WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 717: In Heaven - 2

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A world inhabited by hundreds of millions could be destroyed by the power of a single person. More tragic still, it could happen even if that person never intended it.

[It is a power far too great and dangerous for a single person to command. A power that can decide the lives and deaths of tens of thousands in an instant. It is karma, and it is also sin.]

Chiwoo read the heavenly signs and acted accordingly. It was a power truly akin to that of a god. Still, Chiwoo was human, and humans were never perfect.

[The future is not infinite. Most of its countless branches end in ruin, so how could such an end be called infinite? The right answer is like finding a needle in a haystack. My hearing is poor, my sight is dim, and my mind is dull, so I decided to entrust my karma to the Celestial God.]

That was why Chiwoo became part of the Celestial God. Chiwoo wielded that power only in the Celestial God's name.

[The present is a harmony that has already found balance through thousands of years of destruction and creation. Humans may shelter from the rain, but they must not erase that rain from existence. Such is the harmony of heaven and earth.]

The Sanctum had first built its influence by predicting the weather as the Celestial Weather Bureau did and earning the people's faith. Even now, weather forecasts were one of the Sanctum's major duties.

I met Chiwoo's eyes and nodded.

"I understand. That can happen. Do you feel the same way?"

I addressed the shadow that had hesitated behind Chiwoo. Ripples spread through the clouds. Beyond Chiwoo, the Demon God hidden within that sea of clouds revealed herself.

Clouds were rivers floating in the sky. Droplets that had chosen freedom over the sea gathered under some pressure and became one. Soon, the clouds formed a single wave, and someone emerged from within it.

A winged robe rippled behind her, along with her hair. Her transparent eyes seemed to reflect the world, and tears flowed sadly beneath them.

Priana, the Demon God of Waves.

Once called the Dragon King, she sobbed with sorrow brimming in her heart.

[Sob... Sob... Aren't they pitiful? Those tiny creatures crawling upon the ground? Those tiny creatures that die in droves with one sweep of the Sea Calamity's fins...? If you knew how many people have died in the Mediterranean throughout history, you could never stop crying... Sob!]

"You conquered the Mediterranean in the end."

[That's right, sob, sob. It was a victory earned through tremendous sacrifice. Not only by us, but by the Sea Calamity as well...]

There had been a time when the Empire, which embraced the Sanctum, expanded through conquest. It planted flags in empty lands, subdued those who resisted, and broadened humanity's domain. In those days, the Empire was powerful, civilization was brilliant, and humanity was full of confidence.

The greatest obstacle to conquests that seemed destined to reach the far end of the continent was neither barbarians nor a Beast King.

It was the Mediterranean.

Compared to an ocean, it was much smaller and shallower, yet it was a sea that symbolized despair to humanity.

The Sea Calamity of the Mediterranean redrew the coastline every day. The Empire's territory expanded or shrank by the day.

Whenever a Sea Calamity was in a foul mood, terrified sea beasts swam upriver. Then, the rivers that had been humanity's birthplace became humanity's graves.

The boundary between river and sea was faintest in the Mediterranean, and that was why so many people were sacrificed. The Mediterranean held the Empire back.

Across all of history, the number of humans killed by the Mediterranean's Sea Calamity alone reached into the hundreds of millions.

The Empire changed the direction of its conquest.

Not toward distant lands, but toward a nearby region it had never once managed to conquer.

The Mediterranean.

[If only I had never been born, sob, sob... The Seven-Star Dragon, the Sea Tiger, and the fleet that followed me... They wouldn't have died...]

The Empire was powerful, and the Mediterranean was shallow. The Sea Calamities along its shores did not seem like an insurmountable despair that humanity could never overcome. War broke out when both sides thought they had a chance, even if that belief was mistaken.

In the end, humans won the war against the Sea Calamities.

Yet it was not humanity's victory.

It was the Dragon King's victory alone.

[Power itself is a curse... Sob. The poor Seven-Star Dragon, the poor Sea Tiger, and the humans even more pitiful than them... Great power ultimately seizes and shakes their fates... It was a war I never wanted, but that power dragged me into it, and it eventually led to countless tragedies, sob...]

Ironically, the world gave the power of a Demon God to Priana, who had been happy just watching the gentle ripples of Haeri Lake. If one traced the cause far enough, it was because she had rashly approached the truth.

It was difficult to tell whether that had brought her to the throne of a Demon God that defined the world itself, or whether it was simply a powerful unique magic.

Still, the power that could shake all of Haeri Lake was essential to the war to conquer the Mediterranean. Priana became the first admiral in human history and advanced toward the Mediterranean.

Several months later, the Sea Calamity's corpse floated to the surface alongside the wreckage of shattered ships. Only seven ships remained, and only three hundred people were alive.

It was a Pyrrhic victory, but a victory nonetheless.

The Empire dragged the Sea Calamity's corpse ashore. Humanity rejoiced. It had proven that even the powerful, terrifying Sea Calamity was nothing more than a beast. It had declared that even that sea was territory humanity could conquer.

After hunting the Sea Calamity and securing the Mediterranean coast, the Empire stood at the unquestionable height of human history.

The Dragon King, the hero of that victory, vanished after the war.

"You suddenly disappeared after the war, and legends say you became the Dragon King of the Mediterranean..."

[I wanted to disappear from the story... Then no one would come looking for me.]

She would have been even easier to persuade. The Dragon King had grown sick of fighting.

Her unique magic was not meant to shake the sea. It was the power to weave together the tremors that arose on the surface of a still lake and shape them into a single form.

But the Demon God's power was too strong, and it plunged her into war.

"I understand. You won't allow me to use your power either, will you?"

[Sob, if you use that power and truly lead the world to peace, I am willing to watch quietly...]

"A lake can't always stay still."

[Then, sob, I only hope that I won't be within those waves. So I won't commit any more sins with my power.]

That was the second time I'd been turned down since coming up here. These people had already been embraced by the Celestial God. They had neither regret nor lingering attachment, so there was nothing for me to pry into.

And I didn't need to pry into them anyway.

Without even looking in that direction, I spoke.

"Lightning Thief. We've spoken before, haven't we?"

Frang, the Lightning Thief who stole lightning from Claudia's Thunder God. He faintly revealed his presence within the thunderclouds.

Only a tiny part of him was visible. Yet lightning poured from him and violently tore through my body. Dangerous light flashed through the thick clouds.

Every hair on my body stood on end. My fingers, toes, hair, every pointed part of my body felt as though needles were piercing it. Lightning poured from him and tore through my body without restraint. My eyes burned. My flesh, filled with water, surrendered itself to the lightning regardless of my will.

The Lightning Thief was in heaven as well.

More precisely, his true body was in heaven.

[At heart, I am a devout believer, and I do not abandon the teachings of the Celestial God. That power you possess is only something I wished to hide, but could not erase.]

If sensations and thoughts were phenomena occurring in the body, what meaning did the soul have? Even as he entered the Celestial God's embrace, the Lightning Thief, who wished to deny that conclusion, retained that much. To realize it would mean denying the soul and faith.

[Truth must be held with good will, and knowledge must be learned with morality. I shall illuminate the world with light and bring it benefit.]

"That's the inscription written in the Tower of Sages, isn't it? All knowledge is for humanity. I like that line too."

They had power so great that they could bring down the world alone. They gave up that power. Instead, they entrusted it to the Celestial God's will and allowed it to be wielded only in their god's name.

"You could make a mistake, be manipulated, or simply be dangerous. So you need someone else to entrust it to. Hmm. I understand. Of course I do. The world is precious, and you don't want to break it. Being careful is good."

That was one way to do things. But still.

"There's something that feels a little unfair to me."

Didn't it feel unfair? If I were playing a game this rigged, my first thought would be to flip the board.

"You must have saved as many lives as you killed, and the Celestial God must have abandoned as many humans as it saved. Why don't you count the lives you saved? Why do you ignore the humans the Celestial God abandoned?"

As one who read the heavenly signs, Chiwoo used his power for the people who suffered under the whims of the sky. Though the burden later became too much, Chiwoo resolved the immediate droughts and floods.

The Dragon King ultimately conquered the Mediterranean. After tens of thousands died, she defeated the Sea Calamity, and many more children must have been born along the Mediterranean coast that became humanity's territory. By the numbers, they would outnumber the dead dozens of times over.

The Lightning Thief had never killed anyone to begin with. He had only grown afraid of his unexpected power and hidden both it and his knowledge. Still, he had lent his power to someone in Claudia, so perhaps things were going well.

"You've dumped responsibility onto the Celestial God, so why do you turn away from the sins it commits? The Celestial God and the Demon Gods are the same, aren't they? You're effectively the core of the Celestial God, so why are you indifferent to its sins?"

Suppose you saved ten thousand people, but a hundred died. Did that make you a murderer who killed one hundred people? Or a savior who saved nine thousand nine hundred? Would you leave ten thousand people to die because you feared the deaths of one hundred?

I could understand feeling guilty over the deaths of a hundred people. I cared more about money I'd lost than money I'd won too. It was human instinct.

But why did they stop thinking about it when they were within the Celestial God? The Celestial God was the same. It would sacrifice ten thousand people for a hundred million.

Chiwoo answered my question with a clouded expression.

[We are not superhumans like you. We are old, dull, foolish, and weak.]

[Sob... Even Demon Gods cannot know everything... And we are not invincible either... When hundreds of people press me, I cannot cast them all aside and run away...]

[Even a genius of the century like the Lord of Gold met a tragic end and became a calamity. It would be strange to believe we would be different.]

Even a Demon God was only one human before dying. They were weak, shaken, and frustrated. They could not make the right choice every time. Even decisions believed to be right at the time were full of mistakes in retrospect. They had to live their entire lives amid doubt and worry.

Rather than do that, they had chosen to become part of the Celestial God.

[You have seen it too, have you not? The end reached by a human who gains the power of a Demon God.]

[Power beyond one's means is bound to overflow...]

[If only to keep from ruining this world, we will remain under the Celestial God's name.]

The Demon Gods who had become the Celestial God declared this stubbornly.

Footnotes:

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