WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 417

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Witch (1)

The Land of the Abyss, Camlann.

The terrain of this place, known broadly as the Abyss, was divided into three distinct regions.

'First, the outer reaches of the Abyss.'

The interior just past the Boundary Line. Where Najin was walking now fell into that category. The cursed ones and demon beasts prowled mainly through the outer reaches.

'Siegfried does come out this far on occasion.'

Not often, though. And since he always brought lightning with him when he appeared, it was easy enough to sense him coming and keep distance. Aside from Siegfried, there was nothing in the outer reaches that could truly threaten Najin.

The demon beasts and cursed ones were tenacious, sure, but dangerous was a different question entirely. They were not.

'Next......'

Najin let his gaze drift outward.

Far in the distance stood a stretch of terrain that looked like a ridgeline. Along the sweep of that ridge, black towers stood in a row, driven into the earth like posts.

"That's what you called the middle tier, right?"

"Right. The Spire Boundary Line."

From a distance, the spires looked like stakes.

That ridge where the spires stood in a line was the boundary dividing the outer reaches of the Abyss from the middle tier. When asked once why that spot served as the dividing line, Merlin had answered:

"That's where the witches' territory begins."

"The Curse the Witch of the Abyss puts out gets thicker past that point. The miasma sticks to you just from breathing. The erosion, the curses, the whole thing gets pretty nasty."

"So that's the middle tier."

The single greatest factor distinguishing the terrain of the Abyss was the degree of the Curse's erosion, Merlin had said. Each time you crossed a boundary, the Curse grew denser and burrowed deeper, she had added. Recalling that, Najin looked at the towers.

Spires that shot up high enough to pierce the sky, identical in shape to the Black Spire that had stood in the middle of the Great Lake in the Outland.

"Is that where the witches come from?"

"Magic tower, workshop, homeland, call it whatever you like. Point is, it's crawling with witches."

Witches had ordinarily moved back and forth between the Outland and the Continent, but things had shifted after Najin brought down the Carnival King. With no reason to stay in the Outland only to be hunted, most witches had returned to their homeland.

'So that's where those witches have gathered.'

Last of all, Najin looked beyond the spires, far into the distance, to a massive boundary line visible no matter how far away it was.

The place where the Dragon of the Abyss lay coiled.

That was the far edge of the Abyss.

Beyond Leviathan lay the deepest pit in this world. The Witch of the Abyss was sealed there.

"Hm."

Having sorted through what he knew about the Abyss one more time, Najin drew a short breath and asked Merlin:

"Which area is Mordred in?"

"I don't know exactly. He'll have set up his sanctuary somewhere in the middle tier of the Abyss, but it's hard to pinpoint a location from here."

"And Atanga?"

"Wandering, probably. He moves wherever his feet take him, so he won't be staying in any one place."

Neither of them could be tracked to a specific location.

It meant Najin would have to wander this vast land and hunt for traces of them. He knew instinctively this would not wrap up in a day or two. It was going to be a long campaign.

......The apostles of the Abyss.

Mordred, Leviathan, the Carnival King, and Atanga.

On this land, Najin had set them as his primary targets. The Witch of the Abyss was the final enemy. Step by step, climbing the stairs, he would grow strong enough to challenge the Witch.

That was the plan Najin and Merlin had drawn up.

"The seal still holds for now," Merlin added.

"Until you gain one more star here, or set foot in the middle tier of the Abyss... the seal won't visibly weaken."

For now, the Round Table could hold.

They could buy time.

Eventually the seal would break, but they could deliberately push that moment further back.

"So make the most of it."

That was also why Najin was not heading straight into the middle tier now. He felt it himself, he was not yet ready.

"......"

Najin exhaled without a word.

The binding seal Arthur had built, sustained by the Round Table, was like an enormous dam.

A dam holding the Abyss in check.

The moment that dam broke, the Abyss would flood. A thousand years of peace would be shattered, and the Witch would move to swallow the whole world. That day would come, without fail.

'When that day comes.'

He could weather it. He was confident he could push through a flooding Abyss the way the Round Table once had, carving forward through the surge. But that would only be possible for Najin and the rarest handful of Constellations.

The people who lived ordinary, peaceful lives.

The everyday existence of the vast majority of humanity would collapse. Countless people would be broken and swept away, and chaos would come to the Continent as well. Najin knew that.

Because he knew it, he felt the weight pressing down on his shoulders.

Every step he took forward brought the world-altering war closer, closing the gap in great strides. That was what made his steps slow and deliberate.

Even more so since the encounter with Leviathan.

He had shouted boldly in front of him, but the vision Leviathan had shown him, that landscape from ten thousand years ago, had hit Najin hard. He had seen the Witch of the Abyss in her full stature. He had seen the miracles of a god tearing through an army of tens of millions.

'And......'

He had seen what would happen if he failed. Recalling the process through which Leviathan was born, Najin felt his mouth go dry.

His breath caught.

"For a moment."

Najin let it out.

"Can we stop by the Continent for a bit?"

"The Continent?"

"Yes. I need to report to the Emperor that we should reinforce our preparations further... and I ought to discuss things with Sir Gerd as well."

Merlin looked at Najin without speaking. She knew Najin still had roughly two or three months before the Abyss would seriously strain him.

But she did not bother saying so.

She knew the weight pressing down on Najin from here on out was on an entirely different level from anything before. She understood why his steps were slowing.

She and the others had been the same way, once.

Whether to push forward into the depths of the Abyss or hold back, the Knights of the Round Table had argued bitterly over it more times than anyone could count.

"It is not yet time. We need to consolidate what we have. The people of Britain cannot endure any more!"

"Now is the right moment. We must strike now. If we don't press in while we've just killed an apostle of the Abyss, when will we ever go?"

"How long has it been since we had peace. How long before we could finally sleep with our legs stretched out. Can we not have just a little more time?"

"Have you forgotten our purpose!"

Even now, when she closed her eyes, she could hear those voices echoing, the knights raising their voices in argument.

"I have not forgotten. I remember. But is it not you, sir, who is forgetting? How many had to die because of our last campaign's failure."

"......That was."

"Three cities were swallowed by the Abyss. Hundreds of thousands vanished. Every wrong step we take costs hundreds of thousands of lives, maybe millions. That is why we must be careful."

The Knights of the Round Table who had once advanced as one had begun, at some point, to argue like that. Their convictions had split. Some called for a march into the Abyss, while others said they needed time and argued for pulling back.

"......"

Back then, Merlin had been unable to do anything but stay silent. She could not say either side was wrong.

As their long adventure continued, many had gathered under the name of the Round Table. The Round Table had founded cities, built nations, created sanctuaries for humanity.

When you looked back, the things they had built were there. The people the Round Table carried were there. Unlike when they had first set out, the Round Table at that point had far too many things it needed to protect.

The view that they should defend what they had and move cautiously.

The view that they should push forward aggressively as in the early days.

She could not flatly call either of them wrong. So the Round Table argued, and gradually more and more knights began acting on their own. Perhaps that had been the starting point of the fracture.

"Yeah."

Merlin nodded, turning those old memories over.

"Should we do that, then?"

Najin wanted to be spared that kind of conflict. He wanted to move however he felt inclined, whichever way suited him. For that very reason, Merlin was still gripping the seal on the Abyss with everything she had.

"Taking a short break and coming back is fine too. We could eat something good on the Continent, and if we're at it, why not take a trip, just the two of us?"

"I'm not sure we have that kind of time......"

"Of course we do! What do you think I am? A perfect being made from fairy and human combined. Things are different from the old days, you know."

Merlin said it with confidence, and only then did Najin let out a helpless laugh. Watching him finally breathe easy, Merlin felt a quiet relief inside.

Najin was already carrying a heavy load.

No need to pile more weight onto someone already feeling the strain. Easing the tension and lightening the burden, that was a Companion's role.

"We'll pick up all kinds of good food, and yeah, go somewhere with nice scenery. Nothing too long, just about a week? Doesn't that sound......"

But there was one thing Merlin had overlooked.

"Hm?"

The seal had already cracked. From the moment Najin gained ten stars, and from the moment he set foot inside the Abyss, cracks had begun forming in the dam holding the Abyss back.

"What is it, Merlin?"

"Wait, hold on. How did this......"

The dam had not broken yet, but.

Creeeeak, creak, crack.

Once cracks opened, water seeping through the gaps was inevitable.

"......"

Merlin's head snapped to the side.

Her gaze fixed on the far edge of the Abyss. Her expression went rigid. Her pupils shook, and then she heard it, someone's laughter.

Merlin was not the only one who heard it.

Across the whole of the Abyss, the laughter of this land's mistress echoed out.

"Watch,..."

Merlin's warning never reached its end.

Because everything visible was crumpling.

2.

Throughout long ages of working from the shadows, the Carnival King had made herself the ruler of the Outland, and she had never once shown her true face. She had always chosen to lurk behind the stage, embracing the role of the hidden hand.

So, until someone pulled back that curtain.

She never stepped onto the stage herself.

Those who stepped onto the stage eventually had to exit. She had wanted to reign as ruler forever, and had no desire for her life to end with a single performance.

"That is not the way of a ruler."

But here, one ruler speaks.

That, she said, was nothing more than the way of the weak.

Born as the very concept of carnival, and yet unable to enjoy her own life, what a pitiable child. She laughed at the demon. A true ruler had no need to scheme from the shadows.

"A ruler is not one who stages the performance. Even standing still, the performance is presented to the ruler as tribute. For a single laugh, a single gesture from one who holds power, a multitude of bards sing and actors perform."

Why should I be the one directing the performance?

Why should I be the one scheming in the dark?

"There is no need. None at all."

What a ruler must do is simple.

"Drag before you those who dare make you wait, and make them laugh and dance and sing right then and there."

The Witch of the Abyss smiled softly.

She looked at the stakes driven into her body. Among the countless performances she had watched over tens of thousands of years, these had been a gift from the one who had shown her the most entertaining performance of all.

Thirteen stakes bore down on her body.

Chewing over the story that had bound her to this land for a full thousand years, the Witch breathed out. No matter how entertaining a story, read over and over it grows stale, and chewed over enough, all the sweetness drains away.

Shhhhk.

The faded stakes began to crumble.

One, two, three......

The three stakes driven into her left arm crumbled away. With that, her left arm regained its freedom. The Witch raised her left arm up toward the sky.

"It seems I have been patient long enough."

Not all the seals had broken yet. But with one arm free, there was much she could do. Far too much.

With a tight grip.

The Witch of the Abyss clenched the hand she had raised toward the sky. Along her fingers, the sky crumpled. The night sky rippled, folded along her fingers, and at last was caught in her fist.

With one hand, she gripped the sky.

She jerked that fist.

The Witch of the Abyss lightly pulled the sky toward her.

3.

The Blight Star rose.

Three of the thirteen dark-crimson stars had broken free. The freed three rose into the sky, and rising, they became hands that raked and seized the heavens.

The Abyss was, by its very nature, the Witch's star domain.

Everything in this land was hers, and in this land, all things, including life and death, required her permission. And now, the god of this land had given a command.

Bring that one before me.

The god's forces obeyed. Not even the land itself could refuse. The earth crumpled, folded, surged like waves. As the sky shook with its dark-crimson stars, the Abyss began to tremble.

The cursed ones roared.

Knights of death rose from their graves.

The beasts of the Abyss formed into herds and began to march.

The witches led the fallen stars under dark-crimson banners and soared high into the sky.

"......Ha."

Standing on the trembling earth, Najin let out a dry laugh. It seemed the trip back to the Continent would have to wait a good while longer.

Breaking the stillness of a thousand years.

The Witch of the Abyss had begun to move.

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