WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 710: Episode 26: Star Ladder (6)

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Cheok Junkyung's First Form, said to slay a thousand people in a single strike.

First Form: One Sword Cleaves a Thousand.

I knew its force and power well because I had written that description with my own hands.

When was it? Was it when Kim Dokja, trapped within the [Hundred-Day Seal], borrowed the Ganpyeongui to summon Cheok Junkyung?

「Swordsmanship built over a lifetime by a great genius who might appear once in tens of thousands of years. The most ideal slash, created solely for destruction.」

Seeing it now, I thought that description needed some revision.

Why hadn't I written that it hurt when you used it?

No. Had I written it? If I had, I hadn't written nearly enough.

It felt as if someone had twisted every joint in my body in directions they were never meant to move. Even while [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] was activating, the pain reached my soul intact.

Looking at my ruined right hand, I wondered how Dokja had endured something like this.

―This is only the first sword, Youngest.

And this was only the first sword.

Then how destructive were Cheok Junkyung's Three Sword Forms, or the Fourth Sword he created afterward?

―Even Cheok Junkyung was stopped at fabled-grade. The ones you'll have to face from now on are even higher.

I couldn't even imagine it.

What kind of fable would I need to build to reach that point? Could I truly reach it at all?

How had Dokja faced that high sky without fear?

―You can do it. We've already done it once.

As the thick dust cleared, only one Constellation remained where the blade had passed.

[How...]

The six brilliantly shining stars of Asgard had set.

Only one remained: the Valkyrie's Daughter, who had received all their Status. More than half of her Incarnation body had been blown away.

When the spear she had been supporting herself with crumbled into dust, the Valkyrie's Daughter collapsed where she stood.

[Th-this technique is unmistakably that monster's...]

She was trembling. It seemed she recognized Cheok Junkyung's First Form as well.

Like Dokja, Cheok Junkyung had once received the curse of [Fate] and become an enemy of the great nebulae. It wasn't strange for the Valkyrie's Daughter to know this technique.

Then the Valkyrie's Daughter suffered a Mana backlash and began retching.

[N-no. It can't end like this. It can't...]

And then.

[Ginnungagap has ended.]

I felt the curtain surrounding the area disappear. The curtain of Ginnungagap, which Asgard had turned into a Stage Transformation, was finally vanishing.

[Ginnungagap's effect has activated.]

[The events within Ginnungagap won't be recorded in the worldline.]

The curtain disappeared, revealing the ruined streets of Washington. Incarnations who had been standing around blankly looked at one another in confusion.

The Valkyrie's Daughter, whose demigod Descent still hadn't been undone, looked bewildered as well.

[What in the world is going on...]

Her demigod Descent likely hadn't been undone because the Valkyrie's Daughter's Status had been damaged that severely.

What was strange was her reaction.

[W-where did everyone go? O stars, what is this? Why am I...]

After pouring out a torrent of fables, the Valkyrie's Daughter gagged, as if she had forgotten everything that had happened before.

She wasn't the only one reacting strangely.

"Inho Cheon?"

Anna Croft, who had watched the battle nearby the whole time, asked with a confused expression.

"What... what happened here? Why is the Valkyrie's Daughter...? No, these traces..."

Anna activated [past vision] as she spoke. Yet only faint sparks came back.

Soon, the Incarnations throughout the area began murmuring in confusion.

"What happened to the Black Beast?"

"What? Why am I here...?"

"The Black Beast has fallen!"

"A C-Constellation! A Constellation has descended!"

"My head feels like it's splitting."

The events that occurred within Ginnungagap weren't left as records. Yet this "record" apparently included the "memories" of humans and Constellations as well.

Anna, who had been staring blankly into the air, suddenly came to her senses and murmured, "Don't tell me... Ginnungagap?"

As expected of a Prophet. Had she figured out what had happened in that short time?

Still, it was a shame.

If everything that happened in Ginnungagap went unrecorded, it also meant those events couldn't become fables.

It was unfair that executing ten Historical Constellations wouldn't be recognized as a fable, but at least we had survived.

Then, as I thought that, something felt strange.

「I remember every event that occurred in Ginnungagap.」

A chill ran through my heart, and I felt the power of the fable surrounding Dokja and me.

[The fable Record-Keeper of Things That Will Disappear is activating.]

[You aren't affected by Ginnungagap's record-erasure effect.]

[The Constellations of the nebula Asgard are greatly flustered.]

[The nebula Asgard protests to the Administration Bureau!]

.

.

[Your records are being transmitted to the Star Stream.]

[Your achievement has been recorded in the Star Stream.]

[You have achieved a nonexistent achievement!]

[The Star Stream is reviewing your achievement.]

At some point, the Valkyrie's Daughter's expression as she looked at me had become grotesquely twisted.

[This is impossible. How did you get past Ginnungagap?]

She had realized what was happening as well.

She urgently looked up at the sky and shouted a resounding constellation's declaration.

[Stop him! O stars! You must kill him now! Immediately!]

Plausibility sparks raged around the Valkyrie's Daughter.

[He remembers everything that happened within Ginnungagap!]

What that meant was obvious.

For some reason, the incident we had caused had been recorded as a fable.

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon requests access to the record.]

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire requests access to the record.]

[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband requests access to the record.]

[The Constellation Commander of the Red Cosmos requests access to the record.]

[The Constellation Tiger That Eats Rice Cakes requests access to the record.]

...

Indirect Messages kept appearing without end.

[The Administration Bureau is reviewing your new fable!]

I suppressed my swelling excitement and spoke.

'Patron-nim.'

If this event was recognized as a fable, I would gain a fable of slaughtering ten Historical Constellations in the seventh Scenario.

An impossible story built on a stage where records were impossible.

An achievement even Kim Dokja of the main story had never accomplished.

I couldn't begin to imagine what fable I would receive.

Yet Dokja, or rather, the Demon King of Salvation, looked strangely uneasy.

―This isn't good.

'It isn't?'

―Youngest, do you remember when I received [Fate]?

Of course I remembered.

Because of the [Fate] he received then, Dokja died several times, and in the tenth Scenario, he was even banished from the Scenario.

―That was during the eighth Scenario. If something like this happens in only the seventh Scenario, how do you think the great nebulae will react?

'Ah...'

―Damn it. I thought it would be fine because it was Ginnungagap.

I recalled what the great nebulae were like.

They were the ones in the Star Stream most serious about fighting over their share. They had even imposed [Fate] just to stop Dokja.

There was no way people like that would simply stand by after we sent ten Historical Constellations to their deaths.

As if reflecting our unease, the intervals between the thunderclaps grew shorter.

Swallowing my dread, I asked, 'Will they send in more Constellations?'

Asgard must have already accepted enormous losses just to summon Ginnungagap.

No matter how great a nebula it was, I wanted to believe it would find it difficult to accept any further losses.

―I hope not...

[Bookmark has been deactivated.]

[Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has been temporarily deactivated.]

An immense backlash hit me. My vision went black as if a fuse had blown, then slowly returned.

Anna supported me as I staggered.

"Inho Cheon? Are you all right? Inho Cheon!"

I nodded and used her support to stand straight.

"What in the world happened? What happened inside Ginnungagap?"

"I'll explain later. First, Yu Junghyeok-"

The moment I said that, faint sparks flew across my body, and a little vitality returned.

[Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has reactivated!]

―Additional Plausibility has been granted.

Additional Plausibility?

―Something's wrong. Be careful, Youngest.

This was a Scenario that balanced the Scale of Plausibility instead of causing a Plausibility Backlash.

If extra Plausibility had appeared on our side, it meant someone other than us was using that much Plausibility on the other side of the Scale of Plausibility.

Then a portal appeared, swirling in the air.

Incarnations in exotic clothing emerged from beyond it. Judging by the atmosphere they gave off, they seemed to be from the Balkans or the Mediterranean.

Anna spotted them first and spoke.

"Are you Incarnations from Greece?"

One of them nodded.

"The Scenario has already ended. You may return."

Anna was right.

[The current Sub Scenario has ended.]

Yu Junghyeok, who had become the Black Beast, had fallen, and the Sub Scenario's reward belonged to Dokja and me.

Yet additional personnel had been dispatched now?

The situation looked suspicious to anyone. Instead of replying to Anna, they quickly surveyed the area.

"As expected, Asgard got here first."

A man who had spotted the fallen Valkyrie's Daughter muttered, and the Incarnations beside him chimed in.

"Those bastards. Did they really use Ginnungagap?"

"They paid that price just to deal with one Incarnation?"

The Valkyrie's Daughter glared at them and growled.

[You bastards. Who are you.]

The Valkyrie's Daughter's furious constellation's declaration sent waves through the area.

The Incarnations didn't look shaken in the slightest, even by a Constellation's declaration.

"Pathetic. You used Ginnungagap and still failed."

They were clearly Incarnations. Yet no matter how I looked at it, they didn't speak like Incarnations.

The enraged Valkyrie's Daughter unleashed another constellation's declaration.

[This is Asgard's Area! I don't know who you are, but-]

The Valkyrie's Daughter couldn't finish.

Her head was already flying through the air.

The Greek man shook the blood from his shamshir, then grinned as he grabbed and waved her severed head.

"Good things should be shared, friend."

Even if she had been exhausted, she was still a Constellation in demigod Descent. Yet he had cut her down in one blow.

[The Constellation Gatekeeper of Thebes smirks.]

Thebes? Damn it. Could it be?

―I know who they are.

[The Constellations of the nebula Olympus are looking at you.]

After Asgard, Olympus?

'It looks like they're after the fragments too.'

―Looks like word got around that we're a tempting target.

Every Incarnation who had appeared was an Incarnation of Olympus.

Judging by the flow of Plausibility around us, the Constellations of Olympus had raised their synchronization rate to its limit and were controlling their Incarnation bodies.

Dokja spoke through my mouth.

"You seem to be mistaken about something. This isn't the Great war of Angels and Demons or Gigantomachia."

Even if it was a Scenario where the Scale of Plausibility operated, there were limits.

If the Scale of Plausibility bore a weight it couldn't support, it would eventually break, and the Scenario would race toward ruin.

"Did you all come here to burn to death in lightning? Even if Plausibility is a complete mess..."

As if proving Dokja's words, lightning flashed in the air.

But another portal was opening where the lightning had struck.

There wasn't just one.

Incarnations in all kinds of clothing came pouring out from dozens of portals that had opened at once.

[The Constellations of the nebula Guiok are looking at you.]

Guiok.

[The Constellations of the nebula Tree of Guardianship are looking at you.]

Tree of Guardianship.

[The Constellations of the nebula Veda are looking at you.]

...Veda.

Once I had confirmed that much, I heard Dokja's voice.

―Youngest.

'Yes.'

We slung the fallen Yu Junghyeok over our back and began running for our lives.

Footnotes:

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