WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 190: Sword Dance
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He had blocked it, but it was still dangerous.
They had called it sunlight, and it truly was. It blazed with light like the sun condensed into a single point, stretching long like a bow.
Kyle had already prepared a response in that instant. Before the arrow was even fired, every sense in his body warned him of danger. He swung his sword on instinct.
Dragon Speech.
The blatant declaration came first. Even so, he could not block it perfectly. How could anyone see sunlight and dodge it? Light arrived before one could see or sense it. Dodging was impossible.
Block it or take the hit. There were only two options. The only reason he could block it at all was because the swords of Sword Draw endlessly repeated around him.
‘This is troublesome.’
Kyle spat out the blood pooled in his mouth. Blocking it did not mean he had come through unscathed. The backlash from the collision of light and swords ran through every joint in his body, and his organs churned. The swords had slashed and stabbed at it to weaken its force, yet it still hurt this much. If he took it head-on, he would die.
‘No... I probably wouldn't die. Velatus would be in trouble if I did.’
What Velatus wanted was to place her heart inside Kyle's body and become one with him. There could be no other alternative, so Velatus, who absolutely did not want her own death, would never kill Kyle.
‘That works in my favor.’
Subduing someone was far harder than killing them. It required holding back. Kyle, on the other hand, had no reason to subdue Velatus, so he could use all his strength without restraint.
[But be wary of Velatus's attacks. If you cannot block a strike like that one, you will be left on the verge of death.]
Fragment warned him.
[Of course, Velatus cannot repeat an attack of that scale. She is dying even now, and if possible, she would want to become one with you without wasting her strength...]
The voice abruptly stopped.
Crackle, crackle.
A red glow burned behind Velatus's back. All the mana in the space was drawn in by Velatus's will. Spreading both arms, Velatus recited:
::I am great and noble, and the myriad things and forms cannot defy my command::
Dragon Speech.
::Submit to my rule::
The brilliant red light blazing from Velatus's hands filled the barrier. Soon, everything within it was dyed red. The wind, the floating dust, the ground carved apart by the swords, every tiny grain of sand, even the formless mana all answered Velatus's Dragon Speech and turned scarlet.
Swoooosh!
The red that covered the sky, Velatus's blood, was honed into hundreds of arrows and poured down. Clang, clang, clang! The swords of Sword Draw whirled and shredded the rain of arrows. Before the noise had even faded, blood pooled on the ground rose from beneath Kyle's feet as spears.
Kyle kicked off the ground and leaped. The flickering swords of Sword Draw cut through the spears.
Blood filled everywhere he went. It felt as though he had become a fish swimming inside an aquarium full of blood. Crackle! Kyle's Spirit Root crackled with lightning energy. He became a bolt of lightning and rushed toward Velatus.
Velatus extended a hand. Her white fingers twitched, and her red lips parted.
::I do not permit your approach::
Rumble!
A raging torrent of blood seized the lightning. No matter how Kyle shook it off, the blood clung stubbornly to him. It could not be helped. The world Kyle existed in right now was filled with Velatus's blood.
Dragon Speech.
The words a dragon spoke with intent were themselves a True Declaration. If a martial artist or mage declared a True Declaration and imposed their world upon reality through Sublimation, then Velatus could deploy all kinds of Sublimation whenever she wished.
Velatus's arrogant whispers became the Law of the world. To defy them, Kyle had to negate the Laws currently governing the world with something of greater standing.
Or cut through all of it.
That was easier and more comfortable for Kyle. Honed will, an unwavering declaration, and killing intent.
Even Kyle did not fall behind in the sheer scale of his intent. The killing intent of the Spirits he had gathered from the Spirit Tree, that curse, had made a contract with him for one purpose alone: the death of Velatus.
Because they had made a contract with him in exchange for killing Velatus, the Spirits gave all their power to Kyle.
This was neither Dragon Speech nor a True Declaration. It was not something grand enough to deserve such lofty concepts.
His past life and present life. It was not the thing he did best in the world, but among all the things he could do as Raikal in his past life and Kyle in this one, it was what he did best and loved most.
::I Cut::
It was the will he always held whenever he swung a sword. Answering that will, he swung Fenris.
He had swung straight ahead, yet what was cut was all the blood clinging to Kyle. In that moment, pleasure and exhilaration surged up from the depths of his heart.
"Yes."
Kyle let out a trembling voice without realizing it.
"This is it."
He had swung a sword countless times, but the feeling in his hand always differed slightly with every swing. Even if he followed the same path, it would subtly change depending on his mindset or condition that day. Even when he swung it exactly the same, something felt different because of the surroundings, or for no reason at all.
Yet if he kept swinging swords with those subtly differing sensations again and again...
There would be a single strike where everything came together in exquisite harmony. Out of the thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of millions of strikes he had made so far, it was the sword that felt most right. The strike he liked best, the strike he had swung best.
Strangely enough, no matter how hard he focused or how much effort he put into it, such a strike rarely came. As though it were the product of an extraordinarily rare coincidence, it suddenly arrived while he was swinging.
Even stranger was that he had clearly swung a sword before that felt like this was it. Yet when he swung another sword with that same feeling, it still felt new.
‘Surely... it changed again, however slightly.’
The sword had not changed. Kyle, the one swinging it, had changed. Once he succeeded in swinging such a sword, it became familiar as though it had never been new.
Mind Recasting.
Complete Unity.
Unity of Self and Object.
They were states he had consciously entered every time. Things he had achieved many times before now felt new again.
Because he was different from before. Because he had improved.
Unity of Body and Sword.
Unity of Mind and Sword.
Kyle had literally become one with his sword. That was why the torrent of blood could not hold him. No matter how it tried to grasp him, it was only cut apart. Trembling with exhilaration, Kyle became lightning once more.
No.
He became a sword of lightning.
Thrust!
His sword pierced through the world overflowing with blood.
"Urgh!"
Blood sprayed from Velatus's mouth.
My jade body cannot be cut.
My jade body cannot be pierced.
Your sword cannot violate my jade body.
She had declared it. She had spoken it through Dragon Speech. Yet she had been stabbed.
Velatus stared wide-eyed at Fenris embedded in her chest. A pitch-black sword. The sword Ruin had kept by his side throughout his life.
Even on the final night before Ruin's Ascension, Velatus had not been able to remain by his side. On the eve of Ascension, Ruin had meditated and swung his sword alone, allowing no one near him.
That jet-black sword was Ruin's symbol, and a source of enormous jealousy for Velatus. Velatus had ordered dwarves to make countless swords and gifted them to Ruin, but Ruin had kept no sword beside him except Fenris. Not even swords made from Velatus's bones, scales, teeth, and claws.
"You bastard...!"
Velatus spoke in a boiling voice. Her wide eyes shook with fury. The human who had been Ruin's only lingering attachment was holding the sword Ruin had kept by his side until the end and stabbing Velatus with it. A lowly being who could not have even reincarnated again if Velatus had not made it happen!
::Fall back!::
Kyle's body was blasted backward by the Dragon Speech she shouted. Velatus extended a hand toward him as he flew away.
::Tear apart!::
Her furious Dragon Speech was declared.
Crack!
Slashes of blood swallowed Kyle. Sword Draw. The flickering swords negated the slashes. Staring at him, Velatus raised both hands above her head.
::The red of this world has been soaked in my blood::
::My blood is like flame::
::Burn!::
Whoosh!
The slashes became flames, forming a massive vortex. Within it, Jor moved.
[Master!]
Jor cried out anxiously toward Kyle and drew up mana. Fragment received that raw material and processed it. Five hundred years of magic, its spell formula completed in an instant.
[Cancel it out!]
Fragment shouted and activated the spell.
Rumble!
A torrent of violet lightning collided head-on with the vortex of flames. Fire and lightning entwined in a whirl, devouring each other.
Fragment's magic was precise. It read the flames' direction of rotation and formed a current of lightning in the opposite direction, severing each link in the flames and collapsing the vortex's structure itself. It did not overpower the flames. It unraveled them.
"You insignificant thing born from me, how dare you!"
With an enraged cry, Velatus's horns burned gold. She did not insist on Dragon Speech alone. The flames that had been unraveling wove themselves together again and flared up. The world's red became fuel for the fire. The Dragon Queen's magic joined it, and the flames grew fiercer.
A brief opening was all Kyle needed to swing his sword. The flames that had been about to surge were shredded apart, and Kyle burst free. The swords of Sword Draw flickered around him and ground the flames to pieces.
::Cut::
::Stab::
::Strike::
::Crush::
Velatus invoked violence through Dragon Speech again and again. The world's red answered, raining violence down upon Kyle.
Slice.
The violence was cut apart. The single strike that had made Kyle tremble with exhilaration continued one after another.
But he no longer felt the same thrill as before. It had already become ordinary. From the moment he succeeded once and improved, it became something he had experienced. Since he had experienced it, there was no longer a tremor of novelty.
It was laughable. Only moments ago, he had thought he could not possibly swing a sword better than that, that he could not swing one more perfectly than that.
Yet now, it already felt ordinary.
‘I am greedy.’
After tasting exhilaration like that, he could not possibly be satisfied with what he had now. That dissatisfaction came from certainty.
‘I can swing a sword better than I can now.’
If asked to name the most perfect and ideal sword he had ever seen or experienced, Kyle could answer without hesitation.
Ruin Alastor's sword.
Then had the sword Kyle swung just now merely imitated Ruin's sword?
He did not know.
Whenever he had swung Ruin's sword before, he had needed to remain aware of many things. He had to consciously immerse himself in every obvious, natural motion of how Ruin swung his sword.
It was not that the process had been unpleasant, but every time, it felt unfamiliar. It was not a sword he had swung as he pleased, carried away by excitement.
‘What about now?’
Ah. So that was it.
As he guided Fenris, Kyle realized it. He needed no difficult contemplation. Ruin's sword was simply beginning to settle into his hands.
That proud sword, like an aloof young lady who had refused to be tamed, was finally beginning to yield to Kyle.
If what he had felt every time he swung Ruin's sword before was painstaking, one-sided courtship, now the sword itself had taken Kyle's hand. It was no longer a dance led by one side. They were matching each other's steps little by little.
Even now.
A tingle ran through him, and exhilaration rose from the bottom of his heart. His excitement mounted. A sword more fitting than the one he had swung moments ago, a sword that made him think, yes, this is it, unfolded.
[Oh! Ooooh!]
Baal's Dokkaebi wailed tearfully.
[Master! Swing me too! Stain me with your sword!]
The pleading voice was noisy. Kyle swung Baal in his left hand.
Slice!
It did cut. The encroaching crimson was erased by annihilation. But that was all. Such a slash was Baal's basic capability.
[Why?!]
Baal shrieked. Kyle swung Baal again, but the sword path Fenris had drawn could not be reproduced with Baal. The familiar feeling in his hand, the sword's response as it yielded to his hand, could not be reproduced with Baal.
[Why?!]
Baal whimpered.
[Why can't you unleash that sword with me?!]
‘Who knows.’
Clicking his tongue, Kyle pulled Baal back. He vaguely understood the reason. The sword beginning to yield to Kyle now was Ruin's sword. And Ruin's sword was completed with Fenris.
Ruin had kept only Fenris beside him until just before his Ascension.
‘Ruin has never swung Baal.’
Ruin had achieved Ascension with a single sword, and that sword was certainly great. But it was still not easy to unleash that sword with Baal, which differed completely from Fenris in size, weight, and shape.
‘You wait your turn.’
Whispering that, Kyle began to fight with Fenris as his focus.
Slice. The tidal wave of blood split apart.
Slice. The divided wave was cut before it could become spears.
Slice. The moment Velatus invoked Dragon Speech, it was cut before it could take form.
Kyle was not swinging faster. He was merely arriving first. The result was overtaking the cause.
Not every swing of Fenris became such a sword, but Kyle's exhilaration did not fade. It continued to surge higher.
Sword Dance continued.
Following that Sword Dance, the swords flickering around Kyle began to change as well.
Clang, clang, clang!
The swords of a madman who could not distinguish friend from foe. The paths of those swords, which had wildly cut in every direction, began to organize themselves. Every one of these swords flowed forth from Kyle's inner image. As the owner of that inner image grew, the swords grew as well. Whenever Kyle's Sword Dance improved, the flickering swords improved too.
The chaotic storm of slashes became an orderly Sword Formation.
Each sword of intent began to resemble Kyle's sword. They cut only what needed to be cut. Wasteful paths disappeared, and thousands of swords began to interlock and move as one will. They still did not connect smoothly, but they were visibly better than before.
Velatus's red world was ripped to shreds.
The blood flowing through the sky was torn apart.
The blood pooled on the ground was torn apart.
The bloody wind flowing through the air was torn apart.
The red that had filled the world within the barrier was cut and split along the paths of the swords, revealing the original colors beneath.
‘This is impossible.’
It was a world she had built by declaring to the myriad things and forms, a world dyed in Velatus's blood. The Dragon Queen's world was being cut by one human's sword.
No, by the thousands of swords flowing from a single human.
‘That bastard.’
Velatus's golden eyes shook.
‘He is growing while fighting me...!’
Every time the red was cut apart, it filled the world again, but the cutting grew faster and faster. A defense that worked moments ago no longer worked the next instant.
::Block him! Swallow him! Crush him!::
Dragon Speech poured forth in rapid succession. A wall of blood rose, a maw of blood opened, and a mountain of blood fell.
The Sword Formation ground through the wall, tore apart the maw, and sliced through the mountain. Even with Kyle before her, Velatus's Dragon Speech did not stop.
::Pierce him!::
Every fragment of the shattered world, every scattering piece of blood, was honed into needles and poured down from above. The Sword Formation intercepted them, but it could not block them all.
Thud, thud, thud!
Crimson needles embedded themselves in Kyle's shoulder and thigh.
::Burst!::
The needles began to swell, about to explode. Jor opened her mouth wide. Jor's will and Fragment's will became one.
::Sto::
::p::
The halting Dragon Speech stopped the swelling needles before they could burst.
Clang!
Kyle used swords of intent to chop the needles embedded in his body into pieces, then stared at Jor with wide eyes.
"What did you just do?"
[I-I don't know!]
Jor shouted in panic. Fragment was just as bewildered.
But Velatus was the most shocked of all. Her golden eyes widened as she stared at Jor.
‘A Spirit used Dragon Speech?’
She knew that Fragment, which she had left behind in the Sword Tower, was inside that Spirit. But how could that insignificant fragment use Dragon Speech? None of it made sense. A fragment using Dragon Speech, a Spirit using Dragon Speech.
And that lowly soul reincarnated by Velatus possessing such power.
‘None of this makes any sense.’
What exactly was the mana that human controlled? Since he used lightning, she had naturally assumed he possessed a lightning Spirit Root. Yet the swords drawn from his inner image emitted mana of every sort of nature as they annihilated things.
And what was that enormous intent? It did carry the feeling of Spirits, but how could a single human contract with so many Spirits, wield intent that was not even his own so freely, and remain sane beneath that terrifying killing intent?
Kyle.
Sword Demon Raikal.
Velatus was the one who had reincarnated him.
But Velatus had never arranged for such talent or potential.
Footnotes:
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