Chapter 71: The Puppet Progenitor and the Unpleasant Puppet Show - Finale
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 71: The Puppet Progenitor and the Unpleasant Puppet Show - Finale
Crackle.
An electric current shot out from the tip of the skewer. It flowed through the original blood, pierced the Progenitor’s heart, and then spread throughout her entire body along her veins.
Thump.
The vampire’s body reacted strongly to the familiar shock. Her lips parted slightly, a soft moan escaping. It was a thrilling pleasure that now coursed through her heart, a sensation her body had learned to expect.
It pulled the vampire’s consciousness up from the depths of a long slumber.
At the same time, Finlay began to scream like a madman.
“Aaaaargh!”
Blood roiled beneath Finlay’s skin, as if thousands of earthworms were crawling underneath it. Blood streamed from his nose, and the capillaries in his eyes burst, turning them crimson.
The blood in his body scattered in every direction. As Finlay writhed on the ground in agony…
The vampire’s heart beat once more.
Focus returned to her hazy eyes. They filled with a brilliant crimson, like a sunset. A touch of life, however small, returned to her doll-like face.
The rampaging blood and darkness fell silent, awaiting the Progenitor’s return.
The vampire slowly began to move.
“I had a dream.”
The fight was over.
Ralion had abruptly stopped fighting. An enraged Azzy had torn his body into dozens of pieces, but this time, instead of regenerating, Ralion chose to let his essence flow back toward the vampire. Returning to her side, Ralion collapsed as if his strength had left him.
“For a moment, I thought my dream had come true. But it slipped through my fingers so quickly. I wanted it so, so badly that I sought a way.”
“Your sleep-talking is a bit much, you know. Who told you to sleep in a coffin when there’s a perfectly good bed?”
The original blood that had settled in every corner of the Regressor’s body seeped out. It then drifted calmly through the air, flying toward the vampire.
Having collected herself, the Regressor walked through the motionless dark knights and approached.
“Was it a vain hope? Was it a life lost, something I should never have dared to covet? Did I sin against God simply for having a wish?”
“No. You were just a nuisance to me. Have you ever considered how miserable I’d feel, seeing a trainee I taught so diligently go around doing everything I told them not to? You sinned against me long before you sinned against any god.”
The vampire murmured, her eyes dark and sunken.
“Tell me. What did I do wrong? Was it dreaming? Was it wishing for something?”
“Well, you did a lot of things wrong, but the biggest one…”
I raised a finger and pointed to her chest, where her ribs were fully exposed.
“How can someone who claims to be so chaste walk around with her chest wide open like that? It’s embarrassing to look at. You should mind your conduct.”
My answer was completely outside her expectations. Having read her mind, I was certain of it.
The vampire’s eyes widened in surprise before a small smile graced her lips.
“Huhu, what’s the matter? You’ve seen this sight countless times.”
“I don’t mind if you only do it in front of me. That’s one of your charm points, after all.”
“Ahahaha!”
The vampire laughed heartily. She roared with laughter until it seemed unshed tears were glistening in her eyes, then belatedly covered her mouth.
“My apologies. I shall restrain myself in the future.”
“You’ll have to try very hard. You’ve already lost a lot of points with me. And not just with me, but with others, too.”
For a moment, the vampire looked around.
The small sun floating in the air, the scattered blood energy and darkness, the crumbled dark knights, and the wounded, limping Ralion.
The Regressor, clutching her chest as she walked with difficulty, Azzy with her clothes in disarray, and the Earthener’s arm, which had turned pitch black.
After taking it all in, the Progenitor gave a faint smile and murmured.
“That is… a bit of a shame.”
Then, the vampire flicked her finger.
Finlay’s screams, which had been cut off, resumed. The reason his screams hadn’t been heard until now was that the vampire had not permitted him to scream.
The Progenitor spoke coldly to Finlay as he rolled on the ground.
“It seems a great deal of time has passed. Now, even reverence is tailored to one’s own convenience. So, tell me, how was the experience of controlling me, however briefly?”
“Progenitor…”
Gasping, Finlay raised his head. His jaw was sunken where his teeth had fallen out, his cheeks were discolored and black, and his veins still pulsed erratically.
A horrific sight to behold, Finlay looked up at the returned Progenitor and cried out desperately.
“It is true I have committed a sin I cannot bear, but Progenitor! Please, listen! You must go to the surface! We desperately need you! The deepest blood, to lead us all as one!”
“I will not go.”
“Why… why not?”
“There were several reasons, but another has recently been added.”
Gathering her parasol, the vampire looked down at Finlay with her glowing red eyes.
Those eyes, which sometimes held a glimmer of warmth when looking upon her own kind, were now endlessly cold as they gazed upon the traitor.
“Because the kindred who wished for it deceived me, that wish shall not be granted.”
Finlay’s already ghastly face became further stained with despair. For a moment he denied the situation, but he soon channeled his residual emotions into rage and spat it out.
“Why!! Progenitor! Why won’t you help us!!”
Even faced with such irrational anger, the vampire showed no emotional turmoil. The Progenitor with the un-beating heart replied coldly, without a hint of wavering.
“I am not a being who helps you. Just as you did not help me.”
“Everyone is waiting for you! You, who created us, who created this blood, you who are our very roots! You must lead us! To victory, to glory!”
“What I gifted you was merely an extension of life. Victory, glory… I have no memory of promising such things.”
Finlay’s expression turned blank.
What one gained by becoming a vampire was a deferment of death.
In place of a stopped heart, they used Bloodcraft, empowered by the Progenitor, to move their blood. That was how vampires, despite having died once, could walk the earth.
Their numbers grew, and they hid among humans, operating in the shadows, coming to be known as the nobles of the night. One great vampire even became the ruler of a duchy.
However.
The Progenitor had never promised any of that.
“We revered you!! So why, why are we not rewarded?!”
But reason does not always follow logic, and the more one is pushed to the brink, the more extreme their thoughts become.
Finlay spewed words at random, without any logic, as if throwing stones blindly and hoping one would hit.
Of course, it had no effect on the 1200-year-old Progenitor.
“You are noisy.”
Silence. Finlay’s voice was cut off. His mouth opened wide, but no sound escaped.
“Your breathing is also an annoyance.”
His breath stopped.
“Even the fact that my power moves your body.”
The flow of his blood, which had been circulating through Bloodcraft, came to a halt.
For a single moment, all of Finlay’s life-sustaining functions ceased, and only his eyes darted around frantically. Fear arrived a moment too late, simply because he hadn’t yet processed the situation.
Only then did Finlay face his own death with a new level of objectivity.
‘No. If I die like this… my sire, and our kin, the entire vampire race…’
“And the fact that you dare to run rampant without knowing your place. All of it.”
Snap. As the vampire snapped her fingers, blood began to swirl at his shoulder.
The blood, spinning furiously within his veins, grew fiercer and sharper by the moment, until it began to grind away his flesh, growing larger and larger.
And then, Finlay’s right arm exploded.
Denied even a scream, Finlay’s eyes bulged as he writhed in agony.
‘Ghk, ghaaah. Wh-why. It hurts so much. I am… a noble of the night!’
But the pain was not yet over.
He still had one arm and two legs left.
Snap.
The blood pooled in his left arm turned into a saw blade, tearing him apart from the inside. Finlay tried to scream mentally and twist his body away, but as he was not even permitted to move, his body could only tremble violently.
Snap.
This time, it was his left leg. His veins snapped one by one, thrashing wildly. Like whips, the untethered veins tore his body to shreds. Droplets of blood seeped out from between the layers of his skin.
‘It hurts! Gack, heok! It hurts, it hurts!’
Snap.
Finally, his right leg. This time, the droplets of blood sharpened into needles and ravaged him from within. The agony of needles coursing through his veins caused Finlay’s mind to half-dissipate.
At last, when all his limbs had been torn away…
Finlay, half-catatonic, repeated only a single thought.
‘I… was not wrong… Someone had to do it…’
A final death rattle to protect his sanity. A single thread to cling to, to preserve his dignity at the very end.
The vampire felt not a shred of pity watching Finlay squirm like an insect. She simply went about her business, impassive.
“—And the fact that you are alive. It is all endlessly grating.”
Just as the vampire was about to kill Finlay outright, I stepped in to stop her.
“Just a moment, Trainee Tyrkanzyaka.”
I felt a strange urge.
You know how children have a bit of a mischievous streak?
What would a single ant do if it was separated from its marching column?
How hard do you have to shake the thin spider silk before the descending spider falls?
How much more must a frayed and worn rope be pulled before it snaps, strand by strand?
“Hello, Finlay.”
Sorry, Finlay.
You have to be honest with yourself, even when you’re on your way out.
“I gave you a chance, too. Everyone here had a choice. But you… you made the stupidest choice of all.”
‘…I did it… for the coven…’
“But you know, don’t you? You had chances to turn back. And you were definitely aware of that. Even if you had managed to ascend to the surface with Tyrkanzyaka and return to the Duchy of Mist… the fact that a lowly Yeiling dared to try and control the Progenitor is a mortal sin that would never be forgiven.”
‘…I know. My life… is not… precious.’
“The excuse that you did it for your coven. It’s a good one. But let’s be a little more honest, shall we?”
That last thread he was barely clinging to, right before death.
But as someone who knew its true nature, I couldn’t resist toying with it.
“When you were deceiving and trying to control the Progenitor… you didn’t think for a second about the well-being of your sire, whom you so revere and pledge loyalty to, or the coven you wanted to make great, even at the cost of your own life… did you?”
‘…What?’
Ah, he’s finally looking at me.
I smiled sweetly and, with an exaggerated, theatrical air, asked the vampire.
“Trainee Tyrkanzyaka! Finlay has committed the grave sin of coveting the Progenitor’s power! This is the first and most terrible act of insubordination in vampire history! So, how shall we punish Finlay for this grave sin?”
At my question, the vampire replied as if I had asked the most obvious thing in the world.
“Annihilation of the bloodline.”
‘…Annihilation… of the bloodline?’
Within his fading consciousness, two words were clearly engraved.
Annihilation of the bloodline. A terrible and cruel punishment, filled with the malice of completely eradicating an entire coven, of severing it at its very roots.
A punishment that existed in the Duchy but had never actually been carried out, Tyrkanzyaka uttered it with ease.
“A mere kindred dared to try and control me. The sin of a kindred against a higher bloodline is a price its sire must pay.”
But what Finlay didn't know was this:
1200 years ago? No, just a few hundred years ago, annihilation of the bloodline was a very common punishment.
‘Wait. Don’t tell me.’
It seemed he finally realized what he had done.
This is why generation gaps are so terrifying.
To get a more precise story, I asked the vampire.
“Then what will happen to the one called Countess Erte?”
“Is she not Finlay’s sire?”
The vampire had a heart that did not beat. Vampires were born 1200 years ago, in an age of chaos and darkness. Once as a human, and once as a vampire.
The Progenitor pitied the fate of those she created. She pitied those who could not face the sun, who were scorned by humans.
But pity does not lessen the sin. Nor does it commute the punishment.
“Then, she must disappear. Valdamir will be disappointed.”
A chilling declaration.
Feeling the coldness embedded within it, Finlay’s body trembled.
‘No.’
Finlay’s eyes shot open as he screamed. With his mouth sealed, it was only in his mind.
‘Even as the Progenitor, you can’t just kill an Ain so freely! She is a meritorious retainer of Lord Sanguine! This was… this was my decision alone! My sire…!’
Denial.
‘How can a Progenitor who hasn’t even shown her face for centuries do as she pleases with a meritorious retainer of the Duchy!’
Rage.
‘Please! This was my doing alone. The coven is innocent!’
Pleading.
But his desperate thoughts reached only me.
I crouched down beside him and said.
“Finlay. You knew the answer. When you concocted your lies, you consoled yourself by saying it was all for your sire and your coven.”
A heart that cares for others is a wonderful thing, but there’s one problem.
It’s often used as a reason to justify oneself, and for something held so dear, it’s surprisingly often neglected.
In other words, saying it was for his sire was just a psychological tool. Like a saw or a hammer.
“But why didn’t you think about what would happen to your sire and your coven when you were caught? Did it not cross your mind? Was the future so terrible that you refused to think about it? Or was it… just not that important to you?”
It wasn’t that important. Because Finlay’s true desire…
“‘Because I’m the awesome vampire who can control the Progenitor. For a moment, I became a god.’ You wouldn’t have had time to think about something like your coven, would you?”
His body trembled. Fear filled Finlay’s eyes. His limbs were all gone, but his mind, which had not yet accepted that fact, was reaching out to me. In his fantasy, a desperately trembling hand extended. That hand grabbed mine and begged.
‘No! N-no! I said no!’
“Goodbye, Finlay. Your love, your reverence, your loyalty—they were the kind of emotions that you could just switch off for a moment. Well, it can’t be helped. Humans have a very useful ability to erase things that aren’t that important from their minds.”
‘Ah. I…’
“Still, you’ve achieved something no one else has. A mere kindred, controlling the Progenitor. It will surely go down in history. Though your coven won’t.”
‘Was I simply blinded?’
“Let him go, Tyrkanzyaka.”
And Finlay’s thoughts stopped.
As the vampire withdrew her remaining power, his extension of life met its expiration date.
I closed Finlay’s eyes for him. It was a meaningless gesture. His body soon crumbled into dust.
Still, to a soul that had finally managed to be honest at the very end, I offered a small prayer of mourning.
Silence fell. The light of the pseudo-sun that had been shining in the air faded, and dusk began to settle.
After the untimely funeral, I stood up. The vampire, who had been waiting quietly for me to move, spoke.
“I will deliver the punishment for Finlay’s coven slowly. It’s not as if I can ascend to the surface right away.”
Punishment?
Who gives a damn about that?
I didn’t particularly want to kill off Finlay’s entire coven. I just wanted him to realize his true feelings.
In fact…
“Excuse me, Trainee Tyrkanzyaka. Did you know?”
I’m the type to oppose things like collective punishment.
“Collective punishment was abolished recently.”
“What?”
“These days, you rarely punish the family for a crime someone commits. There are cases where they share financial responsibility, though.”
The vampire was utterly shocked. While she was always encountering new technology, a change in moral codes was something a vampire found difficult to accept.
Encountering this new knowledge, the vampire’s eyes widened as she asked.
“Then how are sins punished? If they run away by cutting off their own tails like Finlay, how can they be held responsible?”
A pure question, expressed with sparkling eyes.
It felt like if I answered each point, I’d be explaining for days on end, so I gave a vague reply.
“I’m not the one who abolished it.”