WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 251: Episode 47: The Demon King Trials (3)

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Second Revision Update.

That unexpected message made countless thoughts run through my head.

Another revision meant that the future continued to change because of my actions. In other words, the stories I had built after receiving the First Revision had gathered together and contributed to creating another new future.

My heart began pounding at the thought.

Had I succeeded in the third round?

Would I be absent from the fourth round again?

Had Junghyeok reached the ending through the story I changed?

...Why did the author keep sending me things like this?

[The Second Revision is being updated.]

The file hadn't finished updating yet, so I couldn't be certain of anything. I didn't know whether things had improved or gotten worse. What I needed to think about wasn't the direction of the new revision, but what was unfolding right in front of me.

"Sky-Splitting Sword Saint! Are you trying to run away? Are you going to abandon the whole world you've lived in and flee?"

While I had been distracted by TWSA for a moment, the masters had all risen to their feet. The one condemning her most loudly was the Zhuge Clan Head, who had been the first to kneel.

"...Run away? Me?"

"If this isn't running away, then what is it?"

"How amusing, children."

Deep mockery filled her voice. The martial artists responded by shouting in unison and releasing their auras.

Rumble!

Each of them was a renowned master in the First Martial World. Once the Mana of the Clan Heads joined them, threatening waves of Mana began sweeping across the estate. Facing the Clan Heads as they raised their auras, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint slammed her foot down.

"Urgh!"

It was an unbelievable sight. The shockwave spreading from the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's stomp precisely canceled out the Mana waves released by the other side, then struck every master with several times their internal power, inflicting internal injuries.

All of it had happened with one simple stomp.

This was the power of the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint, called the calamity of the First Martial World.

The masters collapsed, spraying blood as they looked up at the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint with resentful eyes.

"S-Sky-Splitting Sword Saint!"

"Please don't abandon us! Please!"

Did they believe that power could stop the destruction? Rather than despair, a trace of hope showed on the faces of the martial artists coughing up blood. As the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint looked down at them with emotionless eyes, the Great Hole in the sky continued to grow larger.

Rumble.

There really was no more time to waste.

"Biyoo."

Biyoo appeared in the air and began opening a portal. The problem was its location. No matter how I looked, there was no portal around us.

Hayoung, who had located the portal through the [Hundred-Mile Eyes] learned from the Unidentified Wall, spoke.

"...It looks like the portal opened over there. Don't tell me we have to run all the way to the plaza?"

The plaza Hayoung pointed to was where we had first arrived when we came to Blue Dragon Castle. I urged Biyoo.

"Biyoo. Can't you move the portal over here?"

[Baang.]

Biyoo shook her head with a gloomy expression.

Maybe an independent dokkaebi had limits in situations like this. Or perhaps it was because Biyoo was still a baby dokkaebi.

In the end, we had to return to where the portal we had first passed through was located.

Barking rang out from behind us. When I turned around, the Sky-Splitting Divine Dog was poking their head out of the passenger seat of the X-grade Ferrari.

"Get in, quickly!"

Myeongoh called out to us from the driver's seat. We quickly climbed into the vehicle.

"Let's go."

The Mana engine of the X-grade Ferrari roared. The masters chasing us used their movement techniques to pursue us, but no matter how skilled they were, they couldn't keep up with Mass Production Maker's newest creation.

[10 minutes remain until the Destruction Scenario begins.]

The landscape of the First Martial World passed outside the window.

The sky had turned red. Fragments like meteorites were falling from the Great Hole. Shops burst apart from the shockwaves, and martial arts schools were engulfed in flames. The massive spires led by the Clan Heads of the Five Great Families were paying the price for challenging the sky.

"Aaaahhh!"

Collapsing buildings shook the earth. Some people were trapped beneath the rubble. Martial artists clutched dying people and wailed, while others dragged them along and shouted that they had to run. Some had given up on everything and simply sat where they were.

And as though turning a page, I watched a world fall.

Once, Asmodeus had said this.

"Scenarios are small destructions meant to prevent a greater destruction."

How many more destructions would I have to endure before this whole story ended?

When I turned my head, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint and Junghyeok were watching the same sight.

"Run! Quickly!"

"But...!"

Young martial artists' voices carried in from outside the window. A man and woman wounded by falling fragments looked around with pleading eyes. Myeongoh hit the brakes first, and Hayoung spoke next.

"Can't we give them a ride?"

I had known Hayoung would say something like that.

Still, I shook my head.

"No."

Myeongoh stepped on the accelerator, and the view began moving again. Hayoung asked in a faintly resentful voice.

"...There's plenty of room in here."

"We can leave because we came from outside this Scenario. They can't."

"But master is from here too, and she can leave with us."

"She's different."

I glanced at the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint as I spoke. She had inherited the blood of the giant race. Since she hadn't originated from the Scenario of the martial world, she could receive other Scenarios even after leaving this place.

The martial artist man and woman grew distant outside the window.

"They'll die even if they leave this place."

Those born here, who had received only the Scenarios of the First Martial World, couldn't leave it. If they escaped anyway, they would only receive the Exile Penalty and disappear at once.

Helplessness settled over Hayoung's expression.

"That's..."

I knew how Hayoung felt. I had lived with that feeling for a long time too.

Before the crisis of a world, all someone could do was turn the world's page.

[8 minutes remain until the Destruction Scenario begins.]

[A fable of destruction is descending.]

The blackened sky flashed. More than four tentacles had now crossed through the Great Hole. Hayoung and Myeongoh trembled just looking at the growing hole, while Junghyeok let out a low groan.

The hair on my skin stood on end as well.

「Kim Dokja thought. I can't stand against something like that.」

I understood anew who I had to fight and what kind of power I needed to gain in the future.

That was probably one of the Great Fables too.

A fable I couldn't handle yet.

The fable descending to end a world was completely different from every fable I had known so far.

【Pitiful slaves of the Scenario, there is nowhere to run.】

Every window in Blue Dragon Castle shattered at the resounding declaration.

【Destruction will pursue you.】

Even Mass Production Maker's vehicle trembled under the impact of the declaration.

[5 minutes remain until the Destruction Scenario begins.]

"The portal!"

Fortunately, we reached the portal in time.

All that remained was to escape.

"Let's go."

We had obtained the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint and made a reasonably successful debut at the Gourmet Association. I had accumulated enough coins too. The ending left a bad taste in my mouth, but there was no solution available to me now. The First Martial World was a world destined to be destroyed someday, and there was no way I could stop that destruction, whether it happened now or later.

Then the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint got out of the car.

"Sky-Splitting Sword Saint?"

Her expression was still unreadable. Yet I didn't need to read it to know what she was thinking.

[All martial artists of the martial world, gather at Blue Dragon Castle Plaza immediately.]

A Lion's Roar rang out as though challenging the Outer God. Her majestic internal power was reminiscent of a Constellation's declaration. The fleeing martial artists all turned toward her voice.

"S-Sky-Splitting Sword Saint!"

"It's the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint!"

For a moment, the martial artists' joy and my despair crossed paths. I got out of the car and shouted.

"Wait!"

I was confused. Why had the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint made this choice? Was it because of what I had done?

A thought flashed through my mind.

Could the Second Revision be updating now because the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint would...

[The Second Revision is being updated.]

I clenched my teeth.

The Second Revision hadn't arrived yet.

"Sky-Splitting Sword Saint! You have to come with us!"

If she stayed here, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint would die.

Then she answered.

"Young Constellation, one tree does not make a forest."

The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint spoke to me with a terribly ominous opening.

"Then have you ever considered how many trees must gather before they become a forest?"

Of course I had never thought about something like that.

Instead, I could see tiny trees breaking beneath the falling meteorites. Tiny trees whose existence I hadn't even known because enormous trees had covered them.

Those trees were calling out to the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.

"S-Save us. Please save us!"

I had forgotten what kind of person the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint was.

「Her chivalry is so fair and righteous that it sometimes makes the justice of others seem pitiful.」

Every Transcendent had one thing they could never yield, and for the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint, that was chivalry. Yet even if I understood her justice, I couldn't accept her actions.

Just as several trees didn't make a forest, one tree couldn't stop a landslide.

"Have you forgotten our promise? You said you would help me if I let you meet your kin."

"I remember. And I will keep it."

The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint answered while looking at the sky.

Since the true Great Apocalypse hadn't begun yet, the Most Ancient Ones wouldn't appear. Still, the being beyond that hole was undoubtedly a godhood of primordial lineage. At the very least, something comparable to the One Who Devours Dreams that Junghyeok and I had caught back then was coming.

"After I stop them here, I will find you."

...Could the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint defeat something even Cheok Junkyung's Three Swords had failed to bring down?

"Master!"

Junghyeok finally stepped forward. The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint remained resolute.

"Leave. The teachings of this round are over."

"I need you."

At those sincere words, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's eyes wavered faintly.

"Those are very tempting words. If only this were not the situation."

"I couldn't clear the forty-sixth Scenario alone. You have to be there..."

With that one sentence, I realized anew what the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint meant to Junghyeok.

The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint smiled faintly at Junghyeok.

As though she found such a disciple admirable. The enormous Sky-Splitting Sword Saint covered Junghyeok's head with her hand like a lid.

"You aren't alone."

As she said that, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's eyes rested on me for a brief moment.

"I will stop this destruction."

The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint understood Junghyeok as well as Junghyeok understood her. That was why she knew exactly what to say to send him away.

"Stop the destruction of the world."

"Sky-Splitting Sword Saint...!"

"Go now."

Junghyeok didn't move. The bundle of emotions pouring from his mind passed directly to me.

[1 minute remains until the Destruction Scenario begins.]

In the end, I pulled Junghyeok away. I didn't want to leave like this either, but if we made the wrong choice, the third round would meet its end here.

"...We have to go, Yu Junghyeok."

He stood frozen like a stone statue and wouldn't budge, so Hayoung and Myeongoh finally stepped in. They dragged Junghyeok into the car, and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint looked at me.

"Take good care of my disciples."

The Sky-Splitting Divine Dog barked from where they were trapped in the car. Junghyeok stared this way with a completely vacant expression.

"You should go too."

She had always looked down from above, but now she was looking at somewhere higher than herself. Then the sky looked down at her.

【There is an amusing creature here... Who are you?】

That exalted Outer God was asking a creature's name. Even ordinary Constellations would have been overwhelmed by such a situation, but the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint spoke without retreating a single step.

[I am the god of this martial world.]

As though she wanted her departing disciple to hear it.

The solitary great tree that had protected the forest for so long declared herself to the sky.

[I am the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.]

Footnotes:

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