EP.70 The Puppet Progenitor and the Unpleasant Puppet Show - 7
The regressor paused for a moment.
"...Durability?"
"Yees. Just as the Immortal's flesh is poison to a vampire's blood, a vampire's blood is also a curse to the Immortal. Look. The flesh has turned black and hardened, hasn't it?"
"Hey! That's not okay!"
"It's fine. In times like this, you just need to peel off the hardened flesh with a small skewer. That way, the corrupted skin disappears and the inner flesh is revealed. Though there is the problem of it gradually getting shorter."
"I didn't ask if you were okay! That! The Immortal is not going to be okay!"
‘I wondered how the Immortal got cursed! So it was your doing!’
Right. It has come to this.
I scratched my head and replied.
"You have a lot of complaints. Then what, should I not use this?"
"...I mean, let's finish this quickly before that arm completely wears out!"
"Okay. Received. Here I go. Please clear the path properly."
"Get lost quickly! Pachoseon, Dragon Tornado!"
This time, she slashed vertically. The wind drawn out by Cheonaeng overturned the world in an instant. The Black Knights float into the air amidst the storm. Above them, severed from both the blood puddles and the shadows, the regressor's magic struck fiercely.
"Thousand Sword Qi, Thunderbird!"
Zzzt, bright yellow lightning etched into the air like a crease. Thin threads resembling a spiderweb touched the bodies of the Black Knights. In an instant, they merged into a single stream and transformed into a massive waterfall.
The lightning burned the blood. Even if it were a vampire's true body, the created familiars could not withstand the shock.
Burning in the shadowless void, the Black Knights turned to ashes and scattered into the air.
"Now then, I'm off! Make sure to clean up the surroundings properly!"
"You still haven't left?!"
The regressor leaped into the air and swung her sword. The swirling wind swept the front. The supporting fire from the sky was quite accurate and precise, so aside from the enemies right in front of my nose, everything else was either blown away or had to duck and endure. I ran across the empty space.
The regressor's support magic, Tailwind, protected me. With the wind pushing my back, just touching the ground with the tips of my toes propelled my body far forward. Thanks to the wind enveloping me, I was free even within the storm the regressor had created.
This buff is insane. It's just a breeze blowing, but that alone brought a sense of liberation as if I had become a superhuman.
With this, I might even be able to break my sprinting record.
"Run faster! Why are you so leisurely!"
A voice urging me on came from behind.
The speed that was hard for me to control must have looked slow enough to make someone yawn. So what if this is my top speed.
"Woof woof!"
[Hihihihihing!]
At that moment, Aji flew before my eyes and slammed Rallion powerfully into the ground. Blood splattered from the mashed flesh. Gaining the upper hand, Aji, instead of biting the squishy flesh that burst with a thud when hit, clamped her teeth onto a solid blood-iron horseshoe and tore at it vigorously. Rallion twisted its body as if resisting, but it had no effect on Aji's teeth.
Thud, the horseshoe fell. Aji shook her head a few more times, then discovering the fallen horseshoe, snapped her head around and threw it away. A heavy sound echoed across the concrete floor.
Then, Aji and I made eye contact.
Aji tilted her head.
"Woof?"
"Good. You're doing a great job."
This was the Aji who, just a moment ago, was engulfed in wildness and struck down the Blood Demon. Seeing her stare at me with bright red blood smeared around her mouth felt a bit chilling, but seeing her bright smile as soon as she saw me put my mind at ease.
Aji raised her chin slightly and barked.
"Woof!"
"Good girl! Aji, chase that red horse far away from here! Make sure it can't get close to me if possible!"
She's too strong physically, and since she's a horse, I can't read her thoughts. She's practically my natural enemy.
If Aji could just handle Rallion, there would be nothing left to stop me.
"Woof woof!"
Aji barked as if she understood.
Right then, Rallion's remaining hoof flew in from behind.
Hit directly by the hoof, Aji's body flew like a ball. The Blood Demon, barely raising its body, let out a short whinny and then chased after Aji without even giving me a glance. The sound of hooves shattering the concrete faded away in an instant.
Left alone, I muttered blankly.
"I didn't mean for you to chase it away like that."
Anyway, it was a relief that Rallion didn't seem to be targeting me for now. I moved forward again.
On one side, a house-sized horse and a dog in human form were fighting, and the regressor's wind was blowing away the endlessly appearing Black Knights. It was a transcendental battle that seemed about a million years away from ordinary.
Right in the middle of that battlefield, I ran, barely squeezing through the gaps.
Watching the Black Knights turn to dust and vanish before my eyes, I had only one thought.
Hmm. No matter how I think about it, I'm not qualified to be here.
Black Knights that revive without dying, a Blood Demon, the King of Dogs, the regressor, and even the Progenitor Vampire. I was far too ordinary to be on such a battlefield.
At that moment, Finley pointed at me and roared.
"Nenoooooom!!"
At that, the vampire with blurry eyes raised her hand. Black Knights sprang up from all directions and threw themselves to block my path.
I watched the sight and muttered.
"Come to think of it, since that bastard is here, there's no reason I shouldn't be."
I'm definitely better than Finley. Mhm.
Nodding like that, I took out a skewer and scraped the cross-section of the Immortal's arm. The sharp blade dug into the gaps of the hardened flesh. The flesh split with a squelch. I scraped the split flesh with the skewer and flicked it.
"Immortal Explosion!"
The blackened flesh fragmented and swept over the Black Knights. Moderately hardened flesh makes good ammunition. The Black Knights hit directly by the fragments floundered in the aftermath of the curse.
The arm had gotten considerably shorter from running all the way here. Thinking I should use it sparingly, I just ran.
"Tsk. It's my fault for teaching an old man the latest entertainment, my fault. Yeah. It's not like he's the only old man to ruin himself late in life."
I am ordinary.
Unique magic, my foot. Like an ordinary person, I can only use universal magic. I don't have anything grand like qi circulation. I just have the manual dexterity to shuffle cards perfectly.
In other words, anything I can do, anyone can do.
Is this the price for trying to get in line a bit, for trying to curry a little favor by tinkering with the heart? Tsk tsk. This is why people must live according to their station. A sin for forgetting my place just because I'm in the Abyss.
"In the end, it means someone like me can be easily replaced. My actions, my words. Even the kindness I offer is ultimately all too common."
A sigh escaped me at my shabby appearance anew.
Running consistently, Finley and the vampire were now within reach. I firmly grasped the Immortal's right arm and walked toward them.
"Still, I have to survive first. Even an ordinary person would do their best to live."
The closer I got, the more clearly their thoughts were read. Finley's hostility toward me, the vampire's hazy ego, and even the blood connection linking the two.
Aiming between them, I muttered nonchalantly.
"So I'll do my best to kill you."
"Do you think I'll die that easily!!"
Finley clenched his fist again. Veins bulged all over his body. Neck, forehead, arms, chest. The blood he failed to control surged and writhed grotesquely under his skin. It was because he couldn't control his own blood while manipulating the Progenitor.
In contrast, the vampire was utterly peaceful, save for a few protruding veins. She just looked down at everyone with an expressionless face and unfocused eyes.
Finley shouted at me as I approached right before his eyes.
"You bastard!! Do you know where you are?! I'll crush you!"
"Wait right there, garlic pickle. I'll soak you in a drum along with concrete."
If I bury him in garlic concrete and roll him into the sea, it will be quite a sight. He'll be happy until he dies.
The Immortal's right arm was slowly reaching its limit. It was a race against time now. I dashed forward, broadly swinging the right arm that had turned blackish overall.
The Black Knights endlessly regenerated from the floor, the air, and the blood puddles. However, they were powerless. Weapons hastily created with authority could not block the Immortal's right arm. It might be different if they had blood energy, but the red aura lost its light before the sun.
Blood energy is the vitality extracted from the body. Shadows without it are no different from puppets. Because power does not circulate, they cannot withstand the Immortal's curse.
Crunch.
The echo of what was once a promising knight crumbled in an instant. If it had been wearing real weapons and armor, it would have put up a good fight against me, but unfortunately, it was equipped with weapons hastily created by authority. That echo met its end with its shield shattered and chest pierced by someone's right arm.
"Is that all, Finley?"
Now the remaining distance between me and the vampire was about ten steps. With the tailwind I was riding, it was a distance I could reach in just three leaps.
Finley's mind became urgent.
‘As long as the sun is up, I can't use blood energy to strengthen the Black Knights! The Black Knights without blood energy can't block him. But!’
"Oh Progenitor!! Lend me your power!!"
Finley pulled up his Blood Control Art. Unlike when he only borrowed the use of a servant, this was a method where he received the blood energy and used it directly himself.
In an instant, a hundred times the blood energy he originally handled gathered into Finley's body. Not caring that the veins all over his body were bursting, he shouted.
"This is the power of the Progenitor! Take this, lowborn!"
Dozens of red spears rose into the air. The targets were my shoulder, stomach, and legs. Most of the others were for containment.
Getting hit would be fatal, but the trajectory was utterly simple. Naturally.
‘That's a feint! The real one is the whip sent secretly behind you!!’
How obvious. I could predict it before even reading his thoughts.
If he had focused all his attention on each spear, I wouldn't have been able to dodge, but he needlessly went for a tricky move.
A bright red whip approached from my blind spot. At the same time, the red spears were shot targeting my body.
It was easy to deal with. I deflected the red spears with the Immortal's right arm and twisted my body to dodge the whip. The only thing I needed to focus on was the whip behind me.
The whip sliced through the air in vain.
‘You dodged this without even looking? Then!’
Finley, his hands full of red energy, extended his arm downward. The shadow widened greatly.
‘I'll pierce a hole in the soles of your feet!’
Oh, that's novel.
I shifted the foot I was about to step with off-beat. Right where my foot would have landed, a blade of shadow surged up.
Dodging the hidden blades, I misaligned my stride and rhythm as if I were drunk, and each time, the blades Finley created sliced through empty air.
‘How is this! Then, the entire ground!’
Thousands and tens of thousands of blades surged from under Finley's hand. He was trying to turn the entire ground into blades.
Not a chance. I leaned my upper body slightly forward and scraped the ground with the Immortal's right arm. Thud. Every time the cross-section scraped the ground, the hardened flesh stretched long and eroded the shadow. Before the blades could even reach me, the shadow domain itself crumbled.
Now the distance was within reach. Driven into a corner, Finley hastily created a wall of blood. There was no plan now. Just the thought that he had to block me.
"Why! Why aren't you getting hit?!"
The red wave crashed over me, but that sort of thing only blocked his own vision instead.
I slashed the wave with the Immortal's right arm. If that had been water and what I held was a sword, I would have been swept away and pushed back just like that.
But what the vampire handled was blood, and by some coincidence, what I held in my hand was the arm of To-In.
The blood that touched To-In's arm instantly turned pitch black and hardened, and I pushed through the discolored wave with my shoulder. The drops of blood trying to cling to my body were swept away by the tailwind.
Finley was horrified. I dashed forward, meeting his gaze.
"Curious as to why you can't hit me?"
You'd be disappointed if you knew.
So I have to tell you.
I pulled the Immortal's right arm back largely and taught him the correct answer.
"Because you're attacking directly! It's so damn obvious that I couldn't get hit even if I tried!"
"You... bastard..."
"Haha! Neither your abilities nor your character are befitting of a noble! Even a mosquito has a bigger vessel than you!"
"I'll kill you...!"
Fool, reacting to my words was a waste of time from the start.
"Immortal Finish!!"
Striding forward with the tailwind, I swung the Immortal's right arm broadly and struck Finley. The Immortal's pride, the bicep, collided fiercely with Finley's face. The parts that touched were dyed pitch black, and with that impact, Finley's body was miserably sent flying. A couple of teeth popped out of his mouth.
But taking down Finley wasn't the end. This whole mess happened because of the vampire. I had to wake her up.
Leaving the fallen Finley behind, I ran toward the vampire.
Behind me, Finley's despairing scream could be heard.
"Block him!!!"
Finley flailed both arms. The blood energy flowing from his hands spread in all directions.
The authority Finley squeezed out, even disregarding his own defense, tirelessly blocked my path.
Newly rising Black Knights, whips of blood, red-stained brands, thorns springing from the darkness. Even the fog filling the world.
All of it headed toward me and the Immortal's right arm. To block the flesh of To-In that defiled the vampire's blood.
‘If only I can tear that off! The immortal army can never be stopped! If only the right arm of To-In is gone, a mere swordsman is nothing!!’
No one could blame them.
My figure wielding the Immortal's right arm freely in all directions and 'contaminating' the Black Knights. They must have felt a sense of crisis as the immortal legion, which should have risen again, lost its power and crumbled.
Undoubtedly, the Immortal's arm is a fatal poison to the existence known as a vampire. Therefore, Finley must have thought that weapon was the most dangerous, and at the same time, that he only needed to block this.
"Shake it off!"
What was needed to block the Immortal's arm that polluted the blood with a curse was, above all, quantity. There was no choice but to crush it with a massive weight.
So Finley forcefully gathered blood energy from here and there to push me back—or rather, to push back the Immortal's right arm.
With all his might.
"Ta-da."
As expected, it was worth emphasizing.
Thanks to that, there was no interest whatsoever in the single card in my left hand.
A wave of fresh blood swept over me, or more accurately, over my weapon, the right arm of To-In. The Immortal's right arm bounced high into the sky.
The greatest misdirection of my life. Those whose gazes were stolen by the soaring right arm realized my existence one beat too late.
‘Oh no! The instructor?!’
When Finley turned his head.
I had already thrown it away and was rushing toward the vampire, tightly gripping a single card. Seeing that, in Finley's eyes.
A sense of victory took root.
‘Fool! Did you think I would leave the Progenitor unguarded without any preparation?!’
My card brushed past my wrist and transformed into a skewer. The sword stick, bearing an ominous light, headed for the vampire's chest. Into that crack leaking streaks of dark red energy.
‘That is the storm of the Blood Control Art! It's not my power, but the authority of the rampaging Progenitor! With a simple weapon, you can't even approach...!’
At that moment, Finley saw it. That the tip of my skewer was glowing with a somewhat familiar blood-colored light.
‘...True Blood?’
The most important component that makes up blood is iron. Also, it is iron that inflicts wounds on the body and draws blood. The two have been inseparable since the Iron Age arrived.
So much so that they were sometimes referred to together as 'Iron and Blood'.
Their relationship deepened as history passed. In a sorcerous sense, iron weapons were often fed blood, and there were even doctors who made those lacking blood lick rusted iron. The stench of blood and the metallic smell of iron were winds that came and went together.
Because of that, the alchemy of mixing blood and iron was evaluated as the foundation of alchemy.
And I tried basic alchemy with a slightly precious material.
"I hid it inside a card a while ago, intending to smuggle it out secretly. I didn't know I'd use it like this."
Into the open chest, into the crevice that still showed a gap so that the string of control wouldn't be severed.
I thrust the skewer imbued with True Blood.
I felt a sense of resistance. The fiercely flowing blood energy was trying to push my hand away.
But this was something I had done dozens of times already.
I dug through the vampire's chest as skillfully as if I had a map. My skewer reached the heart simply, as if it were originally supposed to be there.
Thump.
An artificial tremor was transmitted from the skewer gripped in my hand.
This was the heartbeat Finley had forcefully drawn out. It was unpleasantly regular like a low-quality metronome. A forced imitation of a heartbeat, and an audacious curse he created to dominate his blood lord.
"Trainee Tirkanjaka. Your sleep-talking was a bit much. You've dreamt enough, so it's time to wake up."
I drove the skewer into the center of the curse and radiated magical power from my entire body. Squeezing out more magical power than any other time I had ever used in the Abyss, I shouted.
"Bolt."