WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 827: Episode 42: Destination (3)
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I moved Anna Croft behind me and said,
“I’ll take it from here.”
“I can fight too.”
I glanced back at Anna. Her face was flushed with shame. Her pride must have been hurt.
“I know. You’re strong. But not now.”
Anna Croft undoubtedly had terrifying potential for growth. Given just a little more time, she would become someone even Historical-grade or fabled-grade Constellations would struggle to handle.
But that was a story from the latter half of TWSA.
The enemy before us was a monster that had erased three Historical-grade Constellations in a single blow. It was an enemy the current Anna Croft could never face.
“You saw the future. You know this is my turn.”
Perhaps because she already knew what I intended to do, Anna did not stubbornly insist any further. Instead, she searched inside her clothes and held out a small leather flask.
“Drink it.”
“What is it?”
“My blood.”
My eyes widened.
Anna Croft’s Attribute was Elixir Maker. Her blood alone was worth as much as a top-quality elixir.
“Was giving this to me part of the future, too?”
Anna’s shoulders twitched slightly before she answered curtly.
“Are you not taking it?”
I grinned and opened the flask.
“Whenever I meet you, I end up drinking your blood.”
“This is only the second time.”
Perhaps it was because my synchronization with the Demon King of Salvation had deepened. The moment I drank Anna’s blood, Dokja’s fable blazed brightly and warmed every muscle in my body.
I could feel The One Who Devours Dreams looking down at me from above.
As I met that distant gaze, I wondered.
Just how many more monsters like that were in this Fear Realm?
―It’s coming.
I nodded and activated [Way of the Wind]. Dodging the tentacles of The One Who Devours Dreams as they flew toward me, I soared high into the sky.
―You know this is a method no sane person would ever try, right?
“Have we ever been sane?”
Dokja’s snicker flowed from the phone. Accompanied by that laughter, I flew up into the dizzying sky. Every muscle in my body tingled. The fables inside me were stirring.
―It was about time we tried fighting properly.
The Exile Penalty had fully recovered after I acquired the Main Scenario.
That meant I could test one hundred percent of my strength now. I might look like this, but I was the one who inherited the name of the Demon King of Salvation. I could not fully wield his strength, but I was not weak now, either.
Bzzzzzzing!
The Blade of Faith rose from Unbreakable Faith’s blade. When I swung the extended Sword Aura vertically, black fables poured from the surface of the tentacle rushing toward me.
The blow was insignificant, but I did not care.
This was only the beginning.
[Exclusive Skill, Way of the Wind Lv.10 has been activated to its limit!]
The formulas Lycaon had taught me long ago wound around my blade, and before long, the wind became my will.
[White Pure Star Energy] began flowing along the currents of the wind.
Keeping my sword embedded in its tentacle leg, I ran toward its main body.
[Way of the Wind] burrowed into the wound’s surface and met [White Pure Star Energy], causing explosions large and small.
Ooooooo!
Perhaps that had hurt it a little. I felt The One Who Devours Dreams flinch.
―Are you applying what Lycaon taught you?
“Yes.”
The next moment, The One Who Devours Dreams’s leg swayed wildly before rising into the sky. It was undoubtedly the attack that had sent the three Historical-grade Constellations to their deaths earlier.
―Don’t hold back from now on.
Dokja was right. If I did not give this everything I had, I would die.
A violent gale rose in the distant sky. Watching its tentacle fall at tremendous speed, Dokja said,
―If this doesn’t work, we’re really going to die. You know that, right?
“Anna said I wouldn’t die.”
―You believe her?
“I have to believe her right now.”
―Let’s begin.
[Exclusive Skill, Incitement Lv.11(+1) has activated!]
Normally, even if I used [Incitement] or [Bookmark], it would be impossible to contend with The One Who Devours Dreams.
But now, for just a moment, it might be possible.
My Incitement had changed after entering and leaving the Fear of the 40th round just once.
“I am...”
Of course, the person I would use [Incitement] on had already been decided.
“I am Cheok Junkyung, Goryeo’s Top Swordsman!”
This was not ordinary [Incitement].
[Sentence Enhancement] was equipped by default, and Inho Cheon’s know-how from the 40th round had seeped completely into my [Incitement].
「He was a strongman from birth. He was born with a dragon’s bloodline.」
The Heart of a Low-Grade Dragon I had swallowed long ago beat madly.
「“He’s too strong. Exile him from the Scenario. Use every means possible and send him to another world.”」
Dragon bloodline and Exile of the Scenario.
The matching characteristics sharply raised Incitement’s synchronization rate.
「Right now, I can imitate him better than anyone else.」
[Item, Elixir Maker’s Blood responds to your breath.]
Anna’s blood flowed through my veins. The probability needed for [Incitement] was being realized as her blood was consumed.
「What I want is...」
I was Goryeo’s Top Swordsman.
The greatest warrior of Goryeo, who cut everything apart with only one sword.
「Simply to cut the void before my eyes.」
The words he had spoken, the words he seemed likely to speak. The history he had lived and the history he seemed likely to live bound together and settled in my right arm.
The moment my swelling Mana seemed ready to burst, The One Who Devours Dreams’s tentacle leg was already before my eyes.
―Youngest.
“I am Cheok Junkyung.”
[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name begins its story.]
[Due to the effect of fable Heir to an Eternal Name, fable One Who Slayed an Outer God begins its story!]
Dokja’s fable activated at the perfect time. It was the very fable he had acquired when he hunted The One Who Devours Dreams in Dark Castle long ago.
With my heart pounding as though it would explode, I swung my sword at the tentacle.
Please. Please work...
Tzzzzzt.
Then the scenery before me began to ripple.
I knew exactly what that sign meant.
「Stage Transformation.」
My [Incitement] had successfully deceived the stage.
「This is a sword that cuts down a thousand with one strike.」
First Form, One Sword Cleaves a Thousand.
The trail of my sword collided with the falling tentacle amid an explosive surge of Mana.
Krrrrash!
But an Outer God was still an Outer God.
Even Cheok Junkyung’s One Sword could not stop the shock wave. It was pushing back the First Form.
―Again!
I immediately activated the Second Form.
Second Form, Two Swords Cleave a Mountain.
Cheok Junkyung’s Second Sword, made to cleave a great mountain. When a sword strike on an entirely different level joined the First Form, the shock wave the tentacle released was cancelled out in an instant.
An intoxicating sensation swept over the tips of my fingers gripping the sword.
「This is the strength of a Transcendent.」
The supreme realm only those who had shed their mortal shell and ascended to Transcendence could sense.
For a moment, I thought about it.
What if I could enter that 40th round again?
What if I could experience that round again and again, just as Yu Junghyeok and the other Transcendents entered a Time Stratum?
How strong could I become?
Crack.
That was when I instinctively realized something had gone wrong. Excruciating pain flooded my right arm, and something dangled below my shoulder.
―Damn it. Did it break?
My fragile Incarnation body had failed to endure the shock released by the Second Form.
[Exclusive Skill, Incitement’s effect has been forcibly deactivated!]
[Exclusive Skill, The Fourth Wall has activated, and the Incitement Penalty has been neutralized!]
To make things worse, [Incitement] had been deactivated too. I watched another tentacle begin descending from the sky and smiled bitterly.
―It’s still not enough. I thought I could at least use the Third Sword.
Even though 「Stage Transformation」 had activated, I could not use the stage to kill The One Who Devours Dreams as I was now.
After all, The One Who Devours Dreams had not died to Cheok Junkyung’s sword in the first place.
“Still, this is enough.”
I had done all I could.
Instead of struggling desperately against death, I closed my eyes as I watched the falling tentacle. Then I imagined Cheok Junkyung’s Third Form, which I had failed to use.
Third Form, Three Swords Cleave the Sea.
When I slowly opened my eyes while imagining that boundless sword force...
「This is a sword made to face the sea.」
With a refreshing gust of wind, I heard the tentacle flying toward me split in half.
Oooooooo!
The One Who Devours Dreams unleashed a constellation’s declaration.
A man stood before me, unshaken even by that terrifying declaration.
He was a star that did not fear Outer Gods.
The Final Passenger of Rush-Hour Subway, a Historical-grade Calamity who had triggered the High-Crime Area and exterminated every other Incarnation.
Every stage I had created until now had been an act meant to draw out this man, who was somewhere in the Fear Realm.
“Goryeo’s Top Swordsman. It is an honor to meet you.”
Cheok Junkyung looked back at me.
[How do you know my sword forms?]
His Three Sword Forms were less sword techniques than skills forged through complete realization.
They felt familiar to someone accustomed to fables like me, but they were martial arts ordinary martial artists could not imitate even if taught.
Yet a mortal who had seen them for the first time had used them.
[Wait. Could you be...?]
Ah, perhaps it was not his first time seeing me.
[I see. I have seen you fight Cheon Gae.]
Come to think of it, I had forgotten that my battle against Cheon Gae of the Dragon Head Ark had been broadcast through the Star Stream.
[Interesting. To think that brat from then would come this far.]
“It is an honor to fight beside you.”
Something about my words must have pleased him. Cheok Junkyung suddenly let out a magnificent laugh.
[I have never seen anyone learn my martial arts.]
Normally, this was a situation where a martial artist should have interrogated me over how I knew his secret martial arts.
I listened to him with slight tension.
[The First Sword was insufficient to cut a thousand people, and the Second Sword was too short to shatter the waves.]
His analysis was abstract, yet precise. However, his tone was strangely gentle.
[But your blade clearly points toward that supreme universe. You have undoubtedly learned the Three Sword Forms.]
Fortunately, Cheok Junkyung did not seem displeased that I had imitated his martial arts.
No, to be more precise...
[Hmm. Good.]
He seemed rather pleased.
The greatest warrior of the Korean Peninsula lightly struck his chest and declared,
[From now on, I will take you as my disciple.]
What?
Ooooooo!
The One Who Devours Dreams cried out again.
Before I could answer, Cheok Junkyung moved. The warrior who cut a thousand people, cleaved mountains, and split the sea swung his sword at the Outer God.
[Ooooooo!]
It was martial arts on a truly earth-shaking scale. Cheok Junkyung’s Sword Aura mercilessly struck The One Who Devours Dreams, while The One Who Devours Dreams repelled every form with terrifying force.
Dokja, who had silently watched the spectacle, offered a brief assessment.
―I didn’t expect this.
“Me neither.”
―I didn’t want things to go this far.
“Why did he say something like that?”
Normally, he should have first interrogated me about how I had learned his secret martial arts, or at least gone through some complicated procedure. Instead, that broad-minded Constellation had immediately made me his disciple.
―Cheok Junkyung is a Constellation who has never accepted a disciple. His martial arts cannot be learned through ordinary training.
“Ah.”
Martial arts that could not be learned even if taught.
And then a human appeared who had mastered them alone.
―Well, it isn’t bad for now. At least as long as Cheok Junkyung thinks of you as his disciple, he will not let you die a pointless death in the Fear Realm.
Was this really something I could just accept like that?
―What, is something bothering you?
Just as I was about to answer, someone’s cold hand grabbed my wrist. It was Anna Croft.
“Inho Cheon.”
“Yes. Should we run?”
“Do you intend to die here?”
“You said I wouldn’t die.”
“I could not see what came after this clearly.”
Anna’s advice was right. It was time to withdraw. While our master fought hard for us, we needed to flee quickly toward the industrial complex and plan for what came next.
―What an excellent disciple.
“Who do you think I learned it from?”
―You know even Goryeo’s Top Swordsman cannot defeat The One Who Devours Dreams, right?
“Then this will be the master and disciple’s final meeting.”
I gave a brief bow toward my master, who was fighting fiercely for his disciple in the distance, and turned toward the industrial complex with Anna Croft.
But then...
―It certainly will be the final meeting.
When had it appeared?
The Outer God Hairworm, which had been guarding another direction until just now, blocked the path north. It seemed to have approached while watching our battle with The One Who Devours Dreams.
Anna Croft’s face turned pale as she slowly hid behind me.
“I hate hairworms.”
I did not have much Mana left anyway.
In that case...
I swiftly turned around and shouted loudly.
“Master! Your disciple is in danger!”
Then my master answered.
[If you are my disciple, you can defeat something like that on your own.]
Hmm. It seemed my new master was the type to shove his disciple into a tiger’s den.
Anna and I slowly began backing away.
“Do you have another plan?”
“No.”
Anna Croft tilted her head at my hopeless answer.
“How strange.”
“What is?”
“It was not Goryeo’s Top Swordsman.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I confirmed in the future was not Goryeo’s Top Swordsman.”
As I wondered what that could possibly mean, I heard voices from somewhere nearby. They came from the rooftop of a nearby building.
“Hehe, the captain of Third Battalion fights the Dream Eater every time he comes here.”
“What a pathetic bastard.”
“Let us subdue it first. We will fight the Dream Eater together, but who will face Hairworm?”
“I will.”
Screeeech!
The moment the Hairworm monster rushed toward us, blue sword energy rippled before my eyes.
I knew what that martial art was.
The blue of Sword Aura, like a clear and vast sky.
―Wow. It has been a really long time.
White Pure Star Energy.
But it was not my White Pure Star Energy. Its Sword Aura was far nobler than mine, even beautiful.
“That is him.”
At Anna’s words, I stared at his back as though bewitched. His sky-blue hair, suited to that blue-white sword strike, blossomed brilliantly amid the dazzling light.
Watching the Hairworm Outer God flee with a scream, I suddenly recalled the description from when he had first appeared.
「When describing a handsome man in TWSA, the usual phrase was, “As handsome as Yu Junghyeok.” He was exactly the kind of man that phrase suited.」
If I were to express how overwhelmed I was now, Yu Junghyeok’s cheeks would not survive it.
I ran toward the “real master” who had finally appeared.
But my master’s expression as he turned toward me was strange.
Come to think of it, why did my master look so odd?
No, it was more than a little odd.
What was that...?
Had Kyrios always been that big?
Footnotes:
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