WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 603: A Wildfire Also Starts from a Small Spark - 6

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The First Holy Maiden told me that a universal order was necessary, and that it would never change. She appealed to me with such earnestness, as if she were trying to persuade me.

I thought she said it because I was the King of Humanity. I thought it came from a desire for recognition, from wanting to boast of her achievements...

But that did not seem to be the case.

"You want me to become your standard. To give you guidance on how you should act from now on."

"Yes! That's it!"

"What happens to me if I become your standard?"

"Um... I'll have to think about that for a bit..."

Sis clutched her head and groaned. Then, as if she had suddenly come up with a good idea, she spoke.

"Do you want to come inside me?"

"No, I don't."

She was asking me to abandon my body and enter her mindscape, wasn't she? That was practically dying. Why would I do that?

"It isn't dying! You'd be able to experience everything I see, hear, and feel!"

"Living with you at my age would be a little much. Besides, it'd be cramped."

"It isn't cramped! People often tell me I'm broad-minded!"

"I like walking with my own legs and seeing with my own eyes. It'd feel suffocating to only see what someone else chose to show me."

"Urgh."

Sis trailed off, then made a more cautious suggestion.

"Then... would you stand by my side? You'll still be free to move around on your own feet, but I might risk losing you."

"Do we have to stay together?"

"Of course. You're my standard. Even if you don't use a compass often, you should always carry it with you. I need to carry you too!"

"A life bound to you. That sounds like hell for a little brother."

"Hell doesn't cater to your convenience. It doesn't cherish you or treat you preciously, and it doesn't make suggestions with such kind words. So comparing your sister to hell is wrong!"

Well, a demon from hell probably would not be a beautiful older sister who treated me to good meals and treated me kindly.

The second offer was a little tempting. It meant I could watch the world under her protection and offer advice from the sidelines. Wielding absolute power would be fun too.

"I don't want to."

Still, I did not want to. I flatly rejected her offer. Sis looked a little confused.

"You don't like this, you don't like that. You're really difficult to please."

"I'm the little brother. Try to understand my neediness."

"Try to understand that I don't understand you either. Let me ask you. Why don't you want it?"

Sis was right that I had taken sides. In the military state, I had sided with AB. In the Lesser States, Perru. In the duchy, Tyr.

But I had always left someone on the other side. Then I let their wishes clash.

"Because a game with a decided outcome isn't fun."

Sis asked, surprised.

"A game? You play those?"

"They're fun. You should try one too."

"But you said games with decided outcomes aren't fun. You can read minds, can't you?"

Well, I did have a much greater advantage than most people. That did not mean the outcome was decided.

"Sis, do you know how I won so many games?"

"You want me to ask, so I'll ask. How did you win?"

"Because I played that many games."

If I won every time, no one would play against me. I had to lose now and then. Losing was not that difficult, either.

"Sometimes a flipped card smiles on the other player, and sometimes a sudden whim changes the whole game. You might get a hand you couldn't win with even if you came back from the dead. Even I, who can read what my opponent is aiming for, have lost countless times. My win rate is probably around sixty percent."

"You're not especially good for someone who likes games so much."

"Sixty percent is plenty good. And it has to be that way for them to include me in the next game. Nobody even looks for someone who wins every time."

Sometimes I won, and sometimes I lost. Plenty of things did not go the way I wanted. Still, I could enjoy a win, brush off a loss, and enter the next game.

"I want everyone to sit at the table. It won't be fair, and the stakes won't be equal, but they have to face one another as opponents. I can't decide which wish is right and which is wrong. The game is what decides that."

What was right and what was wrong changed every time. Even my own judgment, despite being able to read minds, was wrong forty percent of the time. A sixty percent win rate could not become the answer.

I lost sometimes too. But losing did not mean I was wrong. It only meant my play had not suited that round.

So there was even less reason to decide on an answer that did not exist.

"We find the answer as we go. We keep doing it from now on. As long as there's an opponent, we have to keep competing."

That was why I would not side with order. I would not stand beside Sis and judge the world by my own standards.

I would just keep playing.

Sis looked at me with a little disappointment. It was like the look someone gave a little brother who would not listen. I was not actually anyone's little brother, and I had never had an older sister, but somehow, I felt like I understood how they felt.

"Is that the conclusion you reached?"

"Yes."

If she needed a standard, she should follow that standard. If this was the conclusion I had reached, then she should follow it too.

There was only one problem left.

"Then who will be my opponent?"

Sis was special.

Even among the Beast Kings, beings of concept, the King of Humanity who encompassed the continent and attained the seat of the Demon God was special. There was no way to judge her actions as right or wrong. Her actions would become law and truth.

Maybe that was why I existed.

"You're talking as if everything in the world will go your way. Does life look that easy to you? Hmph. Not a chance. I'll be your opponent."

We could not fight only battles we were guaranteed to win. Humans always had to clash their wishes together to find an answer.

Those were my words, and they applied to me too.

"...You? Weak, ordinary you?"

"I'll show you a thing or two. Come with me."

Because no one but me could be Sis's opponent. I took her hand and led her away.

* * *

Nevida's attacks were rough and powerful. After nearly dying five times, Shei barely escaped the Seed Chamber. With Skywarbler in hand, Shei flew into the sky, panting as she looked down at Nevida.

'Nevida is a Demon God, and she can use that power in battle. She's unbelievably strong, but... she isn't without weaknesses! Nevida lacks mobility!'

Trees put down roots and remain firmly in place. Nevida was no different. Her power came from the earth and trees, and she could not easily reach the empty sky.

That was why Shei had survived so many encounters with Nevida. If she protected herself with the Heaven-Reversing Boundary and fled into the sky, even Nevida had trouble pursuing her.

Nevida moved by riding the Tree of Origin. It was as if the Tree of Origin itself had seized her and pulled her upward. She was still incredibly fast, but she could not compare to someone flying through the sky. Having put enough distance between them, Shei thought.

'The druids should have infiltrated the Lords' Tier by now. I need to at least draw her attention. I can't guarantee they'll succeed, but if Nevida goes there, they'll definitely fail!'

Having made up her mind, Shei shouted at Nevida.

"Let's watch together. Let's see who becomes the next King of Humanity!"

"You won't be able to."

Though countless threats were already aimed at the Tree of Origin, Nevida ignored every one of them and stared directly at Shei, as though none of the other threats mattered as long as Shei was there.

"You've grown arrogant just because you're in the sky. How long do you think it will protect you?"

Nevida gripped the small World Tree in both hands and pressed it against the Tree of Origin. Roots burst from the cut surface of the small World Tree in an instant and dug deep into the Tree of Origin.

"The sky is empty and hollow by nature. It can only leave you alone and watch, never help you. That is why the Celestial God must be false and hollow by its very nature."

The small World Tree changed shape. Some parts grew while others withered and fell away. It was as if an invisible landscaper were pruning it. Shei watched with widened eyes.

'What is that? That shape...'

The small World Tree kept shifting unevenly...

It looked exactly like the Tree of Origin.

The moment Shei realized it, Nevida grabbed a branch of the small World Tree and moved it.

Then something unbelievable happened.

The Tree of Origin, as large as a mountain, did not move on a grand scale. To the people living on it, the branches seemed to sway in the wind. Yet those were only tiny branches that had grown after splitting from the Tree of Origin dozens of times. The thick trunk and the massive branches extending from it were too enormous to shake even in a storm.

That Tree of Origin...

Was moving.

A tremendous mass moved. The displaced air let out a deep roar. Leaves that could not keep up scattered like clumps of feathers, while branches that snapped under their own inertia filled the world with sounds fit for a lumberyard.

"Huh? The branches..."

"Aaaah!"

"Save me!"

Human screams scattered among them like fallen leaves.

The World Tree was impartial. It did not care about the safety of the bugs that lived by eating the leaves on its body.

It had simply moved.

The residents beneath the World Tree's shade would feel wronged. Trees did not move, after all. They might have worried about falling, but no one would have expected the tree itself to move and throw them off.

"Damn it...!"

Shei fled desperately. Because of its enormous size, the Tree of Origin looked as though it moved slowly. Yet the branches rushing toward her far exceeded the speed of sound.

One graze would kill her. Even if she evaded it, she would be swept up in the aftermath. Shei instinctively flew diagonally. Before her, as she fled while expelling compressed air, an arm hung with countless branches swung toward her.

It was an attack that destroyed all sense of perspective. It looked as though the world itself were attacking. Vortices hanging from the branches twisted space, and shockwaves tore at the world. At speeds beyond sound, even the wind became a massive whip aimed at Shei.

At the last moment, Shei exploded the wind beneath her feet.

"Urgh!"

The massive branch seemed to narrowly miss her, but then countless branches suddenly grew and flew at Shei. It was like the legions of hell reaching out to seize her. Shei cut them all down with sword strikes wreathed in wind.

"Gasp! Hah! Nevida, you crazy bitch...!"

But Shei could take no satisfaction in it. Countless people were flying through the air alongside the leaves before her eyes. Screams of all kinds rode the wind, then faded into the distance.

People lived on the branches of the World Tree. Those who survived on the blessings granted by the Tree of Origin had paid a price far too high.

There was neither a way nor time to save them. Shei was so busy watching people fall like leaves that she noticed Nevida's presence too late. Nevida had appeared beside her and made sharply cut bamboo stalks sprout toward her. Dozens of bamboo spears shot upward. Catching the attack with the Heaven-Reversing Boundary, Shei dodged and knocked aside the spears in rapid succession as she fell toward the ground.

"People live up there! Do you not care if they die?!"

"Ridiculous. Do you think I would so much as blink at the deaths of those who chose to live on a tree?"

"Not one or two. There are more than a few hundred of them! They're all going to die!"

Shei shouted, her emotions surging, but Nevida only looked at her calmly.

"Who blocked the waterways to weaken the tree's vital energy?"

Shei's eyes widened.

The ones who had blocked the waterways were the druids, including Nenyaph. The Sun Holy Maiden had probably helped as well. That was the only way to dry out the earth even further.

"Who gave up on confronting me and flew into the sky to stall for time?"

That was Shei. She had flown into the sky to buy time. Nevida had few ways to deal with her there. It had been a reasonable choice.

"Who insisted on making this place a battlefield? You came here, pulled every trick you could think of, and now you intend to use them as hostages?"

That had not been the plan. Still, they had failed to consider the safety of the World Tree's residents.

Shei could hardly be blamed for not expecting Nevida to move the Tree of Origin itself. But could she blame Nevida for it?

Nevida gave her answer as well.

"Then place the responsibility on me. I do not mind."

It was all wordplay anyway.

Nevida muttered and moved branches in pursuit of Shei. Shei clicked her tongue as she watched Nevida approach by riding the tree.

"Tch...!"

'I have to go higher. People live below! If I go up, she won't be able to use much power because she won't want to hurt the King of Humanity!'

The World Tree's residents mostly lived lower down. If Shei climbed higher, it would make more sense for Nevida to move the upper branches where no one lived. The people below would be safe.

That was the only choice Shei had left.

"I acknowledge that intention."

Being read by Nevida was terrible misfortune for Shei.

The Tree of Origin bent low. Countless branches that had grown thick enough to cover the sky fell toward Shei all at once.

Hanging from them were flesh fruits bearing beasts.

To Shei, it was like countless battering rams falling from above. Her Seven-Colored Eyes caught them all, and she avoided them with the smallest possible movements. But a greater problem followed.

The Tree of Origin itself fell toward Shei. A branch of the World Tree, wrapped in storm winds and thunderous noise as it fell toward one human, was a disaster with malicious intent.

It was too large to evade or block. Shei raised Skywarbler. To stop it, she had no choice but to cut it apart!

"Heavenly Sword Technique! Dragon-Slaying Slash...!"

Spinning through the air, Shei enlarged Skywarbler and unleashed a massive slash.

But there was nowhere for her to stand. Jizan, which could have served as Skywarbler's support, was not there now. Skywarbler's slash was immense and powerful, but compared to the Tree of Origin, it was no more than an ant before an elephant.

The slash left a huge wound on the branch, but the branch swept Shei away regardless.

"Aaah...!"

A dizzying impact shook her entire body. It was a blow powerful enough to make her lose consciousness. Shei's body plunged toward the ground like a stake.

Feeling as though her whole body had been shattered, Shei clenched her teeth. She could not let her guard down because it hurt. Her opponent was Nevida, the absolute ruler of this world. Even the brief moment of writhing in pain was a luxury.

'No... I have to... stay conscious...!'

"That is enough. It ends now."

The difference in strength was clear. No matter how much she encouraged herself, struggled, and tried, she could not close it.

Nevida lightly pulled back a branch of the small World Tree. In response, a branch of the Tree of Origin bent back with a creaking sound.

How much tension lay hidden within it? How much enormous force slept there?

And what would happen once that force was released?

Nevida let go of the branch.

"...Ah."

Even the Heaven-Reversing Boundary did not react. There was no need for it to react. How could she possibly respond to a World Tree branch chasing her at speeds beyond sound?

Shei's shell shattered.

It was a force too cruel for a single human to endure. Even the Heaven-Reversing Boundary, which had saved Shei's life countless times, could not save her.

The Heaven-Reversing Boundary was an energy technique engraved into her body. It moved her body unconsciously, circulated her energy, and reacted to attacks.

It even controlled her thoughts through her unconscious mind.

Yet before the immense calamity that was a Demon God, the Heaven-Reversing Boundary failed in its duty and fell silent.

Shei's consciousness sank deeper.

Along with her body.

Footnotes:

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