WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 717: Episode 26: Star Ladder (13)

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Bullets flew from somewhere and rained down over their heads. The startled Historical Constellations evacuated their Incarnation bodies.

"Which bastard...!"

At the same time, more than twice as many shells as before poured down on them. They weren't ordinary bullets.

Mana bullets, each one infused with condensed Mana.

As several Incarnation bodies fell in the ambush, the enraged Constellations turned toward the source of the barrage.

"You worm-like Incarnations...!"

The Incarnations dressed as refugees continued firing.

"Keep shooting."

A man stood among the refugees.

Jacob Martinez.

The King of the North of Las Vegas.

The Historical Constellations rushed forward at a remarkable speed, breaking through the refugee formation in an instant and charging Martinez. The moment Martinez widened his eyes, the Historical Constellations positioned around him severed his arms and torso.

"Hahaha! Idiot!"

His limbs, severed amid sprays of blood, flew through the air.

[The character Jacob Martinez has activated Severing Magic Lv.7!]

Martinez reattached his severed body in an instant and spoke toward the rear.

"We can't buy much time. We're up against Olympus."

"I know."

"Go. The north has repaid its debt."

The woman nodded and picked up the fallen Demon King of Salvation.

His Incarnation body, already beginning to disappear, trembled faintly.

"Don't move."

The Demon King of Salvation looked up at her. Even on the battlefield, her beautiful face shone brightly.

It wasn't the face of the person he remembered.

"I thought you were Yu Sangah."

Jieunyu smiled faintly.

"I am her Incarnation, after all."

Yu Sangah's Incarnation. Perhaps that was why even her presence strangely resembled Sangah's.

"It's dangerous here. If you came to save the youngest, you came to the wrong place. The youngest is over there..."

"They're still negotiating with the Recycling Center."

Were the negotiations still not over?

Then the situation wasn't good. Olympus had burned a Great Fable and resurrected Ares. If they didn't send the youngest up quickly...

"Is that all you have to say?"

Jieunyu ran with the Demon King of Salvation in her arms.

"There's something you should say first."

She resembled Sangah not only in presence but in the way she spoke. Jieunyu let out a soft sigh and continued.

"I was asked to keep an eye on you because they thought you might pull something like this."

"..."

"They also asked me to tell you they were sorry they couldn't put a Golden Headband on you, even though they'd like to."

Golden Headband.

The Demon King of Salvation opened his mouth without thinking.

"I'm not the Kim Dokja Yu Sangah is looking for."

As he said that, he thought of the third. The third possessed most of the memories connected to the Golden Headband.

"Just as you aren't Yu Sangah."

As the scenery rushed past, the Demon King of Salvation felt his fable scattering apart.

[The fable Demon King of Salvation stammers as it continues its story.]

Jieunyu's hand, wrapped around him, held onto the scattering fable.

"You are the Kim Dokja she's looking for."

It was an incredibly warm hand.

"I've read more stories about you than anyone else. So I can vouch for you."

Perhaps it was because she truly seemed like Sangah as she said that.

The Demon King of Salvation slowly opened his mouth.

"Is Yu Sangah doing well?"

"Do you think she is?"

"Tell her I'm sorry."

"Tell her yourself."

"You said you're Yu Sangah's Incarnation."

"You said you aren't Yu Sangah."

"For now, let's say you are Yu Sangah. So..."

The Demon King of Salvation knew.

Sangah couldn't come here. Whether it was because of the Scale of Plausibility or the restrictions of the Void Curtain, she wouldn't be able to come here, at least until he died.

His words probably wouldn't reach Sangah properly.

"Thank you so much, Yu Sangah."

Still, they would remain as a story.

One day, Sangah would read his story left behind on this wall. The Demon King of Salvation was satisfied with that.

"Thank you. Truly."

His Scenario was over now.

The protagonist and characters of this story had changed.

"I don't understand. What are you thanking me for?"

Yet the story continued.

"I'm going to ask you about it, so make sure you stay alive until then."

Was it because there were still stories left unfinished?

The Demon King of Salvation blinked slowly and asked, "Was that something Yu Sangah said just now?"

"I just said it."

"You're just Yu Sangah's Incarnation."

"We said I was Yu Sangah just now."

Jieunyu kicked off the ground and ran with all her strength.

"I don't know for sure, but if it were Yu Sangah, she'd definitely have said that."

The explosions from behind them gradually began to fade.

The King of the North's forces had been annihilated.

"I heard about you from the youngest."

Editor Jieunyu.

She had been a fairly important person in the youngest's memories. She was the first person to read and edit the stories the youngest wrote. Without her, the youngest's Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint might never have existed.

「"Writer. Look at this. Kim Dokja's line here is strange."

"I think this line suits him."

"No! Look, he wasn't a character who spoke like this before..."

"Isn't that character depth?"

"This isn't depth. It's a complete break from character."」

A thought suddenly came to him.

If he and Sangah had reincarnated into another worldline, perhaps they would have had a relationship like that.

「"Don't you think Kim Dokja sometimes wants to become someone else too?"」

A world with no Scenarios or Constellations. A world where all these tragedies were nothing more than imagined words.

The youngest had come from such a world.

"You stayed here to save the youngest, didn't you?"

Jieunyu didn't answer.

"You're like the youngest's Yu Sangah."

"I told you, I'm not Yu Sangah. Stop talking. Your fable is scattering."

"I'm going to die anyway. I don't even have a minute left."

Jieunyu stopped.

The Historical Constellations hiding ahead revealed themselves one by one. Historical Constellations Olympus had dispatched as reinforcements appeared, accompanied by their Incarnation bodies.

"Deactivate [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] and run away! Can't you do that?"

"I can't. I put a restriction on it."

It wasn't like ordinary [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint].

To kill the Historical-grade Incarnation bodies and defeat the Incarnation body of Ares, a fabled-grade Constellation, the Demon King of Salvation had wagered his life.

「This [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] cannot be deactivated by its user.」

In other words, if this Incarnation body disappeared, he would disappear as well.

"What were you thinking? They're after you."

"I know."

"Then why...?"

Why had he done something so reckless?

Even the Demon King of Salvation didn't know.

Perhaps he believed his stage hadn't ended yet.

Perhaps he wanted to recreate those days when he hunted Constellations as the Demon King of Salvation.

Perhaps the youngest's story of fighting desperately alone had made his blood boil, and he wanted to prove that he, too, was Kim Dokja.

The Thought borrowed from the youngest hummed and let out a wail.

"The Demon King of Salvation I know doesn't die."

"..."

"You know he's someone who survives no matter what he has to do, don't you?"

Historical Constellations approached from every direction.

There was nowhere left to run.

Unless a Star Ladder descended, they had no way to escape. Yet what star would dare lower a Star Ladder to oppose a great nebula?

"So save him."

As she said that, Jieunyu's gaze briefly rested on Inho Cheon in the distance.

"Please save Kim Dokja."

The Demon King of Salvation listened to those words blankly.

Perhaps he had come all the way here because he wanted to hear them.

[The fable Demon King of Salvation wishes to continue its story.]

The Demon King of Salvation staggered out of Jieunyu's arms and spoke.

"All right."

Beyond the Incarnation bodies of the Historical Constellations surrounding them, a man with terrifying Status walked toward them.

"De-mon-King-of-Sal-va-tion."

It was the resurrected Incarnation body of Ares.

Tssssss!

Ares walked toward them while enduring the Plausibility Backlash from exceeding the permitted limit. Even if he detonated every remaining fable, it would be impossible to bring that bastard down.

Thunder rumbled beyond the night sky once more. The Demon King of Salvation thought of Yu Junghyeok.

Junghyeok and Kim Dokja Company probably couldn't come. The great nebulae would be blocking them by offering up their Great Fables as Sacrifices.

Not only them, but no one in this world could intervene in this Scenario where the great nebulae ran wild.

「Except for one place.」

The Demon King of Salvation looked up.

"Are you there?"

They were the group that governed this world itself.

Those who controlled Scenarios amid the turbulent currents of the Star Stream and guided the world toward the ■■ of all things.

"Bihyeong."

Sparks crackled in the air at the Demon King of Salvation's call.

"Are you serious?"

A dokkaebi from the Administration Bureau, Bihyeong, answered.

"Yes."

The Demon King of Salvation knew. Bihyeong wasn't the only one listening to him right now.

The Great Dokkaebis of this worldline, perhaps even the Dokkaebi King beyond them, must have been listening to his story.

And they must have already expected what he was about to say.

"The price will be enormous."

He knew. It might be even more dreadful than death.

"It doesn't matter."

He still had to meet the youngest again.

He had to tell the youngest what he hadn't been able to tell him yet.

What the real Kim Dokja was.

Where the Han Suyeong he had been searching for was.

How the readers from other worldlines could be sent back.

Who had killed them.

And...

「Why this world exists.」

The Constellations sensed something ominous and charged at him, shouting.

"That bastard! Stop him...!"

The Demon King of Salvation grinned at them.

「You will gain nothing.」

The Demon King of Salvation declared, "I will offer myself to the Star Stream."

Then the world answered his words.

[The Star Stream accepts your proposal.]

[The Constellation Demon King of Salvation has been offered to the Star Stream.]

"Stop! You bastard!"

For a Constellation to offer itself to the Star Stream was practically the same as voluntarily becoming Scenario material.

[The mayor of Heavenly City wishes to incorporate Demon King of Salvation into their Scenario.]

[The host of Ragnarok wishes to incorporate Demon King of Salvation into their Scenario.]

[The master of Fallen Ruins wishes to incorporate Demon King of Salvation into their Scenario.]

[The Initiator of the Great war of Angels and Demons wishes to incorporate Demon King of Salvation into their Scenario.]

...

[The Center Director of the Recycling Center wishes to incorporate Demon King of Salvation into their Scenario.]

He didn't know what Scenario would use him, or what kind of material he would become. Still, he had offered himself, and he had the right to ask for a price.

"I want the authority to grant the Star Ladder."

[The Administration Bureau approves your price.]

Ares, who had reached right in front of the Demon King of Salvation, swung his spear.

Just before it struck, a dazzling ray of light swirled around the Demon King of Salvation's Incarnation body, and it vanished.

"No!"

At the same time, a radiant ladder began descending from the sky.

「Star Ladder.」

In exchange for the Constellation Demon King of Salvation, several Incarnations were granted the chance to ascend.

Anna Croft and Selena Kim helped the fallen Inho Cheon and Junghyeok onto the ladder. Jieunyu also clung to it with Martinez.

Bearing all the designated Incarnations, the ladder began to rise into the sky.

Rumble!

Ares went on a Rampage in fury.

"I cannot accept this!"

Ares's Incarnation body reached toward the Star Ladder.

"Stop them! Don't let that bastard's Incarnation body use the Star Ladder! Do whatever it takes to knock the Incarnation bodies down!"

The Historical Constellations, including Gatekeeper of Thebes, attacked the ladder too late. A translucent curtain sparked and blocked their interference.

"How dare someone...!"

At that moment, Ares felt the Scenario's scales reach equilibrium.

It was impossible.

For someone to be equal to him, a fabled-grade Constellation...

[Please stop, Ares.]

A constellation's declaration carrying enormous Status made every Constellation, including Ares, freeze along with their Incarnation bodies.

Ares looked up at the sky in disbelief.

At the end of the Star Ladder leading to the Recycling Center stood beings with pure white wings spread wide.

Unlike Olympus and Asgard, which had joined the Scenario, they were the only stars among the great nebulae belonging to the three great powers that had remained silent.

"Eden!"

[The Constellation Lily Blooming in Aquarius reveals its Status!]

The ranks of Seraphim blocked the path to the Recycling Center.

[The Scenario has ended. Do not harm Plausibility any further, and return to your own context.]

"How dare you, how dare you...!"

Ares couldn't understand it. Why was Eden intervening in this situation, and at this exact moment?

Ares clenched his teeth and directed his killing intent at the figure standing beyond the Seraphim.

"Center Director! I know you're hiding there!"

There was no need to fight Eden.

The Star Ladder wasn't under Eden's jurisdiction anyway.

"Cancel the Star Ladder! The Demon King of Salvation is ours!"

[No. He belongs to the Star Stream now.]

With a hollow laugh, the Center Director's voice came from among the shadows of the Archangels.

[Olympus. Have you forgotten the nebula agreement? You cannot interfere in the Recycling Center's Scenario.]

"Asgard declared [Fate]. Three [Fate] messages fell upon him! He can't escape them! He..."

[The Fate bestowed upon him was to die within a beloved story.]

Once all the Incarnations had finished ascending, the Star Ladder began to scatter. The portal to the Recycling Center was slowly closing.

The Center Director wore a strange smile, looked over the ruined Washington Dome, and left a final remark.

[It seems that story isn't here.]

"Wait! Stop! You bastards...!"

[The Star Ladder has vanished.]

[All Scenarios in the Washington Dome area have ended.]

[The Scenario's scales are tipping.]

[The balance of Plausibility is collapsing.]

The remaining Ares and Historical Constellations hurriedly looked at one another.

Ominous sparks were sweeping across all of Washington.

"Everyone, retreat..."

[The Plausibility Backlash is beginning!]

The backlash that followed erased everything in Washington.

Footnotes:

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