WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 137

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The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Smiling Corpses - 9

Jiseon's hands kept snatching at empty air one after another. I flicked my fingertips and kept Jizan just out of reach.

'Right, left, up.'

Then for me, left, right, down. Well, from her perspective.

Her hand grabbed nothing, or Jizan smacked her wrist, or she missed it by a hair. She kept losing the mind game.

Yeah, this was nice. A fight only I could win. This was what a real mind game looked like.

'Then I'll just grab his hand...!'

After losing over and over, Jiseon swung her arm wide and reached straight for my hand. Jizan's movement started from my grip, so she meant to seize my hand and take it.

"Ah-ah. That's a foul."

Jizan was a sword with no recoil. I only tapped her hand aside, but it flew back at twice the speed.

There was only one way to catch Jizan: clench your hand at exactly the right moment. Too early or too late, and your hand just got knocked away. There was no overpowering it.

That was why even Jiseon struggled.

Clenching her fists until they creaked, Jiseon growled at me.

"...The only reason this one humored this was because I did not wish to harm Hughes-nim."

"I know."

"Holding Jizan does not make Hughes-nim invincible. Shall we stop here before you are hurt worse?"

She was right. At this very moment, there were dozens of plans in her head for turning me into minced meat.

Smash the concrete overhead again and again, blow up my foothold, drag me in with something like Spatial Formation.

No, forget that. If she simply committed and got in close, I was done.

Right now, I was surviving because tiny finger movements made Jizan whip around and barely keep me safe. But if the distance closed and she moved faster than my hand, that would be my funeral day.

If I were holding cards, maybe. But this was a steel staff, and I couldn't match that speed.

So I had to force this into a mind game with rules. I kept thrusting Jizan at her and taunting her.

"Come on, take it. Why can't you? Did I hide it? Did I say I'd never give it up? Take it if you can."

"...Very well."

Fighting spirit flared in Jiseon's eyes as she clenched both fists. Finally, she was going to use both hands.

'The hands are a feint. She'll shake the ground under my feet with energy.'

At the same time, she raised her leg high. She meant to shake my footing and fling me away.

If I dropped Jizan from the shock, she could take the test and wield it.

I was just an ordinary person. Nothing special.

Even if I was holding Jizan now, it wasn't going to remember me and deny power to everyone else. Nothing like that.

Jizan was a keepsake, a tool. I was just an ordinary guy who happened to be able to hold it.

Which meant I absolutely couldn't let go until the entire test was written out. Reading her intent, I pretended to dodge her hand and hooked her leg with Jizan.

'Kgh!'

No matter if she was The Unfallen, if the earth itself swept your legs out, there was no enduring it. Instead of stomping down, Jiseon stepped on the Jizan I swung and leaped.

She'd just launched herself off a sword tip that should have sent a person flying, yet the weight on Jizan felt like a mosquito landing. Damn, so this was Jizan. It made me feel strong.

"Right. You won't fall. You'll keep moving forward, forever. You're someone who builds upward, someone who makes results from ruined debris. Looking after the dead and remembering them doesn't suit you."

Jiseon landed far away and glared at me with murderous eyes. Facing her, I murmured calmly.

"Trying to erase the Abyss was about securing justification, right? A reason to break the taboo against refusing the state's summons. You got plenty of practical gains while cooperating with the military state, but because you failed to erase the Abyss, you still lacked a clear cause to lead the Mother Earth Faith, didn't you?"

And with Jizan in your hand, even better.

As the Grand Master's token and a keepsake that was basically earth's authority itself, it would gather the Mother Earth Faith under Jiseon.

"Then you'd march to the Sanctum with Jizan and demand they answer for their sins. 'Give us a bite! Haven't you stuffed yourselves long enough? Share the pie!' Perfect plan."

The attempt alone would matter. It would vent the believers' rage that had built up for ages and put them on equal footing with the Sanctum.

Jiseon slowly rose.

"...So you truly mean to obstruct me?"

"I'm not obstructing you. I said take it."

"Then."

Energy spread out from Jiseon's body in all directions. Thud. One step shook the ground.

A ground-skimming dash. She sent energy into the earth, yanked herself forward in an instant, and charged at me with sheer force over agility.

Now then, if I blocked with Jizan...

'If he blocks, he abandons his fist. Even if my leg breaks, I'll kick instead.'

Huh?

'From Jizan's length, he cannot block both lines. He'll have to take one with his own body.'

I really hated this. Why did she keep trying to turn a mind game into a body game? What was a frail little mind reader like me supposed to do?

This was barbaric. What else could you even call barbaric? Right when I was grumbling to myself,

"Hup!"

Long silver hair and a dress whipped in front of me. Tyr shot me one brief resentful look, raised both arms, and met Jiseon's fist head-on.

I had a feeling, so I closed my eyes. Excellent choice.

Boom.

A massive shockwave rippled out and made even the corpses jolt.

When I opened my eyes again, the earth-colored force filling Jiseon's body and Tyr's bright blood droplets were mixing and spreading in a ring. The earth-colored force sank back into the ground, and the blood droplets rewound as if time had reversed and returned to Tyr.

At close range, fists locked, the two women glared at each other. Jiseon spoke first.

"...Progenitor. Did you not say you would not attack?"

Tyr answered.

"If you did not show hostility first."

"This one has shown no hostility toward you."

"Hostility toward him is hostility toward me."

She said it as if it were simple fact. Jiseon glanced at me and replied,

"...You've fallen for a bad man."

"...I cannot deny that. I agree."

With that, they traded fists again. Tyr did not dodge. With blood gathered in both eyes, she tracked Jiseon's fist and struck back.

Pure force against force. Another shockwave followed. Tyr's body slid back slightly, but she reset her stance and drove herself into Jiseon again. She didn't protect a single vital point.

'The fight itself is in my favor. She isn't used to close combat, and the Progenitor's power is clumsy. But... this is unfavorable.'

Jiseon flicked her eyes over Tyr's arm, then her body, then the ground beneath them, and revised her plan.

'Losses are too high. This trade doesn't work. She takes no real damage. And...'

Below was a mountain of corpses. Above was concrete earth. Until now, this terrain had favored Jiseon.

But that was only when the opponent was the regressor. If the opponent was Tyr, then the corpse mountain below was a battlefield made for a vampire.

Tyr's bloodcraft could only control blood near her own body right now, but Jiseon didn't know that.

And even if she did, this ground still favored Tyr.

'Shaking her off will be faster.'

Jiseon feinted a punch, dropped low, and charged in. Pankration. Caught off guard, Tyr instantly snapped out a kick even from a broken posture. It rose at a bizarre angle, as if it moved with no regard for human bone structure or stance, and it was just as fierce as any punch.

The force might have differed slightly, but it was still within Jiseon's calculations.

Rip. Jiseon's skin tore and blood ran. At the same time, Jiseon grabbed Tyr's planted foot and the chunk of corpse pile beneath it.

Then she hurled it straight up.

"Kyaa!"

There was no way to endure being thrown with the ground itself.

Whoosh. Tyr's body shot toward the ceiling, like she was falling upside down into Tantalus. A heavy thud rang out.

After launching Tyr away, Jiseon strode toward me behind her.

"Where do you think you're going? Stop!"

Right then, a wave of fresh blood hammered her whole back from behind. Tyr, who had been thrown away with the corpses, had instead fired the blood from those corpses and struck Jiseon's unguarded back.

Kwagagag. Red fists pounded her shoulders, back, and legs like cannon fire. Energy shot out through bloodcraft. The corpse mountain exploded apart, blasting pits into it.

Jiseon groaned under the heavy hits. Her earring trembled, then cracked and shattered.

'...I can't face Jizan while my back is open! I need more time!'

Using Prepaid Funeral to briefly recover her strength, Jiseon clicked her tongue, spun, and thrust both hands into the air as if prying open a door. Creak, creak. An ominous sound scraped from her fingertips.

Tantalus opened.

Craaack. Tantalus split to both sides, opened its maw, and swallowed Tyr. Tyr read her intent and frantically swung both hands, but earth arts were faster. In an instant, Tyr vanished into Tantalus and out of sight.

Rrrrrumble. She wasn't visible, but she was tearing through concrete from inside. Even Tyr would need a little time; it was her first time swimming through earth.

Jiseon had neutralized Tyr for a moment, and she looked at me, panting. Nothing stood between us now.

"No one is left to protect you now."

True enough. I nodded.

"Right. Time for the final test."

"Aaaaah!"

And right on cue, the regressor burst through a heap of concrete from below with a shout. She wasn't in perfect condition after collapsing once and recovering, but her eyes still burned bright.

"Just hold on a little!"

As enemies kept increasing, Jiseon grew impatient. She rushed toward me and said,

"This one has no time to answer your test. Hand it over."

'Now she might kill me.'

She came at me as if she didn't care whether I lived or died, and then Rallion, left as Tyr's final bulwark, stepped in front of me.

Harassed by Azzy, harassed by Nabi, and now Jiseon too. Anyone would have complained about a bracket this brutal, but Rallion charged without fear.

While Jiseon was tied up with Rallion for a moment, I didn't run. I pulled Jizan far back.

"No. You're not the one taking the test."

There was no test Jiseon had to take. She simply moved forward on her own strength.

The one who had to take the test now was...

I turned my head and glanced at the Grand Master's corpse, kneeling and nailed to the cross. Maybe I imagined it, maybe not. Something glittering fell from that kneeling corpse.

"All right. Time to take the test you postponed, Grand Master."

You couldn't read a corpse's thoughts. I didn't know whether that was a tear or an illusion.

But this Jizan had to answer.

Jiseon smashed through Rallion's torso. Through the scattering blood, her eyes met mine. Right before I threw Jizan, Jiseon widened her eyes.

'You're not about to throw it, are you? Now?'

Correct.

'Where?'

Somewhere between Jiseon and the regressor.

'Suddenly, why?'

Because of the postponed test.

I grinned and hurled Jizan far away.

Spin, spin. The jet-black rod, half staff and half sword, flew through the air. Who would guess that a little rod like that held the weight of a great mountain? Even something that grand traced almost the same arc as an ordinary staff when thrown through the sky.

'Nice pass... No, that's way too close! Throw straight!'

The regressor saw it and sprinted toward the landing point. Jiseon kicked off the ground right after her.

'Even if she catches it, she still has to take the test! She won't be able to use it right away! But if it's me, who handles earth arts, then even without taking the test...!'

No, how many times did I have to say it?

It's not your test paper.

-Did it truly have to be this way...?

The cross trembled. From its tip, a voice rang out, as if speaking to me.

Without even turning my head, I answered.

"Yes. Choose. This time it's easy, right? You only have to choose who will hold your power."

-Ah... So in the end, even in death, I could not run away.

"You didn't fail to run. You left this behind. If you hadn't wanted to leave traces, you wouldn't have left a keepsake."

-You are cruel. Truly cruel...

Jizan trembled in flight. Below it, the regressor and Jiseon charged forward. Jiseon, running below, was slightly closer.

If nothing changed, Jiseon would get it. She would begin an endless struggle to revive the Mother Earth Faith. And she would eventually revive it, even if she herself died in the process.

Compared to that, the regressor...

-Did you truly say that girl had seen the future, and that she would stand against the King of Sin?

"Believe it or not, that's your choice. Like what you heard from the Prophet, it's an uncertain future, one that can change at any time."

In the end, the postponed choice arrived once more.

Would it be entrusted to the Prophet who dreamed of something better, then buried away?

Or would it move forward even if it had to drench its whole body in bright red blood?

-Ah. You are truly cruel.

In the past, the Grand Master had made a non-choice. She had hesitated, been murdered by the Prophet, and lost even her chance before falling into the Abyss.

-Even so... even if this turns out to be a mistake later.

In the end, she had not buried the Tyrant King's soldiers. She had only been driven back again and again.

If she had possessed the iron will to bury those hundred thousand soldiers by her own choice, history might have changed.

But if she had been that kind of person, she would not have grieved before three hundred thousand deaths.

-I... am sorrowful over death. I fear corpses. I loathe the horror of fated ruin. More than a splendid royal palace built on blood-soaked soil, I prefer one small flower blooming on a grave.

Tap. Jizan twisted its flight path.

Jiseon's eyes widened. So did the regressor's. This small but unmistakable intent could only be Jizan's own will. There was no other way to explain that impossible movement.

-Not for them... for weak little me.

And in the end, the side Jizan chose was

the regressor.

-I shall bury death in Mother Earth's embrace.

With that will as its final note, the cross piercing the Grand Master's belly began crumbling from the base.

The Sanctum treasure that had fixed time in place was disappearing. As if tightly wound time were being unwound strand by strand, the sharp blades of the cross-wedge rapidly rusted away and faded before time.

Feeling her traces drift away, I murmured,

"Farewell, Chorine. First earth artist and last burier. And one human who could not bring herself to become a god. Your will was carried back together with that sin. Because of the choice you made now, the you of that day released your regret and reclaimed that sin."

The unresolved grievance and the choice left undone back then were fulfilled today. Now she could finally rest.

"You could not become the death of a hundred thousand soldiers, but you were a good burier who comforted the souls of three hundred thousand prisoners. Rest in Mother Earth's embrace."

-Thank you...

The Grand Master's fading consciousness sank beyond the horizon.

And the story that had remained unfinished was completed across time.

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