WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 185: Win

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This was a contract with Spirits.

The Spirits wanted Velatus dead for burying them inside the Spirit Tree and leaving them there to rot. But they could not act on that killing intent. Not only did they lack the power, but the very land of the East, shaped by Velatus over three hundred years, did not permit Spirits to exist.

Freeing the Spirit Tree would not immediately change the nature of the East. So the Spirits trapped within it could not leave unless Velatus died and the nature of this land changed.

That was why Kyle proposed the contract. He had been able to communicate with the Spirits that had become a curse because of his immense Spirit Affinity. The contract had been possible because of his Chaos Spirit Root, which could become anything and contain anything. Its potential was so vast that calling it infinite would not be an exaggeration.

'Velatus...'

Kyle removed his hand from the Spirit Tree's roots.

'She doesn't know what I possess.'

He was certain of it. If Velatus knew he could do something like this, she would never have freed the Spirit Tree. No matter how long Kyle stalled and threatened not to meet her, she would have found some way to preserve the Seal.

'The only thing Velatus knows is that I'm the Sword Demon's reincarnation.'

Velatus had clearly been involved in that reincarnation as one of its pillars, but the one who had chosen the Sword Demon was not Velatus, but Ruin. And Ruin and Velatus were not the only ones involved in this reincarnation.

'Turning Point.'

The favor shown by the sky gods and outer gods.

Yet Velatus herself was grotesquely extending her life because she did not want to fall into becoming an apostle of a sky god. The silent necklace had shown anger toward Velatus's followers. The followers had felt fear, while Velatus had found it unpleasant and recoiled from it.

That meant the way Velatus had prolonged her life in this land was something the sky gods had every reason to rage over.

'Ruin wouldn't have wanted a world like this either.'

Ruin had first emerged to end the West's long Dark Age and its wars. Even after ending that Dark Age, Ruin had wielded his sword out of duty to the world. He chose Ascension rather than death and still wielded his sword at the edge of the world. He had even changed the Law of humanity, the race once called the weakest.

Ruin had love for humanity. That love had made him wield his sword as both a duty and a curse. A man like that would never tolerate the East, a land no different from hell for humans, or Velatus, the being who had made it so.

'Velatus doesn't know about the talent I was born with.'

That mad dragon, who called herself great and noble, was narrow-minded and ignorant. She did not understand human hearts, nor did she even try to. She thought in a wholly draconic way.

Even though the one she was so obsessed with was human.

'She probably doesn't even notice that he's human.'

Kyle smirked and opened and closed his hand.

'To Velatus, Ruin isn't human. He's simply Ruin Alastor.'

The most beautiful jewel. She did not think about why a jewel was beautiful or what it was made of. She was merely captivated because it was beautiful, and wanted to possess it.

That narrow-minded ignorance had been sharpened into a sword that would pierce Velatus. Kyle closed his eyes for a moment.

He felt power deep inside himself. The killing intent of the Spirits that had been in the Spirit Tree, that immense curse, had transferred into Kyle's body. It was vicious killing intent. An ordinary human would have lost their mind and gone insane, but Kyle remained perfectly composed.

His body had long since surpassed the limits of humanity after all he had experienced, but killing intent had always been familiar to Kyle. Every time he wielded a sword in his previous life, he had filled it with killing intent.

The power that seeped into his body was mana so immense it was impossible to grasp its limits, and it was also intent. Intent was power formed from will.

Killing intent was will as well. Kyle's Upper Dantian was already fully open, so there was no problem using intent. Through the contract, this curse had become one with Kyle. When he wielded his sword to kill Velatus, he would not lack intent.

'It's enough.'

There was no need to add more, nor could he. No matter how vast Kyle's vessel was, his body would not endure if he held any more power of this scale. There were other divine spirits in the East besides the Spirit Tree, worshipped by other great houses, but he could not seek them out and free them one by one.

Velatus would not allow it, and if he tried to cut them away by force, there was no telling what catastrophe might follow. Kyle raised his head and looked up at the Spirit Tree.

'Divine spirits...'

They were said to be objects of faith passed down through the East for generations. Yet this felt different from when he had seen the Angel or come into contact with the outer gods. It felt more Spirit-like, perhaps.

Kyle stared at the Spirit Tree for a while before turning around. Katarina and the order members were looking at him with puzzled expressions.

"Kyle."

Katarina tilted her head.

"What were you doing standing there?"

It seemed the others had not been able to see Kyle communing with the Spirit Tree and making a contract with the Spirits.

"I was strengthening my resolve."

Kyle answered as he began walking.

"I also heard a few things from the Spirit Tree."

"W... what did it say?"

Soha asked hesitantly.

"It wants to kill Velatus. I didn't hear anything else."

"Ah..."

Soha looked disappointed for a moment, then composed herself. Still, the Spirit Tree had been freed from its curse, so the greatest problem confronting Izelion had been resolved.

"Thank you."

Soha bowed deeply.

"Commander little brother... no, Sir Kyle is our family's benefactor."

"That makes me uncomfortable, so just call me as you normally would."

"Is that all right?"

Soha raised her head and smiled brightly. Kyle smirked, then looked around at everyone.

"You've all heard it, but I'm going to kill Velatus now. Normally, when the commander decides something, the members follow without question. But considering who we're facing, I'll give you a choice. If you want to stay behind, then stay..."

"Stop saying pointless things and let's go."

Bruno let out a long sigh.

"Honestly, what help could we possibly be in a fight against the Dragon Queen? But it would be ridiculous for the members not to follow when their commander is heading somewhere dangerous."

"That's why I'm saying it."

The members might be useful against other monsters, but Velatus was too far beyond the norm.

"Even if we fought directly, we'd probably just get in the commander's way. We'll watch from afar."

Jade spoke up.

"If it looks like the commander is going to die, I'll step in and die in his place. And if the commander falls, I'll at least grab him and run."

"I'm touched."

Kyle chuckled.

"Don't fight alongside me. Just watch from a distance. You'll gain something from it."

Just as Julius had once fought Helenas for everyone to see. A sword at a lofty realm left a great impression on those who followed after it. Only by constantly contemplating it, while possessing the desire to realize something oneself, could one gain anything from it.

Just as Kyle had gained something from Ruin's sword.

"A human fighting a dragon. Narua is going to witness a legend."

Narua spoke excitedly.

"Even if the commander dies, Narua will remember his final moments as a witness to legend. Of course, if the commander dies, Narua will die with him..."

Narua said that, then glanced cautiously at Lucia.

"Um... Narua doesn't want to die yet. The commander must not die. Narua believes in the commander's victory."

"That support is lacking. Try it again with more sincerity."

Narua's expression turned determined. She walked over and seized both of Kyle's hands.

"The commander will definitely win."

"Now I can feel some sincerity."

Kyle grinned and nodded.

"Of course I'll win."

Kyle had far too many reasons not to die.

* * *

Outside the Spirit Tree, winged eyeballs were gathered high in the sky, waiting. They did not approach Kyle. Maintaining their altitude, they spoke in buzzing voices.

[To Mo, Mother, we will guide you.]

[Please follow us.]

[Ri, right now.]

Velatus did not want to delay for even a moment. Kyle slowly nodded and opened the Out-of-Place Artifact.

They were being guided there, and they would be flying through the distant sky. He intended to ride the Iron Dragon.

"I've done a few test runs, but this is my first long-distance trip, so it might shake a little. Don't worry too much and get on."

"I never get used to seeing that."

Katarina muttered as she looked up at the Iron Dragon. The order members gathered inside its spacious interior, while Kyle sat in the cockpit.

With a roar and a vibration, the Iron Dragon flapped its wings and rose into the sky. The eyeballs that had been watching it warily began guiding them while maintaining their distance from the Iron Dragon.

'Why aren't you saying anything?'

Kyle spoke to Fragment while piloting the Iron Dragon.

'You've met Velatus, whom you've wanted to see so badly.'

Though Fragment had met Velatus, they had not said a single word. They had merely listened silently to the conversation, without even letting out a groan.

Consumed by dreary emotions.

[...What could I...]

Fragment spoke in a cracked voice.

[Say to her...?]

There had been so many things they wanted to ask if they met. Why had Velatus created them? Why had she left them in the Sword Tower without leaving behind any explanation?

[I felt... there was no need to ask. I knew far too well... what answer Velatus would give.]

The conversation earlier had made Fragment clearly understand what kind of person Velatus was.

[Velatus created me simply because she needed me. As a piece split off from Velatus... I miss her, and I both love and hate her. But Velatus feels none of that toward me. All my questions, every emotion I have felt, my... centuries of loneliness. Velatus would not understand any of it.]

She would likely find it strange instead. She would ask why Fragment felt such emotions, and be displeased that Fragment seemed to blame her.

[She would say that I am the one who is wrong. So I... do not want to say anything to Velatus.]

'You haven't asked her directly.'

[I'm afraid to hear her answer. I have been... disappointed in Velatus too many times. So I do not want to be disappointed again. No, this feeling is different from disappointment. I... feel disgust toward Velatus.]

It was an unfamiliar word to hear from Fragment. Perhaps Fragment felt that unfamiliarity as well, because silence lingered for a while.

[I had pride.]

Fragment finally spoke again. Their voice was still cracked, but something within it was beginning to settle.

[I am a piece that Velatus separated. A tool created to maintain and repair the Sword Tower. I knew that from the beginning. I do not resent being made as a tool. But... I was proud of my purpose. The Sword Tower is a Seal that blocks the waves of the outer sea. It is a barrier that protects the world. I exist alongside that barrier, protecting the world... I endured centuries of loneliness with that one pride.]

'...'

[I believed Velatus, my origin, was that kind of being as well. A great dragon who built the Sword Tower for the world and withdrew from the world for its sake. Since I was a piece of such a being, I believed my loneliness had meaning. But...]

Fragment's voice trembled.

[But the Velatus I saw earlier had never cared about the world at all. The Sword Tower's Seal, the hell that is this land, all of it was merely a means to fulfill her own desires. At the bottom of everything I had believed to be a greater cause, there was not even a grain of such a cause.]

If that were true, what would become of the centuries of loneliness they had endured with that greater cause as their pride?

[I was not a piece of a great being... I was a scrap from a being driven mad by desire.]

Fragment stopped speaking there. Kyle held the controls in silence for a moment, then asked.

'So.'

Calmly.

'What do you want to do with Velatus?'

There was no comfort in it, no roundabout phrasing. It was a direct question. Kyle asked the question Fragment could not ask themselves.

Fragment was silent for a long time.

The Iron Dragon's wings parted the clouds. At a glance, the green mountains and fields of the East flowed below them. For as long as the silence lasted, something within Fragment weighed their longing for their origin against their hatred for it.

[I... am not a dragon.]

Fragment finally spoke.

[So I cannot understand Velatus from a dragon's perspective. And I am not human either. So I may not have the right to judge Velatus with human anger. I am merely a fragment... and part of the Sword Tower. The Sword Tower exists for the world. Ruin was the one who first took that greater cause as his duty, and Ruin's descendants are the ones who have carried it on as their duty.]

'...'

[Here, you are the representative of those descendants. Kyle. From what I see, you care more for the world than Velatus does.]

The trembling in Fragment's voice subsided.

[Velatus spoke of greatness while pursuing only her desires. You do not speak of greatness, yet you are going to kill the monster that turned this land into hell. Even to eyes that are not a dragon's, it is painfully clear which of you cares more for the world.]

Fragment paused as though taking a breath, then finished.

[I will follow your will. If you mean to cut down Velatus, I will not stop you. No, I will lend you my strength.]

The moment Fragment made that resolve and spoke it aloud, they felt something change within themselves.

It was a feeling difficult to describe. If it had to be put into words, it was the sensation of their very existence changing. Until now, the being called Fragment had been split off from Velatus and defined only as Velatus intended. A piece of Velatus. Velatus's tool. Velatus's scrap. That had been Fragment's essence.

But the moment they rebelled against their origin and denied it, the moment they embraced killing intent toward their origin through their own will and declared it, Fragment felt they had become a being living wholly by their own will, not one defined by Velatus.

[...How strange.]

'What is?'

[Now that I have resolved to kill Velatus, I finally feel like myself.]

Kyle smirked at that.

* * *

The flight continued for days.

The winged eyeballs flew ahead while maintaining a steady distance, and the Iron Dragon followed behind them. The scenery of the East flowed endlessly beneath them.

Ruined cities. Castle walls swallowed by nature. Vast farms belonging to unknown great houses, with people who looked like dots upon them. Rivers, mountain ranges, and grasslands.

As the days passed, color drained from the landscape. The green mountains and fields turned yellow-brown. Riverbeds dried up and revealed their floors. Eventually, a wasteland followed, without a single tree or blade of grass.

Then they saw a wall. It was not as clearly visible as the Wall of Severance. A hazy curtain, like heat shimmer, divided the sky vertically. Their vision warped slightly. The scenery beyond it was refracted like an image beneath water.

Kyle's senses sharpened.

The boundary of the Sand Sea. Velatus's final bastion, which delayed her death.

[We ha, have arrived.]

[Mother's land.]

The eyeballs stopped before the wall and buzzed. At the same time, the hazy curtain began to split apart. Like a curtain being drawn back, the heat shimmer was pushed aside to the left and right, opening a passage through. Air flowing from within reached the cockpit.

It was hot, dry, fishy, and disgusting.

The Iron Dragon passed through the opening.

The Sand Sea spread before them.

"..."

No one could speak.

The desert sand stretched out before them, dark red as though blood had melted, congealed, and hardened. The dunes glistened beneath the sunlight like dried clots of blood. Whenever the wind passed through, their surfaces rippled like flesh.

Bones lay throughout the desert. At first, they saw animal bones. Whether cattle, pigs, or some other beast, ribs rose from the sand like fan-shaped spokes.

Before long, the remains of a city appeared. Walls half-swallowed by sand. The remnants of collapsed towers. Houses and streets. Human bones filled the place.

There were hundreds, thousands, too many to count. They said this place had once been the most prosperous city in the East. Every human who had lived there had become bare bones, left behind with the city.

"How horrifying..."

Katarina muttered quietly.

The eyeballs continued onward. The farther they went, the more bones they saw, and the forms of those bones changed. They looked human, but not quite. They were the bones of monsters that must have been offered as sacrifices.

At last, they reached the center of the Sand Sea.

"What is that...?"

Jade's voice came out strained.

A massive gray hill.

A gray mound the size of a small mountain stood alone atop the dark-red desert. Its surface consisted of layers of ash pressed and hardened together. Whenever the wind brushed across it, powder rose from its surface like smoke before settling again.

Countless eyeballs could be seen beneath that powder. Velatus's followers, who resembled Angels, were buried in the gray ash and staring at them. There were too many to count.

The closer they came, the more Kyle's senses screamed. He had never felt mana this rotten and repulsive. Even when he had first consumed the residue in the Cultivation Floors, he had not felt this disgusted.

The mana around the hill was completely contaminated. It was abundant yet dead, like thick mana pooled in a stagnant swamp. The sensation of filth filling their lungs with every breath made the members' faces turn pale.

[Kyle.]

Fragment spoke in a stiff voice.

[That ash... is not ordinary ash.]

'I can tell.'

Kyle could feel it too. What had seeped into the gray layers. The faint traces left behind by Eastern dragons and western dragons.

That ash was bone dust. Every Eastern dragon and western dragon Velatus had devoured. The residue she had vomited out after eating them. The bones of a race she had chewed and spat out had become ash, piling up and compressing into this mound.

And Velatus lived inside it. She crouched within a nest made from the bone dust she had vomited out, among the remains of the kin she had devoured with her own hands.

"So the great Dragon Queen lives inside her own vomit."

Kyle let out a hollow laugh and muttered.

The Ash Cradle.

The Iron Dragon landed before it.

Footnotes:

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