, Najin's eyes widened. With that fierce stare, he looked at the road ahead. Now he could see the Praise Horn beyond the clown horde.

The Jester wearing a clown mask.

An apostle of the Carnival King.

One that had to die if the Carnival King was to be killed. Najin moved to take one more step toward the Praise Horn. The distance was finally short enough. Through the cracks of the shattered mask, Najin saw it.

The Praise Horn was smiling.

Then he drove his spear into the ground.

「Praise, behold, adore.」

Mana exploded upward from the spear planted in the earth. Like a surging tide, it swallowed everything within roughly ten paces of the Praise Horn.

「Merriment, my master.」

This was the stage he had saved for the very end.

3.

Praise Horn, Akut.

A constellation with six stars, and a man who became one of the Empire's Pillars about thirty years ago. As with all Imperial Pillars, information about Akut was widely known.

He was a spear-wielding constellation.

He could fire Aura in beam form and hunt enemies hundreds of meters away as if sniping them, and each beam caused an explosion several meters wide on impact.

And his trump card was to throw a spear of condensed Aura, then control that thrown spear freely for about a minute.

All of Akut's abilities were public knowledge.

But that information said nothing about "Akut's stage." It was not omitted or hidden. Akut had simply never unfolded one. From the start, Akut was not a constellation obsessed with his stage.

Not every constellation spread their Imagery into the surroundings and formed a stage. Creating one used mental force, consumed absurd amounts of mana, and in some cases did not even make the user stronger.

Naturally, the Empire judged Akut to be that kind of case, and that was why he never used a stage.

...That judgment was not wrong.

Akut's stage did little to help his strength. In his Imagery, there was only himself praising a fictional being seated on an empty throne. Unfolding his stage did not make him stronger.

It did not, but.

By becoming an apostle of the Carnival King, Akut's stage gained meaning.

He no longer praised a fictional being.

The throne was no longer empty. Sitting on it was a clown mask, the very symbol of the Carnival King.

"..."

In place of his shattered mask, Akut put a clown mask over his own face. The stage was complete.

Cackle, cackle-cackle!

The Carnival King had made Akut her apostle, and the relationship resembled that of a sect's chief god and its great warrior. The moment the stage was complete, the Carnival King's starlight wrapped around Akut's body.

The expressionless mask split at the mouth into a grin.

Paint of every color spread across his body.

Laughing, Akut raised his spear. The one he fixed his eyes on was Najin, the existence his master, the Carnival King, saw as a thorn in her eye.

If he killed that brat.

The Princess would be pleased. For his master's smile, Akut could do anything. He did not care if he became a disposable piece.

Thud.

As Najin closed the final distance, Akut also charged at him. The distance vanished in an instant. Even in this situation, seeing Najin still rush him head-on, Akut sneered.

Stupid and young.

Did he truly believe he could face a Transcendent? Yes, Akut was one-armed and one-eyed. His battle with the Sword Saint had left his injuries piled high.

But even so, Akut was a Transcendent.

The gap between Transcendent and ordinary was not narrowed by something that trivial. Looking at Najin closing in, Akut could not stop laughing. His mocking laughter echoed. He expected the stage painted over with his master's colors to swallow that boy whole.

Flash.

Yet against his expectation.

Chiiiiiiik!

The instant Najin's sword flashed, the paint laid over the stage flared up and burned away. The starlight from the stars wrapped around Najin's sword burned Akut's stage.

"...Huh?"

Akut's eyes widened.

He did not know it, but trying to borrow the Carnival King's starlight against Najin was the worst possible move.

Breakthrough, Indomitable, Requiem, Banter.

Every star Najin gained in the Outland stood opposite the Carnival King. And in each star's story, there was always someone who had opposed her. In their final moments, they made Najin into a knight, and in their final moments they resisted the Carnival King.

Crunbelle, Aldaran Vasaglia, Azure Spear, Alonso Quixano.

The starlight they gave Najin burned the paint. It carved flaws into Akut's stage. The Sword Saint would never miss that opening. As Najin rushed Akut, he abruptly dropped his stance.

The moment Najin lowered his head, Karan swung.

「Thousand Swords.」

A horizontal beam of light crossed hundreds of meters and slammed Akut's spear. The arm holding the spear jerked backward, and Karan's Sword Aura stripped away every trace of paint and Aura around Akut's body. It carved flesh and opened a gap.

And in that gap, his heart was exposed.

Toward Akut's heart, Najin took the final step. What he recalled was thirty days of swinging swords with the Helmet Knight.

「Step as if you are planting roots into the ground.」

「Lower your sword, and remember the basics.」

He remembered.

「From below to above.」

Najin swung the blade he had drawn back behind him.

From below to above, toward the sky.

「In one burst, without shaking, drive it hard with the foot planted like a root as your axis.」

Without wavering, he drew one clean stroke.

「That is the foundation of my swordsmanship.」

「You may not know it, but this is the foundation of a sword style with a very long history.」

Now Najin knew too.

The name of this sword style was the Triumphal Sword, a blade born when you rewrote eight hundred years of Imperial history. And through your disciple, it now boasted a thousand years of history, a sword that had become a symbol of the Empire itself.

「So?」

Najin swung that sword.

「Isn't it incredible?」

It truly was an incredible sword.

Against a traitor of the Empire, Najin used the Empire's foundation. He drove into the opening Karan had torn open, widened the wound, and split the heart. The instant Najin's sword connected, Akut's body burned pure white.

To cut down a Transcendent with only his own blade.

Even with the Sword Saint's help, that should have been close to impossible. But Najin did not see Akut in front of him as a Transcendent. What stood before him now was only a clown.

A clown, not a Transcendent.

Then he could cut it.

Because the stars Najin carried were shining to kill clowns.

Blood sprayed.

Through the flying blood, Najin met Akut's gaze. Unlike Najin's calm eyes, Akut's were stained with fear and panic. He looked unable to understand what had happened to him.

Najin made sure he understood.

A sword pointed to the sky.

The blade's tip turned, aiming down. The thing before him was both an Imperial traitor and a demon contractor. Najin knew the right sword for a demon contractor.

Atanga's sword.

Najin swung the sword he inherited from Ivan.

A knight's sword split the demon contractor.

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