WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 287

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Wings of Icarus (7)

Najin experienced Daedalus's life.

He became Daedalus, traveled with Icarus, achieved great deeds, and witnessed the rise and fall of Helios.

"......"

At the end of that journey, Najin returned to himself and looked ahead.

Icarus was there, bound to a throne.

The Wings of Icarus had melted in the sun. His body was chained, unable to leave this place. The freest adventurer in the world had lost his wings and his freedom. All that remained here was the king of a ruined nation called Helios.

Every citizen was dead.

The nation had fallen.

There was nothing left to protect, and no duty left to bear.

Even so, Icarus remained bound to the throne. Hundreds of years had passed since that day, yet Icarus still had not found freedom.

"Ah."

Watching him, Najin opened his mouth.

Or perhaps Daedalus did.

Daedalus stepped into the audience chamber and looked at his old friend. He watched the end his friend had met. Najin naturally knew what he would think and feel, because he had lived through his life.

Daedalus would have smiled bitterly.

He would have let out a sigh.

He would have regretted it, imagined what might have been, then realized those assumptions were meaningless, and spoken.

"Icarus."

In the end, this was all Daedalus could do.

"When is the next journey?"

The final words left unfinished that day.

And the question he had always asked Icarus.

Najin said it with a bitter smile.

"......"

Then Icarus, still bound to the throne, slowly raised his head. With the hollow eyes of a Forgotten One, he looked at the human standing in front of him. That gaze was aimed at Najin, but it was not truly seeing Najin.

It was seeing Daedalus overlaid on him.

Icarus's pupils shrank. Normally, words from the living do not reach Forgotten Ones. Communication is impossible, and drawing any human response from them is nearly impossible.

It should have been impossible.

But the Star of Requiem shone.

Icarus had forgotten himself for far too long, so even under the Star of Requiem's light he could not remember who he was. Still, it could at least stir his soul.

"I've grown tired of waiting. I'm getting restless."

Najin smiled bitterly, like Daedalus.

"Let's be on our way. We've stayed in one place too long."

With words Icarus had once spoken, Daedalus closed his eyes. When he opened them, the one standing there was Najin. Najin clenched at empty air.

The Star Sword, Excalibur, was drawn.

The audience chamber, abandoned for centuries, filled with starlight. Pulling that flooding light in his wake, Najin leveled his sword.

"Icarus."

Icarus reacted to the starlight Excalibur produced. His eyes widened, and his chained body trembled. The vibration ran through the chains into the audience chamber, then spread from the chamber through the entire fortress.

Crack.

As fractures raced through the castle, Najin curled one corner of his mouth.

"Did you say you wanted to reach King Arthur?"

He amplified Excalibur's starlight.

"Then try it."

Here stood the star you had longed to reach.

If you can reach it, then reach it.

As if provoking him, Najin stepped toward Icarus. Right after that, a monstrous cry burst from Icarus, now a Forgotten One. It sounded like a whale's wail, and with that scream the fortress began to collapse.

Heaven-Wandering Star, Icarus.

A ten-star Constellation. One of the forgotten stars. The first and last king of the fallen nation Helios. Helios's sole survivor. The navigator who moved hundreds of thousands of whales into the sky. The freest adventurer.

And Daedalus's closest friend.

"A funeral for the star that forgot itself."

Reciting the eulogy, Najin charged at him.

2.

Even if he had forgotten himself, Icarus was still a ten-star Constellation.

The number of stars did not guarantee strength, but the wall between nine and ten was enormous. Breaking through that wall alone proved Icarus's power.

"Even broken," Merlin said. "He's still a terrifyingly powerful being. Constellations today fear the hundreds of thousands of whales he commands, but you saw the past, right?"

Najin gave a bitter smile and nodded.

Of course he knew.

Icarus had enough power to lift every one of those hundreds of thousands of whales into the sky, and he was a foundational figure in the flight magic used in the modern era. But that alone could not explain Icarus.

"Over long years, the magic called Wings of Icarus was broken down, separated, and studied. During that process, the mages of the Magic Tower had to redefine their categories of magic."

Icarus's spells, including Wings of Icarus.

Back then, they were left in the realm of mystery, but as the times changed, they were studied. One fact became clear.

"The core of Icarus's magic is forcefield."

Magic that wrapped mana around objects and manipulated them.

Most of Icarus's spells were reinterpreted in the modern age as forcefield school magic, and analysis of his talent came down to one word in the end.

Telekinesis.

Using one's Imagery as a base to influence surrounding objects. The cherished dream of forcefield school mages, and the ultimate peak pursued by the Purple Tower to this day. A Transcendent who had already reached that level more than nine hundred years ago made a gesture.

Boom!

In that instant, the castle shook. The ancient fortress Daedalus designed for Icarus, with walls built to endure even a Constellation's attack, came apart like puzzle pieces and shot into the sky.

"You remember the dark mage you fought before, right? Zarkan, was it, the one contracted with that demon."

Najin remembered. He thought of the demon contractor he and Yuel had hunted before setting out for the Outland.

"That dark mage could barely control a forcefield a few meters wide..."

Merlin pointed around them.

"Icarus will be different."

There was no need to ask how. The answer was all around him.

The fortress ceiling broke apart and rose into the sky. It was not just the fortress. The largest whale's back had not held only one castle, and beneath that castle, cities of all sizes had stretched out.

Nearly half of those dozens of cities broke apart.

Those broken cities floated high into the sky.

Pieces tens of meters wide, pieces only a few meters wide, all moved by Icarus's will. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of those pieces rose into the sky.

"Hah."

Najin let out a dry laugh. He had seen Daedalus's memories, so he knew. Every one of those structures had been made by Daedalus. In other words, they were materials sturdy enough to endure a Transcendent's power.

And there were tens of thousands of them.

Feeling like tens of thousands of spears, arrows, and swords were pointed at him, Najin sighed.

"There's never an easy fight, is there."

"So?" Merlin shrugged. "You going to run? That's one option."

"After coming this far?"

Najin readjusted his grip on his sword.

"Maybe in the old days."

The seven stars engraved on Excalibur shone. As those stars lit in sequence and amplified his sword aura, Najin spoke.

"But things are different now."

Almost at the same moment Najin moved, pillars shot toward him. Kuuuuung! The earth shook and dust burst high into the air. But by the time the pillars crashed down into the audience chamber, Najin was already gone.

Leap, then Ramming Horn.

Driving Ramming Horn into the ground and using the recoil, Najin launched himself high and exhaled. He widened both eyes and read the battlefield. After taking in the positions and sizes of the floating pillars, he moved.

Whoosh!

Pillars screamed through the air. Twisting his body midair, Najin drove Excalibur into one pillar. Like when he once stepped on dragon scales and climbed onto a dragon's back, he stepped on protrusions and mounted the pillar.

The pillar shook wildly and moved at high speed, but for Najin now, after reaching Transcendence, it was a speed he could handle.

Bang.

Najin kicked off and ran along the pillar.

The pillar's direction abruptly changed, plunging down at an angle close to vertical, but to Najin it was no different from flat ground. Of course Icarus would not sit and watch.

Pillars closed in densely around Najin, as if to cage him. Above, below, left, right, with no gaps at all, they launched toward him. It looked like there was no space to slip through...

Kuuung.

Planting his foot into a pillar, Najin did not try to evade. He swung his lowered sword. As starlight flashed, a single line cut through empty air.

Slash!

The pillar split apart. It was solid enough to withstand a Transcendent's attack, but it could not withstand Excalibur's cutting power. Najin sprinted down the path formed through the crack.

Dozens of pillars struck from behind. Dozens more from the front, then dozens again from left and right. Even with hundreds and thousands of spear-blades aimed at him, Najin did not hesitate.

The Star of Breakthrough shone.

Eyes narrowed, following a gap as thin as a thread, Najin broke through. He aimed his sword at Icarus, who was wielding tens of thousands of spear-blades.

At the chains wrapped around his body.

As if to cut those chains first.

3.

Najin felt like he was fighting a nation.

The cities that made up Helios united to block his path, turned into spear-blades, and attacked him. As he blocked, parried, and dodged them, Najin thought:

Right, this was not an easy fight.

One pillar a few meters wide? He could cut it. Even if dozens slammed down at once, he could still cut through. He had that skill.

But what if it was not dozens, but hundreds?

What if it was not hundreds, but thousands and tens of thousands?

From that point on, things changed. No matter how much he cut, it never ended. Tens of thousands of spear-blades moving exactly as Icarus imagined were a clear threat.

And the worst part...

Cutting them did not reduce their number. If he cut and shattered a pillar, those fragments became smaller spear-blades and shot at him.

Naturally, it was an unfavorable stage for Najin.

Since ancient times, fights between Sword Masters and archmages were decided by one thing: how much preparation the archmage had, and whether there were artifacts nearby that the archmage could use.

And now?

This was Icarus's country. A whole nation. Wherever he looked belonged to Icarus, and everything was a weapon Icarus could use. No matter that Icarus had weakened by forgetting himself, in this place he was comparable to a god.

A rapid barrage rang out.

Fragments Najin had split with his sword became tiny arrows and poured toward him. He cut those down, but to split the dozens-of-meters pillar charging right in front of him, he had to let an attack through.

Thud, several fragments lodged into Najin's body.

If they had been ordinary arrows or projectiles, they would have pierced through or stayed embedded. And at that level, they would not have seriously injured a Transcendent like Najin. He had thought the same and allowed the hit, but...

He flinched, his brow tightening.

Because the stone shards embedded in him moved.

Stone fragments driven by Telekinesis are different from straight thrown weapons. They do not stop even after embedding. They neither pass through nor stay stuck. They twist and tear through Najin's body like living creatures.

"Kuh," blood burst from Najin's mouth.

Feeling the shards change angle and push toward his heart, Najin let out a dry laugh. In that moment, more than pain, he felt surprise. It was definitely a method he had not considered.

If so.

Kuuung, Najin slammed the ground and pulled up mana.

Mana spread out from his heart and boiled through his blood vessels. The mana circulating through his whole body crushed the foreign matter that had invaded him. If he had raised mana, he had to use it. Najin spread that boiling mana in all directions.

What he poured into the spread mana was Imagery.

The scene he kept in the deepest place of his soul.

Najin's stage began to unfold.

If this place was Icarus's front yard, and Helios, the nation he owned, gave him the advantage...

Then all Najin had to do was unfold his own stage.

In the middle of the nation built above the sky.

Flash.

An underground city built below the earth unfolded.

"......"

The king of a nation built closest to the sky, a nation that had always seen the stars from nearest range, looked at Najin.

"......"

The hero of a city built farthest from the sky, a city that had never been able to see stars, looked at Icarus.

Their gazes overlapped.

In that crossing gaze, Najin felt something.

"Ah."

Then he smiled.

He could not help but smile.

Icarus was reaching out a hand toward him. Just like long ago, when he had stretched his hand toward the sky in the fields.

Even as a Forgotten One, he was still wishing for it.

To reach the stars.

To be able to touch the stars.

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