WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 393

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Lightning Did Not Fall from the Sky - Conclusion

Phew. My mind came back. That one took a while. When you know the truth but force yourself to look away, it makes for a messier knot to untangle. If I hadn't kept watch all that time, who knows what would have happened.

No, wait. This too was a seed I planted. Today my own life stands as proof of why a person should spend their days storing up good deeds. Right, then. Time to get up, slowly..."...Who are you?"

A cold voice, the kind that bores straight through to bone, cut short my attempt to rise. I stayed flat where I was as Tyr walked toward me, slow and deliberate.

"Not content with trying to harm me, you would break everything I love? You would try to cut me loose from the world that way again? Who dares."

In Tyr's eyes, the picture I made was wretched. The back of my shirt, torn open. Beneath it, wounds that had closed in a hurry. Blood marking the ground in every direction. The Progenitor's righteous fury felt ready to shake the earth itself, and getting up to break the mood seemed like too heavy a lift. She had come out of worry for me, after all. Looking perfectly fine would have been awkward.

Oh, wait.

Was I actually fine? Something hurt.

Tyr's arrival was like night coming on. Dark and still, the way night is. With her appearance the Cloud Waterfall turned black and the din of battle settled. The three Elders who had been carrying out a massacre on their own all stopped at once and turned toward her like sunflowers.

Just before an overwhelmed Elder could move toward her, the regressor called out in a sharp voice.

"Tyrkanzyaka! Watch out. Hilde stabbed Hughes!"

...?

What? Out of nowhere?

Well, I suppose it wasn't an unreasonable conclusion. Right now the person standing nearest to me while holding a sword was Hilde. Even so, the specific accusation came out of nowhere. Why that particular misreading?

State something too flatly and everyone starts wondering whether it might be true. Hilde, rattled by the sight of Tyr bearing down on her, tried to clear her name.

"No no, that couldn't be, could it? 'I' would stab Father? It was the Thunder Lord who stabbed him!"

"What? Why would Elkid stab Hughes?"

"Didn't I mention? She's Holy Sword Corps."

Just then, Valdamir released the Thunder Lord. The regressor's warning that Tyrkanzyaka was coming had proven true, and Valdamir had let her go rather than do anything rash. He could afford to, he was confident he could seize her again any time he chose.

That gave the regressor a chance to look at the Thunder Lord again. She was gathering herself, lightning wings spreading and settling. She looked uncannily like an angel.

Anyone with sincere enough faith can become Holy Sword Corps. Those with unusual abilities like the Thunder Lord, people who have no one to lean on, tend to fall into faith more easily. Maybe the Thunder Lord's warmth toward the regressor from the very start had been natural. She may not have been conscious of it, but the regressor seemed likely to be connected to the Holy Maiden somehow.

"That's not a reason to stab Hughes. So Elkid is Holy Sword Corps, fine, but why would that make her stab him?"

The regressor still didn't have the last piece. Having seen the future firsthand, she had overlooked it. One piece of information I had deliberately kept hidden.

"Because Father is the King of Humanity. The very thing the Sanctum and the Holy Maidens despise as the last remnant of savagery."

"...What?"

Ah. Found out at last.

Honestly, it's a wonder I kept it hidden this long. I had been careful not to even think about it whenever the regressor was nearby.

The regressor is forcing herself to hold the two apart in her head, but the King of Sin is plainly the King of Humanity. And the regressor is trying to stop the King of Sin. Which means the regressor's target is me.

If it ever came out that I was the King of Humanity, I would acquire a pursuer who is dogged, formidable, and willing to cross time itself to track me down. That is not especially good news for me. So I had been careful to hide it from the regressor in particular, but,

There was no hiding it anymore, not here. Great. One more reason not to get up. I kept lying where I was and pretended to be unconscious, doing my best to ignore the regressor's eyes on me.

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would she, No! Even granting all that, why betray us?!"

"A little thought and it's obvious. Here, let me explain it so even a dim bulb like Shei can follow along."

Tyr knelt beside me. Hilde stepped toward the regressor in turn and began folding down her fingers, the way you might when explaining something to a small child who needs it laid out piece by piece.

"What 'I' wanted was something like what you wanted. We didn't need to bare our souls to each other and cooperate fully. You'd do what you had to do, 'I' would pursue the military state's interests, and the parts we couldn't see we'd leave in the dark. You owed me a debt, so a working relationship at that level would have been fine. Except."

The one who had betrayed was Hilde, plainly. She had driven a wedge between the regressor and Tyr. When she realized that Claudia had some connection to the Holy Sword Corps, she had sent for the vampires. Having already broken with the Sanctum once, Hilde probably found vampires a more appealing set of allies. She had turned on the regressor for her own sake and for the military state's.

But was the betrayal entirely Hilde's?

"You could never be 'my' strength. The military state was never in your heart. So, you use what you can and discard the rest. If I can offer you as tribute to the Fog Duchy and gain their cooperation, it's a profitable trade, selling off a tumor that was hanging off 'me' for good money."

Hilde had been the military state's from the beginning, and she remained so now. The reason she had followed all the way to the Lesser States was to gather intelligence and steer things to benefit the military state. If Hilde had any real attachment to anything, it was the military state and the Holy Maiden Yuel. Everything else she treated as disposable.

"That's all it took?"

"That's all it took, she says? Shei. We can't trust each other. Not just 'me', everyone here. Trust is something that can flip at any moment on a feeling. The most hollow thing there is. Whether it's a Holy Maiden or a prophecy, can you really take that at face value? They're the ones who know better than anyone how to use belief."

While Hilde held the regressor at bay, Tyr had settled my head in her lap and was drawing her pale fingers slowly across my face. Her expression was heavy with worry and grief.

Alright, I supposed it couldn't be helped. Whether I could sort all of this out was anyone's guess, but lying here longer would only make things worse. Time to get up and do some work.

"...Hyu."

Someone watching would think a person had died. I'm just sleeping for a moment, no need to make a fuss.

That was what I tried to say, but no sound came out. My eyes were still closed, and Tyr was looking down at me. I knew because I was seeing it through her eyes.

Wait. The words didn't come out?

Damn. Run through and left alone too long, maybe. My mind was working but my body wasn't moving. Could it be that the sword hadn't merely stabbed me?

What was stranger still was that I had any awareness at all. If this wasn't some trick of staying conscious while unconscious, then this must be the Demon God power I had just found. The Demon God power was maintaining my consciousness independently of my body.

Whether that was a good thing, I honestly wasn't sure.

"...Lungken. Cabilah. Valdamir. This is an order."

Tyr said it quietly. The voice was small enough to die within a few steps, yet the Elders reacted with fierce intensity.

"HAAAAAH!!"

"Yes, unni! Just say the word!"

"Command me. I will obey."

The three Elders struck their own chests hard, clasped their hands tight together, bowed deep at the waist, each in their own way pouring out every measure of reverence they possessed. The Elders waited for the Progenitor's order. It didn't take long. Tyr gave the command, cold and without mercy.

"They are the Celestial God's refuse. Clear them away. Leave not a drop of blood behind."

"Understood!"

"Of course! I'll, I'll kill every last one!"

"...Your will."

The Elders did not hesitate for a single moment. They moved at once to carry out the Progenitor's order. If there had been any trace of pleasure in what they were doing before, now it was purpose and duty. By whatever means necessary, they would destroy every last mark this place bore of the Celestial God.

The regressor saw it coming and cried out.

"Tyrkanzyaka!! Stop!"

'Wrapped in Tyrkanzyaka's darkness, the Elders can slaughter without any restriction even in daylight. Claudia will be destroyed! And more than anything, the one who's most dangerous right now is...!'

Her gaze went to Valdamir without her meaning it to.

Crimson Duke Valdamir. He had been watching events unfold until now, but with the Progenitor's order given, he would become a killing machine more powerful and efficient than any other Elder and cut down everyone in reach. Reckless Lungken and savage Cabilah were horrible enough in their own right, but Valdamir was in a different class entirely.

Why had humanity become the dominant species on the earth? How had they subdued powerful beasts, outlasted plague and corrosion, and multiplied? Valdamir was a living demonstration of the answer. The Progenitor's first blade, one who understood immense power completely and wielded it with precision to see any end accomplished.

A blade is neither heavy nor wicked. It is simply sharp. Valdamir was simply sharp, and for that reason dangerous.

He had to be stopped. Difficult as it was, the only one in this space who could stop Valdamir was the regressor. She turned toward him as he slowly brought his greatsword down.

'I might die, but there's no choice! No one here can stop Valdamir...!'

"Shei. 'I' am talking to you. Please pay attention to 'me.'"

A blade of light drove in deep, sudden and without warning. There was no tell, but Heavenly Mirror reacted first. The regressor bent backward to dodge and moved to counter on reflex, and in that instant Hilde pressed in close. She set her wrist against the regressor's and drove the holy sword held in a reverse grip across her in a flurry of cuts. The blade became streaks of light that slashed across her arms and torso dozens of times. Light flashed, sparks flew.

Skywarbler and the holy sword clashed. The synergy between weightless Skywarbler and the regressor's Heavenly Mirror was remarkable, and she managed to deflect every blow Hilde landed at close range. The regressor caught her breath for a moment and swung Skywarbler with everything she had. Whether Hilde lived or died, she needed to finish this fast and get to Valdamir.

The invisible blade swung with force enough to cleave a mountain. Hilde tried to catch and redirect it with her short sword, but the shorter your weapon, the worse you fare against raw power. There is a reason martial practitioners prefer long-handled weapons even when they have energy at their command.

Then the holy sword changed shape. Hilde's holy sword, no more than a short blade, lengthened from hilt to edge. In a single bright instant of faith the blade went from short sword to longsword and caught Skywarbler with ease.

"The holy sword... changed?!"

The blade of light bent and bled off the impact. Far too polished for something improvised. Across every regression she had lived through, the regressor had never seen anything like it and was shaken to her core.

A holy sword is a blade forged from the faith a person holds in their heart. Only those whose faith in the Celestial God runs deep and firm can draw one, which is why they are called Holy Sword Corps. The brilliant holy sword each of them carries within shines with divine authority and cuts down evil.

That is why a holy sword can always be drawn, and will not break so long as faith holds. It should have been exactly that.

"I told you. 'Faith' is something that can change this easily."

Hilde's holy sword was a longsword, and a short sword, and a scythe, and a spear. With every role she played, the power that faith granted changed its shape as well. Faith is not eternal. It is a profoundly subjective thing, and even power bestowed directly by the Celestial God cannot tell the difference when the performance is complete enough. If the shape changes, can you call it false faith, faith the Celestial God has endorsed? Perhaps every role Hilde performs is, in its own way, genuine.

Or perhaps faith in humans had been an illusion from the very beginning.

Two holy swords moved in ever-shifting patterns and drove the regressor back. The Six Generals' Hilde returned the favor of the regressor's plan to buy time in full.

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