WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 212: OZ (9)
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“...Li, ss?”
Her red eyes blinked.
Her dazed gaze was wide with confusion.
Had she recognized the younger sister standing before her?
An affectionate nickname slipped from her lips.
“Liss...”
“Allie!”
Alice looked like she was about to burst into tears.
It was a voice she had missed dearly.
But it was only a fleeting miracle.
The nightmare would not let the girl go.
“Urgh, ugh...”
Unknown staggered, clutching her forehead.
A sharp headache raked through her head.
Squirm.
The nightmare that had been torn away regenerated.
After a ragged breath, the light vanished from the girl's eyes once more.
“Eliminating intruders.”
Booom-!
She clenched her fist without emotion, and pitch-black demonic energy erupted from it.
Viktor barely avoided it and retreated.
'So once isn't enough...'
Viktor clicked his tongue quietly.
High-pressure killing intent swept through the laboratory.
The crowned girl merely scrutinized the intruders.
The confrontation had grown even tenser.
Still, if there was one encouraging thing, perhaps it was that the bugs seemed to be working fairly well.
'It was only for a moment, but Unknown definitely recognized Alice's face.'
The confusion also seemed to linger.
Viktor could hear Unknown muttering to herself.
'Liss... Did I just say Liss? But who is that...?'
Unknown furrowed her brow tightly, as if the headache would not stop.
That reaction told him something.
'Maybe I can bring her back to her senses.'
Viktor tightened his grip on his scythe.
His breathing settled.
-Ahaha! Of course she doesn't recognize you.
-I locked away her old memories.
Oz had definitely said that.
The girl's memories had all been locked away.
He had not said they were erased or reset.
In other words, memories of being Allie might still be alive somewhere within Unknown.
'If her memories are locked away, they're probably being held hostage as food for the nightmare...'
Allie's memories would make excellent nourishment for the nightmare.
Most of her life had been spent being tortured or experimented on in a laboratory.
Painful, miserable, terrifying moments.
The nightmare fed on negative memories like that.
'I need to tear the nightmare away.'
Allie's consciousness was like a locked room.
Beyond that door, memories of the most painful moments of her life were probably replaying over and over.
'The nightmare will keep tormenting its host to draw out energy.'
Even if he tore away the nightmare, there was no guarantee Allie would still be sane.
Long-term exposure to the nightmare meant the collapse of one's self.
Still, it was worth trying.
'The fact that she recognized her sister means her sense of self hasn't completely disappeared yet.'
It was not too late.
Viktor opened his hand again.
'I won't give it a chance to regenerate. I'll keep pressing her.'
Tearing the nightmare away would ordinarily have been impossible, but nothing was impossible for a boy granted the authority of the Evil God.
Click.
Viktor pressed the button on the pocket watch in his hand.
Soon after, he kicked off the ground and rushed toward Unknown.
“Eliminating intruders.”
“Hup...!”
Riiip-!
Unknown tried to react, but Viktor, whose stats had been boosted as well, was overwhelmingly faster.
Layer upon layer of bugs had been stacked onto his enhanced physical abilities.
Distorting space and leaping across the distance, the boy appeared behind the white-haired girl.
“...!”
“Please stay still.”
Viktor seized the back of Unknown's neck.
The next moment, the shadow fluttering around her like a cloak was violently torn away.
Riiip-!
The writhing nightmare had been ripped apart.
Perhaps from the recoil, Unknown's body swayed violently.
“Hah...!”
A startled gasp escaped her.
Throb.
A headache raked through her head as nausea washed over her.
It felt as though her brain was being crushed.
Unknown could only groan for a moment.
Her vision flickered as consciousness and unconsciousness mixed together.
“Hah, hah...!”
Her breathing grew ragged, cold sweat pouring down like rain.
Her unsteady gaze searched the room.
“Why... Why am I...?”
As the nightmare briefly broke apart, fragmented memories poured into her in a disorderly rush.
The girl's hands clawed at her own white hair.
The worsening headache forced a scream from her throat.
“Ah, aaaagh!!”
“Sis...!”
Unknown writhed in pain.
Unable to watch any longer, Alice stepped forward.
“Sis! Get a hold of yourself!”
“Liss...?”
Had her voice become a trigger?
Unknown began convulsing.
“Liss, Liss, Liss. No. Who is Liss? Who is Liss? Why do I keep thinking of her? Liss, Liss. I missed you, Liss. But who is that? What is she to me?”
Squelch, squelch.
The nightmare leaked out in streams, and the laboratory grew even murkier.
Unknown, driven into delirium, kept trembling.
Emotions and memories kept crossing over each other.
“Who is she? I have to protect her. Eliminating intruders. I have to protect Liss, at least. Who is Liss?”
Her lips moved as though she were speaking to someone, or questioning herself.
Before long, black tears flowed from Unknown's eyes.
“Eliminating intruders. I love you, my little sister. No. The intruders. Where am I? Liss, where are you? Eliminating intruders. I definitely died, but... I have to find Liss. Eliminating intruders. I have to protect her. ...ing. Liss, Liss, Liss, Liss. Who is Liss? Eliminating intruders.”
Her mind had become a wreck, like a broken machine.
Perhaps trying to shake off the headache, Unknown wildly swung a fist at Viktor.
Booom-!
Of course, such a simple trajectory could not touch him.
But perhaps because she was out of control, the force behind her fist was beyond imagination.
The nearby wall crumpled like paper.
'If that had hit me directly, some part of me would've gone flying...!'
Viktor calmly stepped aside.
Having lost her reason, the nightmare within her burst out even more violently.
“I'm scared. The intruders. Liss, where are you...? Eliminating them. No. I don't want to hurt anyone. Eliminating intruders. I have to find Liss. Intru. Liss. ders. Liss, Liss, Liss. Elimina. Please, don't leave my side... ting.”
“Sis!”
“...Liss?”
Flinch.
At that moment, Unknown's violent movements froze.
Perhaps she had reacted to her sister's voice.
'This is it.'
Viktor readjusted his grip on the scythe and signaled Alice.
Unknown was still staggering.
“Miss Alice, that's it! Keep calling for your sister!”
“Y-yes? Ah, all right...!”
Alice looked ready to cry, but she immediately came to her senses at Viktor's call.
She began calling her sister's name at the top of her lungs.
“Sis! Allie! Please, look at me...!”
“Liss... No, who...?”
Unknown faltered mid-step, dazed.
Seizing that moment, Viktor rushed at the girl again.
Grab.
This time, he seized both her arms.
The nightmare that was about to restore itself was ruthlessly torn away.
“Gah...!”
Unknown staggered, then finally collapsed where she stood.
Viktor gave her no chance to rest and continued pressing her.
“I'm going again!”
“Sis...!”
This was different from when Alice had gone berserk in the past.
The nightmare binding Unknown was far more vicious.
Even after being torn away, it recovered much faster than before.
'But.'
Compared to then, Viktor had improved by an absurd amount too.
His persistent hands caught hold of the nightmare again and again.
Riiip-!
Unknown had almost completely lost the strength to resist.
At the same time, her reactions whenever she heard Alice's voice grew stronger.
“Sis! Answer me!”
“Liss... No, I have to eliminate the intruders...”
It seemed as though it was nearly over.
I rushed forward and tightly grabbed the crown atop Unknown's head.
Grip.
'One last time...!'
I cleanly pulled out the blackness.
Riiip-!
Her vision spun again.
The crown that had come off cleanly turned limp, then scattered away like the other nightmares.
“Hah, hah...”
The nightmare finally fell silent.
Unknown was about to collapse onto the floor.
“Sis...!”
Alice rushed in and caught her.
The older sister fell into her younger sister's arms.
Not a single shadow stained her white hair.
Unable to hold it back any longer, Alice looked down at her sister as tears fell from her eyes.
“Ugh, ngh...”
“Sis.”
“Liss, Liss... Liss? Why am I in a place like this...?”
“Sis, is it really you? Are you really the Allie I know...?”
Still dazed, Unknown could not grasp what was happening.
Alice held the girl tightly.
“Li, Liss... I don't know what's going on...”
“Sob... It's okay. Everything's okay, Sis...”
Alice broke into tears.
As though she could not believe it, she kept touching Unknown's body.
Comforting Alice seemed to be an older sister's habitual response.
Unknown unconsciously patted Alice's back.
The warmth of that palm made her younger sister cry even harder.
“Sis, Sis...!”
“Liss...”
And so,
the two Alices were miraculously reunited.
Footnotes:
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