WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 151: A Flame Born from Ashes (6)

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Whooosh!

A rippling blade raced toward the surging red light. Visions of the past bloomed along the path of its advancing tip.

Even within the crimson Sword Path that split the world in half, the wavering illusion did not lose its shape. Like ripples spreading across a lake, it created a small disturbance at the heart of that scarlet light.

Then, as his vision flashed white, it swallowed everything around him whole.

Further.

Along with the ring's mana vanishing in huge chunks, Kyle felt a dizzying wave of vertigo.

He ignored it.

Without stopping, he thrust his sword straight ahead.

Even if this body shattered.

Hoping that the tip of his blade would reach that bastard's throat.

And then.

Thud!

Something was pierced.

With trembling eyes, Kyle looked down at his chest.

"Ah..."

Cassius Mortein's jet-black greatsword.

The greatsword that had split heaven and earth in two while holding crimson Sword Aura only moments ago had pierced straight through Kyle's solar plexus.

The moment he realized it, a clear metallic crack rang in his ears.

The multicolored gem set in the ring on his left middle finger was crumbling away.

The Brightest Star of Dawn...

For an instant, the events at the Alenos Ruins flashed through his mind.

A beat later, blood surged up his throat.

Cough!

Kyle reflexively lowered his head.

Bright red drops of blood splattered across the mangled snowfield. His vision, clear until just moments ago, was slowly turning red.

Kyle blankly stared at his limp right arm and the sword he had finally let slip from his grasp.

"Excellent."

That was when an admiring voice came from above him.

Through the agonizing pain tearing through his entire body, Kyle barely raised his gaze.

Cassius stood there, looking down at him with a satisfied smile.

"Far beyond my expectations, Blue Wolf."

Cassius was not unharmed either.

Perhaps due to the aftermath of Kyle's magic, white frost covered parts of the jet-black armor that had been pristine moments before.

More than anything, there was his helmet.

Half the helmet that had concealed his entire face was gone. The remaining half slowly fell to the ground under the pull of gravity.

Cassius's bare face was revealed for the first time.

He had black hair and black eyes like Kyle.

Yet the impression he gave was the complete opposite. His features were sharp and angular, and his hair was cut short. A scar ran diagonally across the middle of his face.

The wind briefly brushed through his black hair and the torn, ragged crimson cloak fluttering behind him.

"This is the second time my helmet has been split."

Cassius spoke calmly.

Kyle glared at him while breathing roughly.

"When I first heard that Damien had been defeated, I did not believe it. He was a capable talent selected as the next vice commander. Then Lorentz fell as well."

"..."

"As far as I know, there is only one person with that level of skill. At least among the living. But after facing you myself, my doubts only deepened. The curse still remained, and your swordsmanship had grown rusty compared to the past. You were not at a level where you could protect the imperial princess while defeating Damien and Lorentz. But now I understand."

Cassius's smile deepened.

He looked genuinely delighted.

"What a strange thing. A knight's sword form has taken the shape of magic. Did you paint a scene from the past because you are still bound by time long gone?"

"How did you... cut through that illusion..."

"My personal sword form cuts through everything it touches. Magic is no exception. You were unlucky with your opponent, Blue Wolf."

It was a simple result.

His opponent's sword form was superior and sharper.

Kyle's personal magic had failed to reach Cassius's personal sword form.

That was all.

Slash!

Cassius pulled the greatsword from Kyle's body.

An entirely different amount of blood burst forth. Kyle's body collapsed onto the ruined snow beneath him.

Strangely, the snow against his cheek did not feel cold.

Kyle could feel his body cooling in real time. Even his five senses, sharpened by mana, were becoming oddly dull.

Through his fading breaths, he saw the shattered multicolored gem from his ring and his lone sword lying apart from him.

"I'll take this. It will no longer be useful to someone who is about to die."

Cassius's black gauntlet picked up the star iron sword lying beside Kyle and the scabbard hanging from his waist.

He sheathed the sword.

Flap, flap.

Screeeech!

Suddenly, the sound of wings and a familiar cry came from far away.

As Cassius's Wyvern, Ksalak, approached its master, two much smaller Wyverns landed near the jet-black knight.

The ones who descended from them were high-ranking knights who worked with Cassius.

"Is it over?"

"Yes."

"What about the remaining troops...?"

"You will clean up here and withdraw to Marent at once. Pull back any troops that have advanced too deeply to a suitable location, then have them wait there. I will retrieve the escaped imperial princess and return to the Imperial Palace for a while."

"Understood. Then..."

"..."

Cassius and the two wyvern knights continued talking, but their words came to Kyle only as faint, indistinct sounds.

He could not understand what they were saying.

Cold.

The red tint in his vision was slowly being covered in black.

The chill rising from the ground.

The light snow drifting down.

He could no longer feel them.

He could no longer see them.

In a world completely dyed black, Kyle curled his senseless body into a ball.

Am I... going to die like this?

"You fool. Are you crying your eyes out just because you lost once?"

Rowen's voice suddenly echoed faintly in his ears.

Kyle murmured quietly to himself.

I'm sorry, Rowen. I still couldn't win.

"Why are you apologizing to me?"

Because I made all of your deaths meaningless...

"Anyone would think I had expected something great from you."

Still...

"Ask the prince. When did we ever ask you to avenge us?"

Rowen's voice disappeared.

Then Yurian's voice filled the empty space it left behind.

"Don't blame yourself, Kyle. You worked hard."

I...

"I know better than anyone that you always tried your best."

But I couldn't protect them. The capital, the knights, you. All of it. Do you think someone like me deserves to be happy?

"You're still tormenting yourself."

The sound of bitter laughter.

Before long, even Yurian's voice vanished into the darkness.

The last thing that appeared was a warm sensation, as though someone was stroking his hair.

"It's all right, Kyle."

Cecilia...

"Everything will be fine. If it's hard, you can rest. If that is what you want, then nothing more..."

The darkness deepened.

The warm touch that had brushed through his hair disappeared as though it had never existed.

It felt as if every sound had been erased from the world.

In contrast, his five senses were rising to the surface.

Kyle had been falling endlessly, but at some point, he felt his descent slow to an almost imperceptible pace.

Like a feather.

The sensation of drifting down slowly.

Will gradually returned to his limbs, which had refused to move.

Splash.

Warm liquid touched his back where Cassius's greatsword had pierced through him.

Only then did Kyle lift his eyelids.

An infinite space made of gray tones stretched before him.

The sky was a hazy gray, while the ground, submerged in ankle-deep water, was stained entirely blood-red.

At its center stood a pure white Dragon with a familiar appearance.

The first and last Progenitor Dragon looked down at him with eyes as deep and blue as a lake.

"Prisia..."

[This makes two.]

Kyle stared blankly into Prisia's eyes.

Then he forced out a voice that barely came.

"Am I... dead?"

[That depends on your will. Life and death are connected as one.]

Prisia lowered her head, covered in white scales, before Kyle.

Kyle did not avert his gaze as he faced Prisia. The pupils within her sapphire-blue eyes, several times larger than a human's, were slit vertically like those of the Dragons and Wyverns he had seen before.

"Was it you... who brought me to this world?"

Kyle honestly asked what he had wondered about all this time.

[Yes.]

"Why?"

[Fate led you before me.]

"Just for that...?"

[It was not just that. You were the only one fated to stop the First Emperor.]

"But I lost miserably."

[One defeat does not mean the end.]

"No. I'm tired now. I can't anymore..."

[Is eternal rest truly what you wish for?]

Blue eyes stared straight at Kyle.

After moving his lips several times, Kyle finally spoke.

"Just once is enough. Only once..."

[...]

"I want to see my people. I want to see everyone I failed to protect just one more time..."

[That is impossible.]

"Why?"

[Turning back time that has already passed goes directly against the order of the world.]

"Why?"

[Not even I can escape the laws of this world.]

"Then why?"

Why, why, why.

The dam built deep inside his heart collapsed in an instant.

The thick emotions he had kept tightly sealed away poured out like a waterfall.

Not knowing whether he was dead or alive, Kyle unleashed his cry before the white Dragon.

"Why am I the only one who has to hurt like this? Why am I the only one who has to suffer like this?"

[...]

"Why are those bastards living perfectly fine while everyone I loved had to die? Was that fate too? An unavoidable destiny? Are you telling me to accept that fucking reality? Then telling me not to give up?"

[You...]

"Why...!"

Kyle reached out.

Not toward the white Dragon before him, but toward the endless gray sky far away.

"I hope they all die. I hope they suffer as much as I did."

[...]

"As much as they took from me, I hope I take from them. I hope they see the limbs of the people they cherish torn apart before their eyes, and hear cries filled with despair."

Prisia did not answer.

She only remained silent.

The tears Kyle had hidden for years streamed down his face and fell onto the floor flooded with blood.

"To everything that stole the people I loved from me..."

His arm stretched high toward the sky trembled faintly.

Yet it could not reach.

Human hands were too small to touch that infinite sky.

Prisia was different.

The head of the enormous white Dragon, her endlessly clear blue eyes, and her firmly closed mouth touched Kyle's forehead.

[As you wish.]

A low woman's voice resonated in his mind.

Kyle's vision turned white.

[All will be fulfilled.]

* * *

After Cassius Mortein departed on Ksalak, his Wyvern, the two wyvern knights left behind began cleaning up the area where the battle had taken place.

"Is he really dead?"

"For certain. His breathing stopped."

"What a tiresome bastard."

Spit.

One wyvern knight spat on Kyle's back with a disgusted expression.

The area where Cassius and Kyle had fought was still thick with the lingering traces of intense mana.

The snow-covered forest, neatly cleaved in the distance, and fragments of Illusion Magic that remained behind.

At the end of it all, only one corpse lay on the ground.

"Let's clean this up quickly and leave. If we delay any longer, the Chevaliers will show up in a swarm."

"True. We came in too deep."

"If Damien had not died..."

"That is already over. Well, he does not seem to have much on him. Did he deliberately hand everything over to the imperial princess?"

Even so, now that Cassius had moved personally, it was only a matter of time before she was caught.

With irritation written across their faces, the wyvern knights searched Kyle's leather armor now that his cloak was gone.

"The Commander took his sword, and he does not have an Inventory Pouch."

"..."

"Did they not say he had the Dragon Heart?"

"It must be with the imperial princess. Wait. There is something inside here."

"What is it?"

One wyvern knight pulled something from inside Kyle's leather coat.

At the end of what looked like a necklace chain, there was only an empty setting that seemed meant to hold a gem.

Nothing was there.

Only a silver chain remained.

"Nothing worth seeing. Is that all?"

"Looks like it."

"Burn him and bury him quickly. Do not leave any traces. I'll keep watch."

The wyvern knight with a bored expression sighed and walked toward where his Wyvern waited.

Then, without warning, a sharp cutting sound rang out.

A beat later came the sound of blood dripping onto the ground.

"Vito?"

"..."

"I told you to burn him, not cut off his head. It will be a hassle if you leave even a trace..."

The wyvern knight who had just turned around froze.

So did the Wyverns belonging to Vito and the surviving knight.

Where Blue Wolf's corpse had lain only moments before, Vito's severed head rolled across the ground with its eyes wide open.

His sword had been taken from him.

"You..."

Grrrrr.

The surviving wyvern knight and the two Wyverns recoiled.

The black-haired knight whose breathing had stopped only moments ago slowly rose from the pool of blood.

How?

The wyvern knight instinctively gripped the hilt at his waist.

The two Wyverns watched the black-haired knight with bloodshot eyes.

Kyle had already fully straightened both legs.

With the stolen sword's blade hanging downward, he raised it before his face.

Drip, drip.

Purple thorns fell away from the skin of his hands, neck, and body.

From the places where his skin had split open, white mana flowed like tangled threads.

That was not human mana.

Something more primordial.

The source of power that had existed since the beginning.

The surviving wyvern knight instinctively stepped back.

The two remaining Wyverns did the same.

Pure white flames rose along the lowered blade.

Within Kyle's black hair, the pupils of his white eyes split vertically.

Footnotes:

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