WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Returned as a God ◈
Chapter 131: The Crossroads of Choice (3)
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Mind-reading technique, seriously.
Unlike me, still stunned, Yu Jihan stayed calm about it.
He leveled his sword at my chest again.
"If the mind-reading technique doesn't work, I'll just ask directly. Why didn't you use divine words earlier?"
Another round of questions followed.
I'd used the Covenant Oath I'd made with Yu Jihan before to beat him half to death once.
Given that he'd made it out of the tower, it made sense he'd know quite a bit by now.
When I didn't answer, Yu Jihan's sword crept closer.
"You've got the wrong idea about something. I'm not Soter's follower, and there's no way I could use divine words."
"That's exactly what's strange."
"When you tried to kill that woman, Soter didn't react. But when you tried to kill me, that bastard used divine words. Same thing happened when I destroyed the core in the Divine temple. Since you walked in here on your own two feet, I figured if I pushed you right to the edge of death, he'd have to use divine words."
So that's why he suddenly switched up his attack.
Yu Jihan had a hot temper, sure, but he was fundamentally sharp.
I'd only used it back then because things had gotten genuinely desperate.
If I were in Yu Jihan's shoes, I'd have plenty of reason to be suspicious too.
Damn it, how do I spin this?
"You're claiming to be an ordinary follower? Lie a little more convincingly next time. Idiot."
Why did hearing that from him piss me off so much?
"I'll ask again. What's your relationship with the god Soter?"
His question told me something for certain.
Yu Jihan hadn't even considered the possibility that I might be the god Soter himself.
Made sense, though.
Cases like mine weren't exactly common.
Whatever the reason, it worked in my favor.
"Guardian."
"You're the Guardian of that damn god?"
Calling him a damn god was harsh.
"An idiot like you as a guardian. He's really lost his eye for talent."
"You son of a..."
"Anyway, didn't you make some weird oath with the god Soter?"
"I got scammed into it."
Scammed, my ass.
He'd fixed it himself because he wanted to!
Yu Jihan pulled his sword out of the wall and turned his body.
His blade cut clean through a monster still lingering in the Divine temple.
As long as the Covenant Oath between him and the god Soter existed, I couldn't kill Yu Jihan.
In exchange, Yu Jihan couldn't directly refuse an order from the god Soter.
"My god wants to make you an offer."
"Not even worth hearing."
"I don't know what your goal is here, but you can't keep trying to kill his followers."
I spoke it like I was relaying Soter's own words directly.
"Bold talk from a god with barely any followers to begin with."
At his complaint, I just shrugged like it was none of my business.
"He says he'll fix the Covenant Oath for you."
Yu Jihan sighed and raked a hand through his hair irritably.
Now that he knew the mind-reading technique didn't work on me, he seemed absorbed in just sizing me up.
Sorry, but I've got a shameless enough poker face that reading me won't be easy.
"Not your concern."
"Guess not. So, what's it going to be?"
"About the offer."
"The only reason I didn't kill you was the Covenant Oath with the god Soter. If he fixes that oath, you'll be the first person I kill. Doesn't sound like a good deal for you."
"Are you actually worried about me?"
"Not worry, just fact. Is your head made of rock?"
This bastard.
Damn it, keep this up and I'll stop calling you Transcendent Yu Jihan and start calling you Corrupted Yu Jihan instead.
Okay, calm down.
"Do you even know what's going on outside?"
"I know some god called Beritaas is causing chaos. Annoying, sure, but it's got nothing to do with me."
Even after being locked in Beritaas's Divine temple for over a month, Yu Jihan didn't seem to feel anything in particular about the god.
"So what, you're planning to just stay locked in this Divine temple forever?"
"You crazy?"
Yu Jihan scrunched his face like the idea itself was disgusting.
"Let me be clear. Whether that bastard destroys the world or not, I have zero reason to fight him."
"You don't have to be that cold about it."
His answer was so heartless it practically radiated frost.
I wasn't asking him to save the world or anything grand.
Judging from his attitude, though, he clearly had some kind of card up his sleeve.
"If you help take down the god Beritaas, I can get the oath modified. Even if you say you've got no grudge, you were locked up for over a month. You've got to be at least a little angry."
"You do know what you're talking about, right? Half-baked or not, it's still a god. Not something you can handle that easily."
"That's exactly why I'm asking for your help."
"Is he even worth going that far for?"
"Can't tell you that. But he absolutely has to be stopped here."
I thought I understood now why the Seven-Star God had gone after Yu Chaeyoung, Beritaas's former follower, and pushed her into breaking her taboo.
They were hiding something in this game.
And the god Beritaas was, in all likelihood, an existence that had gotten close to whatever they were hiding.
Beritaas had learned the truth as the price for breaking its taboo.
The moment it broke its taboo, it had already stepped outside the board, so it no longer posed a threat to them.
The instant Beritaas broke its taboo, their objective had basically already been achieved.
"That's not enough of an answer. I don't need Soter's opinion. I need yours."
To the end, Yu Jihan kept asking for Kang Hangyeol's opinion, not Soter's.
"Then let me ask you something. Even if the Covenant Oath stays as it is, do you have any intention of touching me or Eunyoung-noona?"
"Not a single follower of the god Soter should be left standing. If there's no way around it, I'll just have to think of another method."
"See, you're going to kill us either way. Why complicate it? Take down Beritaas or come after me, do whatever you want. Pretending to look out for us now just makes it more suspicious."
"Don't regret saying that."
To defeat the god Beritaas, and to stop Gross, I needed Yu Jihan's strength.
Yu Jihan and I both looked toward the same spot at almost the same instant.
Empty black space, and yet something about it was clearly different.
Beritaas's dimension was collapsing.
The god Beritaas was trying to expel me and Yu Jihan, the biggest variables in its equation.
If we ended up as Dimensional Strays, there was no guarantee we could ever make it back to the real world.
Yu Jihan turned his back and threw the Sky Sword lying on the ground.
It spun through the air once and drove into the floor right in front of me.
As I reached to pull it out, Yu Jihan spoke up.
"Do it now."
"The modification to the Covenant Oath."
"I'll do it the second we're out."
I could feel the Divine temple collapsing.
Getting out of the Divine temple came first.
No time to keep arguing with Yu Jihan.
Looking unsatisfied, Jihan gripped his sword tighter.
"How am I supposed to trust you?"
His trust in me was somewhere in the negatives.
No time to make excuses, no room for back and forth.
[The god Soter proposes a Covenant Oath to Yu Jihan.]
[The Covenant Oath is beginning.]
[Subject: Soter]
The Covenant Oath was a contract between souls.
Modifying or altering the contract itself was impossible.
The only way to change it was to bind a new contract on top of the old one.
"In the name of Yu Jihan, here and now, it is reaffirmed that he need not obey the commands of the god Soter. Do you consent?"
[Consent given.]
Threads of oath appeared around Yu Jihan.
Threads of oath only became visible when a Covenant Oath was made, or when one was broken.
Around Jihan, aside from the thread formed by his oath with me, countless other threads tangled together in a dense, chaotic mess.
Same as me, Yu Jihan could see the threads circling him too.
I caught a glimpse of his expression twisting into something complicated as he stared at them.
Never in my life had I seen someone carrying around this many oath threads.
The Yu Jihan standing in front of me had lived through experiences from a future I didn't know yet, experiences I couldn't even guess at.
I had no idea what someone would have to go through to end up like that.
The threads surrounding Yu Jihan gradually faded.
Brushing the threads of oath aside like they were an annoyance, Yu Jihan tilted his head, telling me to pull out the sword.
I drew the Sky Sword.
I planned to layer a new Covenant Oath over the old one after killing the god Beritaas.
Just as Yu Jihan didn't trust me, I had no trust in Transcendent Yu Jihan either.
The only reason I'd gone along with what Transcendent Yu Jihan said was because the Yu Jihan still in the tower weighed on my mind.
"I'll keep my word."
"Thanks for saying so, at least."
"This alliance is a one-time thing."
"I know that already."
No point saying more.
I gripped the Sky Sword tight, looking at the space still left around us.
A familiar power wrapped around my body.
Through the dimming light of Porongi, I caught Yu Jihan's expression twisting into something complicated.
I swung the Sky Sword at the shrinking edge of the temple.
[That, power... I knew it, so you really are!]
I ignored Beritaas's flustered voice.
Wasn't it obvious enough by now?
The space where my sword struck shuddered violently.
The god Beritaas barely had enough power left to keep the temple standing.
Light spilled through the widening cracks.
As if we'd planned it together, Yu Jihan and I both leaped toward the light.
Part of the personal barrier tore open, and we were back in the real world.
Caught by the turbulent wind and the sudden weightlessness of my body, I looked around, half in disbelief.
The god Beritaas, in its massive monstrous form, and me, floating in midair.
Yu Jihan, who'd come out with me, was nowhere to be seen.
[No comms room information available.]
Ah, right. The comms room got wiped out.
I'd gotten so used to it that I'd been using it on reflex without even thinking.
I turned my body to face the direction where the god Beritaas was.
Dozens of spikes flew out from the warped space.
[Variable, who, who are you exactly?]
I twisted my body midair, deflecting the incoming attacks.
Every swing of my sword shattered Beritaas's strikes into scattering fragments.
I set my stance to land one good hit before I hit the ground.
The sword of the Iron Knight, the one Jin Sangbyeok had summoned, cut between me and the god Beritaas.
Judging by the angle of the attack, it didn't look intentional.
"Don't swing that thing this way!"
With the comms room down, this was ridiculously inconvenient.
Jin Sangbyeok, unable to hear my voice, swung the blade anyway.
Blue lightning crashed down from the sky, and the shockwave sent my body flying.
I used Wind Fang just in time to land on the ground.
The impact kicked up dust and dirt across the ground.
Everything looked slowed down, like I'd stepped into part of a painting.
There.
Yu Chaeyoung and the avatar the god Beritaas had created stood there.
And Eunyoung-noona and Choi Jaebyung lay collapsed, bleeding heavily.
"Eunyoung-ssi! Stay with me!! Eunyoung-ssi!!"
Footnotes:
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