WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 391: Episode 74: Great war of Angels and Demons (6)

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A recent coastal battlefield flashed through Junghyeok's pupils.

「That day, the spear that drew the boundary of the sea clashed with the Rich Night.」

It was the battlefield of Gigantomachia that he had once seen. There, Junghyeok had witnessed a vast sea and a distant night fighting each other.

Poseidon and Hades.

A clash between Mythical Constellations unfolding before his eyes.

A spectacle of the overwhelming Status possessed by the Constellations reigning at the peak of the vast Star Stream.

Watching that desperate battle, Junghyeok had trembled, been moved, and despaired. Then he rose again. To surpass that distant enemy, he did what he had to do.

This sword strike was a technique created by imitating an enemy he still couldn't surpass.

Sky Splitter Sword Art.

Secret Technique.

Dark Sea Slash.

Junghyeok's sword moved, as though a pitch-black sea were splitting apart.

It was a sword modeled after Hades's scythe as it clashed with the spear of the sea. The blue light of the Aether Blade turned black in an instant, and the Mana erupting from a Transcendent replaced the darkness of the underworld.

Then, in the next moment, Junghyeok's [sky splitter] cut through Anubis's torso.

Graaaargh!

Anubis screamed as a terrifying sword strike tore his body apart and sent it plummeting.

Even in a Scenario in the eighties, it was power enough to bring down a fabled-grade Constellation.

[Many Constellations are astonished by the divine might of the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok!]

The Constellations were shaken by the power of a human who had finally surpassed a Constellation.

[Attack him all at once!]

[Shoot! Kill him!]

Someone shouted, and the bombardment began at the signal. A rain of arrows filled with powerful Mana poured down.

Junghyeok faced them head-on.

Pshht! Pshhht!

Arrows pierced his side, shoulder, and thigh, yet he stood before Anna Croft and blocked every attack.

Anna Croft asked, "...Why?"

"You'll die."

"Then leave me to die."

"But not here. That isn't part of Kim Dokja's plan."

Anna Croft bit her lip.

Kim Dokja. Anna knew him now, too.

But who exactly was he? What was he to make this prideful man bend even his own convictions for him?

As if answering her question, Junghyeok muttered, "I've glimpsed memories from a round far in the future."

A far future. Before Anna could respond, Junghyeok continued.

"A great many things happened."

"Looks like you saw something interesting. Did you see how this round ends, too?"

"I didn't see that. But I saw what happens to you in the future."

Anna flinched, her shoulders trembling.

She possessed [future vision]. But all she could glimpse were fragments of the future. She couldn't peer far enough ahead to cross worldlines.

Junghyeok asked, "Do you want to know?"

"Not at all."

Ignoring Anna's answer, Junghyeok continued.

"Just as you inherited the memories of the second round, you in the next round will inherit the memories of the third round. By continuously glimpsing parts of the previous round with [past vision], you'll gradually advance into the future. Just as I am now."

"That's obvious. Even someone who hasn't seen the future could say as much. What exactly are you trying to say?"

Anna snorted, but Junghyeok's expression was strange.

"Once you passed the 700th round... so much changed. You and I both changed. Under the curse of remembering the previous round, we grew weaker."

"...'We'? No, wait a moment."

"After passing the 900th round, then the 1,000th, one day you said this to me."

Junghyeok slowly blinked as he recalled words he had read in the records of the 1,863rd round.

「Yu Junghyeok, I won't transmit everything that has happened so far to the next round.」

「I can't do this anymore. Unlike you, I can't carry all of this and keep fighting.」

「Now you'll be alone.」

「Are you confident you can bear all of it?」

Anna shouted with a grave expression.

"That isn't me. I won't break! I...!"

"You'll change."

Those words pierced her like a prophecy. Anna's vacant eyes trembled.

Before she could say anything, Junghyeok spoke first.

"I hope you don't change."

Anna's eyes widened.

"I want to keep hating you. I intend to remember everything you did to me and never forgive you. And for that to happen..."

Leaving Anna trembling behind him, Junghyeok released his Status and stepped forward.

"You mustn't go to the next round."

One Constellation stood on the plain beyond the endless rain of arrows.

The strongest Constellation on this battlefield.

[Everyone, stand back. I'll deal with this human.]

Indra, the God King of Thunder and Lightning.

Countless Constellations trembled before his martial might, which embodied Veda's Status.

Rumble!

[The Constellation Thunder of Thursday is on guard against the God King of Thunder and Lightning.]

Thunder of Thursday, who likewise symbolized lightning, especially seemed to burn with fighting spirit.

"Junghyeok, stop! Even you can't possibly..."

Junghyeok ignored Anna and charged toward the God King of Thunder and Lightning.

He knew Indra's Status well. It was power that surpassed even Surya, whom he had once fought.

Still, he had no intention of retreating.

'Not enough.'

Indra wasn't Junghyeok's goal. Compared to the Mythical Constellations and Outer Gods he had to fight, Indra was merely a threshold he had to pass.

And the being Junghyeok wanted to surpass more than anything was...

[The Constellation Secretive Plotter admires your fighting spirit.]

[You have received a sponsorship of 5,000 coins.]

Junghyeok's figure shot high into the sky toward Indra.

[Arrogant...!]

The lightning Indra fired split the earth. Ash-gray currents scattered across the plain as it tore apart like a breaking tidal wave. The currents ripped through Junghyeok's arm, tore apart his leg, and pierced his stomach.

With every step he took through the air, Junghyeok thought of the time he had lived through and the years he would live again.

The 41st round. The 362nd round. The times Kim Dokja had shown him. And then,

the 1,863rd round.

The future he had glimpsed through Secretive Plotter flowed through Junghyeok's mind.

For Junghyeok, this was a battle against himself.

A realm he couldn't reach no matter how hard he tried. The third-round version of himself, struggling again and again to overcome those years.

Rumble!

As if borrowing every possibility of the life he would live and might have lived, Junghyeok moved forward.

Sky Splitter Sword Art.

The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint had said it. Never permit the sky to exist above you. Break it all, destroy it all, humiliate it all.

But what if there was something else above the sky he had shattered?

Esoteric Secret Technique.

[The Constellation God King of Thunder and Lightning mocks you.]

The Constellations looking down upon Incarnations from beyond the sky.

This sword strike had been created to cut down those Constellations.

Feeling the Mana flowing through the Black Heaven Demon Blade, Junghyeok recalled Cheok Junkyung's sword. A sword that had taught him a single blade could cut through mountains and seas.

What did it take for a single sword to cut through a star?

Boom!

One of Junghyeok's legs burst in midair. It wasn't because of Indra's lightning. It was the sound of Junghyeok's tightly packed muscles exploding. As the fable packed into every muscle fiber exploded, the resulting propulsion generated a thunderous roar.

[Stop! You...!]

Indra's eyes widened in shock.

Junghyeok felt time slow around him. No, time hadn't slowed. He had become faster.

「To destroy a star, one must become a star.」

The answer that would allow one born human to reach a Constellation.

A speed no living being could endure tore Junghyeok's entire body to pieces.

It was the price of one who wasn't a star becoming one.

Junghyeok shot forward like a black supernova. In an instant, he pierced the Status of thunder and lightning, smashed every Constellation blocking his way, and finally reached Indra's heart.

Meteor Slash.

There was a distinct sensation at the tip of the Black Heaven Demon Blade.

The voice of a splitting star.

Something exploded in the far-off universe, and Junghyeok felt his body falling. His vision blurred, and he couldn't see the severed star. The muscles in his limbs wouldn't move, and not a trace of strength remained in his body.

Still, through his dimmed senses, he could feel someone catching him.

The person he hated most was carrying him as she ran.

"Junghyeok, you're truly insane. I already knew that, but..."

Junghyeok coughed up blood before asking, "...Indra?"

"He should be dead. His demigod body exploded, so even if he's alive, he won't truly be living."

Anna's voice carried a strange heat as she said it. Junghyeok understood what he had done just from the emotion in her voice.

He had shattered a star.

A mere human had destroyed one of the eight brightest stars among the Lokapalas.

[All Constellations of the nebula Veda are enraged at the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok!]

But there were still many stars in the sky.

"If I hadn't saved you just now, you would've died there."

Junghyeok knew that was true. Anna must have seen his death through [future vision].

"Even though saving you only bought you some time..."

Blood poured endlessly from his pierced side. He had lost one leg and no longer had the strength to grip his sword.

At last, Anna stopped walking. Junghyeok couldn't see, but he knew what it meant.

There was nowhere left on this battlefield for them to run.

Anna said, "Junghyeok, I have no intention of living with you until the 700th round."

"Neither do I."

"But damn it, it looks like we'll have to survive together until at least the fourth round."

"That won't happen. I won't die here."

Junghyeok didn't have [future vision] like Anna did. So he didn't know what would happen next.

Even so, Junghyeok spoke in a low voice.

"Because..."

His voice was fading, but it was never the voice of someone resigned to death.

Thunder rumbled beyond the distant sky. It wasn't Indra's lightning.

It was the sound of spacetime warping and something crossing over through a massive gate.

Junghyeok couldn't see it. Anna saw it in his place.

An army shrouded in pitch-black darkness.

A world buried in ancient myth was crossing over into this place.

"Junghyeok, you bastard!"

Hearing the voice shouting from the vanguard of that army, Junghyeok said, "Because in this round, I have a companion who won't betray me."

[The nebula Underworld has joined the Great war of Angels and Demons.]

Footnotes:

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