plumnovel Chapter 850: Before The Mother Moves
Chapter 850: Before The Mother Moves
"If that thing moves now..."
Asmodeus’s voice vanished beneath another violent tide of black water as three more Small Leviathans burst from the canal, their bodies twisting together like a bundle of diseased snakes. Their pale eyes blinked in dozens across their disgustingly slimy flesh, each one reflecting his face.
Axiom hummed violently, as if delighted at the huge meal.
’This thing is getting too used to big meals... what if it gets fussy?’
"Heh, don’t get too excited."
The halberd answered with a sharp pulse as he folded his wings tightly against his back and dropped through the air. The first beast opened its four-fold mouth, but before it could scream, Axiom’s blade carved through its throat and split the creature from jaw to tail.
Black blood scattered across the harbour stones.
The second lunged from below.
Asmodeus planted one foot on its head midair, crushing it downward, then twisted his body and slammed his knee into the third creature’s skull. Bone caved inward with a nauseating crunch.
Squelch!
The monster crashed into the canal wall, writhing for a moment before Axiom pierced its chest and devoured the abyssal energy leaking from its flesh. Asmodeus clenched his fists, feeling his biceps tighten as the more he killed, the stronger he became.
Almost addicted to the feeling, Paul’s voice suddenly snapped him out of it.
"Move the wounded to the inner sanctum! Do not allow the black water to touch your skin. If you should inhale it, quickly find one of the priests and stay behind the second line!"
"He used to hate the idea of leading others, or being in power."
Asmodeus mused as his old friend now looked so comfortable in the Lord’s position.
Under Paul’s command, the soldiers moved faster and with more confidence than before, although fear still clung to them; both Asmodeus’s presence and a leader standing beside them helped.
Though they weren’t quite Knights of Lumeria yet, Asmodeus was sure these kids would one day brag about this day for the rest of their lives.
If they lived.
Paul turned toward the market bridge, where civilians were being rushed across in waves. Mothers carried children, while young men guided the old, limping fishermen who stubbornly protested, insisting they wouldn’t leave their shacks.
Asmodeus struck down another beast, while a priestess covered in blood, holding her hands above a boy’s chest, chanting with tears in her eyes, caught his attention.
She knelt in the centre of the first district, her lips trembling as she whispered prayers through clenched teeth.
Please, just a little longer. Let us hold for a little longer.
A faint golden light seeped into the boy’s body.
Deng!
"...damn it."
The eastern gatehouse groaned after another blow, forcing Asmodeus to take flight once again. The sound thundered through the harbour like giants knocking at the door as the iron gate beneath the structure bent outward further.
Boom.
Several rivets shot loose, screaming through the air like arrows. One punched through a nearby stone wall, sending dust spraying across the street.
Once again, Paul’s voice called out, almost screaming at him.
"Your Majesty! It’s too dangerous to get back."
"Don’t be so stupid, how can I stop now?!"
Asmodeus landed beside the canal with a heavy crack, the stone fracturing beneath him as the filthy black water pooled around his ankles. ’It’s far worse than I thought...’ The black water had begun to seep inside again, draining violently through the opened floodgate tunnels.
The exposed canal floor was completely ruined, stained in a sludgy black fluid, dense enough to be called slime.
Thin black sacs clung to the stonework beneath the waterline, pulsing faintly like diseased organs. Some were the size of fists, while others were more than five times the size, and many of them had already split open, leaving behind transparent membranes and trails of slime.
"Eggs? But how did they get here..."
Asmodeus’ expression darkened as he peered into the darkness; inside the tunnel, there was a constant wish of water and something viscous. He stepped closer to the entrance, giving Paul one last glance before he entered.
Though the small leviathans, the size of large bears, were terrifying, what would the commoners do against a human-sized abomination?
They were hatching inside Baltimore.
One of the sacs burst.
A tiny Leviathan spawn, no larger than a dog, collapsed onto the canal floor with a wet slap. Its body twitched before countless pale eyes opened one after another along its back. It gave a thin, shrill cry upon seeing Asmodeus.
Then dozens answered from beneath the water and down the tunnel.
"Shit... this is troublesome."
Thousands of tiny eyes opened in the darkness, all of them glaring at Asmodeus. For a second, even he felt his skin crawl, it wasn’t fear but a genetic rejection of the disgusting abberations.
"Paul!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.
The tunnel ahead began pulsing with wet sounds; suddenly, all the sacs clinging to the walls swelled and shrank in sync. It was eerie, as if they were breathing in the black ooze clinging to their surfaces.
"Yes, Your Majesty?!"
"Do not let anyone enter this tunnel!"
"What about you?!"
Asmodeus glanced back only once.
"If I don’t come out in less than an hour, just destroy the entrance with rune magic."
Paul’s face twisted.
"Don’t say something so stupid!"
"Hahaha! It’s not that I can’t break out myself... but these things are just too dangerous."
Asmodeus laughed and stepped deeper into the darkness.
The sound of his boots sinking into the slime made an unpleasant squelch with each step. Axiom’s blade dragged lightly against the tunnel wall, carving sparks from the stonework while swallowing the abyssal vapour leaking from the eggs.
"Oh?"
When Axiom devoured all the abyssal energy lingering around an egg, it began to shrivel into a small prune shape rapidly.
’I see... this will be easy!’
At least that’s what he thought, but after turning a dozen or so eggs into food for his weapon, the tiny spawns began to move.
A wave of dog-sized black slimes surged at him with their writhing bodies, mouths slipping into four like a horrifying movie.
Their cries sent chills down his spine.
"Kiiiiii!"
Asmodeus raised one hand.
Black and gold flames gathered around his fingers.
"Burn."
The fire exploded down the tunnel.
Fwoooom!
The first wave vanished beneath holy demonic flame, their bodies curling and popping like rotten fruit thrown into a furnace. The sacs on the walls burst one after another, spilling black fluid that immediately ignited.
His flame illuminated the tunnel in a violent flash.
What he saw was quite shocking, revealing just how far the infection had spread.
"Tsk."
A tendril shot from the darkness.
Asmodeus tilted his head.
It scraped past his cheek, slicing a shallow line beneath his eye before burying itself in the stone behind him. The wound healed almost instantly, but his expression changed.
"Something larger is inside."
From the depths, a low groan reverberated, likely the creature that just tried to stab his eye.
Water slowly rose the deeper he went, bubbling around his calves before reaching his knees as something massive shifted in the depths. The abomination cowered and hid behind the steam and smoke left from his flames, while the smaller spawn retreated, desperately crawling over one another.
"Disgusting..."
Then a hand appeared.
Five long fingers gripped the edge of the tunnel wall, webbed between each joint, covered in black scales and pale eyes. Its nails dug into the stone with a slow, deliberate scrape.
Krrrk.
Asmodeus tightened his grip on Axiom.
The thing pulled itself forward and revealed itself. It had the upper shape of a woman, if some drunk sculptor had tried to create his idea of a goddess after one too many.
Long black hair, made of slime, clung to her face like seaweed. Its torso was slender but twisted in a strange shape, deforming her ribs beneath translucent skin... Below the waist, its body extended into a thick eel-like tail covered in armour-like scales.
She resembled something foul, as if a Leviathan had merged with a human.
’No, the Abyssal was originally human from another world...’
He couldn’t help but wonder if this was the true form of Leviathan who waited for him at the bottom of the ocean.
Though eerie, she did carry a strangely alluring appeal.
Slap!
Asmodeus slapped his cheek, as a pink flicker fizzled from his eyes.
’Fuck, this thing has a charm ability!’
Almost seduced by the freak, he grew more focused and irritated, while the woman tilted her head, making a bizarre attempt at a laugh as countless eyes opened along her humanoid arms, all of them staring at him.
"Ah..."
A sound left her lips as she reached out to the air.
"Such warm... and delicious...."
Asmodeus narrowed his eyes.
"You can speak?"
"Warm... mana...... more....please give me more..."
The creature dragged itself closer, ignoring the flames licking across its scales. There was a moment of hesitation in Asmodeus as he felt no hostility.
"So hungry...."
Yet she still didn’t attack.
She stopped a few steps away, half-hidden by the steam and murky water, her long fingers trembling in the air as if she did not know how to use them. Her many eyes blinked out of sync, scanning his body, but the main pair remained locked with Asmodeus’s gaze in a strange moment.
"....Why did you leave?" Her haunting voice whispered as if speaking through a tube.
"What?"
Her webbed hand reached slowly toward his face, stopping just short of his cheek. There was no killing intent or hunger in her gesture.
"What took you so long?"