WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 189: It Won’t Be That Easy
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Velatus seemed to be seriously mistaken. A threat to kill everyone in the East would not plunge Kyle into despair.
Unfortunately, Kyle was not as overflowing with love for humanity as Ruin. Of course, if he could save them, he would rather do so. It would put his mind at ease. But if he could not, there was nothing to be done.
Threatening the lives of the Sword Wolf Knights would not make Kyle despair or panic either. He had given them a choice from the start. It would probably be extremely dangerous, so if they valued their lives, they should not follow him.
Yet the order members had followed him all the way here. They had chosen to take that risk, so if they failed to overcome it and died...
That would be something they had to bear.
‘It would still be regrettable.’
Kyle steadied himself.
‘And I’ll do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen.’
He could not help but snicker at himself for adding that thought.
He definitely had not been this soft-hearted in his past life. Back then, he would have left it at, “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care.” But what about now? Was he not leaving room in his heart by saying he would do everything he could?
[Are you ashamed of thinking that way?]
The Fragment, which had been tense until now, asked in an incredulous tone.
Kyle smiled again as he replied.
‘Why would I be ashamed? What is there to be ashamed of when a scoundrel who lived only as he pleased in his past life becomes more decent, more kind? It’s just... ambiguous even to me.’
The intent knocking against his inner image grew fiercer. Little by little, very little by little, and slowly, the gate of his inner image, which had been firmly sealed shut, began to open.
‘Velatus threatening to kill everyone doesn’t make me despair. I only need to kill Velatus before that happens.’
The current situation did not make Kyle despair.
‘Even if I’m a little late in killing Velatus and the order members fighting outside die, I won’t despair. I’ll just be very angry.’
Yes. That was it.
Kyle clearly defined the emotion he was feeling now.
This was anger.
It was not an unfamiliar emotion. He had felt it many times before.
Yet the anger he felt in this situation, at those words, was different.
‘...What?’
Velatus slowly reached out, feeling confused.
She could not understand the words that insignificant, arrogant, irreverent, blameworthy, hateful human had just spoken.
‘Why did he thank me?’
There were several reasons why she had erected a barrier over the vast area where the Ash Cradle had stood.
Her reconstructed body would eventually be worn down by the lifespan of her existence. That was why Velatus had formed a small human body rather than the enormous body of a dragon.
If that human fled like a rat, it would be troublesome. So she had erected the barrier to prevent him from escaping. Now, even if screams rang out beyond the barrier, he could neither flee nor intervene.
No matter how she thought about it, it was not something that deserved gratitude.
Yet he was thanking her. It had to be nothing more than bravado.
Velatus frowned and curled her fingers.
There was no need to speak Dragon Speech. Intent could take form merely through a wish in her mind.
The moment an invisible, formless force tried to bind Kyle.
Twitch.
Velatus’s fingertips trembled.
Immediately afterward, an intense sensation overwhelmed her.
It felt as though she stood at the edge of a bottomless cliff. As though she had brought her hand close to burning metal.
No. No comparison could describe what Velatus felt now.
As a dragon, she felt nothing at the edge of a high cliff or near burning metal.
‘This is...’
Velatus thought uncertainly.
There was a comparison that was easier to understand.
It felt as though she had approached something she should never approach.
‘Death?’
That was what made no sense.
Velatus frowned and clenched her hand. Her intent moved powerfully to seize Kyle.
Shing.
A cold metallic sound came from Kyle.
Fenris was already out of its sheath, held in Kyle’s right hand. Baal was in his left.
There was no sword left for Kyle to draw.
Yet the metallic sound that had just rung out resembled the sharp sound of a sword leaving its sheath.
There were countless swords within Kyle’s inner image.
The swords he had seen while wandering battlefields as the Sword Demon in his past life. The swords the Sword Demon had held in those days. Ruin’s sword, which had killed the Sword Demon and was more beautiful and complete than any sword the Sword Demon had ever seen in life.
The swords he had seen after reincarnating as Kyle, in this changed world. The swords Kyle had learned and mastered with a new heart. The swords of swordsmen from this era, completely different from his past life. And Ruin’s sword, which Fenris had shown him, more advanced than the sword that had killed the Sword Demon.
There was also Ruin’s sword, which he was still wielding at the far end of a path beyond Ascension, a path that seemed to have no end.
That sword was the problem.
Ruin’s sword, deeply engraved in Kyle’s inner image, was too complete. His knowledge of that sword was so thorough that it became a curse, preventing Kyle from establishing his own “world.”
Kyle could take any of the other swords and wield them as his own. But he still could not do the same with Ruin’s sword.
Kyle had undergone a great change through the enlightenment he gained at the Ascension Platform, but he still could not wield Ruin’s sword as he pleased.
His intent was sufficient, and his understanding of swords was deep.
But that was why he had not been able to achieve Sublimation. It was why he could not unfold Sword Realm, the world of Kyle’s own inner image that he had named.
He set aside his greed.
If he could not unfold it completely, he would unfold it imperfectly. If he was still too inadequate to bear that sword and would instead be consumed by it, then he would draw forth swords he could bear, swords he could wield as he pleased.
This sword.
It did not exist in reality.
The place where it existed was the inner image deep within Kyle’s heart.
His inner image opened under the knocking of his intent. Swords flowed from the inner image, which was opening slowly, little by little.
Initiation was declaring the world held within Kyle’s soul to reality through a True Declaration.
“Sword Draw.”
Kyle whispered quietly.
At that moment, violet Aura transformed into spiritual energy through his intent.
The flowing spiritual energy became swords.
The swords overflowing from his opened inner image began to butcher everything.
Kagagagak!
Hundreds, thousands of slashes were carved into the world in an instant.
With Kyle at the center, every action a sword as a weapon could perform, cutting, slicing, carving, and piercing, appeared and vanished in an instant, over and over, literally slaughtering everything around him.
Complete Sublimation manifested one’s inner image as a world through a True Declaration.
But Sword Draw was an incomplete form of Sword Realm.
That was why it could not distinguish friend from foe.
It was like a madman’s sword. It only cut, sliced, carved, and pierced everything except its wielder. Hundreds, thousands of times in an instant, it appeared and disappeared.
Its inability to clearly designate a target was itself a crude and fundamental flaw.
That was why Kyle had never been able to unfold it before.
But now, it was fine.
The only ones within this barrier were Kyle, Jor, and Velatus.
Jor was a Spirit linked to Kyle through their contract, united with him in heart and body. The slashes would not cut her.
So there was no need to worry that this madman’s sword would slaughter an ally.
“?!”
Velatus’s golden eyes widened in shock.
The intent trying to bind Kyle was shredded and erased in an instant. That was not all. Those violent slashes drew countless lines through the air, plowed through the earth, and even tried to cut Velatus.
Fwoosh!
Velatus thrust out both hands.
Her golden horns radiated light, and a fierce glow burned in her eyes.
::Be stopped::
Dragon Speech was declared.
The red light overflowing from Velatus formed a wall that blocked the slashes.
Kagagagak!
The barrier formed through Dragon Speech was rapidly ground down. It disappeared in an instant.
Velatus shot high into the air in alarm.
‘What is that?’
Escaping into the sky, Velatus looked down at the scene unfolding below.
She felt pure confusion.
The world was being slaughtered around the red-haired human.
They looked like swords.
Countless swords formed from violet spiritual energy appeared, cut, and vanished hundreds of times in an instant. The atmosphere was torn to pieces, and the intent Velatus had spread throughout the barrier was shredded before it could even take form.
Within that storm of slashes, even a magical formula could not be completed.
It would be cut apart the moment it formed.
She could not understand.
‘What... is that? Magic? No. There is no formula. Intent...? How can intent take that form?’
Velatus had lived for five thousand years.
The origin of all magic known to the world came from dragons, her race. There was no form mana could take that Velatus did not know.
That was not arrogant delusion. It was certain pride.
Magic, Aura, and Spirits were all merely branches of mana.
To one who knew the root, the tricks of its branches could be understood at a glance.
But she could not understand that.
She knew of intent. It was the power of will released after opening the Upper Dantian. Five hundred years ago, a few martial artists who had reached the pinnacle, or humans who arrogantly called themselves great mages, had handled such power.
The intent Velatus knew could strengthen the body, amplify attack and defense, and force minor assertions upon others.
Among the Demon Tribe, there had been some who could use intent with greater variety.
But none could shape it into something so intricate.
‘He opened his inner image with intent. He opened his inner image and is forcing the world within it... onto reality. How? Since when was such a thing possible for humans?’
At the bottom of her confusion, Velatus belatedly understood the reason for her ignorance.
Three hundred years.
Velatus had been in the East for three hundred years.
She knew Ruin had changed the Law of humanity. She knew humans had gained an organ called the Spirit Root. She knew that the limits of the human species had been raised entirely because of it.
That was all she knew.
What humans had built upon that altered Law. How countless humans with Spirit Roots had competed, died and killed, taught and stolen over three hundred years, pushing martial arts ever further.
Velatus had not seen it.
The only humans she had seen for three hundred years were the humans of the East.
And the humans of the East had not advanced.
They could not advance.
There was no way they could have.
How could those stripped of language and names, forced to plow fields naked before being squeezed dry for fuel, develop martial arts?
Even the Dragonkin who possessed some power were the same. They used their strength only according to the standards Velatus had set. The very concept of progress had been cut away from them.
The martial arts of the East had not advanced even an inch in three hundred years.
Far from advancing, they had regressed.
No, they had disappeared.
Velatus had made it that way.
For the sake of prolonging her own life, she had ground down the potential of every human in this land.
That was why Velatus was ignorant of how far the human race had come beyond the Wall of Severance.
Velatus still measured “humans” by the standards of five hundred years ago.
Aside from Ruin Alastor, the sole exception, they were insignificant and weak beings.
She had measured Kyle by the same standard. An insignificant human. A human who could accomplish nothing without Velatus’s heart.
But now, that insignificant human was wielding a sword Velatus did not know.
Kagagagak!
The storm of slashes soared into the sky.
The swords that repeatedly appeared and vanished rushed toward Velatus.
Velatus twisted her beautiful face and declared Dragon Speech.
::Stop. Shatter::
Dragon Speech blocked the swords.
She had commanded them to stop, and the swords halted for only a brief moment. Even that did not last, because the intent within the Dragon Speech itself was shredded apart.
She had also commanded them to shatter. That declaration was stronger than the last, so hundreds of swords shattered to pieces.
But new swords appeared immediately afterward.
‘Impossible.’
Velatus’s eyes shook.
She did not know martial arts like this. She did not know swords like this.
Velatus’s panic was exactly as Kyle had expected.
Kyle stepped forward and whispered.
“Surprised?”
It was the chaotic sword of a madman, unable to distinguish friend from foe.
It was his first time using it in actual combat, but he liked its power.
Of course, he was not completely satisfied. It would have been better if he could concentrate all these swords in one place, but such precise control was not easy.
Then he would have to adjust and improve it as he fought.
The Spirits’ curse filled Kyle’s intent. At this rate, he would not need to worry about exhausting his intent even if he fought all day.
“You should’ve kept up with news from outside.”
Kyle leaped upward alongside the storm of slashes.
The swords drawn through Sword Draw were swords from his inner image.
Kyle’s body could wield a sword as well.
Kyle focused and glared at Velatus.
The chaotically flying slashes gradually began to concentrate on Velatus.
At the same time, Kyle swung his sword.
“Aha, hahaha!”
Baal’s Dokkaebi let out a delighted laugh.
Baal, wrapped in blazing crimson Sword Force, cut through the air.
Kwagagak!
Some of the slashes that had repeatedly appeared and vanished joined Baal’s trajectory.
::Be stopped!::
Velatus shouted.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Red barriers layered themselves repeatedly before Velatus, but Baal’s killing sword split the barriers apart with a single strike.
The swords rushed through the gap left by the shattered barriers.
Pwak!
Dozens of lines were carved across Velatus’s body, piercing through her.
Bright red blood decorated the air.
But rather than scream, Velatus’s eyes burned even more fiercely.
Hatred and anger.
At the same time, Velatus sensed the nature of the swords embedded in her body.
She was still a dragon, of the race from which magic originated, and the queen of dragons.
She admitted that she could not understand it immediately.
She would even admit that humanity’s martial arts had developed to an absurd level over three hundred years.
“But.”
Velatus spoke in an icy voice.
“What does that change?”
The nature of the swords that had dared invade her sacred body. Swords drawn from an inner image.
It was astonishing that a mere human’s world could invade reality, but compared to a great dragon, the human world was insignificant.
Intent and Aura alike were crude compared to dragons.
“Fundamentally.”
Velatus’s body regenerated at high speed.
Dragon scales covered her body.
Her intent grew more intricate, more advanced.
“Know that our species are different.”
::My sacred body cannot be cut::
An exceedingly arrogant Dragon Speech was declared.
::My sacred body cannot be pierced::
Velatus brought both hands forward.
::Your swords cannot invade my sacred body::
Crackle! Crackle!
Velatus’s hands were wrapped in red light.
The light, flashing like lightning, gathered into one and radiated brilliantly like the sun.
::My arrow is like sunlight::
Velatus stretched out her left arm.
The brilliant light extended long like the stave of a bow.
::You cannot stop it::
Light flashed.
‘Right.’
Kyle’s head spun.
He rose from where he had been thrown down and swallowed blood.
‘It won’t be that easy.’
She was the esteemed Dragon Queen, after all. It wasn’t as if she’d do him the favor of dropping dead so easily.
Kyle snickered and glanced down at his chest.
Black ash drifted from the chest of his uniform.
“I blocked it, though?”
Kyle smiled as he raised Fenris, which was ringing sharply.
At that shameless smile, Velatus ground her teeth.
Footnotes:
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