WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 67

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Puppet Progenitor and the Unpleasant Puppet Show (4)

At my taunt, Finlay's eyes went so wide they looked ready to pop.

"You bastard!!"

Veins bulged in his neck as he screamed like he was about to cough blood. The darkness rippled with his fury. Beyond the edge of the light, tens of thousands in his army stirred.

"I'll show you exactly why the nobles of the night are called the nobles of the ni--!"

That was when the regressor hurled the orb in her hand with all her strength. The red orb that held the earth's flame, Lava Tear, rose into the air above Tantalus. Even closed, it carried such an overwhelming presence that everyone looked up at it for a moment.

By the time you realized what was happening, it was already too late. Once Lava Tear rose high enough, the regressor spread her stance, drew back her shoulder, and aimed Skywarbler.

Her target was Lava Tear, the treasure filled with the fire deep beneath the earth. She fired her sword.

"Celestial Sword Qi. Shoot the Sun."

Whoosh.

A short, light sound, like someone blowing air, pierced through Tantalus. A clean trajectory sliced diagonally through the sky.

An invisible blade shot upward at a slant and pierced straight through the center of Lava Tear in midair. In the darkness, the sword trail glowed red.

In that instant, flames burst through a crack in the red orb packed with immense power.

It was the kind of flame that lit stars.

Darker than the sun, yet still a crimson blaze fierce enough to light this narrow land.

The regressor spoke with confidence.

"The Abyss is pretty dark, right?"

Lava Tear was a bomb that exploded when magical power was poured into it. But if you fed that power in a specific pattern, it bled off the delayed explosion instead.

What did that mean?

"So I made a pseudo-sun. Not those fake lights the military state copied, but a real flame that lights the world!"

At that moment, a tiny sun rose in the Abyss. For the first time since its birth, the Abyss had light.

When that red light fell across the earth, the vampires' blood lost its saturation. The crimson glow hanging in the sky seemed to claim that color belonged to light alone, burning away all that dark red blood aura.

The flame of a star was a vampire's natural enemy.

It could not tolerate anything below it daring to shine red.

"Kyaaaaaaah--!"

Finlay was no exception. His skin rippled and darkened like spreading bruises. If he had not been near the Progenitor, he would have crumbled into black ash.

The Progenitor instinctively gathered darkness to block the light, but even that tilted the battle in our favor. The darkness surrounding us vanished, and everything brightened.

The nobles of the night were nobles no longer.

The regressor spun her red-stained Skywarbler and said,

"Tyrkanzyaka lost because humanity got stronger, sure... but the biggest reason is that she's been challenged for over a thousand years. She was always one of the top calamities of the mortal world."

"Urrgh! You cowardly--!"

"Cowardly? Hah. Still better than some filthy parasite trying to control her heart the moment she got a little weaker."

Driven into a corner, Finlay shouted from behind the black mist.

"Progenitor! That orb!"

At Finlay's command, the vampire reached out her hand. Blood and darkness gathered and formed a giant hand. As she extended her arm, the massive hand of blood stretched out like an extension of her body.

Its fingertips touched the tiny sun, and the vampire clenched her hand. A blood-red grip wrapped around the little sun.

Then it hissed, burned, and snapped apart strand by strand.

"It's useless. Even Tyrkanzyaka never fully overcame the sun. With your lousy control, there's no way you can draw that kind of power out of her."

There was no choice. Finlay desperately gathered darkness and hid himself. After barely catching his breath, he panted in pain.

"Urgh, you... you have true blood! You were blessed by the Progenitor, and you still dare betray her?!"

"Hm? If I received grace, then I should repay it. By killing parasites like you."

After pushing him to his limit, the regressor stepped forward, toward the two vampires hiding in the dark to avoid the sunlight.

"True blood! You carry true blood, and you dare use the sun... true blood?"

"Come on. I'll finish this quickly. It'll only take a moment...."

She stepped boldly into the darkness-soaked area.

"Haha! Right, you really do carry true blood in your body?!"

From behind the darkness came Finlay's low laugh, his form still hidden. It was a triumphant voice, nothing like someone groaning in pain moments ago.

The regressor frowned at that reaction.

'He shouldn't have any way to resist now. Why does true blood matter?'

"Looks like you don't know what having true blood means, kid."

Finlay laughed grotesquely and shouted,

"That blood is immense power, and at the same time, the strongest shackle! Great power always demands a matching price. You accepted that blood to gain strength, but it will end up choking your own neck!"

"Damn it!"

The regressor realized something and hurriedly sliced her own finger with Skywarbler. At the same time, she pushed bloodcraft to its limit, trying to pull every trace of true blood out of her body.

But true blood had already spread through every corner of her body. She still wasn't skilled enough with bloodcraft to isolate only that and extract it.

In bloodcraft alone, Finlay was much faster. He grabbed the Progenitor's heart.

"Progenitor, stop that woman's heart!"

Again, the vampire's upper body swayed weakly. Then she reached out her hand. The regressor's face tightened with urgency. More blood poured from her finger.

But just before true blood could spill out,

the vampire clenched empty air.

At the same time, I heard something near me being violently squeezed.

"Kyaak...!"

The regressor's chest caved in unnaturally, then sprang back. Blood burst from her mouth, and her slim body staggered hard....

Huh, wait. Regressor? If you're gone, I'm done for.

I rushed over and caught her.

"Huh? Wait! Trainee Shei! You can't collapse!"

"Kh, hngh. Th-this...!"

"You still have to scold Trainee Tyrkanzyaka for me! I'm at a matchup disadvantage here!"

"You're saying that... to someone who looks like this...?!"

Thankfully, the regressor didn't die. She had protected her heart with her own bloodcraft and energy.

The ultimate defensive energy technique, Heavenly Mirror, guaranteed normal function no matter what state the body was in. Her heart had stopped for a moment, but her entire body kept moving as usual, and her heart followed that flow back to life.

"I held out...! But."

The regressor panted and straightened herself. Her eyes still burned with fighting spirit, but the body did not always follow the mind. She staggered again, clutched her chest, and ground her teeth.

"Right now... pulling true blood out... is impossible...!"

"What? Then what do we do about Trainee Tyrkanzyaka?"

"Just hold out somehow...! Three minutes, just three minutes...!"

"Me?"

Forget three minutes. If that vampire wanted to, she could cook me in three seconds.

The only lucky part was that Finlay was controlling her right now, so she couldn't react quickly, and with her ego faded, her hostility toward me and the regressor was weaker. She was probably using less than one-tenth of her full power.

Of course...

"Kh...!"

That was because Finlay was incompetent.

I couldn't measure the vampire's power, but Finlay's had limits.

He said he was controlling the Progenitor with bloodcraft, but this was far harder than working a marionette. He was forcing blood through a stopped heart with bloodcraft, then barely waking a sliver of her clouded reason to issue commands.

Even that only became barely possible after the vampire herself gave up her authority.

"With a thrall's body... I still can't control true blood... even while controlling the Progenitor...?!"

Finlay had nearly burst his own heart trying to control true blood, and he was in pain almost equal to the regressor's.

Unlike her, though, Finlay was a vampire. Pain was pain, but even a burst heart would not kill him.

"Heh. It's fine. I have more than enough ways to kill you. Do you know what the Progenitor's nickname is?"

Finlay stretched out his hand. In that moment, things crawled out one after another from areas untouched by light.

They were countless Black Knights in pitch-black armor, carrying weapons made of darkness.

"Knight Slayer. The first nickname ever given to the Progenitor. No matter how skilled or famous they were, they were still just swordsmen. Everyone who came for the Progenitor was swept away and died in her sea of blood."

Step, step, step, step.

Step, step, step, step.

The number of Black Knights seemed endless. There were so many I almost wondered if they were being made out of thin air.

Their whole bodies were jet black, like they had been stamped from the same mold.

But if you looked closer, each one was slightly different. The hand gripping the weapon, the weapon itself, height and build, even stride and footsteps.

They marched out in neat, disciplined ranks, yet every one of them was a different being.

"Because the Progenitor is a legion all by herself."

Finlay pointed at the Black Knights lined up before him. They couldn't use blood aura because Lava Tear was shining from above, but even without that red life-force that burned blood, this number alone could wipe out an ordinary city with ease.

Finlay strutted as if this power were his own.

"Well then, swordsman. Can you beat a legion?"

Impossible.

Certain of victory, Finlay held out his hand. Thousands of Black Knights took one step toward us.

Compared to that, all we had was an exhausted regressor and me, who had never had strength to begin with.

"Kh...! That number...!"

A troubled look flashed in the regressor's eyes. She still hadn't fully controlled the violent energy inside her, yet she tried to force herself up.

"Sit down for a second."

"Kyaak?!"

I kicked the back of her knee to make her sit again, then stroked my chin and pretended to think. Just then I heard panting from below.

"You... can't... win...."

"You're right, I can't. So."

The Black Knights, my ass. Three of them would be enough to finish me. And you want me to beat that whole army? Not happening.

So what I could do was already decided.

I turned to the regressor and informed her.

"Should I call her?"

"...Yeah."

The regressor had hesitated to use this because the vampire's body might get completely wrecked.

Still, better that than my body getting wrecked. I reached into my pocket. I barely carried anything, so finding what I wanted was easy.

"Alright. See this? This is going to kill you."

I pulled a bell from my pocket.

It was a small chime bell, the one I used when feeding Azzy. I raised it in one hand and shook it side to side.

Jingle, jingle. A clear, tiny ring trickled out, then was quickly buried under Finlay's mad laughter.

"Hahaha! What are you trying to do by ringing a bell? Is that some divine bell? Not a chance!"

Finlay mocked me and shouted,

"Was it pickled garlic you said? Fine, I'll throw your words right back at you! I'll hang your body upside down and drain every drop of blood! Including that bell, I'll crush you right no--"

"Grrrr."

Finlay's voice cut off. Like he had just seen death itself, he turned his stiff neck toward the sound.

I shrugged.

"Alright, Azzy. This bad guy is bullying us."

Darkness covered everything, blood sloshed around, and the whole space trembled with dread. The chime bell sounded pathetically faint in that place.

Still, it was loud enough for the King of Dogs to hear.

"Grrrrrrrr."

Her twitching lips pulled fully back, exposing every tooth. Her fur and tail stood on end like thorns. The gentle, bright face was gone, replaced by pure hostility as she glared at the vampire.

The King of Dogs, Puppy, stepped in front of me, radiating open hostility.

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