WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 589: Episode 7: Trauma (2)

──────

I couldn't believe it.

That was really the Inho Cheon I knew?

「“If you won't end it.”」

The figure standing atop the grave of blood vanished.

「“Then I will.”」

Pitch-black feathered wings spread behind Inho. Then, in the next moment.

[The fable When All the Stars Close Their Eyes begins its story.]

Goosebumps rose on my skin.

Inho had used a fable.

What had happened to him? What the hell had he eaten to grow so strong in the fortieth round?

Rumbblee!

Junghyeok gripped the Splitting the Sky Sword and looked around. Yet Inho was nowhere to be seen.

There was only pitch-black darkness around him. No starlight could illuminate Inho's form. There was no sign of him, no scent.

「It was as if Junghyeok were alone.」

Then something invisible slashed Junghyeok's cheek. It cut his forearm next, then his thigh.

Blood spurted from all around him as though something were toying with him.

Junghyeok didn't counterattack. He simply held the Splitting the Sky Sword and waited.

I watched the battle with sweaty palms.

Neither Junghyeok's five senses nor my sight could catch Inho's form.

But Junghyeok's growing wounds proved it.

Inho was here.

Junghyeok used [phoenix walk] and began to move. Inho's attacks became even faster, and the number of wounds rapidly increased.

Shoulder. Thigh. Neck. Calf.

Yet none of them were fatal.

Each time an attack touched his skin, Junghyeok adjusted the wound's depth with astonishing footwork. His movements were almost divine.

Very slowly, Junghyeok's lips parted.

「“Open your eyes.”」

Then,

[The fable King Who Leads the Stars begins its story.]

Something unbelievable happened.

「“Open your eyes, you goddamn Constellations.”」

At Junghyeok's declaration, the stars that had sunk into the polar night began shining one by one. The few stars remaining in the world burned themselves to create light.

[The Constellation Lily Blooming in Aquarius looks at Incarnation Yu Junghyeok.]

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire looks at Incarnation Yu Junghyeok.]

[The Constellation Protector of Youth and Travel looks at Incarnation Yu Junghyeok.]

Gabriel, Uriel, and even Raphael. Eden's stars were shining.

Still, their light wasn't enough to drive away the darkness.

Even so, Junghyeok said,

「“It's enough.”」

For an instant, the uniform darkness shuddered strangely, and an overbearing aura boiled up from Junghyeok's entire body.

The shallow cut across Junghyeok's side and the movement of his Splitting the Sky Sword happened at the same time.

Sky Splitter Sword Art.

Ultimate Technique.

Sky-Splitting Meteor Sword.

A shower of Sword Aura that tore through the night coiled around the tip of the Splitting the Sky Sword. Brilliant light split the darkness in two, and the Splitting the Sky Sword cut something.

The sound of blood bursting rang out in midair, and Inho's figure appeared for an instant, clutching his chest.

Junghyeok didn't miss that opening and struck Inho's abdomen.

Sky-Splitting Collapse Fist.

Third Form.

Thousand Autumn Phoenix.

Gorgeous flames wrapped around Junghyeok's fist, followed by a roar loud enough to rupture eardrums as it exploded in Inho's abdomen.

Inho's body flew like an arrow and crashed into a pile of ruins.

Tsssss.

The starlight in the sky began going out one by one.

The stars that had used all their fables as fuel to light the night sky were dying.

Raphael's star vanished first, followed by Gabriel's.

Uriel was last.

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire pays respect to Incarnation Yu Junghyeok.]

Junghyeok stared for a long time at the place where Uriel's star had disappeared, then muttered quietly as if sending the words to them.

「“I'm sorry.”」

It was unbelievable.

No one in this world hated the Constellations of the night sky more than Yu Junghyeok. Especially before meeting Kim Dokja, Junghyeok had been vengeance incarnate, someone who wouldn't stop regressing until he had brought down every star in the sky.

And yet, Junghyeok had apologized to the Constellations.

My thoughts were a mess. I couldn't understand any of it.

There had been a story like this in the fortieth round of TWSA?

If such a round existed, Dokja couldn't possibly have been unaware of it.

At that moment, a question arose for the first time.

「Does TWSA truly record Junghyeok from every round?」

According to Dokja's account, it did.

There were rounds with portions omitted, and rounds Junghyeok had quickly given up on after going mad, but there were no rounds unrecorded in TWSA.

Then what was the scene I was seeing now?

In Dokja's recollections, Junghyeok of the earlier rounds hadn't been this strong. Junghyeok only became strong enough to kill Constellations after at least several hundred regressions.

Yet Junghyeok of the fortieth round looked even stronger than those fabled-grade Constellations in the sky.

Junghyeok wasn't the only one.

The same was true of Inho.

Inho, spreading a Demon King's wings and freely wielding the power of fables.

There was no way meticulous Dokja, who remembered every round of TWSA up to the 1,863rd, wouldn't remember an Inho like that.

If it were the Dokja I knew, the moment he saw Inho, he would've remembered Inho of the fortieth round.

Therefore, only one sentence could properly explain this situation.

There was a world Dokja hadn't read.

「There is a worldline that wasn't written in TWSA.」

But how?

It felt as if a Big Bang were raging through my mind, just like the moment I first remembered the false trauma.

「Junghyeok of the forty-first round sent Shin Yuseong to a past worldline. Then Shin Yuseong became the Calamity of Floods.」

The moment that thought surfaced, I remembered the Snowfield I had walked through with Dokja.

「TWSA is the story after Junghyeok made Shin Yuseong into the Calamity of Floods.」

There had been two sets of footprints branching apart in the Snowfield I walked through with Dokja.

「Then where is the story before Shin Yuseong became the Calamity of Floods recorded?」

One set of footprints stretched onward without end, while the other stopped halfway.

「The story up to the forty-first round, before Shin Yuseong became the Calamity of Floods, when she was with Junghyeok.」

That story had only remained as a brief recollection in TWSA.

A round that wasn't properly recorded even in TWSA.

If I was seeing memories from that world now.

「“Stop acting, Inho Cheon. I know you're alive.”」

At those words, Inho rose from the pile of ruins.

「“You've lost even your last Companions now, Yu Junghyeok.”

“......”

“No more stars are watching you.”」

Two swords clashed in the air.

One was Junghyeok's Splitting the Sky Sword.

The other was.

「“The Black Heaven Demon Blade. You went to the Martial World too?”

“Do you think I only went to the Martial World?”」

Pitch-black markings spread like veins across Inho's neck and the back of his hand.

Demonic energy.

Inho was using the Status of a Demon King.

The Status wrapping around the Black Heaven Demon Blade took the form of Sword Aura before surging at Junghyeok.

Junghyeok's whole body turned gold in response.

Transcendence Form.

Rumbblee!

It was a desperate bloodbath.

Inho's and Junghyeok's Mana intermittently burned the darkness, and each man's blazing fables tore into the other's flesh.

Blood-covered Junghyeok roared, and Inho's left arm flew through the air. Then Inho's sword pierced Junghyeok's side.

With that, all light around them vanished. Their Mana was completely exhausted.

No star illuminated them. No fable recorded their battle.

「Only I could imagine their fight in this darkness.」

Complete night. The two of them were fighting.

Something was cut. Something was torn away.

They didn't stop. In the pitch-black darkness where no words passed between them, the sounds of something being pierced and struck again echoed out.

The sound of blood dripping. The sound of a blade breaking. And then,

The sound of someone falling.

「“Are you satisfied now?”」

Junghyeok asked.

「“What do you mean?”」

Inho answered.

The sound of someone falling came once more.

「“With ruining this world.”」

Silence followed.

Their labored breathing occasionally echoed out.

Then a voice spoke again.

「“I should've killed you when I first saw you.”

“But you didn't.”

“It was a mistake.”

“Did you kill me in all the other rounds?”

“I did.”

“Then I suppose I succeeded in avenging the previous round. Not that I remember it anyway.”」

The sound of blood gushing out could be heard. I couldn't tell whose blood it was.

「“I've never asked you before.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you live like that?”」

A laugh, as if he couldn't believe what he'd heard.

「“I simply did my best to live. I only lived a little longer in this round.”

“To be honest, you surprised me this time. I never thought you'd recruit all of the Ten Evils.”

“You underestimated this body's ability.”

“I admit it.”

“Why didn't you make me your Companion earlier?”」

After a brief pause, Junghyeok's grave voice followed.

「“I should have. But it's too late for this life.”」

A low laugh echoed through the pitch-black darkness.

「“Are you saying you'll make me your Companion in the next life? This body, one of the Ten Evils, the Sophist of Evil, and your archenemy?”

“......”

“Why don't you answer, Yu Junghyeok?”

“The likes of you aren't worthy of being my archenemy.”」

After a short silence, Junghyeok continued.

「“If the world repeats one more time, would you consider living a somewhat different life then?”」

Inho was silent for a long time.

Just when I began wondering if he was dead, his voice continued.

「“Are you serious? I killed your Companions.”

“I know.”

“And you would still accept me as your Companion?”

“Not a Companion, but something similar.”

“......Are you out of your mind?”」

Inho's voice contained hatred for Junghyeok and grief for this world.

「“Why do you need my help? You can repeat the world infinitely anyway. No matter how difficult a Scenario is, if you challenge it enough times, you can clear it someday.”

“......”

“Don't think about making me your ally. I'll be your enemy in the next round too. Again and again, I'll be your enemy.”」

Inho's breath gradually weakened as he continued speaking. His body's strength was slowly fading.

「“Hurry and press the reset button. Then face me as your enemy forever.”」

There was a villain because there was a protagonist.

Inho chose the path of a villain.

Rejecting every possibility given to him, the villain who endlessly came back to life declared that he would become a clown.

Then the protagonist asked.

「“Why do you think resets are infinite?”」

I heard someone draw in a breath.

Perhaps it was my own.

「“Inho Cheon.”」

For an instant, an unnamed star twinkled somewhere in the deep night sky.

The moon that had been hidden by darkness received its light and shone upon the ground once again.

「“The reset button can only be pressed one more time.”」

Goosebumps rose on my skin.

In the dim moonlight, Junghyeok was looking this way.

It was as though he were speaking to me across a distant worldline.

「“In the next round, everything in this universe will be destroyed forever.”」

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried