WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 348: The King Who Kills Others, the God Who Kills Himself - 8

──────

"Why are you here? And with the Lord of Gold right in front of you?"

The regressor smashed through the Golden Palace, spotted me, and asked with a puzzled look. Her face was as calm as if she did not have a care in the world. A regressor who solved problems by crushing them with force, then killed herself whenever things became too difficult, would have no idea what hardships I had been through.

But that was fine. If she had come to save me, she did not need to know.

For the first time in a while, I sincerely welcomed the regressor.

"Mr. Shei. I'm so glad to see you I could cry."

"I'm not. We just saw each other."

This bastard? Even my gratitude was wasted on her.

"More importantly, why are you here? We were supposed to go see the Lord of Gold tomorrow."

"What about you, Mr. Shei?"

"In case we weren't told tomorrow, I came to find it ahead of time."

"Same here. I came to scout the area, and I happened to find it."

"That was a good idea, but you should've said something once you found it. I've been looking everywhere. I had no idea it would be this close."

"I didn't know where you were, Mr. Shei. I didn't have time. Look."

While the regressor and I shared the joy of our reunion, they had figured out the situation too. The Lord of Gold stood before Elik as if shielding her, then pointed at us.

"Who are you?! What gives you the nerve to storm this place?!"

The shout was full of open hostility and wariness. Even shut away in his own world, he still reacted when we broke down his walls. He could set aside a nobody like me for the moment, but someone with strength on the regressor's level was apparently harder to ignore.

Unaware of the conversation Elik and I had shared, the regressor lowered Jizan and Skywarbler, then straightened her clothes. She had just made her entrance by causing an earthquake, so adjusting her outfit was not going to make her look any more composed. Still, she was trying in her own way, so I would let it slide.

"Lord of Gold? I found the right place. I'm a peace envoy. Let's call a truce."

This would not do. Trying or not, she could not speak like that. It probably would not have worked even if she had phrased it better.

I shook my head and stopped the regressor.

"Mr. Shei. There's no point. They've already decided to fight."

"Huh? What?"

"They have no intention of accepting a truce! Let's get ready to run!"

At the same time, Elik shouted.

"Demo! They are my enemies!"

"Y-your enemies came all the way here?"

"Yes! For me and this country, eliminate them!"

Though flustered, the Lord of Gold obeyed Elik's command. He placed a hand on the ground. In an instant, the earth's surface was transmuted into steel. With a sweep of its hand, the ground rolled upward, and a wave of steel crashed toward us.

"Wait! I don't particularly want to fight!"

Though startled, the regressor reacted to the attack on instinct. She slammed Jizan into the ground and swept it from side to side. The ground pushed aside by Jizan shook violently, and the approaching wave of steel shattered against the tremors.

"I don't want to fight! Stop!"

It was already too late. When the regressor cleared away the curtain of steel, she found a barrel aimed at us.

"I'm sorry. I had no wish to fight either."

Click.

The Suppression Lord, Hecto, regretfully loaded an iron ball onto the piston.

"The Lord of Gold is our god. Since he has commanded it, I must obey as well!"

"Tch!"

Hecto aimed the piston, which resembled a cannon more than a gun, and fired. With a heavy thud, the iron ball shot toward the regressor and me.

Hecto was the only living human among them. After reading Hecto's thoughts, I immediately rolled across the ground, but the regressor responded with the Heaven-Reversing Boundary. Unafraid of the fist-sized iron ball, she dodged it by a hair's breadth and shouted mockingly.

"You think you can hit me with something this slow?"

She had the bearing of an expert. Compared to me rolling across the ground like a dog, she looked even more impressive.

Then Hecto opened a hand.

"Suppression, release!"

The iron ball Hecto had fired was special alchemical steel that had already been compressed. When Hecto withdrew the innate arcane, the pressure suppressing the iron ball vanished. At the same time, the tightly compressed ball swelled like a balloon. The rare sight of expanding steel was being used to attack an enemy.

The regressor, who had dodged the iron ball by a hair's breadth, was caught in the explosion of steel. Head, shoulders, waist. The expanding iron ball battered her entire body.

See? I might not look impressive, but at least I was safe. If she did not want to get hit by an iron ball, she should have dodged with all her strength like I did...

'Heaven-Reversing Boundary, Defensive Form: Reflective Mirror!'

Well, if getting hit did not matter, doing it her way was better.

The moment the steel touched her body, she sent ki through it. Even the force of the compressed steel pushing outward was seized and suppressed with ki. Hecto had withdrawn the innate arcane, but as the iron ball tried to expand again, the regressor's ki suppressed it once more.

The regressor reduced the impact of a cannonball to no worse than a punch, then shouted in anger.

"You really want to fight?! Fine, if that's what you want, I'll give it to you!"

Our regressor was no less emotional than they were. One attack had apparently sent her anger through the roof, because she immediately took up an offensive stance.

"Earth Staff Style, Fierce Strike!"

The regressor gripped Jizan in both hands and swung it hard at the flying iron ball.

Before striking, adhesive ki. Immediately afterward, rebounding ki. At the instant Jizan and the iron ball collided, she reversed the nature of her ki and knocked away the Suppression Lord's iron ball.

The iron ball struck by Jizan tore through the air. It had a weight incomparable to a bullet. If it hit, limbs would be ripped clean off.

But...

"Eliminate."

The moment the Lord of Gold spoke, the iron ball flying toward Hecto crumbled into dust in midair. Having turned steel into iron powder, the Lord of Gold repeated in a gloomy voice.

"Eliminate. Eliminate. Eliminate."

The innocent demeanor from before was nowhere to be seen. The Lord of Gold now repeated Elik's command in a flat, mechanical voice.

Words alone would not have been frightening. But in this world, the Lord of Gold's words did not end as words.

The farmers approached. Until now, the silent farmers had only been part of the model garden's background. Now they became the forces that would carry out the Lord of Gold's commands.

Artificial eyes gleamed beneath their straw hats. One farmer had half their face covered in iron. Another had steel branches embedded in the fingers of the right hand. The farmers all looked different, but they had one thing in common.

They carried steel in their bodies.

The regressor tensed when she saw the homunculus army.

"Those are Guardians?"

"Guardians?"

"Homunculi of the past Lords. The Golden Palace uses them as Guardians! Stay alert! Every one of them must be on the Heatblast Lord's level!"

"This isn't something we can solve by staying alert!"

That was true. When they all raised their hands, all kinds of steel burst forth. The Heatblast Lord, wrapped in burning steel, shot down from the sky, while the Mirror Lord, laden with countless steel mirrors, aimed them all at the regressor. Other unnamed Lords drew their own equipment and aimed it at us.

"The homunculi can probably use innate arcane too!"

Innate arcane? No. If it had been innate arcane formed from an individual's mental image, I would have been able to read it. That was not innate arcane. The Lord of Gold had used his authority to create even innate arcane itself! The Lords' innate arcane was rooted in alchemy, after all!

We had to run. I could not read their thoughts. I did not know where their attacks were headed or how they would come at us! We needed another way to break through this mess!

But if we wanted to run...

"Mr. Shei! Aim for the Lord of Gold! Even if we kill those things, they'll come back to life!"

"No choice, then!"

The regressor held Skywarbler and Jizan, one in each hand. Skywarbler in her left hand, Jizan in her right. Holding sky and earth apart, she brought their ends together. Heaven and earth joined tail to tail at the tips of the two relics.

Jizan was nearly invincible at close range, but it had no way to show that power from a distance.

Unless she threw it.

Then she simply had to throw it. Even if she needed to use Skywarbler to make up for her lack of strength.

"Heaven-and-Earth Sword and Staff!"

Using Skywarbler as a rope and Jizan as a shot put, she spun them around. At first, Jizan circled above the regressor's head, then gradually widened its range and swept across the land.

Its speed was no more than that of a jump rope, but Jizan's weight was the problem. With a weight that could not be resisted, Jizan destroyed everything in its path like a god of destruction. Steel and earth alike shattered and scattered if they crossed Jizan's trajectory.

When the rotation reached its peak, the regressor forcefully flung Skywarbler and released Jizan.

"Moon Throw!"

Whoooosh.

Jizan used no fancy tricks. It simply crushed everything in its path with its weight as it headed for the Lord of Gold. Nothing could stop it without similar weight. Not even the Lord of Gold...

But the opponent was the Lord of Gold.

"Pressure Lord. Wedge Lord. Plaster Lord."

Alchemy beyond comprehension took place. The earth around the Lord of Gold trembled. A fifty-meter radius of land centered on him separated into a hemisphere and moved to block Jizan. A sword carrying the weight of the earth collided with earth turned into steel.

The structure had been transmuted into steel. Every part of it had been personally transmuted by the Lord of Gold. Even when struck by Jizan, the alchemical steel only dented slightly. Jizan, which seemed capable of breaking even Mount Tai, gradually lost momentum.

"That's insane...! It stopped Jizan? That's cheating!"

"You're not one to talk while carrying a cheating weapon. Now! Let's run!"

"For once, we're thinking the same thing!"

The regressor pulled on the slack Skywarbler. Having completely lost its momentum, Jizan returned to her without resistance. Catching the flying Jizan, the regressor immediately turned and ran.

Jizan's might had been so overwhelming that the Lord of Gold and his Guardians had focused on defense, losing their chance to respond. The homunculi belatedly began pursuing us.

"Ha! Slowpokes! If you think you can catch us..."

"...Eliminate."

A massive iron spear fell from the sky directly in front of us as we fled. I hesitated and looked up to see countless homunculi, including the Heatblast Lord, dangling Dragonhawk flight rigs as they looked down at us. Each held dozens of weapons.

The Heatblast Lord muttered.

"You cannot escape."

"How is that even possible?!"

That was not innate arcane anymore! The real Heatblast Lord could not do anything like that!

We were surrounded above, below, ahead, and behind. I could not even read these homunculi's thoughts. They had human forms, but they were closer to a system created by the Lord of Gold!

We were completely trapped. The regressor was clearing away the iron spear, but if we were held here, we could not escape the Lord of Gold's world. At this critical moment, what could we...

Then streams of darkness flowed into the shattered space. The darkness groping through the air consumed the space around it, then instantly took Tyr's form.

"Hyu! I finally found you. Where in the world did you go?"

That's what I wanted to ask! Where had she been until now?! I brought her along as a bodyguard, yet she had lost track of me just because I disappeared for a moment!

But she had to save me right now, so I swallowed those thoughts and urgently shouted.

"Tyr! This isn't the time! We have to run! Behind you!"

"Behind me?"

Could she not see? There were homunculi behind her too! I could not read their thoughts, so I did not know who they were, but they had to be Lords as well. If they attacked us from both sides, we had no chance!

Tyr leisurely turned around. Even after seeing the homunculi, she spoke calmly.

"There's nothing to worry about."

'They are limbs at my command.'

What?

While I paused for a moment to understand, the homunculi behind Tyr creaked and charged forward all at once.

Past the regressor and me, toward the homunculi pursuing us from behind.

Footnotes:

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