Conveying the chaotic scene outside to the Lightning Thief, I continued speaking.
"Fighting for faith is for faith. Fighting for the Progenitor or the race is literally for the Progenitor and the race. If you use that as a reason to kill humans, how is that for the sake of humans? The sacrifice of the minority? Only those who don't die today can enjoy a tomorrow that is the same as yesterday. Those who die today have no tomorrow."
I hurriedly added before the Lightning Thief could say anything more.
"Ah, I'm not particularly saying anything against it? Beasts killing each other is natural. Whether it's for prey, a mate, or territory, killing an opponent for what one needs has always happened and is nothing new."
"Are you even affirming such a massacre?"
"Does it disappear if you deny it? What changes if you curse at me while dead? The ones stopping that massacre here are neither the Seonghwangcheong nor the vampires. It's neither you, who is already dead, nor me, who is just idly chattering away here. Only the beast that loves humans is desperately trying to stop the fight."
Who is better, who is worse. What ought to be done. That is too un-beastlike a thought. Foaming at the mouth insisting one shouldn't just stand by and watch what has already happened is something even a mudflat crab does.
"You want to save humans? Then prove it. I'm telling you to stake everything you have and exert your power here. You're dead, but the trace of the Demon God is carved into the world, so you can use your power, right?"
"There's no need for that. Claudia's defense function exists for times like this. If only that works."
"The power that the Lord of the Thunder Council can use, right? Just who do you think she will use that power on? Is the direction of that power for the 'humans' you think of?"
The Lord of the Thunder Council will in all likelihood fire at me and Peru first. Since an Elder cannot die unless it's a homicide close to suicide, she will definitely kill me first, who is easy to kill.
"If that is your will, I will accept it. But don't even say you're doing it for humans after that. Because I won't acknowledge it."
"I don't need your acknowledgment."
"Then I'll change my words. Because if you abandon them, you as a human won't be able to acknowledge yourself either."
Leaving aside Ajina the Returnee, Peru will surely die if left alone. The power of residual green she uses will eat away at her flesh regenerated by the Golden Mirror. All humans live on borrowed time, but Peru's end is much closer than other humans, and now that cruel clock is ticking several times faster.
There is little time left. It is now time for the Lightning Thief to make his choice. Realizing that he was the one being tested, the Lightning Thief gripped the string tightly and spoke.
"Are you testing me?"
"A dead guy talks too much. Decide quickly. Because I also want to know what the humans you cried out for are."
It doesn't matter what choice he makes. It's just like that. However, the Lightning Thief before me has his mental image imprinted on the world. A mental image read through telepathy can neither lie nor ignore its true feelings.
If he's going to choose faith sincerely, I hope he hurries up and goes to the Heavenly God's side.
"...What is your purpose, King of Humans? Are you trying to turn this world back to the age of barbarism? To that terrible era before the first year?"
"Am I some ability user who can turn back time? How could I turn that back?"
"Then? Why are you seeking the Demon God, knowledge that might ruin humans? What are you trying to do?"
Of course, it's the same for me in that I can't lie here. But I was an honest person to begin with, so there's no problem at all.
"To remind them that humans are beasts."
I calmly conveyed my true feelings to the Lightning Thief.
"Ideals, justice, truth, righteousness, morality. All of them may look too beautiful and great, but they are merely tools created by humans to use as they please. They create reasons to kill others with them, and use that as an excuse to kill humans. If that were real, I would have to fight them on behalf of humans, but unfortunately, that is inside human hearts, so it can't be seen or killed. Should I crack their heads open and pull it out? Or should I kill all humans to get rid of it? I can't do that, right?"
No, can I? Is the King of Sins exactly that case? Well, it's not something I did or will do, so it's none of my business. Anyway.
"We are not such great beings. We are equally worthless and lowly beasts. We were not chosen by gods, and we have no right anywhere to freely control all things in the world. What we do is fundamentally no different from a beast in the scorching sun rolling its body in the mud. To make myself, and thereby all humans, understand this."
That is why I am still the King of Beasts. I muttered calmly and looked at the Lightning Thief. His face was a mess of contempt, disgust, and anxiety.
I didn't feel too bad. Because that expression on the Lightning Thief wasn't directed at me.
"...As expected, I cannot agree with you."
"It doesn't matter if you don't agree. Because I already know what you tried to hide. From the moment you came here in the first place, the secret was already exposed."
Why is he here in the first place? Even though he surrendered his body to faith and volunteered to become their underling, even though he agreed to return the lightning to the sky and make it the Heavenly God's, even though he decided to disguise the legend of the Lightning Thief as a foolish tale of stealing the great Heavenly God's treasure, his mental image is here. What does that mean?
"When the lightning struck you, when it flowed down the string and passed through your body, what happened?"
"...!"
"What did you feel from the lightning that made you so afraid of the power of lightning becoming known? Why did you keep watch over the homunculi of the Ten Nations, which didn't even exist back then, and prevent them from being born?"
The truth the Lightning Thief wanted to hide. He, who didn't even fear falling lightning, trembled after being struck by lightning. Because he had glimpsed a secret so terrifying just to recall, a truth that shouldn't have been peeked at.
"The lightning you stole and bestowed upon humans was literally only what originated from the sky. But that is an extremely small part. Because the real lightning was on the ground in the first place."
Lightning did not fall from the sky. It was here from the beginning.
The Lightning Thief, Fran, was struck by lightning. In the shock as if lightning had struck right inside his head, he realized something.
When the hand and arm holding the string trembled uncontrollably, when regardless of his outstanding wisdom and cold reason his legs went weak, when his bladder gave way and he dribbled dirty liquid all over his body. When this flesh brought disgrace upon itself, making the name of the sage who had polished both mind and body to the extreme meaningless.
Fran realized. That the Lightning Thief's wretched appearance lay beyond his will, faith, or resolve. That the lightning was touching his body from a more fundamental part than pain.
As if pulling strings in every corner of his body to control him... He noticed that the lightning was moving his body.
So that's why he tried to hide it. If a flesh was created with the alchemy of the Golden Mirror, the senses and mind that move that body could be infused with lightning. Of course, just that alone would be difficult, but as a sage who believed in the purity of the mind more than anyone, he would have felt repulsion at even suggesting such a possibility.
"Don't feel unjustly treated. It was a truth that would have been revealed someday anyway. The idea of directly holding lightning in one's body wouldn't be your exclusive property. Well, there probably won't be anyone besides you who would willingly do it, though."
"...As expected, I cannot follow you."
Fran glared at me as if to kill me, wrapped the string around a couple of times, and pulled.
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It felt like he had pulled the lightning hidden in the clouds. The lightning that was still far away was dragged down. The innocent string, which met the wrong owner, was sacrificed to the lightning first, and the current flowing along the string burned Fran's entire body. The current that seeped in from his fingertips pounded him mercilessly.
A shock that would be more than enough to kill an ordinary human dozens of times had no effect on Fran. It is not solely because this place is within a mental image.
Because the two were one from the beginning.
"King of Humans. I don't agree with your thoughts, but I will move according to your will this time."
He, who had become the incarnation of lightning, reached out his hand.
What does the Progenitor mean to an Elder? The beginning and the end. The savior who saved them right before death, and the master of their second life who will someday take away their lives. The king to whom they must offer all the blood in their bodies to love and be loyal to, and the racial god they must revere and worship.
Therefore, vampires do not believe in gods. There is no fool who would choose heresy when there is a real god actually moving before their eyes.
"Don't act rashly. Tirkanjaka will be here soon."
In that sense, Shey was an unbeliever who invoked the name of a god despite being mere livestock. Valdamir, wondering whether he should be angry at him daringly invoking the Progenitor's name like a friend, or whether he should wait and see since they might actually be friends, temporarily reserved his judgment. Because it wouldn't be too late to decide after gathering more information.
Valdamir turned his head and looked over there. A structure as large as a hill stood towering on Claudia's side.
Shey had no means to stop the fight between the Iron Saint and Tirkanjaka. In the first place, there would be no one who could restrain the two who were close to invincible.
So Shey separated the two. Using Jizan, he made the ground surge up and made both of them slide in opposite directions. Both Tirkanjaka and Peruel are monsters who can even break the ground, but they still can't stand without stepping on anything. According to the inevitable principles of nature, the two slid in opposite directions.
That was how Tirkanjaka arrived here. Tirkanjaka, who was looking around while remaining sharp, suddenly discovered a familiar face collapsed and hurriedly approached.
"...Phew?"