WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 392

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Terminus Star, Merlin (3)

A path had finally begun to show itself.

With a clear direction in front of him, strength returned to his stride. Laying out a concrete plan, Najin steadied his breathing. His breath settled. Silence fell.

It was always like that when he fixed his focus on something.

Unnecessary senses closed off. In their place, others opened wider. Silence arrived as sound fell away, and absurd as it was, Najin found himself missing Merlin's chatter in that moment.

'Always.'

Whenever he pointed in some impossible direction and said "I want to walk this road," she would sigh at his side and then lay out a concrete plan anyway. Standing in for his impulsive tendencies, picking up whatever he overlooked, that had always been Merlin's part to play.

But she was not here now.

The guide who had taught him which roads to walk, and how, was no longer at Najin's side.

Because she was lost too. Even the most capable guide loses the way sometimes, and even a prophet who can see far into the future stumbles when she cannot see a single step ahead.

That was why no one could live alone.

Not even the greatest Transcendent, not even someone who could muster the strength of tens of thousands single-handedly, not a Sword Master, not a Grand Mage, it made no difference. Everyone, at some point, needs help and gives it, is led and leads in turn.

'Because.'

All of it comes back to you in the end.

Najin let his memories surface.

Memories of those he had guided. In most cases Najin had been the one giving answers, but this time it was the other way around. They had given the answer to him. Those who had passed through his life whispered to him.

The dead who had resisted erosion, the hero who had wandered for a hundred and fifty years, the one who had thrashed against forgetting, the romanticist who turned tragedy into comedy, the knight who made a dream real, the lord who had twisted their own fate......

He recalled the conversations he had shared with each of them. He glimpsed the answers they had arrived at. From them he gathered clues, and from those clues he grasped a single answer. He looked at what he held.

'Low.'

The probability was low. Slim.

'But not zero.'

Vanishingly low, yet not impossible.

Then that was enough.

Najin gripped Excalibur hard. Resisting the dark red tide pressing in around him, he curved his lips upward. It felt like it might kill him, but he smiled. Whether something became a tragedy or a comedy was ultimately his call to make.

"Laugh, boy!"

"No matter how hard things get, never lose your smile."

"If you can laugh..."

"Then this story will surely be a comedy!"

The star of Jovial Laughter shone.

With laughter ringing out, the ridiculous knight shoved the back of the protagonist standing against tragedy. As long as Najin was smiling, the star of Jovial Laughter would not go out.

Kwang!

Najin ran like Don Quixote. He kicked off the ground and drove back the repulsive force, charging forward and shattering the wall in his path with a Horn Charge.

He ran toward where she was.

...Again: no one can live alone. And somewhere up ahead was a fool who did not understand that simple, obvious truth. A foolish, pathetic Grand Mage trying to sink under the weight she had taken on by herself.

Then what was there to do.

'Pull her up.'

Grab hold and pull her up. That was all.

2.

Every story has an end.

No matter how far away it feels, when you come to your senses it is already approaching its conclusion. Merlin had always hated the moment when a story drew close enough to put a period on it.

She had wished that tomorrow would not come.

She had wished that the journey with Najin would never end.

It was for that reason she had deliberately named this place the Eternal City. She had wanted it to be eternal.

"......"

Even so, tomorrow came.

A day ended.

The sun set and tomorrow's sun rose. Tomorrow arrived without fail, steadily drawing closer to the conclusion. Perhaps she simply hated tomorrow.

"...Ah."

Merlin let out a low sound. It was the same now as ever. She raised walls and barriers to block the light, but it found every gap and seeped through anyway.

The Dawning Star shone.

The instant she saw that starlight, her own stars began to thrash, independent of her will. The Blight Star could not endure the star standing at its opposite pole. It whispered in Merlin's ear to grind that star underfoot and crush it.

She held on. Held on again. Gripping the rampaging Blight Star and forcing it down, Merlin clenched her teeth. Blood ran from her body. She turned her power inward rather than outward, wounding herself.

Drip. Drip, drip, drip.

Blood poured.

It would take a long time, but if she kept spending power this way she would eventually collapse from exhaustion. The one moment when the Blight Star turned its attention to healing her broken body, that would be the only opening.

'When that moment comes.'

Merlin would drive herself onto the blade.

Even if Najin refused, if she could just angle the Excalibur in his hand toward herself, Merlin could die. She was enduring, waiting for that approaching end, when it happened.

Gong, goooong.

The Bell Chime rang through the Eternal City.

Merlin slowly raised her head.

Ten stars shone in the sky. Beneath those shining stars, he was taking his stance. The stars carved into Excalibur hanging at his side began to light up one by one.

Tong, toong, tong!

To the sound of metal striking, all ten stars blazed. The starlight amplified, and a platinum wave rippled outward. It looked almost as if it were speaking to Merlin.

Telling her there was no need to hold back.

That she could let everything out.

'I am.'

Stronger than you think.

The moment Najin stamped his foot down, starlight flooded the space around him. A platinum tide lapped forward and pushed the dark red waves back.

"Really."

Merlin's expression crumpled.

"Just how far do you..."

The amplified starlight, the resonance Excalibur was producing, agitated the Blight Star. The Blight Star began to run wild. It broke free of Merlin's control and thrashed.

The power she had been suppressing burst loose.

She reached out to smother the starlight tearing free, but it was useless. It leaked between her fingers. Merlin watched helplessly as the Blight Star slipped from her grasp.

The dark red star announced its terminus.

Kki■■gik, ■■i■■ kki■■■■i■iiik!

The air convulsed. The heart of the city did not merely warp, it sheared apart, twisting into distortion. At the city's center, a dark red sphere pulsed like a heartbeat, and around it a massive gravitational pull was born.

The repulsive force that had been pushing Najin back reversed. A pull twice as strong swept through the city.

Crash, crash, crunch!

Everything in the area was dragged toward the star. The walls lining the Eternal City, the Bell Tower, the buildings, the Colosseum, everything in sight was swallowed whole.

Crk.

Najin clenched his teeth and resisted the pull. Until now he had been fighting his way toward Merlin, but not anymore. Letting himself get sucked into that star now would erase him without a trace.

'At last.'

Even while bracing against the pull, Najin settled his stance.

'Ready.'

To make the plan work, he first needed Merlin to burn through her power, not in a long, grinding war of attrition like this, but in one massive expenditure all at once.

'A perfect lull, no power left to emit, none left to regenerate.'

He had to aim for that moment to raise the odds of success even slightly. That meant driving Merlin into unleashing her full power in a single burst. With that goal in mind, Najin had been agitating the Blight Star. The plan was moving smoothly, but...

Every part of his body was screaming.

His instincts, a Transcendent's senses, were shouting at him. The gravitational pull was only a precursor. Something would come after it had swallowed everything. And that something would wipe his existence without leaving a trace.

Najin ignored the screaming instincts.

Because that was the judgment of the person he had been before his fight with Lancelot. After that battle, Najin had grown stronger in ways that even surprised himself.

Ten stars. Excalibur's enhancement. And the star of Tomorrow, shining so brightly it stung.

Using all of them at full power, even Najin himself had no idea how far he could go. So it was time to find out. Holding his stance, he squeezed his heart.

Gong, goooooong.

Excalibur shook violently. An immense amount of starlight surged along the blade. Still, it was not enough. The absolute gap in output was clear. The difference in class remained unbridged. Najin did not yet surpass Merlin.

Let alone Merlin as the Blight Star.

What filled the gap was technique. Steadying his breath, Najin sharpened his senses to a fine edge.

■■■■, ■■■■■■■.

Then all sound vanished. In the silent wasteland where sound had ceased, the dark red sphere that had swallowed everything was stirring to life. The gravitational pull that had been dragging Najin in quietly disappeared as well.

Thud. Thud. Thoom.

A moment of absolute silence.

'It's coming.'

The Blight Star exploded.

It released an immense force, as if vomiting up everything it had swallowed. There was no technique in it, no artistry. Nothing more than releasing accumulated power all at once, a perfectly simple attack.

Even so, it was horrifically strong.

From the Blight Star at the center, a dome-shaped shockwave tore outward. Anything it touched vanished without a sound. The ground turned black and crumbled to nothing, and the rubble of buildings became a handful of dust and was gone.

It announced terminus for everything.

The death and annihilation of existence. In the face of that terrible star, Najin did not retreat. He took a step forward instead and swung his sword.

As if to stand against the terminus, the star of Tomorrow shone.

Najin defined as night everything that prevented tomorrow from arriving. Then the curtain that announced an ending was no different from night. So, as always, he would simply cut through it.

Dawn Sword, Cutting Night.

In the darkness, a platinum sword energy bloomed.

3.

If the explosion the Blight Star had unleashed was a massive wave, the sword energy Najin had raised was nothing more than a narrow road. A road that looked as though it might vanish at any moment beneath the flood. A road that looked as though it would be buried and erased without a trace.

Chaaaaaaaaash!

But the road did not vanish. Najin ran along the path his sword had carved. The sword energy stretching ahead collided with the wave, was shaved away, grew faint, yet it did not break, inching forward all the same.

He ran down the narrow road.

A single misstep and his body would disappear. Step off that road and there was only death. The light of the Blight Star, which annihilated existence, was fixed on him.

Crk.

Teeth clenched, Najin sprinted. Up ahead, the prison Merlin had sealed herself inside came into view. He pushed a little more strength into his legs. His whole body screamed. Blood from the Blight Star's wake would not stop flowing, and it evaporated in the heat rising off his body.

Sssssss!

He ran through the mist of evaporating blood.

Fwoosh.

The sword energy that had been carving the path faded away. It had served its purpose. Now only a few steps remained between him and his destination.

Spin, clench.

Najin seized Excalibur. In the instant before Cutting Night's sword energy disappeared, he kicked off the ground and swung in a wide arc. With a grinding crack, the barrier Merlin had sealed herself inside shattered.

Light flooded through the gap.

She raised her head at the rushing starlight and looked at Najin with a wrecked face. Seeing the Excalibur in his hand, Merlin's expression shifted, something close to relief. As if asking him to kill her, she offered up her own body.

As if asking him to run it through her heart.

And Najin.

In the same instant he took that final step, he threw Excalibur behind him. He could have made it disappear, but he did not. The sword drove deep into the earth. Deep enough that no one but Najin could pull it free.

Najin let go of the sword.

This story no longer needed a vicious weapon like a sword. Taking that final step, he stretched out his arm.

Grip.

Najin seized Merlin's arm. Holding the arm of the woman who had locked herself inside that barrier, he turned up the corner of his mouth.

"Come out. Stop burying yourself in a place like that."

The one who had always guided him, this time, Najin was the one grabbing hold and pulling her forward.

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