WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 610: Compress, Compress, Compress the Air

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The floating castle was still a castle by classification. Any castle needed means of defense against enemy attacks. Even an impregnable floating castle was no exception.

True to its name, the capital of the Arcane Federation possessed magical defenses. The five magic towers positioned at the points of a pentagram were aiming enough power to topple mountains at us.

But why were they aiming that power at us?

Lankart answered my question.

"I was modifying the scroll and ended up on a forbidden trajectory. Falling straight down from a trajectory far above the floating castle is prohibited."

"Hey, bastard. This is your fault!"

"Hm. Don't worry. I'm at least partly responsible, so I'll take care of it."

"You're saying the obvious like you're proud of it... More importantly, how are you going to take care of it?"

"Well."

Before Lankart could finish, the magic towers shone. Trails of light stretched out first, followed by torrents of force racing along them.

Flames, wind, lightning, steam, vibrations. Beams of mana infused with different elements shot toward us. The elongated blasts cut across the sky and struck at us.

Magic capable of changing the tide of battle on its own was called tactical-grade arcane. Magic capable of changing the course of an entire war on its own was called strategic-grade arcane. Each of the five beams fired by the magic towers possessed enough power to reshape the landscape by itself.

We could barely move in midair.

At that critical moment, Lankart raised his right hand.

"Right-Handed World."

Lankart's innate arcane replaced every straight line with a curve.

The five streams of light, each following a different path, veered away in every direction. They had not struck anything, nor had their course been deflected. As though that was the path they had truly been meant to take, they naturally curved around Lankart in different arcs and missed us.

Compared to the power behind them, it was an absurdly futile result.

Detecting that they had missed, the magic towers changed the direction of their beams. Like enormous swords of light sweeping through the sky, the beams curved wide and swept toward us.

Yet it made no difference. As if a transparent glass sphere surrounded Lankart, swords of light and beams alike curved around him as they passed.

"How trite. Things like that."

Lankart ignored the floating castle's defensive magic as he fell, as though it posed no obstacle at all.

"They only increased the force. There isn't anything original about it. It might be useful against idiots... but against people like you and me, people who overturn the rules themselves, it's useless."

"Why am I suddenly included in that? That looks plenty terrifying to me."

Lankart could call it trite because he possessed an innate arcane close to absolute defense. If it had been me, I would have been reduced to ashes. The attacks possessed not only physical force but magical properties as well. Even Shei at full strength would not have broken through as easily as Lankart had.

The lights gradually died down. Lankart muttered quietly.

"They've decided to stop wasting mana too. They're mages, after all. They have enough sense to stop doing pointless things."

Whether the floating castle had realized its defensive bombardment was useless or learned that Lankart was here, it stopped firing and dropped its defensive stance.

We fell straight toward the floating castle, which had finished preparing to receive us... Uh, wait.

"Wait. We're falling."

I couldn't feel our speed while suspended in midair, but our approach toward the floating castle was alarming. The distant floating castle filled my vision in an instant. Massive buildings that had been far away suddenly loomed right before us.

"We're going to hit!"

That was when it happened. Right before we reached the floating castle, a tremendous force quietly enveloped us without any impact. We should have shattered after falling at a speed comparable to a meteor, yet we landed lightly atop it as though stepping onto a mountain peak.

"This is... Reverse Gravity?"

"Equilibrium Gravity Field. A grand spell that applies different gravity according to velocity, causing people and air alike to converge upon the floating castle. That is how the floating castle keeps both air and people bound in this lofty sky."

"They have spells for everything."

"This is the Arcane Federation. It's the country that handles magic better than any other in the world. It's on an entirely different level from the military state. Even you, Hui, would need a year of study to learn all the magic here."

In any case, we landed safely on the floating castle thanks to it. A floating castle, a castle drifting through the heavens that I had only heard of in legends. It was certainly mysterious, but... a little different from what I had expected.

When I heard floating castle, I had imagined a castle literally floating in the sky, loftily drifting through the heavens as it looked down upon the world.

Yet the ground was so far below that nothing could be seen. All that was visible was the endless sky and clouds spread beneath us. It was far too distant from the ground to rule or govern anyone. It felt as though we lived in entirely different worlds.

"...More importantly, is it really all right to land like this?"

Shei, who had fallen after us, asked worriedly. Lankart replied.

"Do you feel any abnormality in gravity?"

"No. Not that. You know the lights from the magic towers that attacked us earlier."

"The floating castle's defensive magic? It's nothing. Products of convention cannot overcome my Right-Handed World."

"That's not the problem! The fact that they used defensive magic means they intend to exclude us! Even if we broke through the defensive magic, if the Federation Defense Force comes...!"

Ah, that pattern again. The pattern where Shei warned us of danger too late, and then it showed up. Feeling a sense of deja vu, I looked around and took a step back.

And just as expected, it came.

Step. Step. Step.

People in enormous cloaks began flying down from the magic towers like bats. Each held a jeweled staff, and they clung to the walls as they aimed their weapons at us. Hundreds of mana lights flashed, and amid them, a woman in a green dress approached with a sullen expression, leaning on an umbrella.

"Ugh. Lankart Spendry. It's you again?"

Five magic towers protected the floating castle. Only the strongest mage guarding each tower could become its master.

In other words, the Tower Master before us was one of the five strongest mages in the floating castle.

"Green Tower Master? Why are you here?"

"You're asking why? You, an investigator of the Federation?"

The Green Tower Master tapped the ground with her umbrella as she spoke.

"Landing on the floating castle from an altitude of the seventh zone or higher at an angle of incidence of forty-five degrees or greater is forbidden. We cannot distinguish you from meteor fragments falling from space. The magic towers cannot distinguish them either, so they fire their defensive magic."

No wonder the attack had seemed too powerful for firing at people. The magic towers' bombardment had been meant to intercept meteors. Did they see meteors often enough to need such defenses? That was fascinating in its own way.

"It doesn't matter. Defensive magic still follows the laws of the right hand."

"The fact that you're fine isn't the problem, Investigator. What about the mana wasted because of you? Five axions of mana is a loss your salary cannot cover."

Even facing one of the five Tower Masters of the floating castle, Lankart's attitude did not change. He spoke shamelessly and selfishly, as though he were the center of the world.

"You shouldn't have fired in the first place. It was useless."

Crack. A wrinkle formed between the Green Tower Master's brows. Her face twisted horribly as she pulled her green-brimmed hat down low.

"You... You got a powerful innate arcane through luck and now you're running wild without knowing your place."

"Luck? Is that something you should say, when you've enjoyed the benefits of innate arcane more than anyone?"

"You did get yours through luck, Lankart Spendry. You happened to obtain an innate arcane as a child, then ran wild as though you possessed the whole world. The fact that such power fell into your hands can only be called misfortune."

If I had to choose the most useless item on the floating castle, it would be an umbrella. Since the floating castle stood above the clouds, neither rain nor snow fell here. There would be no reason to stop someone from using one as a parasol, but... that was hard to understand too.

After all, the floating castle's residential district was below us, inside the floating castle.

That was why the Green Tower Master's umbrella was not an item with a practical purpose. It was closer to a weapon.

"I didn't get where I am by luck, but you did. I'll teach you some manners, brat!"

The Green Tower Master opened her umbrella. Sparkling gems hung from the pale green umbrella's leaf-like edges. The ribs crossing through the multicolored gems formed a magic circle of their own.

"Emerald Parasol, set."

Mana moved between the gems. Light filled dozens of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of umbrella ribs, forming a single geometric pattern.

This was the essence of white magic, which used gems as a medium.

The Green Tower Master aimed the umbrella bearing a magic circle at us and chanted.

"Pascal!"

The wind did not blow strongly on the floating castle. It was probably because some method held the thin air in place.

Yet a tremendous wind began raging behind the Green Tower Master's umbrella. There was nowhere to brace ourselves on the floating castle. If we weren't careful, we would be blown away and fall beneath it. I flattened myself against the ground and used Earth Qi Art to press my body down, while Shei absorbed the flow of wind with Skywarbler.

Having been attacked by a Tower Master the moment we arrived at the floating castle, Shei and I shouted urgently.

"What is this? Why are you suddenly attacking us?"

Lankart, who stood unharmed amid the raging storm with Right-Handed World, tilted his head.

"I'm not sure. Inferiority complex?"

"You think I feel inferior to the likes of you?! As if, brat!"

The Green Tower Master stuck her head out from behind her umbrella and exploded in anger.

"Lankart. She says it isn't that."

"Then there's no reason for her to throw a fit. Especially not by raising wind that won't even work."

Lankart muttered to himself as he seriously considered it. I felt like I understood why the Green Tower Master was angry. Mages might be absorbed in their own worlds, but Lankart's self-absorption was so extreme that even other mages found it revolting.

I needed to fix this bastard's personality someday. First, I needed to survive.

"It might not work on you, but it works on us! Do something!"

"There's no point."

"What?"

"I said there's no point. The Green Tower Master's innate arcane cannot be broken through with any means I possess. So there's no need to do anything."

Lankart answered shamelessly.

"I don't use pointless magic. Unlike the Green Tower Master."

"I was only going to teach you some manners...!"

And Lankart finally hit the Green Tower Master's switch.

Mages were all self-centered, differing only in degree. They needed the stubbornness to project their own mental image upon the world before they could awaken innate arcane.

The Green Tower Master was also one of the most powerful mages in the floating castle. That meant she was just as stubborn and self-centered.

Self-centered enough to attack an investigator of the Federation who had only just returned from a mission without the slightest hesitation.

"Arrogant to the end. Die."

At that final moment, the Green Tower Master, whose anger had passed its breaking point, spoke in a voice gone cold. Then the laws of the world changed.

Innate arcane, One-Way Street.

The Green Tower Master's innate arcane was simple.

It created an invisible, imaginary wall. That wall was a one-way street. It allowed things to go from this side to that side, but not from that side to this side.

A very simple yet powerful force that fixed the direction of a given space entirely to one side.

And the true power of One-Way Street was not displayed when it blocked something... but when it stopped blocking.

"Windbreak. Release."

The Green Tower Master's umbrella contained an imaginary sphere. Visible only within her mental image, that sphere was formed of one-way walls that allowed things to enter but did not allow them to leave.

The wind raised by white magic had unfortunately entered the sphere and become trapped by her innate arcane.

Wind was a current of countless gas particles. The particles that should have danced about freely became trapped beneath the umbrella of One-Way Street and gradually compressed. They piled up and piled up until the condensed wind was so dense that its form was plainly visible. It shone on its own as it reached its limit.

The force compressed simply by sustaining her innate arcane surpassed strategic-grade magic by itself.

The Green Tower Master lowered her umbrella. The one-way wall was released in the direction aimed at us. The wind, transformed into light, was unleashed and swallowed me.

Footnotes:

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