WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 283: Episode 53: Demon King of Salvation (3)

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Jeong Huiwon muttered.

"...Dokja-ssi?"

Beyond the rays of light emanating from Kim Dokja, a massive eye looked down on the world. The moment Huiwon met its gaze, she trembled from a sensation that nearly drove her mad.

The ground warped, and the earth surged forth like a tidal wave with the shockwaves.

[The 73rd Demon Realm cries out in agony!]

The shattered crust spewed lava, and the overflowing heat vanished once more into the belly of the void.

The entire world centered on the industrial complex was shrinking.

If things were this bad here, it was obvious what had happened to the other industrial complexes.

Tststststst!

The fable-amplified Mana of the Transcendents moved. They couldn't confront that eye directly, but they could delay the shockwaves.

"Hurry up, you stupid Disciple!"

At Kyrios's shout, the space beyond the industrial complex's ramparts warped. The horizon, gnawed away by an enormous fog, disappeared into pitch-black nothingness.

No, it was no longer a horizon.

Even so, Huiwon didn't let go of hope.

If what she had heard was right, the masters and Dokja had already foreseen this situation.

"Mister! What the hell is going on?!"

Cheok Junkyung's Incarnation body had vanished, while Kyrios and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint had been reduced to that state.

Still, there was no way Dokja would have done nothing while the situation deteriorated this badly.

Dokja's lips moved constantly as he muttered something toward the empty air. His eyes darted about as if searching for something in the distant universe.

Huiwon realized it.

Just as they hadn't given up, neither had Dokja.

Dokja slowly descended to the ground. Taking that as a signal, Huiwon shouted.

"Everyone, get ready!"

Lee Hyeongseong, who had activated [Steel Transformation], asked, "Dokja-ssi! What should we do?"

Everyone was looking at Dokja. They didn't know the method, but Dokja must have thought of something.

Dokja slowly blinked and faced his allies.

Over the past few days, Dokja had given them many things.

Hyeongseong had received a new shield, and Huiwon had gained a new skill.

Jihye had focused on strengthening her Mana, while Yuseong and Gilyeong had learned skills to control vast armies. That was why the allies believed.

[The Great Fable Spring of the Demon Realm settles within the owners of the fable.]

With the Great Fable they had built together, and with the plan Dokja had prepared, they could defeat any enemy, no matter how strong.

They were the ones who had even brought down Surya's orbital train. No matter what enemy came...

"Mis...ter...?"

Yuseong was the first to sense that something was wrong.

Tststststst!

Harsh sparks crackled as Yuseong collapsed, as though her knees had given out. Her body wouldn't move at all, as if she were bound by solid chains.

「This is the fable of an only son.」

The Great Fable flowing from Dokja's body became powerful shackles, binding his allies. Hyeongseong's huge body slowly sank to the ground. He looked up blankly and asked, "Dokja-ssi? What is this...?"

Dokja's expression was unreadable.

He was clearly there, yet he didn't seem to be with them.

They had thought they were all together, so why?

Why did that person look as though he were standing there alone?

No fable exists alone.

Dokja's "King of a Kingless World" was connected to Junghyeok's "Successor to the Name of the Supreme King," just as Huiwon's "Excluder of Future Evil" was connected to Dokja's "One Who Scorned a Storyteller."

If even an ordinary fable was like that, it went without saying for a Great Fable that shared a greater story. The Great Fable "Spring of the Demon Realm" belonged to everyone who had taken part in that terrible battlefield.

Yet at this moment, "Spring of the Demon Realm" belonged only to Dokja.

[The Greatest Storyteller of the Great Fable Spring of the Demon Realm begins the story.]

Every share of the Great Fable granted to the allies was being controlled.

Only then did the allies resist by using their shares of the Great Fable.

Huiwon, Sangah, Hyeongseong, Gilyeong, Yuseong...

Yet even if they combined every share they possessed, they couldn't overcome the enormous will of a single person.

It would have been different if Junghyeok had been awake, but he wasn't here now.

Huiwon, collapsed on the ground, cried out in pain.

"Wait! What is this? What the hell is this?!"

Looking up at Dokja's expression, Huiwon finally realized something.

There was an expression Dokja always wore when faced with an approaching crisis. He would lift the corners of his lips in a grin, an expression that was a little irritating but made people feel at ease.

But Dokja's expression now...

Why?

"If this was going to happen anyway, why did we spend the last few days preparing?! What were those skills you gave me for?!"

At Huiwon's desperate cry, Dokja opened his mouth for the first time.

"I taught you those to deal with the Sasquatches in the twenty-eighth Scenario."

"Th-then my shield..."

"It'll be useful when you hunt Algonquin's Serpent in the thirty-fifth Scenario. Don't forget the skill I gave you with it, either. I taught you how to use them all, didn't I?"

As always, there was a reason behind every arrangement. Dokja explained each one to the allies who asked with vacant expressions.

"Then this... This Scenario..."

But none of those arrangements were for this situation.

Darkness had already covered the horizon and was drawing close.

Looking at that darkness, Dokja said, "I'll handle this."

"Fuck! Don't talk bullshit!"

Huiwon was crying.

"I won't let you go! Don't go alone again! Please!"

No matter how strong Dokja was, facing that alone was impossible.

Even two Transcendents and Cheok Junkyung hadn't been able to stop it. There was no way Dokja could deal with such an existence alone.

"Arghhh! No! Dokja-hyung!"

They had become stronger because they didn't want to owe him a debt like last time.

They had endured hellish personal Scenarios and hunted monsters like mad.

Huiwon cried out as though she were vomiting blood.

"You're the one who said we couldn't do it alone! You're the one who gathered us! You're the one who told us all of this!"

An unfamiliar constellation's declaration flowed from Dokja's faintly smiling lips.

[I know.]

"What do you know?! How can someone who knows that...?!"

[But not now.]

Hyeongseong shouted as though he were struggling desperately.

"I don't want this! I don't need this kind of help! I'll die here! I'll die here with Dokja-ssi!"

He would die here.

Dokja, who had been looking at the sky, lowered his gaze and looked over his allies.

[The Constellation Demon King of Salvation looks at his allies.]

They heard the message. They watched Dokja's hair fluttering in the wind, his long-lashed eyes, his glowing white cheeks, and his sorrowfully twisted lips. Only then did they realize that Dokja existed in this world with such an expression.

[Please live.]

As though it were a categorical imperative, they listened helplessly.

[The Demon King Demon King of Salvation has withdrawn his gaze.]

Dokja's form was changing. The Demon King's power, which had slept for so long, was awakening.

[The fable Demon King of Salvation begins its story.]

The fables of the 73rd Demon Realm began gathering around him.

Dokja's pure white coat turned black with demonic energy, and two horns rose from his head.

It was the authority of [Demon King Transformation], which only a Demon King could use.

[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband looks at his close friend.]

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon pays respect to his rival.]

[The Constellation Goryeo's Top Swordsman lets out a resentful roar.]

[The Constellation Exalted God of Light watches the end of the 73rd Demon Realm.]

Pitch-black feathers growing through Dokja's shoulder blades spread wide, as though embracing the night sky. As the second hand of the clock tower moved slowly, Dokja's figure rose.

As if leaving this time behind, the Demon King of Salvation became a beam of light and flew into the sky.

Kwauuuuuung!

The moment Dokja's figure pierced the sky, thunder crashed down. Thunder pealed again and again, and the fog advancing beyond the horizon hesitated.

It was a sight as though time had stopped.

The allies could barely breathe as they stared only at the night sky where Dokja had vanished. The unfinished clock tower creaked, yet it kept forcing time onward.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

Yet no matter how much time passed, Dokja didn't return.

Huiwon screamed.

"Kim Dokja!"

At nearly the same moment, the Transcendents guarding the boundary were thrown from the ramparts.

The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint and Kyrios, reduced to rags, staggered to their feet.

The fog that had hesitated began devouring the world again. Having swallowed the entire horizon, it had already reached the ramparts. The ramparts broke apart and crumbled at the particle level. People screamed.

Huiwon thought.

He hadn't stopped it.

Even Dokja couldn't stop that thing.

The overflowing fog swept over the entire industrial complex.

The next moment.

Tststststst!

Huiwon felt her body being transported somewhere.

Sangah, who had closed her eyes as though resigned, Hyeongseong, who had been roaring at the sky, Han Myeongoh, crouched down with his arms around his legs, and Pildu Gong, who had defended the ruined castle, were all dissolving into white sparks.

Everything in the industrial complex was being transported somewhere.

From beyond the fog came a threatening cry, as though it were enraged.

【■■■■....... ■■■■■■!】

Soon, darkness swallowed everything.

* * *

Yu Junghyeok opened his eyes amid a faint commotion.

The muscles throughout his body wouldn't move well.

The aftereffects of [Recovery] seemed severe.

Looking up at the cracked ceiling, he calmly took several deep breaths.

Then he remembered what had happened.

There had been the Demon King Selection.

He had rejected Regression.

Together with Kim Dokja, he had fought Surya and won.

Once he thought that far, vitality returned to his mind.

He had won. He had really won.

As rough Mana circulated through his body, his mind gradually cleared. His senses slowly returned. When he blinked again, the scene around him gradually came into view.

It was a hospital room.

The feel of a soft bed. He felt something hard against his right hand.

He raised his upper body with a faint groan and saw a small pocket watch wrapped around his arm with its chain.

The moving hands of the watch beat faintly, like his pulse.

For a while, Junghyeok stared down at the watch.

Faint sunlight streamed in through the window. Sunlight far too bright to be from the Demon Realm. Junghyeok slowly rose and approached the window.

Beyond the ruined ramparts of the industrial complex was a scene both unfamiliar and familiar.

The shattered statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the ruins of Gyeongbokgung Palace. Smoke rose between the collapsed mixed-use buildings of Gwanghwamun.

This was Seoul.

Outside the window, he could see his allies collapsed on the ground.

His mind was in chaos. Why was he... Why were they in Seoul? Along with the industrial complex's buildings, no less.

Junghyeok counted his allies with bewildered eyes. One familiar face was missing.

"...Kim Dokja?"

The moment he muttered with an ominous feeling, he heard a message.

[The fable Companions in Life and Death is silent.]

Junghyeok stared blankly at the message before looking outside again.

...He wasn't there.

He was nowhere to be seen.

He looked up at the sky.

A sky so bright it needed no starlight. He counted the lights of the Constellations beyond it. Counted them, then counted again. He couldn't tell.

Were there too many stars for him to find Kim Dokja among them?

Junghyeok spoke in a trembling voice.

[You have used the item Midday Tryst.]

A message window he hadn't used in a long time opened, and a message was sent.

[The message has been returned.]

It had to be an error.

Again and again, he sent the message.

He sent it, sent it, and sent it again.

With every returned message, Junghyeok's gaze slowly lowered.

And at last.

[You have used up all of today's allotted messages.]

With the ticking pocket watch in view, only calm messages filled Junghyeok's sight.