WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 492: A Stage for All (8)

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Wizard of the Lake, Merlin.

A thousand years ago, she had often been mentioned alongside Arthur and Siegfried. Though those two had left Merlin behind and gone far away in the end, until Najin appeared, Merlin had been closer to Arthur than anyone else.

Put another way.

Most of what Arthur and Siegfried could do, Merlin could do as well. And what those two did best was kill beings that could not die. Arthur had Excalibur, and Siegfried had Gramr.

What did Merlin have by comparison?

She had no special weapon. No Holy Sword that rejected things outside the natural order, no famed blade that could cut through anything. Even so, Merlin had subjugated countless immortal beings. She had killed more demons than anyone except Arthur, and she had subjugated even more witches than Arthur.

Some might ask.

How was that possible?

The answer lay here.

Flash.

The sky above the Underground City turned a vivid blue. Blue gears covering the sky scraped together, meshed, and accelerated. When their speed reached its limit, Merlin extended a hand forward. With her thumb and middle finger pressed together, she aimed at the ground.

Snap.

The instant Merlin flicked her fingers, ripples spread outward. The circles, spinning as if their gears would shatter, stopped all at once. Where did all that momentum, which vanished in an instant, go?

It was all converted into magical power.

Her innate magic, Silence.

A bluish flash lashed the ground. A wave of cold swept across the earth, then spread through every maze-like corner of the Underground City. It was fast. Far too fast. Before anyone could even draw a breath, Merlin's magic had swept over ten thousand people.

Crack.

Movement vanished first. From soldiers to knights to Transcendents, all of them froze equally. They stopped in unnatural poses, as if time itself had been halted.

Once movement disappeared, sound vanished as well.

What followed was silence.

In that stillness without sound or movement, Merlin exhaled. White breath clouded before her.

「How did you subjugate immortal beings?」

Merlin had an answer to that question. If they could not be killed, all she had to do was bring them as close to death as possible. For a living being, heat death was death itself.

Ten thousand people froze.

Under normal circumstances, some of them could have endured Merlin's magic or resisted it at least a little. Especially against an attack broad enough to sweep over this many people at once.

「......」

But after exhausting their strength in the fight against Najin, they could not resist Merlin's magic. Covered in white frost, they could barely even breathe. Even that was only possible because Merlin had left them airways.

Crack, crumble.

Even so, they struggled. To those controlled by the Witch, Najin and Merlin were no different from beings trying to destroy the world. They had to stop them somehow. Driven by that heroic spirit, some Constellations tried to break free from the ice...

"Your resolve is admirable. Your direction is a little off, but I do think highly of that determination."

There was no way she would let them.

"But still."

Merlin descended to the ground and set foot on the earth. Her blue hair scattered in the wind, and the hem of her clothes fluttered.

"If determination alone could overcome anything, do you think so many witches would have closed their eyes while frozen solid?"

The land Silence had swept through.

It was filled with countless spells Najin had cut apart and fragments of ultimate techniques. Every time Merlin casually waved an arm, scattered mana gathered into her hand.

Mana was restored. Recycled.

The eyes of the mages watching Merlin from within the ice turned bloodshot.

「She's going to use it again?」

「Magic on that scale?」

As if mocking their doubts, Merlin's mana surged.

The circles began to spin once more.

Modern magic had been built around efficiency. Once one remembered who had built that system, it became clear how pointless their doubts were.

The mother of modern magic, Merlin.

Mana restoration formulas, methods for recycling mana used in a spell, ways to handle another person's uncontrolled mana. Merlin was the one who had laid the foundation for all those forms of modern magic.

"So stay still."

Snap.

A wave of cold swept over the ground once again.

2.

The Underground City, Artman, had frozen white.

Remnants of mana fell like snow from the sky, and white breath clouded with every exhale. Looking over the snow-covered Underground City, Najin could not help but laugh.

"I never thought I'd see snow falling in the Underground City."

"What do you think? It's pretty atmospheric, isn't it?"

Najin nodded. The sight of a city that had never seen snow or rain because of the ceiling above it now blanketed in snow was quite something.

But that was one thing.

Najin glanced at Merlin.

"Um, they're all alive, right?"

He had left it to Merlin because he trusted her to handle it, but seeing the aftermath of her magic made him worry. They were not moving at all, and he could barely hear them breathing. Were they really alive?

"What do you take me for? I only froze them. Just enough that they won't die. Of course, their joints will probably ache afterward, but they'll have to put up with that, won't they?"

"That's nothing."

Najin himself had bent arms backward, broken legs, and shattered the Constellations' joints.

"You saved me. It was terrifying how they kept getting up no matter how many times I broke them. I started panicking halfway through. It made me wonder if this was what my enemies felt like when they fought me."

Merlin laughed at Najin nodding as though relieved. Merlin's magic specialized in nonlethal suppression. That was why she had handled it so quickly and easily. In other areas, Najin would be superior.

"If you'd wanted to kill them from the start, it would've been over before I even got here, wouldn't it?"

"I don't know about that."

"You won't even say it was impossible."

Najin shrugged.

If he had gone in intending to kill from the start, the fight would have ended long ago. If he killed only a few of the central Transcendents, there would have been no need to use any more force afterward. In truth, Najin had seen countless chances to unleash killing blows.

Even so, he did not.

Najin was strong enough to kill all ten thousand people gathered here, but that was precisely why he chose not to kill them.

Because he did not want to.

"......"

Najin gave a bitter smile as he looked at the frozen people. For now, this was the only way. He did not want to kill them, but neither could he grant their wish.

Squeeze.

As he looked over the city, warmth touched his hand. Merlin had approached at some point and was holding Najin's hand between both of hers.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

Merlin shook her head.

"You worked hard. You really did."

"......"

"This time, you're not going to say, 'It was nothing,' are you?"

"Thinking about it, I really did have it rough."

Najin let out a breath.

"The whole world, you know."

"Yeah."

"The whole world told me to sacrifice myself. They asked why I had chosen the path of challenge. They said I should have trusted the future and left it to the next person, like King Arthur did. They shouted that it was what a hero should do."

Najin turned those words over in his mind.

"I don't think they were wrong. If someone truly is a hero, if they are acting for everyone, that could be the right answer."

Thinking of the voices that had tormented him for the past several dozen days, Najin spoke. Why had those words hurt him so much? The answer was simple.

Najin himself had been wavering.

"Because I wasn't certain. Because I was wavering."

At some point, the world had begun changing faster and more radically than Najin had imagined. Najin himself had led that current, yet even he had nearly been swept up in it.

"I inherited the legacies of those who came before me, the heroes who were like my seniors. I accepted the preparations they had left behind. And as that kept happening..."

"As it kept happening?"

"I guess I started wavering too."

Sometimes, simply speaking about something put one's thoughts in order. Perhaps what Najin had wanted these past several dozen days was someone to talk to.

"A hero should be this way. A hero is this kind of person. I was forcing myself into that mold. There was no need to. Those heroes only became that way as they lived their lives, but I think I started treating it as the right answer."

Merlin listened quietly.

Najin let out a long breath and continued.

"Then I talked to a child. That child asked me what I wanted. What I wanted to become."

Najin smiled.

"Only then did I realize what I had to do."

"What do you want to do?"

"I need to overturn that whole sky, don't I? Just as I shattered the sky of the Underground City, I'll shatter that sky and..."

Najin reached toward the sky.

"I'll hang a Star there. The brightest Star."

Another person's life could never be the right answer.

The only right answer in one's own life was one's own choice.

"I like that better too."

Merlin nodded.

"I'm tired of seeing people sacrifice themselves. Sacrifice, then pass things on to the next person, then the next one after that. I've watched that nonsense for a thousand years now. I'm sick of it."

Najin laughed at her half-joking words. But he soon could not laugh anymore. Merlin grabbed his side hard.

"...That hurts."

"I pinched you because I want it to hurt."

Merlin glared at Najin.

"I'm only saying this because you've made your choice, but if you'd tried to sacrifice yourself, do you think I would've stood by? Do you think I would've watched you do that?"

"Of course not."

Najin smiled bitterly. Merlin had played an enormous part in why he had not ultimately chosen sacrifice, even after the Witch had provoked him into considering it. Najin had made her a promise. He would take her beyond the Abyss.

"I can't break that promise."

"Good. Remember that. If you start wavering again, it won't end with a pinch to your side. I'll freeze you and drag you along if I have to. You know I can revive a soul as long as I have the heart, right? I could just take your heart with me."

It was not a joke he could laugh at.

"Does it sound like a joke?"

Apparently, it was not one.

3.

"So, what are you going to do now?"

At Merlin's question, Najin turned his head.

Leaving ten thousand people behind, he looked ahead.

"......"

Darkness lay there. A path leading to the Abyss.

Nothing stood in Najin's way anymore. His fear was the only obstacle left.

"I'll challenge the Witch."

He had already wasted far too much time. The Witch had been released from her seal. Through this stage, she had bought the time she needed to fully recover her strength. Several months had passed since then, so if Najin's guess was right, the Witch had returned to full power.

In fact, the Witch's interference had grown stronger with time. The intervals between the Blight Star that dominated the night sky opening its eyes had grown shorter as well.

As long as the Blight Star occupied the sky.

As long as the Witch lived.

No human in this land could be free. As long as that false god existed, humanity would be nothing but slaves to a god.

"I'll kill the Witch."

Najin spoke.

"So help me."

"...Huh? What?"

"I said help me. I don't think I can manage this alone. I think I might be able to pull something off if I have even one guide, and you're the only guide I know."

Najin held out his hand to Merlin. Merlin blinked at the hand before her, then laughed in disbelief and grumbled that it was a strange thing to say now.

"Why now? You don't even need to say it."

She said that, but Merlin knew it too. Some things had value because they were spoken aloud.

"I'm essentially asking you to fall into hell with me, so I should get your consent, shouldn't I? I'm not that shameless."

"What are you talking about?"

"So, your answer?"

"Do you really have to ask? You can hear exactly what I'm thinking, can't you? You're so spiteful."

"Some things only have value when you say them."

No one would know how much Merlin had wanted to hear him say that one sentence, that even if they fell into hell, they would go together. Slowly, Merlin raised her hand. She placed it over Najin's outstretched hand.

"Gladly."

What waited at the end of the road was the Abyss.

An unavoidable fall.

Even so, Merlin did not mind. Whether that place would be an endless Abyss or a paradise was not for the world to decide. It was theirs.

The two walked.

Leaving ten thousand people behind, they walked forward.

Author's Note

I'm a little late!

Footnotes:

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