WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 295: Episode 55: Happy Memories (3)

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Han Suyeong knew how to kill Yu Junghyeok.

Han Suyeong had just said that.

After hesitating, I spoke.

"You don't have to do something like that. A perfect story isn't the best story."

A tremendous crash erupted in the distance as Junghyeok and Uriel clashed. Light bursting across the sky washed Suyeong's eyes white.

"No. Junghyeok has to die in this Scenario. Only then can the world I want be complete."

"What kind of world do you even..."

"You looked inside my head, didn't you? Can you still say that?"

Another explosion swallowed my voice. It had been a meaningless question from the start. As Suyeong said, I had seen a glimpse of the world she dreamed of.

A utopia without a single flaw. An answer only someone who had understood the original work in a completely different way from me could give.

I turned and watched Uriel and Junghyeok fight. In the world Suyeong dreamed of, the answer to this battle was as follows.

「The Archangel of Flame dies here.」

As if they had been waiting, the others gathered around the battlefield where Uriel and Yu Junghyeok clashed. Jihye prepared [Instant Kill]. Hyeongseong charged [Great Mountain Crush]. Namwoon was also unwrapping his bandages, as if he intended to summon Abyssal Black Flame Dragon.

I gripped Unbreakable Faith. Suyeong noticed my movement and glared at me.

"Wait, you..."

The one who created this world was Suyeong, not Junghyeok or me.

But... so what?

[The Demon King Demon King of Salvation has opened his Status.]

This wasn't the story I wanted to read.

Crack.

Small horns, symbols of a Demon King's Status, protruded from my head. I wanted to manifest wings as well, but the incomplete "Spring of the Demon Realm" couldn't raise that much Status.

Suyeong looked surprised, but she didn't stop me. She probably thought I couldn't stop that fight with my power alone.

I knew that too. But I wasn't alone right now.

"Gabriel, Jophiel."

[The Constellation Lily Blooming in Aquarius looks at you.]

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

"Please help me."

[The Archangel says this manifestation requires more Plausibility than before.]

"That doesn't matter."

Crackle!

The moment I gave permission, the Status of the two angels settled behind me. Pain like my shoulder blades would shatter shot through me as something tore through my skin and grew from my back.

[The Archangel's Status is with you.]

Six wings sprouted through my shoulders, just as they had when I killed the Constellations.

[The Demon King's Status and the Archangel's Status are clashing within you.]

The incompatible fables inside me couldn't mix and screamed. An Archangel's Status overlaid on a Demon King's power. A wave of Status that should have been impossible swept across the battlefield.

"What is that Status...?!"

They had no choice but to be shocked.

Uriel was the only surviving Archangel in this world. Yet the Status they felt from me was unmistakably that of an Archangel.

[The Demon King Lion of the Black Mane is enraged at the sight of you!]

[The Demon King Demon God of Lust and Wrath takes notice of you!]

A Demon King's Status and an Archangel's Status had taken root in one being. Those with fables of good and evil would naturally be stunned. As far as I knew, there had only ever been one being in the world of TWSA capable of creating such a wave.

[Demon King...!]

Uriel sensed my presence and looked this way. Just as I was about to speak to her, Gabriel, who had descended into me, spoke first.

[Uriel! Stop! What are you doing?!]

At Gabriel's grand constellation's declaration, reason briefly returned to Uriel's rage-filled eyes.

[...Gabriel?]

[Have you come to your senses? What's wrong with you? What are you even doing?!]

Gabriel brightened and continued the constellation's declaration through me.

As I watched Uriel's eyes turn cold, I belatedly realized my mistake.

[Look, it's the ones you liked! Yu Junghyeok and Kim Dokja! You were always talking about them to me!]

The moment Gabriel's manifested Status approached Uriel, Uriel opened her lips.

[What are you babbling about, ■■■?]

Gabriel's body froze in midair. Uriel continued.

[So you were alive, Gabriel. And clinging to that Demon King bastard, no less.]

[W-what are you talking about?]

Aaaaaaah!

Uriel's rampaging Mana brought a storm over Gwanghwamun. The flames of [hellfire inferno] turned the area into a hellscape. Yu Junghyeok's coat melted under the intense heat.

Grrrraaaah!

The Nameless Ones caught in the backlash were torn into chunks of flesh and scattered through the air.

I gritted my teeth and shouted.

"Gabriel!"

Gabriel, frozen in shock, finally returned that power to me.

[...You will explain this to me later.]

Honestly, I didn't think I could explain it. I couldn't exactly list every event that had taken place in Eden during the 1,863rd round.

I had no idea what kind of backlash an Archangel from the third round would face upon learning that information, but I couldn't imagine the shock Gabriel would suffer.

After all, Gabriel of the 1,863rd round had betrayed Eden.

"Yu Junghyeok!"

The moment I kicked off the ground, Junghyeok cut apart the incoming flames of [hellfire inferno] with [Sky Splitter Sword Art]. I leaped through the gap in the flames.

Crackle!

Three petals each from Gabriel and Jophiel scattered into the air from inside my pocket. An enormous amount of Status charged through me, and something rose in my throat. Using the recoil from the clashing Mana, I closed in on Uriel at once.

I'm sorry, Uriel.

I seized Uriel's head with both hands. The Mana of [White Pure Star Energy], containing both an Archangel's Status and a Demon King's Status, struck Uriel's head. She frowned in pain, but her momentum didn't weaken at all. Instead, her flames slowly began consuming me. My wings and horns gradually melted in the overwhelming heat. I was the first to let out a groan.

This was the power of Eden's strongest combat angel.

With a cruel smile, Uriel summoned Flame of Karma into her hand. The essence of the hottest flame in the world. A sharply forged blade of fire shot toward my heart.

"Jophiel!"

A tremendous spark flew from my fingertips, and Uriel's entire body was bound by circular shackles resembling a halo. Uriel shouted in shock, and the pure white shackles tightened around her.

Crack.

Uriel's Status rapidly diminished, and the flames covering the area quickly died down.

Uriel was one of Eden's strongest Archangels. No other angel could match her Status when it came to defeating demons.

But what if her opponent was another Archangel?

Archangel Jophiel.

Unlike other angels, whose calling was to defeat demons, Jophiel possessed one additional special ability.

[Shackles of Good and Evil]

Jophiel's Stigma, used to hunt fallen angels, was working against Uriel.

Creak.

The more Uriel tried to release her Status, the more tightly the shackles bound her. Uriel spewed power with choking sounds, but eventually stopped resisting and collapsed.

An Archangel trapped in those shackles would fall into a deep sleep for a week.

I carried the sleeping Uriel in my arms and walked out of the flames with Junghyeok. When the thick smoke cleared, I saw the others watching us. Some stared in shock, others in admiration... and some glared at me with faint hostility in their eyes.

I looked at Suyeong.

"This wasn't part of the world you envisioned, was it?"

"Whether Uriel dies here or not doesn't affect the bigger picture. You saw it too, didn't you? You know my plan is perfect."

Her white coat fluttering, Suyeong walked toward me. She came right up to me and looked up. Looking at my burned angel wings and crushed Demon King horns, she asked, "Kim Dokja, what kind of world do you want? You read that story to the end, so there must be a world you want."

Suyeong's words were a line I knew very well.

「"What kind of world do you want?"」

It was what Junghyeok always said when he recruited a new companion.

"I won't become your companion."

"I need you to complete this story."

Suyeong glanced at Junghyeok and continued.

"And you need to complete a new story too, don't you?"

She spoke as if she knew why I had come to this world.

I looked over the faces of the survivors one by one. Hyeongseong, Jihye, Seolhwa, Yuseong, Namwoon... There had never been a round where all of them survived and made it this far.

But...

"What's new about this story?"

I was looking at Junghyeok.

The only person in this world who had not been chosen. A man who had repeated thousands of rounds to save the world, yet had to die for that world this time.

Suyeong's world was also just a world where someone had to die in the end. Countless worlds like that existed, even if they weren't Suyeong's world.

"You took the original work, changed the order of events, and wrote someone else's name in the protagonist's place."

Some copies might surpass the original work. But they could never become the original work.

"Do you know what that kind of act is called?"

I considered giving her a relaxed smile, but I wasn't in the mood for that either. Suyeong stared at me with blazing eyes.

"This isn't the round you came from. Don't talk so arrogantly."

Suyeong turned away without listening to me any longer.

"I'll give you exactly one week. You'd better make a decision by then. Whether you'll help me or not. That's all I want to hear."

The others followed Suyeong into the building one by one. Seolhwa transported the patients while Hyeongseong helped her. Jihye and Namwoon glanced my way as they walked farther away.

This wasn't my round.

The people in my round would be waiting for me, and I had to kill this world's Junghyeok to return to them.

I looked back at Junghyeok. There he stood, his coat riddled with holes, his eyes still as foolish as ever.

...But was that really the only way?

* * *

When Suyeong opened her eyes in the dark, she was covered in cold sweat. Faint sparks crackled around her body. Her whole body was freezing cold.

Crackle...

Suyeong caught her breath and rose. She hurriedly turned on her smartphone and opened her novel file.

『SSSSS-grade Infinite Regressor』.

「Yu Junhyeon thought.」

「I'm scared.」

「Can't I just stop here?」

Of all things, it had been saved on a page like that. Even so, Suyeong kept reading it. She read it again and again, as if everything written there would disappear if she stopped.

Crackle, crackle...

How long had she been reading? The sparks around her slowly began to lessen. She barely managed to let out a sigh. If she had been any later, her very existence might have been swallowed by the sparks.

It wasn't the first time. A Plausibility Backlash that gnawed away at all her memories. She didn't know whether it was a side effect of overusing [Avatar] or something related to TWSA.

[Star Stream watches the Incarnation Han Suyeong.]

Suyeong bit her lip and slowly stretched. She checked each stiffened joint, from her shoulders to her wrists, one by one.

She could feel the gazes of countless Constellations watching her.

Go ahead and watch all you want. I didn't begin this just to end here.

Once she finished stretching, the biting cold eased somewhat. Suyeong put on her coat and looked out the window.

She saw Dokja and the others.

They had been awkward with each other on the first day, but after only a few days, they had begun speaking casually. It was strange. People who had been filled with distrust after passing through ninety-four Scenarios opened their hearts to that bastard so easily.

Dokja. The variable that had appeared at the end of this plan.

Why had Secretive Plotter sent another covenant holder at this point?

Suyeong didn't know the answer. One thing was certain, though. She had to use Dokja.

Yu Junghyeok stood in one corner of the square, expressionless.

After watching him for a moment, Suyeong jumped out the window. She landed lightly beside Junghyeok and spoke.

"Two days left."

Junghyeok didn't answer. Suyeong slowly turned to face him. His eyes were empty, as if he couldn't hear anything. Looking into those eyes, Suyeong stepped closer.

"Are you really unconscious?"

Suyeong's hand shot out and seized Junghyeok's chin. Junghyeok didn't react at all.

"How ridiculous. Of all times, you had to end up like this... You didn't forget that you promised to die, did you?"

Up close, scars stood out across Junghyeok's face. Marks of a lonelier fight than any he had faced in any other round. Suyeong quietly looked at him. Her expression reflected in Junghyeok's black pupils. A face that seemed sympathetic, yet angry at the same time.

Suyeong released Junghyeok's chin and took out a cigarette. A spark flickered, followed by acrid smoke. In the distance, the others surrounded Dokja and shouted at him about something. Suyeong exhaled cigarette smoke.

"The world really isn't fair. Some people become close that easily after a few words, while others go around and around but never manage to fit in."

"..."

"You should've used the memories you gave me better. You could've done it too. No, forget it. There's no way you could've."

Suyeong ground the fallen cigarette ash beneath her shoe.

"Even if you don't remember, I'm going to kill you, so don't resent me. I did everything you asked me to do."

With those final words, Suyeong walked toward the others. Junghyeok watched her walk away with vacant eyes.

A faint light was slowly returning to Junghyeok's empty pupils.

Footnotes:

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