WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 383: Lightning Did Not Fall from the Sky - 6

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Without energy arts or innate arcane, it was a pure contest of body against body. Of course, I lost even that, but I hadn't lost on technique yet.

No matter what the Thunder Lord's body was like, it still had a human structure. No matter how exceptional a human might be, without energy arts, they couldn't attack an enemy behind them. Joints couldn't bend backward on their own, and a pinky finger couldn't overpower an arm no matter how hard it tried. That was simply how the human body worked.

What if her pinky could overpower my arm? Then I should just admit defeat. If a junk card could beat my ace, there was no game to play. Sometimes you had to fold a hopeless hand.

"You little...!"

"Once you're caught, it's over. Without the power of thunder, you can't win."

No matter how much she tried to draw out the power of thunder, it was useless. I was tangled up with the Thunder Lord right now. Every time she tried to summon her strength, the lightning flowing through her seeped into my Mother Earth cards.

I tightened my hold on her twisted arm.

"If I bend it any further, you won't be able to use that arm ever again."

"Go... ahead...!"

"You think I can't? If I have to, I can snap your neck without hesitation too..."

As I said that and put more strength into it, I felt something resist.

Huh?

It won't bend? What is this? Don't tell me I couldn't snap her arm even with both my arms and legs, using leverage to pull it? How unfair was that?

"For someone who was boasting so much, you're rather weak."

'Now that all the power of thunder is gone, I can feel my own strength again. I should thank you for this... I think I can use my strength properly now.'

So that was it. She'd sensed energy arts!

The Thunder Lord slowly exerted strength. As if recalling something she had forgotten, not the power of thunder but pure internal energy filled that gap. It was harder to use than the more convenient power, but it was the innate strength of life itself, something that couldn't be stolen.

Damn it! Don't grow during a fight. It throws off all my mind reading and plans! Though it was stranger that she could use the power of thunder but not energy arts. Even the internal energy I could sense from her was far greater than mine. She'd break free soon. What do I do? Should I call Tyr...?

That was when it happened.

Rumble.

The Lightning Rod Tower shook violently. The impact was enormous, as if lightning had struck it. No, as if the falling lightning had been given mass.

The ceiling tilted enough for the slope to be visible. Walls and ceilings that should have been solid trembled. The shock reached underground too, and chunks of bedrock crumbled down. The Thunder Lord cried out urgently.

"You! What did you do?!"

"I didn't do this?!"

"If not you, then who?!"

"I can't even break your joints. How am I supposed to break the Lightning Rod Tower?"

What was going on? Changing a few pieces of wall into cards wouldn't make the tower collapse. Had the Sky God kicked the tower or something?

Either way, the building was about to collapse. There was no reason to keep trying a joint lock that didn't work.

The problem was that letting go now was still dangerous...

"Th-Thunder Lord!"

Small footsteps approached at just the right time. It was the girl who had been looking after the children underground earlier. Feeling the danger as the tower shook, she had run here to find the Thunder Lord.

"Thunder Lord, it's an earthquake! The tower's tilting... Huh?"

The girl who had been so desperately searching for the Thunder Lord found her tangled on the floor with me, our arms and legs entwined. The unexpected sight left the girl at a loss for words. The Thunder Lord, caught in such a compromising position, looked equally flustered.

"J-Jeri. This isn't..."

Now. This was my only chance to escape!

"It's a misunderstanding! The Thunder Lord and I were just doing some simple physical wrestling! There's nothing between us!"

"Shut up!"

As the Thunder Lord shouted, both of us briefly lost our strength. I took that chance to release her arm, roll away, and run toward the wall I had turned into cards.

Since I had used an entire wall as material for cards, it was gone, exposing the ground beyond it. Wet soil flowed down through the collapsed wall. Holding a Mother Earth card, I shoved the mound of dirt hard with earth magic.

Thump.

The enormous mass of soil moved easily at my gesture. A tunnel to the surface opened in an instant. I stepped into the hole and shouted.

"I'm sorry, everyone. I pulled back the curtain and peeked at the secret, but there wasn't an answer I wanted. I'll be going now!"

"Stop right...!"

The Thunder Lord tried to chase me immediately, but then she saw the girl looking at her with desperate eyes and swallowed her words.

Even if she had known something and deliberately ignored it, the Thunder Lord had protected this city. That was the truth. The girl was relying on the Thunder Lord now, hoping she would keep showing the same side she always had.

The Thunder Lord hesitated for just a moment at that sudden conflict.

That opening was enough. Before more trouble could arise, I escaped the underground with earth magic.

The outside world, which I hadn't seen in a while, was complete chaos. Cheers mixed with screams, and the people who had been watching the Sky God's murder looked around in confusion. I crawled out of the ground amid that disorder and nearly got trampled by the crowd.

"What? A person came out of the ground!"

"I'm a spy! Move unless you want trouble!"

The spectator above me recoiled in shock at my declaration, and I pushed through the opening to climb out.

Once outside, I found the situation had taken a strange turn.

The Sky God had already vanished. There wasn't a trace of it anywhere around Cloud Waterfall. Reading the thoughts of the others, I learned the Sky God had been absorbed by the regressor. It had certainly disappeared pitifully easily, so what was going on...?

...I understood when I looked up at the Lightning Rod Tower.

Darkness spread across it. Lightning flashed within. The authority of darkness controlled by the Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka collided with the power of the regressor's twin swords. The clash was so intense that its aftermath spread beyond the tower itself.

The people here could only speculate about what was happening, but I knew both their abilities and understood the situation more clearly.

Then I sighed.

"Hilde, did you finally go through with it?"

It seemed Hilde had brought a script that existed only in imagination into reality.

It was natural for Hilde to be suspicious. The regressor had monopolized more than ten fortuitous encounters by a conservative estimate. That was enough to make anyone think the regressor was part of the Holy Sword Corps, or perhaps a Holy Maiden. Hilde, a former member of the Holy Sword Corps, had even more reason to suspect it. She had only held back because there was a chance the regressor could become an ally.

Or was that wrong? Perhaps Hilde had been waiting for the perfect timing all along.

Still, Tyr and the regressor had been getting along so well until yesterday. I thought the worst that could happen was that they'd part on bad terms...

Well, neither of them was normal. No disaster would have been surprising.

Still, it was a shame. If those two fought now, who was supposed to help me?

Just as I sighed inwardly...

"Found him! That's the person!"

"You there! Please cooperate!"

The Thunder Guardians who had been organizing the situation spotted me. Claudia's elite troops had been waiting on the surface under the Thunder Lord's orders. They recognized me as someone clearly connected to this incident and approached.

Hmm. They didn't seem particularly hostile, but... I had just fought the Thunder Lord. If I got caught and had to face her again, that would be troublesome. I should hide and get out of here...

Someone grabbed my arm and shouted.

"He's a spy! He came out of the ground!"

"Why would you believe that nonsense?!"

Damn it. What an innocent person. A spy wouldn't openly announce that he was a spy! With no time to explain, I shoved the person away and ran.

"Wait! Stop right there!"

The Thunder Guardians pushed through the crowd after me, but there were so many people that they couldn't easily reach me. I found openings through mind reading, shoved distracted people aside, and slipped through. The Thunder Guardians were painfully slow compared to me because they couldn't use force freely.

I decided to keep going until I reached the outskirts.

Then someone other than the Thunder Guardians spotted me and gave chase.

"...Wait..."

The sound of ragged breathing stopped me. I was about to shake the person off when I recognized the owner of that voice and changed my attitude.

"Oh, Perru! I found you!"

"...What did you do? The Lightning Rod Tower..."

So Perru hadn't gone up the Lightning Rod Tower. Poor health must have kept them waiting on the surface like the other Thunder Guardians.

More importantly, why was Perru blaming me for the tower tilting? I didn't have enough strength to shake it even a speck, let alone tilt it! In this situation, I was the most innocent person here!

"It's unfair that everyone keeps suspecting me, but this is when we need your power, Perru. Fix it before the Lightning Rod Tower collapses completely!"

"...I'm doing that."

Perru took deep breaths and pulled out a bell. Imagining the Lightning Rod Tower as it had stood in all its grandeur, they rang the Golden Mirror's bell.

The Golden Mirror's authority answered Perru's call. The bell's sound spread, quiet but clear. As if steel had heard it, the broken portions filled in and the bent sections straightened. The Golden Mirror's authority was truly incredible. Starting from the lower sections that bore the load, it reversed the alchemy and restored the Lightning Rod Tower.

"That really is absurdly overpowered! Good job! Oh, and hide me while you're at it!"

"...From whom?"

There was no need to explain. The Thunder Guardians had pushed through the crowd and were charging straight toward me.

"Stop right there!"

Tch. I was weak against numbers. Could I talk my way out of this?

That was when thunder and lightning roared from the upper part of the Lightning Rod Tower. As people screamed and ducked their heads, a mass of darkness shot from the top of the tower.

Tyrkanzyaka, wrapped in darkness, and the regressor caught it. Even while freely falling from dozens of meters in the air, they exchanged attacks as if it were no problem at all.

Tyr swung an arm wrapped in darkness. From this far away, I couldn't see it clearly, but I could feel the power contained within it. Power that could split the world itself lashed out in wild fury.

The regressor swung Jizan to meet it. The arm that struck Jizan twisted grotesquely, then snapped back. Her body couldn't endure that overwhelming force and broke apart.

But Tyr was the Progenitor of vampires. A shattered body was an everyday occurrence. She returned to normal as if nothing had happened. Broken bones and spilled blood, all of it returned.

The regressor, who had completely blocked the attack, was sent flying by the pressure and surging darkness. Even though Jizan blocked without recoil, the aftermath alone easily flung a person away.

Immediately after that brief clash, both bodies flew in opposite directions. The regressor's body crashed far away. Something broke with a loud crack.

A moment later, Tyr, with nowhere to step, fell headfirst to the ground.

Sighs and screams rose from the crowd, but they soon turned into shocked gasps. Tyr got up without even a scratch and spoke.

"Come out. You won't die from something so trivial, will you?"

"Whew. Right. I forgot. I didn't need to hold back because I was worried you might die."

Right after the voice rang out, debris shot up from where the regressor had fallen. The regressor cleared all the wreckage away with Jizan, gritted her teeth, and stepped before Tyr.

Only then did the spectators realize that this entire mess had been caused by a fight between two people.

Footnotes:

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