WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 138: The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Smiling Corpses - Finale

──────

Jizan rested in Shei's hands.

She should have had to take its test, but for some reason, Jizan remained silent instead of showing her a mindscape. It quietly entrusted all of its weight to the regressor.

She did not know why, but it was fortunate. Shei could wield Jizan now.

"Jizan...!"

Shei sensed victory, but Jiseon did not seem to agree. She rushed forward, reaching out as if to snatch Jizan from Shei's grasp.

Shei did not tense up.

In Jiseon's hands, Jizan would be a tremendous force capable of tilting mountains and splitting the earth.

At the same time, it was Jiseon's natural counter. By nature, Jiseon's own power could never surpass Jizan.

'If I have this, victory is guaranteed!'

She had to show the difference in their strength, enough to make the Unfallen give up and abandon her cause.

Shei thrust Jizan forward and shouted.

"Jiseon! Stop!"

Jiseon answered with a stomp.

The ground shook. Before the impact reached her, Shei hurriedly drove Jizan into the ground. The vibrations racing through the earth were swallowed by Jizan.

That left her defenseless. Jiseon rushed at her exposed upper body.

Only Skywarbler could move now.

'I have no choice.'

Shei lowered her stance with Skywarbler in hand.

'I'll cut her down and calm her.'

Shei had once been this world's final hero, a Weapon Master who wielded the sword of the sky and the sword of the earth at once. Her skill was not overwhelmingly greater than everyone else's, but no one could draw out the power of both swords as fully as she could.

Jizan and Skywarbler overlapped. A thin, sharp rapier rested atop a heavy black sword.

The two blades were so different they seemed like opposites, yet they became one like a sword meeting its scabbard.

The essence of Skywarbler, the weightless sword, was the lofty heavens. It was a slender blade forged from compressed space.

The essence of Jizan, the recoilless sword, was the unyielding Mount Tai. It was a thick club formed by grasping the earth itself.

She had used Skywarbler alone until now, but the sky could only stand tall because of the earth, while the earth changed and flowed under the sky's influence.

If Jizan had fallen into her opponent's hands, it would have been different. But it was in Shei's hands.

Both swords had come into the hands of the woman who had been humanity's greatest force just before its destruction.

Even with her body exhausted and worn down.

Victory had been decided.

Shei used Jizan as a scabbard for Skywarbler.

Then she released the compressed space in a single burst.

Jizan, the recoilless sword, was the heaviest cannon in the world. It fired Skywarbler's majestic power entirely forward.

Heaven-and-Earth Sword and Staff. Secret Technique.

Split the Horizon.

Parallel lines that seemed as though they would never meet eventually became one upon reaching eternity.

At least, that was how they appeared.

Far, far away, sky and earth met to draw a peaceful line. Beautiful and magnificent. A single straight line that must have existed since the beginning.

She split it vertically.

Space was severed at an angle.

Jiseon's right arm, the pitch-black darkness, the heavy air, even Tantalus itself could not withstand the slash that surged forth like lightning.

Her ears rang. A sound came crashing in from somewhere far away within the Abyss, enclosed by walls on every side.

The slanted ceiling split apart, revealing the sky through the gap.

It looked as though the sun had only just set.

For a brief moment, purple sky showed through the opening, a spreading wash of color visible only just before light turned to darkness.

The glimpse of sky vanished as the heaving ceiling settled back down and closed the gap.

"...Ha."

Jiseon staggered back. Then a belated thud came from the pile of corpses.

It was Jiseon's right arm, severed by Skywarbler.

The arm rolled away from its owner, then caught on a jutting corpse and stopped.

Shei let out a deep breath, hiding the weakness spreading through her entire body.

"Don't resist, Jiseon. If you promise to stay still, I'll reattach your arm."

In truth, Skywarbler had no power left in it, and she did not even have the strength to pull Jizan back out of the ground.

Still, the shameless side usually won these fights. Shei feigned composure.

"It was a clean cut, so if it's treated properly, it can be reattached..."

"Why...!"

Jiseon cried out with a grief-stricken expression.

"Why, why does the future belong entirely to you people...!"

Shei fell silent. Jiseon had clearly meant those words for the Sanctum, yet they struck a nerve with Shei too.

If Shei had not come, Jiseon would have obtained Jizan. Then she would have marched alone to hold the Sanctum accountable for its crimes.

Shei had erased that future.

She had used regression rather than prophecy or foresight, but in this future, Shei had taken Jiseon's future away from her.

"I have never rested for even a moment! I did not spare my own life...! I may have compromised, but I have never strayed from the right path! And them? They killed the Great Master as they pleased, hid that fact, enjoyed prosperity, and pretended to be righteous...! We only struggled to survive...!"

'Ah, um. So Jiseon's claim back then was true.'

Honestly, Shei felt sorry for her. The Sanctum had gone too far.

What could she do about it, though?

The Sanctum was not a wholly transparent organization. Even Shei, who had been involved with them in ways both large and small throughout her regressions, could not claim to know everything in their hearts.

Even so, their desire to stop the world's destruction was the same. That was why Shei had sided with them.

"Does knowing the future justify all of that? Nonsense! Must we not even hold them accountable for their crimes because it could become the spark of war? Ridiculous! Must we simply submit to the future that has been decided for us...!"

It was a miserable cry, as though Jiseon were vomiting blood. The regressor could understand some of those feelings.

That did not mean she would regret it or grieve.

No matter how desperately Jiseon cried out, it was better than letting the world be destroyed.

After pouring out all her emotions, Jiseon muttered weakly.

"Kill me."

Shei frowned.

"No. If you die, everything will become a mess."

"Because the Sanctum would be damaged? Would the world collapse because of that? Are they truly the pillars holding up this world?"

"You! It will become a mess because you die!"

The regressor shouted irritably.

"Your followers, the citizens of the military state, and the scattered believers of the Earth Mother! They'll either say they'll avenge you or refuse to cooperate any longer! They'll demand to know why the Sanctum killed someone with such a noble purpose so horribly!"

Jiseon's death had not become the spark of war for no reason. At least nominally, she was a brigadier general of the military state, a hero to its citizens, and the representative of the Church of the Earth Mother.

"Please, if you're going to die, die quietly by yourself! If someone as important as you dies like a martyr, no one will be able to stop what comes next!"

At the regressor's rebuke, Jiseon snorted.

"...Even if I wanted to, that is impossible now. I have lost the right. The Great Master ultimately... could not acknowledge me. I only wanted... a place where we could exist..."

"I don't know about anything else, but I'll make a place for you after I stop the destruction. Until then, keep yourself alive."

"Heh heh..."

Jiseon turned unsteadily. She used qi arts to hold her severed shoulder together and slowly climbed the mountain of corpses.

"You need to take your right arm! I said I'll reattach it!"

"Leave it there."

Jiseon did not even look at it.

"It is the road I have walked and what I have accomplished. I will not turn back. I will not undo it. I do not regret my choices."

"You're stubborn to the end..."

"And..."

Jiseon muttered with a drained expression.

"...The Great Master entrusted that power to you. Carry on that duty, Great Warrior."

"I keep telling you, I'm not a Great Warrior."

Jiseon did not answer. She staggered up the mountain of corpses, looking like an ascetic wandering in search of hardship.

As Shei watched Jiseon's back, an ominous rumble sounded overhead.

Shei hurriedly raised her head. The slanted ceiling, the earth of Tantalus, was groaning.

'Is it collapsing?'

Shei gripped Jizan's handle tightly.

Then Tyrkanzyaka burst out through the concrete ground at the crack ahead. Landing below the mountain of corpses, Tyrkanzyaka looked around and shouted.

"Hyu! Where is Hyu?"

It seemed the ceiling was not collapsing after all. Shei sighed in relief.

"He was fine when I saw him earlier."

"Thank goodness...! Where is he?"

"He threw Jizan from the top of the mountain earlier. I don't see him now, so I guess he fell over the other side. What the hell did that bastard use to do...?"

Deflecting Skywarbler? Fine, perhaps that was a coincidence.

Seeing through her stealth technique? Fine, perhaps psychological warfare had somehow worked.

"Something was strange from the beginning. He fixed your heart... and he unsealed this relic, Jizan. I don't know whether he took Jizan's test or not, but the Jizan he handed over..."

In the previous regression, Shei had grasped Jizan and taken its test inside a mindscape. Jizan had been presented to her as three hundred thousand people were being buried alive. Then came the choice she had to make.

Shei's method had been simple.

She pulled out Jizan and attacked the Conquering King.

Even inside the mindscape, the Conquering King had been a one-man army. She could not win no matter what she did. Still, the regressor treated it as training and challenged the Conquering King until she succeeded.

In the end, the strength the mindscape had prepared for the Conquering King was exhausted. With nothing left to offer, Jizan reluctantly lent her its power. She could not use its inherent earth arts, but as a weapon, its performance was perfect.

Shei had been more than satisfied with that performance, but...

"The power I can feel now is earth arts."

Shei was certain now.

She would be able to use Jizan's power in full.

She did not know how this had happened.

"What happened to the Taoist?"

"I neutralized her for now. She's kneeling at the top of the mountain..."

Rumble.

Another ominous sound came from overhead. Broken pieces of concrete struck their shoulders. Shei pressed her lips together and looked up at the ceiling.

"Hey, Tyrkanzyaka. Something is wrong with the ceiling... Doesn't it seem more tilted than before?"

Rumble.

Her ominous feeling became reality.

A crack raced across the ceiling like a horse galloping toward the edge of the earth. Thunderous noises echoed as lightning-shaped scars spread through the ceiling. Crumbled concrete poured down like rain, and collapsed rubble fell like hail.

The ceiling was collapsing.

Then again, Jiseon had freely drawn on its power, Tyrkanzyaka had torn through it from within, and Shei's final technique had split the earth. After all that chaos, it would have been stranger if it had remained intact.

Shei shouted urgently.

"Tyrkanzyaka! Catch the falling debris!"

"It is impossible to support all this earth with shadows! Hyu, where are you? Come to my side at once...!"

"No! Help me! I'll blow this ceiling away! It will be better than letting this entire mass of earth fall...!"

Shei immediately formed a Stepping Cloud, kicked off the ground, and landed atop it. Raising Jizan with both hands, she pressed it against the gradually sinking ceiling.

"Are you trying to lift the ceiling with that sword? It is impossible!"

"No, I can do it!"

"...You can? How?"

"Jizan is a sword with tremendous weight! It may look like this, but it is probably as heavy as Tantalus!"

"Then how are you lifting it?"

Shei did not bother explaining its authority.

"That is why Jizan is so good!"

"These days, there are some truly strange swords..."

Tyrkanzyaka muttered in wonder. The relic had actually been made a little over a hundred years before Tyrkanzyaka was born, but nobody cared about that now.

"All right. Now that I can use earth arts, I'll lift this entire ground mass! I can do it now...!"

She glanced around. Far away, she could hear Nabi and Azzy crying out. Rashy, Callis, Nabi, and Azzy were pressed against the opposite wall, relatively safe from the debris.

"I'll handle the large pieces. Just take care of the smaller ones!"

"Very well!"

As the slanted ceiling descended, most of the lights around its rim were shattered, scraped, and broken. The light gradually faded.

In proportion, countless Black Knights rose all around them. Darkness gathered around them, and every one of them transformed into a gigantic form.

Shadows changed in size according to the light's position. The giant Black Knights, covered in shadows three times the size of their bodies, caught falling debris at Tyrkanzyaka's command. When pieces of concrete as large as a human head touched the shadows, they slowed as though sinking into water.

"Good. Here I go!"

Heaven-and-Earth Style, Earth Pillar.

Just as she was about to swing the sword, Shei stopped.

Jizan's weight was equal to Mount Tai, but even Mount Tai seemed to find the weight of Tantalus significant. An unfathomable weight settled in the regressor's hands.

Jizan would not move.

"Urgh...!"

Her exhausted body resisted fiercely. Her depleted energy screamed in protest.

Still, the regressor gritted her teeth and drew out more strength.

Her body would not move well, but her qi arts showed their value at times like this.

A qi art that carved movements into the body and forced it to move regardless, the Heaven-Reversing Boundary.

Heaven-Reversing Boundary, Attack Form. Vertical Slash.

"Raaagh!"

The regressor swung the sword, and Jizan responded to her will.

The earth that made up Tantalus had been built from blessed concrete. Earth arts had been inscribed into it.

That was why Jiseon had been able to use earth arts so easily, despite it being concrete.

Therefore, whoever held Jizan could move Tantalus itself.

The last remaining strand of the Great Master's will echoed.

Then.

Thooooom.

It was, in a sense, like flicking a steel door away with a finger. Something that would ordinarily be completely impossible.

Yet because of this earth's unique nature, Jizan's power, and Tantalus's design.

Everything fit together, and Shei's attempt succeeded. She swung Jizan and sent Tantalus flying.

The slanted ceiling grew farther and farther away. The faintly glowing lights around its rim showed that the mass of earth above them was rising. Those lights gradually shrank.

The terrain rose through the power of a single human. As the slanted ceiling receded, it briefly regained its balance, only to tilt in the opposite direction.

The earth of Tantalus gradually began to flip over. The artificial lights, almost entirely shattered, scattered their remaining glow and vanished.

Through the gap, the sky came into view.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried