WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 66: Puppet Progenitor and the Unpleasant Puppet Show (3)

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On the outskirts of Tantalus, where no light reached.

In that place forsaken by both sky and earth, something ominous and wicked, something that dared not stand before God, stirred. Something was certainly there, but the veil of darkness perfectly concealed not only their sins, but even their forms.

That was why Finlay could still walk freely despite committing the grave sin of daring to control the Progenitor. If this had not been the Abyss, if even one person had discovered his crime, he would have been cut down at once.

'It's fine. I can repay this sin with my life later. Once I bring her back to the Duchy, the Progenitor will understand us.'

Feeling guilt engraved into his blood, Finlay looked at the vampire.

She sat atop the coffin with unfocused eyes. Without the parasol she always carried, her arms hanging limply at her sides, she looked even more lifeless than usual.

Perhaps it was because of her pale skin, devoid of even a trace of color.

Or perhaps it was the darkness ominously wrapped around her.

Or perhaps it was the enormous crack in her chest.

A huge scar ran across the vampire's chest. Crimson energy surged through the gap, seeming as though it might be trying to flow inward or escape outward.

"Progenitor, please forgive my insolence."

Finlay wrapped the blood energy leaking from the crack around his hand. Then he shouted loudly enough for the darkness to hear, gripping that energy with all his strength.

"Progenitor! Command the Blood Steed to follow my will!"

Thump.

Finlay's bloodcraft squeezed the vampire's heart. Her blood churned violently. Her carotid artery bulged, and blood empowered by his technique flowed into her head.

Then her unfocused eyes flashed for a moment. Her fractured mind carried out the fragmented command she had been given.

But.

[Phuhihihing.]

The Blood Steed, the one who was supposed to obey the command, only snorted.

Finlay lowered his arm in disappointment. Rallion, the Blood Steed and the Progenitor's strongest current force, showed no particular reaction even though Finlay had taken control of the Progenitor.

Finlay shook his head.

"Does that mean you refuse to obey? Or can't you understand my command? Hoo..."

The instant he released the blood energy from his hand, Finlay felt death.

The Blood Steed's hoof came down over his head. The crimson hoof that had reduced countless humans to chunks of flesh descended in an instant, without the slightest hesitation.

Whoosh.

It was far too heavy to call wind. The pressure alone forced Finlay to his knees and slammed him into the ground. The house-sized Blood Steed's enormous hoof was large enough to cover his entire body, and its blood-steel horseshoe, forged from refined blood, did not have a single gap in it.

If it dropped another fifty centimeters, Finlay would vanish as a mere bloodstain. He might regenerate if given enough time, but that was no more than wishful thinking. Before then, the Progenitor could awaken, end Finlay's life, and reclaim his blood.

But.

"K-Kgh. I see. The Progenitor's command has already been delivered properly..."

Finlay did not die. The reason was simple. Rallion did not drive its hoof all the way down.

Beneath that huge hoof, above the hard concrete, Finlay knelt in that narrow gap and muttered in a trembling voice.

"You're desperate to kill me for daring to control the Progenitor. Yet you cannot kill me. Because even if it isn't the Progenitor's true intent, it is still the Progenitor's command!"

[Phuhihihing.]

"Good! That's enough. As long as I control the Progenitor, you will ultimately obey my commands! Khahahaha!"

Rallion snorted in disgust, then turned its head. It walked of its own accord into the unseen darkness, as if declaring that it would watch this no longer.

The sound of hooves faded into the dark. Only after it stopped could Finlay compose himself.

Having witnessed the Blood Steed's overwhelming power, Finlay reflected anew on how reckless his actions had been.

Overwhelming size, weight, and strength. Rallion, the Blood Steed whose hooves left crimson tracks, could defeat an army alone. Yet even such a powerful Blood Steed obeyed the Progenitor with all its body and soul.

The Progenitor's power was dominion. The power to spread blood everywhere, control whatever it touched, and shape powerful familiars.

Finlay now held the reins of such immense authority.

A power beyond his station. There were only two possible reactions for the one who held it.

Fear.

Or ecstasy.

Finlay chose the latter.

"Khehehe. Khahahaha! I... I have gained the power of God!"

The Progenitor's authority, which seemed to bind every drop of blood in his body, now slept quietly. That was because the Progenitor herself had withdrawn it. In that state, he was controlling the Progenitor's heart through bloodcraft.

Did that not mean Finlay now possessed the Progenitor's power?

"The Progenitor has surely acknowledged me. She must have agreed with my will! Otherwise, there's no way I could use the Progenitor's power!"

As he reveled in that overwhelming omnipotence, the vampire suddenly raised her head.

Finlay startled and drew a sharp breath. Had the Progenitor regained her senses? Tense, he called to the vampire.

"P-Progenitor?"

The vampire's eyes refused to leave a certain spot. Finlay's trembling gaze followed hers.

Then he gave a hollow laugh.

"I warned you. Are your lives truly worth so little?"

Standing there proudly were the regressor, holding a red sphere in one hand.

And me, carrying a large bundle over my back.

When I concentrated, I could hear thoughts clearly. Finlay's thoughts, at least. The vampire was in a state close to half-asleep, so I could not read her clearly.

No consciousness meant no thoughts. No memories.

It felt like reading a book in pitch darkness. Like someone vaguely repeating a story they had been told. It seemed hopeless to wake her without making direct contact.

Good. That was enough mind-reading.

I asked the regressor, who stood a handspan below me and glared at them with a terrifying expression.

"Did you see?"

"Yeah."

The first of the Seven-Colored Eyes, the Red Eye that saw heat.

The sixth of the Seven-Colored Eyes, the Indigo Eye that saw far into the distance.

The regressor pierced the darkness with her mismatched eyes, one in each socket, then gritted her teeth and growled.

"That bastard has Tyrkanzyaka's Black Knights hidden in the shadows..."

"Fortunately, Rallion doesn't seem to acknowledge Finlay."

"Even so, it won't be on our side. Don't trust it."

As soon as she finished speaking, the glow vanished from the regressor's eyes. Her pupils turned black again, and she pressed a hand over her eyes as if tired.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just need to press them for a moment."

When she lowered her hand, her eyes shone as sharply as before. I turned my gaze forward.

"According to plan?"

"According to plan."

The regressor and I stepped out of the area lit by the daytime lamps and into the darkness.

It felt as though the darkness itself was moving. That ominous darkness was a living creature in its own right, the night fog that protected all vampires.

At its center, in a blackness impossible to see through with the naked eye, Finlay greeted us with both arms spread wide.

"I clearly told you not to come. Are your ears blocked, or are your lives worth so little?"

The regressor scoffed.

"You're the one with no regard for your own life. Are you insane? How could you have the nerve to think of controlling the Progenitor?"

"It is not control! I have merely asked her indulgence for a short time so I can return the Progenitor to where she belongs."

"Oh, please. Isn't forcing someone to move without even asking what they want control?"

"What could you possibly know?!"

Finlay screamed convulsively. The regressor frowned at his wildly shifting attitude, as if he had manic depression.

"The Progenitor wished for this!"

"What bullshit."

"If the Progenitor had not permitted it, would the day ever have come when I could hold her heart in my hands? From the moment I obtained this power to the moment I temporarily carried out her will, all of it is no different from her will!"

Madness born of intoxication with power showed in Finlay as he shouted. Unlike a vampire, he was swept up in violent excitement, spraying blood instead of saliva from his mouth.

"So my will is the Progenitor's will! I wanted the Progenitor to go to the surface, and so the Progenitor has decided to ascend! If you interfere, it is no different from rebelling against the Progenitor! If you are servants of the Progenitor, bow your heads and see her off. If you are enemies of the Progenitor, be swept away by the irresistible sea of blood and perish! Choose, you lowborn wretches!"

There was no logic or reason in his words. He was behaving in a way I could never have expected from a vampire with a cold heart.

The regressor raised a finger to her temple and spun it in a circle.

"That bastard has completely lost it."

"He's crazy enough to try controlling Trainee Tyrkanzyaka, so that tracks."

"True."

"On top of that, his bloodcraft has already reached its limit from doing something this crazy, so the bloodcraft that moves his own body has become unstable. He looks like he sold off that cold heart of his."

Finlay, worked into a frenzy, kept shouting whatever he wanted whether we listened or not. It was as though he had no audience besides himself, and he did not care in the slightest.

"Hoo. If we wait for him to finish, we'll grow old and die first. Shall we start?"

The regressor nodded, and I cleared my throat. Finlay's irritating voice rang out from the darkness.

"I will go to the surface and take revenge on the deceitful harlots of the Sanctum! I will profane their god and reclaim our ancient glory! Khahahahaha!"

"For fuck's sake. They say old people talk more as they age, but why are you wagging that tongue of yours so much?"

I let out a long sigh and cut in between his breaths. Like any excited person, Finlay turned his murderous intent on me for interrupting him.

"Instructor! I disliked you from the beginning! How dare you!"

"Hey, shut up for a second! I know it's hard looking after a senile old woman, but I've got plenty to say too!"

"S-Senile?"

Simple machines and toys with simple mechanisms always made people feel good. Watching them work exactly as predicted was reassuring.

To me, fanatics like Finlay were easy-to-handle machines.

Tap their tantrum switch, and they gave the response I wanted.

"Y-You dare insult the Progenitor. How insolent!"

"Tyrkanzyaka? Even her name sounds tacky! Did she choose it to make it hard to say on purpose? And that idiot got tricked and controlled by the servant of a servant of one of her servants! Who taught her to turn out like that?"

The regressor could not hold back any longer.

"You did, idiot."

"Oh dear! It was me! I'll be too ashamed to act like an instructor from now on!"

When I insulted the vampire in an agitated tone, Finlay only opened his eyes wide and moved his lips soundlessly. The shock was so great that he had temporarily forgotten how to speak.

Good. Now he was ready to listen.

"And you, Finlay. You seem to be as stupid as the Progenitor, since you haven't realized it yet. Do you truly believe you can escape by flying upward when you're trapped in the Abyss?"

I laughed loudly. After bursting into laughter long enough to make the whole Abyss shake, I abruptly stopped and spoke.

"You still won't get out."

The truth I had put so much effort into uncovering. It was not something I should reveal easily, but I decided not to hold back.

"The Abyss is a land that falls forever. What does that mean? The coordinates of space have no meaning here. You can't reach anywhere by simply falling or climbing, idiot. If you could reach the surface just by climbing, you could reach the bottom just by falling. But look, you're in the Abyss. There is no bottom. What do you think that means?"

The preparations were nearly complete. The regressor had poured about half her mana into the red sphere and was casting a simple spell into it.

After confirming that, I prepared to finish what I had to say.

"Want to know?"

Finlay, who had been listening to me, nodded reflexively. Even in this darkness, his eyes could see me precisely.

Good. Then I would make it easy for him to see.

"It's in here."

I raised a finger and tapped my temple. Then I smiled coldly.

"So if you can, pull it out, you unfilial bastard."

Footnotes:

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