WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 491: A Stage for All (7)

──────

The sun never rose over the Underground City, Artman.

The city was dark because sunlight could not reach it, but it was not completely dark. Lamps hanging outside every home lit the streets.

The light created by lamps filled with luminous stones was the color of sunset. Though it was a city where the sun never rose, the Underground City was paradoxically always dyed in sunset hues.

And so it was here as well.

Najin's expanding inner world painted over the area. Buildings from the Underground City rose up. The light from ore lamps spread thick as fog, and the Underground City's dark sky covered the false sky the Witch had created.

The scenery of the Underground City, where neither starlight nor sunlight could reach.

It was dark all the same.

But it was different from the darkness the Witch had created. It was not a fearful darkness that kept people from looking up at the sky. Nor was it utter blackness, with every trace of light gone. Lamps hanging everywhere illuminated the city.

A city covered in sunset hues.

And sunset was, in the end, the dim light that spread before the sun rose. It foretold the morning that would soon arrive, the twilight that had to fall before morning could come.

And there was a Star born from that twilight.

"Nothing has changed since the beginning."

Of course, sunsets also came when the sun set. But whether this sunset was the light spreading with sunrise or the light spreading with sunset was up to Najin. He smiled as he looked over his expanded inner world.

Nothing had changed.

And if nothing had changed, then what he had to do was the same as well.

"I'll engrave a Star."

Najin raised Excalibur.

The Dawning Star engraved upon the Holy Sword shone. The Star that had begun in the lowest place now hung at the highest point in the sky. A Star rose in the dark night sky of the Underground City.

Sunset existed for the morning to come.

Dim light foretold dawn.

To the sunset haze that covered the Underground City like fog, Najin gave the light they had wanted more than anything else. Dawn came after the long night. The Dawning Star, made up of twelve stars, adorned the night sky.

"So."

The corner of Najin's mouth curled upward.

"Move."

2.

A Star rose in the false sky.

Amid the countless stars swallowed by the darkness created by the Witch of the Abyss, their light lost, Najin alone had not lost his light. That only made him stand out all the more.

At the center of the Underground City's sky.

The Dawning Star scattered brilliant starlight.

Bathed in that starlight, Najin charged forward. His movements grew faster. Breathing came easier. Energy filled his body, and his vision cleared. More than anything, this was a stage familiar to Najin, so his body moved before he could even think.

Boom.

Najin began running along the rows of Underground City buildings. A streak of light cut through the city. The Constellations' eyes shook at his speed, greater than before.

That unease soon turned into confusion.

The mages hiding in trenches, the archers holding the high ground, and the stars maintaining their formations, all of them were forcibly thrown into the Underground City. The terrain shifted, and their ranks fell apart.

Slaaaaaash!

Najin broke through that opening. Running along nearly vertical buildings as if they were level ground, he closed the distance and leaped at Lapis, who was commanding the mages. Mages had always been the first targets to take down.

Boom.

Anton, the Constellations, and the knights tried to block Najin as they rushed in from his blind spots...

"Catch him!"

"Hold on to him!"

"What kind of strength is this?!"

"Ghhh!"

It did not mean much. Could dozens of Constellations have tied down Siegfried's feet? Against the Sword Demon, they might have held him for a second, but they could not steal even an instant from Najin as he was now.

This was a stage for Najin alone.

And the leading role on a stage stood out above everyone else.

More than ten stars rushed in and clung to Najin's body, but he kept charging with them hanging from him. He did not slow down in the slightest. The Constellations who grabbed him were swept away by the starlight bursting from his body and thrown back.

Then, crunch.

Najin grabbed Lapis by the face. The moment he pulled his arm back, the countless defensive spells she had laid out shattered to pieces. Broken circles scattered like fragments as Najin let out a short breath.

Kraaaaaaash!

He slammed Lapis into the ground. The earth caved in with a sound like a shell exploding. The ground beneath Najin's feet cracked with a sharp snap, and dust rose high into the sky.

She would not die, but it would hurt enough to feel like dying.

Enough to make her lose consciousness.

"You can put up with that much, can't you? You came after me, the pillar of the Empire, descendant of the greatest knight, the man even the apostle of Death trembled before. Letting you off with this much is generous enough."

Even Najin thought it was remarkably magnanimous of him. But Anton clearly did not see it that way. His eyes went wild as his lover was attacked, and he charged at Najin.

"I know."

Najin let out a breath.

"I know this isn't your will."

He looked at Anton rushing toward him. The Transcendents firing magic from far away, Karon forcing his broken arm back into place and charging in, Kirchhoff rising to his feet with gritted teeth, Gerd rushing through the dust...

Najin knew they could not help acting this way.

'Their connection to their Stars has grown faint. Because they are connected to the sky, because they are deeply affected by the darkness covering it, because the stronger a Constellation is, the more vulnerable they are to the Stars...'

There had to be countless reasons.

This was different from the Carnival King's stage. The stronger someone was, the more deeply they were affected by the Witch. For Constellations who had built themselves firmly through their Stars, the moment those Stars were covered in darkness, the effect would be fatal. They were taking the Witch's Authority head-on.

'The citizens are the same.'

They wavered because they were weak. A massive being had shoved them from behind. It would be cruel to get angry at them for being pushed. A few had regained their senses, but even that did not last long.

As long as the sky where the Blight Star shone remained, no human on this land could be free.

'Even I wavered.'

Najin smiled bitterly.

Even he, protected by Excalibur, had wavered. What chance did everyone else have? Najin did not want to resent those being shaken by the Witch.

Of course, being attacked by those who had once been his comrades was not pleasant. Being denied by them hurt. But that did not mean Najin had any intention of stopping.

"So lie down nicely, will you?"

He drove his fist into Anton's jaw. The instant Anton's eyes lost focus, Najin grabbed his shoulder and buried a fist in his stomach. He held back so he would not punch through him, but it still sounded as though Anton's stomach had burst.

"Kuh, hck."

Anton convulsed as he let out a huge breath. Najin was startled by Anton's determination to counterattack even then. There was apparently a reason he had been called a Witch Hunter in his prime. Najin had not wanted to find that out this way.

"I didn't want to go this far, but don't complain to me about it later. This is your fault, Captain."

Najin recalled the old days for the first time in a while. How had he knocked out people who did not go down easily? Ivan's teachings echoed in his ears.

"The round thing at the end of a sword hilt, the thing called a pommel. It isn't there just for decoration."

"It's a pretty useful blunt weapon."

"Smash their temple with the pommel. Until when? Until they pass out. What else can they do? They can't help passing out. Even knights will pass out if you hit them like that."

As expected of Ivan. He always had an answer. Najin gripped Excalibur in a reverse hold and brought its pommel down on Anton's temple. Once, twice, three times, four times...

Crack!

Only after roughly ten blows did Anton stop trying to counterattack. His body went limp, so he appeared to have passed out. Najin threw Anton toward where Lapis lay, then turned around.

"There's really way too damn many of you."

Well over several hundred Transcendents, countless Sword Seeker-level experts supporting them, an endless mass of people surrounded him.

Creak, creaaaaak...

The Witch was even forcing the humans he had knocked unconscious back to their feet. It looked like the Carnival King controlling her clowns. Najin's eyes narrowed.

"..."

He would not lose even if he fought like this.

Najin would win in the end, but injuries would pile up before he reached that end, and the humans opposing him would not come through it unharmed either. Some of them would die.

'That's what you want, isn't it, Witch?'

She wanted to see Najin massacre other humans. Najin pushed away the Witch's touch, still trying to worm into his emotions, and let out a long breath.

'A way.'

He had decided on the path he had to take. He had also realized the direction he needed to go. But Najin still did not know how to make his way down that path.

Rustle.

Because the answer was not his to give.

"...Ha."

A thread passed before his eyes, and Najin could not help laughing. Of course, this thread would not come undone so easily. Was it not a thread he had tied into knots time and again at her request? It had only been hidden by the darkness.

Najin reached out toward the swaying thread.

Because Najin had spread out his stage, because she had always been with him on this stage since the journey began, because Najin's Star had driven away at least some of the darkness.

Only then did the thread reveal itself again.

Grab.

Najin caught the thread. At that moment, someone on the other end grabbed it as well. As the thread pulled taut, Najin heard her voice.

- Did you miss me?

"Usually, I'd laugh that off, but..."

Najin smiled.

"Yes. Like crazy."

- Yeah. I'm sorry I'm late.

Najin pulled with all his strength on the Blue Knot connected to her, the one who had been isolated from this stage.

He had decided on the path.

He had realized the direction he needed to go.

All that remained was how he would walk it.

The answer to that question was not Najin's to give. It had always belonged to her, his Companion and guide. She answered her Companion's call.

- I'm coming now.

The sky shook violently.

3.

With a ripple.

The sky of the Underground City stirred like a wave.

Ripples spread across it, as though someone had thrown a stone into the middle of a lake. As the people charging at Najin paused and looked up, Najin smiled without meaning to.

Reinforcements were coming.

A mage seasoned in battlefields like this, one who had subdued countless beings of the Abyss that rose again no matter how many times they died, and buried countless witches alive in the Abyss, was coming.

Flash.

Najin's Star shone. Perhaps the Star she shared with Najin was shining as well. She appeared through the rippling sky.

The Wizard of the Lake, Merlin.

"..."

She lowered her gaze. She did not look at all the people gathered here. She looked only at Najin. Najin did the same. Their eyes met, the knot that had been severed for a time connected again, and Najin and Merlin read each other's thoughts.

In that brief instant.

In the brief instant before the stars gathered here recognized the Grand Mage who had suddenly appeared in the sky and began responding...

Najin and Merlin had made their decision.

Whoosh.

Both of them turned their heads and moved. Merlin raised a hand. Ten circles formed behind her, and blue light covered the sky. At the same time, Najin kicked off the ground and began charging forward.

"The sky!"

"Stop her! Don't let her complete the spell!"

Transcendents, mages, soldiers.

Everyone moved to respond.

Recognizing Merlin as an enemy, they immediately fired ultimate techniques toward the sky. They scattered magic, trying to stop Merlin's spell from being completed. At the very least, they tried to delay its activation by one second and buy time to find a way to respond.

But all that resistance meant nothing.

Slaaaaaash!

Platinum Sword Aura swallowed every ultimate technique and spell fired at Merlin. As if he would not allow anything to reach her, Najin's Sword Aura cut Merlin off from the land below.

Since ancient times.

The combination of mage and knight had been infamous.

And here stood the world's strongest knight and mage. Najin cut down every attack aimed at Merlin. He severed them, and shattered some by crashing into them with his own body.

Click, click, click-click-click...

Even then, gears began meshing at a terrifying pace in the sky. They interlocked, then interlocked again, creating greater movement. Before long, the ten gears covered the entire sky.

Click.

The final connection.

Merlin snapped her fingers.

Original Magic, Silence.

Footnotes:

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