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sutepringl this one's a bit rushed. I'm going to be out of town this Wednesday, so I wanted to have the next translation up before I left. WE'LL FIX IT IN POST.
[Content Notes]
[Disclaimer]
Canzonetta of the Unforgiven | The Transgressor | Part 3/4
The fingers tightened. The katana swung down.
A sudden and absurd death drew mercilessly near.
"No, I don't . . . Not like this . . No . . . !"
Even these words of refusal evaporated in the face of suffocation.
The flow of her blood was hindered along with her breath, and her vision rapidly darkened. Within the darkness, the naked blade alone shone vividly as it fell.
No. Absolutely NOT.
That thought alone remained.
She would not accept it. She would not comply. Pure and absolute refusal. Defiance of fate. She repeated this one thought like an incantation, over and over again. That was the one thing she could do.
NO. NO. NO, NO, NONONO . . .
ABSOLUTELY . . . . ABSOLUTELY NOT!
NO . . . . . . !!
. . . . . .
There was no sound. No flash of light.
Yet something burst out and spread.
Something, somewhere . . . was suffused with an invisible color. If that color were regarded as an impurity, then one could say without a doubt that Pacifica effected an irrevocable contamination.
The falling katana. It . . . miraculously halted a hairsbreadth from Pacifica's brow.
"Pacifi . . . ca . . . ?" Shannon whispered dazedly.
At that same moment, Raquel yanked her hands away from her little sister. She stared aghast at her own fingers.
The others, too, blinked their eyes as though waking from a dream.
The events that had just taken place were likely beyond their comprehension. They were beyond all comprehension.
"You're . . . You're back, right? Back to your old selves?" Pacifica asked with pleading eyes.
Shannon somehow managed to give her a nod, and then he turned to look back at the mass of flesh that lingered in the street.
He had no idea what means the monster had employed, but that thing had tried to force him to kill Pacifica. With his very own two hands . . . he had been about to kill the little sister that he was meant to protect.
"Goddamn you--!"
Verily . . .
Shannon's voice seethed with rage, but the countless faces ignored him and spoke in a cruelly decisive manner.
Pacifica Casull . . . Verily thou art the one?
Countless human-faced boils glared at Pacifica.
The next moment, dozens of tentacles shot out at Pacifica as one.
She had nothing to protect her. Miðgarðr had been dispelled when Raquel was taken over. Shannon and Safir instantly struck with their weapons, but . . .
"Pacifica--!" Winia screamed.
There were too many of them. One managed to slip past Shannon and Safir's defense, and it reached out for Pacifica's face, moving too quickly for her to dodge.
However.
Surprisingly, the tentacle froze in mid-air, before it could reach Pacifica.
Ngh--
The voice held both bewilderment and irritation.
. . . Verily, verily thou art . . .
Just as though it feared Pacifica's very being, the tentacle trembled. Its mere touch granted it complete mastery over living beings, it had power over life and death . . . When wielded against a living being, its power could well be called absolute, and yet before this one girl, the tentacle could only waver helplessly.
"It held back?"
"No . . ." Shannon shook his head at Chris's words.
It was not that the tentacle had held itself back. It was a baseless intuition, but Shannon suspected that it had been forced back. He had no idea why that should be, though.
Now that he thought about it, why . . . why had the monster gone to all the trouble of trying to force Shannon and the others to kill Pacifica? Surely it should have had no difficulty killing her itself.
"Pacifica, you . . ."
"Eh? Eh?"
The girl in question was in a state of utter confusion and seemed not to have the slightest idea what had happened. However . . .
". . . Impressive," a girl murmured as she looked down on the town.
Her sky-blue hair fell all the way to her feet, and in it she wore a purple bow. She was dressed in clothes reminiscent of a military uniform, and strangely enough, she was floating in the sky high above the town of Taurus.
Even using magic, one cannot reach such high altitudes. She floated in the heavens above, where the air is too thin even to fill a bird's fluttering wings. While a human would stifle and suffer an agonizing death at such a height . . . this girl was perfectly composed.
She, too, was a being beyond humanity, who had taken human form.
"Thine opponent may have been a relay vessel1, but even so, it is commendable that a human should take a stand against a Peacemaker . . . no, against Divine Decree."
If the name she had given to Shannon was true, then she was called Arffi.
She was an enigmatic being who took the form of a young girl. Her face and figure were extraordinarily beautiful, but her expression held a stiffness reminiscent of a man-made object. She was lovely and well-groomed but also strangely cold.
"I would expect no less from the deadly poison that will destroy the world . . . I would expect no less from the last hope our master bequeathed us."
Arffi nodded in apparent satisfaction.
". . . Be that as it may, ye must destroy that vessel with your own hands. Because I am using a human form as my base model2, I cannot interfere."
. . . If it be so, spoke the countless human-faced-boils, then I shall destroy all who would align with thee . . . and when none remain that may protect thee, thy future will here come to ruins.
Countless tentacles burst forth.
Shannon, Raquel, and Safir (who were all accustomed to fighting) were able to evade them instantly, or else to knock them to the ground, but . . .
The tentacle drew nearer.
Petrified with fear, Winia could see--there on its tip--a tiny face. She . . . recognized it as a Purger's face.
Its expression held neither pain nor sadness.
It held only radiant joy.
And then, it entreated her.
. . . Come now, join with us.
. . . Come now, let us be one, and escape from pain and sadness.
But Winia screamed and shrank back.
That was not happiness. She had no need for such happiness. It was the same as death. Feeling pain enabled people to strive. Feeling sadness made them kind.
If they lost the ability to feel those things, if they ran away from them, humanity would cease to be.
However, the tentacle--which would absorb her and force her to fuse with the mass whether she wanted it or not--stretched out toward her.
Right at the moment that loathsomely undulating cord of flesh was about to touch her cheek . . .
"Whoa, there."
A single, whirling gust of wind severed the tentacle and sent it flying.
In the next moment, the whirlwind turned back into a staff and landed in Chris's hand. While it may have been a staff, when wielded with sufficient swiftness and acuity, its attacks became slashes.
"You . . ."
Winia found the fact that she had been protected far more astonishing than the technique employed in doing so, and she stared at Chris.
"Get indoors, now. Civilians will only be in the way," Chris said, using the staff to crush the tentacle's fallen remains.
"O Wall, hinder!"
After confirming that Miðgarðr's glittering geometric patterns had encircled the Wild Horse, Raquel turned her attention to the mass of flesh.
It was a literal monster whose cuts and burns regenerated instantly. However, Raquel happened to know of two methods to destroy it.
One was to hammer away at the creature until the damage overtook its regenerative abilities. Even the strongest regenerative ability has its limits. However, she did not know whether they could last long enough to do the damage necessary to reach those limits.
If she wanted to ensure success, she would likely need to employ another means. Namely, she would have to destroy the entire organism within a very short time, without allowing it any time to regenerate.
And Raquel had one spell capable of such a thing. A spell that was literally destructive, and not merely intended to defeat the enemy . . . a military-grade offensive spell for complete annihilation.
However . . .
"If only we had another mage . . ."
The complete annihilation offensive spell Fenrir . . . Just like Ragnarök, it utilizes an extraordinarily advanced and high-capacity casting ritual, and as such, it is not a spell that can be activated by just one person.
Of course, Raquel could activate the spell if she joined forces with Shannon. However, as one might expect, she did not possess the mental capacity to maintain Miðgarðr while she did so.
Additionally, as Fenrir is a military-grade spell primarily used against crowds, it is not launched against a particular target but is rather directed at an area that includes the target. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a target area to be annihilated just before the spell is activated, but . . . it comes to naught if the enemy moves away from it.
In other words, while Raquel and Shannon dedicated their full attention to activating the spell, they would need others to prevent the enemy from moving and protect the Wild Horse at the same time.
"You need a mage? In that case . . . perhaps you ought to ask them."
Chris used the end of his staff to point toward the Wild Horse, and the group of men who were walking out of it.
They were all dressed in ordinary clothes, but . . .
"We'll lend you a hand," one of them said.
Naturally, neither Shannon nor Raquel knew their true identities, but . . . it appeared that Chris had recognized them long ago. They were the Black Hawk soldiers who had infiltrated the town.
"We'll be going off-mission, but . . . we aren't looking to die such senseless deaths either."
"Don't tell me it was you bastards--"
Shannon furrowed his brow and moved to step closer to the men, but Raquel tugged at his cloak. When her younger brother threw her a disgruntled look over his shoulder, Raquel shook her head at him.
Making clear-cut decisions quickly was her strong point. Though this did result in her being--to borrow Shannon's turn of phrase--unprincipled.
"We appreciate your help," Raquel said, and the men nodded in reply.
---
[Next] [Previous]
Notes:
1) The text has yorishiro (依代). Back
2) The text has sotai (素体). Back
A note about Galil's and Zephy's speech patterns: they both use archaic pronouns, conjugations, phrasings, etc., but not exclusively. So I don't use strict verb agreement with the archaic pronouns in English (which was apparently accepted in the familiar form, at least).
I dunno. I'm not a linguist, and even if I were, I don't think I'd want to load the text with -eths and -ests anyway, just for the sake of flow. So I'm going by ear and sprinkling just enough archaisms to mimic the flavor. Obviously I could change my mind about this in a month or two, aha.
ON AN ENTIRELY UNRELATED NOTE: I just now realized that Chris uses a trick weapon, which is kind of funny seeing as he doesn't even have his halberd in this section.
[Content Notes]
[Disclaimer]
Canzonetta of the Unforgiven | The Transgressor | Part 3/4
The fingers tightened. The katana swung down.
A sudden and absurd death drew mercilessly near.
"No, I don't . . . Not like this . . No . . . !"
Even these words of refusal evaporated in the face of suffocation.
The flow of her blood was hindered along with her breath, and her vision rapidly darkened. Within the darkness, the naked blade alone shone vividly as it fell.
No. Absolutely NOT.
That thought alone remained.
She would not accept it. She would not comply. Pure and absolute refusal. Defiance of fate. She repeated this one thought like an incantation, over and over again. That was the one thing she could do.
NO. NO. NO, NO, NONONO . . .
ABSOLUTELY . . . . ABSOLUTELY NOT!
NO . . . . . . !!
. . . . . .
There was no sound. No flash of light.
Yet something burst out and spread.
Something, somewhere . . . was suffused with an invisible color. If that color were regarded as an impurity, then one could say without a doubt that Pacifica effected an irrevocable contamination.
The falling katana. It . . . miraculously halted a hairsbreadth from Pacifica's brow.
"Pacifi . . . ca . . . ?" Shannon whispered dazedly.
At that same moment, Raquel yanked her hands away from her little sister. She stared aghast at her own fingers.
The others, too, blinked their eyes as though waking from a dream.
The events that had just taken place were likely beyond their comprehension. They were beyond all comprehension.
"You're . . . You're back, right? Back to your old selves?" Pacifica asked with pleading eyes.
Shannon somehow managed to give her a nod, and then he turned to look back at the mass of flesh that lingered in the street.
He had no idea what means the monster had employed, but that thing had tried to force him to kill Pacifica. With his very own two hands . . . he had been about to kill the little sister that he was meant to protect.
"Goddamn you--!"
Verily . . .
Shannon's voice seethed with rage, but the countless faces ignored him and spoke in a cruelly decisive manner.
Pacifica Casull . . . Verily thou art the one?
Countless human-faced boils glared at Pacifica.
The next moment, dozens of tentacles shot out at Pacifica as one.
She had nothing to protect her. Miðgarðr had been dispelled when Raquel was taken over. Shannon and Safir instantly struck with their weapons, but . . .
"Pacifica--!" Winia screamed.
There were too many of them. One managed to slip past Shannon and Safir's defense, and it reached out for Pacifica's face, moving too quickly for her to dodge.
However.
Surprisingly, the tentacle froze in mid-air, before it could reach Pacifica.
Ngh--
The voice held both bewilderment and irritation.
. . . Verily, verily thou art . . .
Just as though it feared Pacifica's very being, the tentacle trembled. Its mere touch granted it complete mastery over living beings, it had power over life and death . . . When wielded against a living being, its power could well be called absolute, and yet before this one girl, the tentacle could only waver helplessly.
"It held back?"
"No . . ." Shannon shook his head at Chris's words.
It was not that the tentacle had held itself back. It was a baseless intuition, but Shannon suspected that it had been forced back. He had no idea why that should be, though.
Now that he thought about it, why . . . why had the monster gone to all the trouble of trying to force Shannon and the others to kill Pacifica? Surely it should have had no difficulty killing her itself.
"Pacifica, you . . ."
"Eh? Eh?"
The girl in question was in a state of utter confusion and seemed not to have the slightest idea what had happened. However . . .
". . . Impressive," a girl murmured as she looked down on the town.
Her sky-blue hair fell all the way to her feet, and in it she wore a purple bow. She was dressed in clothes reminiscent of a military uniform, and strangely enough, she was floating in the sky high above the town of Taurus.
Even using magic, one cannot reach such high altitudes. She floated in the heavens above, where the air is too thin even to fill a bird's fluttering wings. While a human would stifle and suffer an agonizing death at such a height . . . this girl was perfectly composed.
She, too, was a being beyond humanity, who had taken human form.
"Thine opponent may have been a relay vessel1, but even so, it is commendable that a human should take a stand against a Peacemaker . . . no, against Divine Decree."
If the name she had given to Shannon was true, then she was called Arffi.
She was an enigmatic being who took the form of a young girl. Her face and figure were extraordinarily beautiful, but her expression held a stiffness reminiscent of a man-made object. She was lovely and well-groomed but also strangely cold.
"I would expect no less from the deadly poison that will destroy the world . . . I would expect no less from the last hope our master bequeathed us."
Arffi nodded in apparent satisfaction.
". . . Be that as it may, ye must destroy that vessel with your own hands. Because I am using a human form as my base model2, I cannot interfere."
. . . If it be so, spoke the countless human-faced-boils, then I shall destroy all who would align with thee . . . and when none remain that may protect thee, thy future will here come to ruins.
Countless tentacles burst forth.
Shannon, Raquel, and Safir (who were all accustomed to fighting) were able to evade them instantly, or else to knock them to the ground, but . . .
The tentacle drew nearer.
Petrified with fear, Winia could see--there on its tip--a tiny face. She . . . recognized it as a Purger's face.
Its expression held neither pain nor sadness.
It held only radiant joy.
And then, it entreated her.
. . . Come now, join with us.
. . . Come now, let us be one, and escape from pain and sadness.
But Winia screamed and shrank back.
That was not happiness. She had no need for such happiness. It was the same as death. Feeling pain enabled people to strive. Feeling sadness made them kind.
If they lost the ability to feel those things, if they ran away from them, humanity would cease to be.
However, the tentacle--which would absorb her and force her to fuse with the mass whether she wanted it or not--stretched out toward her.
Right at the moment that loathsomely undulating cord of flesh was about to touch her cheek . . .
"Whoa, there."
A single, whirling gust of wind severed the tentacle and sent it flying.
In the next moment, the whirlwind turned back into a staff and landed in Chris's hand. While it may have been a staff, when wielded with sufficient swiftness and acuity, its attacks became slashes.
"You . . ."
Winia found the fact that she had been protected far more astonishing than the technique employed in doing so, and she stared at Chris.
"Get indoors, now. Civilians will only be in the way," Chris said, using the staff to crush the tentacle's fallen remains.
"O Wall, hinder!"
After confirming that Miðgarðr's glittering geometric patterns had encircled the Wild Horse, Raquel turned her attention to the mass of flesh.
It was a literal monster whose cuts and burns regenerated instantly. However, Raquel happened to know of two methods to destroy it.
One was to hammer away at the creature until the damage overtook its regenerative abilities. Even the strongest regenerative ability has its limits. However, she did not know whether they could last long enough to do the damage necessary to reach those limits.
If she wanted to ensure success, she would likely need to employ another means. Namely, she would have to destroy the entire organism within a very short time, without allowing it any time to regenerate.
And Raquel had one spell capable of such a thing. A spell that was literally destructive, and not merely intended to defeat the enemy . . . a military-grade offensive spell for complete annihilation.
However . . .
"If only we had another mage . . ."
The complete annihilation offensive spell Fenrir . . . Just like Ragnarök, it utilizes an extraordinarily advanced and high-capacity casting ritual, and as such, it is not a spell that can be activated by just one person.
Of course, Raquel could activate the spell if she joined forces with Shannon. However, as one might expect, she did not possess the mental capacity to maintain Miðgarðr while she did so.
Additionally, as Fenrir is a military-grade spell primarily used against crowds, it is not launched against a particular target but is rather directed at an area that includes the target. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a target area to be annihilated just before the spell is activated, but . . . it comes to naught if the enemy moves away from it.
In other words, while Raquel and Shannon dedicated their full attention to activating the spell, they would need others to prevent the enemy from moving and protect the Wild Horse at the same time.
"You need a mage? In that case . . . perhaps you ought to ask them."
Chris used the end of his staff to point toward the Wild Horse, and the group of men who were walking out of it.
They were all dressed in ordinary clothes, but . . .
"We'll lend you a hand," one of them said.
Naturally, neither Shannon nor Raquel knew their true identities, but . . . it appeared that Chris had recognized them long ago. They were the Black Hawk soldiers who had infiltrated the town.
"We'll be going off-mission, but . . . we aren't looking to die such senseless deaths either."
"Don't tell me it was you bastards--"
Shannon furrowed his brow and moved to step closer to the men, but Raquel tugged at his cloak. When her younger brother threw her a disgruntled look over his shoulder, Raquel shook her head at him.
Making clear-cut decisions quickly was her strong point. Though this did result in her being--to borrow Shannon's turn of phrase--unprincipled.
"We appreciate your help," Raquel said, and the men nodded in reply.
---
[Next] [Previous]
Notes:
1) The text has yorishiro (依代). Back
2) The text has sotai (素体). Back
A note about Galil's and Zephy's speech patterns: they both use archaic pronouns, conjugations, phrasings, etc., but not exclusively. So I don't use strict verb agreement with the archaic pronouns in English (which was apparently accepted in the familiar form, at least).
I dunno. I'm not a linguist, and even if I were, I don't think I'd want to load the text with -eths and -ests anyway, just for the sake of flow. So I'm going by ear and sprinkling just enough archaisms to mimic the flavor. Obviously I could change my mind about this in a month or two, aha.
ON AN ENTIRELY UNRELATED NOTE: I just now realized that Chris uses a trick weapon, which is kind of funny seeing as he doesn't even have his halberd in this section.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-12 03:59 pm (UTC)Thanks so much. What a treat to see this post of yours.
Boy, am I glad you didn't stop at this line in the last post, that would be absolute worse cliff!
"Within the darkness, the naked blade alone shone vividly as it fell."
Pacifica is a true fighter in her own way, never gave up.
Chris was as cool cucumber when he rescued Winia - I'd say that's my favorite scene in this portion.
"I just now realized that Chris uses a trick weapon ..."
It's cool you pointed that out, I assume he was using his usual.
Btw, I'd read the 1st volume of "Coffin Princess" - cool characters, the story is full of intrigue, strong fighters. There are parts of it I can live without, I'd watch the anime (available on Crunchyroll) and continue with volume 2 to see how the mission goes :)
no subject
Date: 2015-10-12 09:57 pm (UTC)Haha, yeah. Don't worry, I always end on pre-existing section breaks.
so any cliffhangers are purely sensei's faultOh, in re: Chris's weapon, I meant that his halberd could totally fit in as a trick weapon, given the way it transforms. (I've been playing Bloodborne whenever I get the chance.) That said, it took me a little while to remember that he was using a different weapon in this section too--I completely forgot about Shannon's destroying his halberd with Sanctified Blade.
I definitely want to watch Coffin Princess. Thanks for the reminder. I've heard a few other people talking about it, and it sounds like my kind of series. No surprise there, I guess.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 05:22 am (UTC)Have a good trip.