Chapter 143
Chapter 143
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 143
Chapter Title: Weeping Corruption
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‘Corruption? Me?’
Nonsense.
The devil’s temptation.
A sophistry born of vile malice.
He couldn’t accept it.
He mustn’t accept it.
That he had fallen into corruption.
That he was the same as the monster before his eyes?
It was utter bullshit.
“Bullshit.”
[Corruption comes to all. You humans too. Even those lofty dragons. And the gods as well.]
Everyone falls.
Corruption is equal.
It happens by one’s own will.
Or by the interference of others.
[You who rose to end the war—what do you seek now? You who once desired peace—what are you crying out for?]
“…….”
The war had finally reached its end.
The war’s conclusion, piled high with the corpses of countless dragons, demons, and humans.
It was no one’s victory.
Nor anyone’s defeat.
All that remained was innumerable death and destruction.
Amid it all, Titeo cried out.
For revenge.
Against the dragons and demons who started this war.
Against those who brought them suffering.
A cold yet burning revenge.
[You rose to end the war, yet now you seek to start one.]
So then, what is that?
[If not corruption?]
Titeo’s breath stopped.
But the devil’s tongue did not end there.
[And do they know? Even though they sacrificed their lives to protect you, you yourself desired death. How ironic.]
“No….”
Titeo shook his head.
Yet the devil calmly opened its mouth.
[You fell long ago. You simply haven’t realized it yet.]
“No.”
[You want to die but can’t? That’s the real nonsense. Just end your own life—why not? Because of humans’ vulgar notions? To prove your worth? That’s your kind’s trait. Assigning meaning to death.]
But ironically, that’s how you prolong your life.
In the devil’s eyes, Titeo was no different.
[Your corruption sickens those around you and brings death. Amusingly, you’ll weep over it. This is pure corruption, mocking their deaths—what else could it be!]
Realize it. Acknowledge it. Accept it.
[O weeping corruption.]
Titeo staggered back.
His facial muscles twitched irregularly.
Like spasms, he jerked.
He couldn’t refute it.
‘Corruption.’
Have I already fallen?
The noble resolve to end the war with a lofty spirit was gone.
What remained for him was peace in death and vengeance for his comrades.
Yet an impossible gap prolonged his life and caused deaths around him.
If this wasn’t corruption, what was?
Did he even have the right.
‘To grieve their deaths?’
The hand that had raised sword and shield slowly lowered.
The hand gripping the sword had no strength.
His mouth gradually opened.
From the gaping mouth leaked a cracked voice like a groan.
Thud.
His knee hit the ground.
Tears streaming down his cheek dried up.
From his dry eyes flowed blood.
Bloody tears ran down his cheek.
[You have the right to grieve. Who else but you would mourn the deaths of comrades you created?]
Heh heh.
Vile malice hidden in the sneer softly illuminated Titeo.
[Grieve. Corruption is no sin. Even gods fall. How could humans not? Corruption is equal to all things. Think carefully—what made you fall?]
What made the corruption.
The reason he fell.
[You have already fallen.]
The voice kept echoing in his ears. Why?
Titeo couldn’t deny it.
He should have denied it.
Failing to deny it proved his comrades’ deaths were in vain.
Yet he couldn’t.
He just couldn’t.
He had made their deaths that saved him worth less than a dog’s.
“Aaaah….”
A tidal wave of guilt crashed over him.
Self-loathing and contempt.
Somehow, it all directed toward the vast earth and clear sky.
“Why do You give me such trials!! What have I done so wrong! Why!! Why! To me…!”
He had only fought.
Only to save people.
Even a little. Even one more person.
That’s why he took up the sword.
That’s why he advanced with his comrades.
But at some point.
His steps led toward death.
His sword served his own satisfaction.
He knew it was wrong.
Yet he didn’t want to admit it.
He had to deny it.
「Even if it’s true」
Titeo gripped his sword amid tears.
He tightly bound the shield’s strap to his severed wrist.
And vowed.
He didn’t want to make their deaths in vain.
This was atonement, a desperate resolve.
Even if dragons trampled him, even if demons mocked him, he would meet an honorable death.
To give value to his comrades’ deaths, he would reclaim his own honor.
“I will end this war.”
He had fallen, yet he was honorable.
He knew the value of life.
His resolve reached the heavens, growing through years of war and earning renown.
A knight who transcended humanity, slaying dragons and exterminating demons, knowing right from wrong, finding vengeance for comrades and his own worth.
That was Titeo.
He was a knight, and someone’s hero.
* * *
Ruuuumble.
A door opened before Kallias as he opened his eyes.
The door to the 4th floor. He didn’t dwell deeply on what he had just seen.
He descended straight down.
4th floor.
Like the 3rd, the door was engraved with depictions of demons’ cruelty.
He opened it immediately.
“As expected.”
As soon as the door opened, thick demonic energy poured out.
Demonic qi overflowed like a sea full of water.
The 4th floor was the same as before.
Death Knights were there.
Five in total.
And about ten demonkin stood erect.
[What do you take up the sword for?]
[What do you advance for?]
[What is corruption to you?]
The demonkin questioned.
They had gray skin and black-red glowing eyes.
Their questions struck at the roots of humanity, shaking its foundations.
[You have already fallen.]
[No different from us.]
[A corrupted sword.]
It wasn’t mere drivel. Their voices carried meaningful magic.
Mental sorcery.
Voices of corruption.
Even the strongest knight, tempered in body, would fall if they answered even once.
They would lose their sword.
Their goal would waver, resolve shatter, and they’d wander endlessly.
However.
[Resisting mental attack.]
It had little effect on Kallias.
Even as the demonkin spat word after word, Kallias strode forward.
Demonkin stood at both sides, with Death Knights in the center.
The central one held its sword reversed, leaning on the ground, while others wielded swords, shields, spears, and more.
Their presence pressured the entire 4th floor.
The Death Knight’s red glow looked down at Kallias.
[What dwells in your sword?]
The voice was small.
A voice rumbling in his head.
Unlike before, Kallias couldn’t ignore it.
Unlike the chattering ones beside.
The Death Knight’s voice held intent.
It wasn’t crude sorcery.
It was a knight’s question.
“…….”
What dwells in the sword.
Kallias couldn’t answer rashly.
That was the purpose of this journey, after all. What to put in the sword.
To make the sword clearer, sharper.
So he pondered briefly.
[Honor?]
[Wealth?]
[Comrades?]
[Yourself?]
If not that.
[A god?]
Scraaaape. Clank.
The Death Knights parted left and right.
A knight appeared between them.
A Death Knight with spear and shield.
[Titeo’s sword held the deaths of his comrades.]
The Death Knight spoke.
Its words carried will.
Knowing its soul couldn’t leave the dead body, it stood blocking Kallias of its own volition.
The presence in its voice.
Its existence was extraordinary.
[He became a knight by denying the devil’s temptation.]
It was clearly corruption.
He sought to stop the war yet started one himself—what else to call this old hero but fallen?
That’s why all called him devil.
The world deemed him evil and sought his death.
Sought to stop him.
To shatter the conviction, the misguided obsession in his sword.
They criticized, condemned him, and finally broke his sword.
[Weeping Corruption]
But some couldn’t call him evil.
Those who saw his rage. His sorrow.
Those who watched his struggles.
Those who perished protecting Titeo.
Their souls lingered, unable to condemn Titeo’s actions.
Because they knew he truly wept for them.
Even if the tears of sorrow were stained with corruption, the heart within was unchanged.
They stayed by his side.
To restore his honor.
To deliver the honor he sought.
So they asked again.
What dwells in your sword? What does it hold?
Looking at them.
Kallias thought.
‘There’s no perfect clear like on the 2nd floor here.’
No weakness like Bladi’s unbroken shield.
The demonkin would prod Kallias’s wounds with their three-inch tongues, and the skeletal knights who died because of Titeo demanded proof.
Titeo, with his incomplete conviction.
Paradoxically, he despaired at the devil’s whispers and forged a firm conviction.
‘But he fell.’
The flashbacks shown so far explicitly state his conviction was completed, breaking the wall.
But what was the result?
He fell.
So they ask.
Even with that vow and resolve, Titeo despaired again and wept.
Yet you, of all people.
Can you be different?
Can you break him?
That’s what they were asking.
So Kallias answered.
“Nothing dwells in my sword.”
Ecstasy filled the demonkin’s faces.
The Death Knights’ glows wavered.
“That’s why anything can dwell there.”
Be it humanity, dragon, evil.
Or.
A god.
“I am a pilgrim.”
A pilgrim is one who takes the pilgrimage path.
Or one who seeks their sword.
And.
“I am one who seeks my path.”
Fools wander paths, but the wise embark on journeys, it is said.
I am on a journey.
No wandering on my path.
The journey’s end leads to the story’s conclusion.
The pilgrimage is filling the vessel.
So nothing dwells in my sword yet.
I am searching, filling it.
Thus, I can become anything.
[At the end of humanity is a god, at the end of dragons a god, at the end of corruption a god—but at the end of a god is only corruption.]
[Do you face that squarely?]
Kallias nodded.
[Does your path lead to the end?]
“Yes.”
No hesitation.
My desire is singular.
[What lies at that end?]
Kallias raised the corner of his mouth.
I am a pilgrim.
A pilgrim’s end is one.
“My sword.”
Finding his own sword.
That is the meaning of the pilgrimage.
The reason his steps don’t falter.
Whooooosh!!
The presence of those standing on the 4th floor changed.
A gale blew.
[Prove it.]
The knight’s spear aimed at Kallias.
Sword and shield right behind.
Finally, flail and axe stood ready.
Boom!!!!
Their stomping shook the air.
Their iron-wall presence made skin prickle.
But a challenger is, by nature.
One who proves.
Kallias had to prove himself.
Convince them with his sword.
[In your empty sword.]
[That Titeo’s will can dwell.]
Prove it.