WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 473

──────

Dragon of the Abyss, Leviathan (6)

Starlight burst from the Holy Grail.

What the Holy Grail held were millions of souls and hundreds of heroes. The light they produced shone brilliantly, undimmed even in hell.

Of course, not all of them had entered the Holy Grail of their own will. They had been victims, forced into sacrifice by Lancelot and Guinevere.

And yet, even so.

Each had carried different convictions, different thoughts, different dreams of the future. Yet there was one idea that bound them all together.

Tomorrow, a brighter tomorrow.

In a place where tomorrow never came, they had dreamed of tomorrow. They had accepted that they were the past, and the past willingly offers its back as a stepping stone for the future. To them, the future was something that shone beyond all comparison.

The Star of Tomorrow shone.

"For a better tomorrow."

Were they drawn by the brilliance of that star, or were they answering the call of their captain? Likely both. The first to set foot in hell were the heroes who had each stood as symbols of their respective eras.

The Tower of Heroes, the Argo.

The heroes who had belonged there stepped forward to Najin's side, one by one. They answered his call willingly.

"So we meet again like this."

The champion of the Allied Nations, the valiant Trex, stood at Najin's side with sword in hand. He wore the same face Najin remembered, the same smile, and knocked on his own armor.

"I figured I'd be called out to the hardest battlefield again, but sure enough. What a hellish landscape."

"Does that make your knees shake?"

"Not a chance. This is exactly the kind of stage where I can finally accomplish what I couldn't in life. Listen up, Arkan the Iron Wall stands here! None of you shall break through this barrier!"

One hero proudly bellowed his own name and drove a great shield into the ground. At his side, another hero burst out laughing and leveled a spearhead.

"Heir of a great knight, I have been waiting for your call. So this is our battlefield."

"My lord! It has been a while. Have you been well? No, I suppose you haven't been unscathed, you seem even stronger than before. Well, those who are still alive must keep pushing forward, hahaha!"

"I've been waiting for this day. Finally, the time has come."

Knights full of pride, warriors who understood honor, a mage who had been waiting for this very day.

"The past is beautiful precisely because it stays in the past. The past grabbing at the heels of the present? That cannot be allowed. The past must willingly make way for tomorrow... but those ones are the past, and yet they stand blocking the path."

And then, an old pillar of the Empire.

Tomorrow Pillar, Abraham, gave a quiet laugh and stepped forward.

"Well, what can you do. It takes the past to deal with the past."

The heroes scoffed at those who dared to bar humanity's way forward. Who are you to block the future, they raged, their fury aimed at the forces rushing toward Najin.

"Ah, I am Pauram of the Emission School. At last I can demonstrate the magic I have spent so long honing!"

"I am not much for combat, but I can handle the calculations. I was an educator, after all. To teach, you first have to know a great deal."

"You don't need to spare any thought for me. Draw on sacred magic and starlight as freely as you like! I am a 'human' who can withstand even Excalibur's starlight without harm. The greatest knight said I was human, so I am human!"

"I, too, am a knight."

The eager heroes planted their feet.

Buuuuuu......

Then, accompanied by the sound of a horn pipe, knights flying the same banner as Najin formed ranks. The one leading them held the Lance of the Crossed Star, and at his hip hung a horn pipe identical to Najin's.

"Golden Horn Knights."

Horn Star, Crünbell, smiled.

"We have assembled on the captain's orders."

Crünbell had been the second captain of the Golden Horn Knights. As he saluted Najin, the third captain, the first captain of the order stepped forward to meet them.

Clank.

An unbroken horned helm. Gleaming armor bearing the Empire's crest. And at his hip, the Empire's symbolic sword. The hero walked up to Najin without a word and knocked on his own helm with a fist.

First Horn of the Empire, Aldaran Vasaglia.

With him at the head, the Golden Horn Knights assembled. Those battle-hardened veterans lined up in formation, sharpened their spears, and fell into stance. Recognizing that stance, Najin found himself laughing.

"This is a technique every member of the Golden Horn Knights knows. There was one who used it best, but they all knew it."

Right, you had said that.

"Thirteen knights fall into formation. Clank! The clatter of armor rings out. Then they stamp the ground hard, thoom, and take their stance all at once."

"Thirteen gleaming spears aim at the Empire's enemy and thrust forward without a single beat of error."

"Sound the horn pipe. Pierce the Empire's enemy. Glorious victory to the Empire. Knights of the proud Golden Horns! We advance forevermore!"

Recalling the Helmeted Knight's words, Najin took his stance.

"We advance forevermore."

At the declaration of Najin, the new captain, the Golden Horn Knights raised a battle cry and thrust their spears.

Horn Charge.

Najin's Horn Charge led the way, and fourteen storms pierced through the Conquering King's forces. At those who dared to bar humanity's path, the Golden Horn Knights gladly became the prow of mankind and drove their Horn Charge home.

Krrrrrackkk!

The heroes advanced amid the raging storm. Between the heroes charging forward with battle cries, the Holy Grail continued to scatter its starlight.

Because there were still more remaining.

"My dear knight, Kirchhoff."

"You called, Your Highness."

Those leading the charge were only the heroes.

"Who is that sitting over there, daring to look down on me? Unbelievable arrogance."

"He calls himself the Conquering King. An emperor who unified the entire Continent in ages past, they say."

"Indeed, the Conquering King. But the past is only the past, is it not? The sight of things long dead and crumbled, grabbing at the ankles of those who came after. Deeply unpleasant."

"Then what will you do?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

The last empress of Londinel, Yuria, smiled.

"Londinel is humanity's rampart. If they would become a wave and wash over humanity, we must hold the line. It is time to show them the might of Londinel."

The knights of Londinel assembled.

Blue Spear, who had been Kirchhoff's teacher, stood at his side, along with Red Spear, who had been reluctant to acknowledge him but had recognized Kirchhoff as a knight in his final moments, and Gold Spear, who had fought bitterly against the Blight Star.

"...To think a day like this would come again."

Standing in the middle of hell, Kirchhoff felt a surge of exhilaration. He drew a long breath and, as the last knight of Londinel, declared:

"Strike down the enemies of humanity!"

Grand Culmination, beneath Kirchhoff's declaration, a nation moved. Compared to the tens of millions the Conquering King had assembled, Londinel's forces were less than a tenth of that... but what did it matter?

Knights who could each take on a hundred stood here.

If one could handle a hundred, that was all the problem amounted to.

Kirchhoff laughed and advanced. Heroes break open the path, and a nation sets it in order. Then who comes next?

"A monarch created through a social contract with his subjects. It sounds plausible at first glance, but..."

"Yes, doesn't something seem off the more you look at it?"

"Exactly. The primary purpose of the contract is to guarantee the lives of its members. We will guarantee your lives, so lease us your rights, that is what it says. What is a lease? It means to borrow."

"Then it also means those rights are returned when the contract breaks down."

Heroes, a nation, and next came the people.

"The contract went wrong."

"It has been maintained in that broken state for ten thousand years."

"Then the price must be collected."

The two lords, Yuel and Yuel, glanced at each other and gave quiet laughs. Both had been lords and magistrates of the Sealed City; they nodded to each other and stepped forward.

2.

The Conquering King's forces surged like a tide.

True to their reputation as an army that had once rallied every thinking being to challenge a god, that had drawn blood even from the Blight Star, the pressure they radiated was savage beyond measure.

But.

Piercing through the forces crashing over him like a wave, Najin exhaled. These were certainly battle-hardened soldiers. Even the Witch of the Abyss had perceived them as a threat, and it was precisely because of that perception that she had torn language to shreds to ensure such an army could never be assembled again.

That was a story from the past.

He looked at what was in front of him. They had already been defeated. Dead once, struggling while trapped in hell. Not even a trace of their former valor was visible.

Defeated, humiliated, and swallowed up.

Beaten by the very god they had challenged.

Not just beaten but subjugated.

Now fighting against humans under that god's protection.

Leviathan would weep if he could see this.

Their essence was lost. The dragon that should have been immutable had changed, destroying its own worth with its own hands.

Aaaaaaaaah!

Look at those forces, shrieking as they charge. Valor was nowhere to be found. Twisted by the Blight Star's light, broken, evolved in grotesque directions, could they even be called human anymore? Those screams were no longer battle cries.

They were already dead.

Dead things moving by force.

Thoom.

All the more reason they needed to be laid to rest. This was not where they should be buried. Gripping the Star of the Funeral March, Najin pivoted in place.

"Hold them!"

"I will take this side."

"Left flank, pushing through!"

While Najin readied himself, the heroes became his shield and his arms, buying him time. Condensing his Sword Aura, Najin looked at the stars gathering around him.

Even in hell, stars shine.

The sky was dark. The only thing shining in the pitch-black sky was the Blight Star. Only that terrible star hung in the heavens, and so the sky was nothing but dark red.

"......"

But if you looked not at the sky, but at the ground..."Najin!"

"Lord Najin!"

"Captain, leave this to us."

Stars were there. Gathering that starlight to himself, Najin kicked off the ground and charged. He became a single bolt of lightning and punched through the tide. He smashed into the surging forces and drove straight through them, running without pause.

A hero is someone who breaks open the path.

A being that blazes a trail.

Charging ahead to open the way, Najin did not look back. There was no need to. They had told him to leave it to them, and he believed them.

Shaaaaaaa!

Sweeping through the forces, Najin closed in on where the Conquering King stood. A giant that came rushing in was bisected in a single stroke. A dragon plummeting from the sky found Najin kicking off its head to leap to greater heights.

If you try to sweep me away with the will of tens of millions ,

I will answer you with the will of millions.

Even if you try to bind me with the Blight Star's light, it will do no good.

The star Victory in Battle shone. A star carrying the legacy of victory against the apostles of the Blight Star, the one Mordred had spent his entire life honing to a fine edge. A razor-sharp Sword Aura drew a single stroke across the battlefield.

Shaaaaaaaaaa!

Like water splitting apart, the Conquering King's forces were swept away. Pressing upstream against the torrent, Najin advanced step by step toward the Conquering King. He dismantled each of the means Leviathan had extended toward him, one by one. In other words, he was tearing through Leviathan's strategy.

"Next."

Closing in on the Conquering King, Najin called out.

"Tens of millions of soldiers will not be enough to beat me. Borrowing the power of the Blight Star, that is a losing move. If you think this kind of method can stop me, that will be your undoing."

Thoom.

"So then, next."

Najin said it plainly.

"Play your next hand. This isn't all you have, is it?"

There should be more remaining.

"Immutability, eternity, indestructibility."

The three mystiques a dragon possesses.

"You are no longer immutable. You already chose to change, when you changed your forces, when you altered them. By shattering your own mystique with your own hands, you gained power. But even that power is not enough."

So go on.

"Play your next hand."

Just as you abandoned immutability ,

Crush eternity with your own hands.

Do that, and there will be something you can use.

"What are you waiting for?"

Najin scoffed.

"Draw out the most powerful Authority you possess. If you are content to let me cut you apart while you sit bound by eternity, then so be it. My sword is sharp enough to cut through you and still have plenty left over."

Even knowing this is a trap, you will have no choice but to walk straight into it.

Because I ,

None other than I will make sure of it.

"Apostle of death, Leviathan."

Najin warned.

"Draw it out. Your next hand."

I will shatter every last one of them, and then I will shatter you.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried