WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: ChaoticRain

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Chapter 154: Episode 30: Dark Castle (2)

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Five days had already passed since they entered the Dark Castle 1st Floor. Lee Jihye ran through the castle corridors with the injured Lee Gilyeong on her back, Shin Yuseong keeping pace beside her.

[Tier-5 demonic species Dark Tracker is pursuing you!]

"Run!"

Dodging the scythe a Dark Tracker swung at her, Jihye burned [Demon Slaying]. Blue-flame Mana scattered through the air and ignited, and she ran with everything she had, hauling the kids along.

"Damn it, [taming] doesn't work on them?"

"I can only tame beast species."

"Son of a...!"

Swearing a blue streak, Jihye was in full retreat. The number of demonic species on their tail had easily cleared ten. Tier-5 demonic species were stronger than other beast species. Even one was more than she could handle at her level, and to make things worse, this was an environment where she couldn't properly use her Stigma at all.

She shouldn't have come in.

After Kim Dokja died, the group's morale had shattered completely. Without a center to hold them together, people started acting on their own. Then, as if things couldn't get worse, Yu Junghyeok's whereabouts became unknown right as the 9th Scenario, "Dark Castle," appeared.

When the scenario first started, the dokkaebi had said this:

[This scenario is...... Hm. Haha, you'll probably fail.]

Jihye's reaction to those words had been unlike anyone else's.

Fail? Scenarios had always looked impossible, and they had always overcome them anyway. This time would be no different. That was what she had thought.

"Let's go right now. Let's smash all those bastards to pieces!"

That was what she had thought. Looking back, she had no idea what had made her so reckless. Maybe it was guilt. The kind of guilt over someone's death that she felt she could only erase by cutting down monsters and pushing herself to her absolute limits.

She hadn't been the only one.

Jeong Huiwon, Lee Hyeongseong, the rest of the group. They all felt the same grief. And so, to shake it off, they had stepped recklessly into the scenario zone. Whatever anyone said, they were the strongest Incarnations in Seoul.

But she had realized before long that the decision was a mistake.

This can't be happening. This can't be real.

Jihye's strength didn't work inside the Dark Castle.

The trajectory of [Swordsmanship] that had broken through Level 7 was hardly effective, and [Demon Slaying]'s power only provoked the demons further. Her sword had broken long ago.

"Jihye!"

At Yuseong's shout, Jihye snapped back and dodged the Dark Tracker's blade. She grabbed whatever weapons fallen Incarnations had dropped and burned through skills, using [Swordsmanship], then [ghost walk].

"Sis! Behind you!"

A Dark Tracker fired dark fluid through the air. Lee Gilyeong's small insects came flying from somewhere and took the liquid in Jihye's place. Drenched in the black fluid, the insects convulsed as grotesque cellular mutations tore through them and then exploded. Their sacrifice bought just enough time for Jihye to land a few solid hits on the Dark Tracker.

"Raaaah!"

Craack!

A broken weapon swung, and a Dark Tracker's head went flying. But nine more still remained behind them.

And the Dark Trackers were only the lesser threat. The real one was approaching from beyond them.

The thing was Demon Viscount Nosorock, a demon with what looked like a massive rhinoceros head set atop a human body.

Every time that bulk drew closer, the hairs on Jihye's entire body stood on end. She had never seen a monster like that. In terms of raw individual strength, he probably wasn't as strong as the Catastrophe of the Flood. But where the Catastrophe of the Flood had been the type to restrain its own power, this Demon Viscount had no such restraint at all.

What made it worse was that she herself had grown stronger since then, and now that was working against her. Being able to gauge an opponent's strength was exactly what was feeding her terror. Jihye gripped the hilt and bit down on her lip.

[An Ancient Magic Barrier has formed on the Dark Castle 1st Floor.]

"Sis, over there!"

A blue room had materialized at the far end of the corridor. It was the only place in this Dark Castle where they could rest.

Jihye and the kids sprinted for it with everything they had and barely managed to shake the Dark Trackers' pursuit. The space was tiny, barely seven square meters, but just enough to squeeze three people inside.

[You have entered the Ancient Magic Barrier. A special barrier has activated for 30 minutes.]

Without this safe zone, which activated only three times a day, Jihye and the kids might have already been dead.

The Trackers groaned as they touched the blue barrier and fell back. They tried several times to push through, then seemed to give up and turned away. All except one.

"Why won't that one leave?"

The rhinoceros-like demon. Demon Viscount Nosorock settled onto the floor a few meters away from them, as if he already understood exactly how the barrier worked.

"......It's waiting for us, I think."

The demon's long tongue swept across his lips. Like a gourmet waiting for a fine meal to finish cooking, he watched Jihye and the children. Yuseong shuddered under that skin-crawling gaze.

"What do we do now? We don't have any more beast species to summon."

"We still have 30 minutes. Let's think."

The barrier had formed at the edge of the fortress, so Jihye could look out through a castle window at the scene outside. The special barrier kept her from passing through it, but she could at least see what was out there.

Grrrr.......

Demonic species were pouring out of the Dark Castle's entrance that the group had thrown open. Most were low-grade demons, but even those were too much for ordinary Incarnations. The Dark Castle's demons were devouring Seoul's Incarnations and infecting them.

As a result, a good number of the demonic species visible beyond the fortress walls were people she had once known. Min Jiwon's Hwarang. Nirvana's Salvation Sect members. People she had been on speaking terms with were now wandering the streets as demons, tearing into humans. All of it the result of recklessness. If only... if only they had been a little more careful.

[I did say so, didn't I? The difficulty is on an entirely different level from anything you've faced before.]

Listening to the dokkaebi's voice drift through the air, Jihye understood. The reason she had survived until now wasn't because she was strong.

She had been lucky.

Damn it, damn it, damn it...... Blaming herself for her own recklessness now was too late. The group had entered with no preparation at all and scattered through the Dark Castle's maze, and these two kids were all she had managed to find. What had happened to everyone else? She didn't know. Maybe they were all dead. If only her master were here. No, not her master...

"If Dokja were here......"

Jihye's expression soured at Lee Gilyeong's voice from behind her.

"Stop talking nonsense, idiot. You're hurt, so go to sleep."

Gilyeong, smacked on the back of the head, went quiet again. Unfortunately, there was still one more mouth.

"There's no way he died. I'm not sure why, but that's just the feeling I get."

She was already distressed enough, and these kids kept bringing up someone who was dead.

"He's dead. Forget that ugly face as fast as you can."

At those words said in a fit of irritation, Yuseong gave an unexpected response.

"......I honestly don't get it. Everyone keeps saying that mister is ugly, but what's actually ugly about him?"

The out-of-nowhere question caught Jihye slightly off guard.

They had all been chanting "Kim Dokja is ugly" like a slogan for so long, with constellations even occasionally donating coins for it, that she had never really stopped to question Dokja's ugliness.

"Like, his eyes and nose are kind of vague, and the overall balance of it all......"

The more she tried to explain, the more confused Jihye felt. When she actually thought about it, she couldn't quite pinpoint what was ugly about Dokja.

More than that, she couldn't even picture his face clearly anymore. Like it was hidden behind thick fog. Or like a face that hadn't been finished yet...... Why? Why couldn't she bring it to mind?

"A-anyway, he's not my type."

"......You cried a lot at the funeral for someone who feels that way."

"Obviously I was acting, dummy. The constellations donated a ton of coins back then."

[A few Constellations ask Lee Jihye if she was really acting.]

Jihye bit her lip.

"You've still got a ways to go, sis. A person is more than their face."

"This little......"

Jihye stared at the top of Yuseong's head for a moment, then let out a sigh.

"......I know that much."

It was a small voice, barely audible. Knowing something doesn't mean you can accept it. Jihye, at least, was still that age.

She owed Dokja a great deal and had survived because of him.

She knew it, but she didn't want to admit it. She had wanted to hold on somehow, repay the debt, and be the one who got to act smug about it. See, I'm actually pretty useful too, aren't I. But now that chance was gone forever.

[Ancient Magic Barrier has 1 minute remaining.]

When she snapped back to herself, the barrier before her was wavering. The demonic species were grinning wider. Jihye realized the moment had come.

"Yuseong. Can you carry Gilyeong? When I give the signal, take him and run."

"What?"

"Listen to me."

Someone who had killed a friend to survive had no business saving others. Even so, she wanted to live that way. Because that was the teaching of the one who was gone.

"Go! Run and find someone to help! Before I die!"

"......Okay. Hang on just a little, sis."

There was no one else to find.

But she had to say it. Otherwise the kid wouldn't leave. The moment the barrier vanished, Jihye hurled herself forward. The startled demonic species flinched, but that was all. In no time they surrounded her and came at her from every direction. Blood spurted from her torn thigh and forearm.

Fssht, crack!

If only there had been a lake nearby. Or even, at the very least, if the connection to her Patron constellation that had gone silent days ago would just come back.

"......I don't want to die."

The trajectory of [Swordsmanship] pushed to its limit began to crumble, bit by bit. The demonic species' grins gleamed. A massive impact hit the back of her head, and her vision lurched violently for a moment. Jihye muttered without meaning to.

"I want to live too......"

It felt like something similar had happened before. What had that been like, back then.

Swooooosh.......

That was when light poured in from ahead. The Dark Trackers' bodies were splitting in two. Like waves parting before a messiah.

Jihye watched the scene as if in a trance. The moment Demon Viscount Nosorock turned in surprise, Nosorock's head erupted in a burst of intense electric current. There was a man standing on the path of light carved by that brilliant discharge.

"Ah, ah......"

Jihye could barely stammer out a sound. He was the person whose face she hadn't been able to remember. His lips were moving, saying something. He was clearly speaking, but she couldn't hear it. She wanted to see. She wanted to hear. The moment she thought that...

The fog that had covered his face vanished, like magic.

He was tearing through demons like an enraged spirit. Jihye didn't know what had made him this angry. All she knew for certain was...

This time, she could clearly see his face.

......So that was what he looked like?

[A constellation yet to receive a modifier is watching you.]

At that message, Jihye let out a small laugh and toppled forward.

Footnotes:

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