WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 335: Episode 63: End of a Myth (1)

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「(You'll die if you keep this up.)」

The smartphone trembled violently.

As I felt the intermittent waves wash over my whole body, I gripped the phone tightly.

「(The fourth revised version should have been sent, but... I think something went wrong.)」

I knew whose words these were.

The librarians of the Library inside [The Fourth Wall].

The one who had sent this was probably Nirvana.

「(This is all I can do to help. At least part of it.)」

With faint interference signals, sentences flooded across the screen.

They looked like passages that summarized parts of a book.

「This place again...」

It was all too clear whose monologue these were.

This was definitely the content of the fourth revised version.

「I made too many mistakes in the third round.」

「Poseidon's appearance was unexpected.」

「Should I have thought more about the Plausibility issue?」

「I should have considered the relationships between myths more carefully...」

As always, the sentences were filled with regret.

It seemed we had failed in the fourth revised version, too.

「If I had saved Lee Sukyeong instead of Yu Sangah then...」

...

What?

I froze as I scrolled down the screen.

Lightning flashed across it, and every sentence flowing past was erased.

I cried out urgently.

"Wait, wait! Show me that again! What did that mean just now?"

The sentences didn't return.

「(Kim Dokja, Fate can't be changed. But-)」

「Sh ut yo ur mo uth, Ni rva na.」

Tzzzt!

[The Exclusive Skill The Fourth Wall has forcefully activated!]

The power of [The Fourth Wall] blocked Nirvana's voice.

The sentences vanished, and my racing heartbeat quickly settled. My overheated thoughts cooled, becoming as precise as a finely tuned clock.

I didn't like this calmness. This wall that wouldn't let me rage when I wanted to, or grieve when I needed to.

"Fourth Wall."

[The Fourth Wall looks at you.]

"Tell me honestly. Is my mother in danger?"

[The Fourth Wall] didn't answer.

Damn it. Sometimes, I couldn't tell whether this guy was on my side or not.

I looked up at the empty air.

"Biyoo."

[Baaat.]

Biyoo appeared in her transparent form, looking down at me with sad eyes.

I tried to say something, then shut my mouth again.

[The Exclusive Skill The Fourth Wall trembles.]

Biyoo lowered her gaze, her eyes welling with tears.

All kinds of thoughts appeared and disappeared in my head. Pieces of the confusing puzzle creaked into place.

The two clues were Junghyeok's return far too early and the expression on his face when he was hiding something.

I'd thought something was strange. The suspicious messages the Constellations had sent me, and the reason Junghyeok had obsessively sought Nectar after returning.

Maybe all of it...

[Hey, kid. Your mother isn't dead yet, so don't worry.]

The voice came from behind me.

[Tch, that wasn't information I was supposed to reveal.]

The person who emerged from the darkness amid tiny sparks was a Constellation I knew well.

"Dionysus."

[It's been a while. Is this the first time we've met face-to-face since the last banquet?]

Dionysus strode over to me, shaking his left hand blackened by Plausibility, then looked outside the coastal cave. One of Olympus's three highest gods stood there, ruling over the surrounding waters.

Poseidon, God of the Sea.

Poseidon didn't move, but a deeply ominous silence lingered around him. Like a predator waiting for the right moment, his eyes rested on the great sea. It was as if he were confirming where his territory began and ended.

[The Plausibility Compatibility Assessment just started, so that old man can't move carelessly. Still, don't do anything rash. That uncle has been looking everywhere for you.]

"You say that, yet you're throwing around constellation's declarations right beside me."

[For now, I'm hiding this place with my power, so it's fine. He can't hear us, can't hear us.]

Looking closer, I saw a barrier like an overturned wineglass spread across the entrance to the cave. It was probably hiding Dionysus and me.

Dionysus continued while looking at Poseidon.

[Impressive, isn't he? That's what a Mythical Constellation is. A star at the very peak of the lofty heavens, a place ordinary Constellations will never reach.]

There was nothing else I could say. He was impressive.

Could Poseidon perhaps stop even the avatar of the Outer God, The Nameless Mist, that had once destroyed the Demon Realm?

「Where his spear reaches shall become the boundary of the sea.」

Where Poseidon's gaze reached, the sea came into being. Every living thing in the ocean trembled before his divine majesty, prostrated itself, and begged forgiveness for sins it might not have even committed.

Something deep in my heart stirred.

[You're incredible.]

"What do you mean?"

[You don't really seem afraid, even after seeing that old man. Why is that?]

Of course I was afraid. My legs were trembling, and I was dizzy.

But more than that...

「Kim Dokja was sincerely moved.」

After admiring Poseidon's majesty for a long while, I answered.

"He's not as impressive as I imagined."

[Imagined? Haha, you're an interesting guy after all.]

"Why are you helping me? You're from Olympus."

[Because I want to.]

"What happened to the others?"

Snap.

Dionysus snapped his fingers, and a screen appeared.

My Allies were gathered high in the sky, impossibly far away.

They were tied up in [Arachne's Web] and floating through the air with [Hermes' Stroll]. Nobody was missing. Even Uriel and Surya, fabled-grade Constellations, were safe.

It was truly a clever escape.

The sky was Zeus's domain. No matter how powerful Poseidon was, he couldn't draw the boundary of his waters through the sky.

Dionysus sipped from his glass.

[Don't worry. Nobody was hurt. Hermes and Ariadne happened to...]

"Can I hit you?"

[Who?]

I stared at Dionysus without a word.

[Me? Why?]

"Do you really have to ask?"

Dionysus quickly caught on.

[Ah, it's because of that Incarnation. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. You can hit me if you want. Just go easy on me... You're a Constellation now too, so it'll hurt a lot.]

I didn't hit him. Instead, I asked, "Why did it have to be Sangah-ssi?"

[It's complicated.]

Dionysus sat on the edge of the coastal cave and set down his wineglass. It took him a little longer to choose his words.

[A peculiar prophecy from the three Moirai sisters was handed down in our worldline.]

"A peculiar prophecy?"

Dionysus glanced at me and answered like an orator from ancient Greece.

[The End of All Things will soon arrive.]

"What does that mean?"

[I don't know. What was certain was that Olympus couldn't escape the prophecy either. Olympus was busy for a while because of it. Every Scenario would eventually reach its end, but we had to know what form that end would take.]

Dionysus continued.

[During that process, we found several singularities related to the prophesied end. One of them was the regressor beside you.]

"Was Sangah-ssi assigned to monitor Junghyeok?"

[To be honest, yes.]

Anger surged up inside me, but I held it down. Dionysus hadn't finished speaking yet.

[While monitoring that guy, we learned of your existence.]

"..."

[An Incarnation who resists Fate, hates Constellations, and doesn't believe in the Star Stream. Someone who chose no Patron, became a Constellation on his own, and whose true identity no Constellation could peer into. You were a singularity unlike anything we'd ever seen. When we found you, we decided.]

Dionysus smiled.

[To hide you, and to use you.]

Faint remnants of a fable clung to his voice. A few memories I had considered lucky until now flashed through my mind.

The Even-Number Bridge, Deus Ex Machina, that had first unfolded at Oksu Station.

And all the instances of Plausibility that had helped me whenever I was in danger.

[We wanted to use you as the key to preventing destruction. So we used the Incarnation Yu Sangah to help you.]

"That's different from what Ares said. That guy wanted to get rid of me."

[The Twelve Seats are already fighting among themselves. I don't know if you knew that.]

Dionysus slowly rose to his feet, golden aura pouring from his entire body. It was a magnificent Status unique to the bloodline of Zeus, king of the sky.

[The current Olympus is fake.]

Dionysus's golden eyes looked down at me as if I were his subject.

[Just as human priests created gods to establish their authority, the gods of Olympus created myths to maintain their power. False myths like Gigantomachia and Heracles... And this is the result.]

[The Constellation God of Wine and Ecstasy looks at you.]

[I want to end this era. And I want to create a new Olympus.]

[The fable King of a Kingless World responds.]

The fable sleeping inside me was responding to his fable.

The Dionysus before me was one of the candidates to someday take Zeus's place.

[That was the plan, anyway... But now that fish uncle has appeared too, there's nothing we can do right now. The Scenario will probably end like this.]

If the Plausibility Compatibility Assessment had begun, there was a high chance that this Scenario would be nullified.

The participants would receive suitable rewards based on their contribution, but this Gigantomachia would be treated as though it had never happened. Poseidon had likely forced the issue for that very result.

Even at the cost of his own Status and his nebula's Plausibility, he was trying to protect Olympus.

"No. There's still something we can do."

[What?]

"I think we can overthrow Olympus through this Scenario. In return for helping you, share some Nectar with me."

[...Nectar? I do happen to have some.]

I snatched the Nectar from Dionysus. Then I dabbed several drops onto my tongue.

[You have consumed Star Relic Nectar for the first time!]

[The Star Relic Nectar, Nectar, responds to you!]

[Olympus's Plausibility has restored your damaged Incarnation body!]

[All your stats and Skill comprehension have slightly increased!]

So this was the power of the Star Relic Nectar I'd only heard about. Even I, whose average stats exceeded 200, could receive an increase from it.

As I tucked the remaining Nectar into my clothes, Dionysus asked,

[Hey, did you forget that you got knocked out in one hit? And you still want to fight?]

"Will you help me?"

[Are you crazy? Even if I helped, no... Even if half the Twelve Seats helped, we couldn't change this situation. Don't you know how strong fish uncle is? Have you still not come to your senses? This Scenario's end is already-]

"The Scenario's end is decided. Is that what you want to say?"

The giant Briareus had said that [Fate] couldn't be avoided.

Ares, the God of War, had said that a Scenario was ultimately only the unfolding of predetermined causality.

Yes, that was true. Maybe they were right.

"If the end is decided, does that mean the process has no meaning?"

[It has meaning, sure. But that's romantic idealism. In the end, it'll only be recorded as a failed fable.]

"Are all failed fables meaningless? Are the fables of those who fight to the end, even knowing they will fail, worthless?"

[Constellations might like those fables. But beings who do that are bound to die.]

"That may be true. But what if someone who sees that fable is influenced by it, and challenges the same fable again?"

Dionysus fell silent.

"Ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times. What if countless Constellations and Incarnations were influenced by that fable and lived stories like it once more?"

Even if failure was foretold, what if stories accumulated about countless beings mustering their courage again and again to fight against their given [Fate]?

What if fables that attempted the challenge again in different ways after witnessing it kept accumulating?

"Would a failed fable still be useless then?"

Stage Transformation wasn't absolute. After all, that myth was merely something someone had created.

The Plausibility of the Star Stream ultimately flowed according to the current desired by many beings. A story desired by many beings would someday be realized.

Dionysus finally spoke, and his voice was strangely excited.

[So you're saying you'll become the first? You'll become the first sacrifice, the torch that overthrows the Scenario?]

"No."

I smiled.

"I'll become the last torch."

[What?]

"Because someone has already failed countless times before me."

I knew. The being who had rushed at Poseidon hundreds, thousands of times to kill him.

So... the being now running toward Poseidon.

Damn it.

Footnotes:

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