WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 564

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The Ash-Covered Sin and the Skin-Stitched God - 4

For a fallen nation, the Kingdom of Ten Thousand has a surprisingly good reputation among its people. Part of that was simply because it had been a good country, but another part was surely how brutally hard this land was to live in.

A distant land, cut off beyond the Enger Plain. Deep in the endless jungle spreading across the southeastern continent stood the World Tree. King of trees, pillar holding up the world, the first creation of Mother Earth. A blessed ginkgo that stood as a counterpart to the metasequoia of the northwestern continent, towering there in solitary grandeur.

An isolated jungle. On this ancient land where outside help and contact were all but impossible, the Warrior built a nation. Every tribe of the land was gathered under one banner, power spread wide, and a brilliant civilization rose, one no one else could hope to imitate.

No flower blooms for ten days, though. That civilization, so beautiful and brilliant, faded just as swiftly as it had appeared. And with it fell the World Tree that had stood watch through untold ages.

Why did the World Tree burn and fall? How did the Kingdom of Ten Thousand come to ruin? Why has the Warrior never returned? In this land cut off by trees as tall as city walls, no clear truth was ever passed down.

But one thing, and one thing only, had been left behind without question. Right where the World Tree burned and fell, a new tree had grown by consuming the ashes.

The cursed World Tree they call the Tree of Corruption.

And the being that rules over that Tree of Corruption is...

"A harbinger of disaster?"

Rashy had only now recognized Nevida of the antlers-a figure handed down like legend. He was shaken. Before his bewilderment could translate into action, Callis grabbed him from behind and held on tight.

"Rashy! Stop!"

"What?"

"You have to stay still. Don't draw attention. Stand like part of the scenery and don't catch her eye!"

Callis clung to him desperately. Feeling the slight tremor in her hands, Rashy read her fear and pressed his lips together, following her lead.

This was the strange being who had turned a patron deity into a tree in a single breath. Even Rashy, immortal as he was, couldn't guarantee his own life here. He held his breath and kept still.

A situation where help was already hard to come by, and now something far more dangerous than any patron deity had arrived. What was she thinking?

I tried to read Nevida's thoughts, but what I felt was a stillness closer to something inanimate. I could catch whatever rose directly to her surface at any given moment, but reading Nevida as a person was still as difficult as ever.

It wasn't exactly resistance to mind reading. More that Nevida, like Tyrkanzyaka's shadow, had become something that had left the human behind.

If I wanted to know what she was thinking, I'd have to ask. Whether she'd actually answer was another question.

"Excuse me, Nevida? I have something to ask."

"Please, speak freely, my lord."

"What is this 'preparation' you mentioned? I haven't heard anything about it."

"It is preparation to restore your power, my lord."

Fortunately, Nevida's loyalty toward me was at least somewhat genuine. She bowed her head low and answered faithfully.

"You are the undeniable King of Humanity, the Speaker and executor for all humankind. You ought to reign over this world in person."

Nevida's gaze flickered briefly to one side. For an instant, a figure made of light appeared at the far edge of her field of vision. Before I could even make out its shape, Nevida pulled her eyes back and continued.

"Through the curse of the wanton woman, you lost your power and vanished. While the throne sat empty, false kings dared to call themselves kings and claimed this world as their own. At this lamentable state of affairs, I have been making preparations to restore your power, my lord."

To give me power? To give it back? That was actually good news. I was about to ask if she was serious when I paused and fell into thought.

"So, once I get my power back, I just use it to drive out all the kings? Is that the idea?"

"If you recover your power, things will flow according to your will. What problem could there be? That would be the true shape of what humanity ought to be. Do as you see fit, my lord."

Honestly, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tempting. But a story where only I come out ahead is a story I tell, not one someone else tells me. If another person is offering to look after my interests, that's a con.

What to do. While I was mulling it over, Nevida slowly rose and spoke to me.

"My lord. I shall guide you there. Come and reign over this world as its king once more."

"It does sound like a wonderful offer. But I'm not so sure it's wise. Let me think a little more..."

"I shall serve you with all my heart, my lord."

Oh, right. That's how it is. Nevida has no intention of consulting my will. She's planning to take me along and restore my power whether I like it or not.

Well. If there's no avoiding it anyway, maybe receiving this power of hers wouldn't be the worst thing...

[I am where faith is. I have come to this place.]

"Ow! My eyes!"

Light flashed. It was so sudden I couldn't even blink in time. When my vision cleared, a girl's form had appeared, looking as though she had simply always been there.

Maiél, the Holy Maiden of Heaven who had led us here. She had gone a long while without answering the regressor's questions, and now she finally showed herself. Nevida looked at the halo of light as though she had been waiting for exactly this.

"After ridding this place of the wanton woman's children first, I see."

Maiél's form was not looking at anything in particular. She seemed to have neither Nevida nor me in mind. Her gaze drifted loose in the air as she murmured absently.

[Shei. I still hope you will make a different choice. It is not too late, even now. But if you will not.]

Maiél gently extended a hand. From within a flowing robe, a slender arm that looked too frail to lift a spoon reached toward Nevida.

That slow, delicate gesture was almost impossible to feel threatened by. It would have seemed harmless on a real person, and the blurred afterimage made of light looked so transient, as if it might dissolve at any moment.

[Until you wake, I will give you the same dream.]

But right after Maiél finished speaking.

Space warped.

Nevida and the ten meters around her. Everything in the world curved and poured inward. Wind, water, earth, broken undergrowth and branches. Clamorous sound, leaping insects. Even light itself. All of it compressed to crush the existence that was Nevida.

What kind of power this was, I couldn't intuitively grasp. It was as if the world itself were trying to expel her. A strange attack that offered no obvious way to resist.

A torrent of power that would have killed me ten times over already. And yet Nevida moved slowly through it, against everything the world threw at her.

She pushed back the wind that crushed at her body, endured the roar that shook her to the core, kept both feet planted and bore the pressure. Not even all things in the world could break someone who had endured such measureless time. Nevida stood firm like an ancient tree and fixed her gaze on Maiél.

"Insolent girl. You dare set foot on this land without even bringing your own body?"

The aftershocks alone looked capable of killing several people, yet Nevida didn't budge under all that pressure. No, she was adapting as her body changed around her. The flesh that had shuddered slightly soon steadied itself.

Rather than answer, Maiél looked up at the sky and murmured.

[Light. Sun. Father of Heaven, who looks down upon all things. Bear witness to this place.]

And the sky tore open.

There were no words for it. The forest, so dense the sky had been invisible, caught fire in an instant. Through leaves turning to ash in midair, white-hot shafts of light drove down like spears.

For a moment, the world went white. Every color that had filled this lush forest vanished, burned away, until the world was nothing but black and white.

[There is no place where light does not reach. I too am here with the light.]

Light. It was as if every blazing ray the summer sun at midday had ever poured down was gathered and unleashed at once. That light was pure force. Grass ignited in midair, and the ground dried out instantly. Space itself boiled, caught in a torrent of power unlike heat, pure and undiluted.

Inside that overwhelming brightness the world lost all color, split into only two things: light and shadow. I went momentarily blind and couldn't hold my ground. I turned my back to the light.

"Agh! What is this?!"

I knew the Celestial God was a deity born from the sky, but what kind of power was this?

The mere presence of that light was enough to set the air on fire and drive storms. I'd just gone blind. My regeneration brought my sight back, but that was just from the aftershocks alone. And Nevida's body was being broken apart by the light right now.

I hadn't even noticed, but I was already a considerable distance away. The two of them weren't paying any attention to me, yet their sheer presence had pushed me back.

This is the power the Holy Maiden of Heaven holds? The light scattering off the ground is nearly enough to blind me on its own? I had no way of knowing what was happening to Nevida. A space made of light blocked my view entirely. Turning my back and facing away was all I could do.

"Hughes!"

Then. The regressor came sprinting through the light. She was winded, as if forcing her way in had cost her something, and grabbed me and pulled urgently.

"Hughes, run! While Maiél's attention is elsewhere, we have to get away from Nevida! If you don't want to become the King of Sin!"

"What? Run? It looks like she's winning."

"Maybe on the Enger Plain, but not here! Just stripping away the future isn't enough to bring Nevida down! Hurry! There's no more time..."

Just then the regressor's expression hardened and she swung Skywarbler. Wooden tendrils that had been slowly creeping toward us tumbled away.

"Is that a Root Tree? She has enough to spare for this?"

"No? Those are just regular vines."

"...Tch!"

The regressor focused her energy into her eyes and brought out the third color of the Seven-Colored Eyes, the Azure Eye. Peering through the halo of light with those deep blue pupils that could see to the core of things, she caught sight of life stirring beyond the forest and flinched.

Trees were growing. At a visible pace.

That wasn't the druid's power. The druid's power rapidly burned through a tree's life force to push out branches and leaves. Spectacular to watch, but it drew on the life of trees and the earth, so it had limits. Even the greatest druid couldn't grow a tree from a single leaf.

But what was happening in front of us right now was pure growth. Light that should have been burning the world down, yet even bathed in it, the leaves were drinking it in and slowly growing. They drew in air and water, gathered and absorbed the light, and built themselves from it.

"I'm cutting through!"

The regressor drew Skywarbler and Jizan at the same time. She used Jizan as the scabbard, crammed Skywarbler inside, then drew it in a single motion. The compressed space took on her energy and traced a single line.

"Celestial Sword-Cudgel Style! Horizon Cleave!"

Cracks ran through the white light. A slash that cut even light split the space apart. The forest was cleaved into top and bottom, severed by a draw cut that briefly interrupted even flowing wind. Hundreds of trees fell at once, their few growth rings laid bare, and between the undergrowth toppling left and right, a single path opened up.

"Quickly! Before the green barrier completes...!"

The regressor was about to sprint forward when she stopped and twisted her body. In the exact space she had been heading toward, sharp thorns shot up. The branches, honed to a needle's edge, were fine enough to tear through skin as easily as cloth.

Despair crossed her face.

"Already too late...?"

The space she had cleaved through was already filling back in with grass and trees. As if to make certain nothing could slip out.

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