WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 433: Turning Point (1)

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The star of Betrayal fell.

For a star bearing the name of Betrayal, it had faithfully fulfilled its role for no less than a thousand years. And so it set.

Fsssh.

As it fell, the star scattered its starlight. It had never shone while alive, but in the moment of its fall it burned brilliantly. Najin reached out toward it without thinking, and just as the first snow of winter melts the instant it touches your hand, the starlight dissolved.

Yet just as a hand that catches snow stays damp, something did remain in the hand Najin had stretched out toward that light.

The eleventh star.

Najin turned the name of his newly gained star over in his mind.

"Victory in Battle."

To fight and win. To triumph in war. It was a star Mordred had never been able to claim for himself, and yet, paradoxically, it was a star that could only have been born through his existence.

'Victory over what?'

Over the Abyss. Over the apostle of the Abyss. Over the Blight Star. Over the rebel who had brought Arthur's story to its close long ago. Najin breathed out as he absorbed the tale carried within the star.

A powerful star.

A star's worth is determined by the story it holds. Seen from that angle, the Star of Victory in Battle was priceless.

Squeeze.

Najin closed his fist around the star.

One story, or one life, had drawn to its end.

This battle had given Najin much. He had stepped into a new realm, gained a star, and the stars he already carried had grown brighter. One step closer to Arthur.

"......"

He gazed up at the sky in silence.

Arthur's star was a little nearer now. Arthur's starlight, filtered once through the barrier wrapped around the Abyss, was faint, like sunlight pressing through a fog-thick forest.

But only for a moment.

The barrier encasing the Abyss began to crumble. Mordred's death and Najin's growth had broken the binding seal apart. The fog lifted, and the boundary dividing the Abyss from the Outland vanished.

Starlight poured into the Abyss in full.

It was starlight that would scatter before long, starlight that the darkness of the Abyss would swallow. Even so, for just that brief moment, stars shone down on the Abyss.

"Ah."

Najin looked at where that starlight fell, and without meaning to, breathed a soft sound of wonder.

Whether it was coincidence, he couldn't say. But Arthur's starlight touched the place where Najin was standing first. More precisely, it touched the place where Mordred had met his death.

...In the presence of the king he had served, and of that king's heir, the rebel had died.

Mordred was a rebel.

A rebel's death cannot be dressed up. Mordred had chosen to die as a rebel, and had chosen to be recorded that way. Even a moment of silence or a salute would be a luxury he did not deserve. What suits a rebel is mockery and pointing fingers.

Najin respected his choice.

No silence. No salute.

He only closed his fist around the star Mordred had given him and walked on. He thought that was what Mordred would have wanted.

"Merlin."

"Yeah."

"Let's go."

Onward.

2.

Mordred's star fell.

The constellation of eleven stars collapsed, and a new star rose. Under ordinary circumstances the whole world would have fixed its eyes on that shift, but the world had no room for that now.

"Wh-what... what..."

Someone pointed at the sky, their whole body shaking. Not long before, a Blight Star had risen into the middle of the heavens, a dark-red star that caused headaches and delirium just to look at, and now it was lurching violently.

The sky above the Continent groaned.

Blight Stars rose. Three had been enough until now; another three appeared alongside them. Six Blight Stars gnawed at the sky and began expanding their territory.

Constellations screamed. The sky groaned. An unsettled current swept across the Continent, as if something were about to happen at any moment.

"Effective immediately, celestial observation is forbidden."

An imperial decree came down. The mages and astronomers of the Gray Tower who had been observing the constellations were showing signs of hallucination.

"The end is coming! Th-they, hee hee, they're coming! The fire that will burn the whole world is coming!"

"Fire! Black fire is covering the world!"

Some scholars who had spent long hours staring at the stars began screaming that the world was about to be destroyed, and shortly after, several tried to set themselves ablaze. The head of the Gray Tower suppressed them quickly, but the number of people reporting similar symptoms kept growing.

The Gray Tower was temporarily shut down.

As the Blight Stars multiplied, disasters grew more frequent. Demon beasts became more savage. Lords found their private soldiers insufficient and began scrambling to hire mercenaries and adventurers, adding to the general chaos.

Even with Mordred, that notorious rebel, brought down, the stars of the Empire and the Outland could not simply celebrate. They had snuffed a great fire, but the flames were not out.

"They're coming."

One star said.

"The monsters of the Abyss. They're coming."

The Boundary Line between the Abyss and the Outland had collapsed. The barrier that had kept the monsters of the Abyss contained was gone. Treading over its shattered remains, the beasts of the Abyss began pouring into the Outland.

A barrier that had held for a thousand years was broken.

Time in the Abyss, which had not flowed for a thousand years, began to flow again.

Constellations that had been dwelling near the Abyss relocated. The beasts of the Abyss did not march with Mordred's single-minded ferocity, but they began crossing over into the Outland, and their numbers multiplied exponentially with each passing day.

...The seal on the Abyss had been undone.

The dam broke and the water that had pooled inside came flooding out. Everything that had stagnated and rotted across a thousand years, the Cursed Ones of the Abyss, poured into the Outland.

"Run."

"The center of the Outland is still safe."

"If you can pull back from the outer edge, it's manageable."

Stars fled. Turning their backs on the Abyss, they ran to protect themselves. The night sky grew a little more chaotic as stars moved in waves.

"Rally."

But not everyone ran.

"Rally."

Someone stood at the front. Wielding his blue flag-spear, he brought the Constellations together and marched toward the front line alongside the stars who shared his convictions.

Grand Culmination, Kirchhoff.

Londinel's finest knight and the wielder of the Blue Spear, he led the stars forward. When the Empire's Constellations and forces joined them, a front line took shape.

...This was different from the chaotic Outland of the past.

The Carnival King's death had stabilized the Outland. The Inverse Stars, witches, and demons were all busy hiding, and this was an era in which the stars drawn to the Dawning Star were shining.

"Hold them!"

They held back the tide from the Abyss. Unable to stop it completely, they retreated, then pushed back, then retreated again. Naturally, it was nothing more than a stopgap.

The Abyss expanded. The Outland was pushed back. As the Outland shrank, pieces of the Continent were swallowed up one by one.

Dominoes fell in a chain. As the days passed the chaos deepened, and the Empire's interior was no less turbulent. The officials handling crises across the land suddenly found themselves looking at one of the Empire's pillars.

The Dawning Tower.

Its master had not returned to the Empire. A full month had passed since Mordred's death, and still nothing. No sign of him anywhere in the Outland.

"Where has the Dawn Horn gone?"

To that question, the Special Unit, the last to have encountered the Dawn Horn, answered.

"He went into the Abyss."

He is at the front line, and beyond it.

3.

The moment he clashed with Mordred, the situation would spiral beyond control. Najin had known that, and still he had clashed with Mordred. Because he had to.

Now he faced what that choice had brought.

The calm was shattered. Chaos had begun on the Continent. For the moment, the Constellations led by Kirchhoff, the imperial forces, and Bedivere were holding the front line, but...

That couldn't last forever.

'They'll be pushed back. Certainly.'

Even now they were being pushed back.

If they kept being pushed back like this, they would eventually lose, and the world would return to what it had been a thousand years ago, the era that had been swallowed by the Witch of the Abyss.

"The barrier's collapsed, and the Cursed Ones of the Abyss are all breaking loose. The Abyss is expanding every single day without fail."

"It would be."

"The seal, how much of it has come undone?"

Not long ago, Najin had asked that question.

And Merlin had answered.

"Everything, except the one binding the Witch of the Abyss."

"Everything means..."

"It means the apostles of the Abyss and Siegfried can all move freely. Even outside the Abyss."

Every being except the Witch of the Abyss could cross beyond the Abyss. Najin understood better than anyone what that meant.

The Dragon of the Abyss and Siegfried could move.

The moment either of them headed outside the Abyss, the front line would collapse in an instant. Nothing could stop them. So what did he have to do? Najin had his answer.

"Then I can't leave the Abyss."

He couldn't leave the Abyss. The beings of the Abyss were drawn, at their core, to whoever held Excalibur. They were starving things, and nothing shone brighter than Najin's starlight to fill that hunger.

So he wouldn't leave.

Keeping their attention fixed on himself, Najin chose to roam all through the Abyss and stir up trouble wherever he went.

"Goes without saying it isn't easy."

Somewhere in the Abyss, hiding inside a cave, Najin exhaled. His plan was to buy time in the Abyss for as long as he could hold out.

For the Outland and the Continent.

And for the stars forming the front line.

They needed at least enough time to prepare a response. The destruction that would come someday was arriving one step faster because of him. He felt responsible for that.

"Of course it isn't easy."

At his side, as always, she was there. Blue hair spilling loose, Merlin leaned her head against Najin's shoulder.

"Are you all right?"

"With what?"

"You've been looking like you have a lot on your mind lately."

"......"

Well, their inner worlds were connected. Najin smiled wryly, as if he couldn't help it, and let out a long breath.

"A long time ago..."

"Yeah."

"Even when you told me things like 'if you fail, the world will end' or 'the Cursed Ones of the Abyss will be unleashed and the Witch of the Abyss will swallow the world', none of it really hit me."

That was the truth of it. Back then, Najin had been too busy just making it through each day. Talk of the world ending was something he could barely picture, let alone feel.

"On the Continent, my own survival came first. The Outland didn't change that much. All I had to do was run straight ahead. Focus on myself, sharpen myself, keep my attention on whoever was right in front of me. That was enough."

That was how he had lived.

"But when we started the war with the Carnival King, I vaguely felt it even then."

He looked at the person he had been, living like that. Turned over the half-joking "who am I?" he used to say. And standing there was the hero who was pulling this era forward.

The owner of Excalibur.

The heir of the greatest knight.

With a single gesture he could raise armies. Start wars. Gather countless heroes and countless knights under the banner of fighting for humanity.

"A lot of people follow me now."

Najin looked behind him. Behind him stood a vast number of people, people who would gladly lay down their lives for him. Countless knights had died in the battle with the Carnival King, and attending their funerals, Najin had felt it in his bones.

It isn't just me.

Whatever his intentions were, there were people following in his wake. A great many of them. And now, at last, Najin had come to understand what his actions produced.

"Now it hits me."

Najin smiled bitterly.

"That the fate of the world rests in my hands. That if I make a wrong move, the world really might end. That a great many people could die. It hits me."

It was happening right in front of his eyes. Najin had always pushed forward without hesitation, but right now he couldn't help looking back and faltering.

"So my head's a bit of a mess."

Merlin, who had been listening in silence, poked his cheek. Najin looked at her as if to ask what she was doing, and she smiled.

"It's the kind of worry every hero goes through."

"......"

"Countless heroes before you went through it too. The scale might be different, but the theme is about the same."

Merlin pointed at Najin's heart.

"There's one close by, isn't there?"

The Star of Adventure, the star Icarus had given him, shone.

"Eventually, when you're walking, the moment comes when you have to look back. It always comes. If you never look back, you're just a self-righteous person and nothing more."

What matters, she said.

"Is that even knowing the weight of the responsibility you carry..."

The weight of every choice, the burden on your shoulders, the consequences your choices would bring, knowing all of it.

"you choose to keep moving forward."

To take one more step.

"Just like you're doing right now."

"...I..."

"I know. You have a lot to think about. Of course you do. When we arrived here, we had gone through a journey of well over ten years. We discussed it enough. We wavered enough. We fought and struggled and argued our way to where we stand."

And even we wavered.

Even we had gone through division.

"In the end, we had no choice but to stop right here."

Merlin pointed at the ground.

"The arrangements the heroes of the past set in place for you end here. From this point on, no one knows what comes next. No one knows what will happen."

Success or failure, no one could say. Complete and total unknown territory.

"It's natural to be worried. Natural to be afraid."

Merlin looked at Najin. In her blue eyes, his platinum gaze was reflected. She noticed where those eyes were looking, and smiled.

"You're still looking forward."

"......"

"Still looking at something high up."

That was the kind of person Najin was. No matter what he went through, no matter what weighed on him, no matter what situation he found himself in, he always ended up lifting his head to look at something above him.

"Then what I have to do is the same as always."

Merlin stood up.

Her hair swayed as she turned once in place. Her blue hair rippled like the surface of a lake, and she smiled.

"The day has finally come."

Najin's eyes went wide. He felt a presence from the Merlin standing before him now, different from manifestation, and not a soul-body either.

Then blue starlight filled the cave.

Eleven stars shone.

Merlin's True Body descended before Najin.

Footnotes:

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