WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Asakusa
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Knight Commander of the Doomed Heroes ◈
Chapter 9: Peaceful Days (4)
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No one expects us to win.
Just as no one had thought a hero could survive ignition.
“It’s defeatism. If you can’t even think of fighting, you’ll never think of a way to fight.”
A great city of four million people.
Normally, it was so large that people might not even notice if the next neighborhood had a huge fire or a wild dance party.
But now, all four million citizens were looking at the same thing and feeling the same fear.
Kra-boooom!
Every time the sound of the sky tearing rang out, another part of the city exploded and the ground shook. Fragments of stone rained onto the streets, making a reckless attempt to flee even more dangerous.
I knew that fear too.
Those hours spent huddled in a corner of a room with nowhere to hide, enduring it with trembling hands.
Please. Please.
Don’t let it fall on my head.
Or at least let it end in one blow, without pain.
“Yes, it’s frightening. But does being frightened make it right to hide behind girls who just want to enjoy their ice cream? Is it right to push them forward and ask them to fight for us?”
Rat-a-tat-tat!
I saw fist-sized spheres of magical power sweep through the city.
They poured down like a local hailstorm, piercing everything in their path.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Terrible screams rose wherever the spheres passed, then faded away.
That was the work of the other angel.
The one that had been hidden behind the enormous angel.
Was it even a meter tall?
Its body was so thin that every rib showed. It flew with sharp white wings beating as fast as a hummingbird’s. Its pitch-black mouth stretched wide as it fired an endless stream of magical spheres.
Someone walking down the street was struck in the head and died on the spot. Someone trembling inside a house was torn apart by a sphere that smashed through the wall.
One large angel and one small angel. Two in total.
Of the two, the small one was actually doing far more damage. How many had it killed already? Probably over a thousand.
“And we don’t even realize how shameless and disgraceful that is.”
Memories flashed through my mind.
That night, all I had managed to recover were my parents’ limbs. They were warm when I held them tightly, and the fingers twitched.
During primary school, there were times when close friends suddenly vanished from my life. The notebook I had borrowed and could never return was still sitting on the bookshelf in my room.
Back when I served as a ranger after joining the order, I had seen houses and people shredded and tossed together like a salad, over and over again.
All of it had been the work of twisted angels.
We had always been powerless before them.
But...
“Today will be different.”
“Commander. All personnel are standing by at their positions. Formation anchors are in position. Fully ready. Three Spirits, Eight Bodies Formation of Severance and Linkage. Awaiting your order to activate.”
The report came through the communicator at my ear.
The formation was complete, extending one kilometer in every direction around the twisted angels.
The formation for the final battle against the apocalypse, which I had been planning ever since I joined the Order of Eternity ten years ago, was finally taking shape.
I spoke, each word heavy.
“Deploy.”
I drew the flow of magical power into my entire body, then poured it back into every word.
「Three Spirits」
Bang! Ba-ba-bang!
Magical fireworks shot upward and burst, staining the sky red.
Red particles of magical power lingered overhead, forming a vast current.
A tingling torrent of magical power flowed through the ground.
「Aaaaaah...」
On the ground, the choir members who had prepared for this day began their magical chant together.
Three Spirits.
The sky.
The earth.
And the humans between them.
These three sources of spiritual power suppressed the twisted angels’ minds and senses.
Grrraaaaagh!
Kyaaaah!
Perhaps sensing that something was wrong, the two angels looked around and howled.
But they were too late.
「Eight Bodies」
Rrrrumble!
The formation anchors occupying all eight directions, the four cardinal directions and the four diagonals, activated at once.
How much had we struggled to create each of those anchors? Fed with blood, sweat, and tears, they were finally complete and being used here for the first time.
This moment would go down in the history of magical science as a great advance.
Grrrghhh!
Kyagagak!
The monsters’ roars began to falter under the pressure.
The anchors in all eight directions pressed down on their bodies.
Above. Below. And the center: the three powers.
The four cardinal directions, joined by the four diagonals, made eight.
Three Spirits and Eight Bodies.
The entire body and the entire spirit.
Encompassing every direction, reaching through spirit and flesh.
With that, the structure of the formation was complete.
All that remained was to activate it.
I reached out and sensed the magical power.
Twisted angels wrapped themselves in layers of advanced magical power, like fortress walls.
But no matter how strong that power was, as long as I could catch the loose end of a thread...
「Unbinding」
I could unravel it like yarn.
Fsssshhh!
The magical power of the angels, pinned down by Three Spirits and Eight Bodies, scattered into shreds.
Their armor was stripped away, exposing the soft flesh beneath.
Grrraaaaagh!
Kyaaaaaah!
Both angels turned their glares on me at once.
The activation of Unbinding had revealed that I was the center of this formation.
Flap!
The giant angel’s enormous wings clawed at the sky.
At the same time, its arm lashed through the air like a whip and slammed toward me.
Kaboooom!
I kicked off the ground and leaped away from its attack. A shock wave shook the earth and caught me, pushing my body even higher. Weightlessness made my stomach lurch.
At that same moment...
Rat-a-tat-tat!
The small angel spat out hundreds of magical spheres.
Even stripped of magical protection and support, an angel was still an angel. No human, however strong, could dare face one alone.
That was why I had developed this magic.
Buff magic that stood at the pinnacle alongside Unhindered Harmony.
「Linked Rings」
「Swarm Rising」
I connected them.
The anchors of the formation and myself.
Then I connected more.
All one hundred knight captains taking part in this battle.
With that, I held the magical power of one hundred elite knights and the physical might of an army ten thousand strong within my single body. Like thousands upon thousands of bees moving as one.
With power overflowing, I gripped my sword and gave it a light sweep.
...!
For an instant, all sound vanished from the world. A series of slashes so fast that they shredded even sound waves.
The incoming magical spheres broke into countless pieces and scattered like flower petals.
I looked straight at the giant angel and the scrawny one.
As they rushed at me in fury, I reached out.
I gave an order to the one hundred knight captains who would be listening closely to my transmission.
“Fire in sequence.”
Swarm Rising.
Like a swarm of bees rising, like waves rolling, it channeled our linked power into each person in turn.
First, one.
A spear flew toward the enemy.
Carrying our gathered strength and magical power, it flew faster than sound. A true bolt of lightning.
Crunch!
The thick steel spearhead buried itself in the giant angel’s abdomen. The impact was enough to make its huge body stagger.
Kabooooom!
The shock wave followed. Like thunder coming after a flash of lightning.
But that was not the end. Each knight was taking a turn bearing the collective power of the entire formation and the order.
This time, another knight captain threw a spear from a different direction.
Crunch!
Once again, a spear flew faster than sound and sank into the giant’s thigh.
Kaboom!
Then its shoulder.
Boom!
Then its collarbone.
Bang!
Then its chest.
The spears struck faster and faster. The giant twisted its body, but a body that huge could never dodge them.
It had forgotten me completely. Unable to recover between the spears striking it, it could only stagger and scream.
“Right. You’ll come instead.”
And so the small angel moved in its place.
With that hideous body, every rib showing.
Its huge mouth gaped open. Bzzzzzz! It charged at me, its wings beating as fast as a hummingbird’s.
That one was too small to intercept with thrown spears.
“Then I just need to knock its attacks aside or dodge, like before.”
The instant I reached that conclusion, magical spheres poured toward me.
This was different.
At close range, the spheres were far too fast.
Their devastating acceleration left no chance to dodge or deflect them.
A chill ran through me.
I crossed my arms over my face and drew in all the power connected through Linked Rings to reinforce my armor.
A slight change to a buff spell turned it into enchantment and reinforcement.
I divided the vast magical power into fine threads, weaving them into a complex pattern to build a fortress of defensive magic.
The magical spheres touched my fortress.
Fssss!
The fortress crumbled away.
“They’ve gained an attribute?”
At a distance, the magical spheres had been attacks without an attribute.
But released at close range, they gained the attribute of death, rotting everything away.
Everything melted in an instant.
My magical barrier.
The national-treasure-grade armor reserved for the knight commander.
My bare skin was exposed.
Sss!
Starting with the arms shielding my face, my skin began to decay, rot, and peel away.
It felt as though someone were slicing away my flesh and sprinkling salt onto the red muscles beneath, then shaving those contracting muscles with a razor and scraping right down to the bone. That was the pain.
I blocked my senses with magic. I barely managed to swallow a scream that threatened to tear out of me.
Even then, flashes filled my vision. The lingering pain alone made my whole body feel as though it were burning.
You’re always like this. You always go beyond our expectations. You crush us as if to tell us not to even think of standing against you.
But...
“I’ve already figured it out.”
I, too, had honed myself to meet your level.
In the brief moment my armor held out, I worked backward through the decay formula contained within the magical spheres.
I wove a buff spell on the spot to resist it and applied it to my skin.
Fsssshh!
The magical spheres that had melted my armor so easily burst like water balloons upon touching my flesh, scattering in all directions.
Sssssss!
I couldn’t completely neutralize their overwhelming magical power. My skin rotted and fell away bit by bit, but I buried my face in the crook of my elbow and endured it.
I just need to protect my face. Just my face...
I moved forward.
Little by little.
Still shielding my face with arms whose skin had fallen away to expose muscle, whose muscles had melted to expose bone.
And at last...
“Got you.”
Using magical power to kick off empty air wasn’t actually that difficult a technique, though few people could do it.
I stepped on the air to propel myself forward and finally forced my way upstream through the torrent of magical spheres.
Then I swung my sword. Sideways.
Skrrrack!
I aimed for its wide-open mouth.
Claaang!
A tough, hard resistance met my blade, as if I had struck a steel plate.
I had barely cut halfway through. Unfortunately, I hadn’t managed to separate its head from its lower jaw.
Then I couldn’t stop.
“Die!”
Die, you piece of slime.
I slashed. Then slashed again. Stubbornly striking the same spot.
I cut at its mouth again and again so it couldn’t fire any more magical spheres.
Clang! Skrrrack! Skrrrrrack!
Its head jerked this way and that as I hacked through it little by little. The connection between its lower jaw and head weakened, leaving the head dangling.
At first, the angel’s flesh had merely split open. Now, a milky liquid began to flow from it.
It touched my body and evaporated.
“What’s this?”
Sssss!
Every time the angel’s blood touched my skin and evaporated, magical power surged within me.
It was richer and denser than anything I had ever experienced in my life.
“Could it be... the angel’s magical power?”
Every time it seeped into me, my sword strikes grew sharper and more destructive. The angel’s magical power was of a far higher order than my own. Even a small amount carried tremendous destructive force.
My mind raced at this completely unexpected phenomenon.
“Will the power remain permanently? Or is it temporary? What about side effects?”
But there was no way to know.
After all, I was probably the first human in history to fight a twisted angel one-on-one at such close range, blade against flesh. Apart from the heroes, of course.
“It’s fine.”
There might be side effects.
But for now, I chose simply to be grateful.
“It’s over.”
Grateful that the power in that blood...
Allowed me to kill an angel.
Craack!
At last, my outstretched blade severed its head and sent it flying.
Milky blood rose like a fountain, drawing a rainbow across the sky before evaporating. A dizzying shimmer of haze.
Thooom!
The small angel fell to the ground and slammed into the street with a heavy crash. I watched it roll a long way, smashing through the paving stones.
“Whew...”
I caught my breath.
Only two seconds had passed.
It had been a desperate struggle fought at extreme speed, drawing together the power of Swarm Rising.
Thanks to that, the giant angel was still lost in pain.
It had only been two seconds since the spears stopped.
“Is this as far as I go...?”
I had wanted to see it through myself, but my strength suddenly left me.
I no longer had enough energy to kick off the air.
As I fell toward the ground, I returned the power of Swarm Rising to the knight captains.
“Everyone. Charge. Throw your spears as you advance.”
With that final order...
Thud!
I landed at an angle on the roof of a building.
I slid down, shattering roof tiles, then bounced off the edge and tumbled onto the ground.
Lying on my back, I looked up at the sky. The enormous angel was sinking.
Spears covered its entire body, and milky blood dripped from it. The knight captains who had approached across the rooftops were drenched in that blood.
I saw joy and fierce emotion on their faces.
They were feeling the same thing I was.
The joy of casting off the shame of having to stand back and leave everything to a young hero. The fierce passion of warriors finally realizing that we were no longer powerless, that we too could fight.
And the power surging within them each time the angel’s blood seeped into their bodies. That joy of feeling all-powerful.
People.
With human strength.
Were slaughtering an angel.
I forced myself to cling to consciousness, which felt ready to slip away at any moment.
Forcing my magical power under control to maintain Linked Rings and Swarm Rising, I shouted.
“Kill it!!!”
At last...
The final spear pierced the giant angel’s head.
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