EP.66 The Puppet Progenitor and the Unpleasant Puppet Show - 3
The outskirts of Tantalus where light cannot reach. In that place abandoned by both heaven and earth, ominous and wicked things that dare not stand before god flinch. Though something is clearly there, the veil of darkness perfectly concealed not only their sins but also their very forms.
That was why Finlay could walk about despite committing the grave sin of manipulating the Progenitor. If this place were not the Abyss, if even a single person had discovered his sin, he would have been executed on the spot.
‘It's fine. I can pay for this sin later with my life. As long as I escort her to the Duchy, the Progenitor will understand.’
Feeling the guilt etched into his blood, Finlay looked at the vampire.
The vampire sat on the palanquin with bleary, unfocused eyes. Without the parasol she always carried, her arms hanging limp, she looked even more lifeless than usual.
Perhaps it was because of her bloodlessly pale skin.
Or perhaps it was because of the ominous darkness surrounding her.
Or perhaps it was because of the massive crack running down her chest.
A huge scar marred the vampire's chest. Through that gap, a deep crimson energy churned, seemingly trying to push its way out, or perhaps trying to force its way in.
"O Progenitor, please forgive my insolence."
Finlay wrapped the blood energy flowing from that gap around his hand. Then, shouting loudly enough to echo through the darkness, he simultaneously gripped the blood energy tightly.
"O Progenitor! Let the Blood Demon follow my will!"
Thump.
Finlay's Blood Control Art squeezed the vampire's heart. Her blood violently surged. The vampire's carotid artery bulged, and the empowered blood flowed into her head.
After that, her hazy focus briefly sharpened. Her fragmented rationality carried out the given command piecemeal.
However.
[*Snorts.*]
The Blood Demon, the very subject who should have listened to the command, merely snorted.
Finlay dropped his arms in dejection. Rallion the Blood Demon, currently the Progenitor's strongest military asset, showed no particular reaction despite Finlay dominating the Progenitor.
Finlay shook his head slowly.
"Does this mean you won't comply? Or can you simply not understand my command? Sigh..."
As he muttered thus and released the blood energy from his hand, Finlay instantly felt death.
The Blood Demon's hoof fell above his head. The bloody hoof that had turned countless humans into meat pulp crashed down without a moment's hesitation.
Whoosh.
Too heavy to be called wind. The wind pressure alone forced Finlay to his knees and slammed him into the ground. The Blood Demon's house-sized foot was large enough to cover Finlay's entire body, and the blood-iron horseshoe forged from refined blood showed not a single gap.
If it came down just 50cm further, Finlay would disappear into a handful of bloodstains. With enough time and effort, he might regenerate, but that would be a stroke of luck. In the meantime, the Progenitor, having regained her senses, could halt Finlay's life and reclaim his blood.
However.
"K-keugh. I see. The Progenitor's command has already been properly delivered..."
Finlay did not die. The reason was simple. Rallion did not bring the hoof all the way down.
Beneath the massive hoof, and above the solid concrete. Kneeling in that precarious gap, Finlay muttered with a trembling voice.
"You're itching to kill me for daring to dominate the Progenitor. But you cannot kill me. Because, even if it is not the Progenitor's true intention, it is the Progenitor's command!"
[*Snorts.*]
"Good! That is enough! As long as I dominate the Progenitor, you will end up listening to my commands! Hahaha!"
Rallion stomped as if in displeasure and turned its head. Then, it walked into the unseen darkness on its own. As if declaring it would watch this sight no longer.
The sound of hooves faded into the darkness. Only after the sound died down could Finlay compose himself.
Having witnessed the Blood Demon's tremendous power, Finlay freshly reflected on how reckless his actions had been.
Overwhelming size, weight, and power. Rallion the Blood Demon of the Bloody Footprints, capable of destroying an army alone. Even such a powerful Blood Demon obeyed the Progenitor with all its body and soul.
The Progenitor's power was dominance. The power to scatter blood in all directions, control whatever it touched, and forge powerful familiars.
It was Finlay who held the reins and guided such massive authority.
Power exceeding one's station. The reaction of the one holding it is one of two things.
Either they fear it.
Or they rejoice in it.
Finlay was the latter.
"Hehe. Hahaha! I, I have gained the power of a god!"
The Progenitor's authority, which felt like it could bind the blood in his entire body, now lay quietly asleep. Because the Progenitor herself, and no one else, had withdrawn it. In that state, he was controlling the Progenitor's heart with the Blood Control Art.
If so, wasn't it no different from Finlay possessing the Progenitor's power right now?
"The Progenitor surely acknowledged me. She must have agreed with my will! Otherwise, there's no way I could use the Progenitor's power!"
While he rejoiced, intoxicated by the overwhelming omnipotence.
The vampire suddenly raised her head.
Startled, Finlay gasped. Could the Progenitor have regained her senses? Finlay called out to the vampire, fully tense.
"P-Progenitor?"
The vampire's eyes showed no intention of looking away. Finlay's anxiously trembling gaze followed the vampire's.
And he let out a scoff.
"I warned you. Do you truly not value your lives?"
Standing proudly there were the Regressor holding a red sphere in one hand,
and me, carrying a large bundle on my back.
Focusing my mind, I could clearly hear thoughts. Only Finlay's, of course. The vampire was in a state akin to half-asleep, so her thoughts couldn't be read clearly.
If there is no consciousness, there are no thoughts. No memories either.
It felt like reading a book in pitch-black lighting. A state of only vaguely repeating a story someone told. It seemed impossible to wake her from her sleep without direct contact.
Alright. Mind reading is over.
I asked the Regressor, who was standing a span below me, looking over there with a terrifying expression.
"Did you see it?"
"Yeah."
The Red Eye, one of the Seven-colored Eyes, the eye that sees heat.
The Blue Eye, six of the Seven-colored Eyes, the eye that sees far.
The Regressor, piercing the darkness with different eyes—his left and right—gritted his teeth and growled.
"That bastard has Tirkanjaka's Black Knights hidden in the shadows..."
"Fortunately, Rallion doesn't seem to acknowledge Finlay."
"Even so, they aren't on our side. Better not to trust them."
As soon as he finished speaking, the demonic aura vanished from the Regressor's eyes. Returning to pitch-black pupils, the Regressor pressed his eyes tightly as if tired.
"Are you okay?"
"No problem. Just hold on a sec."
When he removed his hand again, the Regressor's eyes were shining sharply as before. I turned my gaze forward again and spoke.
"As planned?"
"As planned."
The Regressor and I took a step from the domain of light illuminated by the streetlamps into the darkness.
It felt as if the darkness was moving. That ominous darkness was a living creature in itself, a night mist that sheltered all vampires.
Right in the middle. In the pitch-black darkness impossible to see with the naked eye, Finlay welcomed us with his arms wide open.
"I clearly told you not to come. Are your ears plugged, or do you not value your lives?"
The Regressor scoffed and retorted.
"You're the one who doesn't value your life. Are you crazy? How could you even think of dominating the Progenitor unless you've lost your mind?"
"It is not domination! I am merely asking for a temporary understanding and returning the Progenitor to where she belongs."
"Come on. Forcing someone to move without asking their will, isn't that domination?"
"What do you know!!"
Finlay shouted spasmodically. The Regressor frowned at his rapidly shifting attitude, as if he had bipolar disorder.
"The Progenitor wanted this!"
"What kind of bullshit is that?"
"If the Progenitor hadn't allowed it, would the day have come for me to hold her heart! From obtaining this power to temporarily acting on the Progenitor's behalf! It's all the same as her will!"
A madness, seemingly drunk on power, could be seen from Finlay as he shouted. Unlike a typical vampire, he was caught in intense excitement, spitting blood instead of saliva from his mouth as he yelled.
"Therefore, my will is the Progenitor's will! I wished for the Progenitor to head to the surface, so the Progenitor decided to ascend! If you interfere, it's the same as rebelling against the Progenitor!! If you are the Progenitor's servants, bow your heads and send her off. If you are the Progenitor's enemies, be swept away and destroyed in the irresistible sea of blood! Make your choice, lowly ones!"
It was a speech devoid of logic or reason. So much so that one couldn't even imagine it as an attitude a vampire with a cold heart would display.
The Regressor raised his finger to his head and spun it in a circle.
"That guy is completely crazy."
"He's crazy, which is why he's committing the insane act of trying to dominate a Tirkanjaka trainee, right?"
"That's true."
"On top of that, he's pushed his Blood Control Art to the limit while committing these crazy acts, making the Blood Control Art that moves his own body unstable. It looks like he's sold off his cold heart."
Extremely excited, Finlay was shouting only what he wanted to say, whether we listened or not. Even though the only listener was himself, he didn't seem to care at all.
"Sigh. If we wait for him to finish talking, we'll die of old age first. Shall we get started?"
The Regressor nodded, and I cleared my throat. Finlay's grating voice came from the darkness.
"I will go up to the surface and take revenge on the deceitful whores of the Holy Court! I will blaspheme their god and reclaim our former glory! Hahaha!"
"Da, mn it. They say you talk more as you get older, but why is he wagging his tongue so much?"
Phew, letting out a long sigh, I interrupted between his breaths. As is typical of an excited person, Finlay emitted a vicious killing intent toward me for interrupting his words.
"Instructor! I didn't like you from the start! How dare you!"
"Hey! Just shut up! I know it's hard keeping company with a senile old man, but I have a lot to say too!"
"S-Senile?"
It's natural to feel good when you see an easy-to-handle machine or a simple toy. Because seeing it move exactly as predicted gives a sense of stability.
To me, a fanatic like Finlay was like an easy-to-handle machine.
Just flick the seizure switch, and the desired reaction pops out.
"H-How dare you... to the Progenitor. Insolent!"
"Tirkanjaka? What a tacky name! Did they make it hard to pronounce on purpose? And stupidly enough, he was deceived and dominated by the subordinate of the subordinate of his subordinate! Who taught him to end up like that?"
The Regressor couldn't hold back and interjected.
"It was you, idiot."
"Oh my! It was me! I won't be able to work as an instructor out of shame from now on!"
As I insulted the vampire in an agitated tone, Finlay opened his eyes wide and just moved his mouth soundlessly. The shock was so great that he temporarily forgot how to speak.
Good. Now he's almost ready to listen to me.
"And Finlay, you seem to be as stupid as the Progenitor, failing to realize it. Trapped in the Abyss, do you really believe you can fly up to the sky and escape?"
Having said that, I laughed out loud. Laughing loudly enough to shake the entire Abyss, I suddenly stopped laughing and said.
"You still can't go anywhere."
The truth I had painstakingly uncovered. It wasn't something to reveal easily, but I decided not to hold back.
"The Abyss is a land that falls infinitely. In other words, what does that mean? The coordinates of space have no meaning. Just by simply falling or climbing, you can't reach anywhere, idiot. If you could reach the surface just by climbing up, you'd be able to reach the bottom just by falling. But, oh? It's the Abyss? There's no bottom? What do you think that means?"
The preparations were almost complete. The Regressor had infused about half of his magical power into the red sphere and was imbuing it with a simple spell.
Confirming that, I prepared to wrap up my speech.
"Do you want to know?"
Finlay, listening to my words, nodded reflexively. Even in this darkness, his eyes could accurately pinpoint me.
Alright, then. I'll make it clear.
"It's in here."
I raised my finger and tapped my temple. Then, with a cold smile, I said.
"So try and take it out if you can, you unfilial bastard."