123 – Mom?
[Ah! aaah! My child, my child!]
With each death of her spirits, she instinctively sensed the deaths of her own children. Feeling helpless as her children died one by one, she was on the verge of madness.
If she completely lost her mind, she would become a dangerous existence, no different from a monster, and would devour other spirits with her magic.
That’s why she had to hold on to a single ounce of reason. She endured the pain as if her body was being torn apart, and she held on and held on until she was saved, but she couldn’t maintain her sanity.
Kugugung, jjeojeojeok!
The space shook under the powerful energy she spread. Lian lowered her body, driving the dark sword into the ground.
Kkwiik, kkik.
The splendid chandelier hanging from the ceiling swayed back and forth. The light illuminating the room trembled like a scene from a horror movie. Lian raised her head and looked at the spirit mother, who was emitting an overwhelming aura.
“Hmm, what should I do about this?”
[heheheheok, quite… quite impressive.]
Lian was taken aback by the excited appearance of the spirit and admired the spirit that appeared with a splendid performance.
Whoosh!
In the meantime, a whirlwind of sinister darkness began to swirl around the spirit’s body. A different power from magic, the power of the dark spirit, converged only into the upper body. There seemed to be at least dozens of them. As a result, the appearance of the spirit was not clearly visible.
“Gargandoa, can you subdue them without any harm?”
[Spirits will be reborn even if they die anyway. So just kill them comfortably.]
“That’s not possible. We promised to take them properly.”
Just before the sword’s reply was heard, the rough air that was swaying abruptly calmed down. The atmosphere became like a stormy night.
Crack.
Dozens of spheres pulsated like hearts and then poured down towards Lian.
Kwaaang! Kuuung! Kwajijik!
Lian quickly rolled her body to avoid the pouring attacks. The attacks rained down on Lian one after another like guided missiles.
Kwaang! Kwajik! Kugugung!
Vicious attacks fell on the spot where Lian had just passed, leaving a very small gap. From Lian’s perspective, who couldn’t be directly harmed by the spirit, there was nothing she could do except dodge.
The functions of the dark sword were mostly designed for taking lives, as it was created to seek more blood. Therefore, the “technique of subduing without any harm” was an unimaginable skill for the sword.
Lian, lost in thought, decided to try recalling the method of the Dark Sword, and dodged the attack as if dancing.
The problem was that this dance was not the refined dance of noble people; it was a somewhat frivolous and teasing dance.
Just like how she had evaded the attack of the former Mia (the Dark Sorceress) by bending her waist in the shape of a “C,” she twisted her body as if stepping and stretching.
“Uddeuddeu… refreshing.”
In the middle of it, a black sphere caught in a comedy filter stopped in mid-air, and a bizarre gymnastic performance occurred with Lian.
If the spirits had enough rationality to perceive such a strange sight, they would have been surprised and regained their rationality completely.
Even if she didn’t have her rationality, if the opponent managed to evade all attacks like a cockroach, she would have to change her attack method. The spirits instinctively stopped throwing the black spheres.
“Ah…”
Lian raised her head and looked straight at the revealed spirit again.
Unlike young spirits, it had a form that resembled a human too much, black hair that reached down to its waist, angry eyes and an expression filled with vitality, and a beautiful appearance befitting a spirit… all covered by a large chest.
Looking at the cloth fragment covering such a huge chest to the point where it seemed ferocious, Lian’s mind turned white for a moment.
The spirit did not miss that opportunity and quickly summoned a sword made of dark power in its hand, gripping it tightly, and rushed towards Lian. If long-range attacks didn’t work, all she had to do was approach and attack directly.
Just as she was about to swing the sword fiercely to cut Lian’s throat, who was looking at her with a blank face.
When Lian faced the plump chest that came close to her nose, she involuntarily thought of someone and said without realizing it, “M… mother?”
[…!]
Due to the laws of the comedy world, she had never closely observed the important parts, but the shape and size could still be confirmed even if wearing clothes.
Lian dared to assert that she had never seen anyone with as large a chest as her mother’s until now.
The moment she faced the majestic thing that she had thought was her mother’s legacy, Lian unintentionally uttered the word “mother” reflexively.
She came to her senses a little too late, but the spirit’s sword was already right in front of her nose. Lian screamed inwardly.
It is extremely difficult to reattach a severed neck. While the neck is being reattached, the body is in a vulnerable state, susceptible to further attacks. It would have taken a long time to recover if the body had been hit while in that state.
Putting the fragmented body back together was as tedious and time-consuming as solving a puzzle with a hundred pieces. Lian didn’t want to go through such a hassle.
“G-Gargando, why are you just standing there!”
Seeing that the Gargando, who always stepped forward in such dangerous situations, was standing still, Lian’s face turned pale with confusion.
[Well, …]
Before hearing Gargando’s response, a bright white light flashed. Everything in front of Lian turned black.
“Ugh!”
A soft and warm, yet suffocating, mass covered Lian’s face.
[Attacking when the opponent is already dead is an ‘uncool’ action.]
With Gargando’s response, Lian’s body was thrown backward by a powerful attack. Contrary to the expectation of rolling on the ground, the body floated gently. At the same time, the darkness that had covered Lian’s face disappeared.
“Wha-what?”
Lian made a bewildered sound and rolled her eyes to follow the suddenly changed situation. Her face was partly buried between the breasts of the spirit, and her body was floating in the air by some force. The back of her head and the area around her neck were being gently patted by the spirit.
When Lian rolled her eyes a little more and looked up, the fierce spirit had disappeared, and only the ‘spirit mother’ with a compassionate expression was there.
[My child, my child…]
The spirit could feel the power of words. Even in a situation where there was almost no reason left, the spirit could distinguish whether Lian’s word “mom” was directed towards her real mother or not.
Lian sincerely thought of her own mother and put those words in her mouth, and the spirit mistook Lian for her own offspring. As a result, she was receiving not a reward…but consolation.
After being gently patted for five minutes, Lian finally regained her senses. She tried belatedly to escape from her embrace, but the spirit smiled softly, like a mother indulging a tantrum-throwing child, and didn’t let go of her shoulder.
“…!”
Feeling pressure from behind her head, Lian stiffened again. She almost dropped the sword by mistake. The spirit’s chest had such a terrifying power.
Lian desperately repeated to herself in order to regain her composure.
“This, this is Mom… Yes, it’s Mom’s heart. Wake up, Mom.”
Surprisingly, that thought resonated well. The two mothers (?) were similar in size, and the current situation was quite familiar. It was because Lian’s mother always hung on his shoulder and whined after coming home from work, as a habit.
Thanks to that experience, Lian could barely hold onto his sanity.
“Phew… Anyway, since things seem to have been resolved, I need to get out of here quickly.”
Lian tried to turn his back on the spirit and head outside while still carrying the spirit on his back. At that moment, a familiar spirit flew in from outside the door.
[The bearded man is coming!]
The spirit hurriedly flew towards Lian, but when it saw the appearance of his mother, it made a surprised expression.
[Oh, Mother…]
With a trembling voice, Lian approached his mother and she reached out to caress the young spirit. Then, the spirit cried out and clung to his mother’s shoulder.
The young spirit was smaller than a one-year-old baby, so it could only cling to the edge of her shoulder since it couldn’t embrace the spirit’s mother, who had a height of 2 meters.
“First, let’s hide.”
After identifying the opponent, it would be more convenient to attack. Although the end was torn due to the spirit’s attack, he hid behind the curtain that clearly separated the room from the laboratory.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Not long after, rough footsteps could be heard from outside, and a man with a broken beard appeared, gasping for breath.
“Ugh, damn it! My, my experiment!”
Upon seeing that the place where the spirit’s mother and the Dark Spirit King were trapped was empty, he let out a sobbing sound.
“No, no. Am I going to die here?”
He sobbed and approached the half-collapsed desk. Then, he brought a bag that was stuck to one side and swiftly swept the research-related documents into the drawer.
“As long as I have these results, I can start again. First, I have to get out of here and go to the Demon King’s Castle. If I have these results… Yes, if I have just this, I’m sure Ervorn will take it seriously.”
He muttered like a madman, as if trying to perform CPR on his failed stocks that were about to collapse in front of his nose. Soon, he made sure he had all the documents and hurriedly tried to leave the room with the bag slung over his side.
“Just a moment.”
In that moment, Lian walked out from behind the curtain and looked at the man. Startled, the man turned around, trembling.