WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
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◈ I Returned as a God ◈
Chapter 98: And Yet, Onward (3)
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Lee Eunyheui had told me that before entering the tower, she worked as a construction company employee.
She wasn't an athlete. It didn't take much imagination to picture how rough things had been for someone like her, picking up a weapon like a bow.
[Hmph. At first she swung it around like a club instead.]
The bow whispered, apparently able to read my thoughts through the mixed mana between us.
Real proud of that, huh, buddy.
I could tell from her hand, the one I was holding.
Lee Eunyheui's hand was rough, and every knuckle bore scars that would never fade for the rest of her life.
I didn't need to be told how much failure and effort had gone into firing off just one arrow that hit like a bomb.
All I could really do for Lee Eunyheui was push her forward from behind.
[Ah, what a waste, really.]
[Don't get greedy. That one already has an owner, outsider.]
I wasn't foolish enough to try.
The arrow that left Lee Eunyheui's hand split into dozens, then hundreds of branches, all converging on Ifeseph.
The rain of arrows pouring down through the night sky looked exactly like a meteor shower, and honestly the comparison wasn't even a stretch.
Ifeseph knocked down the falling arrows one by one.
The deflected arrows set off explosions of every size, chaining into one another.
Boom.
Craaash.
The falling cluster of stars swallowed up Ifeseph and the garden whole.
The night clouds rippled like fireworks had gone off.
The flowers that had once decorated the garden so beautifully scattered in every direction under the storm of mana.
I drove my sword into the ground and threw up a mana barrier to block the falling debris.
I caught Lee Eunyheui's arm as her legs gave out.
"Uh, uhh..."
"How was that?"
"How, how the hell is that supposed to be how you shoot a bow?! You idiot!"
Lee Eunyheui knocked my hand away and staggered to her feet.
She wobbled again immediately, barely managing to stand at all.
I couldn't help but pull her toward me.
"Hey! Let go of..."
"This is your fault!"
I had used a lot of mana, that part was true.
Looking at the scorched garden and the half-collapsed castle, I felt a flicker of regret. Maybe I should've held back a little.
"This isn't power control or anything close to it. What kind of, of brainless..."
Lee Eunyheui caught her breath and looked back.
The scene was so devastating she could hardly believe she'd done it herself.
"With your mana, that's way out of reach."
"Th, that's true, but..."
"What do you think power control even means?"
"Obviously... it means holding back."
Lee Eunyheui gripped the bow tight.
Blood ran down from the open wound on her hand.
"The first time I fired an arrow, I hurt a comrade."
"Uh, okay?"
"Not okay! My power... it's my fault... it's because I couldn't control my strength."
"What kind of nonsense is that. Whoever got hurt was the one who screwed up. Why blame someone else for your own injury? What kind of lunatic thinks like that?"
Lee Eunyheui stared at me like she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
I knew this was just an excuse too, just self-comfort dressed up as reason.
I understood how Lee Eunyheui felt. I understood the people who couldn't help but blame her, too.
And still.
Lee Eunyheui hadn't given up.
She'd chosen to keep moving forward.
"You were just scared. How does someone who's scared of her own weapon get to talk about power control?"
I pointed at the landscape Lee Eunyheui had just carved out.
"Look."
"Open your eyes and look properly. That's your power."
Lee Eunyheui's gaze drifted toward the wrecked garden.
"Half of that was me helping, though."
"You always ruin a good moment by saying something like that."
"Still, it's your power."
All I'd done was lend a little mana.
Everything is only hard the first time.
There are a lot of things in this world that turn out to be nothing much, once you actually accept them.
"There's no paradise where you run to."
"You don't need to tell me that. I already know."
Lee Eunyheui turned and drew the bowstring.
The arrow flew clean and true, straight at Rizu.
Grrrrrr.
A spirit body, already too large to call a puppy anymore, knocked Lee Eunyheui's bow aside with a forepaw.
The deflected arrow exploded midair.
"Weak."
"Sh, shut up! That was on purpose!"
"Or did you just run out of mana?"
"This is your fault, you..."
Lee Eunyheui lost her balance and dropped to her knees.
I swung my sword in a wide arc at the charging spirit-puppy.
The slash flew out in the shape of a crescent moon, cutting through the spirit body and streaking straight toward Rizu.
"Figures."
"What... what is that?"
The dust cleared, revealing Rizu.
Black fluid seeped from the open wound instead of blood.
"You know why nobles are called nobles?"
"Because they have a lot of mana."
"And what does having a lot of mana actually mean?"
"Never thought about it that far."
"It's because they're closer to the gods."
They say the thicker the blood, the closer the bond, don't they?
Nobles carried more of the divine spark than anyone else, granted the right to stand closer to the gods than anyone else.
The gap between Rizu's shoulder blades split open, and black slime poured out all at once.
The slime took shape and stretched outward on either side.
Black feathers fell from above her head.
Die, die, die.
Who are you?
Come with me, come here.
The feathers that touched my hand sank into my skin and formed into voices.
A woman with black wings under a full moon.
"Looks like a fallen angel."
"Die."
Thousands of feathers sharpened their edges and flew at me all at once.
Each one carried the grudge-energy of everyone who had died because of Rizu.
The aura of death was so strong it was hard just to breathe.
I let the tension go out of the hand gripping my sword and took a slow breath.
The things I'd thought were finished, thought were over for good, came back to torment me now.
Hey! You crazy bastard!! How am I supposed to dodge that?! I nearly died, damn it!
Why are you even alive? You didn't croak?
Nearly died doesn't mean I actually died!! Dead people can't talk!!
I never once told you to dodge. Open your eyes wide and look properly. Look at how this sword, this attack, is aiming for your heart and trying to cut off your limbs.
Lee Eunyheui was the same. So was I.
I could stand here now because someone had reached out a hand to me.
I had Luciel. Lee Eunyheui had the god behind her, and the bow.
I wish that guy felt the same way about me.
I don't know if a day like that will ever come.
When I met Lachesis, I never once thought it was the end.
Not yet.
My fight isn't over yet.
The hand gripping my sword eased with gentle strength.
I could see clearly, so clearly, everything that was coming for me.
My feet stuck to the ground like they'd fused with it.
I swung fast, precise, and without any hurry.
One swing became two, two became three, and the number kept climbing without end.
Falling Petal Flower Sword. That's what I just showed you.
You want me to copy that now? There's no way I can do that! You might as well tell me to chew on a sword!
Want to try chewing on a sword?
No, I'll work on it.
The clashing mana couldn't withstand the pressure and burst apart.
The black feathers scattered in every direction were sliced clean through.
The shredded feathers crumbled into glittering light.
The light spreading in every direction made it feel like standing in the middle of a forest of fireflies.
The dream didn't last long.
Black shadows leaked out from around Rizu and crept upward.
The shape, once bubbling like mud, gradually took on human form.
Villagers, the countless servants who had worked in the mansion, Rizu's old schoolmates who had vanished without a trace, so many people all at once.
"You made a mistake. The thing I'm best at is chaos on the battlefield."
At Rizu's signal, the puppets charged all at once.
Every time I swung my sword, people screamed and sank back into the ground.
Black slime splattered across my body each time, and pain-laced screams dug into my ears, but none of it could touch me.
Isn't that what war always is, at its core?
I hadn't earned a divine title that absurd for nothing.
A child, maybe ten years old, stood in front of me gripping a sword taller than he was.
Swinging it looked out of the question. Even holding it up looked like too much for him.
"Pl, please save me."
A hand reaching up from below gripped my ankle, speaking through the boy's voice instead.
I lowered my sword and walked past the boy.
The moment my back was turned, the boy's eyes changed, and he raised the sword high.
I kept walking, ignoring him.
"Hey! Watch out..."
Lee Eunyheui, watching from behind, raised her bow.
But she never got the chance to draw it.
The boy's body, torn open by a massive wound, pitched forward.
The Sky Sword's blade still bore traces of the boy on it.
The blue-glowing blade shook off the debris clinging to its edge.
"How?! Why, why aren't you losing your mind?!"
"Nothing I can say to a lunatic asking why I'm not losing my mind."
I smiled bitterly.
Rizu had a point.
Someone normal like Lee Eunyheui should've broken a dozen times over watching something like this.
"That's why I told you."
"You don't know me either."
I never expected to be understood, and I didn't need to be.
The Sky Sword hummed and glowed.
The more I used it, the more I realized it was a sword far beyond what I deserved.
Blue shifted to white, then to gold.
The remaining mana sharpened its edge and surged at me like it meant to swallow me whole.
I swung the sword high.
Rizu's black mana clashed against the Sky Sword.
Through the widening gap in the mana, all kinds of memories seeped through.
A cursed child.
It gives me chills.
A Muel, seriously? How could a kid like that even be born?
You killed because you loved her?
That was nothing but one-sided love.
"Shut up, just shut up! It's too loud!"
Everything Rizu touches dies. Because the power she carries is.
"Death."
Only the dead could understand Rizu, not the living.
I gathered my strength.
Rizu's black mana and my dark blue mana tangled together, locked in a struggle of raw force.
Sword in hand, I pushed forward, one step, then another.
Every step made my whole body scream.
Still, I didn't stop. I couldn't stop.
"Stop, don't come any closer!"
"I just... wanted to be loved. I never wanted power like this."
I held the sword high and nodded quietly.
It was the same story Lee Eunyheui had told me.
If. If Rizu hadn't been born with the power of death, wouldn't she have lived an ordinary life, even if her body had been weaker for it? Everyone imagines something like that.
"Nobody ever told me. Nobody told me what I was supposed to do! I, what was I supposed to do? You're going to tell me I'm broken too, aren't you!"
"You're not broken."
"There's no if. You..."
Rizu's memories seeped through, little by little.
A dagger raised for the sake of a dying puppy in her arms.
Power turned against a father who tried to kill her while saying he loved her.
She had wanted to be loved. She had wanted to live.
"I just struggled to survive. What's wrong with that?"
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