WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 560: The One Who Foresees, the One Who Watches

──────

In the dim night, a cluster of lights shimmered atop a towering tree. Tens of thousands of fireflies had gathered to form that strange glow. It was hard to make out from afar, but it had taken the shape of a girl.

Black hair as smooth as a carpet. Gently closed eyes. Softly curved lips. The lights formed a beauty no sculpture could capture. The form of Maiél, the Holy Maiden of Heaven, descended upon this land in light and pointed the way.

[Look, Shei. The King of Humanity.]

Beside her, Shei stood atop the tallest tree and watched the immortal village.

It was an immense distance. So far away that, without her seven-colored eyes, even people would have looked like heat haze. Yet Shei, the regressor, watched every part of the disaster unfolding in the immortal village with her far-seeing eyes.

[He is a destroyer of order. He denies civilization and history, and sees humans only as pure humans. Where they were born, what they learned, the history they have lived through, none of it has meaning to him. Because he is the king of pure “humans,” separated from all those things. Because he represents the “humans” now walking this land.]

Shei could not bring herself to answer. What he was showing her was far too unfamiliar.

She had known he possessed an immortal body, but this was the first time she had seen him fight with it. His way of fighting was brutally violent.

Trusting in his immortality, he threw his body around like a tool. Broken arms and flowing blood were tools to him now. He broke his own body to strike their heads, drove skewers into them, then spilled his blood to cripple them.

A vampire's blood was a curse. It could not kill immortals by itself, but he targeted only their “divine bodies.” An immortal's divine body was the link connecting them to the Offering God. By staining that link with a curse and severing it, he was rapidly whittling down the immortals' strength.

A fight between immortals was a battle of attrition. Since their bodies regenerated anyway, victory depended on weakening the other side. Rather than concentrating power for a single moment, they had to keep making favorable exchanges.

And he fought more violently than anyone.

[He affirms everything. He does not care what means or methods he uses. He twists rules, goes around promises, finds gaps in order and slips through them. There are no taboos for him. The only thing that matters is whether something can be done.]

The immortals charged to overwhelm him with numbers. They would not die even if cut by blades, and they attacked fiercely and without hesitation. A storm strong enough to tear a person to shreds descended upon him.

Yet instead of dodging, Hughes leaped into the gap between three of them. An elbow smashed into his head, and sharply extended claws pierced his abdomen.

Even as his whole body was being slashed apart, his hands moved busily. He scraped an elbow with his skewer, then grabbed the blood flowing from his stomach and flung it at them. The Demon God's power exerted overwhelming control only over his own blood. The immortals drenched in blood containing the Progenitor's blessing gradually slowed.

The Demon God's power touched the rules of the world. So long as it accorded with those principles, it provided limitless, unconditional strength. The immortals were horrified by another form of immortality whose power did not diminish.

[If every human were good, it might be fine. But some humans are evil, some are cowardly, and some are indifferent. There are countless people in this world who hurt others, deceive them, and do not care what becomes of them. If they are left alone, evil spreads like a stain, darkening everything around it.]

It was an endless brawl, an exchange of powers that cursed one another. Hughes, only a single person, was clearly weaker than the hardy immortals.

But as the fight dragged on, Hughes gradually gained the advantage.

[He is the King of Humanity. An ancient evil that has existed since long ago, one that gave free rein to humanity's sins. Shei. He is... still such a dangerous being, even now, weakened after being cast out by humans.]

Only then did Shei realize what ancient evil the Holy Maiden of Heaven had told her to defeat.

The King of Humanity. A being that awakened the wicked instincts in human hearts. An ancient evil far more dangerous than the past demon that had died and become the Offering God.

The Holy Maiden of Heaven, who had foreseen all this, showed Shei the scene she had seen.

To Shei, her last hope and first despair.

[Will you still protect the King of Humanity after seeing this?]

Shei silently watched the ancient evil.

* * *

Tyr's Demon God promised an immortal body only to me. Like a vampire's, my blood was bound by powerful control. I deliberately let it flow out and invade the immortals' bodies.

I did not have enough blood to soak immortals through the way Tyr did, so I only injected it through my skewer into the parts of their bodies offered to the Offering God. It was enough blood loss to kill someone through exsanguination, but a Demon God could endure this much.

"Why are you all dragging your feet?! The Offering God wants a sacrifice!"

One immortal came at me with a dagger. I quickly read his thoughts. The part he had offered was his right buttock. Hard to target.

"Ah, I really don't want to go after a man's butt."

With that pointless remark, I reached out and blocked the dagger. The sharp blade tore through my palm and burst out through the back of my hand. Pain ran along the nerves in my arm.

Turning my precious hand into a sheath was a risky move I would never have attempted without regeneration. I clenched the dagger in my grip and tightened my hand. My muscles contracted and trapped the blade. Then I yanked his arm hard and kicked his ankle.

The immortal lost his balance and slipped. At the same time, I turned the dagger into a card and pulled my hand free, easily taking his back. My skewer plunged into his defenseless buttock.

My hand had been torn apart, while his butt had been stabbed. By any normal measure, it should have been an overwhelmingly bad trade for me. But fights between immortals were different.

While my hand healed on its own, a black mark of the curse gradually spread across his buttock.

"How...! My Offering God...!"

"Don't complain too much. I'm uncomfortable too."

I shook the blood from my hand and looked around as the pain gradually faded. Countless immortals surrounded me, hesitating.

Their immortal fighting spirit had already vanished. No matter how much they punched me or tore open my flesh, I regenerated almost immediately. Meanwhile, I was slowly eating away at their bodies with bloodcraft.

Amazingly, the immortals were now feeling the same helplessness they experienced only when facing another immortal.

"What's wrong? You're immortals. Since you can't die, weren't you supposed to fight without fear?"

They did not rise to the provocation. They were scared.

They had always held the advantage thanks to their inability to die, but visible wounds made them hesitate. They were not dying yet, but their steadily slowing regeneration filled them with instinctive fear.

The fear of an ending they had never felt since becoming immortals. The fear that they might truly die if this continued.

Honestly, if they had all rushed me from the start and torn my body apart, I would have been helpless. They lacked tenacity. Pretending to be relaxed, I said,

"This level of strength is common beyond the steppe. Have you just been playing king of the hill with Piu all this time? I'm an enemy the Offering God personally ordered you to kill. You shouldn't come at me with halfhearted resolve."

"Ahem! You've got quite the mouth on you!"

A tall immortal, a full head taller than the others, emerged through the crowd. The elderly immortal had loosely unbound white hair and torn sleeves fluttering around her. Clicking her tongue, she displayed her sturdy muscles.

The immortals looked at her in relief.

"Left Arm! Where have you been until now?"

"I was hanging back. I didn't like attacking someone we treated as a guest until yesterday. Once we receive someone, we should look after them until they leave. That is tradition."

Her bronze body looked as though it had been trained without rest. Her left arm, especially, stood out where her sleeve had been torn away. She was Left Arm, an elder who contended for first or second place in martial strength within this immortal village, and the immortals' matriarch.

The immortals called to her again, relieved but urgent.

"This isn't the time for that! The Offering God gave the order personally!"

"I'm not deaf yet. Stop screeching."

She dug at her ear as if annoyed, then stepped forward with the same sour expression.

"Isn't that why I left it to you? If you dealt with an intruder rather than a guest, I could sleep a little easier. Tch. But I ended up getting dragged into this too."

Grumbling as she dusted her hands off, she suddenly picked up a nearby log and threw it at me. The huge log instantly filled my vision. There was no blocking or avoiding that. It struck me head-on, and I rolled far away in a crumpled heap.

"But now that it has come to this, I can't let this old body rest! That's enough of your rampage! Get up, young man!"

Tch. She wouldn't even let her guard down.

I pushed away the log, now thick with leaves, and rose. I had grown branches and leaves with druidism, so the impact was not too severe. Just because I could regenerate didn't mean I had to take every hit.

"Seriously. The whole village is coming after me because of one word from the Offering God. Are you sure that's all right?"

"The Offering God commanded it! But that doesn't matter anymore! If we can't catch one little rat that has torn through our village, how will we protect our traditions and our children!"

Left Arm tightly wrapped leather around her left arm, seemingly pulled from nowhere. When she tensed it, the left arm she had offered to the Offering God compressed and hardened like rock.

"We were born warriors! I will fight you with a warrior's pride at stake!"

* * *

"Mm-hm. Maiél. I understand what you're trying to say. But..."

Shei, who had been watching the fight, finally spoke. The Holy Maiden of Heaven slightly turned her gaze and listened.

"I don't think Hughes is as bad a person as you say."

The Holy Maiden of Heaven saw the future. Even this situation, where the King of Humanity fought the civilization of barbarians, was one strand of a future she had already “seen.” Nothing could surprise her, because it was within prophecy.

But she could not see the future of another Holy Maiden. That was why every one of Shei's doubts lay beyond prophecy.

The Holy Maiden of Heaven herself had been a girl chosen by the First Holy Maiden long ago. No matter how powerful she was, she had limits. Maiél considered Shei's words before answering.

[Shei. I am not trying to judge whether he is good or evil. I am showing you his nature. Without respect for what has been built, people will keep clashing. If he wins and destroys order, only a wilderness ruled by the strong preying on the weak will remain in its place. That alone can be called evil.]

"Mm-hm. That's true, but... It's not like Hughes was trying to break every rule and order he saw. He did rake at people's insides pretty hard, though."

Shei was one of the most unpredictable people Maiél had ever encountered.

"And there was something about the immortal village that made me a little uncomfortable. Hughes probably wanted to mock that."

[What was it?]

"It's hard to say exactly. They seemed kind of smug, I guess. It felt less like they were eager to help and more like they were eager to look down on people. It left a faintly unpleasant feeling."

She was guided by her feelings. Separate from the friendship she had formed with the King of Humanity, she sided with him because something about the immortal village had irritated her.

Shei was simple. That made her all the harder to understand. Maiél let out a quiet sigh as she looked at the girl who would become the future's wedge.

[The immortals are the only village on this land with a stable system. Even when the World Tree burned and the Queen died, this village survived. Their order may have arisen from evil, but it supported one part of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand. Do you still think the immortal village should be swept by bloodshed?]

"Huh? I don't think it'll go as far as bloodshed. Would Hughes really try to kill all those people?"

[Yes. He accepted their challenge. He will defeat those who staked their lives to protect their meager pride, primitive faith, and barbaric traditions. Then he will kill those who fought prepared to die, leaving alive only those who cowardly wish to live.]

"Is that the future you saw?"

[It is a future that has already come to pass.]

The future the Holy Maiden of Heaven saw was nearly absolute. Unless Shei personally stepped in and twisted it, it generally came true exactly as seen. Shei knew that from experience, yet she still had doubts.

"That's strange. I don't think he would do that."

Many people could not believe something until they saw it. Maiél decided to show her the truth.

[Watch, Shei. Watch what he has done.]

Footnotes:

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