allendalepharm Chapter 71 Mother?
Chapter 71 Mother?
"Luo Lan...? The Death Seal Agreement... has been interfered with by external forces? Your soul anchor point... is shifting! What... has happened?"
Viktor's broken, synthesized voice echoed in my mind.
Luo Lan wanted to answer it, but her consciousness was violently torn between "slipping out" and "being pulled back," her vision was sometimes clear and sometimes blurry, and she had lost the ability to reply through [psychic communication].
He opened his mouth, but his throat was filled with a metallic, sweet liquid. He couldn't even utter a complete scream; he could only cough up a large clump of thick, fresh blood.
"cough……!!"
Unable to get a reply from Luo Lan, the white ragdoll kitten turned around and ran back at full speed.
Four claws crackled as they stepped on the gravel, and a stream of data flowed from their azure pupils.
Before the kitten could run back, Luo Lan's soul had already been extracted from the Bone Hand's body by some unknown force.
After the soul leaves the body, an invisible force creates a temporary "subspace route".
Carrying Luo Lan's soul, it flew away at an extremely fast speed, ignoring physical obstacles, and drifted straight out of the rift.
A moment later, the kitten ran back to within a kilometer of Luo Lan, and its body collapsed to the ground as if it had been electrocuted.
Having closed the distance to the Soul Stone, Victor abandoned his undead body and quickly returned to the Soul Stone in Luo Lan's left hand using [Soul Splitting Possession].
"Agreement Three: Protect Roland."
The finger-shaped, azure soul stone flashed, and a small azure cat spirit flew out from the soul stone, using the "channel" opened by the invisible power to chase after the direction where Luo Lan's soul had left.
……
……
At first, Luo Lan felt her soul being forcibly pulled out of the bone hand.
It brings a suffocating feeling that is almost like being torn apart.
Luo Lan had never experienced such a tearing and suffocating feeling before, as if someone had gripped his soul tightly and peeled away the thin membrane of every layer of his psychological defenses.
Tearing it apart layer by layer, slowly and deliberately.
But as the soul drifted further and further away, and consciousness was completely stripped away, leaving the whole person naked and exposed to this inexplicable power, the tearing and suffocating sensation slowly softened.
suddenly.
Just a second ago, they were still struggling as if drowning.
The next second, the icy chill transformed into a warmth that rose from the deepest part of my soul, spreading through my limbs and my thoughts.
Luo Lan had only experienced this feeling many years ago when she was a child, nestled in her mother's warm embrace.
like-
No, that's it.
That was when I was a child.
After returning from kindergarten in the afternoon, I lay on my mother's lap, half asleep and half awake. The last rays of sunlight peeked through the gap in the curtains and fell on a small patch of my face.
The old television was on, but the volume was very low; what was playing didn't matter.
The important thing is the hand resting on her back—her mother's hand.
My mother's hardworking hands, though not delicate, have faint calluses on her fingertips, like the marks of time.
But those slightly weathered hands felt incredibly comforting on my skin, patting me gently, one pat at a time.
A carefree, warm, and comfortable indulgence without the need for thought or precaution.
Immersed in this "warmth," all "unnecessary" resistance dissolves rapidly.
Luo Lan completely gave up struggling, like a wanderer who was content with his lot, letting the great power from her "mother" carry her away.
In this extremely relaxed state, Luo Lan's scattered consciousness could even separate a part to quietly observe, like an outsider, the entire process of his soul being extracted and stripped away.
The body moved further and further away below, then into the spatial structure of the entire rift, and finally even the entire mountain range became a fold in the earth.
The line of sight quickly rose, drifting upwards towards the endless horizon.
They drifted past the rolling towns and fields of the Holy Kingdom.
It drifted past the thick clouds in the sky.
It flew past the huge, high-hanging silver moon.
Finally, they crossed the "stars".
The moment Luo Lan's wandering soul pierced through the "Colorful Star Barrier" that shrouded the entire world of Akquaid.
Luo Lan clearly felt that he seemed to have broken through a limitation that bound this world—after leaving the "Stars" surrounding him, he felt that he had become stronger.
This feeling was not an illusion, but a real, fundamental change that Luo Lan could not yet comprehend.
A pure, azure radiance surged within the soul's translucent eyes.
[True Vision lv.1] It turns on at full power naturally without causing any burden.
From this extremely high vantage point beyond the heavens, the entire world of Akquad unfolds before Roland's eyes like a miniature sand table laid out in full.
As your gaze sinks into the deep sea, a beautiful and alluring siren lies atop the wreckage of an incredibly massive shipwreck, chanting an ancient song that doesn't belong to this era, facing the deep ocean currents.
Across the mountains, dwarves and goblins along the lava river were erecting massive steel frames covered in rivets and runes, seemingly working on some monumental project that could alter the landscape.
As you scan the forest, beneath the massive, sprawling silhouette of the World Tree, groups of fairies with all sorts of wings are joyfully fluttering among its glowing branches.
Through the mist, on the dark purple land crisscrossed by thousands of rifts, ferocious demons and wicked monsters were engaged in an endless, brutal bloodbath.
Looking down over the wasteland, one can see orc shamans and troll chieftains fighting each other in the sparsely vegetated red earth wilderness, vying for the same precious water source.
As my gaze swept across the fortress, the arcs of hundreds of broadswords thrusting out gleamed pure white in the sunlight, a testament to the uniform, solemn training movements of the Knights Templar.
The gaze returned to the clouds, where the Azure Dragon Cavalry, riding flying dragons, left long trails of air as they soared through the blue sky.
Looking to his side, Luo Lan even began to discern the true nature of those "colorful stars," which seemed to be—
It was pulled by tremendous force.
After passing through the "Stars," the invisible power that had always enveloped Luo Lan's soul also increased countless times.
This force, in the instant when even the time scale lost its meaning, directly tugged at Luo Lan's soul, tearing apart the limitations of spatial dimensions.
An invisible force carried Luo Lan's soul, traversing the distorted subspace channel and instantly crossing the boundless darkness surrounding the "Colorful Stars," where nothing existed.
……
……
It is hundreds of millions of light-years away from Akquade.
Luo Lan's soul floated silently in the vacuum of space.
Traveling through subspace, a distance of hundreds of millions of light-years was, in Luo Lan's perception, merely the length of a few breaths.
With [True Sight lv.1] fully activated, Luo Lan immediately began to observe the unfamiliar scene before him.
What lies before us is a colossal cosmic void, so vast that it fills the entire field of vision and even the fully activated [True Sight lv.1] cannot discern its edges.
The light is not clear because it disappears at the boundary of this "void," as if it has been "eaten up."
Darkness is not the underlying color of the universe here, because even darkness itself is swallowed up from here.
Oh, my dear mother, the source of all my suffering.
In your warm embrace, we witness the truth of the universe.
Despite being in a vacuum of space where there is no medium for sound transmission, the deafening chants, clear and imbued with a kind of fanatical madness, surged toward Luo Lan from all directions.
Luo Lan's gaze followed the source of this vast eulogy.
Around that enormous "void," numerous slowly rotating galaxies are densely distributed.
Every galaxy and every habitable planet is home to a diverse array of intelligent life forms.
There are races that climb rocks covered in heavy shells, mollusks that swim on the seabed dragging their slimy trails, and primates that have built vast city-states...
Your breath is the wind of plague, blowing across the fertile fields.
Your pulse is the clock of aging, its rhythm marking the marks of growth.
Your tears are a river of amber, freezing sweet moments in time.
Luo Lan skipped over those alien life forms that were too bizarre and whose life forms were too different from humanoid forms.
Focusing our attention on the edge of the "void," on a blue-green planet inhabited by humanoid beings.
There—
He saw it: fields full of golden wheat, after a hot wind blew, turned into rotting, diseased seedlings. The wheat ears rotted from the stalks into black, purulent sludge.
He saw it: the baby, still attached to the umbilical cord, had just been born from its mother and, right in front of the midwife, aged into a small old man with wrinkled skin and cloudy eyes.
He witnessed a newlywed couple, surrounded by the blessings of family and friends, smiling as they plunged knives into each other's chests. Even after the blades pierced their hearts, they held hands and embraced in a passionate kiss.
We rejoice for the festering skin—the very robe You bestowed upon us, stripped of its false glory;
We praise the piercing pain—it is the sacred music you played, leading to true enlightenment;
We give thanks for the taste of forgetting—it is the holy grail you poured, nourishing the soul.
As Luo Lan's gaze broadened, a series of "spectacles" of suffering came into view.
Beneath a pool of dissolving poison, countless creatures rotted into a pulpy mess. Bones separated from flesh, fat floated to the surface, yet their faces wore an air of pilgrimage-like ecstasy.
On a mountain of rusted blades, countless lives were pierced through the heart by a thousand blades. Yet not a single drop of blood flowed, for the blades had rusted into their bodies.
In a desolate cemetery, countless beings have forgotten themselves. On the tombstones, the walking corpses repeatedly inscribe their forgotten names.
O eternally pregnant Mother, Sovereign of the Feast,
Please accept this insignificant offering.
The dying sobs of our civilization,
Our agonizing cries of broken bodies,
The burning anguish of our souls.
Images of the entire planetary civilization flashed through Luo Lan's eyes like a revolving lantern:
The planet's governor personally pressed the button to annihilate his own civilization. His expression was filled with glory and pride.
A medical sage personally spread the virus that caused the global pandemic. The operation was precise and stable, without any unexpected incidents.
The church leaders personally ignited the souls of many devout believers. The flames were reflected in the eyes of the faithful, and there was not a trace of fear.
When the blade kisses flesh and blood, when fever embraces thought…
We see your kind face, smiling amidst pus and blood.
As countless beings in these galaxies transformed their cries of suffering into fervent chants.
This storm of souls, generated by the destruction of numerous advanced civilizations, crossed the vacuum and, like rivers flowing into the sea, merged entirely into the enormous cosmic "void" in the center.
At the edge of the "hollow" that had received ample nourishment, a sweet-smelling, amber-colored, unknown liquid began to slowly flow out.
This dark golden amber liquid flowed through the cold galaxy, dripping into the scorched earth of those planets that had personally severed the path of their own civilizations.
A single drop of liquid can form an ocean, and in a moment, give birth to the next generation of civilizations.
The newly born race crawled from the seabed onto the land, feeding on the remains and rotting flesh of the previous self-destructed civilization, and thrived.
In this poignant and genuine fusion,
Include us in your eternal feast,
Let us melt into your warm womb,
Only then can we find peace.
Before this "cavity" where amber liquid flows continuously.
An amber halo gradually filled Luo Lan's entire field of vision.
Luo Lan was momentarily dazed.
Through the flowing amber liquid, he inexplicably thought of—
My mother lovingly nurtured me during my childhood.
"Mother?"
Luo Lan's lips moved, and the voice of her soul traveled far in the vacuum.
The enormous cosmic "void" before Luo Lan seemed to have taken on a physical form.
It seemed that he saw his mother in the "emptiness".
No, it's not just like—
She really is my mother!
Luo Lan, a blue-collar worker, was exhausted after getting off work.
Dragging my weary steps, I returned to my solitary rented room on Blue Star.
The hallway lights are still broken, and the door lock key still needs to be turned three times.
Normally, this cold and cramped little rented room could not bring Luo Lan any comfort.
But today is different.
Because Mom came today!
My mother, who lives far away in my hometown, brought local specialties from the countryside to visit me!
"Son, you're finally back!"
My mother poked her head out of the kitchen, a few pieces of garlic skin still clinging to her apron.
"Hey Mom, I got off work a little late today. Wow, it smells so good! What did you make, Mom?"
As soon as Luo Lan entered the house and took off her coat in the entryway, an extremely rich aroma wafted out from the kitchen and went straight into Luo Lan's nostrils.
Without even bothering to change his shoe covers, Luo Lan rushed into the small living room, eager to devour the hot meal filled with his mother's love.
"Come on, son, you're home so late from get off work, you must be starving. Try your mom's cooking, see if it's improved."
As soon as she finished speaking, her mother, wearing an apron, came out of the kitchen carrying a large bowl.
The thick, amber-colored soup swayed gently in the white porcelain bowl.
A few pieces of shellfish meat and grayish-white soft tissue were faintly visible on the soup noodles. Tiny wisps of steam rose from the surface, and the aromas of fish and umami mingled together.
"Wow! It's Mom's best clam and slug chowder, it's amazing!"
Looking at the bowl full of thick, amber-colored soup in front of her, Luo Lan's appetite was whetted, and a wave of hunger surged in her stomach.
Pull out the chair next to the dining table, sit down, and pick up a spoon.
Scoop up a full spoonful, and the thick soup slowly drips down the edge of the spoon, forming amber-colored, sticky strands.
Luo Lan was about to feast!
"Snap!"
Just as Luo Lan raised the spoon to her lips, before she could even put it in her mouth, a ragdoll kitten suddenly jumped in through the window of the rented room, knocking the entire bowl of soup, spoon and all, off the table.
The thick soup that the mother had carefully prepared, along with the large bowl in which it was served, was smashed to pieces on the floor.
Amber-colored soup spilled all over the floor, and shards of porcelain bounced on the tiles with a piercing sound.
Seeing her carefully prepared dish overturned and scattered all over the ground by this suddenly appearing beast, the mother, who had been all lovey-dovey just a moment ago, flew into a rage.
"Hey! Where did this naughty cat come from? Son, chase it away!"
The mother's face turned ashen. She pointed at the ragdoll cat and cursed sharply, telling Luo Lan to quickly find a stick and chase the troublesome stray cat out of the house.
"But...Mom, I think this kitten is quite cute. How about we just clean up the broken porcelain bowl and not bother with it?"
For some reason, Luo Lan felt an inexplicable sense of warmth as she looked at the little blue-eyed Ragdoll cat.
Luo Lan was unwilling to lay a hand on the kitten, much less chase it away.
"Well, son, I think you're disgusted with your mom."
Seeing that Luo Lan did not obey, the mother suddenly covered her face and began to sob.
Two lines of clear tears slid down her wrinkled, kind face, dripping onto the broken porcelain shards mixed with the amber-colored soup.
"Hey, no? Mom, don't cry, it can't be that bad..."
Seeing her elderly mother wiping away tears, Luo Lan was at a loss and quickly stood up to get some tissues.
"What do you mean it's not that bad?! A stray cat is more important than your mother? I'm heartbroken by you, my son..."
As the mother uttered the words "heartbroken,"...
Luo Lan could clearly see that her mother's heart area seemed to have sunken in, leaving a large empty space.
It's like a "hole".
Looking at his deeply saddened mother.
Luo Lan instinctively reached out her left hand to soothe the "emptiness" in her mother's chest.
I want to fill something with my own flesh and blood.
I want to use my soul to soothe something.
I want to repay the kindness of being raised.
Just as his left hand was about to touch the edge of that "hollow" hole—
"Meow!"
The kitten, which had just jumped into the house, somehow climbed onto the top of the cabinet next to the dining table, leaped into the air, and bit Luo Lan's left hand that was reaching out to her mother!
"Meow! Meow meow meow!!"
The ragdoll cat bit Luo Lan's left hand while squeezing out a few urgent meows.
These few meows from the kitten seeped into the depths of Luo Lan's consciousness from the spot where his left hand was bitten.
The meowing sound, which I heard, suddenly turned into a neutral synthesized sound:
"Luo Lan! Wake up!!"