WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 389: Lightning Did Not Fall from the Sky - 12

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Lungken's charge was not merely destructive. It was earth-shaking.

With every step, heaven and earth overturned and the clouds trembled. Lungken barreled straight ahead, crashing head-on into an armed force hundreds strong.

The Thunder Guardians banded together to face them, as weak humans always did.

They formed a defensive formation, linking themselves through alchemy. The moment mana flashed, thirty people became bricks in a massive wall. Spears crackling with electricity rose from the gaps between them. An ancient defensive formation had fused with alchemy and revealed itself to the world.

"Now that's more like it-!"

Lungken laughed wildly and hurled their entire body into it.

Spears broke. Bodies shattered. Steel cracked.

The boar beastkin's charge was several times more powerful than that of a real boar. Spearheads snapped, and the Guardians' grips tore open under the force. The formation of thirty, reinforced with alchemy, was slowly pushed back.

Of course, Lungken was not unharmed either. Spearheads were embedded in their body, and blood streamed from their forehead where they had struck the wall. Covered in blood like a hunted beast, they looked terrifying.

Even so, they were smiling.

As though even pain brought them pleasure.

One of the Thunder Guardians muttered.

"M-Monster...!"

Lungken bared their teeth, delighted by the word. They fixed their gaze on the Thunder Guardian who had called them a monster, then threw their head far back.

Then they drove it forward with all their strength.

The boar beastkin's headbutt struck with tremendous force, cracking the formation. Once it formed, the crack spread uncontrollably. Lungken charged through the gap and flung their body wide, shattering the formation and sending people flying in every direction. Getting away with only a broken bone would have been fortunate. The unlucky Guardians directly in front of Lungken all died instantly.

Covered in blood, Lungken roared.

"That's right-! I'm a monster-! You're not enough to kill me! More! Is there nothing else--?!"

Lungken turned their head from side to side, then spotted a huge shadow approaching them.

It was a vehicle made by modifying a Juggernaut left behind by a deceased Lord. Its size and presence made it something no individual should have been able to face, but Lungken scraped the ground in excitement.

"Let's-fight-!"

Without a second thought, Lungken charged the armored vehicle. Its driver panicked. It was madness, like throwing an egg at a rock, but there was no reason to stop an enemy from doing something insane. Even while flustered, the Guardian drove the armored vehicle forward with greater force.

Boom. The Elder and the Juggernaut collided. Blood splattered and iron crumpled. Naturally, Lungken was the one pushed back in their first clash. Even an Elder could not withstand a Juggernaut's power. Blood burst from their muscles, and Lungken's legs bent at unnatural angles as they dug deep into the ground.

"Kh, ngh, aaah-!"

By all common sense, no one could endure that.

Still, common sense sometimes existed to be broken.

Lungken roared and forced strength into their body. As they held on while their own body was being crushed, the Juggernaut gradually slowed. The more blood flowed and soaked Lungken's body red, the stronger they became.

At some point, the Juggernaut stopped completely. Its raised wheels spun uselessly in the air. The Guardians operating the armored vehicle were stunned by Lungken's enormous strength.

"Bloodsoaked... They're this strong...?!"

A Juggernaut without its Lord could not perform at even half its original capacity, but it still used the power of thunder. It had never been a tool meant to fight humans in the first place. It was heavy equipment better suited to cutting down trees or digging up the earth.

Yet the Elder was less a human than a phenomenon. Just as a lone human could not fight a Juggernaut, humans could not fight an Elder. He was a superhuman who had transcended humanity. No, he was another kind of life entirely.

A Thunder Guardian muttered in despair.

"...And there are three of them. How could we possibly..."

The Blood Weaver Cabilah split open the doll's back. Inside the tiny doll were densely packed bone needles. Cabilah took needles in both hands and shouted.

"Do you think Cloud Village stayed safe because you were so capable?! Heehee. Being stupid is only cute in moderation! This is why livestock can't be allowed to get too full of themselves!"

The Blood Weaver, Cabilah, made dolls. Her materials were bone, blood, and flesh. She shaped them, then filled them with blood and darkness to make her dolls.

The Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka's greatest power was creating servants. In that sense, Cabilah was the vampire most like the Progenitor. No vampire could match her ability to create and command servants.

"We never even looked at the Lesser States because your blood tasted so damn awful! If I ranked you, you'd be fourth-grade! You're food waste that deserves worse than being thrown out on the spot! You knew we were beyond the fog, and you still called angels here?!?!"

Cabilah screamed and threw her bone needles. The needles fell upon the dead Lungken had created and melted into them. Using the bones as a medium, the scattered blood gathered and took shape. Skulls with ghostly fire in their eyes rose ominously from the dark-red blood.

Those bones had all once belonged to her subjects. Even in death, they fought as her servants.

"Dragon-Tooth Soldiers! Kill every obstacle standing between me and my sister!"

Ten Dragon-Tooth Soldiers moved at once.

Only ten. It was a pitiful number for something commanded by an Elder, one of the world's terrors. Besides, servants unable to use aura arts were inevitably weaker than their original bodies.

"Do not fear them!"

One Guardian boldly leaped into a Dragon-Tooth Soldier's embrace. They dodged its descending bone saw by a hair's breadth and grabbed its ribs.

Alchemy had not developed solely in the direction of creating harder materials. The Thunder Guardians had also mastered combat alchemy, studying how to weaken enemies. To them, servants were excellent prey.

The Dragon-Tooth Soldier's ribs crumbled in an instant. Good structures tended to resemble one another, but poor structures each had their own flaws. Having easily destroyed the Dragon-Tooth Soldier, the Thunder Guardian shouted confidently.

"Anything that cannot distinguish its outside from its inside is nothing more than material for alchemy! Everyone, get close and crush them!"

The Thunder Guardians charged the Dragon-Tooth Soldiers. They evaded the bone saws and clung to the servants. Some Guardians were struck, but their comrades actively helped them, allowing them to survive.

As the Dragon-Tooth Soldiers were overwhelmed and collapsed, Cabilah, who had been quietly watching, stretched out her hand as if conducting an orchestra.

"Stupidity makes excellent fertilizer. Come now, Dragon-Tooth Soldiers. It's time to harvest."

Then dark, horrific black magic seized them all.

The wounded Thunder Guardians fell back and tightly compressed their arms to stop the bleeding. Blood flowed, but their wounds were minor, and they intended to return to the fight as soon as they had treated them.

Then...

The wounded Guardians shuddered as a chill ran down their spines. Searching for the source of that cold, they saw that their blood was still flowing.

"B-Blood..."

"It won't stop..."

Blood flowed. Blood, food and the source of power for vampires, drained from humans. It had only ventured a little way outside the body, yet it changed owners.

Unless one had mastered Water Qi Art well enough to control one's own body, one was nothing but prey. But people equal to the military state's generals were not so common.

Victims with nothing more than small scratches collapsed helplessly, and their blood flowed into the Dragon-Tooth Soldiers. The servants that had been crushed and broken drank in the blood and revived, multiplying among themselves.

Cabilah wet her throat with blood and shouted.

"The virtuous cycle of blood! This is the farm of the new generation!"

The Thunder Lord did not move.

No, she could not move.

She knew the battle was going badly. That was why she had already made preparations. If the defensive function of the Thunder Mill activated, she might be able to gain the advantage against those Elders.

Even then, she would not be able to kill them. Just as capturing someone was several times harder than killing them, capturing someone who could not die was nearly impossible.

And besides...

Someone far more dangerous than any other Elder stood before her.

Crimson Duke Valdamir looked at the Thunder Lord blocking his path and tilted his head.

"Were you not going to deliver a message to me?"

[...Why would you think that?]

"If not, you would not be standing before me while your subordinates are dying."

She had naturally meant to stall for time, but the Crimson Duke seemed to have interpreted it differently. The Thunder Lord said,

[There's nothing I could say to a vampire. I'm standing here because I alone can face you.]

"Interesting."

The Thunder Lord flinched at even the Crimson Duke's smallest movement, but he paid her no mind and leisurely ran his hand down his greatsword.

"The Celestial God may openly demand sacrifice, but it would not deceive you with lies. How did you come to make such a mistaken judgment?"

[A mistaken judgment? It's the appropriate judgment. I'm the only one here who can stop you.]

"Oh."

The Thunder Lord readied herself to respond at any moment.

What made the Crimson Duke dangerous was his intelligence. He used his innate strength, accumulated experience, and exceptional political sense where they would be most effective. Nothing was more frightening than an intelligent beast.

Her role was to hold him here so he could not join the other Elders.

That was what the Thunder Lord believed...

"Now."

The Crimson Duke raised his greatsword. Red aura flowed from his body into the blade. As he prepared to strike, the Thunder Lord also drew down lightning and scattered it against him.

Her lightning drew on the city's power. This was surely her chance, while he was using aura to attack.

Divine punishment descended upon the Crimson Duke. Lightning tore through his body without restraint. His body shook violently. In the vision washed white, the Crimson Duke slowly swung down his greatsword with a trembling arm.

"Blood Script."

Cloud Waterfall split in half.

Distance had always been the greatest obstacle for aura practitioners. They could wrap their weapons in aura, but once their opponents moved away, all they could do was hold their weapons and helplessly watch.

The Crimson Duke overcame that limit in an unimaginable way.

The blood aura scattered by his strength crossed space. The crimson blood aura was blood, part of the Crimson Duke's own body. What they had thought was sword aura was himself, gathered along the edge of his greatsword.

A technique only a vampire could use.

Humans caught in its path were sent flying like trash.

An arm touched by it was severed. A leg struck by it was cut. Sharply refined blood sliced through human bodies, opened wounds, gathered the blood flowing from them, and grew more ferocious as it swept onward like a storm. A new blood cloud rose within Cloud Waterfall.

A hundred or so pieces of human bodies were swept away by the red tide.

And the Thunder Lord clearly watched the slash that passed her by slaughtering humans.

She had not dodged it. The Crimson Duke had deliberately kept her out of its path.

As if to mock her.

[You vicious-!]

"Do you understand now? You cannot stop me, even if I remain standing still."

He truly was mocking her.

He had accepted the Thunder Lord's attack directly, without resistance. He had killed the Thunder Guardians from where he stood.

It was simply to prove that fact.

Their ways of thinking were different from the start. Beyond tension and fear, the Thunder Lord felt a distant gulf, as though they stood on opposite sides of a divide they could never bridge and stared at one another across it.

"Let us return to the earlier matter. If you have nothing to say, I will go do what I came here to do."

There was nothing.

He had no fear of death and no hesitation in killing. Though he had killed dozens from where he stood, he remained calm as if he had simply completed a task. To some, it was an unbearable tragedy. To vampires, it was only work.

They would never understand each other, even after eons. Their only means of conversation were blood and fists.

[You vampire bastard--!]

The enraged Thunder Lord charged him. She dragged the ground with wings of lightning and moved like lightning itself. In the blink of an eye, she reached the Crimson Duke and swung a fist clenched around lightning.

["I'll kill you--!"]

Her words cut off halfway.

Crack.

The Crimson Duke's arm precisely caught the Thunder Lord by the neck as she flew toward him.

Footnotes:

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