WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 213: OZ (10)

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The reunion of the two sisters was like a miracle.

Unknown lay there, barely conscious, while Alice held her older sister tightly.

"Sister, sister..."

"Yeah..."

Viktor quietly watched the two of them.

Was it because he had unleashed so many bugs in such a short time?

His vision swam as though he had motion sickness.

The boy took a moment to steady his churning stomach.

'Still, what a relief...'

It was fortunate that this was something he could undo.

Viktor clenched his tingling hand.

'The celebration can wait. Chasing Oz comes first.'

There was no time to waste.

Who knew what that bastard might do if they left him alone?

"Everyone? We should get moving again..."

He turned to look at the other team members.

He never imagined that moment would turn into a nightmare.

Thump.

A low, sudden bursting sound rang out.

It sounded like flesh exploding, carrying an ominous warmth.

"...Huh?"

Alice let out a dazed sound.

She was drenched in someone's blood.

A deep, vivid red.

Bright red stains covered her pale hands and cheeks.

The girl blankly stared down at the color.

"Li, ss..."

The source of that red was the sister she had been holding moments ago.

Her older sister's body hung limply in a way that felt horribly wrong.

"...Sister?"

Her blue eyes shook as though she were looking at something impossible.

"Liss... It hurts..."

A gaping hole had opened in Unknown's chest.

A palm-sized hole was centered where her heart had been.

It had happened in an instant.

Thick blood spilled out, staining her hands and the floor red.

The younger sister held the fading spark of life in her arms, utterly distraught.

"Sister... Sister! Wh-why all of a sudden...?!"

With a belated scream, Alice tried to cover her sister's wound.

But she couldn't cover a hole nearly twenty centimeters wide.

Life poured out from between her limp white hair and body.

Her heart had been completely blown away. There was no way to even begin treating her.

"Why... Why did this suddenly happen to you, sister...?"

Despair, denial, confusion.

Countless layers of hopelessness piled over her blue eyes.

None of that changed the fact that Unknown's breathing was fading away.

"No... I don't want this..."

Alice could only helplessly watch the scene before her.

Then a voice rang through the laboratory.

<Haha! It worked.>

The faceless man.

Oz stood across from the two sisters, though no one knew when he had reappeared.

<I never imagined everything would go so perfectly according to plan.>

<Unknown performed her role admirably.>

It had been Oz's trap from the beginning.

And what he had been after was...

<I coated her heart with explosive magic, you see. So I could detonate it whenever I wanted.>

<I had been waiting for a moment like this. The most moving moment of all.>

<To extract Alice's... no, Project Alice-02's despair!>

Alice's despair.

Oz had intended to draw out that energy through a manufactured tragedy.

<The final ingredient needed to complete the project... At last, the primordial night shall descend upon this world.>

Reviving Unknown had merely been part of devising the greatest possible despair for Alice.

That was the truth behind [Project-Unknown].

<Hehe, wonderful. This is very wonderful.>

Perhaps he was happy to have accomplished his goal.

Oz smiled with quiet delight.

There wasn't a trace of malice in his reaction.

That was why his smile felt even more grotesque.

"Why... why...?"

<Hm?>

Alice could only ask why as she stared at him.

Her arms remained tightly wrapped around her cooling sister.

"Why... why... What did we ever do wrong... for you to go this far, to us...?"

Yet the answer she received was another question.

His voice sounded as though he truly didn't understand.

<Then let me ask you the opposite question. Why are you resisting, Alice?>

"...What?"

<Project Alice and Project-Unknown... Weren't they both created solely for my purpose? And I made you, didn't I? What's wrong with using something I made as I wish? Am I not allowed to?>

"What are you..."

<Alices were born from me, for me. And it wasn't only you two. All 3,761 Alices who came before you and were discarded as failed products were the same.>

Sophistry.

The man calmly recited his sophistry.

No, Oz didn't even seem to recognize it as sophistry.

<Why are you rebelling? Shouldn't you quietly be used as I wish? If I hadn't existed, neither of you would have been born into this world.>

"..."

<You were simply born that way. You were made with that fate, that purpose, from the very beginning. To become the foundation of my research. Please don't assign meaning to yourselves. A tool only needs to fulfill its purpose, doesn't it? There are no tools that ask why they are being used this way, or why they were made this way...>

"..."

Each word stabbed cruelly into her.

The light died from Alice's eyes.

All that lay limp in her arms was something wet and lukewarm.

"Ah... Ahh..."

Perhaps it was because her mind had been pushed beyond its limits.

Pitch-black darkness churned around her.

Rumble!

The crown floating above the girl's head began to spin, and the light mantle draped around her whipped violently.

"Wait, Miss Alice...!"

At last, the nightmare was swallowing her whole.

Behind the writhing shadows, Alice's entire body was turning black.

It was a hair-trigger situation.

<You fell for it, didn't you?>

And it was the very moment Oz had been waiting for.

The man formed a hand sign with his one remaining arm.

-Oz Style Life, Innate Magic, Sixth Form-

'Usurpation'

A massive magic circle flashed across the laboratory floor.

Fwoosh!

It was Oz's trap.

The entire space had been a trap aimed at the girl.

Dark crimson light surged and swept around Alice.

"Miss Ranne! The floor!"

"Yes, Sir Viktor!"

The nightmare flooding out of the girl slowly seeped into the magic circle on the floor.

They couldn't let the power be extracted like that.

"Activate. Thorns."

"Hngh...!"

The two struck the magic circle.

A black scythe and a gleaming star crashed into the laboratory floor.

-Kihano Style Spearmanship, Eighth Form-

'Falling Star'

Crash!!

The floor absorbing the nightmare shattered into pieces.

Not even five seconds had passed since the magic circle activated.

It had been a swift decision without a moment's hesitation.

Still, the moment it activated, they had already fallen one step behind.

<It's no use. Even this small amount is enough.>

<My project has finally been completed.>

Oz merely applauded them as though congratulating them on their hard work.

Everything had gone according to plan from beginning to end.

-Liss.

Amid the commotion, Alice only held her sister close.

The hand clutching her increasingly cold body gripped her desperately.

'We only just found each other again...'

Unknown had lost consciousness and lay there with her eyes closed.

The sight resembled a scene from her trauma.

That moment from the past overlapped with reality.

-My little sister...

Sister.

Why did this always happen to us?

'...Is it because of me again?'

Tears soon began to drip down.

Her negative thoughts tangled together like a ball of thread.

A familiar despair tore through her, and the world was finally dyed black.

'Why... Why does this always happen...?'

Black emotions boiled within her.

Hatred covered sorrow, and resentment crushed self-blame.

A nightmare.

Yes, a world like a nightmare.

She was sick of all of it.

'This world... I wish it would all just break apart...'

Just as she was about to be completely swallowed by the nightmare, a warmth touched her cold cheek.

"Miss Alice."

"...Lord Viktor?"

The masked boy wiped away Alice's tears.

"Calm down. Look at me."

"Lord Viktor... My sister, Allie..."

"Yes, I know. It's all right. I'll fix this. So look at me, not anywhere else."

"Ugh, hngh..."

Following the boy's gentle pats, the roiling nightmare gradually calmed down.

Before long, Alice regained her normal breathing.

Only then did Viktor step away from her.

Then he looked down at Unknown in her fragile embrace.

'She'll die like this.'

The boy gripped the Balloon Knife.

He also activated a skill that had been added not long ago.

It was a skill he had obtained when the weapon's rank rose to A.

[Skill Name: Miraculous Revival]

-Strongly heals the target stroked with this weapon.

-A high-level healing effect activates, restoring most of the damaged body to its original condition. (However, this ability requires three months before it can be used again after activation.)

Its performance was overwhelming, but its cooldown was also extremely long.

Viktor let out a breath, glad he had saved the skill.

The gleaming Balloon Knife brushed across Allie's chest.

A moment later, a brilliant light filled the laboratory.

Fwoosh!

"Ungh..."

When the light faded, Unknown's wounds had fully healed.

She had not regained consciousness, but her external injuries were completely gone.

Though it did not rival the ring that had revived him during Blue Night, the healing was roughly seventy percent as effective.

'Thanks to that, she's barely holding on, though she's still so fragile that it feels like her breath could stop at any moment...'

For now, he needed to finish things here first.

Viktor brushed off his knee and stood up.

"Please wait, Miss Alice."

"Lord Viktor...?"

"Both you and your sister... I'll definitely save you."

The boy lifted his mask and gave her a small smile.

His expression was the same as always, a smile.

The expression his teacher had taught him.

"First, I'll go deal with that."

Viktor turned and stepped toward Oz.

The faceless man stood there, waiting for him.

The boy stood with his back to his companions.

Behind his mask, his expression had already turned serious.

<What do you say? I'd like to give you one last chance.>

"Whew..."

<Wouldn't you join hands with me? I've been in need of a companion like you.>

"You really pissed me off for the first time in ages."

<Oh my. What a frightening expression.>

Ignoring the offer, Viktor adjusted his grip on the black scythe.

Oz rubbed his chin as though he couldn't understand.

<Are you truly going to fight? From the moment the project was completed, your chances of victory became zero...>

"What are you talking about? You don't know that until the cards are on the table."

<What a shame. You were such a desirable talent.>

"Shut up and come at me."

<Then very well. See if you can take this.>

Oz moved his remaining arm and drew a large circle through the air.

<Behold.>

Whoooooosh!

A dark crimson demonic energy swept between the two opponents like a storm.

Its vicious density did not even permit living beings to breathe.

In an instant, the surroundings became hell.

<This is the pinnacle of the Cult.>

The circle Oz had drawn.

A world manifested from within it.

-Oz Style Life, Innate Magic, Secret Art-

'Genesis Regression'

Eclipse.

Project-Emerald City.

The next moment,

a green city covered the view of the laboratory.

Footnotes:

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