WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 208: Land Flowing Like a River - Finale

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The War Mage's request for surrender was polite, yet arrogant. Tyr, already in a foul mood, flew into a rage at her words. The darkness that faithfully served Tyr witnessed its master's anger and trembled in fear.

"How absurd. Do you think you're superior just because you're floating in the sky and looking down on me?"

Darkness poured more thickly from the opened coffin. Until now, it had been like fog that still allowed one to make out what lay ahead. Now, it felt as though we were underwater, barely able to see even an inch in front of us.

Only Tyr's eyes glowed a vivid red amid the steadily darkening view.

"Did you think magic belonged to you alone? Blood magic was originally a tool of my kin, but for your sake, I shall make a special demonstration...."

Blood magic, magic manifested through blood aura rather than mana.

Tyr tried to draw a magic circle with her blood, then realized that her blood refused to leave her body. She was briefly flustered by the unexpected development.

'Are you trying to use blood magic? What an honor, to contend with the Progenitor in magic while still alive.'

"Then I shall prepare as well."

Prelvior spread her cloak wider. Between its fluttering folds, red-hot steel spheres let out fierce breaths.

General's Armament: Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains.

A War Mage's device that moved mountains for those who called themselves fools.

Its abilities were to protect its wearer from a spell's aftermath, accumulate mana, and reuse that mana.

Prelvior's magic was enormous in scale, but simple in nature. The simpler matter or magic was, the easier it was to convert. The apparatus recycled that mana, allowing her to unleash strategic-level magic in succession.

It was equipment made by Prelvior, for Prelvior.

"Preset. Ri."

Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains converted the remnants of flame magic into light and stored them away. Blinding light flashed from the metal spheres attached to the huge cloak.

Unable to use blood magic, Tyr instead confronted the power circulating within her body. Instead of obeying Tyr's command, the blood aura cheerfully raced through her veins, breathing life into her.

Tyr muttered hollowly.

"Ha. How brutish. Is there truly no other way?"

Having made up her mind, Tyr bent her knees instead of twisting things with magic. At Tyrkanzyaka's will, pitch-black darkness supported her beneath her feet.

"To think I must put my own body forward like some common soldier...."

The ground shook when she straightened her legs. Tyr's body shot toward the sky. The darkness wrapped around her could not keep up and fell behind, but that was not an important problem.

Tyr soared into the air, stepped on her own darkness, and drew closer to Prelvior.

The War Mage's spell was not ready yet. Prelvior's eyes widened as she chanted.

'What? This isn't the Progenitor's way...!'

"I do not welcome this method either, so I shall finish it quickly."

Tyr's pale hand burst through the wind, just about to seize the cloak.

A spear flew in from somewhere and knocked Tyr aside. The distance between them widened at the last moment. Tyr slid through empty air.

Partlaxion had intercepted the Progenitor with a thrown spear meant not to pierce, but to knock her away. Grabbing another spear, he shouted.

"We meet again on the battlefield, Progenitor! There was no reason for us to fight last time, but this time is different!"

"A mere knight...!"

As Tyr's expression twisted fiercely, Prelvior's magic was completed. A compressed beam of light poured down on Tyr, who no longer had darkness's protection.

The regressor tried to pull away as soon as the War Mage appeared, but Historia read the signs and followed her like a ghost.

"Where are you going?"

Historia smiled faintly at the troubled regressor.

"You should play with me. Ah, is an older woman a little too stimulating for you, cutie?"

There was a little sincerity mixed into her words, but the regressor took them as a provocation and ground her teeth.

"Older woman? Hmph. You don't know anything."

"Quite a mouth on you. Well, bad behavior is a child's privilege."

"...You called it bad behavior? That's what I should be saying."

The regressor closed her eyes for a moment. Historia, who had been completely at ease, lowered herself and tensed at the sudden change in her presence.

When the regressor raised her head again, rainbow-colored light gleamed in her eyes.

Seven-Colored Eyes, fully opened. Heavenly Eye of the Turning Wheel.

It observed a possibility that existed in the future and drew it into this world at the same time.

Geon, Gon, Gam.

It had not reached the ultimate principle, but ki arts that had once reached their peak settled into her body. Treating the overflowing power as if it were her own, she accelerated in an instant and raised both swords at once.

"Don't get cocky!!"

Jizan had been forced to remain on the defensive because of its slowness, doing nothing but guard its wielder. Suddenly, it moved with the nimbleness of a snake. Historia's expression hardened.

"Urgh?!"

Jizan was a relic as heavy as Mount Tai, yet it felt light only to the regressor. That was because Jizan accommodated her, not because she could swing it quickly.

Yet now, she was swinging Jizan like an ordinary longsword, after filling it with ki.

"Did you take something? Your skill suddenly got so much...!"

"Sorry, but this is what I'm really capable of!"

Unlike Geon and Gon, which relied heavily on instinct and technique, Gam was a ki art that strengthened the body itself.

Regression reset it, so she had to learn it anew every cycle, and it changed slightly each time. With every cycle, the regressor learned a new Water Qi Art, as if shedding her skin.

"Until now, it was too heavy for me to use easily, but...!"

Even a battering ram would break if hung from a millet stalk. It needed something as sturdy as an oak tree to endure that force.

The same applied here. No matter how hard the regressor swung Jizan, the body guiding it could not endure.

But now that the Eye of Fate had overlaid her with her future strength, she could use one hundred percent of Jizan's original power.

"Even relying on gear takes enough strength to back it up!"

Jizan, which had moved as if accommodating her until now, was now being swung by her own strength.

It was a strike that could not be resisted. Naturally, Historia briefly retreated beyond Jizan's range, planting her back foot as she prepared to leap in again.

At that moment, Jizan changed direction. It was not aiming for Historia, but for the chain trailing half a beat behind her. Its blunt end caught on the end of the chain.

It had only caught slightly. Yet as if Jizan were a magnet, the chain stuck tightly to it.

Earth Staff Style, Magnetism.

If Skywarbler was repulsion, Jizan was attraction. It was the womb of steel, the earth's embrace that held all things in the world.

'Of course, she can shake it off with Projectile-Deflecting Energy Art... but it won't be easy to cover the chain in ki too!'

"This time, you're the one who got hooked!"

Jizan had no recoil. When the regressor pulled with all her strength, Historia's entire body was dragged along. Historia hurriedly aimed her gun, but the regressor anticipated it and blocked the muzzle with Skywarbler.

At the same time, bam, the regressor's foot slammed into Historia's abdomen.

"Urgh...!"

Historia protected herself with ki as well, but the regressor's strength far exceeded expectations for that brief instant. Historia folded in half and rolled away. She breathed roughly through the pain tearing through her stomach.

"Khk! Cough, cough!"

"What a shame. If my legs were just a little longer, you wouldn't even be able to get back up!"

The regressor was about to turn away.

Then a stinging sensation ran through her ankle. A chain was wrapped around it. At the last moment, Historia had given up on defense and bound the regressor's leg with her chain.

Historia rose to her feet again, wearing a languid yet challenging smile.

"You're certainly eager.... But aren't you pushing yourself too hard? Borrowed power won't last long, will it?"

"You're seriously a pain...!"

'I don't have time to be held here!'

There were two ways to fly through the air on this meta-conveyor belt.

The first was to fly at the exact same speed as the belt. It took considerable effort. You had to overcome the wind, lift your body, and match its speed every time.

But the War Mage Prelvior had an enormous amount of mana without much finesse. She could fly, but her control was terribly rough. There was no way she could fly that smoothly.

"Then only one possibility remains. A simpler, easier trick."

While a battle of the century raged above, I crept beneath the War Mage's feet. Darkness obstructed the view below, and the War Mage's senses were dull enough that she did not notice me.

Once I reached the spot beneath her, I found a thread of mana connected to a container link. It was stretched taut, tightly holding onto something.

Just as I thought.

"I've seen through your trick. You used that broad cloak like a kite to stay aloft, didn't you?"

The mana thread was connected to the violently fluttering cloak, holding Prelvior tight so she would not fly away into the distance.

A childish urge screamed for me to cut this taut thread at once. I calmed my excitement.

"Then I know what I need to do."

Five of Diamonds. Sickle.

A tool specialized for cutting, with a curved blade on both sides. It was a farming implement, but it could also be used as a weapon.

It was the only weapon I had left in good condition, so I held the sickle in my right hand.

I hooked it onto the mana thread. There was enough tension, so cutting it would be easy. What mattered was timing. I had to wait for the moment that would have the greatest effect.

When I looked up at Prelvior, Tyr was just kicking off the ground and flying toward the sky.

"Oh. Our side is winning."

Then perhaps I should watch a little longer. Cutting the thread for no reason would only give the War Mage a chance to escape.

Tyr leaped into the air, stepped on darkness in midair, and moved. The legendary technique of walking through empty space unfolded before me. At this rate, the War Mage would fall into Tyr's grasp.

"Has becoming a martial artist made her better suited to fighting the War Mage? What a pleasant miscalculation."

I was at the point where I needed to worry about the War Mage instead. It would be a problem if Tyr killed her without asking questions....

At that moment, a spear flew in from somewhere and struck Tyr in the back of the head. Tyr was intercepted in midair and spun around.

Wow. That must have hurt....

"Ah! This isn't the time!"

The War Mage's cloak shone. Her magic was complete.

I urgently pulled the sickle. As expected of a mana thread made by the War Mage, it did not cut easily. I drew on every scrap of ki I had, clenched my teeth, and hung from it.

Snap. A welcome sound rang out. The severed thread fluttered up into the sky.

"Lux, Millionaire... Urgh!"

Because I cut it in time, the War Mage's aim went off. The beam that should have struck Tyr swayed wildly. Once the thread tied to her body snapped and spoiled her aim, the War Mage searched for the reason, and her gaze fell on me.

'When did they get there?!'

"Run!"

I immediately took off. Two mana bolts the War Mage fired in haste flew toward me. They were simple attacks that struck with mana, but there was nothing more frightening to me.

Now that the War Mage's body was swaying, this was my only chance. I ran like mad with the box on my back.

The regressor and Historia were locked in a fierce battle in the direction I was running. I had no idea how they had fought, but a chain bound them together.

The regressor, who had been watching the situation, noticed my presence first.

'What is that ridiculous armor? An enemy? Before I get surrounded, I should cut them down first...!'

She was going to cut me down the moment we met!

Before the regressor could act on that decision, I shouted urgently.

"Mr. Shei! Stop fooling around with that older woman and go do something about the War Mage granny!"

The regressor recognized my voice, froze, and shouted.

"Does this look like I'm fooling around to you?! Look! I'm tied up!"

"You're already tied down? Oh dear. At your age already."

"You two classmates keep spouting nonsense! It was you, wasn't it?! That gunner's way of talking rubbed off on you, didn't it?!"

How did she know? Her instincts were sharp.

Anyway.

"Lift your foot!"

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

The regressor slightly raised the foot bound by the chain. I slid beneath her foot, lightly tapped the chain wrapped around it, and passed through. It had only been wrapped around her ankle, not tied, so touching it was enough to free her.

"Escape! You've lost your chain and gained freedom! You've been freed from life's grave, so hurry up and help Tyr!"

"What about the gunner?"

"I'll handle her!"

"...Then I'm leaving her to you! Don't let her get away!"

'If he's confident enough to say that, he probably won't die...!'

The regressor immediately threw herself forward. As she went farther away to face the War Mage, I let out a deep breath and looked at the classmate I had not seen in a long time.

Historia probably could have caught the regressor. If she had held on desperately, she could have stalled for a little more time.

But Historia let the regressor go and welcomed me instead. She must have had business with me.

"...It's been a while, Ria."

"It has."

Historia brushed her forehead. Pulling away the hair stuck to her sweat-soaked brow after that fierce battle, she gave me a twisted smile.

"It has been a really, really fucking long time."

She seemed happy to see me. Classmates really were classmates. At this rate, I probably wouldn't die....

'You've hidden well until now, you fucking bastard. I'll start by smashing that smug face of yours.'

Oh. Maybe not?

Footnotes:

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