WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 280: The Blessed Nation, the Cursed Human - 3

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Baaaang.

The gunfire was continuous. The instant I heard it, a hole appeared in the wall above and to my left. It was clearly a bullet hole. Historia's qi bullets could tear through even steel, but that much was still within the realm of common sense.

Then something strange followed.

The bullet hole, which should have existed as a point, dreamed of becoming a line and writhed. The ugly hole gouged through crushed concrete and steel extended all the way to the floor, as though someone had drawn it in a single stroke.

For an instant, I saw the illusion of a sword dozens of meters long sweeping past beside me.

The gunfire ended.

Immediately afterward, three of the angel's right wings exploded at once.

Feathers scattered. Holy light filled my vision. Having lost the wings as their focal point, the feathers scattered in disarray, while the angel, deprived of its momentum to the right, was flung toward my right.

But.

『Have you... reached the mystery? Of all times, right after turning your back on the military state...!』

The angel was still intact. Historia grabbed her throbbing wrist.

The world had accepted her absurd demand, but wielding that absurdity still required Historia's strength. She steadied her trembling wrist.

‘It was the perfect chance...! There was no guarantee I could do the same thing twice!’

A sudden leap in growth during battle. When her opponent had been caught off guard and exposed their back, she had struck with a powerful technique. It had been a perfect surprise attack.

‘But I couldn't finish it! If I had put the angel in my line of fire, Hui and the communications officer would have died too...!’

She had been unable to attack the angel's main body because Captain AB and I were there. Historia looked deeply disappointed.

Tch. You awakened in the middle of combat! If that had been power you were hiding, I would've read your thoughts in advance and worked with you!

The world was truly unfair. I was the one who needed an awakening like that, so why did Historia have to awaken again? Why did the rich get richer and the poor get poorer even when it came to combat power?

That was when I heard it.

『Aaaaargh!』

The angel clutched the stumps of its wings and screamed in pain. Even an angel seemed to feel pain when its own wing flesh was torn off. Serves it right...

As I inwardly savored its suffering, my mind-reading caught something.

‘It hurts, it hurts!’

A mental scream came from inside the angel. It was not Eimeder's scream. It was IA's, the sacrifice inside the angel. She should have been unconscious, yet she was screaming in agony.

She was not the only one.

"A-Aah...!"

Captain AB, who had been synchronized beside me, screamed as well. The communications officers who had hidden in their respective rooms all let out mental screams at once. Twenty-six people screaming together made my head throb.

"What? It's not over yet?"

The more the communications officers' screams overlapped, the brighter the angel's light became. It was like a plant feeding on their screams.

As that agonized chorus reached its final note, holy light burst from the angel's shoulders.

Historia shouted.

"Watch out! Hui, run!"

You don't have to tell me! I know that's dangerous!

I grabbed Captain AB and threw myself onto the Queen of Cloth. After wrapping her up so she would not fall, I stretched the cloth toward Azzy and shouted.

"Azzy! Dog sled!"

"Woof! Only this once!"

Azzy bit the end of the Queen of Cloth and took off at once. The sudden acceleration flung my body backward. A sled pulled by the King of Dogs was worthy of being called the king of dog sleds.

Light exploded behind us.

In place of the severed wings, tentacle-like masses of light rose up. Beams as thick as pillars lashed wildly at the walls and floor. Steel bent, while the concrete filling the interior turned to dust and scattered. Historia tried to cut the tentacles apart, but the light tentacles were far harder and stronger than the wings. Even Historia was helplessly forced back by the relentless attacks.

Azzy grew desperate, clenched the cloth in her teeth, and kicked off.

"Woof woof! Woof woof woof!"

Azzy ran while swinging her head from side to side. My head was thrown left and right. It felt like I would be flung away if I let go.

Still, I could not blame Azzy's reckless driving. Every time my body swung to one side, a pillar of light crashed down beside me.

"Woof! Wooooof!"

What incredible driving. She was good enough to drive in my place.

Azzy nimbly dodged the light tentacles, then suddenly clenched her teeth.

"Woof!"

"Ah?"

Azzy planted her front paws into the ground and sharply twisted her entire body. It was a sudden change in direction that only a four-legged beast could make. At the peak of her turn, Azzy flung us away.

I had to put all my strength into holding onto Captain AB.

Beyond us as we flew away, Azzy raised one front paw amid the light.

"Woof..."

"Azzy!"

She was sacrificing herself for us...! Even you could not face that angel alone!

"Awooooo!"

Azzy let out a loud howl and bared her teeth. She took a huge bite out of a beam of light as thick as a pillar.

The tentacle was bitten clean through.

Perhaps because the tentacles were not human, Azzy continued her fierce assault. She pinned them down with her front paws and repeatedly bit through them, holding the tentacles back.

What? It was not that dangerous after all. Azzy had enough room to speak even as she rampaged everywhere.

"No baggage! Easy!"

"Baggage? Who are you calling baggage?"

That made me feel awful as the baggage. If you had not just saved my life, you would've learned what human malice was like.

『Aaaaargh! Aaaaaaaargh!』

The angel seemed to have lost its reason. It could have ignored Azzy and rushed forward, yet it continued wasting attacks on her. Azzy seemed briefly pushed onto the defensive, but another shadow suddenly leaped in.

"Meow meow!"

Even Nabi's hunting instincts had kicked in, and she joined the battle. The two beasts frolicked between the pillars of light as though they had found an entertaining game.

I was finally benefiting from them. The beasts had saved us. While I had the chance...

"...Sir."

Captain AB called to me in a weak voice.

"Captain AB? Are you all right? First, we need to..."

"I found her."

Captain AB reported between painful breaths. The moment her clear eyes met mine, I read everything within her.

Captain AB had synchronized with every communications officer in Module I to trace IA back. She had been persuading them one by one despite the fierce opposition of the others.

Then Historia touched the laws of the world and tore through it.

Eimeder's wings were ripped away. The attack that defied reason reached not only IA's innate arcane, but somehow even the angel's mystery.

The instant the angel was struck, every communications officer felt a strange exhilaration.

That was when Captain AB found her.

A cold, dark room, narrow and made of stone without a single decoration. A confessional so plain it seemed sacred.

Within it, someone knelt and prayed...

"Below us, sir. The communications headquarters was built above her... This place is a monument honoring her..."

Captain AB pointed at the floor. This floor lay smooth beneath its concrete covering, amid scattered documents and broken golems.

No one could have found it without knowing. How could anyone know there was something beneath this place? Even this Module was a secret space without a single window, so no one had any chance to discover it. Not even the regressor would have found it.

Still, once you knew something was there, you could see it.

At the cold, dark bottom, someone knelt in prayer at a place lower than anyone else.

"Well done, Captain AB."

We found her. A vicious smile naturally spread across my lips.

"Now we can bring this to an end."

She had every reason to be anxious or doubtful, but Captain AB asked me in a voice that seemed ready to break.

"...Was I of help to you?"

"Of course. You helped me, everyone here, and even yourself, Captain AB."

Captain AB smiled happily. I wanted to praise her more, but even that was a luxury in the current situation.

I called to the battered Historia.

"Ria. I found it."

"Found what?"

"The one that summoned the angel. If we deal with that, we can get rid of the angel."

Unlike me, who was filled with exhilaration, Historia did not look eager at all. She hesitated before asking.

"...Can't we run away?"

Historia pointed outside. The building had no windows, but the repeated fighting had grotesquely wrecked its walls and floor. The angel was also occupied with the Beast King, so we could escape if we wanted to.

"This is the headquarters. Even if we defeat the angel, if all their forces are mobilized and a full-scale war begins... they'll pursue us to the end. Fighting an entire country is not a good idea. Hui, let's run away."

"We have to move forward to prevent that too. The angel and the communications officers are at the core of the military state. If we handle this properly, the military state won't even have time to issue orders."

"Who knows what's ahead? Running would be better. If we go and meet up with the Progenitor or Cutie, we can at least keep our lives..."

"We're always running. This time, the direction we're running is forward."

Historia fell silent after confirming my resolve. In that silence, her hollow eyes reproached me.

‘Right. You've always been like this. You leave without warning, and even when someone makes a place for you to return to, you never look back. I can't stop you, not even for a moment...’

Unlike me, Historia had no desire to meet the angel. She did not want to become enemies with the military state.

Historia had only followed to protect Siati and me, and that fact made her miserable.

‘If only I hated the military state too, I could have truly stood with all of you. Why can't I?’

The heart could not be deceived. How could she hate something she did not hate?

Historia made her decision. As always, she would follow my will.

"Where is it?"

"See that document with a world map on it? It's underneath that."

I pointed to the floor covered in heaps of paper. Historia nodded.

"Stay back."

Historia took two steps to the side as she judged the direction. Once she reached a spot where the angel and floor were both in her line of fire without endangering anyone else, she loaded one bullet into her gun.

"Are you going to use that again? Don't worry about the beasts. They'll avoid it themselves."

"I know."

Historia answered shortly and gripped her pistol like a sword again. She held it with both hands instead of one, slightly above her head.

It was not a stance for firing a gun, yet that was exactly why it was more threatening than anything in the world.

"Woof!"

"Meow!"

Beasts had sharp instincts. Sensing danger, the two animals raised their fur and split apart to either side. Nothing remained between Historia and the angel, nor beyond the angel.

Drawing the surging pillars of light into her trajectory, Historia unleashed Gun-Sword Total Intent again.

From Historia's perspective, it looked as though she were swinging a blade made of darkness.

It was gunfire in the form of a line. Space split apart. From ceiling to floor, destruction was carved into the room, not as a clean cut but as a trace of savage force ripping everything apart.

A roar like rolling thunder filled the air. The entire space was drowned in gunfire. The shockwave alone shook the walls and ceiling.

As the sound faded.

『Gunslinger!! I will not forgive youuuuu!!』

This time, the angel somehow endured the gunfire. It layered dozens of bizarrely grown tentacles over one another and withstood the law-defying strike.

Even Gun-Sword Total Intent was ultimately gunfire in the form of a line. That meant it could be blocked if something had the durability to withstand Historia's shot. That was nearly impossible, but still.

Our strategic goal had been achieved.

The concrete floor had split apart. There was... a passage leading down there.

"Go, Hui."

Historia stepped forward.

"I'll hold the rear. There's no one else who can stop it."

"You're certainly the only 'person' who can stop it. Can I leave it to you?"

"Just make sure you come back up in one piece."

"Ha ha. That's always my goal."

I shrugged as though it were nothing and prepared to descend. All that preparation amounted to gathering a few tools and clearing away the chunks of stone blocking the passage.

The passage was closer to a ladder than stairs. One wrong step and someone could fall.

Diamond 8, all long and thin things. I used alchemical conversion to turn it into a long rope. After tying the rope securely to the top of the ladder, I threw its end downward. It was quite deep, since I could not hear it strike anything.

Hmm. That was scary. I had no idea what was down there.

"Captain AB, go down first. Something could fall from above, so I'll follow behind you."

"Understood."

Captain AB obediently accepted my instruction to lead. I appreciated that, but would she be any help? Just in case, I asked.

"Do you know how to climb a rope?"

"I have attempted it using a golem."

"Attempted, not succeeded? Wait. Let's go down together."

In the end, I was the only one I could rely on. I wrapped the Queen of Cloth around my body and looped the rope around it once. If I wore it like this and slid down, we could reach the bottom quickly.

Once I was ready, I spoke to Historia.

"When the time comes, send Siati and the princess down too. It might be safer down there."

"All right."

Historia answered dryly and turned her back as though telling me to hurry.

She looked lonely standing there alone, so I added something for her sake.

"Thank you, Ria. For helping me every time."

"Liar."

"I'm serious. I'll prove it when I make it back up safely."

"How?"

"I'll save that as something to enjoy later."

I gave Historia a faint smile as she grew distant, then took my next step. Toward that faraway darkness below, where the military state's secrets awaited.

"Captain AB. Here we go! Hold on tight!"

"Preparations complete. You may depart... Kyaah!"

The moment I jumped into the passage, Captain AB let out a shrill scream and hugged me.

What did she mean, she had tried it with a golem? Falling with her own body was hardly the same as doing it with a golem. It would have been dangerous if I had sent her down alone.

We gained speed. The ladder struck my back and hurt. Captain AB should have been on this side, but there was no helping it since she did not know how to use a rope.

It was an awkward, exhausting position, but Captain AB and I safely pushed through the darkness toward the heart of the military state.

Good.

Now show yourself, military state.

Show me the secret you hid.

Footnotes:

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