WeTried Translations
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 670: A Tower Without a Ceiling and Intermingling Humans - 6
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A short distance from where Ruel had descended.
“Haaah...”
Pure white frost crept across the grass. The field, which had swayed gently in the wind, froze in place as if trapped in a painting. The world, colored by light and ice, was nothing but white. A fragile body shivered in the wind, sharp as frost.
At the heart of that cold ink-wash painting, the Cyan Tower Master brushed back her blue hair and let out a long breath. Frost glittered at her lips. The world had frozen around her.
The mages who had been about to fight each other moments earlier could only blink beneath their coats of ice.
Having felt that terrifying power, none of them even considered breaking free.
If the person responsible for creating this ice had harbored even a little more malice, they would all have died as living ice statues.
“Be careful. I don’t want to hurt you. You may be lacking, but you’re still the chosen people.”
Innate arcane. Crystal Theory.
The Cyan Tower Master’s power crystallized matter within its range into solid form.
Having rendered every mage unable to fight in an instant, the Cyan Tower Master spoke in her characteristically breezy manner.
“The situation got strange, so I missed my chance to appear. Hmm. Still, I don’t think I’m too late.”
“C-Cyan Tower Master?”
“You did well, Avant-garde. You acted like a disciple of the Cyan Tower. I’m sorry for deceiving you, even if it wasn’t intentional.”
The Cyan Tower Master lightly patted Avant-garde’s head before stepping forward.
Shei, briefly startled by Ruel’s arrival, noticed the Cyan Tower Master. Like a spirit of winter, she approached, bringing the cold with her.
“Shei.”
“Elisha? So you too...”
“You don’t seem that surprised.”
Shei hesitated before answering.
“I thought you might show up by now. You and the Temple of the Demon God...”
‘You obstructed the Temple of the Demon God at every turn. After the floating castle fell, the Temple of the Demon God became nothing more than mad mages who brought disaster wherever they went.’
Shei did not say it aloud. The Cyan Tower Master roughly guessed what she meant and answered.
“The Temple of the Demon God. Yes. That was a mistake of my own making. Back when I believed I could do anything, I wanted to obtain the Demon God and mold the world however I pleased.”
Everyone had a time like that in their youth. A time when they were confident and full of spirit, when even a moment’s hesitation made them feel foolish. Considered an unparalleled genius even in Celsius territory, she eventually left her sister all alone and ascended to the floating castle.
She climbed the Cyan Tower, climbed Babel, and rose until there was nowhere higher to go, until it felt as though she might touch the sky.
Then she suddenly realized there was nothing beneath her feet.
“But what’s up there isn’t that. It’s power that can destroy the world in an instant. To say you’ll mold the world however you please means you’ll destroy it with your own hands.”
“You know what’s up there?”
“It was easy to realize how dangerous it was. I also realized that no one could control it perfectly. It cannot be allowed. Hwaran and Lankart are exceptional, but neither is as exceptional as I am. They’ll destroy the world with that power.”
It was certainty. And it was probably true. The Cyan Tower Master had led the Temple of the Demon God. Though she had distanced herself from it now, even Lankart and the Red Tower Master had once followed her.
“That must remain knowledge alone. The moment a fool uses it as power, this world will end.”
Shei suddenly thought of another name. The instant the thought came to her, the name slipped from her lips.
“What about Hughes?”
The Cyan Tower Master fell silent for a moment.
She could not call Hughes a fool. From what she had seen, Hughes’s intellect matched hers or even surpassed it. As the King of Humanity, he possessed at least the minimum qualifications.
Yet everything he had done so far was far too unusual, so much so that even the Cyan Tower Master could not understand him at all.
That was why she could not readily reach a judgment. If she could not understand him, was it because he was mad? Or because he existed on a level beyond hers?
* * *
Ruel’s power, Lux Vis Mea. A simple innate arcane that gave light physical force.
The White Tower Master Ruel was one of the strongest simply because of that. Light traveled far faster than sound. If it could carry physical force, she could strike an opponent before they had any chance to react.
If it were only innate arcane, though, there would be plenty of ways to counter it. There were many spells for dealing with light magic, and if you knew where your opponent was aiming, you could evade beforehand. I could even copy other people’s innate arcane.
But that was not where its true value lay.
“Light is immutable. In every time, in every space.”
Each time she stepped onto the invisible staircase, light flashed beneath her feet. She was using the reverse thrust of light to create footholds. She used them as platforms now, but with light magic, she could probably fly freely through the sky.
“The power I possess as the Holy Maiden is the ability to foresee time halted at a single moment.”
She could stop time.
No, she could move through stopped time!
Zero seconds, in which no one could perceive or move. Time that should simply flow past, but the Holy Maiden of Light divided that infinite span and foresaw it.
Within stopped time, she knew what would happen.
“Within stopped time, I alone exist, blessed by light. Through my innate arcane, I gain the right to move alone. Ah, was that explanation too academic? Put simply, it’s the authority to stop time.”
Of course, that alone meant nothing. I could also tell what would happen in stopped time. Nobody could move, and everything would simply be frozen. Why? Because time had stopped!
But while giving light physical force, the Holy Maiden of Light gained the right to act even within stopped time.
“The blessing of light transcends even time. What do you think, King of Humanity?”
Stepping on light, Ruel personally descended to the ground. Smiling brilliantly, she approached me. I answered, tense from head to toe.
“The sound I heard beside my ear?”
“I sent my voice on light. The mages of the floating castle would use a spell to calculate light backward and turn it into sound, but I don’t need to. The light I send vibrates the air directly and creates sound.”
“You’re being quite honest. Is it all right to tell me that?”
“It is! It’s my power, after all.”
She had no intention of hiding it. Like light, she revealed everything. Ruel, the Holy Maiden of Light, was the personification of light itself. Dazzling and direct, as though she could fill all of space by herself.
“I’ve revealed all my powers. An innate arcane that gives light physical force, and the ability to foresee stopped time. What do you think?”
She wanted my assessment, so I answered honestly.
“That’s amazing. It doesn’t seem like anyone could be your opponent.”
“Except for the Demon King, that’s mostly true. Hmm. The other four Tower Masters with innate arcane could resist to some extent. But they could never be my opponents. You know why, right?”
“Because your power would be most deadly when used with malice.”
“Correct!”
Stop time. Move within stopped time. Attack before the opponent could notice, in a way that made it impossible for them to notice.
Counter it? Unless you had the power to divide stopped time and act within it, you did not even qualify to respond. And who had that kind of power? The Demon King? That was only because the Demon King was special.
“The reason this world is still intact is because I do not bear malice toward it. Because light chose to shine warmly upon the world rather than burn it.”
Everyone had to show their will. I demanded that when I seated everyone at the table.
But the Holy Maiden was overwhelmingly powerful. Powerful enough to rule the board by herself.
“...Because the Demon King is bound by Saint Rene’s shackles and still keeps Pride from falling.”
“Pride?”
“Yes. The star of destruction that targets the ground from far above the floating castle. Pride.”
She meant that disaster star Shei had mentioned, right? The one that would end this world if it fell. She was not even treating it as a secret anymore, was she?
“The power you’ll gain when you climb this tower is the switch that will drop Pride.”
“Aw, you spoiled it. That takes all the fun out of it.”
Despite my complaint, the Holy Maiden of Light puffed out her chest confidently and said, “It’s the privilege of those who learned first! And what you tried to do was give that switch to all these people. Among them were people who absolutely must not receive it.”
She meant Kuram and Poison Centipede.
She was right. They were dangerous. Neither possessed enough knowledge to understand magic, but if they had the switch in hand, they would press it without hesitation. What could people who had already decided to destroy their own bodies not do?
“The other mages are the same. They may have more sense than those two, but what if one day they suddenly press the switch? Everyone has days when they become weak, excited, or want to make a mistake. It’s better for the switch to belong to as few people as possible, especially if it’s a switch that can destroy the continent!”
“Wow. Really.”
“Yes! You were about to give this switch to everyone! Do you understand what a mistake you made now?”
Ruel explained it like a kind teacher instructing a child. She also carried the same degree of arrogance.
With an impressed expression, I answered.
“That wasn’t a mistake.”
Footnotes:
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