Ch.177Chapter 177. The End of Pigs Obsessed with Purity

“Who is the mastermind…?”

A cough follows the question.

“Who is the shadow manipulator, who is the root of all evil…?”

Suppressing it, Virgil Huntress continues forward, responding to my question with a weakened voice.

“…I wonder if there’s any meaning in trying to figure that out now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we’re too small to search for reasons. But if you insist on finding a cause, in the end, everyone is a perpetrator, and we’re all victims.”

With those words, his body convulses again.

Leaning against the wall to endure it, he begins to breathe deeply.

“Virgil, are you alright?”

“Haha, are you worried about me?”

Virgil turns to look at me while sweating profusely.

Despite appearing as if he might transform into a monster at any moment, his gaze toward me revealed goodwill.

“I too am an entity that should rightfully be called evil from a human perspective… Yet your concern for me feels so precarious…”

As if worried I might get burned if I approached him.

Yes, certainly there’s a risk of being caught in his rampage even now, but I still chose to approach and support him.

“You’re certainly not what I’d call a good person…”

I wasn’t throwing myself in naively.

After all, he returned to normal as soon as he recognized me, and even now he was trying to suppress his transformation.

“But I need to hear your story. That’s why I came here.”

Supporting him in this moment was an action I could take because I was certain he wasn’t my enemy.

I believed that as long as his reason remained, he wouldn’t harm me of his own will.

“…Yes, that’s exactly the right attitude.”

He smiled bitterly at my approach and began to slowly move his feet with my support.

“Rather than judging others, prioritizing your own survival… Isn’t that the most ideal attitude for surviving in this harsh world?”

Virgil seemed comforted by my presence as his convulsions subsided, and with a more relaxed expression, he entrusted his body to me.

Feeling relieved, I continued supporting him as we walked through the dark, damp sewer.

-Kyaoaaa!!

Leaving behind the hideous screams coming from all directions.

Searching for a place where I could hear about the root of everything.

****

After wandering through darkness for a long time, we arrived at a large room in the basement of some building.

Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any monsters along the way, but after spending so much time traversing the darkness, the place we arrived at didn’t feel particularly welcoming.

Flesh pieces scattered everywhere and the vast amount of blood leading to the entrance indicated that some kind of incident had occurred here as well.

“This place…”

“It’s a ceremonial hall where the order provides holy water.”

Virgil stepped forward, breaking away from my support as if to guide me through the place.

The patterns engraved on the walls and floor from the drainage channel onward indicated that this space was once considered extremely sacred within the sanctuary.

The most noticeable thing in this space was the fountain placed at its center.

“The believers living in this sanctuary periodically gather in the basement of the papal office to receive holy water and baptism… In reality, it’s just purified water that has undergone religious ceremonies…”

But contrary to the name “holy water,” there was nothing sacred about the fountain—only disgust could be felt.

As if people had been ground up, blood…

Beyond that, only mashed flesh filled it completely.

“It would be best not to touch it. The moment you drink even a sip, you’ll end up like me.”

My body instinctively tensed at his warning.

Looking to the side, I saw him sitting beside the fountain, composing himself.

“Don’t tell me… you drank it?”

“Yes, a lady of my taste offered it, and I reluctantly drank it.”

“…Taste?”

“Haha, she was quite passionate… Not only did she always overwhelm me, but now she’s put a leash on me and uses me like a pet dog guarding the sewers…”

A passionate lady and a pet…

Just from his words, it seemed like a personal matter, but given the situation, it was difficult to take it at face value.

He must be speaking metaphorically.

For instance, this “passionate lady” captured him, forced him to drink the blood from the fountain, and then used him as a guard for the underground.

“…Did the people of this sanctuary transform after drinking this water?”

Whatever the case, judging from the circumstances, the contents of this fountain that once held holy water must be the cause of producing monsters.

With that conviction, another question for him left my lips.

“Was the person who made you drink that water the same as the one who made you like this?”

“Didn’t I say earlier? If we’re talking about masterminds, everyone is a perpetrator and everyone is a victim.”

Virgil repeated his previous statement while struggling to catch his breath.

Feeling frustrated but finding it difficult to press him, I remained quiet. He chuckled and brought up a new topic.

“But if you really want to know the cause… Yes, it would be good to start with that story.”

“That story?”

“Do you know how beings like me came to be?”

Beings like him.

The first thing that came to mind was about his species.

“For vampires… I know that to create offspring, they transfuse their blood to other species.”

“What I’m talking about isn’t vampire reproduction, but about the beginning.”

“The beginning…?”

“Yes, those beings who are said to have been born with nobility.”

True Ancestors. The beings said to have lived the longest among vampires and possessed the most powerful strength.

And the parents and ancestors of all existing vampires.

“It all began… with a star that landed on this earth.”

What he first wanted to start with was how these True Ancestors came to exist in this world.

“While today’s sentient beings live with civilization, back then nothing existed. No traditions, no religion, no transmission of knowledge—a primitive era… What do you think sentient beings would do when confronted with a star that descended from the sky?”

What would primitive humans do when faced with a meteorite before the creation of civilized society?

After pondering this question briefly, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“…Smash it?”

“Yes. And if it’s edible, they eat it.”

As if to say I wasn’t entirely wrong.

He then began to mimic eating by opening his mouth.

“A strange piece of meat that fell from the sky, of unknown origin… No one knew what would happen to those who ate it. Nevertheless, without any knowledge of its dangers, they consumed it and transformed…”

That’s how the first vampires were born.

The beginning of beings called True Ancestors.

“Not everyone transformed, but because there were those who didn’t change, we came to consider ourselves even more special. Among the sentient beings who already considered themselves superior, we gained uniquely exceptional powers.”

Losing strength in sunlight, enchanting other species, transforming into mist, tremendous physical abilities, and near-immortal vitality…

Even capable of reproducing through blood transfusion regardless of species—Flandor once said:

If vampires had deliberately increased their numbers, they might have become an even greater threat than the Demon Lord’s army or the Undead.

“But ironically, we became too intoxicated with such specialness. Even the primitive habits we had before encountering the miracle from outer space… quickly faded away in the time we lived eternally.”

Yes, pride symbolizes vampires to such an extent that they cherish their blood.

They always consider other species to be lower and inferior to themselves, so they are very cautious about increasing their numbers, and even then, if deemed unworthy, they are used as disposable offspring.

Such habits could only become more pronounced because of their immortal nature.

“At some point, we only stood above others, even reluctant to dirty our own hands. Simply parasitizing others to take what we needed, and if we couldn’t use them, abandoning them to find new targets for exploitation—that became the survival method of the species that considered itself the most superior.”

And Flandor said:

Vampires always parasitize the species that has held dominance in every era, and in this moment when the world is entering catastrophe, humans are the only ones maintaining a social structure.

Therefore, vampires would be considered enemies to current humanity.

That’s as far as Flandor went. It seemed there was more, but whenever the conversation reached that point, he showed signs of hiding something.

“Those of us who merely hid and exploited were always considered troublemakers by sentient beings… but even we came to be objects of worship one day.”

Perhaps what’s being mentioned now is what was hidden before.

With that suspicion, my brow immediately furrowed as I stared at Virgil.

“Worship? You mean humans worshipping vampires?”

“Without a common enemy, it is the nature of sentient beings to eventually turn against each other… Before the advent of catastrophe, how could the protagonists of an era who were hostile to each other possibly trust and unite completely?”

I know this story too.

That humans killed each other before the great calamity known as dragons existed.

In such circumstances, how could they set aside all hatred and develop a mindset to counter danger just because a catastrophe had arrived?

“Eventually, the rulers of the era had to choose. Whether to scatter and prepare for the end, or to bow their heads to the arrogant race they considered troublesome, and use their power to unite the scattered groups…”

The creaking sound coming from the vampire’s body as he confesses this truth.

“…Even offering the pure blood of the most sacred and beautiful being for this persuasion.”

At that moment, he seemed unable to maintain his composure, and his usual nobility crumbled into a grim expression.

“Humans…”

And I too felt an uncontrollable sensation welling up from within, though of a different kind.

The truth I had been suspicious of all along…

Only now did I realize what that indescribable feeling I had when facing the Crown Prince was.

“So it was… you who have been manipulating humanity’s leadership all along?”

Byeongbin Park…

Did Orion Seis’s clone betray his original self as soon as he broke free from restraint and create a revolutionary group because he recognized this reality?

Because he couldn’t stand by and watch as humanity was gradually destroyed by those who chose to become slaves of their own free will?

“…Are you disappointed?”

By the time this realization dawned on me, Virgil had regained his composure and was calming the tremors in his body.

The emotion drawn on his face was clearly what one would call skepticism.

“I am too. When I see groups obsessed with purity despite considering themselves noble… I feel anger rising.”

“…Virgil.”

“True purity shines genuinely only when it maintains its form even after enduring hardship and adversity… Without understanding that process and obsessing only over results, one’s eyes will only be blinded by the faded luster of devalued radiance.”

Just as demons follow desire and the undead follow attachment, vampires follow their own aesthetics.

The vampire before me was one who had awakened hatred toward purity through such aesthetics.

Among those who worship purity, he worships the process rather than the result, and therefore worships “purity with true value.”

How must the sight of his kin growing more arrogant as society’s leaders worshipped them have appeared to someone with such eyes?

“And seeing the end of those pigs obsessed with purity with my own eyes, I also thought: Yes, this is how it should naturally end…”

“End? What do you…”

“Oh, yes. It was only the leaders who chose to become their servants. How could those who serve God allow others to exist above those they serve?”

A laugh that somehow felt joyful.

Along with it, he removed the hand that had been clutching his body and spread both arms in ecstasy toward the statues around the fountain.

“They were always sharpening their knives. Even as they bowed their heads to them, even as they offered blood made from the pure and clean bodies they had governed for their god… They constantly pondered how to deal with those arrogant pigs who would surely throw themselves into the ‘new era’ someday.”

To whom is the reverence felt in that exhilarated appearance directed?

As I held my breath at the sight that somehow felt religious, he lowered his arms and shifted his gaze toward me.

“Yes, the new era! Those purely clean pigs blossomed with new ambition in a world where catastrophe was arriving. They came to believe without doubt that they, who inherited the special blood of beings descended from space, were truly worthy of being gods to rule over the sentient beings of this land.”

Eyes that had become haggard after enduring the awakening madness within.

But what dwelled within them was what could be called exaltation.

Seeing the truth that unfolded on this earth, what he felt when recalling it was not despair but an emotion that could be called reverence.

“But those who truly followed God did not acknowledge them. Rather, in resistance to the increasingly harsh world with their existence added, they went so far as to seek ‘a way to create their own god.'”

“Create… a god?”

“Words that anyone would find absurd, mad. But the rulers of this land were serious. In an increasingly harsh world, they truly yearned for divine salvation, and so they decided to attempt to ‘create with their own hands’ the flesh necessary for the god they worshipped to descend upon this land.”

Virgil moved his clenched fist forward.

“To the bloodline left by the extraterrestrial beings possessed by those arrogant pigs.”

He brought that fist to his open palm on the opposite side, and then grasped it.

“Combining it with the results born from extraterrestrial knowledge preserved by the order, to use the completed being as a vessel for god…”

Simultaneously, both arms swelled with a cracking sound.

Even feeling the time of rampage gradually approaching, he did not lose his reason and only joyfully taught me the truth.

The calamity known as monsters—hybrids of beastmen and vampires—in this land were byproducts resulting from attempts to combine species that inherited blood from extraterrestrial beings with species that inherited knowledge from space…

They were the result of combining byproducts of research by vampires and witches.

-Gulp.

After encountering such an absurd truth, I swallowed and my gaze began to turn back toward the inside of the fountain he was leaning against.

“…Then, the vampires.”

“The end of livestock that accepts without doubt is ultimately like this.”

Yes, it was already settled.

The groups that had been manipulating humanity all along…

“Who would have known? That in the blood of the saint, which was only considered a delicacy… an unexpected poison was hidden.”

None other than what those yearning for God sought to resist catastrophe.

As material for creating “God’s vessel.”