WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 332: Episode 62: Gods' Natural Enemy (3)

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The air twisted as a portal opened.

[The Constellation Queen of the Darkest Spring watches you.]

I had secured the right to use Pluto from Hades. For this Gigantomachia alone, I could use Pluto freely.

[Hahahahat, Grasshopper Man! You memorized that activation phrase pretty well for someone who hates it, huh?]

Kim Namwoon's playful voice echoed out.

However, the Colossus didn't appear immediately. Beyond the swirling portal was nothing but the black darkness of a bottomless abyss.

[But wait ten minutes. The summoning circle on this side is broken, so I don't think I can get over there right away. The giants have been stomping around too much...]

Damn it.

Heracles exhaled white steam and stared at me with expressionless eyes.

I had no choice. I needed to buy even a little time.

I stepped forward and shouted, "Heracles! Great Hero of the Twelve Labors!"

Heracles looked at me. A red arrow blinked above his head.

[This Constellation is one of Olympus's leaders.]

As expected, he seemed to be one of Olympus's two leaders.

According to myth, Heracles had killed the leader of the giants in Gigantomachia. It was only natural.

Many Constellations in TWSA had said it.

「"As long as Heracles is here, the victor of Gigantomachia will never change."」

The Incarnations seeing Heracles for the first time cheered.

"Ooooooh!"

"Heracles! It's Heracles!"

Heracles, Olympus's great hero who had left behind countless transmissions and myths.

Though his fables echoed throughout the Star Stream, only a handful of Incarnations and Constellations had ever actually seen him.

All that circulated were stories that he was a demigod born of a god and a human, that he possessed a body forged from steel, and that he was Olympus's guardian.

[The fable One Who Strangled the Nemean Lion begins its story.]

[The fable One Who Beat the Giant Boar begins its story.]

[The fable One Who Subdued Cerberus with Bare Hands begins its story.]

...

Enormous fables rippled over Heracles's entire body. One glance was enough to tell they were insane fables. Every one of them was at least Legendary-grade. Even the Status of the Great Fable he had accumulated was on a completely different level from mine.

Still, I hadn't entered this game without knowing that.

"It seems the Star Stream's rumors can't be trusted after all."

At my provocative words, Heracles's house-sized fist flew toward me.

[Exclusive Skill, Bookmark, has activated!]

[Miniaturization] and [Electrification] activated in the briefest instant.

Heracles's fist grazed the top of my head, smashing the ground where I had stood and leaving behind a crater.

Even as I shuddered at that absurd strength, I didn't stop provoking him.

"Still, you're decent at throwing punches. Though it's a little suspicious that you subdued the giants with only this much."

Something like a resentful cry came from inside Heracles's body.

"I know several transmissions about you. That you caught the Nemean Lion, that you cut down the Hydra, that you hunted the Stymphalian birds... They're fables so unbelievable that one person could accomplish them in such a short time."

At last, a constellation's declaration burst out from inside Heracles.

[That's right. I am Heracles!]

The voice sent chills through me just from hearing it. Its Status undoubtedly rivaled the Twelve Seats.

But that only strengthened my certainty.

"I heard you were born for Gigantomachia. Your Twelve Labors were all trials given to secure victory in Gigantomachia."

[A few Constellations are interested in your story!]

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire is worried about you.]

Perhaps my words had struck a nerve, because Heracles beat his chest with both fists. It was quite a sight when a monster over twenty meters tall did something like that.

I continued, "One of my close companions once raised this question after hearing your story."

Suppressing the anger boiling inside me, I went on.

"Heracles was originally a human born after the era of the Great Deluge. Then how could he take part in Gigantomachia, which occurred before he was even born?"

The one who had said that was none other than Yu Sangah.

The Constellations in the channel began murmuring.

Heracles glared at me and made a constellation's declaration.

[Insolent bastard! Are you saying this Heracles lied?]

"Yeah. Not just you, but all Twelve Seats."

Heracles fell silent at my immediate answer.

"You made too many false fables. You even manipulated the chronology."

Clear confusion appeared on Heracles's face.

"I was stunned too. If you keep spouting nonsense like you people do, over and over and over... one day, it can become a real fable."

A lie repeated for a thousand years, two thousand years. Tens of thousands of years.

"Once it becomes a fable, you can even insist that something which never existed had always been there... Aren't stories strange?"

[I am Heracles! The hero of Gigantomachia and the symbol of Olympus!]

"Maybe that was true in some worldline. Somewhere in another worldline, there might really be a hero who beat down the Nemean Lion and the Hydra."

[The Constellation Secretive Plotter smiles with interest.]

As I said that, I looked up at the sky.

I recalled the countless rounds of Yu Junghyeok I had glimpsed while traveling through the 1,863rd round.

"But not this worldline. A hero like Heracles doesn't exist in this worldline."

[You bastard!]

"Because Heracles is the name of the Fable Weapon you created."

Zeus, god of lightning, had sown his seed in preparation for Gigantomachia. And as always, "seed" here was a metaphor.

Fearing the giants' resurgence, Zeus had crossed worldlines and collected all kinds of heroic fables.

「Nemean Lion」

「Golden-Horned Hind」

「Cretan Bull」

「Nine-Headed Hydra」

...

He gathered those fables and created a single person.

That person was soon formed into a Fable Weapon. A being created solely to fight giants, using human souls as fuel.

A weapon that was the terror of the Star Stream, one that had inspired fear of slaughter on countless battlefields.

"Colossus Heracles."

[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband is startled.]

[The Constellation Bald Army General is enraged by Olympus's atrocities!]

[The Constellation Queen of the Darkest Spring turns cold.]

[The Constellation Advocate of Justice and Wisdom's pupils tremble.]

[Multiple Constellations are shocked by Heracles's true identity!]

Most Constellations probably hadn't known this story.

Of course they hadn't. This was the truth known only to me, who had read TWSA, and some of the Twelve Seats who had created Heracles.

[Multiple Constellations have entered channel #BY-9158!]

As the number of Constellations in the channel rapidly increased, Biyoo gave a small whine.

[Multiple Constellations question Gigantomachia's identity!]

At last, the stage I wanted was almost complete.

[Heracles's mythological identity is wavering.]

[Heracles's true identity affects the Stage Transformation's reenactment.]

I glared at Heracles.

[Exclusive Skill, Reading Comprehension, has activated!]

[You have grasped the opponent's approximate fable composition through an Attribute effect!]

「The god of war born solely for war」

「With Fear in his right hand and Anxiety in his left」

「Wherever he pushed through the Struggle before him, he left Discord behind」

The fables of a Constellation flowed out from within Colossus Heracles's massive body. They weren't Heracles's fables.

Heracles was a Colossus. That meant someone was riding inside him.

And I knew who that was.

I made a constellation's declaration with a mocking smile.

[O Ferocious God of War! Were you a coward who hid behind a Colossus to fight?]

A tremendous gale erupted from Heracles's entire body. The heroes and Constellations locked in fierce battle nearby were blown back dozens of meters in an instant. If I hadn't been using [Way of the Wind] through [Bookmark], I would've been sent all the way to the horizon.

Ares spoke.

[In Olympus, those who talk too much have always come to bad ends. Oedipus and Prometheus. No one was an exception.]

Despite the vicious aura he radiated, Ares, the Ferocious God of War, made his constellation's declaration in an unexpectedly calm voice.

[And you talk more than anyone I have ever seen.]

Heracles strode toward me and brought his fist down.

The ten minutes were up.

Colossus Pluto descended from the air and caught Heracles's fist.

I leaped into the air and slipped into Pluto's cockpit.

[Colossus Pluto confirms your boarding.]

[Colossus Pluto has confirmed the master's Constellation.]

[Colossus Pluto and your fables synchronize.]

The Colossus's embrace comfortably wrapped around my entire body. It felt as if soft muscles covered me from head to toe. When I opened my eyes, I saw exactly what the Colossus saw.

The power of a Fable Weapon completely enveloped my Incarnation body.

This was one of the strongest Fable Weapons in TWSA, Colossus Pluto.

[Blech! Ugh! Blech! It feels like a parasite got inside my stomach!]

While Namwoon made a fuss, Suyeong spoke to me through Midday Tryst.

―Hey, can you do this? Even if they're both Colossi, that one's Heracles. All you've got is Kim Namwoon.

A Colossus's rank was determined by the quality of the soul used as its material. The soul originally meant to serve as Pluto's engine wasn't Namwoon's.

In other words, the current Pluto was far weaker than the Colossus Pluto of the original story.

―Kim Namwoon is pretty useful too.

―This is completely different from when we destroyed the Factory in the Demon Realm!

―Do you think I don't know that? I can do it anyway.

―Are you serious?

―Normally, it would've been impossible... but I learned something from you.

―What?

I charged at Heracles. Enlarged to match Pluto's height, Heracles rushed at me as well. Four hands collided, and the enormous wind pressure created whirlpools across the sea.

Ares looked genuinely surprised by Pluto's power, which rivaled Heracles's.

[A Colossus? Where did you get that?]

"I went around scamming people here and there, just like you."

From immediately after the Demon King Selection until I went to the 1,863rd round.

I had been preparing for this Gigantomachia all along.

It was a chance for a newborn nebula to secure a firm position, and a chance to send a proper warning to the bothersome great nebulae.

「Kim Dokja read TWSA, over and over again.」

The future had become uncertain because I had changed the original story. That didn't mean I could use 「Predictive Plagiarism」 like Suyeong of the 1,863rd round. Creating future developments that could be predicted was something only a Writer like Suyeong could do.

Han Suyeong of the 1,863rd round had said:

―What are you talking about? You're a reader.

A reader.

Someone who read and appreciated a writer's work.

―Author, isn't the research on the Olympian Seats a little lacking? Ares is much more impatient and contemptuous of humans than he's portrayed to be...

―Besides, if it's like this, the Plausibility the Twelve Seats can individually use...

And someone who made a story together with the writer.

Kwwaaaang!

Heracles's fist struck Pluto's head, and Pluto's fist exploded against Heracles's chest.

Amid the continuing barrage of blows, the thoughts I had while reading TWSA flowed through my mind.

―I think the Constellations who descended into lower Scenarios are at too much of a disadvantage...

I wasn't a Writer. I couldn't do what Suyeong did.

But I knew the flaws in this original story better than anyone.

Maybe even better than the author who had written the novel.

[The game ends here.]

The aura radiating from Colossus Heracles changed. The immense strength that had crushed a lion's head gathered in the Colossus's arms, and Heracles's constellation artifact, Heracles' Club, was being summoned.

I prepared for a decisive clash as well.

[Great Fable, Spring of the Demon Realm, begins its story!]

[The Demon King's Status has been unlocked!]

The White Pure Star Energy born from [Electrification] and the Demon King's Status. On top of that, the Great Fable of Kim Dokja Company was added.

I unleashed every fable I had kept hidden until now. Thanks to Pluto's buff effect, the fables I released were amplified to an enormous level of Status.

Ares was astonished.

Of course he was. I was truly overdoing it.

Tzzzzzzz!

My Status was still far too lacking to face the Twelve Seats.

However, after visiting the ninety-fifth Scenario, the total amount of my Status had grown so deep that it couldn't even be compared to that of Incarnations or Constellations of the same rank.

At least deep enough to surpass the limits of the sixtieth Scenario.

[The Status you are releasing has exceeded the Scenario's limit!]

After the sixtieth Scenario, the plausibility storm was fiercer beyond comparison. If I made a mistake, I might suffer the Calamity of my Incarnation body vanishing the instant my Status manifested.

I endured the sparks and gritted my teeth.

Olympus had used too much extra Plausibility on me until now. There was almost no Plausibility left for them to use in a large-scale Scenario like Gigantomachia.

In fact, Ares's Status wasn't rising beyond a certain point.

[Idiot! If you do that, you will die too!]

[I will.]

I looked at the retreating Ares and said,

[But you will die first.]

I looked down at Pluto's empty right hand. The power of a Colossus was so overwhelming that most weapons couldn't withstand its impact. I needed a weapon that could at least rival Heracles' Club.

And luckily, I had such a weapon.

A weapon I had saved for this moment for a very long time.

[Come, Steel Sword Emperor.]

Footnotes:

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