WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 188: This
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Rumble!
The tentacles connected to the heart. The blood it had drawn from across the East. The blood pooled across the Cradle's floor flowed like a current and returned to the heart, which had been hacked into chunks of flesh.
A pillar of blood shot upward.
The moment Fragment saw it, they cried out and cast a spell.
Rumble!
Dozens of lightning spears that had pierced Velatus's body rushed toward the pillar of blood, but complex magic circles rising into the air blocked them.
[Kyle! You can't let that thing be!]
Kyle was already moving before he heard the cry. He had already felt the instinct that he could not let that thing be.
Kicking off the floor that had dried up as the blood returned, Kyle charged at the heart.
[But you definitely killed it?!]
Baal's Dokkaebi cried out in alarm.
Kyle felt the same way. There had been no resistance in the sensation he felt when he swung Baal earlier.
'It's a monster that has lived for five thousand years and casually devoured millions.'
Even Baal's power of annihilation could not kill it in a single strike.
Then he would just have to cut it until it died.
Thinking that, Kyle swung Baal.
Beyond the magic circles, something sprang out from the gushing pillar of blood. It was the head of a huge dragon made of blood, but it was not Velatus's head.
Perhaps the forms of the dragons Velatus had devoured before had melted into the blood.
The dragon opened its jaws wide and released its breath.
Boom!
Scarlet mana became light and left a trail through the air, but Kyle did not retreat. He swung Baal.
Beyond the severed breath, blood writhed.
Dozens of heads sprang from the pillar of blood in an instant. Dragon heads. Eastern dragon heads. Heads of all different shapes opened their mouths and unleashed their breaths at once.
“Ah... Aaaah...”
As Kyle cut through the breaths fired from every direction, Velatus's sobs reached his ears.
“This... This wasn't supposed to happen. This isn't what I gathered this power for...”
Velatus was crying from the bottom of her heart.
This was unbearably sorrowful and tragic.
The reason Velatus had shut herself away in the East for three hundred years and refused death. The reason she had sustained herself by devouring dragons, Eastern dragons, the Spirits of the East, and even humans.
She did not want to die.
She wanted to meet Ruin again.
This was the power she had treasured and preserved so that she could reunite with Ruin. The more power she wasted, the farther away that reunion became. She had wanted to hand over her heart without wasting even a fraction of it and become one with Kyle.
“Everything.”
Velatus's body began to collapse faster.
Her scales and flesh had already melted away completely. Now even her bones were rotting into ash and crumbling. Her gray eyes, the only part of her that could still be called alive, had melted long ago. Only black, hollow eye sockets remained in her enormous head.
A red light ignited within those empty sockets.
A venomous, resentful gaze glared at Kyle.
“Everything is because of you...!”
Why had this happened?
Why was the time she had endured, suffering the humiliation of her noble and great existence rotting away, about to become meaningless? Why was her reunion with Ruin, whom she had wanted to meet so desperately and believed she would soon see, slipping farther away?
It was all because of Kyle.
Ruin's arrangement. Ruin's lingering attachment.
Neither Demon King Astaros nor Dragon Queen Velatus had ultimately become Ruin's lingering attachment. Velatus had created and gifted the Sword Tower for Ruin's noble duty, wanting to care for him in every way, yet Ruin had never held Velatus in his heart or remembered her.
Despite Velatus's devotion, Ruin had not become hers. He had left her behind in this land, Ascended, and departed beyond the sky.
Even as he set off on that distant journey, Ruin remembered a duel from decades ago. He remembered the sword of a human who was incomparably insignificant and weak beside Velatus.
Because Ruin longed for a reunion, she had reincarnated the Sword Demon.
That meant the existence of that human, the Sword Demon, was because of Velatus.
“You... You dare reject me?”
Anger began to seep into her sobbing voice.
She could not help but be angry. Even for the Dragon Queen, reincarnating a dead human was not easy. Velatus had crossed into the East as soon as Ruin Ascended because she had offered the heavens the remainder of the Lifespan originally granted to her.
Only because she paid that price could she retrieve that human's soul. And because she paid that price, death came quickly, forcing her to struggle desperately to prolong her life.
“I am the one who gave you life again! Yet you dare reject me?! I... I have no reason to be rejected by you!”
Velatus could not understand any of this.
From her perspective, there was absolutely no reason to reject her offer. Yet he had dared to reject her and dared to cut her heart. Velatus raged at what she could not understand.
“What the hell are you going on about?”
Kyle spoke in a cold voice and glanced toward Velatus.
The body that had been reduced to bone had fully collapsed as well. All that remained was the pillar of blood rising from the chunks of flesh.
Velatus's voice came from within that pillar of blood. Her existence had moved from her destroyed body into the pillar.
[We're too late...!]
Fragment lamented.
Kyle cut through dozens of breaths as he approached, then struck the pillar of blood over and over. But no matter how much he cut, he only killed portions of it. He could not destroy its source itself.
'Can't be helped if we're late. I can't kill that all at once. What's impossible is impossible.'
Kyle spoke calmly.
It was not as if he had been swinging carelessly. Kyle had done his best to kill her.
Yet he had failed, because every single drop of that blood was life itself. Even if one swing killed dozens or hundreds of drops, the remaining blood was countless beyond measure.
'With all that becoming one Velatus, it'll be easier to kill her instead.'
There was no need to clear away grains of sand one at a time when they were gathering into a container on their own. In that case, it was better to destroy the container along with them.
Kyle made that judgment as he stared at the pillar of blood.
'And it sounds more fun.'
[You... ignorant fool...!]
'Why? Since things have turned out this way, isn't it better to enjoy it?'
Fragment let out a deep sigh at Kyle's shameless answer.
They also thought that, since Velatus would never give them time to kill every drop one by one, it was better to kill Velatus herself. Still, they could not help sighing at his claim that it sounded fun.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The heartbeat coming from the severed chunks of flesh weakened. Then another heartbeat sounded from within the pillar of blood.
Thump. Thump. Thump...
The rushing current that formed the pillar weakened, and something flickered within it.
Blood gathered together, forming a new heart.
The heart was completed in an instant and began beating powerfully. Drops of blood clung to it, forming a new body.
[Ah, aaaah!]
[Mother! Mother!]
The winged eyes above the collapsing Ash Cradle rejoiced.
They were too afraid of Kyle to descend, but tears streamed from their single eyes as they worshipped the newly born being within the pillar of blood.
“Ah...”
The torrent of blood came to a complete stop.
A voice came from within, and a pale white hand burst through the frozen droplets of blood.
“Too... loud.”
With that icy voice, the white hand reached toward the ceiling.
Crunch!
The thousands of single eyes floating in the sky melted into bloody water the instant the hand pointed at them.
Rumble!
The rain of blood poured down with the ashes of the collapsing Cradle.
“Who... said I was your mother...?”
The droplets of blood gathered into one enormous sphere. As she absorbed even that, a naked woman with skin as white as snow walked out from between the droplets.
Blood clinging stickily to her bare body became a red dress that wrapped around her.
Dragon Queen Velatus.
She had completely abandoned her rotting, dying body and been reborn in a new one. Golden horns rose above her red hair, and her eyes shone with a golden brilliance even more dazzling than her horns.
Velatus no longer felt the pain of her existence rotting away.
But even this was only temporary.
Creating a new body did not increase the Lifespan of her existence. As time passed, even this new body would begin to decay and collapse at a rapid pace.
That was why Velatus could not feel even the slightest pleasure in this regeneration. This act was no different from drinking seawater because she was thirsty.
To fundamentally solve the problem of her Lifespan, the only way was to move Velatus's existence into an entirely new body and unite with it.
“If you had not rejected me...!”
She had been about to continue, saying that she would not have needed to waste this power.
But she could not.
The instant Velatus roared, Kyle, who had been waiting for her regeneration to finish, immediately swung Baal.
He had definitely swung it.
It was the fastest strike possible, aimed for the instant her regeneration ended. The slash bearing the power of annihilation should have crossed space and reached Velatus.
But it did not reach her.
Baal's slash stopped in midair.
Kyle narrowed his eyes as he watched it.
This was different from being blocked. The slash itself had simply stopped in the air. The power of annihilation extending from Baal was frozen before Velatus, as if time itself had stopped.
Velatus, who had caused that absurd phenomenon, stood with one hand extended, her beautiful brows furrowed.
The being standing there was on an entirely different level from the one who had worn that rotting body moments ago.
“How dare you.”
Golden eyes stared at the frozen slash and at Baal, which had created it. Contempt dripped from the radiance filling her eyes.
“You dare lay that woman's sword upon my new body...!”
Her finger twitched.
Crack!
The frozen slash cracked like glass, then shattered into countless fragments.
The power of annihilation itself had been denied.
[That's impossible!]
Baal's Dokkaebi cried out in shock.
Kyle took half a step back, staring at Velatus beyond the fading light of the shattered slash.
'So this is her original level.'
That rotting giant body had been nothing more than a dying shell. Velatus's true power lay not in her body, but in her heart.
This new body was a vessel she had created by accepting the waste and burning her essence. Though temporary, it was a fully functioning vessel.
She had repeatedly been cut by Baal and was still dying even now, so she could not compare to her prime. Even so, the completeness with which she wielded her power was incomparable to before.
“Human.”
Velatus opened her mouth.
The sobbing was gone. The anger had withdrawn from the surface as well. What remained was a voice as cold as ice, one that had reached its conclusion.
“I have stopped trying to understand.”
The hem of her red dress rippled without wind.
“Why you reject me. Why you refuse my mercy. I tried to understand it, but it was not worth understanding. There is no reason for me to know why an insect wriggles.”
Golden eyes glared at Kyle.
“If you do not wish to become one with me, then I will make you unable to help but wish for it.”
“Oh, how?”
Kyle asked lightly, and the corner of Velatus's mouth twitched upward.
“I will make you beg in your own words for me to let you become one with me.”
Kyle immediately understood what she meant.
She intended to drive him to the threshold of death. When the moment came for life to fade, any being would cling desperately to life. If Kyle begged for mercy then, Velatus would extend her hand with a sneer.
“Before death, every being's heart breaks, and they come to crave life.”
“Like you did?”
Kyle asked with a snicker.
That statement suited Velatus more than anyone present. Kyle had died in his past life with many regrets and had found death regrettable, but he had not begged Ruin for his life. Nor had he tried to prolong his life as disgracefully as Velatus.
Velatus sensed the mockery in his taunting words. Her brows twitched as she glared at Kyle, then she opened her mouth.
::Rise::
The voice that emerged from her slightly parted lips was Dragon Speech infused with immense intent.
Rumble!
The entire Cradle began to shake.
The ceiling, riddled with holes, completely collapsed. Ash took shape, and the dried floor of the Cradle writhed as well.
Dragon Speech spread beyond the Cradle.
Beneath the dark red sands of the Sand Sea, layers upon layers of sand convulsed and writhed at once.
The bone dust of the kin Velatus had devoured and expelled over three hundred years. The sacrifices offered to her.
All of it answered her Dragon Speech.
Dozens of gray tornadoes rose like pillars from throughout the desert.
Then forms were shaped within the tornadoes.
Massive bodies and wings. Scales and claws. Long, serpent-like bodies. Horns.
Dozens of dragons and Eastern dragons made of ash rose over the Sand Sea.
Though their size could not compare to the real thing, and they were pitiful imitations, their presence was still formidable.
“There's a limit to bad taste.”
Kyle gave a hollow laugh as he looked around at the dragons and Eastern dragons made of ash.
“You raised the kin you devoured long ago as undead?”
The souls said to be so great were gone.
Those things were nothing but pitiful toys that could not compare to true dragons. That was why Kyle could not understand what Velatus had done.
“You can't kill me with those.”
It was not empty bravado.
There were many of them, and the level of each one was not particularly low. But they were ash. Empty shells without will.
Just like the Treefolk and Dragonkin, there were clear limits to beings controlled by another. Those things could not kill Kyle.
“Yes.”
Velatus readily agreed.
“You will not die.”
She nodded and smiled.
“But human. What about those who came with you?”
Kyle's eyes turned cold.
“The humans who waited outside the Cradle. The insignificant ones I did not permit an audience with. Even if those things cannot kill you, do you think they cannot tear apart the humans you brought with you?”
Kyle turned his head.
The Cradle had completely collapsed, making the view outside clear. The order members gathered before the Iron Dragon and Katarina were staring this way with stiff expressions.
“You made me sad.”
Velatus continued slowly, savoring every word.
“You cut down my wish, mocked the years I endured, and caused me suffering. Then should you not experience it as well, human? What I have experienced. Watching what is precious to you perish before your eyes. Watching what you have protected become meaningless.”
Her golden eyes curved.
“Despair.”
Velatus raised a hand over her head.
Rumble!
Red light flowing from her body traced a circle around the area where the Cradle had stood. The red light then formed a barrier, isolating Kyle and Velatus from the outside.
“It will not be only them. Every human in this land will die.”
Within the completed barrier, Velatus whispered with laughter in her voice.
“You see, after handing my heart over to you, I did not care what became of the humans in this land. So I intended to let them live. I am merciful, after all. But because of you, things have changed. I wasted power. So I must build it up again.”
To Velatus, this was only natural logic.
“I must squeeze everything out of this land without leaving anything behind. Humans as well as those who share my blood, all of them. So everyone in this land will die. Do you understand, human? This is all your fault.”
“Ha...”
“If you had not rejected me, they would have lived. Those things outside would have lived as well. If you had not cut my heart, this land would have been freed. Every death that occurs from now on is the price of your arrogance.”
Guilt.
Velatus knew that feeling humans used to devour themselves. Even if she did not understand it, she knew how to use it as a weapon.
She had watched Ruin suffer under that emotion his entire life. Duty and guilt made the jewel called Ruin shine even more brilliantly, but in the end, they made him able to live in only one way.
“Despair, human.”
Velatus spoke with a smile.
She anticipated the arrogant human's face twisting in anguish. Had he not begged at the Spirit Tree for her not to kill the humans of this land? Velatus believed Kyle would be crushed beneath the weight of his choice.
She believed his knees would buckle and that he would begin to beg.
“So all I have to do is kill you?”
Kyle spoke briskly and stepped forward.
“Thanks for putting up a barrier.”
Intent struck the inner image in his chest.
“I'm not confident I can use ‘this’ precisely yet.”
Footnotes:
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