WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Returned as a God ◈
Chapter 128: The Clock of Death (4)
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"Oblivious bastard."
"Pretty sure that's not something you get to say to me. Whatever, can you do something about that?"
Choi Suhyun's gun barrel pointed at the far edge of the lake.
He pulled the trigger, and the mana bullet that flew out blasted apart the body of a monster rising from the lake.
Jin Sangbyeok grabbed the dead monster's arm and hurled it into the black lake.
Hands reaching up from the lake dragged the monster down beneath the surface.
The lake rippled, and a monster resembling the one Jin Sangbyeok had thrown in formed on top of it.
It devoured the corpse of the monster, using it as nourishment to birth yet another one.
Kill that monster, and the hands around the lake would just devour another one all over again. An endless food chain.
"Wow."
"Not the time to be impressed. Damn bastard."
"Calling the guy who came to help you a damn bastard, really?"
"Just give me a solution."
Jin Sangbyeok swung the Bastard Sword toward the lakeshore.
A massive bolt of lightning crashed down onto the monsters near the lake.
"How would I know that?"
I'm not some kind of problem solver here.
If either of you knew the answer, shouldn't you two, who got here first, know better than me?
What exactly had they been doing this whole time?
"Useless."
Jin Sangbyeok had a real talent for irritating people in ways that felt personal.
"Ah, come on. Just wait."
Expecting this much out of someone who'd literally just arrived was way too much to ask.
I don't have clairvoyance, give me at least a second to read the situation!
I pointed the Sky Sword at the black lake and activated Mana Detection.
The sheer volume of mana I could already sense made my stomach turn.
I took a breath and raised the sword high.
Sensing something, Jin Sangbyeok cleared the monsters around me without needing to be asked.
I set my stance and swung the sword down in a straight line.
Monsters were cut down along the sword's path, and the black water of the lake pushed back.
At the bottom of the lake sat an egg glowing faintly red.
The split water gathered together and blocked my attack.
Like skin healing over a wound, the lake surged back to its original shape almost instantly.
"Hyung, did you see that?"
Choi Suhyun nodded.
"Something shaped like that just now. There's four of them total."
I pointed roughly at the locations of the cores.
"Memorized."
"Confirmed. So we just need to smash all of them?"
"Would've been nice if you'd said that from the start."
"Wow, so many complaints."
"Handle one each. I'll go first."
Jin Sangbyeok ran toward the lake first.
"Hyung, I'm going too."
For Choi Suhyun, a gunner, knowing the location was enough. No real issue there.
I leaped onto the lake.
Every swing of my sword cut down another monster in the water.
I pushed forward, stepping on the corpses of monsters.
Attacks came not only from the monsters and hands rising out of the lake but from above as well.
I stepped on a monster's head and leaped high into the air.
I used Wind Fang to push the water around the lake back.
I drove the sword into the grotesque, misshapen core.
The skin surrounding the core pushed the blade back.
The core was far tougher than I'd expected.
Squirming, writhing.
The water I'd pushed back crept forward again, trying to reclaim its place.
Hands stuck to the mucus wrapped around my arm and dragged my body toward the bottom of the lake.
<...fuck, what is this now!>
I was debating whether to switch attacks and try again, or pull back and reposition, when a strange voice cut through.
It hadn't come from the comms room.
Unlike Eunyoung-noona, who'd escaped with help from Yu Chaeyoung and me, Yu Jihan was currently trapped inside the god Beritaas's divine temple.
The god Beritaas had broken its taboo.
A being that had broken its taboo wasn't bound by causality.
It wouldn't be strange at all if the underside of this black lake connected directly to Beritaas's temple.
He's alive.
I'd sensed it back in the tower too. Yu Jihan had always had a decent knack for survival.
The first time I met him, he'd been crying after killing a goblin, but not just anyone could've even managed that much.
If Yu Jihan really was the kind of Transcendent who could get out of the tower, he'd probably survive even if you threw him into some other dimension entirely, not just a desert or the arctic.
Relief at him being alive and a growing headache over what that meant crossed paths in my head at the same time.
The mucus rose above the water, trying to swallow my sword whole.
"Hey! You're Yu Jihan, aren't you?"
<......ck, that voice. ......gyeol? You son of a bitch...... I'll ......ake you disap...... die.......>
The instant I spoke down beneath the surface, a chilling voice answered back.
Even hearing only fragments of it, I could feel the murderous intent aimed straight at me.
Hey, come on!
Anyone listening in would think I'd committed some unforgivable crime against him...
Hm.
Not exactly unforgivable, but yeah, I did do something that would earn a grudge.
The first time we met outside the tower, Yu Jihan had tried to kill me unilaterally, same as Eunyoung-noona.
Yu Jihan believed I was a follower of the god Soter.
I'd survived somehow using the Covenant Oath, but that whole incident had earned his lasting resentment.
Though if we're being fair about it, he swung first at the Giant Ant Cavern.
So beating Transcendent Yu Jihan half to death was self-defense, plain and simple.
And no! It definitely wasn't because getting hit at the Giant Ant Cavern had pissed me off.
Months had passed, enough time to let it go, but from how he was cursing at me the instant I spoke, it sounded like the grudge had sunk deep into his bones.
<...bastard... kill... won't let......>
Maybe I shouldn't have bothered talking to him at all.
The moment my sword tip touched the core, blood vessels nearby shot toward me.
I pulled the sword back and cut down the incoming vessels.
Right as I was about to switch skills and try again, Choi Suhyun's message came through.
"Kang Hangyeol, pull back!"
"What? Why?"
"Never mind why, just get out!"
Choi Suhyun's mana bullets cleared away the hands and monsters around me.
Since I'd already failed to destroy the core in one shot, I did as Choi Suhyun said and retreated.
I barely managed to hop across monster corpses and get out of the lake.
While I'd been busy with the core, monsters had already piled up along the shore.
I cut through them as I made my way toward Choi Suhyun.
His mana bullets spread out in every direction.
"Why'd you tell me to come back?"
"Did you break the core?"
"Couldn't."
Jin Sangbyeok, having overheard our conversation, cut in.
"Pathetic."
This old man, seriously.
You want to go a round with me?
Jin Sangbyeok drove the Bastard Sword into the ground, and blue lightning surged up around the blade, striking down the monsters.
Hmm, on second thought, maybe I should reconsider that.
I ignored Jin Sangbyeok and kept talking to Choi Suhyun.
"I was going for the core, obviously. So what?"
"This guy and I went straight for the cores too. No way we both failed to break them."
"It regenerated."
Choi Suhyun nodded at Jin Sangbyeok's words.
There were four cores total at the bottom of the lake.
The method for destroying a regenerating core was simple.
Break all four at the same time.
The problem was that we didn't have enough people.
I kept cutting down monsters without pause, clearing the area around us.
"Can't you just break two of them by yourself, hyung?"
"Not that I can't."
Choi Suhyun scratched his cheek, looking up at the god Beritaas floating massively above the lake.
With no idea how long this fight would drag on, he clearly didn't want to burn through his strength this early.
"I think I might be able to find someone to help."
Choi Suhyun, who'd already run through every candidate and concluded the three of us had to make do somehow, tilted his head.
"Talk so I can actually understand you."
Choi Suhyun fired a mana bullet up into the sky.
The bullet streaked upward and burst back down like fireworks.
"There's someone who's not part of our headcount."
"Not part of the headcount... you mean that psycho who tried to kill Song Eunyoung? Isn't that guy dead?"
He's alive! Stop treating him like he's dead!
Hearing about Yu Jihan, Choi Suhyun clenched his fist tight.
"I swore I'd kill that son of a bitch if I ever saw him again, and now you're telling me to get his help? I'd rather..."
"Not help. Use him."
That distinction needed to be made clear.
If he really didn't want to, Choi Suhyun could always just use his Transcendent Mode instead.
"Fine, so where is he?"
I pointed down at the lake where the monsters kept spawning.
"Down there?"
"Eunyoung-noona was trapped in the god Beritaas's temple, right? The underside of that lake connects straight to the temple."
"Shut up and answer! Can you break it or not? Just say that!"
Jin Sangbyeok cut in, swinging the Bastard Sword in a wide arc.
"I can break it."
I gripped the Sky Sword and twisted my wrist slightly.
After the string of battles, the Blessing of Soter had nearly reached Tier 8.
Combined with the added effect of Executioner's Sword, my stats had climbed considerably.
"Then that settles it."
"What settles anything! Not for me! How am I supposed to trust some guy named Yu Jihan is even down in that lake?"
"Stop nitpicking pointlessly, Choi Suhyun. Been off the field too long, has your head gone soft?"
"What'd you say? Want me to crack your skull open first?"
"That can wait until after we handle this, can't it? Talking too much for someone who isn't even planning to use his Transcendent Mode."
At Jin Sangbyeok's blunt jab, Choi Suhyun clicked his tongue like he'd lost the argument outright.
"Ugh, whatever! Do whatever you want!"
Choi Suhyun leaped onto a monster's head and fired his gun.
Jin Sangbyeok, already ahead, spoke through the comms room.
"Give the signal."
I stepped across the corpses of monsters floating on the lake and approached the core again.
A long black arm shot out from the lake and wrapped around my arm.
The hands rising from the lake only tried to drag me under. Contact alone didn't do any direct damage.
They were closer to some watered-down version of ghouls.
As long as I didn't get dragged all the way under, it was fine, so naturally, fighting here meant the tentacle-like hands kept wrapping around my body one way or another.
Judging by the earlier exchange, Jin Sangbyeok hadn't heard Yu Jihan's voice at all.
No idea why I was the only one who could hear it.
Didn't matter, I guess.
Approaching the core again, I stood on the corpse of a large monster half-submerged in the lake.
Hands crawling up the corpse wrapped around my feet, trying to swallow me down like quicksand.
I called out to Yu Jihan.
"Hey! You want out of there or not?"
<...you son of a bitch, acting all friendly out of nowhere!>
"Forget that! You want out or not?"
<Shut...>
"I'll get you out!"
I abandoned the monster corpse that was fully sucked under, killed another one, and climbed onto its body instead.
"Isn't there some weird-looking egg thing near you?"
<...that's exactly what's been giving me hell! What are you even talking about!>
"Ugh, I can't make out a word you're saying. Is there one or not!"
<There is, so what!>
Yu Jihan sounded plenty irritated too, like he wasn't catching my words clearly either.
<Four of them!>
"Right! Four! We're gonna break three of them from this side, so you break the last one!"
<...what?>
Argh.
This is driving me insane.
Monsters kept rising out of the lake nonstop, and I couldn't get through to this guy at all. My gut was twisting with frustration.
Screw it!
[Three of the four over there, we'll break them from our side, so you break the remaining one!]
Unable to hold back my irritation, I used a divine proclamation on Yu Jihan.
<...you bast..., what are you doi.....>
[Shut up and just do it!]
<...if you die.>
No idea what he was trying to say, but he'd figure it out once the moment came.
"Hyung, now!"
"If you fail again this time, you're dead."
"Got it."
Lightning crashed down at the far edge of the lake.
As if refusing to fall for the same trick twice, tendrils shot out from the core.
I stepped on the incoming tendrils and gripped the Sky Sword tight.
[Tier 8 Protection activates.]
The Heavenly Dragon's Peerless Sword Style pushed back the lake's water, driving straight toward the core inside.
"Break!"
Footnotes:
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