The remaining ammunition ran out. Perhaps not expecting much from the bullets, Delta aimed the empty gun and approached the coffin.
“Monster! You, you're just a monster!”
[That is something I hear often, so it surprisingly lacks any thrill.]
Delta's mind swirled. With all sorts of emotions storming, even I couldn't read it clearly. Fear of death, anger that surpassed it, love and a sense of loss, and a desire for revenge.
The one desire that could be felt after filtering and filtering through is...
‘You must hurt too...!’
A single stream of desire that barely bloomed at the bottom of this Abyss. I watched over it just in case, and this is the result.
‘I don't believe I can kill you. I just want to convey even a tenth of this sorrow and pain to that monster! If bullets can't hurt that monster's body, then at least its heart!’
Delta, that looks easy.
Language is also a tool. Only those who have handled it often can use it properly. It's too much for you, who can't even speak properly.
“Yeees! You're so great. You must be the mighty Progenitor! Remain a monster forever, and live as a monster until the end of the world!”
I know what you're trying to say. That you will be lonely your whole life, that you will remain a monster until the end of the world, and die without knowing emotions or anything.
If you had refined it a little more, understood your opponent better, and then spat it out. Maybe it would have hurt the Progenitor's small desire. But Delta couldn't reach that far.
[Your screams are the same as well. If your lover is so precious, head to the same place.]
Darkness envelops Delta. Delta's feet lift off the ground. At that moment, Delta sensed death.
Actually, Delta had already committed suicide. He had stepped off the edge of the cliff, and it was only a matter of when he would hit the bottom.
It took quite a long time for a suicide, but the end arrived. The Progenitor said.
[I pray you both go to heaven. I will not be there, so it will be a good thing for both of us.]
Hearing the Progenitor's un-blessing, Delta struggled. Not because he wanted to live, but because he wanted to somehow achieve something before he died.
‘Somehow... even a little, the pain I experienced...’
In his fading consciousness, Delta strongly wished for the Progenitor's pain. Even as blood swallowed his body, and it chewed on his bones and flesh. Amidst feeling the terrible pain, he wished only for that.
A human who was Elsy Clark for most of his life, and Delta in the Abyss, died like that leaving only a damp lingering echo.
He fell into Tantalus with grand intentions, and even though he found trivial happiness only after giving up his cause at the bottom, he ultimately failed to achieve it and fell asleep inside me.
It is an absurd death. Humans who were no better than beasts clearly knew they would die too. They are swayed by unseen things like love or a cause, throwing away even their own lives. Someone might call it romantic and extol it, but to me it just looks foolish.
However.
I am the king of such foolish people.
I am the king of broken beasts who often throw away their lives at the mercy of things they cannot even see.
Ah. I should become ordinary.
[I have given you plenty of time. I have also shown you an example. Is your deliberation over?]
The arrogant Progenitor asked.
Ah. Because you have lived for so long, you are a pitiful existence trying to define yourself as a phenomenon.
Your desire must surely be to return to being human. Why do you try to become a god? Do you want to be understood by everyone that much?
You are not a god. At best, you are nothing but the king of vampires... and even that, a half-baked one who cannot even represent them.
I opened my mouth casually.
“Since two just died, I need to receive a little more. Please save me too, and save my remaining comrades.”
[What a greedy one. There is a limit to indulging your obstinacy.]
“Instead, I will make your heart beat again.”
As the Progenitor flinched as if pricked by something, I twisted my body and headed toward Finlay, who was quietly bowing his head. The order the Progenitor gave was still valid, so he kept his mouth shut even when Delta died.
‘Hahaha! What a sight. Yes, this is it! Now it's a properly established food chain! Krahahaha!’
He only kept his mouth shut, but his thoughts were still noisy.
What I brought were the stake that pierced Finlay and the Immortal's arm. When I approached holding the stake, his expression changed moment by moment.
‘A mere human could never harm the Progenitor! Kuk kuk kuk. Yes! This is right... Huh? What is that guy doing...? As long as the Progenitor is here, I won't die from something like a stake?’
“Set, Li, Bolt.”
I drove the stake into Finlay so it touched his heart, and poured lightning magic into its end. The current flowed along the stake into Finlay's heart. Finlay's body shivered.
‘Ugh. What is this? This attack that isn't dangerous but feels unpleasant...?’
It is a weak bolt of lightning that is hard to kill even a human. It wouldn't work on a vampire. Finlay was fine. It was when Finlay, furious at being attacked out of nowhere, was about to ask the Progenitor for permission to kill me.
I spoke to the Progenitor.
“Did you perhaps feel it? Finlay's heart reacting.”
Of course he felt it. Finlay is currently within the Progenitor's domain, and all the movement of blood is exposed to the Progenitor's senses. The Progenitor must have read the movement of blood like looking at the palm of his hand.
The Progenitor didn't answer. After reading an affirmation from the silence, I shrugged and explained.
“I heard that vampires' hearts don't beat. They use blood manipulation to move blood to every part of their bodies. That is certainly amazing, but isn't it more convenient to have a heart beating? It's annoying to move everything one by one. How about it? My lightning might be able to make your heart beat.”
‘What? Suddenly. What is this insolent human saying to the Progenitor...! What are you plotting, Hughes!’
A reaction came. The coffin lid opened, and an ephemeral girl who seemed to have lost her color raised her body. The Progenitor, who revealed her true self for the first time in hundreds of years, showed great interest in the new knowledge about the heart.
“Is that true? Can that really move the heart?”
“Of course, my lightning might not work on the Progenitor. Because the Progenitor is such a mighty existence... However, it is known that a human heart moves in this way. If it's the same principle, wouldn't there be a reaction?”
‘What? A human like this couldn't possibly harm the Progenitor...! But why do I feel so ominous that my body shudders? Something is dangerous...!’
Even for the Progenitor, there is a reluctance to reveal one's heart to others. However, that is not because of worry that the heart might break, but out of shame akin to showing one's inner flesh.
Shame is defeated by desire. The same goes for the Progenitor.
Desire crushed shame. With the thought of being deceived even if it were a lie, the Progenitor split her chest along with her clothes. The beautiful fabric tore, and the gruesome inside of her body was revealed.
The Progenitor said.
“Then. Try it.”
“If I succeed, you will stop fighting. While you're at it, please protect me too.”
“Shouldn't you worry about when you fail?”
“I'm the type who doesn't worry meaninglessly. The worst that can happen is death, right?”
Even while conversing with the Progenitor, Finlay's desperate inner cry could be heard.
‘O Progenitor! No. Please, no! That guy is dangerous right now. Even if I don't know the method, even if I don't know his intentions...! He will definitely do something...! O Progenitor!’
However, the Progenitor's order is absolute, and Finlay must keep his mouth shut. Because the Progenitor did not allow it.
I smiled slightly so only Finlay could see, and headed toward the Progenitor. Hiding something lethal in my hand where the current crackled.
Today is the day everyone achieves their desires.
The Progenitor will regain the emotions she had longed for even in her dreams, and according to Finlay's wish, she will end her long seclusion and go out into the world.
Humans are creatures that kill themselves for something unseen. It is illogical, irrational, and far removed from ordinary beasts, but...
Still, I am their king.
Canisen, who fought Ebon, died with his chest pierced. Alpha died of blood loss with his arm cut off. The two had woken the Immortal, claiming to be allies, but the Immortal on this land without the earth's aura is junk without power. They were no match for Ebon's claws.
The Colonel pressured Azi along with Nabi. Azi, who could not attack humans, was beaten without being able to use its front or hind legs, and eventually fell while bleeding.
Although they achieved their intended purpose, Ebon trembled with a sense of anxiety running down his spine.
Canisen and Alpha clearly looked like they were stalling for time. If so, that meant the remaining personnel were definitely doing something that required time. Ebon easily deduced this.
“Don't tell me they're thinking of waking the Progenitor....”
The blood flowing from Canisen and Alpha's corpses crawled along the floor heading somewhere. Ebon headed toward the underground armory following the bloodstains and muttered.
Ebon's adjutant and confidant, Colonel Grunt McKinsey, heard that mutter and answered.
“What are you worrying about? I heard that the Progenitor does not intervene in conflicts between humans.”
“It's not that she doesn't intervene because the principle is absolute. She created such a principle because she didn't want to intervene. What would the Progenitor, who insults even gods, be afraid of? I don't think the Progenitor herself would break the principle for trivial matters, but I have no idea what those who had the crazy thought of waking the Progenitor might do.”
“The Progenitor didn't even react when the military nation buried the Abyss. How could they wake the Progenitor?”
As if answering that question, a voice came from beyond the steel door.
“What if it's the Immortal's flesh?”
Ebon turned to where the sound came from. He saw a large steel door with patterns drawn in blood. A deep red energy was seeping in as if filling the gaps of the door, but suddenly the energy scattered and it burst open.
From inside, a man holding something pitch-black stumbled out.
Ebon recognized the man's identity. He was a prisoner hastily thrown in after Colonel Lankart's escape incident. For Jiseon's plan, someone had to step into Tantalus and live, so they threw in a prisoner with light charges among those recently caught awaiting trial. It was possible thanks to Colonel Lankart taking all the dangerous prisoners out.
He had definitely heard he was a petty criminal with light charges.
But what is it?
‘What? What is this sense of incongruity?’
Ebon observed him and realized the identity of the object he held in his hand.
‘The Immortal's arm...?’
The man, with blood on his face, waved an arm that wasn't his toward Ebon. He didn't know the reason, but Ebon somehow found the sight chilling.
“Hello, Ebon Crimsonwild. You well-fed cat. Nice to meet you.”
[Neigh!]
It was then. The sound of hooves approached from beyond the open door. Soon, a giant blood-red horse burst out, squeezing through the passage. Ebon tensed his body.
‘Blood Demon Rallion...! The Progenitor's minion! Did they really wake the Progenitor! But...?’
The blood-red horse showed the whites of its eyes... Ebon glared at the man without paying any attention. Horses are relatively gentle creatures, but immense anger and murderous intent could be felt from its face. Clearly, if Rallion even touched him, that young man would be crushed.
Just before the rampaging Rallion rammed into the man.
At that time, the man reached out his left hand. A cloth spread out wide to his side. As the fabric fluttered before its eyes, Rallion's gaze was momentarily directed there.
At the same time, the man rubbed the ground with the Immortal's arm held in his right hand. The pitch-black flesh crumbled and scattered on the ground, and Rallion's hooves that fell on it melted and slipped.
An elaborate movement like a matador. Rallion narrowly passed the young man and tumbled far away. Of all places, to where Nabi was.
Nabi leapt up and bared its fangs.
“Nyahaah! It's a weird horse-nya! Blood smell! It's unpleasant-nya!”
[Snort!]
With the two beasts suddenly starting to fight in the background, the man walked slowly. Regardless of the baffling scene, Ebon regained his composure.
‘Blood Demon Rallion is the Progenitor's minion. Seeing that he is being attacked by it, it doesn't seem like he made the Progenitor his ally. The persuasion clearly failed. If so, there's nothing to fear.’
“It seems your last gamble has failed. I will pray for your sou...”
“Are you also chasing something unseen? Hahaha. How nice. Just how warm must your back be and how full your stomach be, that you're grinding away human lives to find something like the meaning of your existence?”
Ebon's composure soon disappeared. Ebon stiffened his face and asked back.
“...What do you mean?”
“It probably wasn't like that at first. You only had the instinct to survive and hostility towards your enemies. With only those two things, you fiercely defeated the kingdom, became a general, and turned into a well-fed cat with a warm back.”