WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 446: Heaven-Defying Trial - 14

──────

The blood slowly settled.

Countess Erjebeut, a historic Elder whose raw power alone had once been compared to the Progenitor's, strolled leisurely toward us. Facing an Elder, I spoke with a troubled expression.

"Madam Erjebeut. Since fate has brought us together here, how about we exchange greetings, smile, and part ways?"

"That would be impossible. The Progenitor appears to consider you truly special."

Snap. Erjebeut folded her fan and draped herself in overflowing blood energy as though it were clothing. The immense force that could crush an ordinary human with a flick of her finger seemed weightless to her.

Apparently, even with that much power, she did not feel confident enough to face Tyr and had chosen to target me instead. That sent a chill down my spine.

"Yet I hear that you, her concubine, do not consider the Progenitor special at all. Hehe. To seduce the Progenitor in pursuit of power... You truly are a concubine beautiful enough to topple a kingdom. Still, the Progenitor must retain some attachment to you. You would make an excellent shield against her attacks."

She was planning to take me hostage too.

Well, I was an open-minded person, so I did not have much of an aversion to being taken hostage. If powerless people could survive that way, all the better.

This case was a little different, though. Tyr had gained her wish because I intervened and ended up in this situation. Was I supposed to become a hostage and make her lose her chance to see that wish fulfilled?

Not a chance. I couldn't go around saying I granted wishes if that happened. I immediately talked back.

"Not special? Who says that? Do you have any idea how much Tyr and I have given each other?"

"Let us stop the deception there, King of Humanity. Do not assume we know nothing. The Progenitor may know nothing, but we are not so naive."

"And what do you know about me? Does pretending you know things based on scraps you picked up make you any more special?"

They thought they were mind readers. I was the only one allowed to act like I knew everything.

"Anyone listening would think there was no difference in importance between humans. Tyrkanzyaka, the Progenitor, returned from death through a single ability, created the vampire race, killed thousands upon thousands of humans and took their blood, then led the vampires and even founded a nation. Do you truly think Tyr, who was beautiful, pure, and held such a fierce wish in her heart, is less important than you?"

To the King of Humanity, everyone would be equal. But I was only a half-formed King of Humanity. In other words, I was somewhat removed from the Beast King's nature as a conceptual being.

I could only read the thoughts of humans around me. Other Beast Kings encompassed their entire species and carried its concept, but I was ordinary and weak. The few people around me were all I could represent. The limits of my ability gave me priorities unbefitting the King of Humanity.

That was why I couldn't help caring more for those close to me.

"King of Humanity or not, I won't become your hostage. I might take Tyr's side, but I don't want to help an old, ugly woman who's only jealous of Tyr."

"...Jealous? I am jealous of the Progenitor?"

"Obviously. You aren't going to deny it, are you? Your entire history is recorded in history books."

Hilde was silently screaming at me with her eyes to please shut up. Still, Erjebeut did not look like she intended to let us go anyway.

I was curious. What would come out if I provoked a vampire said to lack emotions?

"Even when you were human, you killed people, poured their blood into glasses, and drank it. You wanted to become like vampires because they drank blood. That wasn't enough for you, so you even filled a bathtub with blood and bathed in it. You envied their smooth, flawless skin."

"...Your assumptions are baseless."

"If historians make assumptions for hundreds of years, it becomes scholarship. Old fossils like you are so predictable that every last detail has been dissected."

Erjebeut threateningly opened her fan and covered her mouth. It was a sign that she was desperately suppressing emotions on the verge of exploding. She looked ready to burst before long.

So I decided to light the fuse.

"You envied Tyr, didn't you? You wanted to become like the Progenitor, beautiful, powerful, and fear itself. You led the betrayal and tried to take Tyr's blood because it was your chance to seize the place the Progenitor had left behind, right? Honestly, your black heart is so obvious. An immortal who craves power too, you're a complete stereotype."

"Hehehe. Do you think such low-grade provocation would shake me?"

"I already have Tyr. What could an old woman like you possibly give me that would sway me? Dandruff?"

My eloquence achieved its intended purpose. Erjebeut followed my intentions exactly.

"I will kill you."

People said vampires had no emotions, but I wasn't so sure. Emotion was only a label attached to the desire to do something.

Vampires had been known to lack emotions because Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka had suppressed them by ruling over their blood. If Tyr still possessed her authority, Erjebeut would not have reacted no matter how much I mocked her. Tyr would not have been upset just because I insulted Erjebeut.

But now?

"I had intended to capture you alive and present you to the Progenitor, but I have changed my mind. You shall die here, and I will offer your head. Even if you are not alive, it will be enough to disturb the Progenitor's heart."

Erjebeut had intended to capture me from the start. Whether she kept me alive or killed me was a matter of taste. Each option had its advantages and disadvantages.

And my words had just changed her "taste" a little.

Toward killing me.

What else was an emotional choice?

Blood spread. It crawled over the ground, walls, and every object like vines. The writhing blood stretched farther and farther, like new veins sprouting across the city. It gave me goosebumps.

She forced blood energy into things to control them. Erjebeut, the embodiment of ambition, exerted dominion through blood energy as if reflecting her nature. Blood-stained bricks, pale streetlamps, tables, and chairs marched toward us with heavy steps.

A one-woman army.

Wielding an authority that nothing but the sun could oppose, Erjebeut extended her fan.

"Try to run, King of Humanity. In a world of blood vines."

Then the city tilted toward me.

That was not a joke. Every piece of furniture in the market street, the buildings themselves, even the walls tried to crush me. A torrent of raw power without even a trace of human finesse surged in. I turned to flee, but the wall folded shut and cut off my escape route.

Races with mysteries like vampires were difficult to deal with. Psychological warfare only worked when both sides had roughly equal hands. Immortal vampires were not even playing with the same stakes. No matter how fiercely I fought for points, they were only pocket change to my opponent.

Fortunately, this was not a one-on-one fight.

"Damn it! You useless father! I should've loaded you onto a carrying frame and run long ago!"

Hilde grabbed my hand and kicked the wall with qi poured into her foot. Explosive Shot Art, qi with an explosive nature, blasted the bricks apart from within. We threw ourselves through the opening that appeared for an instant.

People fleeing, people screaming, people tilting their heads in confusion because they knew nothing. The streets were still packed with countless people. Even with mind-reading, it would be difficult to get through that crowd.

"Should we hide among them?"

"If it's Erjebeut, she'll kill them all and use their blood too! We need to go somewhere without people!"

Hilde and I planted our hands against the wall and spun around. We sprinted past the corner, and something swept past us as if biting at our heels. I glanced back and saw bright red blood rushing toward us like a flood.

[This is the land of vampires. Now that you have come here, even the King of Humanity is no different from livestock.]

With Erjebeut's cold voice, blood streamed along both walls. Erjebeut herself might not have been faster than us, but her authority clearly was. Its medium was blood. If it had been anything else, we could have blocked or cut it, but there was no proper way to fight blood seeping through every gap between bricks.

"Holy Sword, equip."

Of course, I was talking about myself.

'The opponent is a vampire. Then the action "I" need to take is...'

Hilde drew light from between her breasts. The flashing light looked more like lightning than a sword. The shapeless Holy Sword rippled until Hilde formed a single image in her mind, then gradually compressed.

'"I" am a holy knight. God's sword that cuts down wicked light. Divine punishment upon the cursed vampire.'

The form forged from her faith was a greatsword. Hilde raised the massive Holy Sword above her head and swung it wide. Whoosh. The huge slash cut through the air and struck the wall carrying the blood flow.

The wall was unharmed. The blood flowing across it was not. Blood energy scorched by the light blackened and left stains behind. The blood could no longer flow farther in.

[...A holy knight?]

"Steadfast faith cuts down evil alone. It is time for you to burn beneath the light, vampire."

Hilde's bearing changed. Standing firm with the greatsword raised, she looked like a knight truly chosen by God.

The nurse uniform did make it a little strange, but still.

[You brought a holy knight into this land... No, a holy knight had concealed their faith in this land?]

Hilde, who became a holy knight only when she wanted to, seemed to amaze even a vampire who had lived for a thousand years. Erjebeut gauged her for a moment, then resumed her attack.

[There is simply one more thing to kill. I shall teach you that faith and holy knights are no more than livestock in this land.]

The blood flow changed direction. Instead of following us, it swirled around us and devoured everything nearby. She intended to crush us beneath its force and weight.

As the blood energy closed in, Hilde made her light blaze brighter and shouted.

"A wicked vampire dares speak of faith? I will burn you with light! Celestial God, watch over 'me' from the lofty heavens!"

'At least my time in the Holy Sword Corps has paid off. Haah, though that doesn't make this situation any better.'

It was fortunate there was no god. If one truly existed, it would be no different from a senile old man fooled by flattering words into scattering rewards everywhere.

Soon, the swirling vortex of blood came flying at us, carrying every kind of object. Bricks, chairs, furniture, plates, and even daggers and blades from who knew where slipped through the storm to target Hilde and me. Hilde fought against the tempest with even greater light. Whenever the light scorched the blood, dark red trails split apart with sharp cracks and fell away.

She could block the blood energy, but not completely negate the physical force contained within it. Hilde had to take several flying bricks with her body. Qi protected her from injury, but the impacts gradually pushed her back. Each time, the area where we could move grew smaller.

Hilde, who had stood firm until then, gripped her sword tightly and offered one last prayer.

"Celestial God... Is that all? Screw this. I'm done! Father, this is the limit of what I can squeeze out of a god! Don't you have another way?!"

"Just a moment. I'm improving it."

"Improving what?"

"The breed."

Druidism was difficult to handle, so I had barely been able to use it. Now, the conditions were somewhat fulfilled.

The ground beneath my feet. Blood to drink. Instead of faint sunlight, the magic within the blood energy would suffice.

In a land somewhere to the south, there was a plant that grew by feeding on beasts. It snatched animals with leaves shaped like teeth, put down roots over them, and sucked out their fluids. I extended a branch from grass that drank blood long before vampires existed.

A lush vine had learned not to stand on its own, but to grow by leaning on other plants. It covered their surfaces, stole their sunlight, and fed on it as it grew. I extended another branch from the vine.

Two fruits that had grown from different branches of Great Druid Nevida's Tree of Origin. I grafted them together.

Two cards lay stacked atop each other. Ten of Spades and Nine of Spades.

With my fingertip, I pushed out Nine of Spades.

At the same time, crimson vines swollen with blood shot upward.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried