Chapter 69: The Puppet Progenitor and the Unpleasant Puppet Show - 6
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 69: The Puppet Progenitor and the Unpleasant Puppet Show - 6
Whew. Thank god for Azzy. I can handle humans, but a beast like that is a bit much.
I’m just an ordinary human. I can’t even win a one-on-one fight with a normal horse.
So, fight a sanguine horse that’s as big as a mountain, can’t die, and is ridiculously strong? I’d be turned into a puddle of blood. The Regressor might have had a way, but not me. My only option was to call Azzy.
Watching the mythical battle unfold before me, I muttered.
“Hmm. This isn’t a good matchup.”
A dog’s main attack is biting. The finishing blow is to grab the neck in one go, shake it, and snap the spine.
But her opponent was the sanguine horse Ralion, a familiar created by a vampire’s power, possessing an immortal body. It was an undying monster that would regenerate infinitely, even if its flesh was torn and its neck ripped off.
“The pseudo-sun is up, so if Azzy tears Ralion apart tens of thousands of times until its very existence fades, she could win. But Finlay won’t just stand by and watch that happen.”
It would take Azzy quite some time to completely destroy Ralion.
The outcome of this fight now rested on our shoulders.
“Well, anyway. Thanks to Azzy, we have a path. Are you feeling better now?”
Where Azzy had rampaged, a path was carved through the mountain of corpses and the ocean of blood. At the end of that path, a foolish vampire had lost its mind and become a puppet.
Even the puppets I controlled were better than that. Tsk, tsk. I spoke, unable to hide my pity.
“Ready to go smack the head of some senile old geezer?”
“…You have a real nasty way with words.”
As the Regressor said this, one of her eyes was stained crimson, as if drenched in blood.
“I’m fine. I can move my body now… but.”
Her trembling arm was a pitiful sight. The shaking grew worse as she pointed Chun-aeng at the vampire. It was so violent I thought I was going to get cut just by standing next to her.
Just as I was seriously wondering if this was some new assassination technique, she spoke.
“It’s impossible to point my sword at Tyrkanzyaka. Her original blood has seeped into every corner of my body. I can swing my sword freely against other familiars, but when I try to aim it directly at the master of that blood, the blood itself runs wild and interferes.”
“Wait a minute. What does that mean?”
The Regressor looked at me with a devastated expression.
“I hate to say this… but I’m asking you. You’re the only one. I’ll clear the way, so you… save Tyrkanzyaka.”
“Me?”
I stared blankly toward the vampire.
She wanted me to take care of all the remaining dark knights up ahead, advance, defeat Finlay who was controlling things from above, and then wake up the vampire?
Hey, if I could do all that, I wouldn’t have been captured in the first place.
“That’s a bit too much to ask of me.”
“Don’t… make excuses. I know you’re hiding your true power.”
How can I hide power I don’t have? It’s not like I’m a debtor being shaken down for money. You think power just appears if you demand it?
While I was speechless with disbelief, the Regressor took a ragged breath and spoke.
“I know you’re plotting something. And that you’re hiding your strength! But now is the time to use that power and save Tyrkanzyaka!”
Her eyes were so clear and unwavering as she shouted. You would never imagine she was the one in mortal danger.
How could she trust someone so completely, even when facing death? For a moment, I was swayed by her conviction and read her thoughts.
‘If he doesn’t save her. If he tries to use this chance to get rid of Finlay and take Tyrkanzyaka for himself! Then from the next timeline onward, I can consider him an enemy!’
My body trembled, my entire future held hostage.
Ah, on second thought, she wasn’t the one in danger at all. If I acted suspiciously in this timeline, she’d be hunting me down from the very next one. I had to prevent that.
Sigh. I guess I have to try, for my own sake now and for my sake in the next timeline. Nothing’s ever easy, is it?
I glanced over at the vampire and Finlay.
The small sun illuminated the ground in red. A gap had formed in the ranks of the dark knights where Azzy had swept through. The darkness slowed in the light, and Finlay was coughing up blood.
Huh? Wait a minute. Could this actually work?
“Well, if I play my cards right, I might just be able to pull it off.”
“…Hmph. I knew you’d say that.”
The Regressor grinned, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
The burden on my shoulders felt heavy. I didn’t have the ability to finish this as coolly as she expected.
Still, whatever.
“You can use magic, right? How about you cast some on me?”
“My support magic isn’t very efficient, so it won’t be much help to someone strong.”
Oh, it’ll help. Adding 10 to 1000 is a 1% increase, but adding 10 to 10 makes you twice as strong.
“…Still, I suppose it can’t hurt. Wait a moment.”
The Regressor nodded and released Chun-aeng.
Wind, cloud, rain, and dew. Frost, snow, thunder, and lightning.
Using the compressed space of Chun-aeng as a medium, she wielded magic that controlled the sky and wind. From it, she drew out the only, and most powerful, support spell she could cast.
“Skyblade Art, Gentle Breeze.”
The space surrounding the sword unraveled strand by strand. The strands spread out like scattering skeins of thread, then began to gently wrap around my body.
Having squeezed out her mana, the Regressor spoke with difficulty.
“From now on, every action you take will have the blessing of the wind. The wind will blow in the direction you move, and not even the thickest dust will hinder you. Even in a gale, the wind surrounding you will keep you steady. For a while, the wind is on your side. Ride this current.”
“Excellent. Now I just need to get my weapon.”
While I untied the bundle on my back, the Regressor gripped Chun-aeng and stepped forward.
“I’ll buy you time. Get ready.”
The Regressor twisted Chun-aeng slightly.
Chun-aeng was a sword with no thickness, capable of slicing through anything. However, it was less effective against a vampire’s familiars, which were made of darkness and blood. Slicing them once was pointless; they would just reform.
Therefore, the Regressor abandoned sharpness. Instead, she adjusted her grip to present Chun-aeng’s flat side.
It had no thickness, but it had width, and the wind caught on its broad blade.
She gave up the sharpness that could sever all things, and in its place, she wreathed the blade in a fierce wind. The Regressor muttered under her breath.
“Skyblade Art, Blade Shapeshift.”
Wind flowed in as if space itself had cracked. An amount of air that seemed capable of filling the entire Abyss gathered on Chun-aeng’s blade, which was no wider than a handspan.
A long-necked beast always lets out a deeper roar. The cry of the wind flowing through the vast sky used the heavens as its throat, creating a thunderous vibration.
Chun-aeng, now cloaked in wind, looked like a giant fan.
A heavy vibration emanated from the blade. The Regressor lifted all the wind coiled around Chun-aeng.
“Wave Breaker, Dance of Chaos!”
She swung it wide horizontally.
In the next instant, my hair stood on end. A powerful wave of force, invisible but palpable, swept past me. It was less like wind and more like a whip—a storm of extremely compressed power.
The storm blew the dark knights away in a single sweep. Even the black energy clotted on the ground scattered like sand as the dark smoke was pushed back in a semicircle.
The front was cleared in an instant. The Regressor bit her lip and clutched her chest.
“The path is open! Go, now—!”
As she shouted, she caught sight of me and staggered back.
“Wait! What are you holding?!”
“What do you mean? I need a weapon, too.”
“How is that a weapon?!”
What is it? It’s a weapon I happened to find while rummaging through the cafeteria, thinking I should grab something, anything.
The most effective anti-demon… no, anti-blood sword for fighting vampires.
“Behold, the Undying’s right arm! The Immortal Righty!”
“Why are you holding that?!”
“Because!”
Just then, a dark knight that had flattened itself to the ground to endure the wind leaped at me. A perfect punching bag had appeared right on cue. I thrust the Undying’s arm toward the approaching knight.
The wriggling, severed end of the arm was pointed at the dark knight. The knight swung its sharp sword to counter, but…
“Immortal Striiike!!”
The moment the sword touched the Undying’s arm, the darkness crumbled like wet sand and fell to the ground.
The flesh of an Earthener was a curse upon vampire blood. The right arm, which contaminated the power itself, didn’t lose momentum and pierced straight through the dark knight’s chest.
Immediately after, the dark knight’s entire body stiffened and then collapsed.
Its body did not regenerate.
The blood, now mixed with impurities, had broken free from the vampire’s control.
After dispatching the dark knight in an instant, I twirled the arm and shouted.
“Because this is the ultimate weapon for dealing with vampires!”
The Regressor, who had been staring dumbfounded, shrieked.
“That’s not a weapon, it’s an arm! An Undying’s right arm!”
“The body is the sword. That is sword-body unity. So how can one separate my body from my sword?”
“But that’s not even your arm!!”
I raised the right arm, showing the Regressor how the Undying’s hand was gripping mine tightly.
“The pommel on this one is custom-made, so it will never slip from my grasp! I’m telling you, there’s no way I’ll drop it. So couldn’t you consider it an extension of my own arm?”
“That’s just the Undying’s hand grabbing you!”
Tap, tap, tap.
There was no need to put force into my swing. No need to add weight to my thrusts. Sword paths, sword principles, sword qi—all that stuff is just methods devised by the weak.
I just had to give them a light tap, and the Undying’s flesh would neutralize the vampire’s power, turning the familiars into mere puddles of blood.
Its overwhelming performance was enough to make even the Regressor ponder with a serious expression.
“…That might not be a bad idea.”
“Heh heh. I knew you’d understand. After all, you and I are both cold-blooded pragmatists who only care about performance.”
“Are you sure it’s okay to swing it around like that?”
“Of course.”
I gave the arm a half-spin and said nonchalantly.
“It’s just a shame it has limited durability.”