EP.69 The Puppet Progenitor and the Unpleasant Puppet Show - 6
Ugh. Thank goodness Aji is here. I might be able to handle humans, but a beast like that is a bit much.
I am an ordinary human. I can't even win a 1-on-1 fight against an ordinary horse.
But fight a Blood Demon that's as big as a mountain, won't die, and is insanely strong? I'd just become a puddle of blood. If I were a regressor, I might have had a way, but I'm not. I had no choice but to call Aji.
I muttered as I watched the mythical battle unfolding before my eyes.
"Hmm. The matchup isn't good."
A dog's main attack method is biting. Biting the neck and shaking it in one go, snapping the cervical vertebrae in a single strike is its finishing move.
However, the opponent is the Blood Demon Rallion, who has become a familiar through the Vampire's authority and gained an immortal body. Even if its flesh is torn off and its neck is ripped out, it's an immortal monster that regenerates infinitely.
"The Pseudo-Sun is also up. If he tears Rallion apart tens of thousands of times and thins its very existence, he'll win, but Finlay won't just sit still in the meantime."
It would take quite some time for Aji to completely obliterate Rallion.
Now the outcome of the battle has shifted to this side.
"Well. Anyway. Thanks to Aji, a path has opened. Are you doing a bit better now?"
Where Aji rampaged, there were mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and a path created by splitting through them. At the end of it, a foolish vampire had lost its senses and become a puppet.
Even the puppets I control were better than that, tsk tsk. Unable to hide my pity, I said.
"Ready to go bash the skull of an old man who's met dementia."
"...You really have a foul mouth."
One eye of the regressor speaking like that was dyed bright red, as if soaked in blood.
"It's fine. I can move my body now... But."
Her trembling arms were pitiful. That trembling grew even worse when she pointed Cheongeum at the vampire. It shook so violently that I, standing next to her, almost got cut.
Could this be a new type of assassination method? While I was seriously contemplating that.
"It's impossible to point a sword at Tirkanjaka. It's because the True Blood has crept into every corner of my body. I can swing my sword as much as I want against other familiars, but if I try to aim directly at the owner of the True Blood, the True Blood goes wild and interferes."
"Wait a minute. What does that mean?"
The regressor spoke to me with a devastated face.
"I hate to say this... but I'm begging you. You're the only one. I'll break through the path, so you... save Tirkanjaka."
"Me?"
Pointed out, I looked toward the vampire with a flustered face.
She's telling me to deal with all the remaining Black Knights ahead,
Defeat Finlay who's controlling them from up there,
And wake up the Vampire?
Pfft, if I could do that, I wouldn't have been captured here in the first place.
"That's too heavy a burden for me."
"Don't... play weak. We all know you're hiding your strength."
How can I hide it when I have no strength to hide? It's not like a debt collector squeezing money out of me. Does power just come out if you tell it to?
While I was speechless from absurdity, the regressor took a ragged breath and said.
"I know you're scheming something. I also know you're hiding your strength! But right now is the time to use that power and save Tirkanjaka!"
The regressor's eyes as she shouted were so straight and clear. So much so that one couldn't imagine she was a person in immediate danger.
How can she believe in people so purely even in the face of a death crisis? Temporarily swayed by her, I read her thoughts.
'If I don't save her. Or if I take advantage of this opportunity to deal with Finlay and then try to get my hands on Tirkanjaka! It would be fine to consider me an enemy from the next cycle!'
And I, having pawned off my entire future, shuddered.
No, come to think of it, she isn't really a person in danger. If I act suspiciously in this cycle, I'll be hunted down starting from the very next cycle. I have to prevent that.
Phew. I guess I have to put in some effort, if not for the current me, then for the me in the next cycle. It's hard to get things the easy way.
Well then, I took a quick glance toward the vampire and Finlay.
The small sun shining red on the ground, the Black Knight squad that had a gap torn in it because Aji swept through them once. The darkness slowing down in front of the light, and Finlay vomiting blood from his mouth.
Huh? Wait a minute. Could this actually work?
"Well, if I do well, I might somehow manage it?"
"...Heh. I knew you'd say that."
The regressor smirked even as blood spilled from her lips.
The burden placed on my shoulders is heavy. I don't have the ability to finish it as coolly as the regressor expects, though.
Still.
"You can use magic, right? Could you cast some magic on my body?"
"My support magic isn't very efficient, so it won't be much help to a strong person?"
It will help. Adding 10 to 1000 is only a 1% increase, but adding 10 to 10 makes you twice as strong, you see.
"...Still, it wouldn't hurt to do it. Wait a moment."
The regressor nodded and unwound Cheongeum.
Wind, Cloud, Rain, Dew, Frost, Snow, Thunder, Lightning.
A magic that manipulates the sky and wind, using the compressed space Cheongeum as a medium. From within it, the regressor took out the only, and most powerful support magic she could use.
"Heavenly Sword Qi, Tailwind."
The space surrounding the sword unraveled strand by strand. They spread out individually like scattered silk threads, and began to softly envelop my body.
Having squeezed out her magic power, the regressor spoke with difficulty.
"From now on, all your actions will be accompanied by the protection of the wind. The wind will blow in the direction you move your body, and even relentless dirt and dust won't be able to hinder you. Even if a strong wind blows, thanks to the wind surrounding you, your body won't shake. For the time being, the wind is on your side. Make sure to ride this flow."
"Great. Now I just need to take out my weapon."
While I untied the bundle on my back, the regressor gripped Cheongeum and stepped forward.
"I'll buy time. Get ready."
The regressor slightly twisted Cheongeum.
Cheongeum is a sword with no thickness, which is why it can split everything, but it has little effect on the vampire's familiars made of darkness and blood. Even if sliced once, they just need to reconstruct.
Because of that, the regressor gave up on sharpness. Instead, she readjusted her grip so that the broad side of Cheongeum was exposed.
Although it has no thickness, it has width, so the wind catches on the spacious blade.
In exchange for giving up the sharpness that could split everything, she wrapped a fierce wind over it. The regressor muttered low.
"Heavenly Sword Qi, Sword Form Transformation."
The wind flowed in as if a rift had opened in space. An amount of air that seemed enough to fill an abyss dwelled on the blade of Cheongeum, which was less than a handful, less than a span wide.
A beast with a long neck is bound to howl lower. The cry of the wind flowing through the vast sky uses the heavens as its throat, creating a tremor like thunder.
Cheongeum, overlaid with wind, looked exactly like a giant fan.
A heavy tremor arose from Cheongeum. The regressor lifted all the wind wrapped around it.
"Palm Leaf Fan, Rakshasa's Chaotic Petals!"
She swung it broadly horizontally.
Right after, my hair stood on end all at once. An intense wave of power, invisible but clearly felt, brushed past. It was a storm of power compressed to the extreme, closer to a whip than the wind.
The storm swept away the Black Knights in one fell swoop. Even the pitch-black energy clumped on the ground scattered like sand, and black smoke was pushed back in a semicircle.
The front was completely cleared in an instant. The regressor bit her lip and grabbed her own chest.
"I've opened the path! Go right now...!"
The regressor, who had been shouting, looked at my figure and staggered greatly.
"Wait! What are you carrying?!"
"What do you mean? I need a weapon too, you know."
"How is that a weapon!"
What do you mean. An armament I happened to find while rummaging through the dining hall, thinking I should grab something.
The most effective Demon-Breaking against vampires... No, the Blood-Shattering sword that shatters blood.
"It's the Immortal's Right Arm! Immortal Right Arm!"
"Why are you carrying that!"
"Because!"
Coincidentally, a Black Knight that had flattened itself to the ground to endure the wind lunged at me. A good sandbag appeared right on time. I thrust the Immortal's Right Arm toward the approaching Black Knight.
The squirming cross-section was thrust toward the Black Knight. The Black Knight tried to counter by swinging its sharp sword, but.
"Immortal Strikeeeeeee!!"
The moment it touched the Immortal's arm, the darkness crumbled like wet sand and fell to the ground.
The Earth Immortal's flesh is a curse to a vampire's blood. The right arm, which polluted the very authority, didn't lose its momentum and pierced straight through the Black Knight's chest.
Right after, the Black Knight's entire body stiffened and then collapsed just like that.
Its flesh never regenerated.
Because the blood mixed with impurities had escaped the vampire's control.
Having dealt with the Black Knight in an instant, I spun my arm around and shouted.
"This is precisely the strongest weapon that can deal with vampires!"
The regressor, who had been watching in a daze for a moment, screamed.
"It's not a weapon, it's an arm! The Immortal's Right Arm!"
"The body is made of sword. That is Sword and Body as One. So how can you think of separating my body and sword."
"When it's not even your own arm!!"
I raised my right arm and showed the regressor the sight of the Immortal's right hand gripping my hand tightly.
"The pommel part is specially made so it never slips from my grip! I'm saying there's absolutely no chance of dropping it. So wouldn't it be fine to see it as an extension of my arm?"
"The Immortal's hand is just grabbing onto you!"
Tap, tap, tap.
There's no need to exert strength to slash. There's no need to put weight into stabbing. Sword paths, sword principles, sword qi. Such things are just methods pursued by the weak.
I just lightly tapped it against them, and the Immortal's flesh neutralizes the vampire's authority and turns the familiar into mere blood.
Its overwhelming performance was enough to make even the regressor ponder with a serious face.
"...That might not be bad."
"Hehe. I knew you'd understand. Because both you and I are cold-blooded people who only care about performance."
"Is it really okay to swing it like that?"
"Of course."
Spinning my right arm half a turn, I said casually.
"It's just a bit regrettable that there's a limit to its durability."