WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 496: Interlude, One Step Forward (4)
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Explosions, flashes, and heat.
Light and heat battered Najin's body in rapid succession. Sharpened raindrops embedded themselves in his limbs, while others pierced straight through him. Flowers bloomed wherever those raindrops struck or passed through.
Creak. Crrrack.
Black flowers burst into full bloom. They gnawed at Najin's flesh, sank their roots into his veins, and fed on the mana and starlight circulating through his body.
"......"
Najin looked at the flowers blooming over his body through blurred vision. The repeated flashes in front of him had slowed his recovery. All he could hear was the high-pitched ringing in his ears. His senses had gone dull, as though he were sinking beneath the water.
'I can't let that happen.'
Najin raised a hand.
Crunch.
He bit down on the flower blooming on the back of his hand. Tore it out. Pulling the flower free along with the flesh tangled around its roots, Najin chewed it to pieces. With his freed hand, he ripped out the remaining flowers. Blood flowed from all over his body, but his mind grew clearer.
'Merlin.'
With that clarity, he formed a vivid image. The image Najin drew appeared in Merlin's mind as well.
-Three seconds is my limit.
'That'll be enough.'
A blue flash flared behind Najin. Cold burst forth and swept through the area. Every spell rushing toward Najin froze in place, while the statues that had been about to clap were covered in bluish frost.
That created a brief opening.
A moment that lasted no more than an instant.
Merlin's magic was breaking apart by the second. Even magic that stole all movement could not completely stop the Witch's spells. At best, it could hold them in place for a little while. Yet that little while mattered to Najin.
He steadied his breathing and adjusted his grip on his sword.
'Watch.'
He looked ahead. He could see the waves of magic surging toward him. It was impossible to get past them without taking damage. If he had to bleed no matter what choice he made, Najin's choice would be the same as always.
Be bold. Step forward instead of retreating.
'Pierce through. Break through.'
Platinum particles rose from Najin's body. Starlight exploded with a crackling sound. The moment Merlin's frozen magic broke free, Najin sprinted.
Boom.
The ground burst apart beneath his feet. Every step Najin took sounded like a shell striking the earth. His body struck and vaporized the raindrops faster than they could reach him.
Each time he kicked off the ground, his speed increased. Building acceleration upon acceleration, Najin crossed the battlefield in a straight line.
His eyes were fixed on the tallest tower.
The situation, with the Witch looking down on him as though she were a god, was deeply unpleasant to Najin. What else could he do? She showed no sign of coming down, so he had no choice but to climb up himself.
Crunch.
Najin did not avoid the magic crashing toward him. He broke it by slamming into it, or took it on parts of his body where the wounds would be less fatal. He would bleed either way. Rather than let himself be worn down in a battle of attrition, Najin chose to force his way through even if it meant accepting the damage.
He could see the path that led into the sky.
Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap...
The applause of those who desired the end, along with the prayers they recited, echoed without end.
『The end. An end to everything.』
The road of Ascension was filled with malice.
2.
The road of Ascension was filled with goodwill.
Her intentions had been good.
No one could deny that her intentions had been beautiful. She grieved to see people across the world killing and burning one another, and she could not stop lamenting a world where everyone hated everyone else. What could the Sky Throne possibly be, for such a terrible war to continue for centuries?
Countless villages had become ruins.
Golden fields had burned black and crumbled away.
Pitying the suffering of humankind, she chose a path that would carry her into the sky. To end this long war and welcome a peaceful tomorrow, she chose to become king. She willingly took up the burden.
And so, the king of Avalon was born.
A nation whose name meant utopia.
Avalon was a nation formed by gathering all sorts of people: those exhausted by war, heroes who wished to make the world beautiful, and believers drawn to her beauty.
"Let us go. Toward a better tomorrow."
Together with those who followed her, she crossed the world. She won countless wars. At times, she defeated her opponents without fighting, using words alone. Even powerful enemies became her allies, again and again.
"Our king is a prophet!"
"Blessings upon the King of Prophecy."
"She sees the future and always makes the best choice. With the king, we may truly reach utopia. No, we certainly will."
"Our lord knows everything."
"Let us pray. For our king."
Flowers bloomed wherever she went. She revived land that had become unable to bear life, planted trees in burned forests, and raised civilization from ruined ground.
Avalon flourished with each passing day.
The once-small nation became a great power, spreading its influence across the land. No one doubted that she would ascend to the Sky Throne and end the long war, or that the prophecy delivered long ago by some old man would ultimately prove false.
The tyrant of prophecy never appeared.
If she became king, the world would know peace.
People blessed the path before her. They competed to pave the way for her ascent, clearing away obstacles under the banner of making the world beautiful. All those who followed her acted with good intentions.
"......"
And so, she walked a road filled with goodwill.
Gathering only beautiful things.
She gathered ideal, kind, beautiful, perfect, sweet, fragrant things, and set out along the path to the sky. That was why the road of Ascension was, to her, filled with goodwill.
"How foolish."
Yet there was one Witch here.
She knew. Only she knew.
A road filled with goodwill was never a road to heaven. A road filled with goodwill led to hell. The intentions might have been good, but the most terrible hell awaited at the end.
"What a ridiculous story."
Remembering that distant past, the Witch rested her chin on her hand.
"Ridiculous, isn't it?"
Turning her eyes from the past, she looked to the present.
At what was happening down below.
Looking down, she saw a human taking one step after another, piercing through magic pouring down like rain. Scattering platinum starlight and blood, he fought desperately.
It was a sight that reminded her of a thousand years ago.
Had Arthur not looked the same when she approached the Witch that day a thousand years ago? Even now, whenever she closed her eyes, she could see the Knight King, gnawed apart by darkness and riddled with holes, blood streaming from her body as she forced herself to thrust her sword at the Witch.
"The thousand years to come will not be like the tens of thousands of years you have spent stagnating."
Arthur's voice lingered in the Witch's ears.
"Wait, Witch of the Abyss."
"Humanity will reach you. Without fail."
In the end, Arthur's words had come true. Even to the Witch, what had happened over the past thousand years was astonishing. Heroes like these had appeared in only a thousand years, and humanity's civilization had flourished even after losing its center.
And above all...
Crunch.
A hero like that had been born again.
Crrrraaack!
Watching Najin shatter her magic and race across Ascension Land, the Witch burst into laughter. He might really reach her. He might truly make it all the way here. If this had been a thousand years ago, the Witch would have gladly allowed Najin to come to her.
She would still have devoured him in the end, but she would not have tried to crush him so thoroughly.
This harshness, not even permitting him to approach her, this cruelty of not showing him her face, was not really to her taste. Her way was to speak at length with those who challenged her, savor their convictions to the fullest, and only then devour them.
Then why?
Why had she gone so far as to unfold a sanctuary containing her own beginning, only to keep him from approaching her? The Witch asked herself that question.
"......"
The answer was simple.
Too much had changed over a thousand years.
"Now!"
The Witch looked not at Najin, but at the guide fighting alongside him. She had seen everything that had happened to that guide. The Witch's crimson eyes narrowed.
"How pathetic."
For the first time, an emotion other than amusement appeared on her face. Contempt and ridicule. Clicking her tongue, the Witch waved a hand. Each time her hand moved forward by a handspan, storms raged across the ground and dark crimson rain poured down.
One step forward.
You will not take that step.
You will only be buried beneath the fierce wind and rain, and this story will meet its end here.
3.
Wind and rain raged.
The storm relentlessly battered Najin's body.
'One step.'
Only one step remained. If he could just run up that towering spire, he could stand on equal footing with the Witch and fight her. Yet taking that one step was unbearably difficult.
Grit.
Najin clenched his teeth. The raging wind and rain pushed his body back. He was charging as though he meant to break through everything, but the distance would not close. The closer he came to the tower, the fiercer the storm became.
Thousand Stars.
In the end, Najin chose to stop for a moment. As the wind and rain shoved him backward, he drew his arm back. Sword Aura layered itself over Excalibur. The moment he swung the platinum blade, condensed Sword Aura erupted from it.
Ten Thousand Radiances.
A thousand stars, ten thousand rays of light.
Shhhhraaaaaaash!
Sword Aura tore through the entire area. Towers split apart. The statues offering prayers shattered into fragments. The ground was gouged open, sending mounds of earth flying upward. Even those mounds were shredded, scattering as a storm of sand.
The Witch's magic suffered the same fate.
The wind and rain pressing in on him cleared for a moment. The area fell silent. Enduring the recoil of his technique and steadying his breathing, Najin tried to use that opening to step forward...
Shhhhhhh.
The storm had only cleared for an instant. The moment Najin moved a little farther ahead, the wind and rain battered him again. Fierce winds lashed his body, while countless spells threw his senses into disarray.
The distance would not close.
'Do I use it? Here?'
There was, of course, a way to pierce through all this and move forward. There was. But it was a method he needed to use at the final act, not here. He could not waste it in a place that was no more than an interlude in this story.
'A move I need when I clash with the Witch's True Form.'
It was something he needed to save, but it was just as difficult to approach the Witch without using it. In the end, he had to choose.
Flash.
As though urging him to make that choice, the Blight Star flashed.
Enough rain had already fallen.
The ground soaked by the rain of the end was the Witch's stage. Just as dark crimson veins pulsed through the sky around the Blight Star, dark crimson veins now spread across the ground as well. Najin thought he knew what would happen next.
Because he had seen it.
Through Leviathan's memories.
It was the Witch's spell, the one that had slaughtered the tens of millions led by the Mortal King. A spell that made dark crimson thorn trees rise from the ground. Merlin, who had thought of the same thing as Najin, scattered magic across the ground. Najin gritted his teeth as well.
Crackcrackcrack!
Thorn trees burst from the ground. A few were smashed apart. Some froze and could not properly raise their thorns, while others were cut down by Najin's sword. He broke more than several hundred thorn trees that way...
But more than twice as many bloomed in their place.
Thorn trees rose from every tower. They rooted themselves in gaps between broken statues, across the bodies of praying statues, and in the cracks of the split earth.
Then they grew.
They swallowed the raindrops beginning to fall from the sky again, growing and growing. In that way, the thorn trees became obstacles blocking Najin's one step forward.
...Mages were, by nature, beings who seized control of an entire area.
Looking at the land the Witch had taken over, Najin let out a breath. There was no other way in the end.
'Now. Here.'
He had to use it. Just as Najin and Merlin made that decision and tried to draw up starlight...
"No, there's no need."
Najin raised his head at the familiar voice.
The voice had come from far above in the sky, and Najin could not help but smile. He knew what would happen next even without Future Sight. Relaxing his stance, Najin immediately lowered himself.
Swoooooosh!
Something fell through the air.
Descent.
The ground exploded, and the thorn trees broke apart. The earth caved in across the area as a cloud of dust soared high into the sky.
"I am late, my king."
He emerged through the settling dust.
White Spear, Bedivere.
The last knight of the Round Table had joined the battlefield.
Footnotes:
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