WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 208

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Land Flowing Like a River - Finale

The War Mage asked for surrender with confidence. She was polite, but arrogant. Tyr was already irritated, and those words pushed her into a violent rage. Darkness, her loyal thrall, witnessed its master's fury and trembled in fear.

"How absurd. Just because you're floating in the sky and looking down at me, you think you have the upper hand?"

Darkness surged thicker out of the coffin that had burst open. Before, it had been a fog you could still see through. Now it felt like being underwater, where you could barely see an inch ahead.

As the view grew darker, only Tyr's eyes burned red.

"Did you think magic belonged to your side alone? Blood magic was always a tool of my thralls, but for your sake, I will show you something special..."

Magic manifested through blood aura instead of mana: blood magic.

Tyr moved to draw a magic circle with blood, then realized her blood would not come out of her body. The unexpected problem made her falter for a moment.

'So she means to use blood magic. What an honor, to cross magic with the Progenitor while still alive.'

"Then I will prepare as well."

Prelvior spread her cloak wider. Between the fluttering folds, steel spheres glowing red-hot exhaled violently.

General-grade gear, The Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains.

A War Mage armament for those called foolish, meant to move mountains.

Its abilities were protection from magical backlash, mana storage, and mana recycling.

Prelvior's spells were monstrous in scale, but the spells themselves were basic. Whether matter or magic, simpler things were easier to convert. The gear recycled that mana so she could keep firing tactical-grade spells in rapid succession.

It was gear by Prelvior, for Prelvior.

"Preset, Ri."

The Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains converted leftover fire magic into light and absorbed it. Blinding flashes burst from the metal spheres attached to the massive cloak.

Tyr, unable to use blood magic, instead confronted the power circulating inside her own body. Rather than obeying her orders, the blood aura ran cheerfully through her veins, breathing life into her.

She muttered in disbelief.

"Ha. How crude. Is this truly the only way?"

After deciding, Tyr bent her knees instead of twisting power through magic. At Tyrkanzyaka's will, pitch-black darkness braced her footing.

"To think I must throw my own body forward like a mere grunt..."

The moment she straightened her bent legs, the ground shook. Tyr shot up toward the sky. Darkness wrapped around her body but failed to keep up, though that barely mattered.

By the time she stepped on her own darkness in midair, she was already closing on Prelvior.

The War Mage's spell was not ready yet. Prelvior's eyes widened mid-chant.

'What? This is not the Progenitor's style...!'

"I don't like this either, so I will end it quickly."

Tyr's pale hand tore through the wind and reached for the cloak.

Before she could grab it, a spear flew in from somewhere and knocked her aside. The distance between them opened at the last instant. Tyr slid through empty air.

Patraxion had intercepted the Progenitor with a thrown spear meant to deflect, not pierce. Grabbing another spear, he shouted.

"We meet again on the battlefield, Progenitor! Last time we had no reason to fight, but this time is different!"

"A mere knight...!"

While Tyr's face twisted savagely, Prelvior's spell finished. A compressed beam of light poured down onto Tyr, who no longer had darkness shielding her.

Right after the War Mage appeared, the regressor had tried to pull back, but Historia read it and stuck to her like a ghost.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Historia watched the troubled regressor and smiled faintly.

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

She had mixed in a bit of sincerity, but the regressor took it as provocation and ground her teeth.

"Older woman? Hmph. You really know nothing."

"Foul mouth. Sure, bad manners are a child's privilege."

"...You called that bad manners? That line belongs to me."

The regressor shut her eyes for a moment. Historia had looked relaxed, but the instant that pressure changed, she lowered her body and tensed. When the regressor raised her head again, rainbow light flashed in her eyes.

Seven-Colored Eyes, full-eye awakening. Wheel-Turning Heavenly Eye.

It observed possibilities that existed in the future and pulled them into this world at the same time.

Geon, Gon, Kan.

She still had not reached true principle, but the energy she had once perfected settled into her body again. Using that overflowing force as if it were her own, she accelerated in an instant and raised both swords at once.

"Don't mess with me!!"

Jizan, which had been stuck in a defensive role because it was slow, suddenly moved like a snake. Historia's face hardened.

"Ugh?!"

Jizan was an artifact heavy as Mount Tai, yet light only to the regressor. But that was because Jizan cooperated with her, not because she could swing it fast.

Now she was swinging it like an ordinary longsword, packed with energy.

"Did you take drugs or something? Your skill just suddenly...!"

"Sorry, this is my real level!"

Unlike Geon and Gon, which relied heavily on sense and finesse, Kan was body-strengthening energy.

Because regression reset it, she had to relearn it every cycle, and each time it came out a little different. As she grew every run, she rebuilt her Kan energy like shedding skin.

"Until now, it was too heavy, so I couldn't use it easily...!"

Even a battering ram will snap the pole if you hang it from a weak stalk. You need hard oak to withstand that force.

Same thing here. No matter how much she swung Jizan before, the body driving it could not endure the load.

Now, with future power overlaid through the Eye of Fate, she could use Jizan's original force at one hundred percent.

"Even gear advantage only works if you have the strength for it!"

Jizan, which had always moved as if it were helping her along, was now being swung directly by her will.

An irresistible strike. Naturally, Historia stepped back out of Jizan's range for a beat and set her rear foot to dive in right after.

Then Jizan changed direction. Not at Historia, but at the chain trailing her by half a beat. Its blunt tip caught the chain's end.

It only hooked lightly. Still, the chain stuck to Jizan as if it were a magnet.

Jigon Style, Magnetite.

If Skywarbler was repulsion, Jizan was attraction. The cradle of steel and Mother Earth's embrace that held all things in place.

'Of course, she can shake it off with bullet-deflecting energy... but wrapping energy around the chain too won't be easy!'

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

Jizan had no recoil. The regressor yanked with all her strength, and Historia's whole body got dragged with it. Historia hurriedly aimed her gun, but the regressor saw it coming and blocked the muzzle with Skywarbler.

At the same moment, thump, the regressor's foot slammed into Historia's abdomen.

"Kgh...!"

Historia had protected herself with energy too, but for that brief moment the regressor's force went far beyond expectation. Historia folded in half and rolled across the ground. Pain tore through her gut, and she coughed hard.

"Kgh! Cough, cough!"

"Too bad. If my legs were just a little longer, you wouldn't even be able to stand up!"

Either way, as the regressor turned to move away, a prickling sensation ran through her ankle. A chain was tied around it. At the last moment, Historia had given up defense and bound her leg instead.

Historia stood again, wearing a lazy but challenging smile.

"Very aggressive... but aren't you overdoing it? Borrowed power can't last long, right?"

"Seriously, what a pain...!"

'I don't have time to be stuck here...!'

There were two ways to fly in the sky around this Meta-Conveyor Belt.

One was to fly at exactly the belt's speed. That took real effort. You had to keep fighting the wind, keep yourself airborne, and keep matching speed.

But War Mage Prelvior had enormous mana and mediocre finesse. She could fly, sure, but her control was rough. She should not be able to glide that smoothly.

"Then only one option is left. A simpler, easier trick."

While the battle of the century raged above, I crept below the War Mage. Down there, darkness blocked vision, and the War Mage was dull in perception, so she never noticed me.

Once I reached under her, I found a mana tether connected to a container coupling, stretched taut around something it was tightly gripping.

As expected.

"I figured out your trick. You stayed afloat by using that wide cloak as a sail, didn't you?"

The mana tether was linked to the violently flapping cloak, gripping hard so she would not be blown far away into the sky.

Some childish part of me screamed to cut that tight line right away. I calmed myself down.

"Then what I need to do is obvious."

Diamond 5, Scythe.

A tool with inward and outward curves on the blade, a farm implement that also served as a weapon specialized for cutting.

That was the only weapon I had left in good condition, so I was holding a scythe in my right hand.

I drew it and hooked the mana tether. The tension was high, so cutting it would be easy. Timing was what mattered. I had to hit the best possible moment.

I looked up at Prelvior, and right then Tyr was launching off the ground toward the sky.

"Oh. Our side is winning."

Then maybe I should watch just a little longer. If I cut the line too soon, I might only give the War Mage a chance to run.

Tyr kicked off through the air and stepped on darkness mid-flight. A legendary sky-step in action. At this rate, the War Mage would end up in Tyr's hands.

"Maybe becoming a close-combat fighter helped. She's actually better against a War Mage now. Nice surprise."

At this point I almost had to worry for the War Mage. It would be a problem if Tyr just killed her without questions... and then,

a spear flew in from somewhere and smacked the back of Tyr's head. Intercepted in midair, Tyr spun away in circles.

Wow, that must have hurt...

"Ah crap, this isn't the time!"

The War Mage's cloak flashed. The spell was complete.

I yanked the scythe in panic. Since it was the War Mage's own mana tether, it did not cut easily. I dragged out every scrap of energy I had, clenched my teeth, and hung on.

Snap, that beautiful sound rang out. The severed line fluttered into the sky.

"Lux, Millionaire... ugh!"

Because I cut it in time, the War Mage's aim went off. The beam that should have smashed Tyr swerved all over. With the line anchoring her body severed, her aim broke with it, and as she searched for the cause, her gaze landed on me for an instant.

'Since when...!'

"Run!"

I bolted immediately. Two streaks of mana rounds the War Mage fired in a hurry shot toward me. It was a simple attack, just blunt-force mana, but nothing scared me more than that.

This was the only chance, while her body was still unsteady. I ran at full speed with the box strapped on my back.

In the direction I ran, the regressor and Historia were locked in a brutal fight. No clue how they had managed it, but the chain had both of them bound together.

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

'What is with that ridiculous armor, enemy? Before I get surrounded, cut first...!'

She really planned to cut first on sight!

Before she could act on it, I shouted.

"Mr. Shei! Stop fooling around with the older lady and go do something about Grandma War Mage!"

Recognizing my voice, the regressor flinched and yelled back.

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

"So you've already become a bound man? Wow. At your age too."

"You said you were classmates, and now the two of you are spouting nonsense together! It's you, right?! The Gunslinger's habits rubbed off on you?!"

How did she know? Good instincts.

Anyway.

"Raise your foot!"

"Why?"

"Just do it first!"

The regressor lifted the chained foot slightly. I slid under her, tapped the wrapped chain, and passed through. It had only been wound around her ankle, not locked, so one touch was enough to free it.

"Escape complete! There, you lost the chain and gained freedom! You're free from life's grave, so hurry and help Tyr!"

"What about the Gunslinger?"

"I'll handle her!"

"...Then I'm trusting you! Don't lose her!"

'If he can promise that much, he probably won't die...!'

The regressor launched herself away at once. While she moved off to face the War Mage, I exhaled deeply and looked over an old classmate I had not seen in a long time.

She could have kept hold of the regressor if she wanted. If she had clung hard enough, she could have dragged out more time.

But Historia let the regressor go and turned to me instead. She had business with me.

"...Long time, Ria."

"Sure has."

Historia wiped her forehead. Pulling wet hair off her skin after the fierce fight, she gave me a twisted smile.

"Really, really. It's been a damn long time."

She looked happy to see me. A classmate was still a classmate. At this rate, maybe I wouldn't die either...

'You've done a great job hiding all this time, you bastard. I'll start by crushing that slick face of yours.'

Oh. Maybe not?

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