WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 706: Sword and Magic - Finale

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Once you reached the peak of a field, things became childish again. The pinnacle of magic and the pinnacle of qi arts rampaged about, blocking attacks that should have been impossible to block.

What abilities were they using? How should I know? It was like watching two elephants charge into each other.

If I got caught up in it, I would die.

There was no chance of interfering. The moment the Demon King's innate arcane unfolded, I ran for it. Shei, the Cyan Tower Master, the Green Tower Master, and a few others happened to be nearby, so I brought them along.

Beams of light flashed behind me as I fled with my head covered, while slashes grazed my feet. A meteor that had once threatened this land was caught in the battle between two absolutes and shattered miserably.

See? Why leave the solitude of space and fall to the ground just to end up like this? Serves it right.

...This was no time to be saying that. Damn it.

A deflected Absolute Speed Bullet fell nearby. Before I could even groan, a massive explosion erupted. Like a meteor falling onto another meteor, the Absolute-Speed Projectile vanished after leaving behind a huge crater.

And this was the explosion from so far outside the Demon King's innate arcane? If I had been hit inside it, there would not have been enough left to gather my bones. What kind of monster was the Sword Saint to have blocked that?

I barely had time to feel relieved that I was alive before I felt the meteor begin to tilt. I managed to hold on, but the Green Tower Master, who had lost an arm, could not keep her balance and slipped.

She was about to fall over the edge.

"Gravity Control."

The Cyan Tower Master caught the entire meteor with the Apple of Universal Gravitation. Once she neutralized its gravity, the meteor stabilized and stopped shaking.

Whew. I lived.

"Is everyone all right?"

When I asked after regaining my footing, the Cyan Tower Master looked around with a bewildered expression.

"They were right there a moment ago...?"

"I brought them over. Let's stop the Green Tower Master's bleeding first. And Shei, why do qi practitioners love cutting off arms so much? Did you all develop some kind of collective fetish?"

Shei grimaced.

"That's not it. Cutting off an arm incapacitates anyone, and if it's a clean cut, it's easier to reattach later."

"Easier to reattach?"

"...By an energy practitioner's standards."

As I stopped the bleeding from the Green Tower Master's arm stump, she clenched her teeth through the pain and spoke with difficulty.

"...King of Humanity. You can use other people's innate arcane, can't you?"

Oh dear. Had she figured it out?

"Now, what are you talking about? Innate arcane means it's innate. How could I use it?"

"I suspected it ever since you blocked my One-Way last time. When you escaped Master's domain just now, I became certain. You alone moved freely within Master's space. Isn't that right?"

"You noticed that even after losing an arm."

While everyone else was slowed down, I had borrowed the Demon King's innate arcane to move. I could not believe she had been watching that.

"Is stealing and using another person's power the authority of the King of Humanity?"

Well, about that...

"Are you an idiot? How could anyone use another person's innate arcane? If he could do that, Hui would already be the strongest person in the world."

It was Lankart, who had stayed far away from everyone else even while the battle raged. He looked entirely at ease, as if the battle over there had nothing to do with him.

"Hui only completely understood the other person's innate arcane."

"Understood it?"

"Yes. Understood it. If Hui could use another person's innate arcane, he would still be able to use the Demon King's power now. But Hui can only use that power within the innate arcane's domain. He can do that because he fully understands how it works."

Why did he look so smug? Do not feel superior just because you got close to the right answer.

The Green Tower Master brushed away my hand and used her innate arcane to stop the bleeding from her arm. The wall of One-Way became a perfect tourniquet. She struggled to rise, then spoke to me.

"There's no time to stop the bleeding.... King of Humanity, please help Master."

"What? Help the Demon King? Setting aside whether I have the ability to help, is there even any need? That innate arcane is the most powerful one I've ever seen, something close to a Demon God. Even if the opponent is the Sword Saint, I cannot imagine the Demon King losing."

"Master would have won if not for the surprise attack."

Despite her absolute faith in the Demon King, she was realistic. She saw the situation clearly.

If there were glasses that could measure combat power and display it as a number, the Demon King's number would surely be higher. His power was still called innate arcane only because it was too special. Given the chance, it could have become a Demon God. The scale of his power was on a completely different level.

But his opponent stood at the peak of qi arts, the limit of human potential. The power behind each swing was small, but sharp and deadly as a blade. No matter how narrow the opening, he would cut through it and reach his target.

On top of that, the Demon King, whose body had been severed, was using a great deal of concentration just to delay death. Otherwise, he could have withdrawn or thrown the Sword Saint far away. At this point, though...

"Qi arts... That power has no rules or laws. At best, it will end in mutual destruction."

I agreed. Qi arts turned any battle into a contest of brute force. If innate arcane changed the rules of the game, qi arts flipped the board over and fought with its fists.

"But he's already been cut in two at the waist. Isn't he effectively dead? Shouldn't we hope for mutual destruction instead?"

"Master's time flows differently. If we can defeat the Sword Saint now... we can have Master with us for a few years...!"

The Demon King's innate arcane was Absolute Speed Control. Speed was distance traveled divided by time spent, but if absolute speed was fixed, time itself would be measured by a different standard as well.

No wonder the Demon King was a mage more than a hundred years old and still looked so healthy.

"Master has never wasted even a few hours. He is always teaching mages, conducting research, developing magic, and moving the floating castle. When there is nothing else to do, he stops his own time and watches over everything. He devotes himself solely to this world's magic and knowledge.

"Regardless of status, he taught anyone with genuine talent and passion."

Hm. That was true.

There was only one reason the chosen were selected. They were intelligent and talented at magic. No other standard was needed. I had paid attention to those cast aside, but the people the Demon King chose would probably have been abandoned in another society as well.

The Green Tower Master pleaded with me.

"Please. Save Master. Someone who dedicated an entire life to humanity deserves to be repaid."

"I don't consider that a contribution.... Even if I did, I can't defeat the Sword Saint. Not by any means. Unless it were 'Big Sister'."

Unfortunately, I was not omnipotent. I could push someone forward so they could fulfill a wish, but I could not fulfill everyone's wishes for them.

Still, your wish had to be fulfilled by you.

"But you can drive him away. I can't, but you can. Cyan Tower Master."

"Okay."

"The Demon King's power is strong, but Principia is still the Demon God. There is a reason for that. If light is the same from every point of view, gravity should be the same as well."

The Green Tower Master did not understand what I meant. The Cyan Tower Master did.

She had climbed the Tower of Babel with me and solved the Demon King's problem. Since then, she had encountered the Demon God, experienced the Demon King's innate arcane, and learned. The realization that had remained hazy until now took clear shape with my words.

"Gravity wasn't simply a force of attraction. It was also a force that affected space."

"Yes. Gravity is the result of distorted space. The Demon King has been trying to teach us this all along."

The Demon God understood that, but died in an assassination before being able to pass it on. The Demon King had also realized the Demon God's insight, but could not turn that realization into knowledge using this world's language and mathematics.

Perhaps the Demon King and the Demon God had gone too far ahead. Only now had humanity finally managed to catch up to them.

"Gravity isn't simply a force that pulls things. It controls space and inertia. There is no absolute, and laws act equally from every point of view. This is the final piece that proves it."

"...It's difficult. Even if I hear it explained, those can only be metaphors. I need another way to truly understand."

"Draw both a gravity spell and an acceleration spell as magic circles, then superimpose them. There should be a slight difference between the magic circles."

The Cyan Tower Master drew both magic circles in her mind. As expected of a Tower Master of the Arcane Federation, she could vividly picture complex magic circles without paper or pen.

"You can feel the difference between them, right?"

"Yes."

"Good. That difference does not actually exist. They are different expressions of an equivalent phenomenon. The distortion between the superimposed magic circles is fundamentally zero. Keep that in mind, then regard their geometric structures as equal. That will probably be the easiest way to understand it."

The Cyan Tower Master followed the method I gave her on the spot. Even though she had given up halfway before, she had learned about space and gravity from the Demon King. Recalling everything she had learned, she gradually approached a fundamental question.

"How could anyone have discovered this more than a hundred years ago? It can't be expressed with the magic and rules of that era. You need background knowledge of three-dimensional magic circles."

"That's right. Both the Demon King and the Demon God were among the greatest geniuses in the world. They were so intelligent that no one at the time could understand them. The Demon God was attacked before being able to explain the realization gained."

Intellect was strength. Even if ten million people gathered and racked their brains, they could not reach one genius. If scholarship alone mattered, one genius might be better than ten million fools.

"But they want to be understood too."

"Do they? Master is more brilliant than all of us put together."

"No. They need to be understood. The Demon King said it too. Knowledge is great because it can be applied by everyone. That's why he cannot tolerate black magic."

Black mages could not understand one another or share knowledge, but white mages could. That was why the Demon King's actions were reasonable.

He had simply gone too far.

"The Demon King gathered countless talented people in the floating castle and taught them because he grew tired of searching for someone who could understand. So he decided to create such people himself."

"That means us."

"Yes. A disciple's greatest repayment is surpassing the teacher. The Demon King wanted that, which is why he did not stop any of you, no matter what you did."

The Demon King wanted to be understood. He wanted everyone to know the truth his teacher had discovered. It sounded simple when explained in words, but it held an incredible truth.

But what happened? He was never understood. There was no special reason.

He was simply too brilliant.

After living in loneliness and isolation, he had given up on being understood at some point. He wanted to leave all foolishness on the ground and leave only intelligence in this world.

In a world where everyone was intelligent, he could finally be understood.

"Teach them. Teach the Demon King and the Sword Saint. Show them that we are not weak. Show them that even those absolutes are beasts that can be wounded."

The Cyan Tower Master nodded.

What she controlled now was not gravity.

It was space.

On the strangely distorted meteor, the Demon King and the Sword Saint were still fighting.

Holding the Demon God, the Cyan Tower Master aimed at those who displayed absolute authority within an inviolable domain.

"Crawling Cut."

An invisible slash moved slowly along the meteor. The Sword Saint must have done something again. The slash split into five branches as it traveled over the meteor, aiming for the ground beneath the Demon King.

"Time Dissipation."

The moment the slashes approached the Demon King, they gradually slowed before vanishing weakly. Their energy had been completely spent within delayed time.

"Absolute Speed Control. Length Expansion."

The Demon King snatched up a fallen chunk of meteor and gently pushed it. The small fragment stretched long like a beam of light and pierced the Sword Saint's shoulder.

A clear hit.

Blood sprayed from the Sword Saint's shoulder. His first wound since arriving here today.

"You bleed too."

That brief moment of carelessness after landing a successful blow.

The Sword Saint seized the opening he had deliberately created. The lowered sword wrapped around the elongated meteor fragment. The Sword Saint stretched out his arm toward the Demon King.

"Reverse Cut."

"Hup!"

The slash flowed backward. The distance did not matter as long as they remained connected. His sword traveled back through the medium and cut the Demon King's hand.

The middle finger flew off, and a spiral-shaped wound formed on the hand. Blood had not yet flowed. The Demon King seemed to be controlling time.

Still, it was an obvious opening.

Just as the Sword Saint moved to exploit it.

"Gravitational Field Control...."

Space twisted.

The Cyan Tower Master locked on to the Sword Saint, who was surrounded by Absolute Speed Control, then controlled the distortion of space around him.

Gravity was the distortion of space created by this massive planet. She reproduced it in simplified form. The meteor coalesced beneath the Sword Saint's feet.

Crunch. Crunch.

As its parts twisted together and absorbed one another, the meteor repeatedly devoured itself until it became a tiny black point.

‘This is dangerous.’

The Cyan Tower Master flinched as she realized something.

Dangerous. That was dangerous.

Dangerous to whom? The Cyan Tower Master? No.

The Sword Saint? That was not it either.

The conclusion she reached through understanding was sounding an alarm within her.

‘The world is in danger. If I make even one mistake, the world...’

"You can do it."

I gripped the Cyan Tower Master's trembling shoulder. She was infinitely frail compared to the power entrusted to her. Still, I could not lighten that burden for her.

All I could do was encourage her.

"I believe you can do it."

With my words, the black point began to take shape.

‘This is...’

Power surged.

The Sword Saint identified its source through the qi he had spread all around. He instantly lowered his stance and looked this way.

‘Even if I must break the precepts, I have to kill her.’

Ah, our eyes met. Damn it.

The Sword Saint gripped his sword. Even under the effects of Absolute Speed Control, his slash was as fast as a beam of light.

"One-Layer Cut."

A slash that leaped across space and cut away one layer. It headed straight for the Cyan Tower Master.

I could not let her be stopped here. I stepped in front of her.

Crack.

At the same time, the slash struck my body with terrifying force.

It was a strike that had reached principle. One layer of my body was cleanly cut away. A layer did not mean a layer of skin or paper.

It meant one layer as seen from the Sword Saint's point of view.

Since I had blocked the Cyan Tower Master, my entire body would be cut.

"One-Layer Cut, huh? That means you can't cut two layers, right?"

Still, there was a way out. Principle was an impossibility achieved by twisting the world, but because it was an impossibility, it was tied to the Sword Saint's awareness.

For example.

"If I raise my arm at just the right angle and block your slash vertically."

The slash cut from the tips of my left fingers to my elbow. I could see the cut from my own perspective too. My arm split completely in two, and horrible pain hit me.

Yet my body was fine.

I tightly grasped my split left hand with my right. The blood that had been flowing out returned, and my left arm went back to normal as if nothing had happened.

"My body is safe. Curiosity satisfied."

‘He's slightly faster than before. Was he hiding his strength? Even now?’

The Sword Saint tried to assume another stance, but he was still within Absolute Speed Control. He could not display transcendent speed through energy.

And the Demon King had no intention of watching.

"Absolute Speed Control. Continuance."

The Sword Saint slowed even further. Even for the Sword Saint, that world was no different from swimming through concrete.

The Cyan Tower Master's calculations were faster than that.

"Gravitational Field Reversal."

The black point shone white and swelled.

At the moment it reached its limit, a flashing light struck the Sword Saint with unimaginable speed. The Sword Saint seemed to cut something even then, but that power had no effect at all.

"Get out of here, intruder."

‘This is...!’

It happened in an instant. The space surrounding the Sword Saint itself shot into the sky. His form was visible for only a moment before vanishing beyond the heavens.

Footnotes:

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