WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 246: Seriously, an Angel

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Screeeech.

The automated carriage, which had been speeding along, came to a stop after crashing into someone. Maximilien, who had been dragged nearly fifty meters while being ground by its rotating saw blades, was clapping happily.

What showed through his torn clothes was not soft flesh, but gears covering his entire body.

Nothing but situations beyond common sense kept unfolding.

"So that's it! It was you. Yes, now that I think about it, you had potential. No qualifications, but potential alone!"

Maximilien seemed far too calm for someone who had been fighting fiercely only moments ago.

"The children born in the year the Kingdom fell. Two remained after they were sifted through. But neither of them was it? Surely not. You, who were said to be dead?"

'Oh dear. There was an error in our judgment. We thought he was dead. Even if he had survived, we ignored him because he showed no particular distinction. But perhaps it was simply hidden. What if he was the one who gathered them all? Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka, the boy who wields the Demon God's power, the Beast King, even a descendant of the royal family. If he was the one who led them all...!'

Maximilien's eyes gleamed with anticipation.

In his eyes, most humans were incomplete.

All humans possessed the same basic components. Blood, flesh, bones, muscles. Vital energy and mana filling their insides. As an alchemist, Maximilien knew that painfully well.

Yet their forms and abilities differed depending on how those parts were assembled and how they functioned. A lowly cripple begging for food and an absolute being standing alone above the world were both humans, shaped from flesh and filled with mana and vital energy. They did not look alike in the slightest, but they were the same.

So to Maximilien, most humans were defective products who ruined their own potential.

He could accept that objects made from superior materials performed better. They were different from birth, so naturally they had different capabilities.

But what if performance varied wildly depending on how those materials were arranged and assembled, on the precision of their structure?

Wouldn't defects disappear and their original performance emerge if someone as remarkable as Maximilien “corrected” them?

That was why he sought the King of Humanity. He wished to understand humanity's model and, beyond that, humanity's distinctive qualities.

"Are you the King of Humanity? Are you truly the stern evaluator who descended upon this land to judge the military state that has newly emerged in this world?"

If I only read Maximilien's thoughts, he seemed like a bold revolutionary agonizing over humanity's limits and striving to surpass them. But his true goal was...

To find the King of Humanity...

'The perfect thought gear. The King of Humanity is necessary to create generality that applies to everyone. The King of Humanity represents all humans!'

He wanted to stick gears into the King's head.

He really was insane.

The King of Humanity was human too. Humans were not compatible with gears.

"Perfect. Perfect! Could such a perfect combination exist? You have qualifications and potential! If the King of Humanity is not among you, that would be stranger! Hahaha. An opportunity to fulfill my long-cherished wish has come to me on its own. What a fortunate man I am!"

Maximilien was rattling on as he pleased, but I did not have the power to shut him up. I turned toward the only person here who could.

"Shei."

The regressor, who had been standing silently and listening to Maximilien's rant, reacted to my call.

"Huh? What is it?"

"What are you doing? We have a long way to go. Are you really going to listen to all this cult nonsense?"

The regressor nodded, glancing between Maximilien and me. Then something absurdly shameless came out of her mouth.

"I was curious what he had to say."

"You're letting a dangerous person we were fighting just moments ago stand around because you're curious? And he's preaching his bizarre religion. Is information really more important than our safety?"

"Ah, no. Of course not. I was just..."

'Tch. I should've let him talk a little longer. It's not often that the Halberdier gets excited and spits out information on his own.'

So that was why she had been standing still after fighting like she wanted to kill him. She was after information again?

I had already read all his thoughts, so I had no more business with him! Let's get rid of him and go!

The regressor flinched at my fierce expression and added words she did not mean.

"We should hear his last words before killing him."

"Listen to us, then! Why do you listen to the enemy better than you listen to your allies?"

"All right, all right."

'Still, I've heard enough. Children born in the year the Kingdom fell? Please. The leader of the Lords of All Creation believes baseless rumors like that. No wonder he repeated such pointless nonsense every cycle. Anyway, we cleaned up those military state bastards nicely this time.'

At my urging, the regressor stepped between us and Maximilien again.

"Those were your last words, right? If you have anything else to say, say it quickly before I kill you. We aren't that patient."

Maximilien answered with a faint smile.

"Ah. I shall not kill you. There is something I need to confirm."

"Sorry, but it's not that you won't kill us. You can't. You can never beat me alone."

"Certainly, you are difficult to face when you wield the powers of two Demon Gods at once. I have no idea what those fools at the Temple of the Demon God are doing. A mere boy acquired two Demon Gods, while those people who call themselves a secret society have fallen into such a state. Tsk, tsk."

Even at a moment of utter crisis, Maximilien remained calm. It was not the ease of someone with a hidden card up his sleeve, nor the attitude of someone certain reinforcements would arrive.

He simply had no fear of death.

Click, click. The gears embedded in his head turned. They separated reason and emotion, meshing only when they needed to be joined. Just as a machine did not worry about breaking down, Maximilien did not fear the end approaching him.

...Well, it was not as though Maximilien had nothing to rely on.

But it was already too late to stop it.

Tyr's darkness sensed the anomaly first. The darkness that had been hiding in the automated carriage's shadow, conserving its strength, jolted violently.

As if black hives had risen across its body, it shrank in on itself and grew darker still.

[This is...]

Tyr rose after sensing something. At the same time, the regressor instinctively realized something and tightened her grip on her sword.

Crackle. Sparks flared in the air.

Square patches of light flickered like a mosaic in an empty space, then vanished.

Nothing remained where the light disappeared. Only the afterimage imprinted on my retina gradually took shape.

Yet something was definitely there. Something whose existence I could sense but could not recognize.

The regressor muttered quietly.

"This presence...!"

A crushing pressure weighed on my entire body. It was an overwhelming presence too difficult to face, a distant sensation as though a being higher than humanity had appeared and was looking down on us. Under that gaze from an endlessly high place, humans were infinitely insignificant.

Maximilien, with gears implanted in his head, remained unaffected.

His reason was operating mechanically.

"But now that I know your qualifications are sufficient, I need not worry that someone will die. Rather, I should be worried about my own life. So I, too, must cheat."

The cluster of light took form.

It was human. It had two arms and two legs. A white blankness, with a face above its neck, slowly rose.

But only its shape resembled a human's.

I tried to read the thoughts of the being that had suddenly appeared.

I could not read its thoughts.

No, to begin with, was that even a person?

『Command observation complete. Manifestation rate: 14%. Caution advised. Current location is an area unsuitable for command observation.』

Its entire body glowed. Blinding white light wrapped around it, making it impossible to look at properly. A deeply lowered white helmet obscured its eyes, and no expression was visible on its face.

The calm curve of its mouth, made from a single black line, looked as though it had been drawn on afterward to make it resemble a human.

Since I could not read its thoughts, I did not know what it was. I only recognized it afterward through the regressor's and Maximilien's thoughts.

"...Eimeder!"

Historia looked shocked.

"What? The Heavenly Link? Th-that thing?"

I asked in disbelief.

"You're both Six Generals. You don't know?"

"I don't. The Heavenly Link has never officially appeared in public. Even if it had..."

'That appearance is not human, no matter how I look at it. Even its presence is indistinct!'

Amid everyone's confusion, the being emitting that strange presence spread its arms. A white blade appeared in its white hand, though I had no idea when it had been grasped. It had not been drawn from anywhere. It felt as though it had always been there.

『Emergency sequence. Execute.』

The light scattered like shattered glass. By the time the flashing sword remained as an afterimage, the white shadow was already charging toward us.

Humans reacted slowly. Since the opponent had transcended the level of an ordinary human, we could neither perceive the signs of its attack nor read its killing intent or fighting spirit. Even I only realized it was attacking after it had become an afterimage, because telepathy did not work on it.

"Move!"

The regressor reacted with the Heaven-Reversing Boundary, but the blade of light had not been aimed at her in the first place. The white shadow thrust its blade directly toward the automated carriage.

But another being was hiding there.

[Insolent thing! You dare bring out an angel before me!]

The instant Tyr shouted, darkness burst outward from within the carriage.

Originally, Tyr had planned to hide inside the cargo compartment. The more often she was exposed to sunlight, the more darkness she consumed, so the plan was to conserve her strength.

But Tyr's eyes had turned red with rage. Ignoring that plan entirely, she expanded her darkness. A localized night descended around the automated carriage.

The blade of light cut through the darkness. Light seeped through the gaps like dye. Even within darkness so thick that we could not see an inch ahead, the angel thrust its head inside.

But pitch-black darkness surged in like a wave and filled the empty space. A black parasol sprang out from within it and struck the angel.

Apparently, the white body had a physical form after all. The white figure that took the parasol head-on was flung far away. Tyr burst out, flipping the automated carriage front to back, and glared at the being called an angel with an enraged expression.

[You little insect, how dare you...!]

Even after being struck by Tyr's parasol, the angel rose smoothly as it flew, scattering its body like a fish swimming along a riverbed. It was an utterly inhuman movement.

The angel, rising as though swimming through the air, scattered white light and spoke.

『Director Maximilien. Return at once. You cannot oppose them with your individual power.』

"Haha. You have finally appeared, Heavenly Link! Did you see? I think I found it!"

『The Director's opinion was not requested. Regardless of your personal objective, this is the time to join forces. Return at once. Otherwise, they cannot be stopped.』

"All right. All right! I understand. I will follow your will!"

[Where do you think you are running?]

At that moment, darkness surged like an explosion, trying to engulf them both. The angel swung its sword and shook off the darkness, but the darkness did not give up and rushed in again and again.

As though it were stalling for someone to arrive.

[A toy of the Sanctum. I never expected to see one here... You are doing something interesting. Or are you trying to provoke me?]

Tyr walked forward with heavy steps.

Vampires had no life. They could control even their own blood, and because they were already dead, their instinct for life was faint as well. It was difficult to earn the anger of someone who could neither be hurt nor die. Even punches or attacks threatening to humans were nothing more than slightly rude behavior to them.

But there was one exception.

Anything related to the Sanctum.

After Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka lost her father, herself, and her blood relatives to them, the Sanctum incurred vampires' innate hatred.

Every vampire raged at the Sanctum. Tyr stood at that extreme.

The angel calmly addressed Tyr as she approached.

『I will draw the Progenitor's attention. Director Maximilien, I repeat my order. Return at once.』

"Haha! Disposable resources truly are wonderful!"

Maximilien laughed heartily as he retreated. The gears attached to his feet spun fiercely, carrying him rapidly away along the road.

He fled at once.

Even though an enemy we had nearly caught was escaping, the regressor could not recklessly go after him.

The being called the Heavenly Link, whom Tyr had called an angel, remained before us.

[Do you think I will let you leave so easily?!]

The darkness swelled. Tyr herself was not particularly fast, but her true nature lay in her overwhelming control over space. Since darkness was practically her own body, she exerted absolute influence within it.

I shouted.

"Tyr! Don't waste too much of your strength!"

But it was daytime. Darkness was continuously consumed to block the light, and even the slightest gap caused it to crumble quickly.

Scattering darkness during the day was like trying to protect an air bubble underwater.

The angel exploited that fact.

Its sword split into dozens of branches. No individual strike was particularly powerful, but fast, sharp slashes cut through the darkness one after another. Sword strikes spreading across a plane pushed back the darkness covering the area. Whenever even a tiny gap opened in the darkness, the sun still hanging in the sky tore open the wound on its own.

A battle of darkness and light.

The regressor moved within it.

After confirming Maximilien had gone far enough, the regressor jumped in at once.

"That is enough! Eimeder!"

For an instant, the regressor's eyes were dyed seven colors. Rather than opening the Eye of Destiny, she opened her Seven-Colored Eyes in succession and observed the light. At the same time, she raised Skywarbler diagonally and looked at the angel beyond it.

Heavenly Sword Technique, Seven-Colored Eyes Linked Technique: Rainbow.

Skywarbler shot out like lightning and cut the angel diagonally.

The angel noticed her presence and blocked with its sword of white light. Yet the instant Skywarbler collided with that sword, the white light split into seven colors.

A rainbow created by dismantling the white light colored Skywarbler's path. A long rainbow rose along the regressor's sword.

The angel had no visible expression, but it seemed slightly surprised.

『I see. So this is the Demon God's. The sky's...』

The angel could not finish.

The regressor forced her power through and cut off the angel's neck. Light flashed, leaving a long afterimage. The regressor, who had sliced through the angel's body, shouted fiercely.

"Tyrkanzyaka! Finish it!"

Glass could break light, but it could not erase it. The angel, which had briefly grown faint, flickered as it tried to take shape again.

Darkness covered it at that moment. Tyr's darkness, which had surged in like waves, finally caught the angel. Tyr swung her fist without saying a word, her emotions running high.

A huge mass dropped heavily inside the darkness.

Manifested darkness had crushed the white light.

『Observation limit... Danger.』

[It is over.]

Tyr clenched her fist. Darkness surged in at that instant and gnawed away at the light.

Tyr's power was not physical force. It had been emphasized lately because her strength had grown so great, but her power was closer to a curse or domination. Once caught, the angel was finished.

The body of light, covered in mystery, looked at the darkness consuming it and murmured calmly.

『Self-destruct sequence. Activate.』

Right after that.

A pillar of light rose.

Footnotes:

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