WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 193: Again
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Baal in his left hand, Fenris in his right.
Baal targeted her heart, Fenris her neck.
Pierce. Cut.
Thinking of nothing but that, Kyle guided his swords. At the same time, he knew.
This was the end.
Just as Velatus sensed her own death, Kyle sensed that he would kill Velatus. The present was merely on its way toward that outcome, but the outcome itself had already been decided. This causality could never be overturned.
'Is it a shame?'
As he moved toward an outcome already determined, the only person who could change the result of Velatus's death was Kyle. No matter what Velatus did, she could not alter her own death.
But Kyle could. He only had to stop his swords.
The reason he wondered whether it was a shame was because this fight had been incredibly fun for him. Every swing of his sword made him better, again and again. If it were possible, he wanted to keep fighting like this for the rest of his life.
'It isn't... a shame.'
If Velatus had not been terrified. If she had not despaired. If she had struggled harder against the death she sensed. If she had possessed even one hidden move she had not yet used.
Kyle might have stopped his swords. His entire body was in tatters, and he was so badly wounded that it would not have been strange if he died at any moment. Still, he wanted to keep fighting. More and more.
'Today, I understand you a great deal.'
He understood once again why Ruin had been lonely. Even an opponent far weaker than him would have made an impression if they refused to give up and instead charged forward with a joyful smile.
'Maybe one day, I'll become lonely like you too.'
What a useless thought, Kyle. You were fundamentally different from Ruin. Unable to find anyone to play with, Ruin brooded over his loneliness. Then, being excessively devoted to humanity from the moment he was born, he made his already lonely life even more miserable by carrying on about duty and responsibility.
To put it harshly, Ruin was a mentally ill man plagued by obsession, anxiety, and depression. But Kyle?
It was a little funny to say so himself, but Kyle had been very mentally healthy both in his past life and this one. Healthy enough not to hold a grudge against the person who killed him. If something did not matter much to him, he simply let it go. In some ways, he could be called simple and thickheaded. He could amuse himself just fine, lived reasonably well on his own terms, and died.
That was why Kyle could not imagine himself ever becoming like Ruin.
Time, which he had been perceiving slowly, continued to pass. The unmistakable feeling in both his hands grew stronger.
The feeling of a sword tip piercing a chest.
The feeling of a blade cutting through a neck.
He did not change the outcome.
Velatus's heart was pierced. Her neck was cleanly severed. He could feel it clearly in his hands. She was a monster that had regenerated no matter how many times she was cut, but recovering from that was impossible.
"Ha ha..."
It was a good thing he had not felt regret. Once he calmed down and looked at himself, his body had reached the point where he could no longer move, even if he forced it. No, to be precise, he had exceeded his limits several times over already. If he had withdrawn his swords because he wanted to continue fighting, Kyle would have died.
"Hey."
His body tilted forward.
Baal, embedded in Velatus's chest, slid downward and split her body diagonally.
Watching that, Kyle fell.
The strength in his fingers, which he had been forcing himself to maintain, began to fade.
He did not care about anything else, but he did not want to let go of his swords. Kyle wrung out the last of his strength and clenched his fingers. He had won such a difficult fight. Dropping his swords now would be pathetic. He barely held on to Fenris and Baal as he raised his head.
Splurt!
Blood sprayed from Velatus's body, which Baal had pierced and split nearly in half. Yet no blood came from her severed neck. All the blood that should have sprayed from there was pouring from her chest instead.
"I won."
Kyle whispered as he looked up at Velatus, blood gushing from her body. She had gone senile, defied her Lifespan, and was dying, but she was still a dragon. The Dragon Queen.
As far as Kyle knew, no human had ever killed a dragon in the continent's history.
Not even Ruin had killed Velatus. He had simply had no reason to do so, but still. Today, Kyle had achieved a feat no one else in the continent's history had accomplished. He had freed the East, which had been cut off for three hundred years.
The East he had freed was little more than an empty, unclaimed land, but that was neither something Kyle could help nor something he needed to care about. He had killed Velatus, and the Dragonkin and monsters born from her blood would have perished as well. The East could make its own way from now on.
Could he lose himself in the feeling of victory now?
Kyle held on to his fading consciousness and grinned. Even now, his ruined body was falling, but Kyle had no need to worry. There were many people here who could save him.
"Master!"
Jor, who had been flying through the sky, rushed over. Jor caught Kyle in their mouth before he could hit the ground and placed him atop their body. Below, Katarina and the squad members were running toward them.
[Y-you, you won! You killed the Dragon Queen, Velatus!]
Fragment shouted as if screaming. Fragment had long since sorted out its feelings for Velatus and judged her existence to be wrong.
That was why Fragment was sincerely happy about Kyle's victory.
Of course, there was also a small measure of pity. The process had gone terribly wrong, but in the end, Velatus had wanted only one thing.
'To meet Ruin Alastor.'
Fragment borrowed Jor's eyes to look up at Velatus. Her blood-spewing body swelled and shifted. Having reached the outcome called death, Velatus's body was returning to its original form.
Thud!
The enormous dragon's body fell into the Sand Sea. The Sword Mark running down from its chest remained intact. Blood pouring from it turned the Sand Sea into a crimson mire.
The dragon's corpse lying in the Sand Sea still had its head attached. Yet the red-haired, gold-eyed head that Fenris had cut off floated in the air.
Her consciousness had not been cut off. It simply had not happened yet. As Kyle had sensed and declared, the fight was over. Kyle had won, and Velatus had lost. Death was no longer approaching her.
Velatus was already soaked in the heart of death.
"Ah..."
Velatus's lips parted, and a sob like a lament escaped. Her floating head looked at the body collapsing as it sprayed blood.
With so much she still did not understand, all that remained at the end for Velatus was self-mockery.
'I...'
She had lived for five thousand years. She was the most noble ruler of the greatest race in the world. She possessed every beautiful thing in the world and devoted five hundred years to claiming the most beautiful of them all.
She built the Sword Tower as a gift. She ground down an entire continent. She devoured all her kin.
She even paid with the remainder of her Lifespan.
And in the end, she could not have the thing she had given everything to possess.
'Why... why?'
She had watched Ruin Alastor from his side for decades. She had been blinded by his beauty. Yet she had failed to recognize the sword, the source of the radiance that made the jewel called Ruin Alastor shine so beautifully.
This was the result.
The sword that had captivated Velatus bloomed in the hand of someone other than Ruin. In the hands of the being she envied most, it had decided her death.
'Ruin...'
Even at the depths of her self-mockery, that name still burned with longing. Even at this moment, Velatus wanted to meet Ruin. The man she had first seen on that hill five hundred years ago. The man who had not allowed her at his side even on the eve of his Ascension.
She considered the possibilities.
This death could not be defied. She knew that. Her body had been finished from the start. But what about beyond death? Eastern dragons and dragons became attendants of the sky gods when they died. It was an end she had hated and fled from, but if she became an angel, if she became a being of the sky...
Would there not be even the slightest chance she could meet Ruin, who was somewhere beyond Ascension?
No. There was none.
What had pierced Velatus's chest and heart was Baal, the beloved sword of the King of Filth. The sword of annihilation. That sword had not merely pierced her heart. It had pierced Velatus's existence, the foundation of her soul.
For an existence that had suffered such a fate, there was no after. She could not regenerate, nor could she enter the cycle of reincarnation. She could not even become an angel. The existence called Dragon Queen Velatus would disappear here.
'Ah, ahh... ahhh...'
The emptiness of being unable to become an angel, unable even to reincarnate. She wanted to struggle, but Velatus's consciousness now existed only within this small head. Her true body was already dead below. She could not even cry aloud.
All Velatus could do now was spend the few seconds before her consciousness vanished, drowning in fear and despair.
'Ruin, Ruin...'
Repeating that name endlessly.
::As agreed::
The mocking voice she had heard earlier whispered.
The blood pouring from Velatus's true body, lying in the Sand Sea, began to boil and give off steam.
Crack!
Soon, space tore apart with a sound. At the center of the rising steam, a pitch-black rift opened its maw.
Everyone on the ground who had been approaching Kyle froze in place. Jor's body began to tremble.
Kyle lay limply atop Jor, staring at the rift with wide-open eyes.
He knew what that was. It was the rift that had spat out Lavian's soul while saying that since it had received something, it would give something back. It was also the rift that swallowed back the demon Flower Immortal, who had emerged from the Black Cube in the Central Branch's research building.
::I will take it::
The voice flowing from the rift reached Kyle's ears as well.
'Ah...?'
Velatus's eyes, already wet with tears, shook violently. The remnants of Velatus's existence and soul, which were being annihilated, began to be pulled toward the rift.
'Why?'
As the question came to her, Velatus understood.
The contract for the remainder of her Lifespan had not meant only the time she had left while alive. It included the remainder of her existence, everything that would remain after death. The portion that would have made her an angel, even the portion that would have vanished and returned to nothingness, had been mortgaged to the outer god's contract from the start.
Annihilation was comfort. Once one was gone, that was the end. There was no need to suffer or despair.
That was why Astaros had advised Ruin to kill himself.
For Velatus, there had never been a peaceful ending.
'No...!'
Her floating head was visible. Her soul was sucked into the rift. Her sense of self unraveled like loose threads. Five thousand years of memories, greatness, and nobility lost their shape and became scraps.
Dragon Queen Velatus.
Her entire being became a handful of leftovers, without name or self, falling into the maw of an outer god. What would come after that? She would be digested in its stomach.
Velatus was now in a worse position than the countless failures who had challenged Ascension after Ruin. Those who had been eaten by outer gods and fallen into their stomachs had at least retained their identities. Velatus could not even do that.
The end of insignificant leftovers that had been eaten and dropped into a stomach was excretion. Velatus would become excrement, less than the humans she had considered so insignificant, forgetting even who she was.
'No, I am, I am the Dragon Queen...! I don't want to become excrement...'
That was the final will held by Velatus, or rather, by what had once been Velatus. In the very end, Velatus thought not of her longing for Ruin, but of her own safety.
Her floating head turned to ash and scattered.
Dragon Queen Velatus, who had lived for five thousand years. The last dragon in this world died like that. She would not achieve the reunion she had clung to. She would not ascend to the heavens and become a servant. She would not even be annihilated.
She had been deceived, reduced to leftovers, and would soon become excrement.
Gulp.
Kyle swallowed the blood pooled in his mouth.
The feeling of omnipotence that had filled his body was disappearing. The contract to kill Velatus had been fulfilled. The curses of countless Spirits, and their power, naturally perished and left Kyle.
'I didn't expect this.'
He had gone through every kind of hardship to kill Velatus. There was no question about that. The soul was gone from the enormous dragon corpse lying below.
Yet the rift did not close.
It was not opening any wider, but from beyond that pitch-black maw, Kyle felt the same gaze he had felt at the time of the Black Cube.
::Cute::
A will spoke.
::Adorable::
::Child::
It was the same as before. A will without a distinguishable gender. Affection directed toward something small and adorable.
::Again::
::We meet::
A warm, gentle voice.
The angel's necklace around Kyle's neck turned cold.
"Ugh..."
Narua's body began to shake.
Everyone was physically and mentally exhausted after facing the husks of Eastern dragons and dragons. But this sensation was completely different from the heaviness in one's head caused by fatigue. Her head felt so heavy that it seemed to crush her entire body. It felt as if something inside her brain was swelling enormously, ready to burst.
Narua was not the only one who felt it.
Jade and Bruno both clutched their heads. Cold sweat soaked their bodies and washed away the blood flowing from their wounds. Their eyes turned bloodshot, and blood began streaming from their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears.
"Lady Katarina!"
Kyle shouted.
He knew what this sign meant. Magic power from the outer gods overflowed from the rift. Unless one reached the Boundary Realm and established oneself, one could not gain resistance to magic power.
Magic power was deadly poison to mortals. If a human was exposed to magic power that dense, they would cease to be human. Just like the people trapped in the Central Branch's research building, they would become magic power mutants.
Once someone became a mutant, there was no way to turn them back.
"Take everyone with you! Get as far away as possible! Run!"
Katarina was the most clear-headed among Kyle's companions on the ground. But her body was badly injured. She had pushed herself too hard to keep the squad members from dying.
Katarina flinched backward and shouted at Kyle.
"W-what about you?!"
"I'll get out of here on Jor! Just get on the Iron Dragon, quickly!"
To escape as far as possible with the squad members who could not fly, they had no choice but to use the Iron Dragon. Fortunately, during the several days it had taken to reach the Ash Cradle, Katarina had learned how to operate the Iron Dragon to stave off boredom.
Katarina hurriedly nodded and grabbed Bruno and Jade, one in each hand.
"Ah... ngh, nghh...!"
Soha's realm was also at the threshold of the Boundary Realm. Unlike Narua, Bruno, and Jade, who could not move as they clutched their heads and groaned, Soha could at least run away.
Panting heavily, she carried Narua on her back.
"...?"
Lucia, however, was fine. Her realm was a little higher than Soha's, but she had not yet opened the Boundary Realm either. Lucia did not let out a single groan. She looked back and forth between the rift and Kyle with a puzzled expression.
"S-Sir Kyle. What is that...?"
"Just run!"
Kyle snapped at Lucia. Even after taking Velatus's soul, the rift had not closed. The gaze within remained fixed on Kyle.
What that meant was obvious.
That thing remained because it still had business here. The blood spraying from Velatus's corpse and the mana that had not yet perished were fuel sustaining the rift.
'Useless lizard bastard! Even dead, you have to spray this shit everywhere...!'
Kyle grabbed Jor's horn and shouted.
"Go! Don't look back! As fast as you can!"
"Y-yes!"
Jor, who had been frozen in place, answered in a panic. Jor's body spun through the air.
In truth.
Kyle had already sensed it.
That he could not escape from that thing now.
::Come::
::Here::
Because that thing was calling Kyle.
Footnotes:
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