Chapter 45
#045
1.
“Ha, this fucking headache….”
Isis too, and Iming too.
They said that with just True Ancestor blood, Edo Tensei was possible!
It wasn't.
<The True Ancestor's ██ is presumed to inherently, or deliberately, exclude the birth of new kin>
In context, even if you inject a human with True Ancestor blood that has slipped free of the 'binding,' the result is only ghoulification.
There was no record anywhere of vampirization succeeding through True Ancestor blood.
“I almost got fucking screwed….”
If I'd believed Isis, Arbel would've become some dark-evolution BlackWarGreymon-Arbel.
Meaning that, separate from the blood, the True Ancestor's cooperation was essential.
But here's the problem.
You need the True Ancestor's cooperation, but the True Ancestor herself supposedly never made a thrall in her entire life!
She was even the kind of crazy bitch who'd butcher her own whole family.
I didn't think a bitch like that would make Arbel her thrall just because he waited on her hand and foot for a few days.
“Fuck!!!!!”
“Rowen, what's wrong?”
“Nothing at all!”
“Really? I'll be done with my makeup soon. Wait a little longer.”
So was I disappointed?
No? You only get disappointed if you had expectations.
From the start, I never expected the premium-route anomaly clear to go smoothly.
But I kept thinking of Sion, bossing Cedric around with a chin jut like some nasty mother-in-law.
I remembered the trouble of boiling bathwater while sweating buckets from dawn.
“That scam-and-run leech bitch…!!!”
No, she said she'd make me her thrall if I served her well!
That fucking bitch. I knew it was too easy when she agreed so readily—she was planning to stab me in the back from the start?
I couldn't let this anger settle.
For a moment, I was trembling with searing betrayal.
“Ha… do I have to redo the strategy from scratch?”
Smart, highly educated people must've put their heads together and researched this.
Wouldn't they have found a breakthrough?
With a straw-clutching desperation, I quickly rifled through the materials.
“Huh?”
I found an experiment log with a distinctly sketchy smell.
[ Project: Meat Doll ]
- Objective: transplant True Ancestor factors into a mindless cultured body (doll) to build a controllable New True Ancestor (Prototype-True Ancestor).
“Cultured?”
It was a word that stuck out at me.
It was the proposal made by the guys who'd tried to make vampires and ended up with nothing but a mountain of ghoul stock.
'Pre-implant the factor into the cultured ██ to bypass ██ conflict.'
That's oddly connected, isn't it?
I kept reading.
[ Main Experimental Progress Report ]
<Case 1. █ year █ month █ day.>
Factor implantation into the cultured doll succeeded. The subject awakened immediately after the factor injection. It screamed and rammed its head into the partition wall. Died from excessive bleeding █ minutes later.
<Case 13. █ year █ month █ day.>
For █ hours after factor injection, outwardly normal. However, no response to external stimuli. EEG repeating in a single cycle. Cognitive functions failed to activate. Permanent autistic state. Disposed of.
<Case 28. █ year █ month █ day.>
█ days after factor implantation. The subject's body stabilized and its cognitive functions normalized. However, violent tendencies emerged. Immediately upon awakening, it attacked the containment facility's partition wall. Multiple sedatives were administered, but it was judged uncontrollable. Disposed of.
<Case 61. █ year █ month █ day.>
Obedience command and submission procedure implemented. The subject was uncooperative with every command. Resisted even torture procedures. Died of cardiac arrest and cerebral hemorrhage ██ days later.
<Case 66. █ year █ month █ day.>
Upon seeing the experimenter, the subject showed extreme fear and hatred. It was confirmed that Case 65's personality and memories remained. Initialization failed. Disposed of.
<Case 82. █ year █ month █ day.>
Memory erasure procedure performed beforehand. However, after factor injection, a 'continuity of memory' was observed, with consciousness information being overlaid. It is presumed that the doll inherits memories the instant it receives the factor.
<Case 98. 'Final Experiment' █ year █ month █ day.>
Construction of a New True Ancestor based on the doll, with the factor implanted, was completed.
Arrogant and self-righteous, but cooperative with experiments.
However, slight infantile regression was observed under extreme stress, presumed to be a defense mechanism.
The subject possessed high physical and mental stability and could use 0th-rank magic.
It could use only a tiny portion of the power of 'blood.'
It can create thralls by bypassing the body's ██, but it was confirmed that the subject's life force is rapidly consumed in the process.
Conclusion: as a True Ancestor substitute, the cost-performance is extremely poor. The project's objective failed. The final subject is classified as an unfinished product.
Final action: scrap the project completely. The subject was placed in suspended animation and transferred to the ███ isolation facility, awaiting 'final disposal.'
“Wow… shit.”
“This is the Necropolis average…?”
I suddenly feel like I'm the one who got taken for a ride.
I've had the feeling I've been living in this city way too kindly and naively.
Massacring 250,000 people is already the kind of massacre that makes even fucking Nazis go, damn, but this is, like, physically gross.
“So, to summarize….”
Twilight Resource Development wanted the True Ancestor for itself, but couldn't….
So they made a fake True Ancestor.
I don't know what route it took in between, but it had been sealed up and left neglected in a basement at Geumniga.
And I just happened to acquire it by chance.
I got fooled by the 'Your concubine is a True Ancestor~' line and ended up worshipping the fake one.
“No, then what was with that presence?”
At our first meeting, she was definitely terrifying as hell.
She was as scary as some samurai bitch. Was that some kind of illusion spell?
Anyway
Let's set aside all the ethical blah blah.
Let's forget that fake True Ancestor Sion looks a little pitiful, too.
At least for me, that's not bad news.
<Can create thralls by bypassing the body's ██, but it was confirmed that the subject's life force is rapidly consumed in the process>
This exact clause.
If she were a real True Ancestor, or if it were through True Ancestor blood, Arbel couldn't be turned into a thrall.
Rather, because she's a fake True Ancestor, the 'conditional' succubus bunny-girl Arbel route opened up.
But I doubt Sion would spend her own life force just to keep Arbel alive….
“Maybe I should beat the trauma out of her until she listens… huh!!!”
I came to my senses.
“Fuck!”
Nietzsche was right.
If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you.
Living in Necropolis itself, the abyss, has dirtied my heart, which used to be as pure as silk.
-Creak
Iming came out, all dolled up.
“Rowen, I'm done.”
“Boss, sorry. Would it be okay if I head back early today?”
“Huh? Why? I just changed clothes.”
“I just remembered that I have a really urgent matter.”
“Is that so? Well, I guess there's nothing to be done….”
Iming, fully made up, let their shoulders slump gloomily.
The look was truly affectionate, as if Iming genuinely cared about me and regretted the club activity falling apart.
“…….”
I was tempted for a moment.
What should I do?
At this point, couldn't I trust Iming?
Should I tell her everything now and ask for help….
'Don't do anything, you idiot! Die! Die!'
'Since when are we speaking casually, you fucker? Hand over the artifact!'
What came to mind were the rage-filled shouts.
The hammer and machete that had been tearing my body into pieces as they came down.
Ha, Cedric, you keep trying to fuck things up.
“Then I'll head out!”
This is Necropolis.
First principle.
Never trust anyone.
2.
On the way back to my room.
I quickened my pace.
As I chewed over the new information like bubblegum.
The clues that hadn't been clear started fitting together like a puzzle.
The reason Twilight Resource Development stayed quiet even after the True Ancestor disappeared.
Because she'd already been discarded as an experimental subject.
The reason Sion had been scarfing down snacks enough to kill a diabetic in a day.
The reason she acted self-centered and whined like a brat.
I thought that was the arrogance unique to True Ancestors, but it was actually the result of regression caused by a defense mechanism.
Fair enough.
She'd been subjected to all kinds of experiments nearly a hundred times, with all her memories 'continued' the whole time.
If it were me, I'd probably end up going around chanting, 'Ttuda ttudda, Ceres mama, give me milk.'
Well. Jokes aside.
Why does this feel so damn ominous?
This is exactly why.
It's why I cut club activities short and head home.
Think about it from Sion's perspective.
She knows that she herself is a fake True Ancestor.
She also clearly judged that she'd be in danger if her position were exposed, and tricked me into becoming her pawn.
Even if some regression has occurred, that doesn't mean she's a total moron.
She can at least tell that hiding her identity and parasitizing off me is walking a tightrope.
But then she threatened that she'd heal Arbel in three days, didn't she?
And for the first time since meeting Sion, I was away for a long stretch.
I can't figure out what the hell she's going to do.
If you don't know, run first!
-BANG!
Haa… haa….
I ran back to my room until I was gasping for breath.
I immediately felt something off.
Nothing.
No sign of anyone.
Fortunately, my Arbel was sound asleep.
Even after checking the bag, the tub, and even opening the toilet lid.
There was no sign of the True Ancestor claimant.
I found a note on the table.
[This concubine is going for a walk and shall return the day after tomorrow]
“A walk my ass!”
I knew it would be like this!
In the meantime, she'd neatly taken the leftover rice cakes and snacks, and even the Letdo-Buru I'd recently refilled with points.
She even took the 10,000 Bios I'd kept carefully tucked away in the closet.
“That leech bitch! She even took my money?”
Even a chump couldn't be this much of a chump!
“If I catch you, I'm spanking your ass until you're crying and sniffling.”
Immediate pursuit.
I didn't know where she'd gone, but I had to at least pretend to look for her.
.
.
.
But there was no way it'd be that easy.
Even after searching the area for more than an hour, I couldn't find a single strand of the runaway fake True Ancestor's hair.
A damp alley lit only by red butcher-shop lights.
I took a cigarette between my lips and let out a deep sigh.
“Ha… I'm screwed….”
An unidentified lump of meat hanging from a hook dripped blood.
The floor was slick with a mix of oil and blood.
Through the thick steam and the stench of raw meat.
The dull chopping sounds of meat being sliced echoed.
Under that red light.
-Swaeaeaek!!!
A sharp blade came flying in.
One from the left, one from the right.
Their attacks were aimed at the carotid artery and the waist, respectively.
It was a sudden ambush.
But the experience I'd built up from beating down countless fixers this run
made my body move before my mind could think.
I turned my head and twisted my waist to create space.
-Tick
The cigarette ember, cut in the middle, flicked up into the air.
-Clang
A broad pudao, throwing sparks as it buried itself in the steel pillar I'd been leaning against.
“And who the hell are you two?”
The two guys in changpao widened their eyes in confusion and tried to keep attacking, but
as always,
I was faster.
Even without forming hand signs or chanting.
Sign Sentence manifested in an optimized form toward the sigil.
-Shwak shwak
Sticky magic, whipped like a lash, transformed into blade shapes and surged toward the two of them.
“It's Sign Sentence!”
“Shit! Dodge it!”
Their movements were as nimble as circus performers.
They even dodged the point-blank slash fired at them immediately after the first miss, while they were still off balance.
More precisely,
“There is no heaven in the place you run to, you bastards.”
They dodged right where I had led them.
Hidden in the dim shadow cast by the red light, the tendrils of magic I'd spread above the awning dropped down and wrapped around both their necks.
-Krrrk
Their necks spun round and round clockwise.
The two attackers collapsed without even a death rattle, their cervical vertebrae crushed.
“What kind of security is this….”
Nothing particularly surprising.
In Necropolis, fixers killing and being killed is everyday life.
The timing sucks ass, but I've been taking Iming's requests and running around killing lots of people.
So it wouldn't be strange if I'd become a target by now.
My stomach's already killing me, and now you assholes are acting up… huh?
I looked around.
The butcher shop owners who'd pulled down the shutters and disappeared the instant the fight broke out.
In their place was a gang of fixers, each armed with whatever tools they had on hand.
They stared at me silently.
“No. A One Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation is a bit….”
At the very least, there were more than forty of them. Even if they were all 8th-rank, that was too many.
And the fact they chose a space with this many obstacles means….
They'd really got me cornered.
I'd been prepared for the possibility of a day like this.
It's a little ironic that it's today of all days.
One of them, a guy with a pudao slung over his shoulder, stepped forward.
“Rowen, you've been making too much of a nuisance of yourself. You should've known when to stop.”
Grinning smugly at their numbers, they slowly tightened the encirclement while keeping their guard up.
“Okay, I surrender. Gentlemen, shall we talk this out like civilized people?”
“You think that's gonna work?”
“I'll introduce you to a girl. Really pretty and young.”
“Really?”
The moment the guy in front perked up his ears.
-Pshoo!
I raised my hand like a pistol and fired Sign Sentence.
I blasted magic into his head and blew it apart.
“Bosssssss!!!”
“You coward! Using a girl introduction as bait!! What an utterly vile fiend!”
Using the blood, brain matter, and guts exploding like fireworks as a signal flare,
“Go fuck yourselves, you idiots!!!!! I can't believe a bunch of Shaolin-monk wannabes are talking about cowardice!”
RUN!!!
“Holy shit!”
What a great place to live, Necropolis!