SSS-Class Revival Hunter - Chapter 378

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 378: The Place Called a Sanctuary (3)

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[The Constellation Killer has been extinguished.]

Thud.

Having lost the road ahead, the Constellation Killer collapsed onto the floor of the junkyard. His silver hair billowed as though submerged and spreading beneath the water.

It was as if looking at a pile of cut threads from a puppet.

[There is no Constellation in this world.]

A serene voice echoed through the world.

[The first condition for world destruction has been satisfied.]

[There is no Apostle in this world.]

[The second condition for world destruction has been satisfied.]

[There are no followers in this world.]

[The third condition for world destruction has been satisfied.]

Somewhere, the sound of a beast's roar rumbled.

[Warning.]

[All conditions have been satisfied.]

Initially, the beast's roar echoed only from the outskirts of the world, but soon, it rapidly converged from all directions. The ground shook, and the heaps of trash that soared to the horizon trembled.

Rumble!

Trash tumbled down from the top of the heaps.

It wasn't the roar of a beast.

It was the sound of this place collapsing and sinking.

[The world will be destroyed.]

The sunset was torn apart.

The sky became a pane of glass and shattered the instant it did. The fragments fell with the sunset from just before the break still imprinted upon them.

Boom!

A glass fragment as large as one quarter of the sky fell onto a distant mountain of trash. The mountain collapsed, spewing countless plastic bottles. The glass fragment shattered as well, scattering billions of glass splinters. The sunset was still printed on every one of them, so the fragments were red.

Thus, the junkyard seemed to sprinkle droplets of blood into the air.

"......Beautiful."

It wasn't hard to understand the comment inadvertently muttered by Paladin.

Covered in cuts from battling the puppets, the Paladin looked up at the shattered sky while clutching a wound on one forearm.

"It's as if the world is blessing its own end. Such destruction wouldn't be so bad. If this is the last scene to be seen......"

"What are you doing holding a critique session!"

The Black Dragon Master shouted.

"Run for it, you idiot! Unless you want to be covered in glass shards and die!"

"But Anastasia, look. To run away from such a spectacle, as a human, I simply cannot......"

"Stop talking nonsense! Nisha made me promise! If I don't bring you back safely, know that my life will be miserable!"

The Black Dragon Master forcefully grabbed Paladin's wrist.

"Kim Gong-Ja, I'll consider this a debt for your help this time. I'm going to drag this fool back to Babylon, so do as you please!"

"Ah, such a pity. I really do pity. Imagine, if I must die, I'd want my cause of death to be impaled by the sunset. If I could just stay here a bit longer......"

"Teleport!!"

White light enveloped the two. The Paladin, filled with regret and reluctance to leave, soon vanished into the light.

"Um! Then I'll take my leave as well, Master!"

"Father, I will withdraw first."

Pop! Flash!

The other comrades and retainers quickly escaped from the collapsing world.

In the next moment, only Kim Yul and I remained.

"......."

Silently, we watched the world crumble into red.

Suddenly realizing we were the last two left in this world, I felt an urge to linger here a bit longer, despite knowing we should escape. Was it the Paladin's eccentricity rubbing off on me, now that we were reduced to the minimum unit that a world could be?

"Why was it a junkyard?"

Kim Yul's voice came from beside me.

I didn't turn my head. We simply looked up at the redness of the world together.

Some relationships require eye contact to communicate, while others are content with merely sharing the same air.

"Why here of all places?"

"......."

"I don't have good memories of home. I lost my indoor shoes on a Wednesday and had to wear my outdoor shoes to school until Saturday. As soon as Saturday's classes ended, I went home and searched the junkyard nearby to see whether anyone had thrown away a pair."

In this world left with just the two of us, Kim Yul's tone of voice was… slightly different.

Perhaps it hadn't changed but momentarily returned to its original state.

"I found one shoe but couldn't find the other. I couldn't go to school wearing just one shoe. I gave up after searching all weekend, but on Monday morning, I found the other shoe placed there. My father found it overnight."

"I see."

"Yeah, but the pair didn't match. They were different sizes. I don't think my father was worried or cared for me to have stayed up all night. He probably felt accused by his son wandering the junkyard all weekend."

Kim Yul murmured.

"That's the best memory I have of my father."

Kim Yul moved his hand. That's when I turned to look at him. Kim Yul was putting the tie that had been tied in his hair back into his pocket.

"If the Constellation Killer erased all memories related to being Kim Yul, why did he choose this landscape for his sanctuary? How could he have chosen it? It's beyond me."

As the tie was removed, Kim Yul's tone returned to normal in that brief moment.

"Maybe it's imprinted on the soul, even if it's forgotten from the mind. Sounds like nonsense."

"But it adorned a corner of the tower with this landscape. Including you and me, thirteen people have seen it."

"......Yeah."

And then, I thought I saw Kim Yul smile very faintly.

"After that day, a corner of our house always had several pairs of unused indoor shoes piled up. When I think about it, it doesn't seem like such a bad memory."

Kim Yul nudged me with his elbow.

"I will go on ahead, Family Head. This is no longer my home."

With the word "transfer," Kim Yul was enveloped in a swirl of light.

And so, I was left alone in the world.

The horizon had completely crumbled. The glass that had been stripped from the sky collided with the ground and shattered, scattering plastic and metal fragments into the air. Darkness enveloped the world from its edges.

Lastly, I looked down at the remains of the puppets.

"......."

After taking one last look at the thirteen puppets with their strings cut, I released the final voice that would ever be recorded in this world.

"Transfer."

[You are being transferred to the 81st floor.]

And thus, the world closed its eyes.

Embracing the pitch-black darkness.

Upon returning to the 81st floor, what greeted me was the somewhat lethargic voice of a mage.

"Good work, Wailing Heaven. Even for you, I thought this time you might face defeat, but annoyingly, you've killed the Constellation Killer."

[The Staff of Time Immemorial] stood there, leaning on a broken staff.

In the stage still filled with nothing but darkness, soon to be decorated as my sanctuary, the mage seemed like a white orchid in bloom.

"You were too busy fighting, weren't you?"

"It was far more than merely hectic. If Raviel had hesitated even slightly, I would have been mounted here forever from that day onward."

"That's true. Just so you know, all the Constellations residing in the tower are in an uproar because of you. The news of the Constellation Killer's death was just announced."

I shrugged.

"It's not the first or second time I've caused a commotion. The Constellations should be getting used to my existence by now."

"Annoying...... Do you only act so annoyingly in front of me, or is it just my imagination?"

"By the way, I have something I'd like to consult you about."

"Look at you shamelessly changing the subject."

The mage sighed.

"Well, the loser must willingly accept humiliation. What's your consultation about? Is it related to the sanctuary?"

"Yes. It's about one of my skills, [Ghoul Reincarnation]."

I opened my palm.

"Skill card, open."

Whoosh.

Golden sparks overflowed from the palm of my hand, forming the shape of a card.

[Ghoul Reincarnation]

Rank: SSS

Effect: You summon those you've personally killed. The deceased do not inherit their abilities from life. However, if you wish, they can inherit their memories and appearances from when they were alive. If you do not wish it, they will only be summoned as monsters.

The mage looked at my card and nodded.

"Right. That's your trademark skill, the one you've used and relied on the most. Now you're consulting me about it?"

"Yes. Especially about this part... [If you do not wish it, they will only be summoned as monsters]."

"What about it?"

"Can I decide what kind of monster they are summoned as?"

The mage blinked.

"That's...... um, let me think."

She pondered for a moment, then glanced at me.

"I don't know why you're asking, but ordinarily, when you summon one of the Hundred Ghosts as a monster, it manifests as a skeleton. That is obviously for balance. Imagine if something still classified as the same sort of monster could be summoned as a bone dragon. It would break everything. So you cannot decide the type of monster..."

"Oh, that part is not a problem."

I waved my hand dismissively.

"I'm thinking of summoning them in an even weaker form than a skeleton."

"......Weaker than a skeleton?"

The mage frowned, unable to imagine my intentions.

"If that's really the case, there's no problem, but why? What are you trying to do? If it's a monster weaker than a skeleton, only slimes come to mind. And how does that relate to building your sanctuary?"

"You'll see."

I smiled.

"Let's start by defining a monster. How about [a life form that lacks reason]? Would that suffice?"

"It doesn't really matter, but... don't use this for some prank. Remember that the Tower Master has already shown you favor regarding your skills once. Don't forget that."

"Of course."

"Alright. I'll temporarily modify the skill for you."

The mage tapped the floor with the tip of her staff.

[The authority of the skill 'Ghoul Reincarnation (SSS+)' is being modified.]

[Note: This modification is temporary.]

Despite losing to me and having her staff broken, it seems she still has the unilateral power to handle such matters.

I half-closed my eyes.

Feeling a sense of calmness, as if washing my face, I brought my hands together.

"......"

What came to mind were the thirteen killing puppets that had just been abandoned and shattered in that world.

The more precisely I recalled the puppets, the darker the ground beneath my feet became. It was a shadow.

Just like when I invaded the sanctuary of the Constellation Killer, the same black-painted arms were climbing up my legs.

The difference this time might be that there were 13 pairs of arms.

'Come up a little more.'

I let the arms climb.

Whether they heeded my thoughts or it was the instinct of the shadows, the arms sluggishly climbed up my body. I concentrated all my nerves on guiding those arms to one place.

The shadowy arms grasped my pelvis, climbed my elbows, traveled my wrists, and finally gathered in my palm.

When all 13 pairs of shadows gathered in my palm,

"......Ghoul Reincarnation."

I made a wish.

[Activating skill.]

Squirm,

From the shadows at my feet to the long arms extending to me, they were gradually sucked into my palm. They converged. The pitch-black mass swirled, gathering at one point, slowly taking shape.

[The Staff of Time Immemorial], watching what I was doing, opened her lips in wonder. She might have been curious about what kind of monster I was summoning, but what reflected in her eyes was something entirely unexpected.

"......A flower?"

It was a lily of the valley.

The lily of the valley resting in my palm was rotten. It was dry and shriveled. It stretched out its long neck, with thirteen faded bells hanging from its stem.

"Yes."

I carefully set the rotten lily of the valley down without damaging it. Squelch. The soil of the 81st floor, covered in mud-like darkness, gently received the flower.

"This is the Constellation Killer."

"A monster is defined as [a life form that lacks reason], so there's no need to summon only beasts."

I planted the flower with 13 bells in this world. Transplanted from a world that had just perished to this, still shrouded in darkness.

"From now on, I will either resurrect the ghouls in human form or merely transplant them as flowers."

I turned to look at the mage.

"This world will bloom with flowers that faded without ever blooming in other worlds, flowers that rotted and fell apart. Only one flower has been planted for now, but soon hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of flowers will rot here."

"........"

"A garden of rotten flowers."

I smiled.

"That will be my sanctuary."

Perhaps the mage wasn't the only one listening to my vow.

[Your skill is being renamed.]

The Tower Master always watched over me, and this time too, they extended their hand as if blessing me. White light wrapped around my skill card.

When the light subsided, the final destination of my skill was drawn there.

[Hundred-Flower Reincarnation]

Rank: SSS+

Someday…

This place will become one where ten million flowers dream of reincarnation.