WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 289: Episode 54: Demon King Slayer (3)

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[Archangel!]

Demon King Ose stared at me with such shock in his eyes that he looked ready to faint. The Constellations affiliated with Absolute Evil were no different.

To them, Eden's Archangels were the worst possible opponents.

Two Archangels had manifested at the same time. It wouldn't have been strange for them to collapse in shock.

[Why is an Archangel here? Most of Eden's angels should have died after “that incident”!]

The moment I heard that mutter, I realized something.

This was the world of the 1,863rd round.

Gabriel and Jophiel wouldn't know what had happened in this round yet.

[■damn, what kind of bullshit is that?]

Gabriel's constellation's declaration rang out as if she had been waiting for it. Like Uriel's friend, she had a filthy mouth. Before things got worse, I intervened.

“Gabriel. We don't need to listen to their nonsense. Let's deal with them quickly!”

[Don't rush me, you arrogant human.]

There was one part of that statement I wanted to object to, but I decided to follow it for now. Gabriel's power was descending throughout my body.

[I am Archangel Gabriel.]

I felt a swelling of Status that made my hair stand on end.

At last, I would hear Gabriel's primary fable.

[I have been sent to speak to you and bring you this good news.]

Of course, that “good news” only applied when Gabriel was on the same side.

[Don't be afraid! They're only remnants who have lost their stronghold, even if they are Archangels!]

Demon King Ose encouraged the Constellations. Yet even as he shouted that, his figure was already rapidly moving away.

Just as the Constellations cried out and charged at me with their constellation artifacts,

[This concerns the appointed end.]

Gabriel's fable, "Revelation of the End," began.

「The ram you saw had two horns, and the great horn between its eyes was its first king.」

Golden strings flowed through the radiance surrounding my body. My body swelled along those strings. Like a ram in rut, power overflowed through my entire body. Snow-white horns rose one after another from where the demon king's horns had grown.

Tzzzt, tzzzzzzt!

[U-uaaahhh…….]

The Constellations affiliated with Absolute Evil were terrified just from seeing those horns. A few dropped their weapons like helpless Incarnations, while others screamed and charged at me.

[Aaaahhh!]

Like moths that had foreseen their own deaths.

「He shall grow strong, but not by his own power.」

Six wings erupted from my back, giving off brilliant flashes as attacks from fabled-grade Constellations rained down on me.

Yet I wasn't hurt at all. Solid metal summoned before my eyes neutralized every kind of attack.

It was a weapon a giant race might use.

A white snake climbed the shaft, and a dazzling spearhead resembling a cross was lodged in its mouth.

This was Gabriel's divine spear, "Scales of Favoritism."

I grasped the spear's handle.

For an instant, it felt as though the world had tilted. Every being nearby was placed upon a balance. One side was on this pan, the other on that pan.

When I turned my head, Gabriel was smiling.

Her palm rested on my shoulder.

「He will cause terrible destruction and destroy the mighty and the holy people.」

The spear became a dazzling ray of light, and I hurled it with all my strength. Then part of the world was erased. The Constellation attacking me from the sky, the one rushing in from the side, even the one who had lost the will to fight and sat on the ground.

They vanished as if they had never existed.

Only the lifeforms on this pan remained. This was the true power of an Archangel.

Gabriel spoke in a dissatisfied voice.

[I let one get away. A single petal has its limits.]

Demon King Ose, who had foreseen the danger, was already fleeing in the distance, no more than a speck. He knew well that a low-Status demon king couldn't face an Archangel alone. But Jophiel wasn't about to let him go.

Kuwaaaaaaah!

Red mist formed behind me and covered the sky as it pursued Ose.

The whole sky screamed as if it were in pain. It looked like red mist, but each part was made up of tiny soldiers, together forming an enormous army.

Eden's 503rd Unit dyed the surrounding skies red.

They were blood-red elite soldiers who followed the Commander of the Red Cosmos.

[Kuaaaaaaack!]

Crimson thorns rose from within the blood-red mist that rushed forward like piranhas. A terrible scream rang out in the distance, and the soldiers of heaven held a festival of blood. Soon, all sound around us fell silent. The demon king's Incarnation body, torn to shreds, flew through the air like debris on the wind.

Gabriel, who had remained silent, moved my foot and crushed the demon king's fragments.

[That was nothing.]

[The Constellations affiliated with Absolute Evil are greatly flustered by the appearance of the Archangels.]

[The surviving demon kings doubt the Plausibility of the Star Stream!]

[Some Constellations criticize the Archangels' abnormal intervention…….]

[Shut up, you ■■s.]

The six wings that had stretched out behind me became small feathers and scattered in the wind. I could feel the Archangel's power weakening. My stomach felt a little queasy, but the burden on my body wasn't as severe as I'd expected. It might have been because the 95th Scenario allowed so much Plausibility, or because of the Otherworld Covenant I'd made with Secretive Plotter. Either way, it was good for me.

[It isn't over yet.]

Jophiel, who had manifested through me, still hadn't withdrawn that power. Jophiel continued in a commanding voice.

[Kill that one too.]

Yu Junghyeok was still frozen like a statue.

I hurriedly waved my hands.

“There's no need for that. He's not that bad…….”

[He is Absolute Evil.]

My right eye tingled, and the world began to look different.

[The Stigma Eye of Sin has activated!]

Eye of Sin. It was Archangel Jophiel's Stigma.

[The target's sin value is being measured.]

It was an eye that could see the sins accumulated by every being in the world.

A pitch-black abyss lay where Junghyeok had been standing.

[The target's sin cannot be converted into a numerical value.]

It was darkness without a visible end. The kind of darkness that made me feel faint just by looking into it. Neither Demon King Ose nor any of the other Constellations affiliated with Absolute Evil possessed such sins.

Jophiel spoke.

[His sins have no end. Other than Baal and Agares, I have never seen sins with such density. Even all the sins in this world combined would not exceed his.]

I knew that too. Junghyeok had committed many sins. He had killed many people and destroyed many worlds. Countless vengeful spirits cursed him.

But.

“No.”

There were things he had saved too.

“I can't kill him.”

They might have been no more than dust compared to everything he had ruined.

Still, there were things he had unquestionably saved.

[The Constellation Commander of the Red Cosmos glares at you.]

Under that stinging gaze, I swallowed and spoke.

“He's still useful. We can't kill him now.”

[Demon King of Salvation. The only reason you have been allowed to live until now is because of the Scribe's order.]

“Since you've already spared me, spare one more person.”

When I turned around, Junghyeok's body was trembling faintly. His consciousness was struggling to rise to the surface somehow.

Jophiel looked at him and said,

[If he awakens, there is no guarantee that even I can stop him. We must kill him now.]

Jophiel was trying to raise the mist again.

I sighed inwardly. No matter how I thought about it, this seemed to be the only way.

“If there were a way to keep him from waking without killing him.”

Jophiel's red mist hesitated.

“What if I could prevent him from regaining his original consciousness and control him while he has lost it?”

[You have a way to bind him?]

Just as Jophiel was about to raise that Status again, Gabriel stepped in.

[Jophiel, leave it. We need time to understand the situation too.]

Jophiel thought for a moment before answering.

[If he shows any sign of waking, I will kill him immediately.]

I nodded. Then I walked straight toward Junghyeok.

“Hey.”

The trembling in his body was gradually becoming more violent. I had seen scenes like this several times in the original work. Junghyeok's consciousness would probably awaken in a few minutes. That couldn't happen.

I slowly reached out and seized Junghyeok by the collar, just as he had done to me. He was larger than me, so lifting him wasn't easy.

“L-let go.”

Junghyeok's consciousness, now almost at the surface, began to speak. His hand, filled with killing intent, moved slowly as though trying to grab me.

I knew how Junghyeok could wake from regressor's depression. Conversely, that meant I knew how to make him sink deeper into that sea of depression.

Looking at Junghyeok's trembling hand, I spoke as if casually tossing out the words.

“Remember? The thirty-third round. What Jihye said after clearing the 40th Scenario.”

Junghyeok's eyes went blank, and his moving hand stopped.

「“I wish there wasn't a next round for my master.”」

“Think about it. It wasn't always miserable. Right? Every round had a time when you were happy, even if only briefly.”

Junghyeok's expression stiffened.

“The 173rd round. You protected Earth for quite a long time. You watched Jihye receive her high school diploma, and you saw Seolhwa smile as she held someone else's child.”

「“Junghyeok-ssi, are you happy to be alive?”」

With every word I spoke, Junghyeok's expression crumbled.

It wasn't despair that destroyed Junghyeok.

“The 383rd round. When you finally cleared the 75th Scenario. By incredible luck, no one died in that round. It was the first time that had happened. Hyeongseong said this then.”

「“Junghyeok-ssi, I will never forget today for as long as I live.”」

Memories like small feathers settled one by one in his mind.

“And the 498th round…….”

Junghyeok's hand moved to cover his ears. The usual Junghyeok wouldn't have broken down over something like this.

But this time was different.

Holding both his hands, I continued.

“Such things happened ten times.”

A drowning person sinks deeper under the weight of a single feather.

“Twenty times.”

My breath caught, and my lungs tightened. I could feel exactly what Junghyeok was feeling. Only I could. I could see the deepest darkness within a person greedily swallowing the self.

“A hundred times. It happened more than a thousand times.”

All those worlds had been destroyed. Every happy memory had flowed into a time that could never return. Through countless regressions, the meaning of happiness had faded, and every value he had protected had become scraps of paper.

“Yu Junghyeok.”

Junghyeok's self was sinking into a distant, deep sea. A place he could never rise from without someone's help.

“Did you protect everything you wanted to protect?”

Looking at Junghyeok's vacant face, I thought,

Don't worry, Junghyeok. I'll take care of everything that comes next.

You can rest now.

[Your understanding of the character Yu Junghyeok has increased explosively.]

Junghyeok's empty eyes were spilling out memories that had lost their owner.

I hadn't used [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint], but reading them wasn't difficult.

「I want to die.」

「I want to end all of this.」

「If only I could never wake up again.」

A few drops of rain fell from the sky. It was black rain carrying the bloody scent of demon kings and Constellations. Black water spread across Junghyeok's face as he was struck by the rain. His gaze slowly lowered until it finally fell below mine. I watched a human mind collapse without missing a single moment.

His voice was broken. Junghyeok stammered like a creaking machine.

“W-what... should I... do?”

I released his arms.

“I'll finish your story for you.”

Junghyeok looked up at me with empty eyes. But I wasn't looking at him. In the hazy sky above, a Sub Scenario window that had just finished updating had appeared.

+

Clear Conditions: Kill Yu Junghyeok.

+

I reached for Junghyeok's Splitting the Sky Sword, embedded in the ground.

Footnotes:

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