WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 716: Episode 26: Star Ladder (12)
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Cigarette smoke scattered through the air.
From afar, Ares, the Ferocious God of War, frowned.
"You're indulging in a vice favored by demons. Blasphemous bastard."
"I don't usually smoke. But..."
The cigarette fell with a soft thud, and memories slowly returned.
"There was someone who really loved these."
[The Kim Dokja Fragment responds to your emotions.]
As memories seeped in, the Demon King of Salvation recalled an old face.
The one who especially loved cigarettes.
The one who had spent the rest of her life to save a single person named Kim Dokja.
「The Demon King of Salvation looked down at his Incarnation body, slowly breaking apart.」
Had Han Suyeong of the 1,863rd round felt this way too?
Had she endured this feeling every time she used [Avatar] and continued fighting?
"Youngest."
Remembering someone wasn't his role. The second was far better at it than he was.
Still, ever since meeting the youngest, old memories had often overwhelmed him. Ancient fables stirred within him, as if begging him not to forget them.
[Ancient fables begin their stories for you.]
The Demon King of Salvation slowly turned around, as if looking back on his own life. His own history had been torn to pieces, making it hard to trace its paths properly.
Yet this place had its own history.
In the distance, Anna Croft and Christina Page spoke toward the sky while carrying Inho Cheon. They seemed to be negotiating the Star Ladder with someone.
[The Fable Fragment Right Arm of a Swordmaster Betrayed by His Companion responds to you.]
His right arm twitched, and a faint Fable Fragment entered him.
「Right Arm of a Swordmaster Betrayed by His Companion」
The Demon King of Salvation remembered this Fable Fragment. When he first acquired it, his Incarnation body had been in tatters, just as it was now.
[The Fable Fragment Right Arm of a Swordmaster Betrayed by His Companion senses your longing.]
Yes, you remember too.
"A Swordmaster's fable? You have a trashy fable."
Ares, who had been watching the Demon King of Salvation from afar, furrowed his brow.
"You still haven't subdued someone like him, Gatekeeper of Thebes?"
"I'll get rid of him right now! Everyone, charge!"
The Historical-grade Constellations, emboldened by the Fabled-grade Constellation's order, charged again with shouts.
The Demon King of Salvation dodged the incoming attacks with minimal movement. Every time he tilted his head or twisted his body, deadly trajectories grazed his flesh.
[Your Incarnation body will disappear in five minutes.]
The body of the Warden of the Dark began trembling anxiously.
As if reassuring it, the Demon King of Salvation said, "Don't worry. I can kill them all."
"You're still saying such nonsense..."
[The Fable Fragment Right Arm of a Swordmaster Betrayed by His Companion begins its story.]
This Fable Fragment was one the Demon King of Salvation had found at the Scenario Horizon.
A fable abandoned because no one used it.
Waste excluded from the Scenarios.
Thirty steps away, Ares watched him.
"With a fable like that...!"
The Incarnation body of the Historical-grade Constellation shouting those words split in half. The shocked Historical-grade Incarnations screamed.
Swordmaster.
The Incarnations of Historical-grade Constellations were collapsing helplessly before a "mass-produced fable" the Constellations had dismissed.
One at a time, with every step.
Bodies piled up wherever the Demon King of Salvation walked.
「There are no useless fables.」
No matter how much the Constellations raised their synchronization rates, this was still the seventh Scenario.
The Constellations couldn't fully reveal their Status, and they weren't accustomed to the way lower Scenarios were fought, having graduated from them long ago.
In the end, lower Scenarios favored those who used lower-grade fables better.
And the Demon King of Salvation was,
[The fable One Loved by All Things continues its story.]
the Constellation who could do that best in this world.
"Kill him! Kill him!"
Twenty steps.
"Please, stop him!"
Ten steps.
"Argh!"
The Demon King of Salvation was already right before him.
Ares's expression had hardened as well.
"Insolent bastard!"
As Ares's fable began its story, the Demon King of Salvation could no longer advance.
Twenty exchanges followed in an instant.
[The Fable Fragment Right Arm of a Swordmaster Betrayed by His Companion fulfills its calling.]
The Fable Fragment shattered, unable to endure the pressure.
For an instant, his body lost its balance and staggered.
Ares's spear tore through the air.
Blood poured down.
The Demon King of Salvation's right arm rolled across the ground.
"It's over. Fragment of an abandoned god."
Just as Ares was about to deliver the final blow to the one-armed Demon King of Salvation.
"Ares."
The Demon King of Salvation spoke.
"I'm glad it was you who came here."
"What?"
"Do you know why?"
Tstststst!
"I've already killed you once."
[The fable One Who Defeated the God of War begins its story.]
As the fable flowing from the Demon King of Salvation began consuming the surroundings, Ares's eyes widened in shock.
"How, how dare you..."
A fable that had defeated the Ferocious God of War of the third round. Yet activating its power required certain conditions.
「"Kim Dokja, you only get one chance."」
Yu Junghyeok of the third round.
And Heracles' Lance, which would defeat him.
「"I've always only had one chance."」
But Junghyeok of the third round was beyond the curtain, and the lance they had thrown together back then wasn't here.
The props needed to recreate the Stage Transformation didn't exist here.
"Back then, we killed you with a fake fable."
Still, there was an item here that could roughly satisfy both conditions at once.
"I'm really curious how it'll go this time."
[The Thought of Almost Everything responds to your will!]
With a bright flash, a form stored beforehand entered the Thought.
[The Thought of Almost Everything mimics the Moon Halberd.]
The Moon Halberd.
The spear of Yu Junghyeok from the forty-first round appeared in his hand.
The Demon King of Salvation knew this spear well too.
Along with the Splitting the Sky Sword and the Black Heaven Demon Blade, it was one of Junghyeok's favorite weapons.
Someday, this spear would be completed as the Dark Heaven Moon Halberd.
"You bastard...!"
Unfortunately, he wouldn't live to see that sight.
Rumble!
Ares and the Demon King of Salvation, their Status raised to the limit, collided.
The fearsome fable of Olympus coiled around Ares's spear, and the battle became evenly matched.
Ares's thigh burst apart in an instant, while the Demon King of Salvation's side was pierced through. With every exchange, both Incarnation bodies were brutally destroyed.
"I'll kill you no matter what...!"
Unable to accept a fable in which he had been killed, Ares unleashed a storm of attacks.
It was time to bring the fable to its finale.
[Exclusive Skill Bookmark has activated!]
The Demon King of Salvation thought of the Incarnation who wielded weapons better than anyone in this world.
"I..."
But he couldn't continue.
Tstststst!
Wild sparks burst, as though even the Scale of Plausibility refused to permit it.
After using [Bookmark] this time, he would likely lose even the Plausibility to exist.
Even so, he had to complete this story.
"Han Suyeong."
At some point, the sentences that had been written for him on The Fourth Wall had stopped.
The Demon King of Salvation instinctively realized it.
「Han Suyeong will be unable to write the next sentence.」
The one who began this story to save Dokja couldn't possibly write a story that killed Dokja.
But there was another Writer in this worldline.
"Youngest."
Right now, [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] was active. The unconscious youngest would be watching this scene too.
"You have to do it."
Ares's spear grew faster and faster in his fury. Each time the Demon King of Salvation blocked its blade, his figure swayed precariously.
"Just one sentence."
At last, Ares's Incarnation body raised black flames as though preparing its final attack.
The fables throughout his body exploded with Status, intending to burn the entire area to ash.
"I..."
The Demon King of Salvation spoke.
「"I am Yu Junghyeok."」
Lightning crashed down, illuminating the world.
The Incarnations around them stared at the battlefield with wide eyes.
Two spear strikes flew toward each other, followed by the sound of something being violently torn apart.
Then, moments later.
"Ugh, ugh. Aaaah!"
The Gatekeeper of Thebes screamed in terror.
Ares's Incarnation body, its entire lower half gone, writhed on the ground.
[The Constellation Ferocious God of War has suffered tremendous damage!]
[The Constellation Ferocious God of War writhes in pain!]
Across from him, the Demon King of Salvation, who had also lost both legs, breathed heavily.
[Bookmark has been deactivated.]
[Your Incarnation body has suffered damage that cannot be regenerated.]
Ares's dying Incarnation body looked up at him.
"Demon King of Salvation. I'll admit it. You really are strong."
The next moment, Ares's Incarnation body was engulfed in black currents.
"Strong enough to be worth sacrificing our greatest fable."
The Incarnation body wrapped in demonic energy began regenerating Ares's severed lower half.
[The nebula Olympus sacrifices a Great Fable in its possession.]
It was a miracle achieved by sacrificing a Great Fable belonging to a nebula.
The revived Ares roared into the air.
Even before death, the Demon King of Salvation's expression remained calm.
Olympus and Asgard wouldn't be able to interfere with the Scenario for some time. If they defied Plausibility any further, the Outer Gods they feared would come for them.
The youngest would be able to continue his story.
[Your Incarnation body will soon disappear.]
[A massive Fate wants your death!]
The third Fate message had finally arrived.
An end that not even a star could defy had come.
[The Warden of the Dark closes its eyes, satisfied with the fable it shared with you.]
Thank you. I'll join you soon.
[A new fable has been born in the Star Stream!]
One character exited, and the curtain fell on the story.
As his vision dimmed, the Demon King of Salvation thought of the story he loved.
Come to think of it, there was one last scene he wanted to read.
"Readers have the lives of readers."
And the Demon King of Salvation...
He no longer had the strength to open his mouth.
Watching the incoming spear, the Demon King of Salvation closed his eyes.
As always, death was familiar to him.
But even after time passed, he felt no pain.
Had he already died? But had he ever died painlessly like this?
Had even his sense of pain vanished as his Incarnation body disappeared?
Then a gentle breeze blew from somewhere.
A familiar scent followed.
The sound of an old subway lingered by his ears like an auditory hallucination.
The Demon King of Salvation slowly opened his eyes.
"One thing was missing."
A faintly rippling silhouette.
The story on the wall was speaking to him.
「The Demon King of Salvation knows this story is impossible.」
Even so, that story became reality and embraced his fallen body.
「Come to think of it, his life began not in a novel, but in reality.」
As though whispering the origin of memories he had forgotten long ago.
"Sangah has Sangah's life."
The Demon King of Salvation smiled faintly.
Footnotes:
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