WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 680: The World Is Made Possible by Someone's Consideration

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The battle between the Red Tower Master and the Green Tower Master was taking place far away. I could not read their thoughts. Still, their expressions, bearing, and innate arcane had already made the outcome clear. The Green Tower Master's innate arcane, One-Way, was a power focused more on defense than attack.

"Urgh...!"

She could not withdraw her innate arcane. Whenever she raised walls of One-Way to block the explosions from the other side, the air on this side was drawn away. The immense explosions consumed the air here unilaterally. Her breathing gradually grew labored, and her body became unbearably hot.

Of course, her opponent must have felt just as hot and suffocated. Yet the Green Tower Master held on through sheer stubbornness.

"How can she breathe amid those explosions...?!"

The Green Tower Master had the barriers of One-Way and wind magic to protect herself. She should have found it easier to endure. That was only logical.

Yet the Red Tower Master continued pouring out power while wrapped in flames.

"I told you it was lukewarm, Eliot."

A red aura rose from the Red Tower Master's entire body as she spoke. It was the color of blood...

The Green Tower Master spotted it and shouted.

"You! You used your innate arcane on your own body...!"

"The body is no different. It is a machine that burns food as fuel to keep running. We burn our bodies and our lives as we race to see how far we can go. Making the lukewarm choice to stagnate is an insult to life."

The Fahrenheit domain lay much farther north of here. The Fahrenheit family had chosen that land because only those who controlled flames could survive there. In one sense, it was consideration. In another, it was arrogance.

Surviving in such a cold land required tremendous amounts of fuel. The Fahrenheit family's nature gave them a far broader range of possible fuel, but the cold was harsher still. Bones, moss, oil, mana. They burned anything without discrimination, but eventually reached their limit.

Looking at it rationally, they should have left their domain. Yet no land would accept a mage family with innate arcane as powerful as the Fahrenheit family's and so many people. Perhaps they could have dissolved the family, but arrogant Fahrenheit mages were not the sort to bow their heads and settle in another person's land.

So they researched and struggled even harder. They set their sights on seas where Sea Calamities swam, shattered glaciers to extract the black water hidden beneath, and once drew mana from the aurora to warm their domain.

The Fahrenheit domain was a ravenous beast that constantly devoured fuel. If it did not burn, it froze to death. If it did not devour, it starved to death. Through endless combustion driven by survival, the Fahrenheit domain developed until it nearly rivaled the floating castle.

Still, it eventually reached its end. The Fahrenheit family's rule was no longer sustainable. A decision had to be made, and Fahrenheit never extinguished a fire once it was lit.

Hwaran Fahrenheit, the last head of the family, invited mages from other domains and combined different rules.

Fahrenheit's rule had always been dangerous. Combined with other rules, it became uncontrollable.

The domain burned. Unable to distinguish between what should burn and what should not, the flames swallowed the entire land. Not the aurora, but savage red flames dyed the midnight-sun sky crimson.

Countless people died, and the knowledge and wealth that burned away could not be measured. Fahrenheit's brilliant, desperate fate sank into the ashes.

Fahrenheit chose to burn itself to the very end.

Even its dying embers.

"If you don't burn, you gain nothing anyway. I didn't fail because I set the fire. Without flames, both life and the domain die. I didn't fail because I burned. The real reason was that I wasn't capable enough."

Innate arcane, Ignition Garden.

She did not breathe. She drew oxygen with reduced reactivity into her body, then burned it with delicate control. Her innate arcane recreated the suppressed combustion process a living body had to perform. At that moment, she was a machine moved by the flames in her heart.

With an inextinguishable flame inside her, she was no longer even a mage. She was like a machine with a heart of fire. Her scorched body was faster, more agile, and hotter than most qi practitioners.

One-Way remained effective within the range of its innate arcane, but the flames Ignition Garden ignited kept spreading. The battle for territory belonged to the Red Tower Master.

"I'm sorry, Master...!"

The Green Tower Master had already lost her fighting spirit. Only stubbornness remained, and even that was gradually breaking. The domain of One-Way grew increasingly defensive. She could barely preserve her own life.

The balance of power collapsed, and the walls of One-Way were buried in flames. Heat that One-Way could not block burst beyond the space. It was fire that would have burned a human being away without leaving even ashes behind.

"Other-Erasure. Vanishing Line..."

Thanks to the Black Tower Master's last-minute intervention, the Green Tower Master survived.

The Black Tower Master's innate arcane, Vanishing Point, erased the energy of objects. The heat that had sought to burn everything quietly died down upon reaching the Vanishing Line. The heat covered too wide an area for the Green Tower Master to be fully protected, but the Black Tower Master had saved her life regardless. In a hurry, the Black Tower Master used condensation magic to pour water over the Green Tower Master, whose clothes had burned away and whose skin was scorched red.

The Red Tower Master asked the Black Tower Master, "Ryune. Are you going to stop me too?"

"Ugh..."

Trembling in fear, the Black Tower Master frantically created Vanishing Points. The Red Tower Master paid her little attention and turned away.

"If you won't fight, take Eliot and leave. I'm going to climb Babel. I'll reach Master and seize space itself."

The fight was over. The Demon King, who had watched the Tower Masters' duel until the end, clapped as if deeply satisfied.

"This is why I cannot abandon the Lower Realm."

He did not seem particularly worried despite the Green Tower Master's terrible condition. The Green Tower Master had fought to protect her respected master. Apparently, the Demon King had no need for such feelings.

"Geniuses born in that miserable, brutal world below always bring fresh shocks to the floating castle. Mages of the floating castle may possess greater ability, but they lack that desperation and urgency. That is why they are caught up to in the end."

"The Green Tower Master and Black Tower Master were your disciples, Demon King?"

"That's right! I taught them myself, and they learned spatial theory under me. In terms of pure academic attainment, no one in the floating castle can match them. They even awakened their innate arcane."

"Their innate arcane, then..."

The Green Tower Master's innate arcane was One-Way, a power that forced direction onto space. The Pascal domain was said to have wind blowing in one direction, so that was likely where its motif came from.

The Black Tower Master's innate arcane was Vanishing Point, an implementation of a concept used in painting.

"They interpreted space through the perspectives of wind and painting, respectively. That is common enough."

"They have touched on truth to an extent. But it is only one way of interpreting truth, not truth itself."

The Demon King snapped his fingers. Two spaces swelled like bubbles. One created a thin wall that blocked light, while the other began sucking in everything around it.

One was One-Way. The other was Vanishing Point.

The Demon King had casually recreated the innate arcane others had gained through a lifetime of effort.

"It is good that they understood my spatial magic in their own way, but that approach has limits. It becomes an obstacle to grasping higher concepts. The wall of One-Way is divergence, while Vanishing Point is convergence. It is difficult to expand into other concepts. Unless they break their own frames, they cannot achieve greatness."

"...No. The problem isn't expanding their concepts. Your innate arcane is just far too advanced, isn't it?"

"Naturally. But 'has not done it yet' and 'cannot do it' are different things. The Green Tower Master and Black Tower Master are disciples I cherish, but it is difficult to expect further growth from them. You could say they lack diversity. Without fresh stimulation from the Lower Realm, the floating castle stagnates."

With another flick of his fingers, the Demon King erased One-Way and Vanishing Point. He could create and destroy power comparable to innate arcane in an instant. He was on another level. There was a reason the Green Tower Master and Black Tower Master were obedient to the Demon King.

The Demon King spoke with an indifferent expression.

"That is why I have not destroyed the Lower Realm."

"Ah. I see."

I nodded absentmindedly, then reconsidered what the Demon King had just said.

...Huh. Had I just heard something about destroying the world? What was that?

"Wait a moment. I think I misheard you. Did you say destroying the world?"

"Destroying the world? What a strange thing to say. Why would I destroy the world? I said I have not destroyed the Lower Realm."

"The Lower Realm means...?"

"The land below us. Where the ignorant masses live."

The Demon King pointed down. At the same time, light shone below, and the landscape of the Lower Realm I had once seen with Avant-garde unfolded before me.

An ordinary land where earth, grass, snow, and water blended together. Seen from the floating castle, it looked as small as an anthill. That land, where countless people had lived and would continue to live...

"Uh, even so, destroying it seems a bit much. That's impossible, isn't it?"

"Why would it be? Nothing in this world is absolute. There are simply reasons not to destroy it yet."

The Demon King tapped his head.

"They are foolish and do not know their place, but those strange people provide good inspiration. Sometimes, people like Lankart or you emerge, talents greater than anyone in the floating castle."

"Uh, th-thank you?"

"Some might say you are exceptional because you are the King of Humanity, but what does that matter? Whether you are the King of Humanity or anything else is completely unimportant. What matters is intellect."

The Demon King tapped his own head.

"But there are far too many people in this world who lack intellect. And those who lack intellect are usually arrogant. They assume everyone else is just as stupid as they are."

"Ah... There is a tendency like that."

"The greater problem is that status is not determined by intellect. Outside the Arcane Federation, there are bizarre power structures where the more foolish and loud someone is, the higher they rise. It is absurd. They deliberately ignore the power that could shatter everything they believe in an instant."

The Demon King summoned an image of the space where the Red Tower Master and Green Tower Master had fought. A storm of fire still raged through the vast interior of the Tower of Babel.

It was only the aftermath, yet it remained destructive. If this had not been the floating castle, if the Tower of Babel had not possessed spatial anomalies, many people would have been caught in it.

"Look at the five Tower Masters. If they use their innate arcane to the limit, they could easily erase a city on the ground. The Lower Realm cannot bear the power of Tower Masters that exceptional. The only reason the Lower Realm remains intact is because exceptional people restrain their power out of 'consideration.' Because they suppress their emotions with lofty reason."

The Demon King's words were growing increasingly extreme. I could not read his thoughts, so I had no idea what he might say next. I could vaguely predict it, but surely not.

"Yet the ignorant masses live as though that is only natural, without realizing they survive thanks to the sacrifices and consideration of the chosen people. Their thinking is so firmly fixed that I cannot even begin to repair it. So I reached a conclusion."

The Demon King snapped his fingers.

"Rather than tediously fixing them one by one, would it not be better to tear it all down and build it again from the beginning?"

Footnotes:

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