WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
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◈ I Returned as a God ◈
Chapter 118: The Only Hope (3)
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Eunyoung didn't know how to use a sword.
Not for lack of trying weapons in general. She'd touched everything, swords, spears, daggers, throwing blades, even specialty weapons.
Eunyoung had zero talent for any of it, bad enough that she'd sometimes wondered if some god of weapons had personally cursed her. Even Hangyeol, easygoing as he was, had tried teaching her the sword once and given up.
And yet here she was, using one.
She cut down incoming attacks and pushed forward step by step, threading every opening. Her body moved on its own, like it already knew what to do, like this had always been how it worked. Sometimes her body reacted before her brain caught up.
This sword in her hands wasn't hers.
"So why are you stuck to me, exactly?"
Eunyoung had made it out of the temple thanks to Yu Chaeyoung and Hangyeol. Hangyeol had opened the dimensional gate, and Yu Chaeyoung had cleared the path.
The first time Yu Chaeyoung spoke to her, Eunyoung had genuinely been startled. A short exchange later, she'd figured out that Yu Chaeyoung's soul had attached itself to her.
Eunyoung turned her body, deflecting an attack from the god Beritaas.
"I don't know either," Yu Chaeyoung said.
"Then what do you know?"
Between the unaffiliated awakened business and everything else, Eunyoung had come to realize Yu Chaeyoung knew a lot less than she let on.
Eunyoung raised the sword high. Beritaas's attack shredded into pieces. Yu Chaeyoung's skill went far beyond anything Eunyoung could've imagined.
Is this really okay?
Her own body didn't feel like her own. Nothing about this felt real.
Eunyoung served the god Soter. She had no idea what to make of Yu Chaeyoung, but she had a strong feeling Soter wouldn't be thrilled about this passenger riding along.
[Why do you interfere with me! You, of all people!]
Beritaas's voice wasn't aimed at Eunyoung. It was aimed at Yu Chaeyoung.
Eunyoung had no idea why Yu Chaeyoung, once Beritaas's own follower, would defy that god even after death.
Yu Chaeyoung used Eunyoung's body to speak.
"You saw it too. That day, there was a traitor there."
Someone had brought in an outsider to kill Yu Chaeyoung.
[Poor child. You understand nothing.]
The stronger Beritaas grew, the more visibly Jung Hyeonseong's body was breaking down. Eunyoung looked at Hyeonseong and her face twisted.
[I am doing this for all of you!]
Eunyoung set down the sword and threw a punch instead.
"Wait, just a..." Yu Chaeyoung started.
"Shut up!"
She'd lent her body long enough already. Whatever history existed between Beritaas and Yu Chaeyoung wasn't her problem.
"What do you mean, this is for us! Spouting nonsense I can't even understand!"
Eunyoung was certain of one thing. Whatever this was, it was absolutely not being done for their sake.
Beritaas's attack poured down on her.
If she let Yu Chaeyoung borrow her body, they might actually be able to beat the demigod-possessed Jung Hyeonseong. But she didn't want to do that.
Frustrating!
Ever since she'd started serving Soter, she'd thrown herself into dungeons, more than she probably should have. Every time she went in and came back out, she felt herself growing stronger.
I can do this.
Even if matching Choi Suhyun was a stretch, she at least wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with Hangyeol, the one who'd reached out a hand to her in the first place.
If only I were a little stronger.
She knew how much Hangyeol and Suhyun had agonized over trying to save her. If she'd been strong enough to hold her own against Yu Jihan, she wouldn't have given either of them anything to worry about.
Thinking that serving a god alone would make her strong had been arrogance, plain and simple.
Yu Jihan's sword, his attacks, none of it had ever left her head. Even without using his main weapon, the sword, he'd still been stronger than her.
That sense of defeat had gnawed at her insides while she kept smiling on the outside.
In the gap between worlds, she hadn't just been sitting around doing nothing. She'd thrown herself at Yu Jihan more than a few times. He never once went easy on her, and strangely enough, that had felt better than if he had.
"You've got a habit of pivoting right on your kicks. Looks like a tic. Fight like that your whole life and you'll only ever be able to handle idiots."
Jihan had watched her kick exactly twice. Just two times, and he'd already spotted the habit.
Eunyoung switched her stance, blocking an incoming attack from the left.
Weird guy.
"Being strong and being stupid aren't the same thing. You? Obviously stupid. You're seriously asking me that?"
Foul mouth, zero tact, quick to snap, and somehow she still couldn't bring herself to hate Yu Jihan. Every offhand line he threw her way, tossed off like it meant nothing, had hit her like a shock. Nobody had ever talked to her like that before.
Jung Hyeonseong didn't have much time left. A massive sphere formed above Hyeonseong's head, lunging at Eunyoung like it meant to swallow her whole.
Eunyoung planted her feet and set her fists.
"Woman. What are you doing right now?"
"That thing you showed me, felt like I could probably do it too. Trying it out, but it's not really working."
"That's not something you can do."
"Then?"
"You can't do it."
"The hell? Fine, what happens if I copy it exactly? What're you gonna do about it!"
"You can't do it, so wake up from that dream."
From that day on, Eunyoung practiced it endlessly, more times than she could count. Eventually Yu Jihan, unable to stand watching her flail anymore, just taught her the skill outright.
"You could've just told me from the start!"
"You have any idea how stupid it is to ask an enemy to teach you a skill?"
"You taught me, though. So that makes you the idiot?"
"Keep talking like that and see if you don't end up dead."
"Ha, go ahead and try!"
"...I taught you because you were worth teaching. If I'd just handed it to you from the beginning, there's no way you'd have been able to use it. So that's not me teaching you. That's you figuring it out yourself."
Eunyoung understood exactly what Yu Jihan had meant by that.
Eunyoung thrust her fist toward the incoming attack from Beritaas. The straight punch collided head-on, and a massive shockwave burst out between them.
Back when she'd escaped Beritaas's temple, Eunyoung had made herself a promise.
I'll get stronger. Stronger than I am now!
If she'd been stronger, she wouldn't have had to watch Jung Hyeonseong slip away right in front of her.
"I'm not backing down!"
Eunyoung twisted her fist and poured every last bit of strength she had left into it.
Just a simple thrust. But that was the foundation, the very root, of every martial art. Nothing flashy about it, nothing especially impressive.
A swordsman repeats the same motion hundreds, thousands of times. A martial artist was no different. Even the same punch was never really the same punch twice.
Time slowed down around Eunyoung. Her breath, the faint tremor in her muscles, the beat of her heart, her opponent's movements, the air around her, everything gathered into a single point, and in that instant, she thrust her fist forward.
Sovereign's Initial Fist.
The blow surged forward with enough force to blow away anything it touched.
Practice and the real thing were nothing alike. Maybe because it was her first time actually using the skill, her body felt the strain immediately.
"Cough!"
Eunyoung's fist trembled violently as blood came up from somewhere deep inside her and spilled out.
Right when she started to think this might be dangerous, Beritaas's movement stopped dead for an instant.
Ishtar's flame rose up, burning with the intent to reduce Beritaas to nothing.
The fire roared and surged, melting and swallowing Beritaas whole.
[This isn't...over yet...]
Once the flames faded completely, Beritaas vanished from sight.
"Hyeonseong-ah!!"
Eunyoung ran to Jung Hyeonseong. His body had completely collapsed.
The price for accepting a taboo-breaking god as a demigod's vessel was brutal.
"Eunyoung...ssi?"
Seeing him, Eunyoung's throat closed up.
All of this felt like it was her fault. That day, she should never have said she might be able to introduce him to another god.
"I'm...fine."
Hyeonseong strained to open his eyes. Even knowing exactly what state his body was in, he fought to see her, if only for a moment, just to look at Eunyoung's face one more time.
"Really, I'm fine..."
Then every sound cut out completely.
Light crept slowly back into the darkness of his vision. Eunyoung's blurred face came into view.
Oh.
She was crying. She seemed to be saying something over and over, but no sound reached him.
Eunyoung's hand touched his cheek. His sense of feeling should already have been gone, but somehow warmth still spread out from where her hand rested.
If he was allowed, he wanted to bawl right then and there. He could feel his body giving way, piece by piece.
Hyeonseong held back his tears and smiled instead. He had no way of knowing how that looked to Eunyoung, but he didn't want their goodbye to be one full of tears.
Ah, so you were...
In his final moment, Jung Hyeonseong understood. She had been their last hope, all along.
A massive knight cut through Hresvelgr's body somewhere far off. Hresvelgr's scream carried all the way here.
Jung Hyeonseong disappeared completely.
Only the patch of clean dirt where he'd been kneeling remained. That was all that was left.
I picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground and walked over to Eunyoung noona.
"Noona, you okay?"
Eunyoung noona wiped her tears and got to her feet.
"It's not over yet. I'll cry later."
Her eyes were fixed on the cliff rising at the far end of the mountain. Thanks to her taking on Jung Hyeonseong, I'd had time to recover my strength.
I called Gangwoo hyung.
"Song Eunyoung? Ah, that Hunter... I've heard the name, but how'd you get her out?"
"It's a long story."
"Anyway, she's with you now?"
"Yeah. Send her a comms room invite, would you?"
The words had barely left my mouth before Gangwoo hyung invited Eunyoung noona to the comms room.
['Song Eunyoung' has joined the Aria Guild (Black) comms room.]
"Hey, let's get moving."
Choi Jaebyung shot me a look, signaling it was time to head out.
Right then, the ground shook and a pillar of fire shot up into the sky. Hresvelgr's wings flapped hard.
The knight fighting Hresvelgr vanished, and something shot through the air at incredible speed. It crashed through a few nearby trees before barely managing to stop, and Jin Sangbyeok stood there.
"Whoa! Vice-master!"
...Guy?
Jin Sangbyeok walked out drenched head to toe in blood, gripping a bastard sword. His Raon Guild cape had vanished somewhere along the way, and his sword hand had a bandage wound tight around it.
Jin Sangbyeok swung the sword hard. The attack sailed out and grazed Hresvelgr's wing.
"That damn snake-brained bastard. Pissing me the hell off."
His face burned red, and he panted hard. The fight had apparently dragged on longer than he'd expected, and he was furious about it.
Eunyoung noona, not knowing the full story, looked at him and asked, "Who's that?"
"Jin Sangbyeok. Vice-master of Raon Guild."
"Weren't you on bad terms with Raon Guild?"
"Every family's got their own mess if you dig deep enough."
"You three there! Quit staring and get over here and help!"
Jin Sangbyeok yelled, batting away incoming attacks. His personality seemed to shift entirely when he got angry, but it was clear enough he wasn't just talking to hear himself talk.
I grabbed the Sky Sword, and Choi Jaebyung flinched.
"Hey, uh... you're actually gonna help him?"
"He's your vice-master."
Why are you the one backing off first?
Whatever the case, we were currently in a temporary alliance with the Raon Guild people. He was asking for help, and slipping away quietly felt a little too shameless even for me. More than anything, we needed Hresvelgr dealt with before we could reach the cliff behind it.
Wings tore off Hresvelgr's body and rained down toward Jin Sangbyeok.
Eunyoung noona rushed forward and threw a punch, and flames erupted, melting the falling wings before they landed.
Jin Sangbyeok lowered the bastard sword slightly and caught his breath.
"Don't mention it," Eunyoung said.
"Never seen you before. Name?"
"Song Eunyoung."
Jin Sangbyeok studied Eunyoung noona, who'd just lowered her fist, with unusual interest.
Wait, this old man?
How dare he even think about it.
Footnotes:
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