WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 67: Puppet Progenitor and the Unpleasant Puppet Show (4)

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At my taunt, Finlay's eyes widened as if they might pop out.

"You bastard!!"

The veins in his neck bulged as he shouted so fiercely that he looked ready to spit blood. The darkness rippled with his anger. Beyond the reach of the light, tens of thousands of troops stirred and shifted.

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

That was when the regressor hurled the orb in her hand with all her strength. The red orb containing the flames of the earth, the Lava Tear, rose into the air above Tantalus. Though it was still closed, its immense presence drew every gaze for a moment.

By the time they noticed, it was too late. Once the Lava Tear had risen high enough, the regressor planted her feet wide, drew back her shoulder, and aimed Skywarbler.

Her target was the Lava Tear, the treasure containing flames from deep beneath the earth. The regressor fired her sword.

"Heavenly Sword Technique. Shooting the Sun."

Whoosh.

A light, brief sound, like a puff of breath, pierced through Tantalus. A clean trail cut diagonally through the air.

An unseen sword shot upward at an angle and pierced the center of the Lava Tear floating overhead. Its trail glowed red in the darkness.

In that instant, flames burst from the crack in the red orb, which contained an enormous amount of condensed energy.

It was the flame that kindled stars.

Dimmer than the sun, but a crimson blaze intense enough to illuminate this cramped land.

The regressor spoke confidently.

"The Abyss is pretty dark, isn't it?"

The Lava Tear was a bomb that exploded when magical energy was infused into it. Yet when magical energy was infused in a particular pattern, it released a delayed explosion.

What did that mean?

"So I made a little imitation sun. Not those artificial lights the military state copied, but a real flame that lights the world!"

At that moment, a small sun rose over the Abyss. Light existed in the Abyss, which had been dark since its birth.

As the red light shining down on the earth touched them, the vampires' blood lost its color. The red light floating overhead seemed to insist that color belonged to light alone, burning away every trace of dark crimson blood energy.

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

It could not tolerate anything shining red beneath it.

"Aaargh-!"

Finlay was no exception. His skin twitched and gradually darkened as though bruised. Had he not been near the Progenitor, he would have crumbled into black ash.

The Progenitor instinctively gathered darkness to block the light, but that alone turned the tide in our favor. The darkness surrounding us vanished, and everything became bright.

The nobles of the night were no longer noble.

The regressor spun Skywarbler, now stained red, around and around as she spoke.

"Tyrkanzyaka's defeat was partly because humanity grew stronger... but more than anything, she had been studied for over a thousand years. She had always been considered one of the greatest disasters in the human world."

"Grrrk! How cowardly!"

"Cowardly? Hmph. It's better than being an ugly bastard who tries to control someone's heart while they're weakened."

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

"Progenitor! That orb!"

At Finlay's command, the vampire stretched out a hand. Blood and darkness gathered together, forming an enormous hand. As the vampire reached out, the huge hand of blood extended as though it were an extension of the vampire's own arm.

As its fingertips touched the little sun, the vampire clenched a fist. The bloody hand closed around the little sun.

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

"It's useless. Even Tyrkanzyaka couldn't completely overcome the sun. With your pathetic control, there's no way you can squeeze that much power out of Tyrkanzyaka."

With no other choice, Finlay desperately gathered darkness around himself to hide his body. Having barely caught his breath, he panted in pain.

"Ghk, you have true blood! You received the Progenitor's grace, and yet you're trying to betray the Progenitor?!"

"Huh? I received a favor, so I should repay it. By beating parasites like you to death."

Having pushed him to his limit, the regressor moved toward the two vampires hiding in the darkness to avoid the sunlight.

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

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

The moment she confidently stepped into the darkness-stained area.

"Haha! Right, you have true blood in your body, don't you?!"

A low laugh came from Finlay, hidden behind the darkness. It was a triumphant voice, hard to believe it belonged to someone who had been groaning in pain moments ago.

The regressor frowned at his reaction.

'He shouldn't have any way to resist now. What's wrong with true blood?'

"You don't seem to understand what it means to possess true blood, kid."

Finlay laughed grotesquely and shouted.

"That blood is tremendous power, but it is also the strongest shackle! Great power always demands an equal price. You accepted that blood to gain power, but it will end up strangling you!"

"Oh, no!"

'True blood, it's still inside my body! And that blood...!'

Realizing something, the regressor hurriedly cut off her finger with Skywarbler. At the same time, she pushed bloodcraft to its limit, trying to draw all the true blood remaining in her body out through the wound.

But the true blood had already spread through every corner of her body. She was not yet skilled enough at bloodcraft to extract only that.

Finlay was far faster with bloodcraft alone. He gripped the Progenitor's heart.

"Progenitor, stop his heart!"

Once more, the vampire's upper body swayed limply. Then the vampire extended a hand. The regressor's expression turned urgent, and the blood flowing from her finger increased.

Yet just before true blood could flow out.

The vampire grabbed empty air.

At the same time, I heard something being crushed beside me.

"Kyah...!"

The regressor's chest caved in so deeply it looked unnatural, then returned to normal. Blood spurted from the corner of her mouth, and her slender body swayed badly...

Huh, wait a second. Regressor? I'm screwed without you.

I hurried over and supported her.

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

"Ghk, hngh. This is...!"

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

"Is that what you say... to someone in this state?!"

Fortunately, the regressor did not die. Her own bloodcraft and qigong had protected her heart.

The ultimate defensive qigong, the Heaven-Reversing Boundary, ensured that the body functioned normally under any circumstances. Her heart had stopped for a moment, but the regressor's entire body kept moving as usual, and her heart followed that flow.

"I endured it...! But."

The regressor panted as she straightened up. Her eyes had not lost their fighting spirit, but the body did not always follow the mind. She staggered again, clutching her chest and gritting her teeth.

"Drawing out the true blood... right now is impossible...!"

"What? Then what about Trainee Tyrkanzyaka?"

"Hold on somehow...! Three minutes, I only need three minutes...!"

"Me?"

No, forget three minutes. If the vampire felt like it, the vampire could cook me up and eat me within three seconds.

The only saving grace was that the vampire could not react swiftly while under Finlay's control, and that the vampire's blurred sense of self left little hostility toward the regressor and me. The vampire was probably unable to display even a tenth of her full strength.

Of course...

"Ghk...!"

That was only because Finlay was incompetent.

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

He controlled the Progenitor through bloodcraft, but that was far harder than controlling a marionette. He was moving the Progenitor's stopped heart with bloodcraft to force blood through the vampire's body, then barely awakening a sliver of the vampire's clouded mind to give commands.

Even that had only become barely possible after the vampire had relinquished her own authority.

"In the body of a thrall... Is controlling true blood impossible even in my current state of controlling the Progenitor...?!"

Finlay, whose heart had nearly burst from trying to control the true blood, suffered almost as much as the regressor.

Unlike the regressor, Finlay was a vampire. Pain had nothing to do with it. Even if his heart burst, he would not die.

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

Finlay extended a hand. At that moment, something crawled out one after another from beyond the reach of the light.

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

"Knight Slayer. The Progenitor's first nickname. No matter how skilled or renowned they were, they were only swordsmen. Everyone who came looking for the Progenitor was swept away and killed in the Progenitor's sea of blood."

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

There seemed to be no end to the Black Knights. There were so many that I wondered where they had all come from, or whether they were being created from thin air.

They were black from head to toe, like products stamped out from the same mold.

Look closely, though, and there were subtle differences. The hands gripping their weapons, the weapons in those hands, their height and build, even their stride and footsteps.

They marched out in perfect formation, but every one of them was a different being.

"Because the Progenitor is an army unto herself."

Finlay pointed at the Black Knights assembled before him. They could not use blood energy because of the Lava Tear shining above us, but even without that red vitality that burned blood, this number could easily destroy an ordinary city.

Finlay swaggered as though this power were his own.

"Well, swordsman. Can you fight an army and win?"

Impossible.

Certain of victory, Finlay extended his hand. Thousands of Black Knights took a step toward us.

By comparison, we only had the weakened regressor and me, who had been weak from the start.

"Ghk... That number...!"

A troubled look appeared in the regressor's eyes. Still unable to completely control the rampaging energy inside her, she tried to rise while staggering.

"Please stay seated for a moment."

"Kyah?!"

I kicked the back of her knee and made her sit down again, then stroked my chin and pretended to think. Just then, I heard her panting at my feet.

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

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

Black Knights, my ass. Three of those Black Knights alone would finish me. And I was supposed to defeat that many? It wasn't even worth discussing.

That was why the method I would use had already been decided.

I turned to the regressor and informed her.

"Should I call her?"

"...Yeah."

The regressor had hesitated to use this for fear it might completely destroy the vampire's body.

Still, that was better than my body getting destroyed. I rummaged through my pocket. It was very easy to find what I wanted in a pocket that held almost nothing.

"Now then. See this? This is going to kill you."

I took a bell from my pocket.

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

Jingle, jingle. The clear little bell rang out weakly, only to be buried beneath Finlay's laughter moments later.

"Hahaha! What are you trying to do by ringing a bell? Is it some divine bell? Don't be ridiculous!"

Finlay laughed at me and shouted.

"Was it pickled garlic? Fine, I'll throw those words back at you! I'll hang your body upside down and drain your blood! I'll crush you and that bell right-"

"Grrrr."

Finlay's voice cut off sharply. As if he had seen death itself, he turned his stiff neck toward the source of the sound.

I shrugged and said,

"Now then, Azzy. That bad guy is bullying us."

Darkness covered every direction, and blood sloshed around us. The chime bell sounded pitifully weak in that ominously trembling space.

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

"Grrrrrr."

Her twitching cheeks had opened completely, revealing every tooth. Her fur, tail, and every part of her body bristled like spikes. Her gentle, bright face held nothing but hostility as she glared at the vampire.

Azzy, the King of Dogs, stood before me, openly baring her hostility.

Footnotes:

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