WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 187: If I Die Now
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Crack.
Baal, embedded in the heart, twisted. Scarlet muscle tore along the turning blade, and black smoke rose from the cross-section of the wound.
Thump. Thump. Thu... mp.
The heart's beat warped. Its powerful contractions turned into convulsions. The blood vessels stretching across the entire continent trembled at once, and several thick tentacles rose from the mud as though being pulled free, clawing at the air.
And Velatus... was confused.
"...?"
The gray eyes that had been looking down at Kyle. The eyes that had quivered with delight widened.
Before she could feel pain or anger, Velatus could not understand what she was seeing. The sight before her was something that did not exist within the values and understanding of the world held by a being called Velatus.
"What..."
Her cracked voice slowly escaped.
"What in the world are you doing?"
It was not a rebuke.
She was asking because she truly did not understand. Why Kyle had committed such an act. The most noble queen of the great dragons, who had lived for five thousand years, could not comprehend it.
"Why did you stab my heart?"
Velatus's voice began to grow ragged.
"Why, with Astaros's sword? With that bitch's Sword of Annihilation, why did you dare stab my heart?"
She could not understand it with her mind, but what she saw was clear.
That pitch-black cursed blade held the power of annihilation. That crudely shaped sword killed everything it pierced and cut. It was the sword of the selfish and vicious Demon Tribe queen who had dared recommend suicide to Ruin, believing it to be consideration. The woman who had loved Ruin Alastor, yet never tried to understand even a fraction of his noble heart.
The meaning of stabbing the heart with that sword was...
To kill the heart.
Why?
Velatus did not try to understand what she could not understand. How could this be? The heart contained the essence of the power Velatus had accumulated over five thousand years. If one became one with the heart, even a worthless human could become great and complete. They could be reborn beyond the human species.
He was the one who had challenged Ruin, died in defeat, and taken up a sword again after reincarnating, consumed by lingering attachment. In his previous life as the Sword Demon, he had wandered the world in search of strength.
No, setting such a story aside.
Why would an utterly insignificant human reject great power?
Velatus could not understand it at all.
'I already did it, though.'
Crunch.
Kyle drove the twisted Baal in deeper as he thought.
'Will there be a problem with the Sword Tower if Velatus dies?'
The Sword Tower was a fortress created from Velatus's magic and mana, standing at the boundary of the outer sea.
If the Sword Tower disappeared, it might cause major problems in many ways.
[There will be no problem.]
Fragment answered.
[Velatus is not the only one who gives power to that place. And even if Velatus dies, I remain.]
There was no wavering in Fragment's voice.
[Velatus created the Sword Tower and planted power within it, but I have maintained the Sword Tower for five hundred years. As I am now, I can sustain it.]
As Fragment denied Velatus, Fragment became wholly themself.
Kyle grinned at the answer.
In truth, even if Velatus's death had led to the Sword Tower's collapse, Kyle would have acted this way.
Kyle was fundamentally different from Ruin Alastor. Kyle did not possess some noble sense of responsibility that would make him sacrifice himself for the world.
"Why did I stab it?"
Kyle raised his head and looked at Velatus.
Her rotting face. Those enormous gray eyes were still filled with confusion.
"Because I don't want to."
Kyle answered honestly.
"I hate you. I don't want to become one with you. I don't want to accept your power and stop being myself. I don't want to soothe Ruin's loneliness with your power either."
If there had been even one good thing about it, he might have considered it for a moment.
But no matter how he thought about it, it was full of things he hated.
And the thing he hated most was the nonsense Velatus had been spouting.
"Who the hell are you to call what I wanted to do stubbornness?"
Kyle drew the deeply embedded Baal upward.
Slash!
Baal rose without resistance and cut through the heart.
"Do you think I can't reach Ruin without your power?"
He gripped the raised Baal with both hands.
"Soothing Ruin's loneliness and standing beside him is my duty because I reincarnated? Why the hell is that my duty?"
He swung Baal wide to the side.
The heart was cut open lengthwise, spraying crimson blood. But the power of annihilation Baal released erased it before it could cover Kyle.
"Ah, sure, I'll go where Ruin is. But it isn't because I pity him, and it isn't for his sake. He's there. I want to get there myself, so that's what I'll do."
Kyle stepped to the side and drew Baal behind his waist.
Then he spun his body and swung Baal.
Crack!
The deeply split heart spurted blood once more.
"A new, great, and unique being beyond humanity? Who asked you to make me that?"
"S-Stop!"
"Even if I become something like that, I don't need your power. I'll do it with my own strength. I don't want to become one with you, and I have no intention of being devoured by your power."
The repeatedly slashed heart convulsed in tatters.
Baal was the Sword of Annihilation, killing everything it cut, but the heart was so enormous and held so much accumulated power that it did not die immediately, no matter how many times it was cut.
It simply spurted blood like a scream.
"You know nothing about Ruin or me."
Baal's killing intent and power of annihilation were refined.
A blood-red current swirled and took the shape of a slash. Kyle raised Baal above his head.
"You probably never wanted to know, or even think deeply about it. That's why you've been doing this shit for hundreds of years. You revealed your heart before me because you never considered that I might reject you."
Kyle brought Baal down.
Slash!
The heart split in two.
The huge mass of flesh fell apart to either side, spraying blood. The mud was swept away by a torrent of blood, and the ash ceiling was soaked through before beginning to collapse.
"You still don't seem to understand, so I'll put it simply enough for a great being like you to understand."
Kyle looked up at Velatus with the blood-spewing lump of flesh before him.
"I'll kill you, so come at me."
"Aaaagh!"
A scream finally burst from Velatus's mouth.
The scream was both a shriek and a storm of mana. The poisonous energy that had pooled in the rotting Cradle swirled and lashed at Kyle.
Boom!
The terrifying force flung Kyle far back.
"Why, why, why!"
Understanding did not reach her.
No, only an undeniable fact reached her.
She still did not know why. Velatus did not deeply consider Kyle's words. She only understood that Kyle had driven a sword into the heart.
The heart Velatus had held for five thousand years.
Velatus's cherished wish.
Her final wish to travel Ruin's path with him.
"Why, human?!"
Velatus howled.
Her rotten neck stretched to its limit, and her skull-exposed head rushed before Kyle's face. Black vapor and saliva sprayed from her gaping mouth. Blood vessels stood out in her gray eyes as anger burned within them.
"Why do you deny my will? Why do you reject my mercy? What did I do wrong?! I meant to give you greatness! I meant to turn your worthless, feeble existence into something unique! My everything! My five thousand years! I meant to give you everything I endured humiliation to protect!"
Kyle understood once again through that cry.
Velatus was still arrogant.
She had not listened to a word Kyle said. She only valued the words she had spoken, thinking around them and placing them at the center. Everything Velatus had just offered was something Kyle found revolting, yet she did not consider his will and called her own offer mercy.
"When did I ask for it?"
Kyle whispered softly and swung Baal.
Slice!
Baal cut across Velatus's enormous head. Her scale-less, festering flesh split apart, spraying blackened blood.
"Aaaagh!"
Velatus screamed again.
Her warped eyes glared at Kyle.
Thump!
An invisible force came with her gaze, clenching Kyle's body and heart. His body stiffened, and his thoughts stopped.
As Kyle froze, Velatus opened her blood-pouring mouth wide.
"If you don't want it... I'll give it to you by force! I will have you!"
At that moment, Jor and Fragment raised their heads in Kyle's Middle Dantian.
Boom!
Jor burst from Kyle's chest, opened their mouth wide, and unleashed lightning energy. Complex spell formulas formed within the violet lightning.
Crackle!
The lightning energy that entered Velatus's gaping mouth formed a sharp spear and pierced through her head.
Velatus twisted her head and screamed.
"How dare you! How dare a creation born from me defy my will?!"
Jor emerged completely and wrapped around Kyle's body.
Kyle chuckled and stroked Jor's scales.
He could have broken free on his own, but he was pleased that Jor had stepped in. He was also grateful that Fragment, having fully made up their mind, had acted directly.
[Velatus.]
The horn growing from Jor's head shone as Fragment spoke.
[Do you know who I am?]
Fragment asked quietly.
Velatus's eyes widened at the question. Then delight appeared in them.
"You are the fragment I left behind! You came here. At once! Help me capture that human and offer him to me!"
[Ha...]
Fragment laughed bitterly at the arrogant cry that did not consider the feelings of the listener.
[You truly are a dragon. Unlike me...]
Fragment murmured quietly.
It would be something Velatus had even less reason to consider.
Fragment was a part she had separated and left behind. Velatus likely did not even think of it as abandoning them. She had created Fragment out of necessity and used Fragment when necessary.
Even now, all she wanted was to use Fragment as needed.
Velatus spoke of Ruin's loneliness and acted as though she felt pity for it, yet she did not feel the slightest pity for Fragment, to whom she herself had given loneliness.
Crackle!
The lightning energy boiling around Jor began to take shape.
The magic formulas Fragment had refined while managing the Sword Tower for five hundred years were added to the construct. Violet lightning split into dozens of streams, each drawing complex patterns before becoming enormous lightning spears that lined up in the air.
[Velatus. The only thing you gave me that I am grateful for...]
Fragment spoke quietly.
[Is magic.]
The lightning spears fired.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dozens of lightning spears embedded themselves in Velatus's massive body. Rotten flesh burst apart, and the few remaining scales shattered. Velatus twisted her body with a shriek.
"You vermin!"
Crunch!
The entire Cradle shook violently.
Velatus's forelegs, buried in the mud and hardened as one with the Cradle, tore free. A whole layer of caked ash was ripped away, and the scaly hide attached to her legs split apart.
The arms that emerged were grotesque things made only of bone.
But they were enormous.
One claw alone was as large as a castle gate and razor-sharp.
If it came crashing down, it could split even a mountain.
Kyle drew Fenris with his right hand.
Velatus's claw came down at him. Kyle swung Fenris directly at it.
The moment a sword was swung, the result arrived.
But that result was not absolute.
The greater the opponent's standing, the stronger their intent, the more they could resist and deny the result.
Dragon Queen Velatus.
The world's only dragon, who had lived for five thousand years.
Even though her entire body had rotted away and fallen into hideous ruin, that standing had not vanished.
Under normal circumstances, Kyle would never have dared force a result upon Velatus without exception.
But now, he did.
Velatus's existence. Her disgusting essence that had defied death.
The killing intent of the Spirit Tree, which had cursed her, joined with Kyle's own.
A single slash, utterly ominous.
A pitch-black trail, resembling the color of Fenris, carved itself into space.
Slice!
Velatus's claw was severed from the base.
"Aaagh!"
The severed claw fell below, splashing blood and mud.
Velatus swung her bony arm again, but the attack was noticeably slower than the first.
Fenris moved again.
Slash!
A massive bone joint was cut away.
It was one-sided.
It could not even be called a fight.
Velatus still possessed immense standing and power. The intent that could bind a heart with nothing more than a gaze. Mana steeped in poisonous energy.
All of it could have been called a natural disaster.
But the body that wielded that power had already been on the verge of death.
Velatus had been struggling against death even before fighting Kyle.
Whenever she moved, her body collapsed. Whenever she swung her forelegs, which had nothing but bone left, her shoulders tore and sagged. Whenever she stretched her neck, the back of her neck split, pouring out bloody pus. Whenever she expanded her chest to breathe out, her ribs tore away and her chest burst open.
More of Velatus's body collapsed than Kyle's sword and Fragment's magic destroyed.
Her body had already ended decades ago.
A corpse forcibly held together by the heart devouring the East.
Now, with the heart's convulsions, that corpse was accelerating toward the inevitability it should have reached long ago.
"Why... Why...!"
Velatus howled and opened her mouth.
Light gathered deep in her throat.
Breath.
A dragon's breath.
The power to erase all things.
A tense Fragment tried to construct a defensive barrier, but Kyle stepped forward before they could.
The killing intent of the rotted Spirits.
The curse he had taken through their contract answered Kyle's call and rose as intent.
Rumble!
Sticky darkness wrapped around Fenris.
Countless grievances condensed into one killing intent and pointed at Velatus.
Why?
Even as she unleashed her breath, Velatus questioned it.
She knew what that killing intent was made of. The Spirits she had embedded in the Spirit Tree.
But why would Spirits harbor killing intent toward her?
Spirits were life forms born from mana. Velatus was a dragon worshiped by mana from the moment of her birth, one of the dragons called the progenitors of magic.
It was natural, according to the Law of the world, for dragons to command mana.
It was a Law engraved into the dragon species from the moment dragons were born.
So why did worthless insects born from mana harbor killing intent toward her?
She could not understand it, but she was angry.
What was happening now was nothing less than insects daring to join hands and defy the will of a great being.
Then she had no choice but to punish them.
That, too, was what a dragon had to do.
The breath poured forth.
Before that arrogant and immense power, Kyle drew Fenris.
::I will kill you::
Beyond cutting, he filled it with certain killing intent.
The breath split from the front.
The ceiling of ash collapsed completely, revealing the sky of the Sand Sea. Thousands of servants covering the sky screamed and beat their wings amid the explosion.
Within the storm of dirt and ash, the breath vanished.
The slash that produced that result continued onward, splitting Velatus from her left shoulder to her chest.
"Ah... Aaaah..."
Her enormous body tilted.
What poured from her split chest was not blood, but black fluid and ash. Unable to bear its own weight, her leaning body collapsed and became part of the blood soaking the ground.
"Why... Why..."
Velatus sobbed.
Her enormous head fell limply to the ground. Dark red tears streamed from her gray eyes as she glared at Kyle.
"Why... Why do you torment me? Why do you make me suffer... I have already endured so much pain... I have already lost so much...!"
Her falling tears joined the river of blood and formed a current.
Kyle steadied his breathing and glared at Velatus.
Beside him, Fragment, looking through Jor's eyes, swallowed their disgust.
"Why do you make me lose... even more? Why do you make the years I endured meaningless...!"
The lump of flesh that had been slashed and carved apart.
The heart that had already been split in two began beating separately.
"This can't happen..."
Velatus sobbed, and the blood filling the area returned to the heart.
"That power... is for meeting Ruin...!"
Amid her sobbing, Velatus reached a conclusion.
If she died now, she would never be able to meet Ruin.
Footnotes:
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