WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 475: Episode 90: A Lone Person (4)
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A coat fluttered in the fierce wind. An immense Status flowed relentlessly from the Black Heaven Demon Blade.
Han Suyeong definitely knew him. Even so, why did he look like a completely different being to her at that moment?
"Is that really Yu Junghyeok?"
Junghyeok glanced at Suyeong, then turned toward the Pacific with a thunderous roar. Startled, Suyeong shouted after him.
"Hey! Where are you going?"
【Follow him!】
Uriel and Kim Namwoon of the 999th round chased after Junghyeok.
Suyeong realized what Junghyeok intended to do. He was trying to draw those Outer Gods away from his allies.
"That crazy bastard..."
"Suyeong-ssi, are you okay?"
Yu Sangah came over and supported Suyeong. The moment Suyeong leaned against her shoulder, she vomited up a bowlful of blood.
"Blegh!"
Every blood vessel in her head felt as though it were burning. Sparks blazed as if they would sear through her frontal lobe. Enduring the pain, Suyeong shouted,
"Great Sage Equaling Heaven! Hades! Uriel! Go after Yu Junghyeok, now! The rest of us will hold them off, so hurry! You can't let him face them alone!"
[The Star Stream detects your fable.]
[You have used power that defies Plausibility!]
"Urk..."
Her vision swayed wildly. It hurt as though all her organs had been turned inside out.
[Your Incarnation body is caught in the Plausibility Backlash!]
Sensing immense power about to explode from within, Suyeong shouted,
"Yu Sangah! Get away!"
Yet Sangah only tightened her grip on Suyeong's shoulder and shook her head. The power of Shakyamuni, which Sangah had inherited, flowed through the hand touching her shoulder. Space and time twisted, slowing the backlash's growth somewhat.
"Hold on. You can do this. I've overcome it before, too."
"Damn it..."
Every muscle in her body groaned. Amid the terrible pain, a faint fear crept in.
She had always muttered about being careful with Plausibility, yet she had made a critical mistake now. She must have fooled herself into thinking she would somehow survive this much because even someone like Kim Dokja had survived.
Tzzzzzt!
Was this how she died? So pointlessly?
[The fable Predictive Plagiarism begins its story!]
The signs of the backlash slowly began to fade.
Suyeong saw her Incarnation body become covered in printed characters. They were sentences she had written.
Sentences she had secretly recorded in her notebook so Kim Dokja and Yu Junghyeok wouldn't find out. They flowed out from beyond the fluttering pages and wrapped around her body.
Yet some of them were sentences she hadn't written.
「Since you're me too, your writing's not too bad.」
A voice mixed with equal parts mockery and satisfaction.
[The fable Predictive Plagiarism bears your backlash in your place.]
As the Plausibility Backlash weakened, the printed characters scattered quickly.
Suyeong wanted to ask. What were these sentences, and what exactly were you?
But she didn't have the strength left to ask.
「Is this as far as I go? Tell Kim Dokja.」
[The remnants of another worldline that resided in your fable have begun to disappear.]
As her consciousness dimmed, her fable spoke.
「What lies in the “conclusion” he desires is...」
* * *
Supporting Jihye, I watched the two Kings of the Outer Gods.
They had lived through the same round and seen the end of the same world, yet they had become completely different beings.
[The Great Fable Wanderer of the Eternal Horizon begins its story.]
[The Great Fable Heart that Sealed Sorrow begins its story!]
Through the sparks bursting in the air, I saw the cross-sections of their fables.
A story built line by line with their blood. It was the story of my favorite round, which I had read over and over.
「“Captain Yu Junghyeok. I'm glad you're a regressor.”」
The King of the Silver Heart glanced toward me.
Lee Hyeongseong of the 999th round. The sorrow trapped within his fable reached me through [Reading Comprehension].
「“It's all right if I don't grieve, isn't it? You don't die, after all. Even if you die, you can meet us again in the next round. Your story will continue there... and you can begin that journey once more, can't you?”」
The fable of steel wept.
「“I'm sorry, Lee Hyeongseong.”」
Steel sprouted with a rasp and swallowed his words. His silver-stained pupils froze the tears that should have fallen.
「“You don't need to apologize. We'll see the conclusion before you do, Captain. The ending you wanted to see, the promises you couldn't keep, I'll carry every one of them with me.”」
Hyeongseong of the 999th round was looking at me.
He wasn't the Hyeongseong I knew. Yet he was undoubtedly Hyeongseong.
―You resemble him greatly. Even more than what I heard from my Patron.
Hyeongseong's voice from the 999th round echoed in my head.
As if he knew what I was thinking, he smiled gently.
How was that possible? How could someone who had endured such tragedy still wear that expression?
―That is why I won't let you die.
I knew he bore no hostility toward us. Still, I hadn't expected him to take our side to this extent.
What kind of fable had the Master of Steel conveyed to him before disappearing?
【Uncle Hyeongseong.】
The interruption came from Jihye of the 999th round.
【It's been a long time since you called me that.】
【I don't want to hurt you here. Move aside.】
Two ancient fables intertwined. As if recalling an old memory, Hyeongseong said,
【I'm sorry, but I can't do that.】
【Why are you stopping us? You refused to be summoned as a Calamity. We negotiated with the Administration Bureau of this worldline, not you.】
So it really had been the Administration Bureau that summoned the beings of the 999th round as Calamities.
After a brief silence, Hyeongseong answered bluntly.
【We don't negotiate with the Star Stream. That was our oath.】
【And what happened to us because of that oath?】
【...】
【We destroyed the Administration Bureau and fought the Dokkaebi King. We collided with the Final Wall... What happened to us?】
The Final Wall. It seemed they, too, had seen that wall.
The very wall Yu Junghyeok of the original story had reached.
Jihye of the 999th round trembled as she spoke.
【Like you said, our story is over. The worldline where we lived was destroyed, and only the four of us endured that destruction and became Outer Gods.】
【Even if we had to become beings beyond the Scenario, we decided to cross the Final Wall.】
【It's a wall we can't cross. You should know that, too.】
【In this worldline...】
【Stop talking about this worldline! What's so special about this worldline? It's just like the place we lived in. A worldline that's going to be destroyed.】
Jihye of this worldline, whom I was supporting, staggered. Her lips trembled faintly.
The Owner of the Sunken Island continued.
【Even the Great Dokkaebis who contacted us said it. They said they were going to discard this worldline too. They would recycle it and use it as the beginning of a new story.】
The King of the Silver Heart's expression changed at those words. The gentle air around him broke apart, and a metallic chill spread through the air.
A chilling voice came from the steel.
【What deal did you make with the Administration Bureau?】
【If this world is going to sink beneath the sea anyway, then it doesn't matter if we destroy it ourselves.】
【Jihye.】
Jihye of the 999th round was smiling. But I didn't know whether that expression could truly be called a smile.
【The Dokkaebi King of this place promised us. If we destroy only this worldline, he'll restore our worldline. He said he'd contact the Oldest Dream and let us begin our story again.】
Jihye's shoulders shook. I could feel that trembling too.
That was why the beings of the 999th round had come to this world. It was what they wanted to reclaim, even if it meant destroying another world.
The King of the Silver Heart said,
【Our mission isn't to reclaim our world, but to find the true cause of all this tragedy.】
【What changes if we find it?】
【To fulfill the Captain's will...】
【Even if we eliminate the cause of this tragedy, the time we lost won't return. Our dead Companions won't return. The world where we lived won't return. ...Yu Junghyeok of the 999th round, who died there, will never return.】
Rumble...
Something was tearing across the distant horizon toward us.
The Owner of the Sunken Island spoke.
【Then all we can do is end everything and begin again.】
The tidal wave, which had weakened for a moment, surged once more. Hyeongseong of the 999th round hastily activated [Steel Transformation] and shielded us with his metal.
But the tidal wave advanced far faster than the steel could grow.
【You can't stop us. I told you. I didn't come alone.】
Crash!
The crimson sunset behind us set the sky ablaze.
Uriel of the 999th round. It was the power of the Living Flame.
And if she was coming here...
"Uncle, don't tell me...!"
Jihye grabbed my collar.
Looking into her eyes, I told her,
"Don't worry. What you're worried about will never happen."
It was also something I was telling myself.
"Our story isn't that weak."
[The Constellation Demon King of Salvation reveals his Status.]
[The Constellation Watcher of Light and Darkness reveals his Status.]
[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband reveals his Status.]
Demon King of Salvation and Watcher of Light and Darkness.
Along with the third modifier I had gained by wearing the Golden Headband.
All my fables shone at once. I walked toward Hyeongseong, who stood in our way.
"Thank you for helping us. But you don't need to push yourself."
【It's dangerous. If you don't hide behind me...】
"This isn't the 999th round."
The Owner of the Sunken Island stood before us. The Living Flame stood behind us. There was nowhere left for us to run.
The shadow of a massive warship loomed before us. At the crest of the tidal wave, Jihye of the 999th round murmured as if speaking in tongues.
【Everyone is going back. Just as the Captain did, we'll regress to that time. We'll go back to those days and begin everything again. Then...】
The oncoming tidal wave swallowed us. With the power of the Great Fable, I braced against its Status. My hands felt as though they would tear apart as they held back the wave.
Beyond the surging panorama of cannon fire, I saw the horizon where the sun met the sea.
A boundary that could never be reached, no matter how far one ran.
That boundary split open before my eyes. A single sword was cutting through it.
Jihye of the 999th round fell from her throne of waves and looked this way.
More precisely, at the man standing beside me.
"Regression can't change anything. It took me a very long time to realize that."
Footnotes:
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