Chapter 434: A Far Away Tale. The Divine, Sin, and Blood
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 434: A Far Away Tale. The Divine, Sin, and Blood
Whether she liked it or not, Goldenarch Peru was fated to rule the Fallen Dominion. To her, who valued human life above all else, death was a violation of the law of value. Her philanthropy was rational, which meant she had no choice but to be good.
Doctor Sage Lyre Nightingale carried a shackle. Having broken the shackles of life and death, she now had to involve herself in the deaths of all people. Thus, the Doctor Sage treated the wounded, so that no other cause of death might exist save for her own incompetence, negligence, or sloth.
The Regressor, Shei, sought to save the world. Whether to live or to die, not even Shei herself knew. But regardless of her mindset, she moved for the noble cause of the world's salvation.
Three who wished to save humanity had gathered. What’s more, all of them were connected to the Divine. Their abilities were outstanding, their intentions noble. If three saviors put their heads together, surely they would devise an astounding method.
And indeed, an astounding method had been devised.
Inside a glass chamber, the corpse of Thunderarch Elkid endlessly spewed forth blood. Like a spring that never ran dry, it was ceaseless.
Elkid’s body was made of the Golden Lord’s power. The power Peru wielded was using Elkid’s body as a factory, endlessly producing blood.
“…”
“…”
“…”
It was a sight they had watched for hours, yet whenever the three passed by it, they fell silent, their hearts heavy. One would look away, another would click her tongue, and the last would just stare. Their reactions differed, but the feeling in their hearts was the same.
A subtle sense of sin. The discomfort of touching a taboo.
A vague repulsion, one they knew was unavoidable, dominated them.
Of them all, the vampire Lyre Nightingale was the most accustomed to such a scene, and she did what needed to be done. Using her Bloodcraft, she collected the blood from the glass chamber and brought it under her control. The blood would not coagulate before it was used for treatment.
Shei, who had the least to do, followed her and asked.
“Did you get it all?”
“Yes. Thanks to performing first aid with this blood, no one has died from blood loss.”
Her tone was as if she were defending the blood’s origin, and it was likely an unconscious reflection of her inner thoughts. If even a vampire felt that way, how would Shei, with her ordinary sensibilities, feel? Especially when the corpse trapped in there had been a vague colleague of hers.
Shei glanced at what… had been Elkid, and asked cautiously.
“Should we stop… making blood now?”
An ordinary human might have sympathized, but Lyre was a vampire. She shook her head firmly.
“That is not an option. Some require invasive surgery, and that process will require several times more blood. Stopping the transfusions now would only increase the risk.”
“…Ugh. I guess so.”
If Elkid had been a comrade she could trust with her back, Doctor Sage Lyre Nightingale was a lighthouse. In a future where war swept the continent, tragedy became daily life, and sin spread to find humanity, the Doctor Sage was a single red flower blooming in the ashes. She had stopped a couple of wars on her own, and even devout shrines had made way for the vampire.
…But as with all flowers that bloom amidst tragedy, Lyre, too, was mercilessly trampled and annihilated.
That hadn’t happened yet. Shaking her head, Shei spoke to Peru instead.
“Witherarch. Isn't there another way that doesn't use Elkid's body? I-I’m not trying to say anything, it’s just… not a good look.”
If humans have value, where does it lie? In their great spirit? Or in the flesh that houses their Qi?
Peru’s belief in value had not changed. But the scales she used to weigh that value were constantly wavering. Like her trembling eyes, and her wavering heart.
To ‘restore’ the Thunderarch, who was little more than a creation of the Golden Lord, to a state that was neither living nor dead and use her as a blood factory. Was this truly the rational philanthropy she pursued?
There was no answer until she found it herself. Peru spoke without confidence.
“…Impossible.”
“Why?”
“…The Golden Lord’s power isn’t creation. It’s restoration and replication. If you don’t know what something is, you can’t make it.”
“But we have plenty of blood now, right? Can’t you just replicate this?”
“…No. Blood isn’t a material, it’s a structure. Without the process, its function becomes too simple.”
Peru’s explanation was, as always, too brief to make Shei understand at once. In truth, it wasn’t just Shei’s problem; anyone else would have failed to understand.
“You respected Elkid, too. Does it have to be her body? Is there no other way?”
Blood performs various roles within the body, and to faithfully fulfill all of them, the creation process had to be replicated, at least indirectly. It was a miraculously difficult task, but it was barely possible using the Golden Lord’s power. It also helped that the Thunderarch’s body had an exceptional affinity for alchemy.
However, even the Golden Lord’s power had its limits. This wasn’t because it was Peru, but a structural problem with alchemy itself. A structure that is too perfect has difficulty mixing with others. Just as the crops created by the Golden Lord had destroyed the imperfect bodies of humans, blood created without a host body would be rejected by the patient’s flesh.
Therefore, Peru had to use Elkid’s body as an abrasive to ‘taint’ the blood.
But Peru had neither the ability nor the energy to explain all this. She was just as sad as anyone.
So, Peru muttered darkly.
“…I want to, too.”
Her words were too short to serve as an explanation. But they were enough to convey her feelings.
I want to. But I can’t. Peru, too, was suffering in the gap between her intentions and her abilities, and so Shei could say no more. She leaned her back against the wall and let out a deep sigh.
“In the end, can we never escape sin…?”
Feeling fate gradually converging, Shei recalled the past. A past that had not yet happened, but had most certainly occurred.
The King of Sins.
It commanded the powers of all manner of Divine beings. It shattered the earth, sundered the sky, threw lightning, shot beams of light, and twisted perception. Before the King of Sins, humans had to doubt everything. Illusions veiled their eyes and demonic whispers seduced their ears. Unable to distinguish up from down, let alone their sense of direction, humans could not know what was real.
Not even… the comrades they saw before their eyes.
The Druid, Nevida. The high priestess who served the King of Sins. The only living Divine.
Her power was to make the Tree of Corruption bear fruit from which beasts were born.
The King of Sins made humans bear fruit from the top of the tree.
There was neither life nor death. Everything they saw was both truth and illusion. Those who died yesterday would wave with a smile the next day, and those who cried out for faith sought the King of Sins instead of God. Unable to distinguish the created from the real, humans went mad.
The only way to resist was to attack the King of Sins.
…Though they had never once won.
That was probably why. Why Shei felt such a strong aversion to this method. The King of Sins is perfected by blurring the boundaries of what it means to be human.
And this joint creation of Peru and Lyre… was surely a shortcut to the King of Sins.
“But it can’t be helped. It has to be done.”
She couldn’t stop what had already happened. Destroying the glass chamber, cremating Elkid, and then silencing Peru to ensure this never happened again—that was the Sanctum’s way, not Shei’s. If she failed, she would just regress anyway. In that case, it was better to watch and see how this future unfolded.
Instead, Shei compared what was different from the past. The answer was, in fact, already set.
Hughes, the self-proclaimed King of Humans.
He claimed to be an ordinary criminal caught in the Abyss, but in truth, he was the King of Humans in disguise. He must have come to the Abyss to search for the Divine.
In any case, once he got involved, the Divine were drawn in as if by magic. Mother Earth, Nevida, the Golden Lord, the Thunder God. All of them had crossed his path in that short time. Whether he sought them out or they came to greet him. He would probably continue to get entangled with the Divine.
…He would surely pass through the Mage Federation’s Floating Castle and the Sanctum’s Silver Branch Forest as well.
“My gut was right. I felt it from the beginning. He’s suspicious.”
If Shei were an ordinary person, saying this now would be meaningless.
But Shei was a Regressor. She had no regrets. Because she could undo what had already happened. For her, the regret of clinging to the past became a step toward the future.
However.
“Of all places, the Duchy of Mist… What should I do?”
The power of the Duchy of Mist was on a different level from the Military State. Within the Duchy’s darkness, which neutralized most of the Seven Colored Eyes, teemed vampires whose very existence was an Arcane. No matter how strong Shei was, she could only face one Elder at a time, and if it was a melee combatant, she couldn’t even predict her chances of victory.
Shei was a strategist. She was extremely advantageous in fights that utilized the scale of power or matchups… but when faced with pure martial talent, as in the case of Sunderspear, she was at a disadvantage. Strip away the overwhelming power and techniques, and Shei was merely a person of ordinary talent who had acquired a great deal of fortune. If not for the Heavenly Counter Domain she learned from the Sword Empress, twelve regressions would not have been enough.
…Though against Lord Sanguine Valdamir, who possessed both overwhelming talent and power, even the Heavenly Counter Domain was not enough.
Lacking both a foundation and power, the current Shei had no strength to oppose the Duchy of Mist. She forced herself to focus on other thoughts, if only to forget the tragic sight before her.
“Ugh. The Duchy of Mist will be fine until the Great Tide hits. Hold on. When does that happen again…?”
Just then, Shei placed a hand on her hip and straightened her body. Her body had reacted before her mind, and trusting her instincts, Shei extended her senses. Far in the distance, at a range she would have missed if she weren't paying attention, a powerful presence was walking slowly toward them. It was brazen, with no intention of hiding its identity.
Shei recognized the figures with her Seven Colored Eyes and muttered.
“Erzsebet, and Dogo?”
Elders, monsters who could destroy a city single-handedly. For two more Elders to visit a place that others of their kind had just torn apart?
Optimistically, they might be hiding their identities to avoid causing trouble. If it had been Lunken or Kavila, those who remembered their faces would have caused a commotion.
But who wouldn't recognize the Countess, whose portraits were scattered by the tens of thousands across the continent, and the mummified high monk? Only thirteen Elders had ever existed in history, and even if people didn't know their faces, they had their features memorized.
At the very least, the Elders would not avoid conflict. They might even be subtly hoping for it.
If that happened, it would be the end of Claudia. Shei clicked her tongue.
“Erzsebet alone would be one thing, but Dogo too. I can’t win against him.”
The resurrected monk. A sage who chose corruption over transcendence. An ascetic who walked around burning his skin in the sun.
Even when he was alive, he was called immortal. After becoming a vampire, his martial arts reached a new level. Though it was somewhat archaic, its sheer brutality blended well with his vampiric nature, and his Demonic Martial Arts had become renowned as an invincible fighting style. In terms of technical skill, he was second only to Valdamir.
One Elder was difficult enough, but two? She couldn't win as she was now. But still.
“Wait. If it’s Erzsebet and Dogo… it might be possible.”
If it had to be those two. If it was those two, whose arrogance was second to none, then Shei could find a way. Not victory, but a solution.
In any case, with her current power, it was difficult to save anyone. Shei decided to do what she did best. She vaulted over the railing of the Lightning Tower.