WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 388: Lightning Did Not Fall from the Sky - 11

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"What-kind-of-bastard...! Keeps-throwing-this-shit...!"

A beastly roar shook the world. It sounded as though blood were bursting from its throat. That deep, thunderous voice rocked Cloud Waterfall.

Heavy footsteps followed, pounding the ground. It sounded like an elephant stomping. The steps of a single person shook the earth and caused an earthquake.

Everyone flinched in instinctive fear as a huge shadow flickered beyond Cloud Waterfall.

A blood-soaked giant tore through the fog. Even his shaggy hair was drenched in blood, while his pointed, beastlike ears lay flat against his head. Clutching a gleaming white dagger in one hand, he roared in rage and pain.

"Come-out-now! Come out, and I'll-kill-you-easy...!"

Blood-Soaked Lungken.

The world's only remaining boar beastkin. That alone made them exceptional, but they were even more famous for another reason.

They were an Elder.

One of the thirteen vampires to whom the Progenitor had personally given true blood. Among the Elders, they were the toughest and most headlong of them all.

The Elder was nicknamed Blood-Soaked Lungken because they were always covered in blood after a fight, yet they were already drenched in it before the battle had even begun. Hilde's thrown holy sword had probably made them bleed, but the moment they saw the angel clearly, they snorted.

"You-bastard...! An angel...!"

Thud, thud, thud. In just three steps, Lungken kicked off the ground and slammed their shoulder into the angel.

It was a sudden attack, but the angel was smaller than she looked. Dazzled by the lightning, Lungken crashed into the wrong place, passed through the wings of lightning, and rolled across the ground while being electrocuted.

"Argh...! You coward! Fight-me-fairly...!"

They had attacked first and somehow ended up collapsing instead. It was a ridiculous sight that even a third-rate play would never put on. Yet the Thunder Lord, who had been attacked, and the Thunder Guardians watching the scene both held their breath.

Only seconds had passed since they emerged beyond Cloud Waterfall, yet they had already reached this place. If the Thunder Lord had let her guard down, or if Lungken had aimed a little better...

She might have had to take that charge head-on.

The tense Guardians stopped, but they had no time to reform their lines. A young girl's voice came from beyond Cloud Waterfall.

"Hueee. You damned boar! Have those stiff bristles finally pierced your skull and reached your brain? Try using your brain before you move!"

A girl carrying a small doll stepped into view. She wore a flowing black dress and a white frilled headpiece. Every shift in expression showed clearly on her tiny, adorable face.

She looked like a noble girl out for an afternoon stroll, but her true nature was a dreadful thing one could barely bring oneself to name.

Blood Weaver Cabilah.

An Elder and a black mage. The discoverer of blood magic and a seeker of forbidden knowledge. An Elder of sin who had every trait the Sanctum found abhorrent stuffed into that tiny body.

The Elder who had left her mark on history put a hand on her hip and shouted sulkily.

"We came to welcome our elder sister, not because we were short on blood and wanted to go on an expedition! Even if you're a beast, you should at least have enough self-control not to shit wherever you please!"

As the insults poured down, Lungken sprang to their feet and shouted as though they had been wronged.

"Fuck! I didn't charge in for no reason! It was an angel...!"

"Then you should have tightened the net slowly! If you raise your bristles and charge in headfirst, do you think it'll just let you ram it? Are you an idiot? A moron? No, are you blind? You couldn't even hit the angel you were aiming for!"

She stomped her feet as she hurled abuse, yet she looked refreshed instead. It was as though she was delighted to have found an excuse to insult them. As Lungken hesitated, a large hand blocked Cabilah when she was about to gather enough momentum for another remark.

"Enough. Let's think this through."

A young man with a greatsword slung over his shoulder raised a hand to stop Cabilah. She had looked ready to spit insults until the end of the world, but at his single word, she pressed her lips shut.

After a brief silence, the young man stroked his chin in thought.

"I can feel it. The Progenitor is here. We came to welcome the one who will be our beginning and our end. Yet the path the Progenitor will take is crowded."

A massive sword with a blood-red blade. Flaming crimson hair. A pale, cold face that contrasted with that passionate color.

There were quite a few humans with those traits. Restrict the category to vampires, though, and the number dropped dramatically.

If that vampire was an Elder, there was only one person anyone could think of.

The moment his name rose in everyone's mind, he too reached a conclusion.

"Then shouldn't we clear them out?"

The first Elder created by the Progenitor. The duke of the Fog Duchy. Blood Knight. Mountain of Corpses.

Crimson Duke Valdamir.

Three vampire nobles, dreadful creatures who treated humans as prey and whom all humans ought to fear and despise, had come here. One of them was even the Duke of Crimson Blood.

Not only the Thunder Guardians, but even the Thunder Lord grew tense. Who could remain calm before an immortal monster whom the entire world had tried and failed to kill?

As that learned fear hung in the air, Lungken scraped at the ground and shouted happily.

"So we clear out all this trash, Valdamir...!"

"Let's negotiate first. There's no reason to refuse the easier method."

"Ugh..."

With a single sentence, Valdamir made Lungken hold themself back. Pointing directly at the Thunder Lord, he spoke.

"This path. Will you clear it, or do you want me to do so?"

A faint smile rested on Valdamir's lips, as though he already knew the answer and was testing the Thunder Lord.

He had become the duke of the Fog Duchy, where the Progenitor existed as a god of their race. What did that require? Strength? Authority? Wisdom? Political skill?

The answer was all of them.

Crimson Duke Valdamir stood second only to one and above ten thousand. Though one Elder was not fundamentally different from another, every Elder recognized him as their unquestioned representative. He was capable enough to govern a nation, and he alone was fit to welcome the Progenitor when the time came.

The Thunder Lord understood. No matter what excuse she gave, that dreadful being had already seen through it. There was no choice but to fight.

...If he had not intended to fight in the first place, the Duke of Crimson Blood would not have come personally. What vampire, welcome nowhere, would show up in another city in person?

"Why are vampires who should be inside the Duchy here...!"

"It's still daytime!"

The Thunder Lord raised a hand. The confused Thunder Guardians fell silent and waited for their lord's command.

『Do not be afraid. They are Elders of the Duchy. I do not know why they came all this way without even sending word, but this is clearly an invasion. They have come for our city and its citizens.』

Valdamir rested his sword on his shoulder and watched quietly. He did not look as though he intended to act before the Thunder Lord had finished speaking.

The Thunder Lord hesitated briefly. Was it truly right to order an attack against a disaster that had appeared without warning? Her doubt did not last long.

Defeat meant the end anyway. There could be no morality or dignity expected from the Fog Duchy's vampires, who treated humans as livestock. Bowing to them might save their lives, but surviving as walking lunchboxes in fog untouched by even a ray of sunlight would be a tragedy worse than death.

Their faith was not wrong. Vampires had to vanish. Those dreadful creatures should not exist in this world, and the Thunder Lord had to stand against them to protect her city.

『The Thunder Lord commands the city's protectors. Drive them all back. Do not let bats who see humans as livestock gain a foothold in this city!』

The Thunder Guardians answered with a roar. They began moving to eliminate a more certain enemy. Their enemies numbered only three, but all three were formidable foes.

The Elders shouted as though they had been waiting for it.

"Good! That's more like it! Let's-fight...!"

"Hueee! Did lightning strike their heads? I think they've finally gone mad! They say they'll eliminate us! Us! Look at the livestock barking away!"

Lungken rushed forward at once, while Cabilah picked up her doll. Behind the two, whose bloodthirsty instincts had awakened, Valdamir stroked his chin and muttered.

"It seems the angel intends to stop us before we welcome the Progenitor. At least the information was correct. The Progenitor is certainly here."

The vampires could not be allowed to meet the Progenitor. Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka was the vampires' god and heart. If they joined together, the vampires would overcome their limits and become beings capable of anything. Claudia lay beneath the sun, so vampires could not invade it, but vampires protected by the Progenitor's darkness had once marched to the Sanctum's very doorstep.

It would be better to defeat them separately. The Thunder Lord made that judgment, and Valdamir saw straight through it as he raised the greatsword from his shoulder.

"Angels always make a mess and never clean it up themselves. I suppose I have no choice but to do it for them."

* * *

My stabbed stomach hurt. Hilde had healed me, but repairing my form did not mean a body that had been damaged once returned to normal. Was I healthy just because someone had roughly patched up the blood I had lost and my crushed organs? That was like saying running a lap around a field took no effort because you ended up where you started.

Still, I couldn't come to my senses yet.

My conversation with Frang, the Lightning Thief, had not even begun.

"No. I'm not doing it."

Clouds shrouded a sloping ridge where thunder rumbled in the distance. Low grass grew thick there, and a man was flying a kite.

It was a large kite, neatly folded like a letter sent to the sky. Thin cloth stretched over metal ribs caught the wind and lifted at an angle. Though tethered by a cord, it flew high into the sky. It looked free as it rode the wind like a bird.

A wind that foretold rain and lightning swept fiercely toward the kite dancing through the open sky. As the small grasses bent low to escape it, the Lightning Thief tightened his grip on the cord.

"King of Humanity. Do you know what happens when a kite's string breaks?"

He was dead, yet he spoke casually to someone he had just met. Rude bastard.

Still, I was the King of Humanity who respected every human equally, so I answered politely.

"It either plunges to the ground or flies far away into the sky."

"That's right. It may look as though it's flying freely through the sky, but that's because I have it tied down here and control it with this string. If I let go, control it badly, or the string breaks, the kite will plunge. It will shatter completely and never fly again."

A sudden gust blew through. Reading the wind, the Lightning Thief quickly loosened the cord a little and gave the kite slack. Caught in the gust, the kite rose while maintaining a marvelous balance.

"It's the same with humans. We need something to hold us. We must not forget where our roots came from, what values we must not lose. And the only thing in this world that can do that is..."

"Faith?"

"...Yes."

The Lightning Thief looked a little annoyed that I had stolen his line. He grumbled irritably.

"When I died, my corpse was supposed to become sacred remains, while my relic was to be securely kept somewhere no one could find it. My achievements would be dressed up as the tale of the Lightning Thief and passed down as a Sanctum legend. It was an honor, so I agreed to it. After finishing my work in Claudia, I went to the Sanctum of my own accord."

"But this is your relic, isn't it?"

"...Tch. I didn't know a stupid kite I had sent flying would be what I treasured most. I only needed it to send the Thunder God into the sky."

Cold droplets began to mix into the fierce wind. Small raindrops announcing the storm gradually fell in greater numbers. The kite, battered by wind and rain, swayed uneasily.

"I only wanted to use alchemy to establish order. I only wanted to use that lightning over there to help the pitiful Lesser States, who had lost everything. Yet I, a sage, became a Demon God? Was I supposed to become one just because I was a little better than other people? Tch. If I could return to before I became a Demon God, I would talk myself out of it."

"Why?"

"You don't need to know."

"Tell me. If you are as great as you say, perhaps you can persuade me."

"This isn't something that can be solved through persuasion. It's a difference in perspective and belief."

The Lightning Thief turned and began winding the cord, as though he had nothing more to say. Even in death, he remained every bit as devout as a believer.

But since when did the dead get to speak to the living with their chins held high?

"What meaning does a perspective that no one else can see have? What nobility is there in a belief you can't convey to anyone? If you're going to take it all to your grave, then become a corpse already. Stop wasting time halfheartedly."

The Lightning Thief's hand stopped winding the cord. I walked toward his back as I spoke.

"At some point, beliefs and faith began being used only as tools to justify oneself. All while people emptily cried that they were doing it for humanity."

Tap, tap-tap. The raindrops grew thicker. Slanting down on the fierce wind, the rain struck his face and mine with heavy force. The kite caught in the storm swayed pitifully.

"I am the King of Humanity. So tell me, if you truly acted for humans. Unlike someone else, I will listen to any wish, so long as it belongs to a human."

Lightning struck close by. It was drawing nearer. Before long, the bolts would reach this area. The lightning searching for a place to strike would not miss the marker rising from the ground.

As though it had seen its own future, the kite trembled uneasily in the sky and tugged at the Lightning Thief. The string cut into his flesh.

Even then, the Lightning Thief did not let go of it. He gradually pulled the cord in and spoke.

"It was to preserve humanity's purity. If we had left the people of the Lesser States as they were, they would have been reborn as a new race, like vampires."

Footnotes:

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