WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 333: Glass Palace (3)

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"You lowly thing!"

Hisimet Cretsu urgently exclaimed.

"What on earth are you doing!"

The Constellation no longer used Patricia's doll to make its voice heard. Beyond the windows surrounding me, hundreds and thousands of dolls screamed in unison.

"Do you think my existence will fade even if you overpower me with force!"

The outcry of thousands was a scream that seemed to tear the heavens apart.

"I am the master of all secrets! I posed a problem to you, and you accepted my challenge! It's a duel. This too is a duel. Do you understand! Your petty blade breaking through the glass and tearing the ground solves nothing! You cutting the Gordian Knot[1] is not acknowledged! Never! Just wait, the judge will eventually declare my victory......!"

"I'm not Alexander."

I twisted the hilt of my sword.

"I'm doing this because I have the correct answer."

The blade, already buried deep in the ground, twisted with a violent KWAJEEEEK! CRACK! Spiderweb-like fractures spread out from the sword. If my blade twisted by a single degree, the web spread beyond a full li. It happened in an instant.

"What do you mean, an answer... Stop! Stop it! You're not using force now but violence! Violence is essentially assault! Do you understand! Assault!"

"Yes. If you insist on resisting, I'll give you the answer that you and I both know."

Find Hisimet Cretsu's true body in the world of the Glass Palace.

This was the task given to me on the 63rd floor.

And as soon as I heard the task, no, even before I heard it, I only cared about two things.

"I thought it would either be the sky or the ground from the start."

"......What......"

"These dolls are all controlled by you. What this means is simple. The moment I'm killed by one of these dolls, Hisimet Cretsu, I'll see your trauma."

I lifted the corners of my mouth.

"That's what you truly want, isn't it?"

"Claiming to rule all secrets, well-versed in labyrinths and mazes, you are that Constellation. You're also the very person who designed the trauma penalty. I may not know exactly how you did it, but one thing is for sure, [Your trauma is a labyrinth from which it is terribly hard to escape]."

"......Eeek! Eeeeek!"

That's right.

All the dolls were merely bait.

'Logically' thinking, among the countless dolls covering the entire world, finding Hisimet Cretsu's true body would be impossible.

Only by using my 'illogical' skill, [Returner's Winding Clock], could I possibly find the true body.

If I enter the trauma and see Hisimet Cretsu's past, I will naturally learn about that Constellation, and understanding its habits and nature, I will naturally realize where it has hidden itself.

"Too bad."

Therefore, in this stage, [Trauma] is the fastest shortcut and the only key.

"I'm not foolish enough to fight you in the domain where you're most confident!"

And thus the most dangerous [trap].

"All the dolls are bait! Exposing Patricia's secret to provoke me was to tempt me into hastily taking the easiest shortcut as my emotions intensify! If I hadn't met the fox constellation on the 61st floor, if I hadn't fallen into triple-layered dreams, I might have overlooked the danger of trauma!"

I was already aware of how dangerous a 'Constellation's Trauma' could be.

Haven't I lived through half the lives of Raviel and my master?

The gap between the 61st and 63rd floors was too short to forget those lessons.

"Your timing was terrible, Snake God!"

Crackling!

The cracks carved into the ground widened further. Zzzzt! A crack became a crevice, the crevice split, and a chasm opened. Another handspan and it would be a bottomless fissure; another instant and it would be a canyon precipice. BOOM! A quake-like tremor shook the ground.

"And you were foolish!"

"Can't you hear me telling you to stop! You! Even if the human race is such a lowly race that it cannot understand human words, you cannot ignore the decrees of the Constellations! Listen to me!"

"Being able to move the mouths of all dolls, controlling them at will, wherever they are, whatever doll they may be. That means, you are, in a [higher place] where all dolls can be seen, or in a [lower place] where all dolls are supported!"

"Listen to me!"

"I'll tell you the answer to the riddle you posed!"

The earth split open.

"The very ground of this Glass Palace is your true body!"

The exhibition halls made of glass shattered noisily.

"This world's ground is your skin! No, your shell!"

Feeling the intensifying earthquake,

I recalled the fact I had confirmed immediately after falling into the labyrinth.

'The ground is.'

'Made of wood.'

'A wooden floor with patterns swirling like snake scales was spread out.'

Every riddle comes with a hint.

The fact that the pattern of the ground I was standing on resembled snake scales could have been seen as just [the Serpent's World-appropriate interior].

Or perhaps it could have been seen as [the old skin shed by a snake as big as the world].

"Accept my answer, Constellation of the Labyrinth!"

As the fissure widened, the ground collapsed into the precipice.

The dolls displayed in the exhibition hall also fell.

Trillions of pure-white glass shards fell like flower petals.

Billions of wooden dolls fell like branches.

"I hereby expose your secret at this place!"

"Ugh......!"

Alias, The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth.

True name, Hisimet Cretsu.

And its true identity is.

"[I am here!]"

Jormungand[2].

A monster so huge it could swallow the entire world, eventually wrapping around the edges of the world, biting its own tail with its mouth.

A snake that made up an entire world.

"I am the victor of this duel!"

"Ugh......!"

And then the ground crumbled.

The ground, as vast and thick as to be mistaken for the actual ground, the old shell, tore apart.

"You, bastard......!"

Beneath the torn shell was nothing but endless darkness.

It was the deep sea, but there was no water, so one could not swim.

It was space, but the laws of physics did not apply. It extended endlessly, with no bottom to be found, inside an eggshell that had always been hidden and would remain hidden forever.

"You! You! You, King of Death! You dare to!"

There was a snake there.

"How dare you do this to me, Hisimet Cretsu!"

The snake coiled around the entire abyss, covering the whole universe. When the snake opened its mouth, a hellish abyss opened up.

Only two eyes.

[The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth manifests.]

Two eyes shining with bright red hostility were the only light in this deep sea.

In a world where only its gaze was allowed, without any other form of light, It lay within its old shell, using the exterior it created as walls. This circular world was probably the deepest palace.

That's why it is the Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth.

Anyone can build this palace in their heart. Anyone can become the sole ruler sitting on the throne. The massive monster, being the king of a world governed only by itself, inside a palace ruled by no one else, roared like an old tyrant.

"Rising through the ranks by flattering Hamusutra, you mere human!"

The snake's tail lashed out at me, immeasurably large.

Perhaps, it really had no size.

This was Hisimet Cretsu's deepest place and the place of its heart, literally the dwelling of its mind. In the world it had made, only it was immense, and it itself was the only thing that existed. This fathomless deep was not a display of terrifying majesty, merely a core that had to be cut apart.

"Aha!"

Therefore, I sliced through it.

"Light! How light! Even a flick of Viper's hand, small enough not to occupy a single point beneath the heavens, weighed a thousand times more than the flick of your tail!"

With my single strike, Jormungand's tail was severed. Blood sprayed, and an infinite red dyed the world, casting a brief dusk upon the abyss, even if it was but a fleeting moment.

"--------!"

The scream added more red to the bloody waves.

"Peep."

Timely, the fox coiled around my neck let out a small cry.

[A Music Box Just for You grants you a quest.]

As I fell and Jormungand crouched at the bottom, sand grains formed letters between us.

+

[The Shedding God]

Difficulty: S-

Objective: Defeat the ruler of the 63rd floor, [The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth] Hisimet Cretsu. Hisimet Cretsu has exposed your companion and insulted your honor.

*However, if you die even once to Hisimet Cretsu, you will be defeated.

+

"This is why it's convenient to serve a Constellation!"

"Pyaaaak."

"Why did I ignore such convenience until now!"

Swoosh...

I continued to slice through the snake's attacks. I didn't avoid them. Even as Hisimet Cretsu constantly thrashed its body to strike, bit with its fangs, and spat poison from its mouth, I countered everything without retreating an inch.

"Ugh, ...Eek! Eek! Aaaagh!"

With every swing of my sword, blood burst forth.

The darkness of the abyss welcomed the red dusk.

"Aaaaagh, ah, aaaaaah!!"

The echo resonated in the world, which should have been self-contained.

The screams overlapped and overlapped.

Endlessly, like waves crashing against the cliffs by the sea.

[The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth's existence becomes faint.]

Like the waves eroding the rocks surrounding the sea.

Creak, crack!

The snake's screams gradually cracked the eggshell surrounding it.

"Aaaaaaaaah!!"

Though it was a world wide enough to contain its mind, it was too shallow to withstand its own screams.

Eventually, every palace is a house destined for destruction.

[The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth's existence becomes faint.]

Just as every dynasty inevitably marks its era with the forecast of its downfall.

[The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth's existence becomes faint.]

At this very moment, the ninefold palace of the kingdom called the Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth, founded by the tyrant Hisimet Cretsu with walls of dolls' bodies and pillars of human secrets, came to its end.

"...Ugh... Sob. Ugh..."

The snake's moans flowed softly.

"Everything...... All will be exposed. Everything......"

This place was no longer the deep sea that refused the bottom.

Light seeped through the wound-like crevices.

Bathed in light more ominous than shadow, Jormungand shrank until it was merely a somewhat large snake.

"If you attack me, if you keep attacking, I'll expose the fact that you're a regressor... Not only to the world you live in! To your companions, your sons, your daughters, and beyond them... everywhere my faith reaches! To every world! Yes, throughout the entire Tower! I'll expose it to them all!"

"......."

"If I get hurt, that very moment will also be the day of your downfall. Do you understand? You know, right? All the successes you've achieved will be belittled as mere results of your returns. Your-your blood will be utterly devalued. No one will respect you, as if they knew it all along. Your blood. Your time. Your dedication. Everything will be treated as if, as if it never existed."

"......."

"Do you understand!"

The snake was truly small.

If inflicting wounds is all you know how to do.

"Really, you, do you truly understand my authority!"

A stone lying on the road, a blade placed there by chance.

A piece of metal.

It was no different from such existences.

"Do it."

My wounds may still be wounds, but.

You too shall remain a mere piece of metal forever.

"I have Raviel, a family, and friends. Just as I remain beside Patricia despite knowing Patricia's secret, Patricia will remain beside me after learning mine."

"......."

"While you play eternity here, I've gained people through shedding blood."

It was no small amount of blood.

It wasn't thin blood either.

There was no blood that wasn't red.

"Hisimet Cretsu."

"Ugh...... Ugh......."

"I shall end you."

As soon as I spoke, the snake screamed as if being torn apart.

"Let's do this then!"

I silently raised my sword.

"I'll protect your secret! I'll ensure that absolutely no one, nobody knows you possess the return skill... with my authority over secrets! Forever! I'll hide it deep within my shell! How about it!? This should satisfy you enough...!"

I raised it high.

"Is that not enough for you!? What, you, no, Gong-Ja! When you entered Hamusutra's domain, didn't you use the protection of the God of Snakes!? How was it!? Convenient, right!? What if you could use that power unlimitedly!? Huh!? How about that!?"

I lifted it to its peak.

"That's not all! My life has been as long as my body! My powers are just as deep! I can give you more powers! There are! I can! I, Hisimet Cretsu, am saying this!"

I paused for a moment, then,

"Conversation! Let us talk! People! Intelligent beings are meant to deal with one another through words, not arms, so come! Let us reach an agreement! Let us talk! Let us resolve this wisely. So, ah, you bastard, young star! No, great star! Gong-Ja, sir! Please, just listen to me for one moment...!!"

I swung it down without hesitation.

In the next moment, a tearing scream rang out, and the world split in two.

[1]: The cutting of the Gordian Knot is an Ancient Greek legend associated with Alexander the Great in Gordium in Phrygia, regarding a complex knot that tied an oxcart. Reputedly, whoever could untie it would be destined to rule all of Asia. In 333 BC Alexander was challenged to untie the knot. It is thus used as a metaphor for a seemingly intractable problem which is solved by exercising an unexpectedly direct, novel, rule-bending, decis

ive, and simple approach that removes the perceived constraints.

[2]: Jormungand / Jörmungandr is the Midgard Serpent (also World Serpent) in Norse mythology who encircles the realm of Midgard. He is the son of the god Loki and the giantess Angrboða and brother of the great wolf Fenrir and Hel, Queen of the Dead.

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