WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
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◈ I Returned as a God ◈
Chapter 133: Resolve and Determination (1)
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The flames Eunyoung had made surged upward.
The clones spawned by the god Beritaas charged through the fire.
They had the shape of a human and a beast strangely blended together.
Eunyoung spun and stomped one of them into the ground with her foot.
Kreeeeek.
The thing had a monster's body and a human's face, and it twisted its head at an angle no neck should manage, glaring up at Eunyoung.
The clone's mouth split open into a long tear.
[Come, here.]
Eunyoung stepped back, then kicked off the ground and closed the distance, swinging a fist wrapped in flame.
The fire looked weaker now. Mana running low, maybe.
"Eunyoung-ssi!"
At Choi Jaebyung's voice, Eunyoung ducked low.
A sword cut through the neck of the clone in front of her.
Eunyoung pulled back and spat blood onto the ground.
She glanced behind her, then clenched her fist tight.
Once Jaebyung's stamina had recovered, he'd joined up with Park Siyu right away.
The sudden ambush that took Gangwoo down had happened after that.
"What about Gangwoo-ssi?"
"I did what I could. Another Hunter's treating him now."
Choi Jaebyung's role was an all-around buffer.
Generous way to put it would be versatile. Less generous way, a jack-of-all-trades type.
Recovery wasn't his main specialty, and rapid recovery even less so.
Choi Jaebyung's Raphael's Hymn was a skill that summoned an orb of healing.
All Jaebyung could really do was buy time until a Hunter with a proper recovery skill showed up.
Now that Hunter had arrived, so there was no more reason for Jaebyung to stay glued to that spot.
Jaebyung tossed something over to Eunyoung.
"Looked like your mana was running low. Take one."
"Oh, right. Thanks."
Eunyoung tore open a Cheongsimhwan and popped it in her mouth.
A taste like chewing peppermint candy spread through her, and her mana slowly refilled.
Eunyoung swept her leg wide toward the clones closing in.
Flames burst from her foot and swallowed them whole.
Slick fluid burst out of Beritaas's body and rained down like hail, scattering across the ground.
The scattered fluid gathered back together and reformed into another clone.
Eunyoung had been about to drive her fist into it when she noticed something was wrong and pulled back.
The clone detonated without warning, and Choi Jaebyung, startled, threw up his shield in a rush.
The shield vanished, and black blood that had clung to its surface pattered down onto the ground.
The blood churned around a wide circle at its center.
The blood swirling around it spun up like a tornado.
Flap. Flap.
The sound of wingbeats came from inside the vortex.
When the wings spread fully open, the thing revealed itself.
Eight pairs of wings, skin scorched black, red eyes, four horns on its head, it looked exactly like a demon.
Eunyoung's face twisted hard the moment she saw its face.
Because the thing that looked exactly like a demon was wearing Jung Hyeonseong's face.
Jung Hyeonseong was dead.
But not completely dead.
Even though he'd lost his sense of self as Jung Hyeonseong, his soul was still bound to the god Beritaas.
Eunyoung steadied her breathing and gripped Ishtar's Ring tight.
"Fall back, Song Eunyoung."
The one who broke the flow of Eunyoung's tense combat readiness was, of all people, Park Siyu.
"You can't beat this one."
"So what, you're going to?"
Park Siyu gripped his Light Saber and stepped forward.
Park Siyu's Taboo. Do not seek revenge.
The moment any attack he made toward Beritaas carried even a trace of revenge in it, that was the end.
Even if Park Siyu never showed a flicker of emotion on the surface, there was no way to know what was actually going on inside him.
"Planning to disobey orders?"
Park Siyu glanced briefly at the awakened clone's face.
It was, without question, wearing Jung Hyeonseong's face.
"I'm the one taking that thing down."
"Just because you're holding Ishtar's Ring doesn't make you something special. Don't get cocky."
"I'm not using the ring. And it's not me getting cocky here, it's you. Do you honestly think you can fight that thing and feel absolutely nothing toward Beritaas?"
"That's for me to handle. Move."
"Jaebyung-ah!"
"Yes?"
Eunyoung called out, and Jaebyung, who'd been clearing clones, hurried over.
"Stop Park Siyu."
"Please!"
"Wait, noona! You can't just say that out of nowhere, I need to know what's going on, at least explain a little... noonaaaaaa!!"
Choi Jaebyung called after her, but Eunyoung was already sprinting off.
When Park Siyu tried to move, Choi Jaebyung's sword blocked his path.
"Must have lost your mind."
"I haven't lost my mind. She told me to stop you, so I'm stopping you."
"That's exactly what losing your mind means."
Jaebyung swung his sword the other way and cut down a clone.
By rank and by skill, Jaebyung was nowhere near a match for Park Siyu.
The idea that Choi Jaebyung could actually hold him back was absurd on its face.
In the end, all he could really do was hope Park Siyu stopped himself.
Park Siyu lowered his Light Saber, muttering like he genuinely couldn't understand something.
"Why do you listen to Song Eunyoung so eagerly?"
Song Eunyoung and Choi Jaebyung had met for the first time today.
Given that, Jaebyung's obedience toward her was strangely thorough.
What exactly had earned that?
Park Siyu's question came out with genuine curiosity, and Choi Jaebyung's face went red.
"She's cool."
Park Siyu genuinely had nothing to say to that.
The awakened clone flapped its wings, and an overwhelming pressure crashed down over Eunyoung.
The ground beneath the clone's feet rippled, and black hands shot up to grab Eunyoung by the ankles.
Die, don't want to, save, me, die, die
Jung Hyeonseong's voice, carried through his soul, flowed up through the hands touching her skin.
Something clenched tight in her chest.
Just like Hangyeol had said, that wasn't Jung Hyeonseong.
Nothing more than a clone of the god Beritaas, built from Jung Hyeonseong's soul.
Nowhere in that clone, not anywhere, was there a trace of Jung Hyeonseong's actual will.
When Eunyoung had fought Jung Hyeonseong, he'd already been badly weakened from his fight with Hangyeol.
Eunyoung had wanted a god.
She'd wanted someone to choose her, to reach out a hand toward her.
She was grateful to Hangyeol, the one who'd reached out first.
Because Hangyeol had come to her.
That was the only reason Song Eunyoung got to stand here right now.
At the same time, a strange unease crept in.
Before meeting Hangyeol, Eunyoung had been Unaffiliated, same as Jung Hyeonseong.
If she'd never met Hangyeol, what would have happened to her?
What were unaffiliated Hunters, unaffiliated followers, to the gods, really?
To the god Beritaas, followers were disposable.
Did the other gods think the same way?
If she'd been strong enough to shake Yu Jihan off, strong enough that Jung Hyeonseong never got dragged into any of this, would this never have happened at all?
Her mind churned, tangled and heavy.
This is right.
Eunyoung drove her fist forward.
Force burst from her fist and blew away the attacks closing in around her.
"Haaaaaa!"
She let out a battle cry and drove the punch through to the end.
Eunyoung leaped and swung her leg toward the clone's face.
A wing rose to shield its face and blocked her kick.
A massive sword summoned above the clone's head plunged down at Eunyoung.
Eunyoung caught the blade in both hands.
Crackle, crackle.
Blood dripped from the hands gripping the sword.
The blade slammed into the ground, and Eunyoung dodged the strike.
Choi Jaebyung's buff wrapped around her body.
The longer she fought the clone wearing Jung Hyeonseong's face, the more certain she grew.
Park Siyu could not be allowed to fight this thing.
Even Eunyoung, who had absolutely nothing to do with any taboo, was already boiling with rage at Beritaas right now. There was no way Park Siyu could hold that back.
It's terrifying.
Not just the clone standing in front of her.
The presence of Beritaas looming somewhere far beyond it pressed down on Eunyoung's shoulders.
But Eunyoung didn't stop.
True fear isn't fear of death.
Being alive, but unable to do anything.
Thrashing with everything you have and nothing changing.
That helplessness was the real fear.
Measured against what she'd lived through before, this was nothing that could pressure her.
[Furious Charge conditions met.]
[Furious Charge activates.]
Eunyoung's movements sped up more and more.
[A mere insect like you, why do you struggle so hard!]
"Shut up!"
Every unaffiliated awakened one vanished into the Abyss within a year, without exception.
Even Yu Chaeyoung hadn't known why Song Eunyoung alone remained in the world.
Eunyoung wanted to know.
Who am I?
If the gods really did drive unaffiliated awakened ones into the Abyss, then what was left for Eunyoung, the one who remained, to do?
For Jung Hyeonseong, who'd died so miserably. To find out the names of the nameless, the ones who remained in nobody's memory. For those reasons alone, she couldn't afford to stop.
A black sun formed above the clone's head.
Eunyoung clenched her fist and set her stance.
Eunyoung's Sovereign's Initial Fist collided with the clone's Black Sun.
Even the faintest contact felt like it would shatter every bone in her body.
Even before the fight with the clone started, Eunyoung had already been running on fumes.
Blood ran down from her forehead and blurred her vision.
Ah, this is a little dangerous...
Her head spun, and her knees buckled.
That was when white light wrapped around Eunyoung.
Through the darkness, she caught sight of Choi Jaebyung's sword raised high.
Jaebyung's widest-range skill, Raphael's Hymn.
With the mana he had left, the most he could heal was Eunyoung alone.
"Hff!"
Eunyoung drew a sharp breath and drove her fist forward once more.
Her fist, stronger now, shattered the clone's Black Sun completely.
As the sun collapsed, red flame rose over the clone's head through the opening.
A fist wrapped in Ishtar's Flame slammed into the clone.
"Aaah..."
The thing, its consciousness already gone, wept in its final moment.
Eunyoung's fire swallowed the clone whole.
Even knowing it had been nothing but a self used and discarded by Beritaas, Eunyoung couldn't shake the sick feeling that she had killed Jung Hyeonseong a second time.
That feeling, still raw in her, turned entirely into rage aimed at the distant god Beritaas.
A monster-shaped clone burst out of the rippling shadow on the ground, jaws wide open.
Eunyoung, mid swing, staggered.
Choi Jaebyung's sword cut the monster down at an angle.
Jaebyung caught Eunyoung's arm as she started to fall.
Eunyoung gripped his hand and steadied herself.
"Uh, um..."
"Thanks."
"That was really close. And your skill's going to wear off soon, so you should fall back and..."
Choi Jaebyung shoved her hard.
Yu Chaeyoung's hair flared out as her sword clashed against Jaebyung's.
Yu Chaeyoung's blade drove into him.
A relentless string of thrust-focused attacks bore down on Jaebyung without pause.
Jaebyung was every bit as worn down as Eunyoung.
Unable to withstand Yu Chaeyoung's strength, Jaebyung went flying.
Eunyoung, running toward them without a second thought, pitched forward.
The Raphael's Hymn Jaebyung had used was never a recovery skill, not really.
Once its effect faded, every wound it had held off came back all at once.
Her legs wouldn't obey her.
"Move!"
Eunyoung planted her hand on the ground, grabbed her trembling legs, and forced herself back up.
Just as she moved to run toward Jaebyung and Yu Chaeyoung, the ground beneath her rippled, and an eye appeared.
[Found, you]
A chain shot up from the ground and pierced straight through Eunyoung's body.
Footnotes:
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