WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 662: Tower of Babel, Floor 7

──────

Tantalus was a prison. When the military state cleared away the remnants of the old kingdom, it threw all the filth, malice, and darkness that remained beneath Tantalus.

Beasts that tore apart and ate human flesh. Priests who went about inciting duels. Undertakers who collected dead knights' bodies. Knights who dabbled in forbidden arts for greater power. Assassins who killed them.

Everything foul that had grown by feeding on the kingdom's scraps was tossed into the garbage bin.

They were too filthy to embrace, but too valuable to kill. They possessed powers close to mysteries, born from the kingdom's darkness. The military state locked them inside Tantalus and kept watch over them, preparing for the day it might need to use them.

The venomous inmates trapped in the prison called the Abyss devoured one another and grew ever more sinister and cruel.

Then an unparalleled genius named Lankart Spendry dragged them outside.

Some left. Some resisted and died. The rest followed Lankart to the Arcane Federation.

Poison Centipede, a qigong practitioner raised by an assassin organization, had no name beyond that nickname.

And Kuram, an apothecary who crossed the boundary between life and death with poisons and medicine.

There were only two of them, and Lankart had defeated them before.

Still, when it came to killing people, they were more skilled than Lankart Spendry.

"Holy paladins. Hard to kill. Lots of them."

Kuram counted their numbers and muttered darkly.

"Poison Centipede. Be happy. You need medicine."

Poison Centipede stopped swinging her sword and opened her mouth wide. Wiping the drool from her chin, she forgot there were enemies behind her and clung to Kuram.

"R-really? Is it happy time?"

"Yes. Unfortunately for me."

"Give it to me, give it to me! Give me happiness...!"

Kuram bent one finger. It bent so far that it nearly tore off, yet not a drop of blood flowed from the dangling digit. Instead, a single drop of transparent liquid seeped from the crease.

Kuram had replaced every bodily fluid with medicine and poison and modified their body, turning them into a walking pharmacy. The substance in that finger was a narcotic, a forbidden poison that awakened the principle within Poison Centipede.

Just as Kuram was about to offer her the shimmering drop.

"The Holy Spirit shall dwell within me!"

Cardinal Elton, who had been praying, gripped the cross around his neck. The chain snapped, leaving a large cross in his hand. A pure white blade rose from its lower end, transforming it into a one-handed sword with the cross as its hilt.

The cross sword, Cross Sword.

A sword of faith wielded by a holy paladin in the name of God.

The blade of light stretched out. Poison Centipede did not avoid the attack, but Kuram swiftly pulled back their hand, wary of the holy light. Light possessed the qualities of purification and transmutation. Kuram's poisons and medicines were vulnerable to it.

Seeing their reaction, Cardinal Elton shouted.

"You've learned demonic qigong!"

"M-my happiness..."

Poison Centipede's skin darkened. Her eyes reddened, and a crimson glare flashed from them.

She had learned, trained, and fought by relying solely on medicine. She received drugs only when she produced results. If she failed, horrific withdrawal symptoms tormented her through the night.

Burning passion, firm and steady resolve, enlightenment gained through training, talent granted by heaven, and sheer fortune.

Those were the things a person needed to become a qigong practitioner.

Poison Centipede stood at the opposite extreme.

Narcotics that burned her nerves replaced passion. Her craving for narcotics replaced willpower. Instead of enlightenment, she learned through the instinct to survive.

Poison Centipede was the product of being made to race like a horse, with drugs as the carrot and torture as the whip.

Ordinarily, she should have died fighting while intoxicated. Demonic qigong learned through drugs and poison destroyed the body.

Yet she, too, possessed talent granted by heaven and sheer fortune.

"Don't take it awaaay!"

She lowered herself like a beast and lunged at once. It was a convulsive reaction only a human addicted to drugs could show. In an instant, she twisted through the air and swung her huge dao, loaded with murky qigong.

The blade, carrying overwhelming force, struck for Cardinal Elton's neck, and his head fell to the ground...

'--O Holy Maiden of Heaven who blessed me!'

For a brief moment, that future flashed through Cardinal Elton's mind.

Battle foresight.

The great power of precognition gained by holy paladins who devoted their bodies to faith.

Unlike a Holy Maiden's foresight, it could reveal only an extremely brief moment in situations of extreme tension. Still, in a fight where victory and defeat could reverse in an instant, it was a truly unfair ability. Having seen the future beyond that moment, Cardinal Elton threw back his head and released holy light.

A flash of radiance struck Poison Centipede. She was flung away as she aimed for Cardinal Elton's neck. The holy paladins rushed in to finish her off while she was off balance.

"Hup!"

"Urgh!"

A vision of death flashed through their minds. They could not even take two steps before stopping. Sweat poured down their faces as they assumed defensive stances, and Poison Centipede stamped her foot in frustration.

"Hngh... This is so annoying! You got in my way first!"

"Battle foresight is troublesome. Without qigong that twists the principle, it'll be difficult to kill them."

"Give it to me, Kuram! I'll cut down every one of those bastards who wants me to be unhappy!!"

Battle foresight gave the holy paladins another ominous warning. It was not as complete or intense as before, but it filled them with dread and fear.

If Poison Centipede took the drug and wielded the principle, even battle foresight could not protect them.

"The Celestial God watches over us! His light shall reach even the dark and deep places!"

Cardinal Elton made his decision and charged. The holy paladins immediately followed, protecting him. Kuram flicked the prepared drug toward the frenzied Poison Centipede.

A foul narcotic with no side effects, one that would only bring her slowly closer to death. Poison Centipede knew it would draw her closer to death, yet she still stuck out her tongue.

"Lankart."

"Ah, right."

Innate arcane. Right-Handed World.

Lankart stepped between the two groups.

"Stop."

Boom, boom.

The two forces curved around one another. Cardinal Elton and the holy paladins, Kuram and Poison Centipede. Centered on Lankart, they flailed along opposite arcs.

Light and blades alike. In the Right-Handed World, two people standing on opposite sides of Lankart could never meet.

"What is this...?!"

In the Right-Handed World, which canceled all counterclockwise rotations, the coordinate system was reversed. In a world where leftward rotation had vanished, straight lines were heresy. Yet neither Cardinal Elton nor Poison Centipede could accept this inverted common sense. Both lost control of their own strength and crashed into the ground.

Cardinal Elton was startled, but Poison Centipede had experienced this power before and was gripped by fear.

"Lankart Spendry?"

"Hyeek... W-why are you here?"

"You don't need to fight. Stop."

Lankart offered no explanation. He left only that command before turning away. The moment his defenseless back was exposed, Poison Centipede bared her teeth on instinct.

"If you block my happiness, even you...!"

Her dao flashed and tore through the air. The fierce force loaded with qigong pierced into the Right-Handed World and aimed for Lankart.

It would never reach him. No matter how much she trained her qigong, even if it touched the principle, she could not reach Lankart without understanding this mental image.

"I said stop."

Lankart muttered flatly. Without chanting an incantation, he drew magic from his glove. Azure light rose from the jewel-studded gauntlet, whose standardized magic Lankart had reinterpreted and modified in his own way.

"Right-Handed Screw."

It began as a small explosion. The explosion circled Lankart dozens of times, accelerating as it went. It formed a spiral, yet moved more directly and swiftly than a curve. In the blink of an eye, the small explosion grew as large as a person and swept toward Poison Centipede.

She could not avoid it. Poison Centipede was still inside the Right-Handed World. Even if she moved, the explosion would follow her trajectory.

Then Kuram reached out. An arm that stretched as though it had five joints grabbed Poison Centipede by the collar. The elongated arm snapped back like a spring, and Poison Centipede barely escaped Lankart's attack.

The missed flash flew straight into a distant wall and caused a huge explosion. The blast swept through the enclosed tower, and vibrations shook the floor and ceiling.

Overwhelmed by the destruction, both Cardinal Elton and Poison Centipede lost their will to fight.

"They stopped."

Lankart did not seem particularly interested in whether Poison Centipede lived or died. Cardinal Elton watched him turn to leave and asked.

"...Do you know them?"

"I summoned them."

Lankart answered briefly. Cardinal Elton gripped his cross and fell into thought.

'She launched a killing strike the moment she saw holy paladins. Without the grace of the Holy Maiden of Heaven who blessed us, five of us would already be dead. And the other one uses poison... Lankart summoned such vile, unclean people?'

Fear spread into suspicion. Thanks to battle foresight, no one had died, but the holy paladins had suffered injuries both great and small from Poison Centipede's attacks. They had felt it in their bones. If those two fought at full strength, they might die.

Things had been peaceful through the sixth floor. Trouble had begun on the seventh.

Still breathing hard, Poison Centipede crouched while clutching her head, perhaps frightened. Ignoring her, Lankart asked Kuram.

"By the way, how did you reach the seventh floor? You don't have the knowledge for it."

"I know a little magic too. The mercenary mage we picked up was quite capable."

Kuram glanced over, and Hilde flinched before pulling her pointed hat low. Hilde had not disguised herself much, but Lankart was not the sort to remember faces well, so he ignored it.

"And there were mages every time we climbed. We asked them questions and ascended the tower."

"Hmm? You chose a similar approach."

"Similar?"

"Of course, Hughes and I solved most of the problems. They weren't especially difficult, so if this many people put their heads together, you could have solved them."

"...I see."

Kuram nodded, looking unconvinced. Naturally.

Kuram and Poison Centipede's mercenary band had tortured every mage they encountered and fed them poison before forcing them to solve the problems.

The mages they met had been poisoned, their lifespans shrinking by the moment, and had to desperately solve the tower's problems. Even after barely solving them while their lives flashed before their eyes, Kuram killed them all and took their possessions.

Every mage Kuram encountered must have met a terrible death. Ambitious, kind mages who climbed the tower dreaming of a chance to rise must have died in vain, unable to leave even a single letter of their names on its bricks.

Lankart knew that, but did not care.

It was none of Lankart's concern how many people died.

[What do you think, King of Humanity! You can see it clearly too, can't you? Their malice?]

A voice like a nightingale, or perhaps a sparrow, sounded beside my ear.

[King of Humanity! I know you. I studied and analyzed you diligently! You are an entity of concept, so you will trust every human. You will accept both good and evil and affirm them as humanity!]

No one else could hear this voice. It did not enter through my ears. It forced itself directly into my mind.

Yet for something so coercive, it was far too beautiful, sweet, and gentle.

[But not everyone can be human. We cannot affirm everyone. Weak and fragile humans doubt, fear, and agonize. In the end, they make a choice. They exclude evil and leave good behind. Inside the fence, they keep only what is good and trustworthy.]

Who was this? Had someone put a listening device in my ear? I had no idea when I had been infected with this thing.

[I don't like the Demon King, but he is right. Only chosen humans should board the ark! We must choose! Whom we will take aboard, and whom we will leave to die!]

Choose? An ark?

What was this supposed to be? Who the hell were you to say such things? Were you hiding somewhere creepy and sending your voice to me?

There was no way that voice could hear my inner thoughts, but it chirped as though it had only just remembered.

[Ah! My introduction is late! You must have guessed already, but I should still introduce myself. It's polite! I am Ruel, the Holy Maiden of Light!]

Footnotes:

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