WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 454

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Sword Demon of the Abyss (6)

The suppression battle against the Sword Demon of the Abyss, Siegfried.

Three people took part in that battle.

Each of the three had a role to play. Knowing that carrying out those roles was the only way to improve their odds even slightly, they gave everything they had. At the boundary between life and death, they staked their lives on their parts.

"Hold on. A little longer. Keep moving."

Najin endured. At close range, he had taken Siegfried's blade most fiercely and for the longest time. At the end of that ordeal, he grasped the foothold to advance to the next realm and succeeded in drawing out Siegfried's full strength.

Still, it was not enough.

One step short.

To make the understanding he had barely seized his own, he needed one more step. Najin had neither the time nor the means to take it.

"I cannot reach, but there is still something I can do."

The one who bought that time was Karon.

Karon risked his life. At death's threshold he found enlightenment, and he grew. He received Siegfried's blade in Najin's place, bought Najin the time to get back on his feet, and completed Thousand Swords, Ten Thousand Forms one step ahead of Najin.

"Did you see."

"You would have, someone like you."

He showed Najin his sword. As a teacher, he passed his lesson to a student. And so Karon accomplished more than what he had been given to do.

One person remained.

Merlin, who had been filling the gaps for both of them all along.

Now it was her turn.

The part that was still lacking even after Najin and Karon gave their all. To fill that part, Merlin closed her eyes and opened them again. She knew what her Companion was thinking, what he was trying to do. She also knew the direction Najin was pushing toward.

'Merlin.'

'Najin.'

Their thoughts overlapped. No more words were needed. Merlin raised her arm, and Najin gritted his teeth and pushed against the ground with his palm, forcing himself up. Blood poured from his body. Bloody foam bubbled between his clenched teeth.

Crunch.

Grinding his teeth, Najin hauled himself upright. But the movement was still too slow. Siegfried had thrown Karon off and was closing in on Najin far faster. At this rate, it would be too late.

But because Karon had bought the time.

Because he had broken Siegfried's arm and opened a gap, because Siegfried's eyes had pulled away from Merlin..."You know," she said,

the time to complete her magic had been given to her.

"you've been ignoring me a bit too much, don't you think?"

The fingers Merlin raised aimed at Siegfried. An enormous volume of mana swirled around her. A torrent of power spread outward, enough to steal even the Sword Demon's gaze for one instant,that Sword Demon who never kept his eyes on anyone but swordsmen.

Their eyes met, and Merlin smiled.

She knew.

Her matchup against Siegfried was the worst possible.

It had been that way a thousand years ago, and it was still true now. Before a demonic blade that could cut through anything, Merlin's magic lost its meaning. A body fortified by the dragon blood of hundreds of creatures shed most magic aside.

So she could not defeat Siegfried.

'That would be true, assuming I hadn't changed at all.'

But that was conditional on Merlin being exactly the same as she was a thousand years ago.

Swish.

Her blue hair fluttered in the wind. A different look from the woman she used to be. The change wrought by meeting Najin, by accepting the half of herself she had spent so long denying. She curled the corner of her mouth the way Najin did and smiled.

Rain kept pouring down.

Splatter.

Water had pooled on the ground. The earth, soaked through, had gone soft. The remnants of every spell hurled without pause since the battle began lay scattered everywhere. In that moisture-saturated space, Merlin's eyes narrowed.

There are those who say this.

Never drag things out against a mage. Unlike warriors, who grow tired and slow the longer a fight runs, a mage only becomes more dangerous the longer it goes on. So you must force a quick, decisive battle,Transcendents say so unanimously.

If anyone were to ask why, this very scene would serve as a perfect answer.

Snap.

Merlin flicked her finger. The moment she did, the air rang out. The moisture in the air rang out with it. Every trace of mana scattered across the battlefield resonated at once. Merlin's circles ground against each other and scattered blue-white flashes of light.

One flash.

Merlin's magic was complete before Siegfried could even move.

Inundation. Water Burial. Abyss.

Three stars shone.

Three spells bearing those same names were completed.

Flash.

Three great spells blazed with light all at once. Unlike when she had worked through Najin's mana, Merlin was using her own mana now, consuming her own starlight. Because she had drawn purely on her own power, her stars responded.

The stars amplified the magic.

The wave that had once sent the Witch of Sinking plunging into the depths alongside her entire domain, driving her to her death, swallowed Siegfried whole. The wave crashed and foamed, churning into white spray.

The torrent of water that had drowned every last one of the hundreds of thousands of demon beasts led by the creature called the beast demon,king of monsters,coiled around every part of Siegfried's body. A current like a clenched fist dragged at him.

Siegfried fell into the Abyss that had once swallowed Demon Lord Baal's million-strong army whole. Water pressure that could buckle the hardest metal pressed down on the Sword Demon's body.

Even through all of that, Siegfried endured and tried to move. His body twisted, his arm bent the wrong way, and still he cared nothing for it,still he tried to take a step.

He swung his sword anyway.

The moment that strike was about to reach Merlin, faced with the surging Sword Aura bearing down on her, Merlin exhaled.

"I know."

That kind of tenacity, Merlin knew it well.

"Because that's who you are."

And so, one more time.

Snap.

She flicked her finger again.

The star of Silence shone.

Heat vanished. Every movement stopped. The ground froze. The moisture in the air froze. The Sword Aura that had been launched, Siegfried's body as he tore through the Abyss on his way out,both froze solid. Every spell before this had been nothing but groundwork for this one.

Even sound disappeared.

A silence befitting the star's name settled over everything for a moment. Then the Siegfried frozen white began to shudder.

Crack, crack, crack!

He thrashed inside the prison of ice. His skin tore, and the water that had seeped into his wounds froze and expanded, splitting his flesh apart. One arm could not withstand the force and finally tore free.

Even if his whole body came apart.

Even as a wreck.

The Sword Demon, Siegfried, still moved.

He moved to put an end to the sword duel that had yet to be decided. Lightning crackled without pause. The tattoos carved into his body blazed red. Steam rose, trying to shatter the ice from within.

Merlin did not flinch at the sight.

"Now."

Because she had already achieved her goal.

A guide's duty is to open the path her Companion walks. In that sense, Merlin had been an outstanding guide. The road leading to Siegfried was now clear. Walking that straight, open road was not Merlin's part to play.

Just as Karon had surpassed his limits.

Merlin too had gone beyond her former self.

All of them had performed beyond what was given to them, so what remained was Najin's role,the core of this suppression battle.

Crack!

With a sound like shattering glass, Siegfried smashed the ice apart. One arm broke free of the frozen shell. That arm clawed at the ice around him. At the exact same moment, Najin finally managed to rise to his feet. He stood on both legs and drew a ragged breath.

Creak, crash.

The ice, riddled with fractures, gave way. Siegfried forced himself free at last. His entire body was covered in splits, blood flowing without pause from every open wound. One arm was gone. Even so, he did not release the sword.

"Ugh,kugh. Ptch."

Najin was no different. He spat out the clots of blood that had filled his throat and took one step forward. The moment he put strength into his body, blood burst from his wounds. Even so, he did not release the sword.

Blood stained the ground beneath them.

"......"

"......"

Siegfried and Najin looked at each other. Their eyes met. Each looked at the sword in the other's hand. Both were swordsmen, and the two swordsmen standing here possessed the finest Future Sight in all of human history.

No Transcendent could intrude on the futures they saw. Only each other could interfere with each other's future. After looking ahead into a future flowing at exactly the same speed, Najin burst out laughing.

Because they were thinking the exact same thing.

The Future Sight cancelled each other out.

The conclusion they had each reached was identical. Both were wrecks. The time remaining was not long. To close this out with a final exchange worthy of the moment, there was only one answer.

What they would swing was themselves.

Moving toward each other, both took the same stance.

The stance of Thousand Swords.

2.

Najin had seen Siegfried's Absolute Technique.

This was not the first time.

He had observed Siegfried once before, cutting through every last one of the witches. So he had seen the Absolute Technique at least twice,and yet he had never been able to understand it. Even so, Najin had never been able to understand Siegfried's Absolute Technique.

Why?

Najin understood an opponent's technique from a single viewing. Perfectly reproducing it might take time, but grasping the principle and the form was something he could always do. Siegfried's Absolute Technique was the exception.

He had seen it and still not understood it.

He could not even imitate its form.

The reason had been beyond him until now, but now he could see it. Because he had grown through clashing blades with Siegfried, because he had received that technique up close, and because Karon had given him the clue, Najin finally understood.

The approach itself was wrong.

What is Thousand Swords, Ten Thousand Forms?

Najin focused on its essence.

It is a sword that traces a path far too grand for facing a single human being. Not a sword for cutting humans, but for cutting something far larger.

What does it seek to cut?

Death itself. It was a sword meant to face Leviathan, the horseman of death,that enormous dragon filling the role of the underworld within the Abyss where death does not exist. Think about the target Thousand Swords, Ten Thousand Forms is meant to cut, and the clue is there.

The horseman of death, Leviathan.

The immortal king, Leviathan.

An existence born from tens of millions of lives clumping together until it became the very concept of death. No matter how great a Transcendent might be, the body was far too vast to oppose with the life of a single person. The opponent carried the weight of tens of millions of souls.

To cut something like that,

One alone would not be enough on this side either.

And so.

Thousand Swords,gather a thousand blades.

For a swordsman, the sword is life itself. The swordsmanship swordsmen have built up carries their lives within it. So to master a thousand swords is to experience a thousand lives.

Weave them together.

Ten Thousand Forms,weave a thousand swords together.

Cross the trajectories the swords will trace. Interweave sword with sword and forge an entirely different trajectory. Make the lives all those swordsmen lived collide and clash, and draw out every last possibility they hold to its fullest.

Then.

Thousand Swords, Ten Thousand Forms.

Even death made from tens of millions of souls could be cut.

A sword that can become anything.

A sword that can cut anything.

That is Thousand Swords, Ten Thousand Forms.

The contemplation was finished. The essence was understood. Najin could now reproduce Thousand Swords, Ten Thousand Forms. In Siegfried's way, mirroring his sword, he could meet it head-on.

But he did not want to.

Najin thought of Karon's sword. Similar to Siegfried's, but different. Karon had interpreted Thousand Swords, Ten Thousand Forms in his own way. Even if it had not been perfect, Karon had tried to find the answer in his own fashion.

Even if it fell short.

That attempt had value.

A student's role, after all, is to be the following runner who completes what the teacher could not. Drawing a clue from the teacher's lesson and completing a better answer,that is the student's part.

Think.

Until now, Najin had imitated the techniques of Transcendents. He had stopped at reproducing his teachers' swords. Even counting what could be called Najin's own sword, there was still only Cutting Night. If the Helmeted Knight were here, he would scoff.

"Walk your own path."

Now that you are a Transcendent yourself, shouldn't you forge a sword that is yours and yours alone,the Helmeted Knight would surely say, and not without some scolding in it.

That was right.

Najin had been weak, so he had imitated the techniques of stronger Transcendents. Because he could not catch up to them, because he had looked up at the stars above with longing, he had copied their techniques, borrowed their lives, and cut his enemies.

But not anymore.

After ascending to Transcendence through the battle with the Carnival King, Najin had chosen a different approach. He had been optimizing techniques to suit his own body. Drawing on the knowledge he had accumulated, he refined techniques and developed better methods.

Unintentionally.

This was the same process as creating a new swordsmanship.

That was how the foundation of the Dawn Sword had been formed. Built on that foundation, the only technique so far was still Cutting Night,so wasn't it time to add one more?

Thud.

Planting his foot into the earth, Najin exhaled. In the slowed flow of time, he corrected his stance. He had taken the exact same stance as Siegfried, but now he shifted into one that was slightly different.

His breathing changed. His grip changed. His bearing changed.

If you weave a thousand swords together,

The root of the technique is weaving many lives to create ten thousand forms. As its means, you wove the lives of swordsmen. But I have no need for that.

I weave stars.

The stars Najin had gathered shone.

The stars carved into Excalibur shone. The stars that had briefly passed through Najin's life shone. Not all of them were swordsmen. Blue Spear was there, and Crünbell, and Don Quixote, and Icarus,the lives of countless Constellations.

Najin had seen their lives.

He had adventured alongside them.

He had become them and lived their lives himself.

And so Najin understood their lives. What convictions they had held, what direction they had tried to live in,all of it was known to him. He called their lives to mind.

Step forward.

The two swordsmen each took one more step toward the other. The distance collapsed in an instant. In that same moment, both completed their technique.

Thousand Swords,a thousand blades.

Ten Thousand Forms,ten thousand shapes.

Lightning gathered on the Gramr in Siegfried's grip. Lightning that had woven together a thousand swords compressed onto his blade.

Thousand Stars,a thousand stars.

Ten Thousand Radiances,ten thousand rays of light.

On Excalibur in Najin's grip, a constellation gathered to meet it. A constellation woven from a thousand stars compressed onto his blade.

As chance would have it, both took the form of the Sword Aura each of them wielded. Sword Aura shaped like lightning, Sword Aura shaped like a constellation,each compressed onto its respective sword. The stances were different, but the root of the techniques was the same. So the moment the swords were swung was identical.

Two swords swung from different directions collided.

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