WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 68

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Puppet Progenitor and the Unpleasant Puppet Show (5)

"Grrrrr."

A low subsonic growl rolled through the Abyss. The beast's rumble brushed past us, and our muscles seized with fear for a moment. It was the same for me, the regressor, and Finlay.

The King of Dogs always stood on humanity's side and stayed closest to humans. When humans fought each other, she would sooner shut her eyes and block her nose than interfere.

But toward monsters made of blood, she showed not even a shred of affection or trust. So when humans and vampires clashed, Azzy was humanity's strongest ally.

"Grrr."

Facing those who had once been human, Azzy bared her fangs in the truest sense.

"S-stop her!"

Finlay shouted the order. Hundreds, then thousands, of Black Knights rose from the ground. Clad in pitch-black armor and armed with every kind of weapon, they formed ranks to shield Finlay and the vampire.

Boom.

Black Knights carrying tower shields painted in darkness locked down the front line, and sharp lances rose between them. The heavily armored knights held their breath and waited for the beast to approach.

If she rushed in carelessly, they would surround and hunt her.

"Woof---!!"

But then.

Spears, shields, lances, armor, Black Knights.

None of it could stop the King of Dogs.

Azzy leaped with a massive howl. The moment I thought it, she was already in the middle of the Black Knights.

Even the regressor lost sight of her for a second, and even the wind failed to keep up, arriving a beat too late behind her.

Crunch. Azzy snapped her head up. A Black Knight's head flew into the air. Black smoke poured out instead of blood.

With a Black Knight's blood, the King of Dogs signaled a massacre.

The shield-bearing vanguard twisted around, spear knights tried to realign their shafts, sword knights thrust their blades, and mace knights raised both hands high.

No attack ever landed. Every time Azzy stomped, armor shattered, weapons snapped, and black bodies ripped apart.

"Awooooo---!!"

Overwhelming beastly violence swept through them. Azzy was a beast in human shape, and a calamity for blood demons that toyed with corpses.

Human blood. The scent dogs loved beyond reason drove Azzy, the King of Dogs, into a frenzy. The Progenitor had suppressed even the smell of blood with bloodcraft pushed to its limit, but Finlay could not. Azzy loathed it, and that disgust turned into a raw urge to destroy.

A Black Knight caught in her claws crumbled like smoke. She smashed one and was already on the next. She tore one throat open and moved on to another.

Put simply, she was taking them down one strike at a time. But she moved so fast it looked like wildfire spreading. Black Knights were crushed in ripples from wherever Azzy landed, and each time black smoke and red blood sprayed into the air.

Watching Black Knights get shredded by the second, Finlay felt fear.

"Progenitor! That beast!"

At Finlay's cry, the vampire slowly waved a hand.

Scattered darkness and blood rose again and took on a massive shape. A giant Black Knight stood there, at least five meters tall, with armor that looked a full meter thick, holding an enormous mace packed tight with blood.

Just as Azzy sank her teeth into a surviving Black Knight's neck, the giant Black Knight brought the mace down. It moved far faster than something that size should. The heavy mace slammed into Azzy's head, and concrete exploded in every direction from the aftershock alone.

The sound was deafening.

Silence after the storm. Sound died after the impact. A high ringing whined in my ears, and the only thing still moving was debris rising and settling.

"Finish it!"

Even then, the giant Black Knight twisted the mace half a turn and drove it down again, short and hard, like a finishing blow.

Then the giant Black Knight raised its arm.

The mace had been cut in half from the middle.

"Grrng."

Azzy lifted her head with all four paws planted in the ground. In her mouth hung the giant mace, snapped in half, a weapon that looked three times larger than her body.

With that much weight and hardness, her teeth should have shattered and her jaw should have given out. But Azzy lifted her chin as lightly as if she were biting a toy, then shook her head side to side.

Boom, crash, crack, smash.

The huge mace, heavy enough to crush anything, vibrated in an unreal blur. Every time she shook it like a dog shaking off water, everything within one to five meters on her left turned into dust and smoke.

The surviving Black Knights, the giant Black Knight's legs, even the concrete floor, all of it was equal before Azzy's strength.

Pulverization. Nothing else could describe that destruction.

Snap. The mace broke from the middle. It could not endure the force Azzy swung with. Azzy shook it a few more times without realizing, then spat out the remaining shaft and glared at Finlay and the vampire.

When that savage feral gaze turned on him, Finlay flinched in fear without meaning to. Then he realized he had been afraid, grew furious at himself, and shouted.

"It's useless!! The Progenitor's power is far from finished!"

Fanatic faith in the Progenitor, and the madness born from it, surged up. Finlay used his ability and grabbed the vampire's heart.

The throbbing heart made the Progenitor's body twitch for a moment. A red glint returned to her dim eyes for an instant, then vanished.

Having briefly seized the Progenitor's heart through bloodcraft, Finlay forcibly moved the blood flowing through her body.

"Progenitor! Show that beast your power!!"

The Black Knights. The strongest force the vampire could summon without preparation or risk. They could not last even a moment before the King of Dogs, but that was not the true essence of the Black Knights.

Shadows clotted inside the scattered darkness. From round pits of shadow, black arms thrust up, planted on the ground, and pulled bodies upright.

It happened in every shadow in the Abyss.

The immortal Black Knights that had fallen under Azzy's claws and fangs rose one by one. In seconds, their numbers were restored to what they had been before annihilation.

The revived Black Knights faced the King of Dogs, red eyes glowing from inside their armor.

"The Black Knights rise forever! What you killed were just scarecrows we can remake at any moment!!"

Finlay screamed in a frenzy and pointed at Azzy. At his command, the Black Knights advanced all at once.

A march toward a single being. They were the many, yet the sight of Black Knights advancing on the Beast King without fear was enough to inspire awe.

"Be swept away in a sea of blood and die, beast!!"

Blood spraying from his mouth, Finlay shouted, expecting the King of Dogs to slowly tire against endless Black Knights and finally fall.

"Grrrrr."

Azzy might have been simple-minded, but she was not stupid.

Following her instincts toward the strongest pull of blood scent, Azzy growled, braced her forepaws, and lowered her body.

Her hind claws bit into concrete, her forepaws gripped the ground. Flat on all fours, she took the stance of a predator ready to spring.

By the time Finlay felt dread, that premonition had already become reality.

"Woof-!"

With one short bark, Azzy launched herself. Her target was the vampire, sitting blankly atop the coffin.

The moment her paws left the ground, Azzy was already surging at the vampire.

Sharp claws sliced through darkness and rushed in. Her outstretched paw was already within reach. Overwhelming violence, worthy of the Beast King, crashed toward the vampire's small, fragile body. It was savage enough to burst her apart in a single blow.

Finlay's eyes bulged.

"No...!"

Finlay's ability could not stop it. He could not even sense it. All he could do was feel a flash of dread and stare in delayed horror.

At the exact moment Azzy, faster than perception, was about to drive her paw into the vampire's chest.

A red hoof dropped from above Azzy.

Azzy's body was knocked back faster than she had lunged in. She smashed halfway into the ground, then rebounded out and floated low in the air. Above her, the blood horse spun half a turn and leaped, then struck Azzy with a massive hoof the size of a human torso.

Thud.

The sound of flesh meeting hoof was loud enough to carry all the way to us. Azzy flew through the air like a small ball, much faster than any ball I could throw.

A moment later, with a crash like collapsing brickwork, the entire third-floor prison wall turned into a cloud of dust. Azzy vanished into it.

[Snort.]

Then the horse snorted.

The blood horse Rallion. The first familiar, which obeyed only the Progenitor's commands, had entered the battle as the Progenitor faced danger.

Finlay, who had fallen into hell and grabbed a thread of hope, laughed pitifully.

"Haha! Rallion! Yes! You're finally listening to my command...!"

[Hreeeeing.]

Rallion snorted as if the idea were absurd.

The blood horse's breath was like a storm. Finlay, caught off guard, was lifted into the air. He bounced off the ground several times and rolled, then barely managed to flip over and stand.

"You bastard! I am controlling the Progenitor right now. I am the regent! If you're one of the Progenitor's thralls too, then you should obey my order...!"

Of course, the blood horse did not budge. It snorted forcefully and stared only at the direction where Azzy had disappeared.

Finlay looked rattled at Rallion, still in a combat stance.

"What? Why are you looking there?"

The answer came quickly. Finlay jerked, then slowly turned his head.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrr...."

The ground shook. An enraged beast was making the world tremble. From somewhere far off on the third floor.

Finlay's face turned ashen.

"N-no way. After taking a hit like that, she's still fine?"

The King of Dogs. Humanity's finest friend, always a loyal beast.

And a born hunter of enemies.

Finlay had misunderstood something.

The King of Dogs hated vampires because they were human corpses. Even humans recoil from corpses that were once human. How could a dog with a keen nose welcome a walking human body that reeked of a friend's blood?

But that was only aversion, far from a killing intent aimed at destroying an enemy.

In other words, the savage aggression that made a beast a beast was not directed at vampires.

But.

"...No, King of Dogs. You still weren't using your full strength?"

If the opponent was a beast, the King of Dogs became a hunter.

A blurred shape shot up. The wind trailing behind left only dust in its wake. She was so fast that the dust cloud could not keep pace and twisted into a vortex.

"Woof."

A fistful of blood from Rallion's body burst apart. Its mane-whipping neck vanished by half. Blood splashed wetly onto the ground.

After that, Azzy landed lightly and spat out the blood-soaked chunk of flesh in her mouth. The torn piece dropped to the ground.

[Hreeegh.]

Rallion, critically wounded, staggered hard, but only for a moment.

The red flesh on the ground melted into a slick mass and slipped back into Rallion's shadow. Right after that, the torn section of neck regenerated.

Rallion regenerated through the Progenitor's power. Even after having its neck torn apart, it still burned with fighting spirit and glared at Azzy. Every time its forehoof scraped the ground, concrete flipped up.

"Grrr."

Azzy also growled in displeasure at Rallion, still standing despite having its neck torn open. Her rigid claws dug into the ground.

The two beasts glared at each other, then howled at the same time as if by agreement.

"Awooooooooo!"

[Hreeeeeeeing!]

Leaving only those cries behind, both beasts lunged at each other.

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