WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 537: Epilogue 4: Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (2)
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"Run! We're almost there!"
Han Suyeong pushed through the waves of Constellations alongside her Allies.
Fragments of the crumbling Ark lay scattered, and the Final Wall stood exposed in the distance.
A Great Fable's protection enveloped the Allies as if shielding them.
[The Great Fable One Who Defies Fate begins its story.]
It was a new Great Fable they had obtained upon entering this round.
Without this fable, they would have died over and over again.
Constellations advanced toward them in the distance. The Mythical Constellations of Veda and Papyrus charged like enraged beasts.
「Unlike the previous round, there are no Outer Gods to support them this time.」
They were overwhelmingly outnumbered. Yet they didn't fall back, because history's strongest group of regressors was supporting them.
The Incarnations of China and India took the vanguard.
At Peihu's signal, the Incarnations of his faction, Akyu, drew their weapons in unison. Rannvir Khan joined them as though unwilling to lose. When the Incarnations of Trimurti who followed him drew their spears, a sandstorm began to sweep through the area.
Justice, led by Selena Kim, and Solzhenitsyn, commanded by Iris, who had come with them, took the two flanks.
Even so, the battle was still unfavorable.
[Go. I'll take care of this place.]
[If you fail to save my Disciple, your lives are forfeit.]
Kyrios and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint. They, too, were among the hundred regressors.
As their weapons swept through the battlefield, Transcendents from the martial world rushed in behind them to support them.
Kwaaaaaaah!
Kyrios's fist strikes and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's sword strikes, made even stronger through regression, shook the battlefield as though competing with each other. The screams of torn-apart Constellations rang out from within the silver storm. They had to open the wall while they bought even a little time.
「It was a wall they had already opened once.」
Suyeong looked up at the barrier they had finally reached and spoke.
"Jang Hayoung."
"Yep."
As if she had been waiting, Hayoung stretched out her hand.
Having returned to the Scenario once more, she was now a proper King of the Transcendents.
[The Wall of Impossible Communication has returned to its place.]
As though responding to their Great Fable, the Final Wall began to tremble.
"Yu Sangah."
Sangah nodded and stepped forward.
[The Wall that Decides Reincarnation has returned to its place.]
「[You... I see... After all those long years, you have returned here once again, my arhat.]」
Shakyamuni's fable echoed softly. The Shakyamuni of this worldline readily accepted Sangah's existence. After repeatedly undergoing long cycles of reincarnation, Shakyamuni seemed to have already understood the laws of this universe.
"Jeong Huiwon, Lee Gilyeong."
The Wall that Divides Good and Evil, entrusted to them by Metatron and Agares.
Huiwon was the first to place her hand on the Final Wall.
「[Have you truly seen beyond the wall?]」
The Metatron of this worldline was shocked by the Allies' existence. Metatron had accepted Eden's destruction and admitted it was an unchangeable outcome. Yet Metatron had made a decision somewhat different from the previous round. The Archangels of Eden helping the Incarnations were proof of that.
Metatron wasn't the only one who had made a strange choice.
「[How amusing. You dare ask me, a demon king, for the wall.]」
The demon kings and angels who had fought as though they would tear each other apart in the Great war of Angels and Demons were on their side this time. They had made the choice only for their own survival, but it was still a great help to Kim Dokja Company.
[The Wall that Divides Good and Evil has returned to its place.]
[Multiple Constellations are releasing their Status toward Kim Dokja Company!]
Not every Constellation had become their ally. The overwhelming majority of the Star Stream were still their enemies, while only a few Constellations supported them.
Despite that, the Allies had safely made it this far. Deep scars covered their bodies, but they hadn't lost anyone. They could do it because nobody had been greedy, and because they all shared the same goal.
Suyeong looked back at Hyeongseong one last time.
Kim Dokja, his face pale, was on Hyeongseong's back. More accurately, it was the Avatar Kim Dokja had left behind.
Looking at him, Suyeong said, "Help me, Kim Dokja."
He was undoubtedly Kim Dokja as well.
Just as Suyeong of the 1,863rd round had undoubtedly been Han Suyeong.
"Another me might not want this. That story... ended there..."
Dokja spoke haltingly. He was now accepting that he was Dokja's Avatar. Suyeong stared at him for a while before she said, "Let's ask the other you when we meet him."
Dokja smiled sadly. He looked at Suyeong, then at each of the Allies.
"If this is the story you all want..."
His pale hand touched the Final Wall.
The Final Wall's last fragment was [The Fourth Wall].
And as Dokja's Avatar, he, too, shared part of that key.
Tzzzzzzz.
As if this world refused to acknowledge his existence, Dokja's body shook unsteadily.
Craaaack.
Part of the wall opened. Dokja trembled as though he had been electrocuted, then collapsed unconscious. Hyeongseong carried him on his back.
After shaking the blade of the Black Heaven Demon Blade clean, Junghyeok said, "Full speed."
At his signal, the Allies began to run.
"Everyone, hang in there! We're almost there!"
"We still have Life-and-Death Pills left, so tell us right away if you're hurt at all!"
The Allies encouraged each other as they ran. Suyeong ran as she listened to their voices. A vast white snowfield stretched out before her. Letters piled like snow throughout the field. Suyeong stepped on the letters and leaped forward.
Had her 1,863rd-round self written this story in the revised version?
Had she thought of Dokja's story, of the epilogue that came after it?
She didn't know. She couldn't remember that part at all.
Something landed on Suyeong's eyelashes then.
She rubbed her eyes without thinking, and something like snowflakes clung to her hand.
「That bastard told me she was a poor literary girl.」
White flakes of letters drifted through the air. Sentences that definitely existed there but couldn't be seen because they were nearly pure white.
「Han Suyeong.」
Suyeong blankly stared at the sentence that had fallen onto her hand.
「Your story...」
This was Dokja's sentence. They were his impressions, written by Dokja himself and no one else. Suyeong clenched the sentence tightly. Like starlight swept away by dawn, the letters crumbled atop her hand.
「Don't worry. I'll read it. Even if it has more than three thousand chapters.」
Those were the sentences she had wanted so badly, yet they weren't hers. Memories came rushing in. The emotions another version of herself had experienced.
Suyeong could still feel them vividly. Resentment with nowhere to go spread through her heart.
「Kim Dokja is beyond this snowfield.」
The Kim Dokja who made Kim Dokja who he was. The Kim Dokja who remembered TWSA. The Kim Dokja who chose the memories of the book she wrote over happy memories...
"Goddamn it... Goddamn it!"
A book written by someone who was her, yet wasn't her. That book had saved Dokja, and it had destroyed Dokja. Now she had to bear responsibility for the end of the tragedy created by another herself.
That was when a faint light appeared in the distance.
Rumbblee...
Something was running beyond the distant snowfield. The Allies looked at one another at the same time. No one failed to recognize what it was.
「It was a subway train.」
"Chimera Dragon!"
The summoned Chimera Dragon roared, carrying the Allies into the air. Accelerating in an instant, the Chimera Dragon cut through the sky and approached the rear of the subway train. They were almost there. Just a little farther and...
[Gyaaaaaaah!]
The Chimera Dragon suddenly screamed and lost its balance. Shin Yuseong turned around in alarm and saw something biting the Chimera Dragon's tail.
【Grrrrrrrr...!】
Huge wild dogs resembling pitch-black shadows were tearing at the dragon's tail and wings. The dogs had crossed over through portals opened in the sky. Chunks of flesh torn from the Chimera Dragon scattered over the white snowfield.
"Hound Chasing the Abyss?"
Suyeong had seen them before. Interdimensional hunting dogs that had attacked Secretive Plotter and the people of the 999th round. They were terrifying monsters that attacked Wanderers from worldlines that violated Plausibility.
But why were those hounds attacking them?
Junghyeok groaned.
"It seems they judged Group Regression to be a threat to the worldline."
"Goddamn it..."
The number of hounds crossing through the portals was growing exponentially. Larger hounds were among them as well. They possessed an overwhelming aura unlike anything Suyeong had seen before. With roars that shook the snowfield, the hounds kicked through the air and flew at them all at once.
The moment the mass of black hounds descended upon the Allies...
Rumbblee...
A sound like the collapsing sky rang out.
Golden lightning crashed down, sending the hounds flying. Sangah was the first to recognize him.
"Great Sage Equaling Heaven!"
A golden headband shone proudly. The owner of the Ruyi Staff grinned.
[Leave this place to me.]
[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband is releasing his Status!]
It wasn't only Great Sage Equaling Heaven. Others had followed the Allies through the passage they had opened in the Final Wall.
[This is a chance to show you what happens when this body uses both hands!]
[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon has removed all his seals!]
Then the flames of a noble Archangel burned the hounds.
[I'm not as strong as the me from the 999th round... but buying time won't be a problem.]
[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire has raised the flames of hell!]
The flames of [hellfire inferno] blossomed brilliantly between white wings. Uriel spoke with a faint smile.
[Please take care of Kim Dokja, Huiwon.]
Taking advantage of the gap the Constellations had opened, the Chimera Dragon finally bit down on the rear of the subway train. But the train's hard exterior wouldn't break even beneath the dragon's fangs.
"Master! Let's combine our attacks!"
Jihye, holding a sword in each hand, leaped from the dragon's back.
The Twin Dragon Swords of the Naval Warfare God and the peerless sword of Goryeo's Top Swordsman. She held one sword in each hand.
[The Constellation Goryeo's Top Swordsman grants his protection!]
[The Constellation Naval Warfare God cheers for their Incarnation!]
Fourth Form.
Four Swords Severing the Void.
The very technique Cheok Junkyung had used against Indescribable Distance. Jihye was still inexperienced, but she could now use that sword strike as well. It was a miracle granted by her incredible talent and the brutal training she had undergone on the Island of Reincarnators.
Kwakwa kwakwa kwakwa!
The subway train's exterior, which hadn't budged under the dragon's fangs, gradually caved in beneath her successive sword strikes.
Junghyeok's Black Heaven Demon Blade moved without missing that opening.
Sky Splitter Sword Art.
Secret Technique.
Meteor Slash.
The path of destruction drawn by the Black Heaven Demon Blade struck the rear of the subway train.
When the thick dust cleared, a small hole had been punched into the rear of the train.
"It worked! Everyone, get inside!"
The Allies swiftly entered the subway train.
More accurately, all but two of them did.
"Yu Junghyeok! Behind you!"
【Grrrrrrr!】
The hounds the Constellations hadn't managed to stop were rushing toward the rear. Junghyeok, releasing all the power of his Transcendence Form, faced them head-on. He drove back the hounds with sword strikes that raged like a storm, then shouted, "Go ahead! I'll catch up soon!"
Suyeong bit her lip.
It was Junghyeok, the strongest among the Allies. He could contend even with Mythical Constellations, so those hounds wouldn't take him down easily.
"Don't die."
Leaving those words behind, Suyeong entered the subway train at once.
The inside looked exactly like the Line 3 train they remembered.
「The very subway train where they had left Kim Dokja behind.」
Suyeong quickly checked the train car's information.
Tzzzt.
The car number appeared. Suyeong shouted instinctively.
"Dokja is in Car 3807! Everyone, move toward the front!"
It was similar to when they had gained the Great Fable "Spring of the Demon Realm." The Allies seemed to understand the situation as well.
"This is similar to when we fought Surya. I'll open the front doors!"
Hyeongseong rushed forward and let out a battle cry, swelling every muscle in his body.
"Haaaaaah!"
As [Mount Tai Shove], having transcended its proficiency limit, activated, the thick subway doors creaked open.
[The Great Fable Spring of the Demon Realm begins its story!]
[Stage Transformation has activated!]
It was a Great Fable that could be achieved because everyone had a role. Its protection aided the Allies. Sangah found the buttons for doors Hyeongseong couldn't open, and Gilyeong used insects to wear down the parts of doors even Sangah couldn't open.
They opened one door, then another, then another. As the number of open doors grew, the Allies' faces became more animated.
「Kim Dokja was surely beyond there.」
Every Ally felt it.
A pitch-black door. This had to be the Final Door.
"Ugh, even my Stigma can't do it."
But the door wouldn't open easily.
"I can't find a button either."
"The insects say they can't figure out the structure."
"Should I try breaking it with a skill?"
Even after Jihye's sword strikes and Hyeongseong's [Great Mountain Crush], the subway door didn't budge.
The Allies looked at one another. Why wouldn't this door alone open?
Sangah spoke then.
"Wait. This door is exactly like the one Yu Junghyeok broke back then."
"Yu Junghyeok?"
"Yes. In the third round, Junghyeok-ssi broke through this door..."
Suyeong reflexively looked behind her. Junghyeok hadn't come with them. He would be fighting the hounds at the rear of the train.
That was when Shin Yuseong cried out.
"The hounds are coming!"
The hounds were already crawling through the opening they had made.
Panic rose within her. What had happened to Junghyeok? Could those bastards have...
"Block the rear!"
"Unni! Hurry!"
There was no time to think. Hyeongseong ran forward like a tank and endured the hounds' fangs with [Steel Transformation]. Jihye and Huiwon drew their swords and drove the hounds back.
Jang Hayoung shouted, "Han Suyeong! Do something!"
Suyeong walked toward the door. When she placed her hand on it, faint sparks began to fly. She slowly closed her eyes.
She had written all those sentences with this hand. Even if it was another Han Suyeong, she was still definitely Han Suyeong. Then she should be able to open this door with this hand, too.
Tzzzzzzzzz...!
As though revising sentences, Suyeong began to touch the wall's fables.
「"I am Yu Junghyeok."」
The regressor Yu Junghyeok was a character she had created.
So she should be able to open this door, too.
「But Han Suyeong didn't know.」
Tzzzt, tzzzt.
「A story that has left the writer's hands is no longer under the writer's control.」
The universe of TWSA flowed into Suyeong's mind.
What she had written, what she hadn't written. Stories she had imagined and stories she couldn't have imagined all surged back into her mind at once.
"Urgh...!"
Blood flowed from her eyes and mouth. Her vital energy and blood flowed in reverse, and bright-red blood poured onto the subway floor.
Through her blood-red vision, Suyeong looked back at the Allies.
The Allies fought scattered throughout the train. Beyond the subway passage, the footprints they had left as they ran remained like fables.
[You do not have the authority to use Overwrite!]
「A world that had already been completed stood before her.」
The voices of the Allies calling for her felt distant.
「A world where results devoured causes, and causes devoured results in turn. A world where every possibility existed at once and supported one another. An eternal, complete narrative where stories produced stories themselves.」
When she looked back, the space before her was warping with sparks. The square subway door slowly turned, forming a circle. The violently spinning door soon became a pitch-black circle.
A perfect circle that allowed no intrusion from outside.
Suyeong staggered and reached for the circle, but she couldn't even touch it. The circle looked like a period. A period declaring that this story was complete.
「t l s 1 2 3」
That period spoke to her.
「Y ou can n ot chan ge this s to ry」
Footnotes:
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