WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 391

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Terminus Star, Merlin (2)

Stars are divided, broadly, into two colors.

Platinum and black.

The former is the color a newly born star carries. The latter belongs to a corrupted star, one that has been inverted and fallen. Stars may cloud or dim over time, but most fall into one of those two categories.

With one exception.

The Blight Star. A dark crimson star.

A monstrous star that contaminates everything around it simply by existing, breaks it down, and drives it toward death. The Blight Star, burning dark red, belongs to no category. It stands alone. That is what makes it alien.

In all of humanity's long history, only three people have ever possessed a Blight Star. One of them perished at the moment of that star's birth, so only two Blight Stars exist now.

One belongs to the Witch of the Abyss.

The second belongs to Merlin, who stands before Najin.

"......"

The Blight Star stained the sky dark red.

Staring up at it, Najin narrowed his eyes.

Why had Merlin become a Blight Star? Was separating the Terminus Star not simply a matter of revulsion? She had never told him why she had become what she was, but there were enough clues to piece it together.

The experiment Merlin had repeated here for a thousand years.

Countless futures played out under the condition of "what if." All of them arrived at similar ends. And one of those ends Najin remembered.

"So it came to pass just as I said, poor child."

"It was a fate that was always meant to be."

"There could be no other child who resembles me so closely."

The image of the Witch of the Abyss smiling as she looked upon Merlin, completed by the Blight Star. She had described Merlin as someone who "resembled herself."

The Witch of the Abyss held the mystique of destruction.

And Merlin's mystique was the period, the full stop. That mystique, hardened into a star, was none other than the Terminus Star.

Destruction and terminus.

The meanings of those two words resembled each other. Room for alternate interpretation existed, but Merlin loathed her own mystique and feared it. Consumed by guilt over having put an end to everything, she had fallen into despair.

Born out of despair, the Terminus Star had been something close to a corrupted star from the very moment of its birth.

Wielding the Terminus Star, Merlin had slaughtered countless witches. She had brought down countless stars. Sweeping through the Outland, she had wished for her own death. She had desperately prayed for herself and everything surrounding her to be finished off entirely.

The Terminus Star had been a corrupted star by nature from the start, and its essence had always bordered on a Blight Star.

Corruption required only a single step.

One wrong step and she would fall over the edge. And at the time, there was no one anywhere to catch Merlin as she was being driven to her limit. So she had slipped. She had fallen, down and down, to the bottom of an endless cliff.

No. Not quite.

Najin was standing at the edge of that cliff. He had not let go of Merlin. She was begging him to release her, and he had no intention of doing so.

Steadying his breath, Najin looked ahead.

Layer upon layer of walls and the city covered Merlin, struggling to suppress the Blight Star, but they could not suppress it completely. Light leaked through the fingers of a hand pressed flat against it, and dark red light bled from the city's center.

Kreeeee■■, ■■e■■■■, kreeee■■■e■eeeek!

Space groaned. Sound tore apart. Something close to a scream echoed back.

Thud. Thud. Boom.

With every pulse of the twelve stars hanging in the sky, dark red veins spread across it. Through those cracked veins, blood that resembled a night sky dripped down. A dark blue rain fell from above, and dark red starlight bled up through the split earth.

Then, a flash.

Starlight erupted from the city's center. Like a stone thrown onto still water, an enormous ripple surged outward from the middle. Najin gripped Excalibur as the dark red wave rolled toward him like a tide.

He drew up his starlight. Feet driven into the earth, he locked his stance. The moment he braced and received the dark red wave—

"Ugh, ghk."

The veins in Najin's eyes flared red. Black blood ran from his nose, his eyes, his ears. Watching the drops fall, Najin swallowed back a dry heave. It felt like someone had seized his heart in a fist. His heart began to pound wildly.

What kind of power is this.

It was not even a proper attack. Just a leak of force she could not fully contain, and it had already done this. He could not begin to guess how terrible it would be once she started exerting her power in earnest.

Having felt the aftershock of that force even once, Najin's instincts screamed at him. Run. Going toward that place is the same as suicide.

Nothing new there.

Najin moved opposite to his instincts. He brought his raised foot down and planted it forward. Step by step, he started walking ahead. His instincts, working for their owner's survival, began producing a different answer.

Some way to reach that place.

Najin walked forward.

Straight toward Merlin, who was screaming at him to stay back. As he walked, he found himself smiling without meaning to. When he thought about it, was this not exactly the kind of cliché scene that always showed up in these stories?

The character clinging to the edge, saying they would both die like this, telling the other to let go and save themselves. And the protagonist who refuses to release that hand no matter what.

A scene he had seen many times before.

In most of those stories, as Najin remembered them, the protagonist did not let go until the very end. Because otherwise, the story would end in tragedy.

Why is a protagonist a protagonist.

Why is a hero a hero.

Because they resist tragedy with everything they have.

They dig in their heels and say they hate this kind of ending. They throw a fit like a small child. And they do not stop there—they struggle desperately to find some way out. Stubbornly, foolishly, they push and push.

And in the end, they change the ending.

That is why they are heroes. That is why they are protagonists. Najin hated tragedies. Yes. It was just like something he had once heard from a marquis who loved theater.

"I hate tragedies."

"I want the characters who have overcome hardship and adversity and trial to be able to smile at the end."

Merlin was not smiling.

Then.

This was not a proper ending.

Thud.

Najin took another step forward.

2.

In Merlin's mind, she had always been greedy.

She had been that way since the beginning. She simply could not be satisfied with what she was given. She could create anything she wished inside her dreams, and yet she had refused to be satisfied with dreams, and stepped out of the forest. That was where it started.

And what had the reality she found there been like?

Dreadful. No place for any person to live. She found the wretched world unsatisfying and set out traveling to make it somewhat livable. Companions came. She met many people and listened to their dreams.

Reclaiming cities swallowed by demons.

Founding humanity's first nation.

Pressing on into ever deeper places.

And still Merlin's longing went unfulfilled. Because none of those things had been her dream. Her dream was something that could only be reached once all of this was over.

When everything is done.

She wanted to travel with her companions. She wanted to wander the world, easy and free, without a worry.

Seeing the landscapes I have never seen, adventuring through this world, traveling wherever I please.

That had been her one dream from the very start.

The world had simply been too much of a mess for that dream to come true, so she had meant to fix it first. But in the end, Merlin's dream never came to be.

The journey ended abruptly.

A period was stamped onto it without her permission.

Merlin hated that ending. She hated the ending given to her as well. Because she was still greedy, even then. She had gone and been greedy again.

She should not have.

The prison built to contain herself.

Curled up at the center of the Eternal City, Merlin bit down on her lip. The force she tried to suppress would not stay suppressed—it flailed and burst outward. Watching the dark red waves, Merlin's lips trembled.

She should not have.

She turned the journey with Najin over in her mind. It had been wonderful. So wonderful that she had wished it would never end, and she should not have let herself wish for that. She had been greedy again.

If she had followed the original plan.

At the end of the journey, she had intended to say goodbye to Najin with a smile. She had meant to face her end smiling, telling him this was enough, that she was satisfied. How long she had practiced for that moment.

Dozens of times over a thousand years.

She had stood before a mirror and practiced the most perfect smile, the happiest-looking smile, the satisfied smile. But when that moment actually arrived, Merlin had not been able to smile properly. Despite all those years, her face had been a mess.

Because she had thought, what a shame.

Because she had gone and asked him whether he could stay here with her forever. Still curled up, Merlin trembled at the shoulders. Tears ran down her face. Those tears were dark blue.

Not human tears. Not the tears of a fairy.

The tears of a Blight Star.

Proof that she was a hideous star, flowing without end.

"Ah......"

Watching the tears fall onto her own body, Merlin laughed weakly. Her expression fell apart. She could not be with him. Filthy, monstrous, broken as she was, she did not belong in his journey.

The space around Merlin shattered like glass.

The shards reflected futures of "what if." The countless tragedies waiting for her if she followed Najin out of here whispered to her.

Your terminus must be here.

To wish for anything beyond that is greed.

"So please."

Merlin pleaded.

"Don't come. Please."

Pushing back against Najin as he tried to approach, straining to hold her own power down, biting her lip against the force that leaked out anyway, Merlin dug her nails into her forearm.

She curled up a little smaller.

3.

It was so far. It felt endlessly, impossibly far.

With every step, dark red starlight gnawed at his body. Each time he braced against the surging shockwaves, his body groaned. And it was not only his body that groaned.

His soul shook.

Even a Transcendent's soul was not safe before the shockwaves a Blight Star produced. Had not even a newborn Blight Star driven a ten-star Grand Constellation to death? What Najin faced now was a Blight Star a thousand years old, carrying twelve stars.

Really.

Najin smiled, remembering how Merlin had gone around every single day puffing herself up, declaring she was magnificent, that he ought to respect her.

You really are magnificent, Merlin.

Shielding his soul with ten stars and Excalibur, Najin kept walking. The shockwaves grew stronger the closer he drew to the center. An enormous repulsive force shoved him back.

Gritting his teeth, Najin walked. Obstacle after obstacle blocked his way—the repulsive force, the towering walls, the curtain woven from dark red starlight—and he sneered at each of them and swung his fist.

The repulsive force he pushed through with his body. The walls he kicked apart. The curtain of dark red starlight he carved away with Excalibur.

Bring it.

Rage all you like. Swing your power with the intent to kill me. Pull every trick you have to stop me. Do whatever you want.

No matter what you do.

My choice does not change.

To prove the words he had spoken aloud, Najin drove his groaning body forward. The resistance grew fiercer. The closer he drew to the Star of Tomorrow, the Blight Star began to slip free of Merlin's control and run wild.

Dark red starlight surged like a tide, dragging in Merlin's other stars and scattering their power outward.

The Star of Sinking that Merlin possessed shone.

In that instant, the ground under Najin's feet dropped away. He sank beneath a surface that had turned to water, the water pressure crashing down onto him, dragging him toward an abyss where he could not breathe.

He sank into an abyss where no light reached.

But it lasted only a moment. Starlight that nothing could smother erupted from underwater. Najin tore through the surface and rolled across the ground. His body, crushed by the water pressure, was warped in places.

As he tried to catch his breath—

Crack.

Every drop of moisture in the area froze solid.

An extreme cold.

Cold that made the Barkilid Mountain Range feel mild by comparison seeped into Najin's body. His lungs froze. His blood froze. His muscles locked up and even his heartbeat slowed.

He did not let himself stop.

Najin drew up heat. He thawed his body with the warmth of starlight. The way Siegfried had done, he wrenched his heart with starlight and forced his body to move.

Crack crack crack!

Shattering the frost that had encased him, Najin walked. No matter what Merlin did, he did not stop. And even as he moved, he pushed his thinking faster.

Find the answer.

There was something he knew that Merlin did not. A thousand years had passed since she sealed herself here. Over those thousand years, several things had happened outside that would have surprised even Merlin.

The fact that he was standing here was itself one of those exceptions.

A variable. A variable to break through this situation.

Najin looked for an answer. The way most people do, he drew from the path he had walked, from the examples he had seen.

"Remarkable. Truly."

Come to think of it.

"Impossible by common sense. Nothing like this has ever happened before. This really is the first case of its kind."

There had been a time when Merlin, who always spoke with absolute certainty, had said this was a case even she had never seen. With open astonishment, she had used the word "miracle."

"A simple thing."

The voice of a fool—someone who had made a thousand-year-old Grand Mage say those words—brushed past Najin's ear. He recalled what that person had said.

Right.

There was that way.

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