WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 138: Clue

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The moment Kyle moved, Lamika's sword shot forward.

The swamp of death where thousands of snakes lurked. What he had felt had not remained an impression, it had become reality. It was neither an afterimage created by high-speed movement nor the pressure of Lamika's presence.

Aura so dense it was visible to the eye. Spiritual energy, intent given form. As they mingled, they created a tangible phenomenon. Swish! Only one sword thrust forward, yet thousands of snakes writhing around Lamika rushed at Kyle at the same time.

‘They're all real.’

There was no point distinguishing truth from illusion. The snakes rushing at him, every one of those thrusts was a real attack. It was absurd, but true. At this level, attacks were decided not only by swinging a real sword, but by will.

Thud! He drove strength into the foot he had stepped forward with and kicked off the ground. As he dashed ahead, he swung Fenris in his right hand. His swift slash cut through the snakes and opened a path.

The moment he tried to press farther in, Kyle's brow twitched. The snakes he had clearly cut were writhing along the path he had crossed, coiling around him from behind.

‘Of course.’

Those snakes manifested through spiritual energy would not disappear no matter how many times he cut them. They were like a swamp that became harder to escape the closer he came. If he mindlessly cut his way forward, he would be bitten to death in the middle of the snakes.

Lamika closed in. Her thrust rushed toward him. Kyle immediately met it with Fenris, but the instant their swords collided, Lamika's blade writhed like a living snake and slipped over Fenris. Thud! He barely twisted away, but it brushed his collar.

‘Behind me.’

He could not focus only on Lamika. Kyle was already in the middle of the snake swamp. Snakes were coming from behind, no, from every direction. No matter how excellent his swordsmanship was, he could not cut through thousands of snakes attacking at once with a single slash.

In a fight at this level, he had to turn the impossible into reality.

Crackle...!

Lightning coursed through his body, and Kyle's mind opened wide.

Fwoosh!

Purple lightning burst from his entire body. Mana into Aura, Aura into Sword Force. Kyle wished to become a sword himself.

Then he swung that sword with his own will. The Sword Force he released drew sword paths and butchered the snakes. At the same time, he swung Fenris to meet Lamika's attack.

Kragagak!

Sword struck sword. The weight transmitted into his hand felt unsatisfying. The blade he thought he had knocked away after their clash slipped over Fenris and aimed for Kyle's neck.

He braced his knees and bent backward at the waist. The sword that had nearly grazed his throat passed just over his head. He bent so far back that his back nearly touched the floor. Controlling his unstable posture, he swung Fenris.

Crack!

Sword Force roiled around Fenris in the middle of the swing. At that moment, Fenris became lightning. Dozens of branching bolts descended upon Lamika.

Pleased by that response, Lamika's eyes filled with delight. The snakes opened their jaws wide and tore into the lightning. The lightning's afterimages vanished into their mouths. At the same time, Lamika's real sword targeted Kyle again.

His eyes caught one thrust. Yet Kyle's senses felt countless thrusts, far beyond one. The undulations created by Lamika's body and spiritual energy were throwing his senses into confusion.

‘The more I try to break through head-on, the deeper I get trapped.’

The closer he came to Lamika, the tighter the snake swamp closed around him. There was a limit to clearing it away by releasing Sword Force. The ground Kyle stood on was Lamika's world, a deadly place where she held power over life and death. No matter how brilliant Kyle's swordsmanship was, Lamika held the advantage here.

He did not need to cut a path through it. He needed to cut down the swamp itself.

Kyle focused and pushed one foot back.

He recalled the control of intent Helenas had taught him. The key was the determination of will. Kyle wished to become a sword and lightning, and he sought to determine that he was.

Crackle!

His body wrapped in purple light distorted. Lightning was fast. A momentary flash could not be trapped in a swamp. Kwarrrr!

With a thunderous roar, Kyle's body flew away from Lamika.

“Ha.”

Lamika laughed. She had thought he had only just entered the Boundary Realm, yet he could manipulate spiritual energy that skillfully?

‘From the moment the Upper Dantian opens, will can transcend the body. But knowing that principle and making it real are entirely different matters.’

The snakes lurking behind Kyle were all torn apart and vanished the instant thunder rang out. Having flown far away, Kyle barely managed to stop himself.

His breath caught, and pain throbbed through his head. It went beyond the feeling of his mind opening wide. It felt as if a huge hole had been bored into it, as if it were melting away.

‘No. It's not my head.’

Kyle clutched his chest with his left hand and swallowed a groan. It felt as though his soul, his existence, his very self had been hollowed out. Something seemed to be overflowing from that hole and melting down his body.

“We should stop here.”

Lamika lowered her sword.

“Are you in pain?”

Kyle did not answer her smiling question. He simply gritted his teeth. He had suffered grievous wounds in his previous life, and he had even died once. He had thought himself capable of enduring nearly any pain without a groan, but this pain was something alien that Kyle had never experienced before.

“Think of it as forging.”

Lamika whispered.

“For metal to become a sword, it must be melted, fitted into a mold, and hammered. Until now, Young Master, you were metal. But from the moment your Upper Dantian opened, your will has begun transcending more strongly, and it will melt you into molten metal.”

Moving as fast as lightning and truly becoming lightning were different things. Just now, Kyle had truly become lightning and moved away from Lamika.

After that, he had intended to swing wide and cut apart the swamp once he escaped. But the pain that came crashing over him stopped him.

He could not go any further. It was dangerous. He would die.

That instinct did not come from Lamika's sword. It came from Kyle himself.

“If you cannot prepare a mold, molten metal will only harden into a useless mess. Young Master, you have not yet prepared a mold of your own. Perhaps what you seek is too vague.”

The pain in his chest gradually subsided. Kyle steadied his ragged breathing.

“And after I prepare a mold?”

“Then you hammer it.”

Lamika answered with a smile.

“Forging, metal, a mold, hammering. They are all only metaphors. Put differently, Young Master, you must create your own world. Once you clearly shape and complete the world that vaguely exists within your mind, you will be able to impose that world upon reality.”

The snakes writhing around Lamika slowly began to withdraw.

“What do you see in me right now, Young Master?”

“A swamp of snakes.”

“You saw correctly. If you had not opened your Upper Dantian, you would have seen nothing in me. Then you would have been torn apart and killed without being able to resist at all.”

It was unreasonable, but true. Now, everyone awakened their Spirit Root at ten and learned to wield mana. In the past, however, one could not even awaken mana unless one lived with death constantly at their side.

A person who could not wield mana and a person who could. A fight between them could not exist. Naturally, the power available to them was completely different. In the same way, a fight between someone who could wield intent and someone who could not did not exist.

Kyle had only been able to respond because of his innate senses, Spirit Root, and experience from his previous life. Even that had only been possible because Lizet, who stood at the entrance to the Boundary Realm, was not yet used to it. When he had fought the Flower Immortal, if he had not opened his Upper Dantian then, Kyle would have been unable to overcome that absurdity and would have died miserably.

“Right now, I have used spiritual energy to impose part of my world upon reality.”

“Part of it?”

“Yes, only part. If I impose all of it, reality will be overwritten by my world. That is the pinnacle of the Boundary Realm, Sublimation.”

It was what Helenas had said she would explain later. Lamika had unintentionally explained what Helenas intended to teach. Helenas narrowed her eyes at that, but Lamika did not notice. In Lamika's mind, she was doing her best to teach Kyle.

“It is a Secret Technique impossible for you in your current state, Young Master. You are still nothing more than molten metal. If you overuse it, you will become a mess and lose yourself.”

“Lose myself? Is that a metaphor too?”

“No, it is the truth. Intent is power born from your will, Young Master. But power that is too great to handle properly will inevitably destroy its wielder.”

::I Cut::

::I Strike::

Those were intuitive. Even someone holding a sword for the first time or clenching a fist for the first time could do them if told to.

“You know how to manifest intent into spiritual energy. With that power, you know how to melt yourself into molten metal. That is as far as you can go right now, Young Master. If you want more, you must shape a clearer world.”

All the withdrawn snakes disappeared. Lamika calmed her breathing and raised her sword in front of her.

“I will show you. But Young Master, please do not make this Lamika's world your goal. To become the Sword Church Master's mate, you must regard my world as something insignificant and surpass it by far.”

Woooooo...!

The scenery around Lamika shook. The swamp of venomous snakes he had seen before began to manifest in reality with strength incomparable to before.

“The act of declaring the world held by the soul called I unto the world through a True Declaration is Initiation.”

Spiritual energy overflowed from Lamika. Kyle unconsciously flinched back. The snake swamp he had seen earlier had been chilling, but he could still approach it. Yet he could not even think of approaching Lamika now. His instincts forced him to take a step back.

“Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss.”

The True Declaration was spoken.

The world heard it.

And so the world was overwritten.

He could not resist. The sensation that swept over him in an instant was similar to being sucked into the Secret Realm. The moment he regained his senses, Kyle stood in the middle of Lamika's world.

Something beneath his feet gave him chills. Startled, he looked down and saw countless snakes writhing beneath him. Their eyes glinted as they began coiling around his ankles.

Hissss...

He felt their sharpness. A cold sweat ran down Kyle's back as he swallowed dryly. The things covering the ground looked like snakes, but they were actually Lamika's spiritual energy and sword. A sword could thrust or cut. If Lamika wished it, his legs would not be coiled around. They would be sliced apart.

‘My feet are sinking deeper.’

No, were the snakes climbing up? In that brief moment, snakes had coiled around both of Kyle's legs up to his calves. The other snakes nearby also raised their heads, writhing as they watched Kyle.

‘If I can't shake them off, snakes will wrap around my whole body and carve me apart. Even if I do, all those snakes will rush me.’

Where was Lamika? Kyle looked around. No matter where he looked, there was only a pitch-black world without a trace of light.

“Ha.”

As he searched the darkness, Kyle let out a hollow laugh without realizing it. Something was moving endlessly beyond the darkness. Not only were snakes rising from the ground beneath him, even more snakes were watching Kyle from the far side of that darkness.

Lamika's form was faintly visible. She stood still, watching Kyle. He tried to approach her, but the snakes immediately gripped his legs tightly and restricted his movement.

‘This is Lamika's world. Everything I try to do is denied by this world.’

His chest turned cold. To deny this world, he needed power strong enough to deny it. As before, Kyle determined himself to be lightning.

Crackle...!

Kyle's body was wrapped in purple light.

A flash came with a thunderclap. The snakes wrapped around both his legs could no longer hold him.

Lightning pierced the darkness. The snakes on the ground did not stop Kyle. Neither did the snakes drifting through the darkness. Every snake in this world watched as Kyle, turned into lightning, raced forward.

Because Lamika was allowing the movement.

Kyle's dash was not something he had decided through his own will to negate Lamika's world. As though telling him to do as he pleased, Lamika simply watched him.

‘Far... away.’

His thoughts continued in fragments. Was Lamika's world really this vast? No. That was not it. Lamika had never allowed Kyle's dash from the start. He wished to race through the darkness, but it was all nothing more than struggling in a swamp. The more he struggled, the more fiercely the swamp pressed down on him.

‘What a fucking world.’

Unless he could stand at something close to the same level, it made resistance itself impossible. That was what it meant to impose her inner world upon reality and overwrite it. In Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss, Lamika was the master of this world.

“This is Sublimation.”

Lamika's voice came close. Her straight sword pointed at Kyle. Her figure overlapped with the image of a snake opening its jaws wide.

“This Lamika has shown you her Sublimation very gently for your sake, Young Master. You know it as well. If I had harbored Killing Intent, you would have died the instant you entered.”

He could not deny it. Returning from lightning, Kyle swallowed a groan at the same pain as before and spoke.

“This is something else. Is this even a sword, or is it magic...?”

“A sword that reaches the pinnacle is bound to feel like magic.”

Lamika gave a quiet laugh.

“The essence of Sublimation follows the world held in one's mind, no matter what weapon one holds or what magic one uses. With your eye for the sword, Young Master, you must have seen what kind of sword I have through our spar so far. Is this world different from my sword?”

Kyle fell silent and thought.

The sword he had seen and experienced from Lamika so far was fast and unconventional. A truly outstanding swordsman was never skilled in only one thing.

Her decisive thrusts were threatening, but Lamika's sword created situations where she could thrust someone to death. The instant one was caught and bewildered by the slashes that writhed and bent like snakes, her sword pierced through them.

This world was full of those vicious snakes. He had been submerged in the swamp from the start. If he stood still, he would sink beneath the snakes and die. If he struggled, that death would come faster. If he thought he had escaped, Lamika would ultimately stab him to death.

“I understand why martial art of the extreme boundary is called Sublimation.”

If opening one's mind allowed a person to transcend humanity, then the sword one had wielded while human had to transcend the realm it once occupied as well. Kyle reflected on what kind of world existed within him.

There had always been a sword in Kyle's mind, in his previous life and in this one. That vague awareness was not enough. Unless he gave it a clearer form, his will would become poison and destroy him instead.

‘What kind of sword do I seek?’

He continued thinking. Cutting and thrusting were the essence of the sword. Swordsmanship was how one performed those two things. Kyle thought of the forms of sword he knew how to wield.

There were too many. To begin with, he had never learned an orthodox sword art in his previous life, one with clearly arranged forms. The sword his mercenary father taught him had been basic techniques anyone could perform. He had fought without rest with those swords and survived. He had survived because he kept learning through battles of victory and defeat, then endlessly made what he learned part of himself.

‘The essence of my sword...’

Was that it never stopped.

It did not mean endlessly thrusting, swinging, and cutting. Kyle felt no resistance toward accepting a new sword. If his opponent's sword was stronger than his own, he was happy instead and followed that sword. Raikal had grown stronger the more he crossed the line between life and death.

‘The Spirit Root I awakened is the same.’

Chaos, which could become anything and contain anything.

That possibility.

Kyle steadied his breathing and looked directly at Lamika.

“May I try one more time?”

“You have already overused intent, Young Master. If you continue, you will damage yourself.”

Lamika spoke with concern, but Kyle quickly shook his head.

“I've found a clue, though it's still vague. I think I'll lose it if I don't do this now.”

At those words, Lamika could not help but hesitate. She was a swordsman who had sharpened her sword through countless real battles, so she understood how desperately important a clue that arose in a single moment could be. In the end, Lamika nodded and lowered her sword.

Darkness began flowing in again. Lamika, who had been close by, moved far away, and Kyle once more stood in the middle of Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss. The snakes writhing beneath his feet slowly climbed upward, while lethal snakes drifted beyond the darkness.

Kyle stood still and stared into the darkness. He could not be deceived just because they looked like snakes. They were all swords. Recognizing that clearly, he raised Fenris.

He did not resist the snakes that had climbed past his ankles and covered his calves. Instead, he stood there and swung his sword.

Swish!

The sword path he drew writhed like a snake. That first swing did not satisfy him much.

‘Relax my arm more.’

He swung his sword again. It was slightly better than the sword path he had drawn the first time.

‘Not just with my arm. Add more intent.’

His arm felt as though it were melting into mush. Ignoring it, he swung again. The third sword path was more satisfying than the second. Kyle continued swinging his sword.

‘If the world within me is possibility, something that can contain and become anything, then it can contain and become Lamika's world too.’

He could not stop there. If he did, it would only become imitation. Every sword path Kyle knew and could wield responded to Lamika's world.

‘Melt down my Spirit Root.’

Knowing too many things could sometimes be poison. Overconfidence on the battlefield killed oneself. For now, he humbly acknowledged his limits. Of the attributes of his Spirit Root he had used since reincarnating, lightning was the one he had used most often and was most familiar with.

Crackle...!

The sword he swung gradually became lightning. Dozens, hundreds of sword paths, the lightning that drew them began to writhe like snakes.

The sword paths he had already swung did not disappear. Before long, hundreds of lightning snakes writhed around Kyle. Kuguuuung!

The snakes of Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss coiled around his legs fell away from Kyle's body on their own.

It was not what Lamika wanted. At that moment, Kyle's will surpassed Lamika's.

‘What is this?’

Lamika's eyes opened wide. It was not a thought that came to her because she truly did not know. Lamika knew what Kyle was doing, and that was why she was horrified.

‘He's imitating my world, no, is he trying to consume it?’

What kind of arrogant sword was that? Did he believe he could wield it better than the master of the sword, the master of the world itself? It was unbelievable, but Kyle was truly swinging his sword with that intent.

Hissss...

The snakes in the darkness began rushing toward Kyle. The more he struggled, the tighter the snakes of Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss constricted around him. The more swords came for his life, the faster Kyle's sword became, and the more his sword paths resembled snakes. Thousands of lightning snakes glared at the snakes and bared their fangs.

Amid her shock, Lamika felt displeasure. It was an emotion she should not harbor toward a boy who might become the Sword Church Master's mate, but...

She wanted to kill Kyle.

If she did not kill him now and let him go, it felt as if every sword she had devoted her life to would be stolen away.

Footnotes:

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