“H-hoo.”
My mind felt sluggish.
Every part of me felt sluggish.
Holding onto the head of the woman who was supposed to be my mother and continuously injecting emotions into her was no easy task. I had to stay focused, continuously visualizing scenes and images that brought rise to the emotion within me.
Such a process was extremely draining.
However, the result was an overwhelming wave of emotions that drained the mental capacity of anyone who was within my grasp.
Snap, snap-!
My ears twitched as I heard a constant snapping sound.
What followed after the sound was the subtle yet piercing screeches coming from the far distance.
‘It’s working.’
The monster’s screams and shouts were all I needed to hear to tell that what I was doing was working. I just needed to keep holding on for a little bit longer. As long as I could do that, I’d be able to turn the situation around.
“Kh…!”
It was difficult, but I knew I could do it.
I…
“You…”
Two cold hands clamped onto my wrist with a force that made it impossible for me to pull back. My heart pounded as I looked down, and there they were a pair of eyes, blood streaming down, locked onto me with a terrifying intensity.
“Wha-“
“Y-you’ve gotten really strong.”
The twisted face that met my gaze as I looked down, paired with her hoarse voice, froze me in place.
Locking eyes with her, I could hardly pull my gaze away and before I knew it, several places around my body started to tingle as threads emerged from out of nowhere, latching onto my skin.
I tried to pull away, but her grip was too strong.
‘Fear, anger, sadness….’
I continuously poured emotions into her while imagining a red orb and trying my best to pull my body away. I even tried to imagine the purple orb, but whatever I did, her grip remained.
‘How…? How is this…?!’
Squelch~
A root promptly appeared behind her, but she didn’t even bother looking at it as a thread fell from above, latching onto the root and freezing it in place.
The same was true for the roots beneath her.
Snap, snap, snap-!
“You know…”
In the distance, the roars of the monsters grew progressively louder.
“…The fewer monsters I control, the smaller the burden on my mind.”
Blood continued to stream out of her eyes as she spoke.
“The smaller the burden on my mind, the easier it is for me to resist yours and the tree’s attack. However… you forgot to take that into account… But that’s not what I care about.”
Her grip over my wrist tightened further as she started to pull my hand away. As she did, her gaze fell on my forearm.
Her face grew cold as she looked at my forearm.
“Nothing…?”
She glanced at me briefly before exhaling softly on my forearm.
The moment her breath touched my skin, a change began to take shape as a four-leaved clover appeared before her eyes.
“…As expected.”
Her expression twisted at the sight of the clover as her grip on my arm intensified. “You’re with them.”
“Kh!”
I found myself unable to stifle a groan as her nails dug deeply into my skin.
“Did they betray me…?”
Resisting the pain, I was able to overhear her murmurs. They were something along the lines of, ‘How could they have not told me about you? Was it on purpose? No, maybe it’s because they didn’t expect them to pose any problems. No, wait… If he was truly with them why would The mess with me?’
She appeared confused, and so was I.
However, it was only for a brief moment as realization soon dawned on me.
‘She… she’s with the Inverted Sky.’
No, perhaps not the Inverted Sky, but one of the four organizations Sithrus had previously mentioned. The realization opened a few doors, and a few other things started to click into
place.
Like…
‘….The reason for why Julien entered the Inverted Sky and potentially his obsession with swords.’
I had previously thought the mastermind was Oracleus, or someone from the Inverted Sky in an attempt to infiltrate the Evenus House, but what if… What if this was something that the Family Head had wanted and planned the entire time?
What if his goal was…
“Or is this a play by him? What if he’s not actually from there…”
Her.
Yes, what if his goal the entire time was to use me to get to her?
“H-ha.”
My breath grew heavy as a certain figure entered my mind.
Just how far did that man prepare…?
SHILING-!
A sharp whistling sound slicing through the air snapped me out of my thoughts, and when I looked up, I saw the sharp glint of a blade heading directly for Julien’s mother’s back. A pair of gray eyes followed the path of the sword as it sharply moved her way.
“…Um?”
Similarly snapping out of it, she raised her head and tapped the air.
A thread manifested right behind her, slicing through the path of the sword and making it
come to a ground halt.
Leon’s face changed at the sight, but it was too late.
Tapping onto the air again, several threads manifested above him and immobilized him on
the spot.
“Right, I forgot there was another one.”
Seemingly calming herself down, she let go of my wrist and turned to look in Leon’s direction.
Or at least, tried.
“_!”
Manifesting from out of thin air were several figures, appearing from all sides.
“Get her!”
“…Ukh!”
From her arms, legs, and back. They all latched onto her at once.
I stared at them with a dumbfounded look before turning to look at Leon whose jaw was also
slacked.
That…
….That wasn’t the plan.
“Hold her!”
“Keep a hold of her-!”
Watching Aoife, Kiera, Evelyn, and Ammell cling to her body like octopuses, I was at a
complete loss for how to react. Indeed, the initial plan was for me to buy time for Leon to free
Aoife and the others in the process.
Knowing there was a chance that I might fail, I wanted them to ambush her in case the
situation turned bad.
It was all proceeding smoothly from them.
Using himself as bait Leon drew her attention while Owl-Mighty hid Aoife and the others.
They were all supposed to attack her, and yet…
“Kh!”
“Squeeze as hard as you can!”
“I’ve got her leg!”
What sort of sick joke was this?
“Wha—What is going on?”
I wasn’t the only one confused. ‘Mother’ also looked confused, and as I started to question my
entire existence like Owl-Mighty had previously done, a root attached to me and Leon,
flinging us back.
“Ukh!”
Caught off guard by the sudden turn of events, I couldn’t react in time, and the impact left me
breathless as the wind was knocked out of me.
The same could be said for Leon who was thrown next to me.
Bang-!
Falling onto the ground at the same time, I skidded several meters before stopping. Pressing
my hands down and helping my body up, I immediately looked down to see Aoife and the
others get flung in our direction.
“What in the…”
Was Owl-Mighty trying to get us to run?
But-
And it was then that it happened.
The air around my ‘mother’ rippled and warped, and before I could grasp what had happened,
the scenery abruptly changed. A massive horde of monsters materialized near her, their
presence carrying a terrifying momentum.
Thump! Thump! Thump! The very earth seemed to shake as I tried to grasp the sudden turn of events.
How did they get so near us without getting noticed? From the sound they produced to the
changes in the surroundings. It was hard to not notice them.
And yet…
None of us could.
How could this…?
“Move back, quickly!”
A hand latched onto my shoulder and pulled me back. When I turned my head, I saw that it was
Amell as he along with the others were running away as fast as they possibly could. Looking back and seeing the horde of monsters, I didn’t dwell too much on my thoughts.
Imagining a green orb, I sped up forward as I shot right past everyone.
“Fuck, that’s cheating-!” Hearing Kiera’s frantic shout, I whipped around, only to witness the monstrous horde engulf
my mother as she struggled desperately to react.
Rustle~
Owl-Mighty’s leaves rustled simultaneously as its figure shrank and disappeared from out of
thin air.
Before I could understand what had happened, a small figure appeared right on my shoulder.
When I turned my head, a familiar pair of eyes met my gaze.
“You-!”
“She won’t die from this, but it should buy you enough time to return back to the city.”
“No, that…”
That wasn’t the problem.
“Why are you here? Didn’t you reach the Destroyer Rank? Why are you here? No, how can you
be here?”
Didn’t it merge with its real body?
In that sense, Owl-Mighty’s consciousness should no longer be in the bone within me.
So… how?
How could-
“This is my real body.”
“Eh…?”
I nearly froze, but as my gaze shifted to Owl-Mighty, I realized this was no longer the
creature I knew. Its form had become far more lifelike, and its body was cold-I also felt no
connection to it at all.
Yes, this was really its real body.
“I see, I understand.”
I picked up the pace and faced the direction of the city walls. I could still sense fighting from
within it, but the situation no longer seemed as dire.
Looking back again and seeing the monsters trampling over the area where I used to stand, I
sighed in relief.
At least, for now, the situation was resolved.
It was highly likely that ‘she’ survived but I didn’t think she would be able to cause any
problems for now.
In that sense, I felt like the quest was completed but there was something that I was curious
about.
“How did you manage to make all the monsters come to you and not make us notice
anything?”
From the shaking to the ground to the loud sound they produced. Even now I couldn’t wrap
my head around how Owl-Mighty was able to able to hide such large factors.
Was this the power of a Destroyer Ranked monster?
Or was there more to it?
In response to my question, Owl-Mighty looked at me.
“It’s my new skill.” Owl-Mighty mumbled and my steps started to slow down.
“……Not only can it help me create illusions, but I can now replicate sound, smell, and taste to
make everything seem even more realistic. By replicating the smell of an ‘Arachnia Phantom’
I was able to lure all the monsters in my direction, and by concealing all the noise around you
I was able to make it seem like nothing was happening.”
“Ah.”
It all started to make sense, but something was still bugging me.
And not just a little bit. “By chance…”
Pausing fully, I opened my mouth.
“Is the skill called Lament of Lies?”