Chapter 83: What I Lost, What You Lost (End)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 83: What I Lost, What You Lost (End)
It was a sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Actually, perhaps it hadn’t been that long.
Lilac thought as much while raising the White Rose Sword in his hand.
He could recall, with natural ease, how a sword should be handled and how to utilize the talent that formed his very foundation.
It was the sensation of his hand reaching a wall that had once seemed utterly unreachable.
And it was the sensation of being able to move beyond that wall without even having to break it.
Because this power had aided him, he had parted the flames of hell and cut through the toxicity of solitude.
A sense of omnipotence, as if he could do anything, swirled pleasantly through his entire body.
“Here I come.”
In a way, one could call it cowardly since this wasn’t his own strength, but his opponent was clearly not someone he could afford to hold back against.
Lilac knew well that choosing one’s methods based on “fairness” against an opponent stronger than oneself wasn’t being just—it was an act of looking down on them.
[Impressive.]
His body felt light.
His movements were free.
A simple swing of his sword now contained profound principles he could never grasp before, and the light of the Holy Sword made them shine even brighter.
The sensation of the world becoming vivid soon manifested as the optimal path for his blade.
[I knew you were a talented boy, but to think you’ve adapted to movements that transcend the wall in a single instant.]
She watched him with a relaxed, pleased attitude, as if observing a young child riding a bicycle for the first time.
As if this level of skill was still not enough.
[Transcending the wall and perfectly mastering what lies beyond it are two different stories. Well, perhaps it’s fine to dabble in it early, since it’s a realm you’ll reach eventually.]
The first move.
She effortlessly deflected the slash he had unleashed by concentrating all his controllable power into a single point.
If his movement was linear, hers was circular.
In this first exchange, Lilac—the boy with the highest tier of talent in this world—had to realize an undeniable truth.
Even now, having transcended the wall through reinforcement, he was still far below her level.
“Phew…!”
However, that was no reason to give up the fight he had started, nor was it a reason to break his will.
[Good. Yes, very good. A child with an upright spirit like yours is valuable in and of itself.]
“Can you really afford to focus only on him?”
Hmm?
She turned her head, looking slightly surprised.
A boy holding golden lightning in his hand was in a javelin-throwing stance.
Thunder Transformation.
The Thunder Dragon Spear transformed into lightning and was fired to pierce the enemy.
She was surprised, but not to the point of panic.
It was a highly accurate and powerful strike, but ultimately, it meant nothing if it didn’t hit.
And for her, dodging lightning was not a difficult task.
The reason she was slightly surprised was simply due to a level of skill that didn’t match his age, and because the boys’ performance was vastly different from what they had shown before the other boy had “revived.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Thus, her true panic came in the next moment.
Just as she tried to move her body to dodge, iron bars appeared out of nowhere and imprisoned her.
She tried to break them and escape, but the cage didn’t budge even slightly under a light strike, regardless of what it was made of.
Aha.
So this is the Ruyi Jingu Bang.
Come to think of it, she remembered “her” warning her to be careful of it.
It was an excellent judgment.
If it had looked incredibly sturdy, she would have used her full strength, but she had been deceived by its plain, weathered appearance and applied too little force.
Of course, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t escape if she wanted to, but the one second he had bought was by no means a short time in a battle between superhumans.
Lightning from the front, the light of the Holy Sword from behind.
[Splendid.]
Even though it was a fight against many, she had to admit she had looked down on the boys too much.
The lightning and the light of the Holy Sword struck her directly.
* * *
What is this?
Honestly, at first, I thought an enhanced Lilac would be enough to suppress her easily.
If she was the person I was thinking of—that is, my friend who is likely the Creator of this world—she wouldn’t have set herself up as such a “Mary Sue” character.
I thought the limit of his power would be intervention using “OO,” that black thing.
The smoke cleared beyond the iron bars, revealing the face behind the mask.
…Who are you?
Well, I mean.
It’s not entirely impossible that she’s my friend.
It’s just, how should I put it?
That face just isn’t his type.
Red hair and red eyes. It’s a combination that easily looks sharp and aggressive, but perhaps because she was smiling so benevolently, she looked gentle.
“I’m surprised. I’ll admit it. I didn’t expect three boys who haven’t even crossed the wall yet to show this level of cooperation.”
Her attitude suggested she wasn’t surprised at all, but I felt she was being sincere.
“However, breaking my mask was a bad move. I’m a bit of a defective product, so without this, it’s hard for me to control myself.”
This made it certain.
It seemed she was indeed a character who didn’t appear in the original work, but she wasn’t my friend either.
Was she someone who popped out of a gap in the settings, or just a character who hadn’t been written into the Setting Book?
I wasn’t sure, but I felt a sense of danger.
Grin.
A smile spread across her previously expressionless face.
“Ah, as I thought, I can’t control it well without the mask. I should hold it back, but I can’t stop laughing.”
Heh. Kehe… Hehehe.
The smile soon turned into a twisted, mad laugh, and insanity swirled in her eyes.
Was this the same person from a moment ago?
The woman, who had been somewhat emotionless and benevolent, was being swallowed bit by bit by her own madness.
She raised her fist.
Thump.
Wait?
I didn’t know why, but I had a premonition that the talent she was about to use was extremely dangerous.
“Lilac…! Get your shield up! Block it, now…!”
I shouted the moment the premonition hit me.
Lilac, looking confused, hurriedly brought up his shield and coated it with the light of the Holy Sword.
Something red.
Cheon Yu-hak, who had rushed over at my urgent cry, stood beside Lilac.
It gathered at her fist.
The Protective Aura Cheon Yu-hak crafted from mana and Lilac’s Holy Sword light formed a double-layered barrier.
It was blood.
At the same time, it was the Source, one of the fundamental elements that made up the world.
It wasn’t enough. I was certain that the barriers of two boys who hadn’t fully blossomed yet could never block that.
I felt like I vaguely knew what her talent was.
Blood was merely a symbolic, visual element.
That thing was life itself.
“Ruyi…!”
Synchronization.
Now was not the time to worry about the aftermath.
If we didn’t block this strike right now, we would die. There was no point in saving my trump cards only to end up dead.
She threw a punch without even taking a proper stance.
But that was only because a stance was truly unnecessary.
There were only a handful of people in the entire world who could stop that overflowing torrent of red.
The dominance over my body shifted, and Sun Wukong, who took over, widened her eyes.
As if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.
— What a twisted existence.
First, the light of the Holy Sword shattered completely, scattering into the air.
“…Ugh…!?”
Next, Cheon Yu-hak’s Protective Aura exploded.
“…Kuh…!?”
Since the two boys collapsed without being able to offer any resistance, only I—and Sun Wukong—remained.
Sun Wukong used my talent without hesitation, consuming my Innate True Qi.
It was as if he couldn’t even dream of blocking the attack otherwise.
The Ruyi staff, in its most familiar rod form, swung in an arc.
A single strike couldn’t diminish the momentum of the overflowing torrent of life even slightly.
But the strike didn’t end as just a single strike.
Lines connected to form planes, and planes linked to form a veil.
The torrent, which hadn’t wavered after ten or twenty hits, began to lose its momentum by the time the rod had been swung over a hundred times. By the time it surpassed three hundred, it finally began to change direction.
My hands hurt.
My throat felt like it was burning.
It was an attack that would have devastated the entire surrounding area if there had been even the slightest mistake.
How much time had passed?
A thousand times.
Only after Sun Wukong, the strongest of a certain tale, showcased her artistry and swung the rod a thousand times did the red light finally veer upward and soar into the sky.
“Insane.”
— I’m sorry. This is my limit.
And Sun Wukong, having reached her limit, swapped control back to me.
My whole body throbbed from blocking just that one attack.
Yet, the red woman in front of me, still full of laughter, raised her fist again as if that strike had been nothing.
Her madness-tinged interest turned toward us.
I suppose she never even imagined we would be able to block it.
What stood before us was something we simply couldn’t handle.
“Anpanman! A new face!”
Until someone said that and placed a new mask on her face.
[Ah, dear me.]
Immediately after the mask was put on, the madness enveloping her began to recede instantly.
[I went too far. My mistake.]
I’d been thinking this for a while, but uncontrollable madness, a mask, and the ability to manipulate something that looks like blood…
If the “me” from back then had seen her, he would have been obsessed with this character.
Actually, even now, my heart was wavering a bit.
She’s damn cool.
An absolute being with a leash, a concept character with some kind of restriction—that’s exactly the kind of character I like.
Even I thought it was a crazy thought. What was I thinking, looking at an opponent who almost killed me just now?
She slowly picked up the unconscious former Leader of the Twelve.
The person who had appeared for a split second to put the mask on her had already vanished, and she hesitated for a moment as if something was bothering her.
[Actually, I wasn’t originally a person designed this way.]
What kind of nonsense is this all of a sudden?
Since Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak were unconscious, she was likely talking to me, but it was so out of the blue that I couldn’t understand.
[To be precise, it’s more accurate to see me as a defective product, downgraded from what was originally designed.]
…What? Is this “teabagging”? Are you saying we lost to a “defective product”?
[She told me. The role I’ve been given this time is the scattered ‘Omnipotence,’ and that such a setting had to be attached to forcibly bring me from another world.]
What did she just say? Another world?
[So, I heard that I am currently an existence related to you rather than her.]
Wait.
Something in my memory…
A part that hadn’t surfaced due to noise began to clear up bit by bit, like fog lifting.
— This wasn’t in the plan.
— It’s necessary for OO.
My head hurt.
I felt like I might pass out at any moment.
— What have you done?
— Why? Is there a law that says Lilac has to be the pro-OO-gonist?
When was this memory from, and who was I talking to?
— Hey, let’s stop this.
— Stop? Stop what? Do you know what I’ve sacrificed to get this far? And you want to stop?
Right, it was wrong from the very beginning.
It wasn’t something that should have been done.
— Yeah, that’s why we have to fix it. Even now.
— According to whose wishes?
We glared fiercely at each other.
— According to mine, you bitch.
The consciousness that had reached that point sank back into darkness.
[I’d like to take you with me if possible, but an interloper has interfered. I haven’t been permitted to fight her yet, so I’ll see you next time.]
The last thing I heard was that incomprehensible voice.
* * *
“I don’t remember a thing…”
Stupidly enough, what I realized after waking up was that I couldn’t remember anything.
No, I remember fighting, saving Professor Cathy, and the appearance of a character I didn’t know afterward.
The parts I couldn’t remember were entirely different things.
— Do you truly not remember anything?
Sun Wukong asked, but what’s forgotten is forgotten.
Ever since I fell into this world, there had been noise in my memories.
It didn’t interfere with daily life, and I wasn’t sure exactly what I couldn’t recall, but this time, that noise had briefly thinned.
Yet, I couldn’t remember at all what I had seen beyond that noise or what action had triggered it.
I felt like I had heard something, but what could it have been?
I felt like I could remember if I tried hard enough.
But whenever I did, the thing nestled in my heart would squirm and interfere.
“…This thing.”
Tsk.
My concentration broke.
Since this was a private room, I could have focused again if I wanted to, but I didn’t feel like it.
And based on my experience so far, an uninvited guest would surely arrive soon.
Slide—
Oh, the classic Academy Transmigrator trait. Premonitions are usually right.
The guest was Professor Cathy.
I tried to greet her lightly, but the atmosphere around her was unusual.
The face that always wore a bright smile, the emerald eyes that shone with confidence—they were devoid of light.
…Wait, was she brainwashed again…?
The moment I thought that.
“Sob.”
She let out a sob and suddenly pulled me into a tight hug.
Well, considering this incident alone, it wasn’t an unusual reaction.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m okay.”
Actually, it wasn’t really okay. I got “donuted” with a hole in my stomach, and I ended up having to grow some weird sludge in my heart to break her brainwashing.
Even so, I didn’t particularly resent her.
…I had a reasonable suspicion that I might be more obsessed with women than I thought, but this feeling wasn’t like that.
It was just that the fact she was safe felt like confirmation that things were heading in a good direction.
I was just happy because of that.
When I lightly stroked her hair, she pressed her body even closer to mine.
Come to think of it, I heard women actually hate it when people touch their hair. Is this okay?
“More.”
“Pardon?”
“Stroke it more.”
Looking up at me, her eyes held a strange heat and longing.
Um… you’re not saying something suggestive, are you, Professor…?
Well, I couldn’t just stay like this, so I raised my hand again to stroke her hair.
Behind the door that slid open.
“Oh.”
“…Ah.”
If only the rest of the group, including Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak in their hospital gowns, hadn’t all arrived at once.
“…Pardon our intrusion.”
“Sorry, So-hyun.”
For what? My conscience is clear. It’s not like that, you punks.
Well, I might not be able to say it’s entirely not like that, but anyway, this is unfair.