WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 62: Compulsion

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The Abyss, the land Mother Earth had declared she would no longer support. It was a real hell in this world, where even a careless slip meant an endless fall.

Darkness so deep one could not see an inch ahead, hope impossibly distant, and a future that only carried one farther from the sky. At the bottom, if there even was one, things that had sunk without burial for over a thousand years congealed together and glared upward.

A horrifying, bizarre land hundreds of years removed from peace and stability. That was the Abyss.

'Why isn't anything happening?'

The one who had experienced regression, the sole traveler who moved back through time through death.

Shei alone was consumed by unease amid the peace.

'According to what the immortal said, something definitely happened here. An accident that could collapse the Abyss, where the instructor tried to kill someone, the Beast King howled, and the immortal's flesh was cursed and scattered.'

The future she had lived in was a cesspool connected to dozens of sewers. Even if one was blocked off, untreated filth would burst out somewhere else and stain the world.

Shei had been alone, and there had been too many variables. Even with a thousand hands, she would not have been able to stop them all. The world could not endure its broken balance and finally opened the floodgates leading to its end.

Ominous incidents had served as signs of the terrible tragedy to come. Monsters appeared out of nowhere and swallowed people whole. An entire village vanished without leaving behind even a single corpse. The Beast King howled at the coming end and rampaged like mad.

Rather than trying to stop it at the edge of the apocalypse, Shei had tried to find its source.

The trail had led her here, to the Abyss.

Inside, she had found the Progenitor, the King of Dogs, and the immortal, all of whom would become seeds of disaster in the future.

Yet contrary to her expectations, they were peaceful.

'It isn't as though nothing happened. But compared to what will happen later... the situation isn't that bad. Is it because I came here and changed the past entirely? Or will something enormous happen that changes this situation in an instant?'

Shei sat on the prison roof and looked down into the yard.

On the monochrome concrete ground, a dark-blond girl faced off against a man in an instructor's uniform.

The instructor smiled unpleasantly at Azzy, who kept twitching as though something bothered her.

"Heh heh. Why didn't I think of this until now?"

"Grrrrrrr."

"Kahahahaha! Yes! I've finally found a way, Azzy! You're no match for me anymore!"

Judging only by the way he spoke, he was no different from some mastermind lurking in the shadows. Shei no longer worried over that sort of attitude, though. She had been deceived too many times.

What the loudly proclaiming instructor pulled from inside his clothes was a thin steel disc, hammered and flattened into shape.

He raised the disc and rubbed beneath his nose.

"Ahh, this is what you call a disc. A wide, flat plate made round to account for air resistance! Its hang time is several times longer than a ball's! Heh heh heh! With this, I won't have to worry about my shoulder anymore! If I throw it properly, it could fly for thirty seconds!"

"Grrr! Woof! Woof!"

"All right, all right. Tch. You're impatient too. I wanted to brag a little, but I can't even do that. Here, go fetch!"

"Woof!"

He swung his arm wide and threw the disc. The steel disc slowly spun as it flew far away. Azzy, who had been waiting eagerly, brightened and chased after it.

The disc drifting through the wind did not come down easily. It rose gently, then descended even more slowly. Azzy caught up with it in an instant and hopped beneath it, waiting for it to fall.

In the meantime, the instructor plopped down and laughed loudly.

"Heh heh heh. Which means I have plenty of time to recover my stamina! It's practically a semi-automatic toy! Kekeke! I'm not afraid of you anymore!"

"Woof!"

At that moment, Azzy leaped into the air and caught the disc in her mouth. The instructor's face went blank.

"Hey, wait a second, Azzy. Jumping to catch it is cheating. Let's compete fairly in two dimensions. And what kind of dog can do a three-meter vertical jump? I need time to rest too, you know?"

"Woof!"

"No, ah..."

Azzy brought the disc back in her mouth, and the instructor rose with a sigh.

Watching them made her feel foolish for being tense. Even after glaring at them as hard as she could, seeing Azzy happily wagging her tail and the instructor continuing to play with her despite looking annoyed only drew a weak sigh from her lips.

She wanted to sharpen her nerves. She wanted to hone the blade of her hostility.

Yet she could not even bring herself to feel that way.

'If I had to choose someone here who could have that kind of influence, it would only be that instructor.'

Azzy, wearing such a bright smile, did not seem likely to reveal that kind of vicious nature. Nor did the calm Tyrkanzyaka seem likely to suddenly go mad and rampage.

At the same time, that man... the instructor whose name she did not even know yet, did not seem likely to cause trouble either.

'If only. If nothing happened like this. If someone could make me certain of that.'

Then she could put down all her burdens and enjoy a brief respite.

But the regressor had seen the future. She knew that some tragic event would take place in this Abyss.

That was why she could not relax. She had to remain on edge. Even if everyone else let their guard down, she alone could not.

There could be no rest for someone who had seen a terrible future. Even this isolated peace was bound to feel like a sign of disaster.

'Now that I've come this far, I need to gain something during this cycle...'

With one knee drawn up, she sat alone on the edge of the roof and quietly watched the disc flying below. The disc, slowly growing larger and smaller with a dog trailing behind it, seemed to symbolize a peaceful daily life. Rising and sinking according to the natural order.

As she sat quietly amid that uneasy peace.

"Shei. Could you spare me a moment?"

A calm voice spoke to her. Recognizing its owner, Shei hurriedly stood.

An incense cedar coffin surrounded by a dark crimson aura. The Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka sat demurely atop it beneath her black parasol. When Shei faced her, Tyrkanzyaka lightly descended onto the roof.

"Tyrkanzyaka! Uh, it's been a while? What about that guy you always keep around?"

"Finlay? I left him alone for a while. Do not concern yourself with him."

A strange chill seeped into her seemingly indifferent voice. Shei swallowed. She needed to maintain a good relationship with the Progenitor for the future, so why was Tyrkanzyaka always oddly cold whenever they met?

Growing even more troubled, Shei spoke carefully.

"What's the occasion? You don't usually come looking for me. I don't mean that I'm upset about it. I was just, um, stating a fact... I was curious, so I asked!"

Tyrkanzyaka cut off Shei's rambling and answered.

"Did you not say last time that innate magic was more powerful than formal magic? You went on at length about how innate magic, which manifests one's own mystery, was overwhelmingly superior to formal magic that anyone could use."

"Uh. I did say that."

"And you said your magic recreated the power of the sky. That it was a mystery using the power of that sword as a medium."

"Y-Yeah."

"Then."

Tyrkanzyaka put down her parasol. With a soft rustle, darkness scattered for an instant, revealing Tyrkanzyaka's pale form beneath the light.

"You should be able to use lightning as well. Is that correct?"

"I can. Why?"

"Use it on me."

Even Shei, who had been through every hardship imaginable, could not help but question that request.

"What? Why?"

"Do not ask why. Could you simply do it for me?"

"I need to know your intention before I can help."

"...That is true as well."

After muttering something to herself, Tyrkanzyaka obediently spoke.

"Do you remember when the earthfolk rose again?"

"Ah. That time."

When the immortal Rashy first opened his eyes, the instructor had shocked his chest with electricity, and the immortal had risen.

"Yes. His heart began beating again through an electric shock. If even the immortal earthfolk can do that, then I should be able to as well."

"You want to make your heart beat again with electricity?"

Shei understood what Tyrkanzyaka was asking for.

Just as the earthfolk's heart had been made to beat by sending electricity through his chest, Tyrkanzyaka wanted her own heart to be revived.

It must have been an earnest wish she had held in her coffin for a long time. Shei knew that, but she could not help looking troubled.

"I feel a little bad saying this, but it would be difficult with my power. The foundation of magic is the manifestation of the inner image held by a single being. One spell is one world. Invading someone else's body with it and changing them is extremely difficult, and it should not be done. It is an act that violates another person's dignity."

"Did not the earthfolk rise through the instructor's magic?"

"That was zero-level, phenomenon-class magic. It's an extremely minor kind of magic that only causes phenomena that already exist in the world. If true magic changes the world, then zero-level magic is the technique farthest from magic. With that, you can only rouse beings that can be roused."

Shei calmly finished her explanation, thinking that this should have been a polite enough refusal.

No matter how mysterious magic seemed, its limits were clear. She hoped Tyrkanzyaka would not think her refusal came from unwillingness to bother.

Unfortunately, the vampire was accustomed to such expressions. At this point, it was almost no different from speaking bluntly.

"I know that as well. It is nearly impossible for my heart to beat again. I understand how you feel about not wishing to involve yourself in something futile."

Afraid of being misunderstood, the regressor hurriedly protested.

"N-No! It's just that I was worried it would hurt!"

"Pain is not much of a concern. Over my twelve hundred years of life, I have experienced every kind of pain... Though perhaps none of that was true pain either."

Tyrkanzyaka smiled self-mockingly and approached Shei. As though she would not resist, she spread her arms and let them hang limply.

"Please, Shei. Even if your magic brings only pain, if it is true pain, I will gladly accept it. I do not believe this will revive my heart, either. I simply wish to feel."

Tyrkanzyaka was stubborn, and Shei was at a loss.

She did not understand why Tyrkanzyaka wanted to be struck by lightning, but she could not refuse such an earnest request. Tyrkanzyaka would be the one enduring the pain, after all.

It was not even dangerous for Tyrkanzyaka. Shei's magic was powerful, but only to the level of a swordmage. If this amount of power could endanger Tyrkanzyaka, she would not have survived this long.

"Ugh. It doesn't seem like there will be a serious problem, but..."

After thinking for a long time, Shei took out Skywarbler, which had been floating above her head.

Shei wielded Skywarbler like a sword, but its true nature was an extremely compressed space. That was why it had neither weight nor thickness. Skywarbler slipped through space and cut it apart, making it sharper than any sword in the world.

Shei swung Skywarbler through the air, pouring magic into it as she explained.

"My magic uses Skywarbler as its medium. Since the medium itself is so powerful, it has the drawback of strongly taking on the sky's attributes. But the sky contains countless phenomena, so with enough preparation, I can recreate all of them."

Wind flowed out of Skywarbler. Compressed space unraveled and began to expand. Space suddenly swelled. As air chilled by its expansion touched the skin, water vapor trembling in the cold seized its chance and clung to the warmth of the skin.

A vampire's skin was, of course, an exception. Their bodies were as cold as the expanding air.

"(Wind, Cloud, Rain, Dew, Frost, Snow, Thunder, Lightning). Wind makes clouds, clouds bring rain, and dew rises from the earth to gather on blades of grass. An ordinary daily life steeped in tiny, invisible droplets of water."

Then afterward.

The air stirred ominously.

Wind trembled as though gripped by fear. Space, sensing the sign of danger, scattered in a frantic commotion.

Amid it, Shei's hair stirred. Not from the wind, but with a tingling, rhythmic motion like a heartbeat.

Holding Skywarbler tightly, Shei unleashed her magic. Magic spread from her entire body, surged into the air, and gathered in one place.

Its shape resembled a cloud. A single cloud floated like a still-life painting in the Abyss, where no sky existed.

"Frost, snowflakes, thunder, and lightning. They are distorted abnormalities. When droplets neglect their duty as messengers, the conflict between earth and sky reaches its extreme and they cast down something twisted. What I will summon is a roar of rage. The sky's majestic rebuke upon the world."

Lightning flashed within the pitch-black storm cloud flowing from Skywarbler. The cloud containing enormous power slowly moved above Tyrkanzyaka's head. Her clothes and hair rose as they sensed the ominous sign, but Tyrkanzyaka only looked ahead without saying a word.

"Tell me if it hurts. I'll stop."

Tyrkanzyaka did not answer. Shei let out a deep sigh and inscribed her magic into the world.

"Heavenly Sword Technique, Thunderbird."

Lightning flashed at once.

Footnotes:

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