WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 264

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City of the Abyss, Artman (3)

"So."

"Yeah, Eurypylus."

"So you want to see what I saw too? You are saying you want to witness the bottom of humanity?"

"You said it yourself. My expectations of people were too high because I grew up seeing only beautiful, good things."

"I did."

"Maybe you are right. Maybe I really was livestock inside a pen. I was born into a good family, treated well, surrounded by good people, raised on only the best things."

"......"

"But you were wrong about one thing. I do not only affirm the good side of humanity. I affirm the bottom too. Because that bottom exists, people like you who climbed up from it shine even brighter. Isn't that true?"

"......I would not recommend it. Why deliberately see and experience ugly things?"

"Because I think I need to."

The Lighthouse smiled.

"I will build a prison for the filthiest and ugliest ones, those who committed horrific crimes. For them, the sky will no longer be blue. They will see only my star, and they will wish, resent, and rage."

The underground city.

"Longing for the star, resentment, rage, hatred, I will accept every one of those countless emotions. Then I will make them my power."

"This does not sound like something that ends in a day or two."

"Right. Ten years, a hundred years, hundreds of years, I will gather power. As I am now, I am not enough. Ideals without power are worthless."

"You will gather power."

"Yes. I will gather and gather... and if I use that power to light the world, would that not give it value?"

Underground City, Artman.

"I will affirm everything about humanity. I will embrace every side of it, affirm it, and show you."

"Show me what?"

"What else? I already told you."

The Lighthouse spread both arms wide.

"Salvation!"

The Lighthouse that Illuminates All Things smiled brightly.

* * *

The Lighthouse that Illuminates the Abyss.

Najin silently watched the Constellation who introduced herself that way. The figure before him claimed to be the master of the Starlight Sect.

A Constellation with eight stars.

The Lighthouse that Illuminates All Things.

And yet, for some reason, the Constellation before him had a different star from the Lighthouse. Even the number and color of her stars were different. Najin could not see them as the same person.

"Is the Lighthouse still shining outside?"

"......"

"You look deep in thought. Fine, shall I keep talking while I answer your questions?"

The Constellation leaning against the wall smiled.

It was a soft, benevolent smile.

"What remains outside is only a shell. A hollow shell. Even if I vanish for ages in pursuit of salvation, someone still has to maintain the sect, right? So I left a shell behind. A shell useful for nothing except illuminating the world."

Merlin frowned. Najin also roughly understood what the Lighthouse meant, because it was similar to what Merlin had done.

A separation of power and self.

Or a split of personality.

The Lighthouse buried her true self in the underground city and left the shell behind. In the deepest part of the underground city, she became a god for the criminals cast away after committing sins.

"At first, it went smoothly."

The Lighthouse looked up at the sky.

"Those who committed horrific crimes, the vile, the selfish, those who never admitted their wrongs. I locked away the filthiest and ugliest ones, those least like humans, in hell."

On the way here, Najin had seen what the "Lighthouse" had done. She built the underground city, and from the sinners who fell into it, she gathered every drop of despair, resentment, and longing.

The Lighthouse was originally a Constellation of Wishes.

She possessed a star that drew power from human wishes, so the underground city gave her power.

"It was horrible."

The Lighthouse narrowed her eyes. The sinners she had seen flashed past Najin.

An adopted child who murdered the parents who took him in. A butcher who killed dozens for personal gain. A noble who sent his entire domain to their deaths with a flick of his hand. A ruler who starved tens of thousands while convinced he was right, and never repented.

Even as those who could not be called human flashed by, the Lighthouse did not abandon hope. She looked at filth and groaned, yet never broke her conviction.

Ten years, one hundred years, two hundred years.

For ages, she kept staring into the bottom. She exchanged their longing for power and accumulated strength to save the world.

"It was horrible, but."

Then one day.

A certain sinner fell into the underground city.

"One day, I realized."

The moment that sinner fell into the underground city, he threw himself without hesitation toward the landfill, toward where the filthiest things were discarded, toward where the Lighthouse dwelled.

As if he had planned it from the beginning.

"That I had been wrong."

A black drop fell onto pure white paint.

That sinner was a witch.

A witch disguised as a human slipped into the underground city and willingly threw away her life according to her mother's will.

...The underground city was a hell created by the sect.

The landfill where what had already been discarded in hell was discarded once again was a hell within hell, a bottomless pit displaying the endless depths of humanity.

Hell within hell, bottom beneath bottom, the end of the abyss.

A place where malice pooled and stench filled the air.

A place where the filthiest things gathered and rotted.

The Lighthouse did not know it, but.

"That is what we call the Abyss."

Merlin spat the words out. It matched exactly the concept of the land of the Abyss. The Witch of the Abyss sent her child to where her concept could take root, to stain it with her own color.

Using that fallen witch as a medium.

"Only after meeting Her did I understand."

The Lighthouse made contact with the Witch of the Abyss.

Najin could not know what they discussed or what choice she made. The memory had been painted over in dark crimson and could not be seen through.

He could not know.

But one thing was clear.

"Salvation is not about saving everyone. The world is full of things not worth saving. Humans were never worth embracing in the first place."

It was the Witch of the Abyss who dropped the final drop into the Lighthouse's darkening heart.

"Only then did I understand. What humans need is not a warm light that embraces them, but an intense light that burns them to death. A great wave that sweeps filth away."

"So."

"Yes."

"So that is why you joined beneath the Carnival King? To wipe out every human on the continent together with her?"

At Najin's words, the Lighthouse tilted her head.

Then she burst into laughter.

"You misunderstand. I do not even know that demon's name. The sect needed me, so I gave them my shell and received starlight in return."

"Is that so."

"Still, what we want seems similar."

The Lighthouse looked straight at Najin.

"Are you not the same?"

She pointed at Najin.

"Child who drew Excalibur."

2.

At the word Excalibur, Najin fell silent.

Then again, the underground city was practically the Lighthouse's front yard. She must have known everything that happened here.

"I overheard the wishes you made."

The Lighthouse smiled benevolently.

It was the kind of smile a mother might show her child.

"You were born among sinners, but not as the fruit of love. Your mother and father saw you as a burden. They enjoyed one night of pleasure, but wanted no responsibility. You were born among discarded people in a discarded place, then discarded once more."

Najin stayed silent.

"Pitiful child. I saw your life."

The Lighthouse stepped toward Najin.

"In a place where stars could not be seen, where you had never seen one, you dreamed of stars. But the only stars you could see were ores imitating my constellation. The first true star you ever saw was my constellation."

The Lighthouse opened both arms.

"You were born at the very bottom of the bottom. You know humanity's bottom well, do you not? You know how filthy humans can be."

He knew.

"I know the parents who abandoned you the moment you were born."

Black energy leaked from the Lighthouse.

"I know the thugs who kicked you when you were five. You begged for food, and they answered with kicks. They spat on you like you were filth."

Black energy pooled beneath Najin's feet.

"I watched you survive by rummaging through garbage heaps. I watched someone older steal even the scraps you barely found, scraps someone else had thrown away."

Visions swept past Najin. They were illusions, but they were not false. They were his childhood.

"......"

Merlin fell silent. She could not bring herself to speak. She had known roughly, but seeing Najin's past with her own eyes far exceeded what she had imagined.

"I know the old woman who reached out to you. You were grateful for the warm meal she gave you. It must have been the first warmth you had ever known. But then, how absurd."

The Lighthouse clicked her tongue. The old woman who fed the child suddenly changed. The moment Najin fell asleep, she tried to carve up his body and sell the pieces.

The moment a blade touched his belly.

Najin opened his eyes and killed the old woman to survive.

"Even that was false kindness. You had to kill her to survive. And after that, all the way through, you had to keep living like that."

The hand the Lighthouse extended touched Najin. She said she understood his life. She knew how warped his childhood had been.

She truly pitied Najin.

She offered him favor.

"Can you not understand me?"

As if whispering to her own child, as if embracing her own child, the Lighthouse pulled Najin into her arms. Pitch-black darkness seeped into him. Camlann's light shone on his soul. The star of the Abyss whispered to him. It shook his mind.

"Humans are that kind of thing. Is there value in a land where such filth breathes? True salvation is..."

The darkness formed by Camlann's light, that whisper was not something a human mind could endure. It shook even a Transcendent's mind and stained it black, because that light always dug into the weakest part of a human.

...

Even while Camlann's light invaded Najin's Imagery, Merlin said nothing. She only watched him.

And Najin.

Battering Ram.

Instead of answering, he thrust his spear.

Kwagagagagagak!

A violent storm slammed into the Lighthouse and hurled her far away. The flung Lighthouse blinked and stared at Najin. His Imagery had clearly been turning black, but now it shone brilliant platinum as if nothing had happened.

"You sure dragged that bullshit out."

Najin tapped his ear with his palm.

"I waited to see how long you would keep going, but there was no end. Human malice, humanity's bottom, what the hell are you talking about? What kind of fucking..."

Najin looked at the Lighthouse with a disgusted expression.

"You colluded with Camlann."

"You."

"The Empire has a name for those who join hands with demons."

"Now."

"Filthy traitors of humanity."

"You are saying you will fight me?"

"The Empire never negotiates with traitors to humanity."

The Lighthouse rose to her feet. Even though she had taken Battering Ram at point-blank range, there was not a single scratch on her body.

"If you think you can beat me."

The Lighthouse burst out laughing.

"Then you are mistaken. This was my mercy. I only gave you a chance because your circumstances were pitiful."

Nine dark crimson stars shone behind her.

"But if you refuse, then I have no choice."

This place was her Imagery and her stage.

The dark crimson lighthouse standing at the center of the city trembled. The pure white city began turning black, and the ground shook. Red veins ran through the blackened city like blood vessels.

Thump, thump, thump, thuuump...

The entire city pulsed as if it were one giant heart.

Craack.

Then the city shed a layer.

The true form of the Abyssal city hidden behind white walls was revealed. In that moment, Najin frowned.

He had no choice.

The inside of the city was made of every kind of garbage and filth, foul water and corpses.

Abyssal City, Artman.

Corpses and garbage clawed at each other and stretched their hands toward the Lighthouse at the center, as if yearning for the Abyssal star. Standing amid that yearning, the Lighthouse of the Abyss pointed to the sky.

The place where the Abyssal star was fixed.

There, a small hole had opened.

"It is coming."

The moment he looked at the hole, Najin felt all his senses screaming.

"The light that will burn the continent."

A hand reached out from the hole. That hand gripped the edge. Another hand reached out and began forcing the space wider.

A hole leading to the Abyss.

Someone was trying to crawl out. Pouring in all the power she had accumulated over hundreds of years, the Lighthouse opened a hole leading to the Abyss.

Normally, even if a Constellation with nine stars poured in everything, she could never open a hole to the Abyss. But the underground city's nature, its resemblance to the Abyss, and the power accumulated over centuries succeeded in prying open a tiny crack toward it.

The Witch of the Abyss could not pass through that crack.

The Dragon of the Abyss could not pass through it either.

They were too vast. And they were bound by the Round Table. They originally belonged to Camlann and were tethered to that land, so they could not cross the crack.

But a being who did not originally belong to the Abyss.

A being who walked into the Abyss on his own.

And once belonged to the Round Table, allowing him to bypass its seal.

That was different.

"Ah."

Merlin said, ah.

Then Merlin's laughter echoed in Najin's ears. It was not joyful laughter, nor mocking laughter. Najin had heard this laugh from Merlin once before.

Not from the current Merlin, but from Fairy Merlin.

It was the same voice she used when she looked up at the sky and laughed after tearing a witch to pieces.

"How dare you show yourself before me?"

Merlin's voice came out like a spit. At the same time, Najin saw the figure trying to emerge from the crack.

One clad in armor of the Round Table.

Yet one who had slashed away the emblem, the very symbol of the Round Table, with his sword.

"The Knight of Betrayal arrives."

The Lighthouse spread both arms wide.

The Knight of Betrayal, Mordred.

The traitor of the Round Table involved in King Arthur's death was trying to emerge from the crack in the Abyss.

3.

Space twisted and the stage groaned.

The whole world began to shake violently.

As if trying to stop the descent of one with overwhelming rank, as if trying to restrain a being that must never be released into the world, chains wrapped around Mordred's entire body as he tried to emerge from the crack in the Abyss.

The Chains of the Round Table bound Mordred.

The chains tried to drag him back into the Abyss.

But the Lighthouse's light pulled him in the opposite direction. Najin's eyes widened. Air from Camlann leaking through the hole in the sky tightened around his throat, but he had no time to be slowed by that.

He had to stop it.

No matter what, he had to stop that one from getting out.

The judgment Najin made in that moment was correct.

Mordred, the Knight of Betrayal, was a Constellation with eleven stars.

The instant he was released into the center of the continent, humanity would have no way to respond. Najin had to stop him here, no matter what it took.

Najin grabbed the air.

There was no room to hesitate.

He intended to draw Excalibur and stop Mordred from emerging through the crack, and stop the Lighthouse from pulling Mordred out, so Najin seized Excalibur.

Brilliant light gathered in Najin's hand.

The moment Excalibur was about to be drawn from empty air.

【That is not yours.】

A voice rang out.

From the hole torn open in the sky, Mordred, with only his arms out so far, glared at Najin through the opening. The moment Najin met those dark crimson eyes, his body stiffened.

【You are not qualified.】

Click. Najin's hand stopped.

Excalibur, which had been about to come free, froze in midair. Only the hilt was exposed, and it would not move.

【That is Arthur's sword.】

【You are not qualified to wield Arthur's sword.】

Mordred's Authority crushed Najin.

Excalibur was a weapon forged by melting down Arthur's star and the stars of the Knights of the Round Table. Naturally, the stars of the Round Table were fused into Excalibur.

It had belonged to Arthur, but with Arthur's death, the stars engraved into Excalibur lost ownership.

The original owner of that star.

Mordred's star engraved into Excalibur, that knight who had once belonged to the Round Table, denied Najin's qualification.

【You cannot draw that sword.】

Excalibur would not come out.

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