WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 706: Episode 26: Star Ladder (2)
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I looked at Kim Dokja reflected in the broken building's window.
He stood there with Inho Cheon's face, yet he was undeniably Dokja.
The first Kim Dokja of this world.
The one who had existed before any other Kim Dokja.
Because he had found the courage to live, because he had decided what he had to protect and what he could not protect, other Kim Dokjas could exist as well.
He was the one who chose and made decisions before every other Kim Dokja.
The one who bore the greatest responsibility.
「Kim Dokja's salvation is cruel.」
The Demon King of Salvation.
「Like saving a drowning person with the tip of a sword, those saved by him are left with irreversible wounds.」
He was resented for the sin of saving others. The people he had saved reproached him for hurting them.
「“Don't make me laugh... What kind of salvation is this...?”」
Yet even those who had been saved that way knew.
「“Why on earth are you...”」
When they were pulled free by the tip of Dokja's sword, they saw Dokja's hands.
「“Dokja-ssi, you have a lot of scars on your hands.”」
Whenever Dokja saved someone with the tip of his sword, he was gripping the blade himself.
「“Don't worry. Things like this disappear after you die and come back to life once.”」
The wounds on his hands disappeared quickly, but people remembered them.
They checked his hands again and again, afraid new scars might have appeared, and felt relieved whenever they saw them clean.
As they accepted that one day, Dokja would save them with those hands again, that it was bound to happen.
‘Patron.’
The Demon King of Salvation was looking down at his hands.
They were my hands, so there wasn't a single scar on them.
What memories had he recovered?
Even while using [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint], I couldn't clearly see the memories he had regained.
‘Patron?’
Dokja raised his head at my question and stared blankly up at the sky.
Then he smiled faintly a few times. His expression seemed hollow, bitter, or perhaps as though he understood everything.
“One more.”
With that expression, Dokja grabbed the Black Beast's head. With his other hand, he began pulling out his own fragments embedded in the beast's back.
“One more.”
Every time a fragment was pulled from his back, Junghyeok's entire body convulsed.
Rooooar!
At the beast's painful cry, the people who had stood frozen let out groans.
“Ah, ah...”
“What is that...?”
They were no longer looking at the Black Beast. They were looking at the Demon King of Salvation.
I saw their expressions through the eyes that shared his view.
People who looked at me as they stepped back, looked at me in fear, and looked at me as they ran away.
Rumble!
I called Dokja again.
‘Patron!’
Dokja didn't answer. He simply continued retrieving fragments from Junghyeok's back.
Three, four, five...
More than half of the fragments had been recovered.
Junghyeok, kneeling on the ground, looked up at me with half-empty eyes. The beast's body, its fur bristling, violently resisted once.
A sudden sense of dread came over me.
「The one and only Kim Dokja.」
Could it be that every Kim Dokja dreamed of becoming the one and only Kim Dokja?
If so, then that Demon King of Salvation too.
Wouldn't he, the one who had existed first, want to become the only Kim Dokja?
“Don't move.”
Dokja twisted the Black Beast's head with his left hand and forced it to its knees. Then he continued pulling out fragments with his right.
With every fragment he pulled out, more memories returned.
His memories were his fable.
The more of his fable returned, the stronger the Demon King of Salvation became.
Crackle!
It was becoming truly dangerous.
Perhaps intimidated by Dokja's Status, the demonic species that had possessed Junghyeok had gone completely quiet.
But Dokja didn't leave it alone.
“Come out already. If you don't want to die.”
At those words, the soul of the demonic species that had tormented us until now burst out of Junghyeok.
Rooooar!
With nowhere to go and writhing in pain, the demonic species spilled its fable as though reciting a sutra.
「I had no bad intentions. I had no bad intentions.」
It was hard to believe that this pitiful creature had been a marquis demon just moments ago.
「Save me save me save me」
As though it recognized Dokja, the demonic species continued trembling.
「I just, I just, I just...」
Dokja spoke to it in an even voice.
“You wanted to become the Demon King of Salvation, didn't you?”
The soul couldn't say anything and simply trembled.
“Do you still want to become the Demon King of Salvation?”
The soul trembled again.
“Then come here.”
Dokja quietly opened his mouth, and the demonic species' soul was sucked into my mouth. I knew from sensation alone that it hadn't entered me.
「The demonic species' soul has been absorbed into the Demon King of Salvation's fable.」
Once the demonic species disappeared, the unconscious Junghyeok toppled forward.
‘Dokja-ssi.’
I called Dokja one last time. If he didn't answer this time either, I intended to forcibly deactivate [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint]. But then...
―I'm listening.
Dokja answered.
―I was just remembering the old days.
Dokja was still the Demon King of Salvation I remembered, and I felt a little relieved.
‘Did you recover your memories?’
I couldn't forget the sight of him ruthlessly pulling out the fragments.
What memories had Dokja seen that made him lose his reason so completely?
[The fable Successor of the Eternal Name makes a displeased expression.]
Those fragments hadn't even been absorbed into my fable.
In other words, all eight Kim Dokja Fragments he had just pulled out had been absorbed by the Demon King of Salvation.
―That...
Dokja was about to say something in a bitter voice.
Crackle!
Sparks began surging through the air. Lightning struck the ground alongside the dark clouds that had rolled in.
Could the Plausibility Backlash be approaching?
That couldn't be. This Scenario was supposed to be a safe zone from the backlash.
Had the Demon King of Salvation's Status surpassed the Scenario's allowable limit by far?
My body had been trembling dangerously for a while now. Even while using [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint], my body couldn't endure the Demon King of Salvation's Status.
But that was... No, wait.
Rumble!
Through the lightning that struck again, I saw a few Incarnations approaching this way.
The Incarnations who had watched the situation from the sidelines until now.
The moment Dokja saw the Tier-4 earth dragon species equipment they wore, he frowned.
Zarathustra?
“James. What are you trying to do?”
Anna Croft stepped in front of them as if to stop them. Judging by the confusion on her face, Zarathustra's sudden action seemed unrelated to her will.
“We're putting the prophecy into action. Why?”
“Prophecy? I never told you people any prophecy.”
“I know. I'm sick of your prophecy too.”
The man called James grumbled as he looked back at the other Incarnations.
“We're used because we're weak. We get trampled to death by beast species. I'm sick and tired of all of it.”
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
“We made a contract.”
The woman behind James stepped forward.
“Just like you did, Anna Croft.”
Anna, who had looked stunned, suddenly raised her head and muttered.
“Don't tell me... What have you...?”
[The Constellation Bald Army General is appalled by the Incarnations' choice!]
[The Constellation Naval Warfare God widens their eyes!]
[The Constellation King Heungmu shouts, asking if they have lost their minds!]
Yet even the protesting Constellations didn't dare make a gesture beyond an Indirect Message.
The nebula behind those Incarnations was one that even Historical Constellations had no choice but to be cautious around.
[The nebula Asgard watches this Scenario.]
Asgard was one of the nebulae occupying the highest places in the Star Stream's lofty night sky.
Only one Indirect Message had rung out, yet my heart pounded violently.
A few Incarnations, struggling to breathe, fell to their knees and retched.
Anna, having lost her composure, shouted at the Zarathustra members.
“Do you know what you've done? You are now...”
“We've become Asgard's Representative Incarnations.”
The woman smiled as she continued.
“Until now, you were Asgard's only Representative Incarnation, but...”
James finished her sentence.
“Not anymore.”
Light burst forth from the ten Zarathustra members at once.
I realized what was happening.
They had chosen to become Incarnations of Asgard themselves.
[The Incarnation James Johnson accepts the will of the nebula Asgard.]
[The Incarnation Olivia Harris accepts the will of the nebula Asgard.]
[The Incarnation Harper Davis accepts the will of the nebula Asgard.]
...
Dazzling beams of light illuminated the ten Incarnations.
“Asgard! Save us!”
“We kept our promise! Now free us from this horrible Scenario!”
Anna shouted desperately at them.
“No! Stop!”
The Incarnations of Zarathustra spread their arms toward the sky. Soon, their bodies began to disintegrate in the light.
The Incarnations realized too late that something had gone wrong and flailed wildly, but it was already too late.
“W-why...?”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Their skin scattered away like ash.
Then...
[The Constellation One Who Washes Cleanly has manifested!]
Stars began their Descent onto the skeletons that were all that remained of them.
[The Constellation One Married Three Times has manifested!]
[The Constellation Valkyrie's Daughter has manifested!]
...
The Constellations inhabiting the Incarnation bodies opened their shining eyes one by one.
Demigod Descent.
To reiterate, it was only the seventh Scenario.
Great stars were attempting demigod Descent in a mere seventh Scenario.
It was impossible.
Even if it was to restore the balance of Plausibility the Demon King of Salvation had destroyed, this was excessive.
“R-run!”
The Incarnations who witnessed the Constellations' manifestation began running away without looking back.
It was only natural.
A Constellation's demigod Descent was a shocking miracle powerful enough to warp this entire Scenario.
That was why I wasn't worried.
[The Administration Bureau has urgently intervened in the anomaly occurring in this area.]
There was no way the Administration Bureau wouldn't intervene in a situation like this.
[The Sub Scenario has been temporarily suspended.]
[The Plausibility of the Star Stream is in motion.]
[The Administration Bureau has contacted the nebula Asgard.]
With the Administration Bureau stepping in, there was no way the situation wouldn't be resolved.
Then why?
The Constellations' demigod Descent wasn't being undone.
[The nebula Asgard has declared Ginnungagap throughout the entire Scenario area.]
A shocking system message followed.
[The Great Fable Ginnungagap begins its story.]
[Stage Transformation has occurred.]
The sky throughout the area swirled violently, and every light in the heavens went out.
Ginnungagap.
I knew that name too.
The primordial empty space where Asgard's myth had begun.
The first void, where no Scenario and no story had existed.
If the nebula had authorized this Stage Transformation, its meaning was clear.
―They intend to make everything happening here into something that never happened.
But why would they suddenly perform a miracle on such an enormous scale?
No matter how powerful the nebula Asgard was, doing this would deal a tremendous blow to its Great Fable.
The fact that it had done this anyway meant there was something it absolutely had to obtain, even at the cost of such a loss.
The ten Constellations led by Valkyrie's Daughter were looking at us.
[At last, we meet, Demon King of Salvation.]
The moment I heard those words, a thought suddenly came to me.
「Asgard knows about the Demon King of Salvation.」
What if every one of these Scenarios had been planned from the beginning?
「Why did the demon that appeared in Washington impersonate the Demon King of Salvation?」
Everything suddenly became clear.
「What if this Scenario had been created to lure out the true Demon King of Salvation?」
What if the Warden of the Dark impersonating the Demon King of Salvation, Junghyeok becoming the Black Beast, and every event until the true Demon King of Salvation arrived had all followed someone's plan?
If that was true, their objective was obvious.
「The nebulae of this world are already gathering Kim Dokja Fragments.」
Footnotes:
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