WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 323: Episode 61: Gigantomachia (1)

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The atmosphere had grown terrifyingly heavy. Hades remained silent for a long time, seemingly lost in thought. I tried to hide my anxiety.

「Kim Dokja thought. This was the first hurdle.」

Hades finally spoke when the increasingly oppressive air around us reached its peak.

[The true Gigantomachia, is it? Do you know what that is?]

“I do.”

Gigantomachia, hosted by the massive nebula Olympus.

A Star Stream festival where they released five or six lower-ranking giants imprisoned in Tartarus, hunted them down, and relished an old sense of victory.

Hades said,

[The war ended long ago. Both Titanomachia and Gigantomachia ended in the gods' victory.]

Hades was right. The real war had ended thousands of years ago.

[That is already settled history. What meaning is there in summoning it again? Why do you wish to raise Gigantomachia?]

“I'd rather ask you. Why do the Constellations of Olympus keep creating a false Gigantomachia?”

Hades pressed his lips together. I knew the reason.

“Why give that Scenario the name Gigantomachia when they summon giants defeated in Scenarios, kill them, and poorly reenact that ancient battle?”

Rumbblee!

The Status Hades released made my knees tremble. Persephone, standing at a distance, looked back and forth between Hades and me in alarm.

Just as Persephone was about to speak, I shook my head at her.

We couldn't accept help here. We had to endure with our own strength, without kneeling.

[The Great Fable Spring of the Demon Realm protects the Greatest Storytellers.]

It couldn't compare to Hades's 「underworld」, but we had stories too. Stories we had built with our own strength.

With the power of those stories, I stood against Hades.

“Because they're afraid.”

The massive nebulae were terrifying, powerful beings. They were also the greatest cowards in the Star Stream.

“They're afraid those giants will rise up again. So they drag out the souls of the dead, trample them, then trample them again, reliving that drug-like sense of victory.”

There were many ways to make the real thing disappear. One of them was to create countless fakes.

Worthless, common fakes.

A desperate battle had become a game amid countless copies.

A meaningless story that anyone could laugh at.

Gigantomachia had lost its sincerity long ago.

It had become a Scenario no Constellation truly feared.

I looked up at Hades.

“Father of the Rich Night, how long will you leave the giants of Tartarus as Olympus's toys?”

A being who wasn't part of Olympus, yet was counted among its Three Highest Gods.

I recalled the setting from TWSA concerning him.

「Hades had supplied countless giants to Gigantomachia, but he had never once participated in that Scenario.」

This old king of the underworld must have watched the suffering of the giants trapped in his prison for a long time.

「That was why Hades knew the sorrow of prisoners and understood their pain, like a prison guard reformed by the prisoners.」

“When I visited last time, I saw you preparing Colossi beneath Tartarus. Didn't you prepare them all for this moment?”

[An excessive assumption.]

Hades must have explained the existence of the Colossi to the Twelve Seats of Olympus this way. He was creating them in preparation for the giants starting another war.

But I knew Hades's true thoughts.

“I know you hate the Twelve Seats.”

[...]

“For all that you're called one of the Three Highest Gods, to them, you're only a prison guard who takes on their troublesome burdens.”

The oldest prison guard in the world might not have been any different from a prisoner.

Hades silently looked down at me.

[Gigantomachia is a brutal war.]

“I know.”

[Once the true Gigantomachia begins, the giants won't be the only ones turned into toys of the Scenario. Everyone there will become part of the Great Fable.]

Hades continued, his eyes fixed on destruction far away.

[The dokkaebis will run rampant, and upheaval will come to the Star Stream. The balance of power between the nebulae that has lasted so long will collapse.]

“I know that too.”

[What do you hope to gain by displaying that terrible suffering to the world?]

I wasn't the one who answered him.

[The fable King of a Kingless World begins its story.]

[The fable One Who Opposes the Extraordinary begins its story.]

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

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

Every fable I had built so far was answering in my place.

There was one fable among them that I had never seen before.

[The fable Companions in Life and Death begins its story.]

All stories were bound to flow toward their proper conclusion in the end.

[...A small human dreams a truly astonishing dream.]

“The smaller you are, the bigger your dreams have to be.”

[You know about Stage Transformation, don't you?]

I nodded. I already knew what Hades was going to say.

[The Twelve Seats aren't the only problem. Once the war begins, the ancient heroes who led Gigantomachia to victory will reappear. The moment they clash with the giants, Stage Transformation will begin, and history's tragedy will repeat itself.]

“There are heroes on this side too. A hero who really loves smashing stages.”

Junghyeok frowned when our eyes met.

Hades spoke again.

[One crucial problem remains.]

“You mean the main cast who will participate in the stage.”

I looked down at the palace floor. The old protagonists of Gigantomachia would be waiting for me beneath this ancient prison.

[Do you think they will want Gigantomachia?]

“The ending of this Gigantomachia will differ from the one they know.”

I smiled faintly.

“And if they don't want it, we'll make them want it.”

* * *

After Kim Dokja disappeared, Han Suyeong was busy trying to calm the companions.

“Do they think I'm their babysitter?”

Gilyeong and Yuseong were sitting on the ground, while Hyeongseong crouched his huge body between the children and muttered under his breath.

Suyeong sighed and urged them on.

“Hey! Get yourselves together! Junghyeok went with him this time!”

Of course, it didn't work.

“Dokja hyung... Dokja hyung is gone again...”

“I should've locked him up again back then...”

While Jihye and Seolhwa comforted the children, Suyeong clutched her aching head and thought about the problems before her.

Kim Dokja and Junghyeok had been taken away, so she would have to handle the preparations for Gigantomachia over the next week.

“Fine. First, I'll change the company name. To Han Suyeong Corporation...”

[A message has arrived through the Unidentified Wall.]

It was a message from Hayoung.

“Hey. Han Suyeong, you doing okay?”

It had been a while since Hayoung had contacted her, so Suyeong immediately came to her senses. Come to think of it, the Transcendents' party should be returning soon.

“Where are you guys right now?”

“We're about to head back to Earth.”

“Can't you get here faster?”

She finally had someone to vent to, so Suyeong began pouring out the frustration that had built up through the Unidentified Wall. Everything that had happened and everything the companions had gone through...

Suyeong normally didn't talk much about herself, but strangely, she tended to become talkative whenever she spoke through this Wall. It felt almost as if she were receiving counseling.

“So, to sum it up, Kim Dokja came back and then disappeared again?”

At that moment, the window widened, and the Wall's message window changed into a screen.

Hayoung and the Sky-Splitting Divine Dog, barking loudly, appeared beyond the screen.

“Why are you only telling me that now? When did Kim Dokja even come back?”

“That's not the important part right now...”

The next moment, harsh static crossed the screen, and someone else took over the conversation.

At first, Suyeong thought a bug had landed on the screen, so she waved her hand at it. Then she realized the bug was talking.

“My disciple has returned, you say?”

A tiny figure sitting atop the wildly barking Sky-Splitting Divine Dog shouted in a stern voice.

“Show me that bastard at once. As the leader of the White Purity Sect, I shall severely punish that brat for failing to seek out his master first...!”

The next moment, someone flicked the bug off the screen with a finger. Then a small mountain appeared on the screen. No, looking closely, it wasn't a mountain.

It was someone's nose.

“Where did that pale bastard go?”

This was probably the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.

Suyeong explained what had happened just moments ago as briefly as possible.

After hearing the entire story, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint thought for a moment before answering.

“If they were taken from Olympus's jurisdiction zone, they must be imprisoned in Tartarus. Then there's no real need to worry.”

Suyeong was a little surprised by that calm voice. Before she could say anything, though, the enormous nose looked elsewhere and murmured wistfully.

“I wonder if they're doing well.”

* * *

Junghyeok and I were immediately thrown onto the first floor of Tartarus.

Persephone tapped my shoulder playfully.

[Demon King of Salvation, persuading the giants won't be easy.]

“You look like you're enjoying this.”

[It's been a while since something this big happened in Olympus. I could help you a little behind my husband's back, but that wouldn't be any fun, would it?]

“If you help us, that would be great for us...”

[Seek the protection of your stories, Demon King of Salvation.]

I had expected her not to help. Officially, the underworld couldn't participate in this Scenario.

If the underworld declared its participation in Gigantomachia, the scale of this war and the Plausibility limit would grow out of control. This war had to take the form of a rebellion carried out with the underworld's tacit approval.

We crossed the first floor of Tartarus. Prisoners were still working throughout the floor, making Colossi. A few of them glanced at us, but none showed much interest. They probably thought we were new prisoners.

“Do you think you can persuade the giants?”

“I don't know. That's why we're going to try. And don't talk like it's someone else's problem.”

Tartarus's Underground Prison held beings beyond imagination. Not only giants, but Constellations and Transcendents who had committed every kind of evil while opposing Olympus. Some were monsters that Junghyeok and I could never defeat with our current strength.

“It will be difficult. Even more so with only one week.”

“Don't curse it. If you're not going to help, go meet the person you need to meet.”

Junghyeok glared at me as though asking how I knew.

If my memory was right, the being who taught Gigantification to Junghyeok of the previous round was here.

“I have someone I need to meet too. There's a bastard I need to recruit as a Companion.”

“A Companion?”

“The old me would never have taken him as a Companion, but living through things changes your mind.”

We stopped at the same time. We had no choice but to stop. Something enormous was blocking our path.

“Don't tell me the Companion is that dog?”

A door leading down to the second underground floor. A huge guard dog stood in front of it.

Cerberus, the three-headed monster dog.

I quietly looked up at the dog. More precisely, at the huge Colossus diligently petting its heads. One of Cerberus's heads was barking as it bit the Colossus's forearm.

[Hahaha! Beatrice! That tickles!]

Yelp!

[I said it tickles! You cute little thing.]

Blackish metal armor. In TWSA, it was a Fable Weapon Hades himself had used.

“Hey.”

When I waved, the Colossus turned toward me. It trembled as if startled, then answered in a voice filled with delight.

[Who? Oh, you... Subway Grasshopper Guy? Hahaha! You finally died, huh?]

I gave a bitter smile.

To win Gigantomachia, I absolutely needed that model-kit otaku's help.

“I came to get you, Kim Namwoon.”

Footnotes:

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