WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Returned as a God ◈
Chapter 127: The Clock of Death (3)
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While everyone held their breath and tensed up, Choa came over to my side.
"Hangyeol-ssi, if we run into Akhtaion's follower, would you give him to me?"
Akhtaion's follower meant An Seojun.
Choa had been discovered by Jin Sangbyeok while fighting An Seojun.
Jin Sangbyeok had been horrified seeing Choa's wounds, but standing where he was, unable to see the full context, there was no way for him to tell for certain whether they'd been inflicted on purpose.
There were a few things that bothered me about An Seojun.
The follower of Akhtaion that Yu Chaeyoung mentioned had been among the traitors at the time of her death.
And then there was An Seojun's swordsmanship.
Before I could even explain what was bugging me, Choa beat me to it.
"It's because of An Seojun's sword, isn't it? At first I thought it was just my imagination, but his sword resembled yours, Hangyeol-ssi. Do you know him?"
"No way."
"Then you can hand him over without any hesitation, right?"
Despite her polite tone, Choa showed no sign of backing down from An Seojun, not even at the end of the conversation.
Hand him over, let it go, whatever.
"Well, he's still human, technically."
Choa gave me a look like it didn't matter either way.
He's the enemy, so I guess it doesn't matter.
"Even if I say no, you're planning to chase after me anyway and run off the second he shows up, aren't you?"
"Was it that obvious?"
"Obvious? Were you even trying to hide it?"
Choa clammed up, saying she'd have no comment on that.
"You're out of the fight, but I'm still calling the shots. No objections, right?"
Park Siyu's voice came through the comms room.
Park Siyu and Kim Gangwoo were set to be positioned furthest away from everyone else.
Given his build, it wasn't a bad call to have the one stationed furthest away take command.
Park Siyu and Choi Suhyun's bickering echoed inside my head.
"Do whatever you want."
"Thanks for the consideration. If I happen to hear anything, I'll let you know."
"Just don't torture him too much."
Whether I got anything out of An Seojun or not, nothing would really change.
[Fools.]
A message different in kind from the comms room rang out in every direction.
[This is, a game, nothing gained]
[It cannot be stopped!]
[Die!]
The hands clinging to the god Beritaas's body blotted out the entire sky.
It looked like a disaster given shape.
There were thirteen eyes total on Gross's surface.
"Eyes."
"Eyes?"
"When all thirteen eyes open, the Song of Doom begins."
"So you're saying we need to bring down the god Beritaas before that bastard opens all its eyes?"
"Right."
"Any idea how long it takes for them to open, or anything like that?"
"Whenever it feels like it."
"What kind of... garbage is that..."
Jin Sangbyeok caught himself swearing out loud and stopped talking.
Strictly speaking, that thing was a living being too.
Belonging to the same species didn't mean sharing the same temperament.
That one looks like it's on the docile side, at least.
Not that anyone would know for sure until they cracked it open.
The black hands blanketing the sky suddenly dropped down all at once.
Eunyoung-noona, standing some distance away, waved for us to come over.
Choa and I ran toward her.
"Ugh, seriously! When I get back to the guild, I'm telling the representative everything!"
Choi Jaebyung, his face full of complaints, pulled something out of his coat and tossed it into his mouth.
Cheongsimhwan.
Choi Jaebyung's injuries were lighter than most of the other Hunters, but his mana was already scraping the bottom.
After swallowing two Cheongsimhwan, Choi Jaebyung raised his sword and hand high.
The half-dome Choi Jaebyung conjured shielded the Hunters.
Hands that touched the barrier vanished without landing a single proper hit.
Pah, pah.
Hands kept falling on the shield, disappearing over and over.
It looked like black rain pouring down from the sky.
Outside the shield, the hands devoured every living thing they could find nearby.
"Ugh, when does this end...!"
Choi Jaebyung's hand shook, and his feet, unable to withstand the pressure, sank into the ground.
"You've got this!"
At Eunyoung-noona's cheer, Choi Jaebyung's face flushed and he lifted his head.
Seriously?
He's supposed to be focused on defense here!
Jin Sangbyeok was bad enough, but I couldn't figure out why every single Raon Guild Hunter had this pointless fixation on Eunyoung-noona.
Choi Jaebyung's skill "Guardian's Shield" grew stronger the more he wanted to protect his allies, or the worse an ally's wounds became.
But why!
Why does the shield get bigger the second Eunyoung-noona cheers him on?
I was on the receiving end of Choi Jaebyung's protection, so I had no room to complain, but I couldn't help feeling irritated about it anyway.
"Haaaaaaaah!"
Choi Jaebyung let out a loud shout and swung his shield.
The hands nearby vanished, and the attack stopped.
Drenched in sweat like he'd been standing in the rain, Choi Jaebyung drove his sword into the ground and barely stayed standing.
"Hff, ugh..."
"A Raon Guild Hunter should be able to handle at least this much, obviously."
"Well, not bad, I guess. But you reek of sweat, so stay away from me."
"You... you people..."
Was that a compliment or an insult?
Even I, just listening from the side, felt baffled, but Choi Jaebyung himself looked less exhausted than completely soul-drained.
Jin Sangbyeok and Choi Suhyun stepped forward and advanced.
Yukbaeksan looked like the god of death itself had descended on it.
"Alright, let's tear this place up!"
"Let me make one thing clear, I'm absolutely holding someone accountable for this."
"Go complain to Park Siyu about that!"
"Wait a second... would you just listen to a person for once..."
The two of them charged at what was presumed to be the god Beritaas like they'd planned it together.
Choi Suhyun, only recently back in action, made some sense, but I had no idea what had gotten into Jin Sangbyeok.
He definitely didn't come off like this when we first met.
Watching the two of them get farther away, unsure what to do, I heard Park Siyu's voice.
"Leave them be."
"It'd be weirder if Transcendents actually listened in a situation like this."
Transcendents fundamentally believed they were different from ordinary Hunters, on some level.
Their self-regard ran so high that in moments like this, they assumed their own judgment was the correct one.
Even with Park Siyu picked as raid leader, watching the two of them move like they'd coordinated it beforehand made it clear neither had any intention of listening to him from the start.
Not that every Transcendent was like that.
"You move with Choa. And Song Eunyoung... stay with Choi Jaebyung until he recovers."
"Yes!"
"You want to die for real?"
I scolded Choi Jaebyung for looking way too pleased about it.
"What? If I'm gonna get protected anyway, I'd rather have a pretty noona than some shady guy!"
"Oh my. This kid's got an eye."
Watching Eunyoung-noona look pleased with herself, I pressed my throbbing forehead.
"If you try anything funny with Eunyoung-noona, I won't let it slide."
Choi Jaebyung turned his head away, pretending not to hear a word I said.
Eunyoung-noona, gripping her ring, tilted her head to the side.
The blackened ground rippled.
The rotted, decayed trees and vegetation stirred back to life, writhing.
Thud. Thud.
Even the corpses of monsters already killed reappeared, wounds and all, still intact.
Eunyoung-noona's Ishtar's Flame swallowed the monsters closing in.
One monster broke through the flames.
She leaped, impossibly light, onto the monster's head and stomped down with her foot.
A monster well over three meters tall slammed its head into the ground in an instant.
Her foot moved again, stomping down on its neck.
Compared to a knee strike to an orc's face just a few months back, this was a serious leap forward.
"I've got this covered here."
"I'll leave it to you, then."
"Hey! Tell me too!"
The nerve, saying all that about shady men and then acting so shameless.
Leaving Choi Jaebyung and Eunyoung-noona behind, Choa and I moved out.
"They're pretty far off."
Given how flashy the fighting was, I could tell roughly where they were, but the distance had already stretched too far to catch up easily.
I struck down a black hand rising from the ground.
"You look like you're in a bad mood. Something wrong?"
"I'm a noona too, you know."
Choa spun in midair and kicked away an incoming monster.
The monster, sent flying by Choa's kick, slammed into the ground with its whole body crushed.
I never expected Choa of all people to be paying attention to a conversation like that.
"So, well, that's..."
"That?"
"Choi Jaebyung's just a bastard, that's all."
"That's not what you were about to say, I don't think."
"You have your own charm, Choa-ssi."
Eunyoung-noona had her own style, and Choa had hers.
Ranking them as better or worse was pointless anyway.
A corrupted monster appeared up ahead on the path.
I stepped lightly on the writhing body of a devil tree and leapt up, slicing off the monster's head.
"You don't have to look after me like that."
"I'm not really looking after you, though."
"I've noticed it before, but you're really good at lying with a straight face, Hangyeol-ssi."
"We're still comrades, aren't we?"
I had no idea if that line would even land, but I did think of Choa as a comrade.
"If you really mean that, you'll step aside for me, right?"
"Figured you'd say something like that."
An Seojun approached from a short distance away.
Choa stepped up onto a rotted tree and came toward me.
Her foot swung toward my side.
I raised my sword to block, and Choa laughed as she swung her leg wide.
"This is my fight."
Pushing me back, Choa turned toward An Seojun.
I rolled through a patch of muddy water and barely got back up.
Some distance off, the trees shook as Choa and An Seojun collided.
An Seojun showed no hesitation whatsoever about cutting Choa down. And Choa, knowing exactly that about him, was deliberately baiting him into this fight.
While I stood there torn over which side to jump into, Choi Suhyun's call came through.
"Hey! Kang Hangyeol! Where the hell are you!"
"I'm on my way."
"Hurry up and get over here!"
Earlier he'd ignored me completely when I asked him to wait, and now he was throwing a fit over me being late.
Turning my back on the two of them, I headed straight for the location Choi Suhyun had marked.
A massive lake had formed over the wide expanse of land.
The god Beritaas, shaped like a spider, floated above it, shielding Gross.
"You're late. What the hell were you doing this whole time?"
"Don't nag me."
Like you two were the ones who rushed ahead.
Jin Sangbyeok approached, Bastard Sword slung over his shoulder.
"So? This is the result of you two rushing ahead?"
"That's a little harsh, calling it 'this.'"
"You two haven't even laid a hand on the god Beritaas."
"We were just waiting for you."
"Or were your feet just stuck because of some mystery lake?"
"Hmph, a lake like this is nothing."
Choi Suhyun answered as he came closer, and Jin Sangbyeok frowned.
"If you say it like that, what does that make me?"
Footnotes:
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