"Which son of a bitch--! Threw this piece of--!"
A beast's roar shakes the world. It feels like blood might burst from the voice. The thick, thunderous voice rattles the cloud waterfall.
Following that, violent, thudding footsteps. Like an elephant stamping its feet. The footsteps of just one man shake the earth and cause tremors.
While everyone flinched from instinctive terror, a massive shadow loomed beyond the cloud waterfall.
Tearing through the mist appeared a giant drenched in blood. His shaggy hair was soaked with blood, and his beast-like pointed ears lay flat against his head. Clutching a gleaming white dagger in one hand, he roared with fury and pain.
"Come out right now--! If you come out--! I'll kill you quickly--!"
Blood-soaked Runken.
The only remaining boar beastman in the world. That alone makes him special enough, but he is even more famous for another reason.
He is an Elder.
One of the thirteen vampires who received True Blood directly from the Progenitor. One of them. Among the Elders, the most resilient and reckless existence.
The Elder who earned the nickname "Blood-soaked" because he was always covered in blood after finishing a fight, was already drenched in blood before the fight even began. It was probably Hilde's thrown holy sword that made him bleed... But upon seeing the unmistakable form of an angel, he snorted.
"You daaaare--! It's an angel--!"
Thud, thud, thud. In just three steps, Runken kicked off the ground and charged, ramming the angel with his shoulder.
It was a sudden attack... but the angel was smaller than it appeared. Dazzled by the lightning, Runken rammed the wrong spot and passed through the lightning wings, getting electrocuted and rolling across the ground.
"Graaah--! You coward! Fight me fairly--!"
He attacked and then he fell. Even a third-rate play wouldn't show such a ridiculous scene. However, both the Thunder Cult Master who had been attacked and the Thunder Guardians watching the scene held their breath.
Within mere seconds of revealing himself beyond the cloud waterfall, he had reached this point. If the Thunder Cult Master had been careless, or if Runken had aimed better... he might have had to take that charge with his own body.
The tense Guardians stopped in their tracks, but they had no time to regroup. From beyond the cloud waterfall, a young girl's voice rang out.
"Heh. This damn boar! Has that stiff fur finally pierced through your skull and burrowed into your brain! Use your brain before you move!"
A girl holding a small doll appeared. Wearing a flowing, pitch-black dress with a white frill on her head. Her small, cute face displayed exaggerated changes in expression.
She looked like a noble girl out for a stroll, but her true identity was a horrifying existence one would hesitate to even speak of.
Blood Virgin Kabila.
An Elder and a dark mage. The discoverer of blood magic and seeker of forbidden taboos. The Elder of sin who crammed every element the Sacred Imperial Court deemed abhorrent into that small body.
The Elder who left her mark on history put her hand on her hip and shouted petulantly.
"We're going to welcome our sister, not marching to war because we lack blood! No matter how much of a beast you are, at least have the restraint to tell shit from food!"
As the verbal abuse poured out, Runken jumped up and shouted indignantly.
"Shit! Did I step out for nothing! There was an angel--!"
"If it's an angel, you should close in even more slowly! Do you think they'll let you ram them if you just charge in with your fur bristling? Are you an idiot, a moron? Ah, or are you blind? Since you couldn't even properly ram the angel you were aiming for!"
She stomped her feet while spewing abusive language, but her expression looked rather relieved. It seemed as if she was delighted to have found an excuse to hurl insults. While Runken hesitated, a large hand blocked her path before she could say another word, her momentum built up.
"Now. That's enough, why don't you think about it for a moment."
A young man with a greatsword draped over his shoulder raised his hand and blocked Kabila. Kabila, who looked ready to spew venom until the end of the world, clamped her mouth shut at the young man's single word. After a brief silence, the young man stroked his chin and fell into thought.
"I can feel it. The Progenitor is here. We came to this place to serve the one who will be our beginning and end. However, the path ahead is rather crowded."
A greatsword with blood-red blades. Hair that burned like fire. A pale and stoic face contrasting with the passionate hair color.
There are quite a few humans with such features. However, if limited to the category of vampires, that number drops dramatically.
Let alone if that were an Elder, one couldn't help but think of 'him,' the very synonym of vampire.
The moment his name came to everyone's minds, he too reached a conclusion.
"Then, shouldn't we clear the way?"
The first Elder the Progenitor ever created. And the Archduke of the Mist Duchy. Blood Knight. Corpse Mountain.
Red Blood Duke Veldamir.
Three horrific beings who reduce humans to blood livestock had come. Horrific existences that all humanity should rightfully fear and despise. Even one of them was the Red Blood Duke.
Not only the Thunder Guardians but even the Thunder Cult Master tensed up. Who could maintain composure before an immortal monster that everyone in the world had tried to kill but couldn't?
As learned fear drifted about, Runken scratched the ground and shouted excitedly.
"You mean sweep all these pests away, Veldamiiir--!"
"Let's negotiate first. There's no reason to refuse an easy method."
"Urgh..."
Veldamir, who silenced Runken with a single word, pointed precisely at the Thunder Cult Master and spoke.
"This path. Will you clear it? Or do you wish for me to clear it?"
- So saying, a faint smile lingered on Veldamir's lips. As if testing the Thunder Cult Master while already knowing the answer.
Becoming Archduke in the Mist Duchy where the Progenitor, no different from a racial deity, openly existed. What would be required for that? Power? Authority? Or wisdom? Political acumen?
The answer was all of it.
Red Blood Duke Veldamir reigns from a position second only to one, above ten thousand. Essentially no different from any other Elder, yet all Elders acknowledged him as the de facto representative. Capable enough to rule a nation, and the only one fit to welcome the Progenitor who would one day return.
The Thunder Cult Master intuited it. No matter what excuses were made now, that horrific existence had likely already seen through everything. There was no choice but to fight.
...In the first place, if there were no intention to fight, the Red Blood Duke wouldn't have personally come. Would vampires, unwelcome everywhere, appear in another city themselves?
"Vampires who should be inside the duchy, why are they here...!"
"It's still daytime!"
The Thunder Cult Master raised his hand. The confused Thunder Guardians fell silent and awaited the Cult Master's command.
[Do not fear. They are the Duchy's Elders. I don't know why they came all the way here without any prior message, but this is clearly an invasion. Targeting our city and our citizens.]
Veldamir kept his greatsword on his shoulder and watched quietly. He seemed to have no intention of acting until the Thunder Cult Master finished speaking.
The Thunder Cult Master briefly hesitated whether it was right to order an attack against this suddenly arrived disaster, but the deliberation was short.
In any case, defeat meant the end. From the vampires of the Mist Duchy who treated humans as livestock, neither morality nor dignity could be expected. Submitting might save their lives, but becoming walking lunchboxes and eking out an existence in the mist where not a single ray of sunlight reached would be a tragedy more terrible than death.
Their faith was not misplaced. Vampires must be eradicated. Those horrible creatures must not exist in this world, and the Thunder Cult Master had to oppose them even if only to protect the city.
[The Thunder Cult Master requests the city's guardians. Repel them all. Don't let the bats who see humans as livestock even set foot in the city!]
The Thunder Guardians answered with a battle cry. They began to move to eliminate the more certain enemy. Against merely three, but all three of them as adversaries.
The Elders shouted as if they had been waiting.
"Alright! That's the spirit! Fiiight--!!"
"Heh! Did lightning strike their brains or something, they've finally lost their minds! They say they'll eliminate us! Us! Heh, listen to the livestock barking!"
Runken immediately charged out and Kabila picked up her doll. Behind the two whose blood-craving instincts had awakened, Veldamir stroked his chin and murmured.
"It seems the angels intend to stop us before we welcome the Progenitor. Well, it's certain that the Progenitor is here, just as the intelligence said."
The vampires must not be allowed to meet the Progenitor. The Progenitor Tirkanjaka is the god and heart of the vampires. If the two combined, vampires would surpass their limits and become beings capable of anything. Claudia lies under the sun so vampires cannot invade, but vampires protected by the Progenitor's darkness had once marched right up to the Sacred Imperial Court's doorstep.
It would be better to divide and conquer, the Thunder Cult Master judged. Veldamir saw through that thought and lifted the greatsword he had been resting on his shoulder.
"These so-called angels only make messes and never clean up after themselves, so I have no choice but to clean it up myself."
***
The pierced stomach hurts. Hilde healed me, but just because the form was restored doesn't mean a once-ruined body returns to its original state. Blood was flowing and organs were crushed—is one healthy just because it was patched up roughly? That's the same kind of bullshit as saying it takes no effort because running a lap around the field brings you back to the same spot.
But I still can't afford to lose consciousness.
Lightning Thief. The conversation with Frang hasn't even begun yet.
"No. I won't do it."
A ridge where clouds hang thick and thunder strikes in the distance. In that place where short grass grew thick, a man was flying a kite.
A large kite folded beautifully as if it were a letter sent to the sky. With iron frames covered in thin fabric, it rides the wind and floats at an angle. Then the kite flies high while tethered to a rope. Riding the wind and flying like a bird, it looks free.
A fierce wind that foretells rain and lightning blows against the kite frolicking in the open sky. While the small grasses crouch low to avoid the wind, the Lightning Thief gripped the string a little tighter and spoke.
"King of humans. Do you know what happens to a kite when its string breaks?"
Dead, and yet speaking informally to someone he just met. What an insolent bastard.
But I was a King of Humans who respected all humans equally, so I answered politely.
"It will either plummet to the ground, or fly far away into the sky."
"Correct. It flies joyfully through the sky, but that's only because I'm tethering the kite here and controlling it with the string. If I let go of this, or mishandle the controls, or the string breaks, the kite will plummet. It might shatter entirely and become a body that can never fly again."
A sudden gust of wind blows. Having read the wind, the Lightning Thief quickly released some string and let the kite go. Caught in the gust, the kite found exquisite balance and rose.
"It's the same. Humans also need something to hold onto. Where our origins lie. What values we must never forget. And the only one in this world who can do that is..."
"Faith?"
"...Yes."
The Lightning Thief looked a bit disgruntled at having his line stolen. He grumbled irritably.
"Originally, when I died, my body was to be made into a relic, and my belongings were to be strictly kept in a place no one could find. My achievements were to be packaged as the story of the Lightning Thief and passed down as a legend of the Sacred Imperial Court. It was a glorious thing, so I agreed. Having finished my work in Claudia, I headed to the Sacred Imperial Court on my own two feet."
"But this is your belonging, isn't it?"
"...Tch. I didn't know I'd care so much about a kite I let fly. I only needed it to send the Thunder God up into the sky."
Cold droplets begin to mix with the fierce wind. Small raindrops signaling the start of a storm gradually increase in volume. The kite, caught in the wind and rain, shakes uneasily.
"I only tried to establish order using alchemy. Using that lightning over there, I merely wanted to help the poor fallen nation that had lost everything. But a sage like me becomes a demon god? A demon god just for being a little more outstanding than others? Tch. If I could go back to before I became a demon god, I'd argue myself out of it."
"Why?"
"None of your business."
"Tell me. If you're such a great person, you might be able to persuade me."
"It's not a matter of persuasion. It's a difference in perspective and conviction."
The Lightning Thief turned his body and wound the string. As if he had nothing more to say. Devout even in death, like a true believer.
But since when could a dead person talk down to a living one with their head held so high?
"What meaning is there in a perspective others can't see? What sublimity is there in a conviction you can't convey to others? If you're going to embrace it all and die, then just become a corpse. Don't half-heartedly drag this out."
The Lightning Thief stopped winding the string. I walked toward his back and spoke.
"At some point, conviction, faith. They've all just been used as means to justify oneself. Hollowly crying out that it's for the sake of humanity."
Drip, drip drip. The raindrops gradually grow larger. The rain falling diagonally in the fierce wind heavily pelted my face and his. The kite wrapped in the storm shook forlornly.
"I am the King of Humans. Now, if you truly did this for humanity, tell me. Unlike some, I will listen to any wish, as long as it comes from a human."
Lightning struck within arm's reach. It's getting closer. A little more, and the lightning will reach this vicinity. The lightning, hesitating over where to strike, won't miss the mark that has risen from the earth.
As if seeing its future, the kite flying in the sky trembled anxiously and pulled at the Lightning Thief. The kite string dug into his flesh.
Even so, the Lightning Thief didn't let go of the string. He pulled the string little by little and spoke.
"To protect human purity. If the fallen nation had been left as they were, they would have been reborn as a new race, like the vampires."