– Motherhood
Kane led Su into the innermost tent of the camp. Su lifted open the drapery and made his way into the tent. This was a simple and crude military tent, the space inside not that great. Li was laying at the center, asleep in a sleeping bag. Her face was a morbid paleness, below her skin a faint layer of greenness. Her eyes were deeply sunken, her lips a bit purple. Her maroon hair also lost its former luster.
Li was extremely weak, and her vitality at the lowest Su had ever seen. It was to the extent where even with so many people gathering outside the tent, she still didn’t notice anything. None of these people intentionally concealed their traces, and Cirvanas was constantly releasing a burning aura. With Li’s abilities, she should have detected them a long time ago, yet she was still unconscious.
However, even with the sleeping bag between them, he could still see that her underbelly was abnormally bulging. Su could sense an incomparably powerful life within her stomach, and energy was slowly gathering from all parts of her body towards this life, ultimately becoming a part of it. That life was rhythmically beating, the frequency the exact same as Li’s heart. However, from the tremendous disparity in the gathering of life energy, Li’s heart was instead being urged on by this life.
Under Su’s interaction, the innermost part of this life continuously changed in shape. It would occasionally have the shape of a human embryo, but other times turn into a strange irregular creature with multiple limbs, a long tail, and a body covered in scales. Even though the life was strong, the embryo at the very core was still extremely small, only the size of a grain of rice. Meanwhile, its shape was continuously changing, even more so changing under Su’s reaction into strange biological forms that he had never seen before.
When he saw it, Su suddenly felt an indescribable desire to control as well as a feeling of intimacy, but even more a type of flesh connection. As such, he knew that the one in Li’s stomach, was his child.
However, when he saw the child’s ever changing form, a slightly cold sadness emerged at the depths of his heart. At this moment, he was finally certain that he wasn’t closely related to the human race. Perhaps, the area where he was closest to humans, was only his face and external appearance. The life in Li’s stomach proved that Su should have the ability to turn into other species, moreover not just a simple transformation, but rather a comprehensive change from genes all the way to the body composition! Meanwhile, the genes that truly represented Su were hidden within the innermost depths of a sea of genetic fragments.
Previously, Su already sensed this somewhat. What he saw today was merely proof of a truth he had always concealed within the depths of his heart.
However, while feeling some sadness, Su immediately noticed that the life within Li’s stomach was growing at an extremely strange manner, his current estimates speculating that it would mature and be born in just a month. The price of this excessive growth speed was the extraction of a sea of nutrients and energy from the mother’s body. The rate of nourishment it needed was already far greater than what Li could provide, so right now, it was acquiring everything it needed completely through plundering methods. It possessed an extremely strong desire for control, as well as a consciousness for survival, through special means operating Li’s heart and organs, acquiring control over them, burdening and urging them to provide the nutrients to the embryo. In reality, this was the same as stealing Li’s life force.
In just a brief moment, Su already deduced what was going to most likely happen. When the new life matured, Li would die due to heart and organ failure, while the life in her stomach would mutate ahead of time into an irregular lifeform with strengthened growth abilities. Then, it would rely on devouring its mother’s body to acquire the essential nutrients for growth, thus finishing its birth process.
The small life form possessed an incredibly strong desire for evolution, as well as an incomparably vicious offensive nature. Su inwardly sighed. In reality, what this little life form displayed was his own most instinctive attributes, only, after all these years, these instincts had always been suppressed in the innermost depths of his consciousness. Now, as his abilities increased, these instincts seemed to be currently reviving, and they were becoming more and more powerful.
Li’s body’s instinctive resistance was extremely weak, completely unable to resist the demand and extraction of this small life. In addition, her reaction speed was completely different from her own five levels of Combat Domain ability, weak to an unimaginable state. Li seemed to have completely given up on resistance, allowing the life in her body to absorb her flesh and blood.
Su squatted down by Li’s side, opened up the sleeping bag, and then inserted his slightly cold right hand into her clothes, placing it on her bulging and burning stomach. At the same time, a gentle, yet powerful and undefiable spiritual fluctuation carrying countless orders entered Li’s stomach. The little life that was frantically growing suddenly sensed danger, released a loud and clear mental wail. It then did everything it could to wriggle and struggle about, its speed of growth immediately increasing to over a hundred times!
However, towards any cell that originally left his body, Su had some level of control. After the series of intense battles, Su’s instincts were currently awakening, and so his control over cells outside his body correspondingly increased. The small life in Li’s body clearly already had a consciousness of its own, and its desire for survival was incomparably strong. However, in the end, it still hadn't been born, and under Su’s raging tide of spiritual pressure, it didn’t have any ability to resist.
Its life fluctuations were quickly suppressed, and its speed of life force and nutrient absorption correspondingly decreased. On a spiritual level, it continuously wailed, as if it was begging Su for forgiveness. However, Su was completely unmoved, not increasing the pressure in the slightest, but not decreasing it in the slightest either, leaving it at a state powerless to resist, but not enough to kill it. The small life’s instinctive wail couldn’t move Su’s resolution at all.
Unknown if it was because she heard its cry, Li who had been unconscious this entire time opened her eyes. Her arms grabbed Su, and then she cried out without taking the time to think, “Su! Don’t do it! Stop, he is your child!”
Li was unusually powerful, and a flustered surge of redness appeared on her face. She forcefully pulled at Su’s hand, trying to move it from her own stomach.
“Li, calm down. If it’s not controlled, you’ll die.” Su spoke gently while reaching out his hand to fix Li’s messy short maroon hair. However, his right hand didn’t move at all. Even with Li’s current six levels of power, there was still no way she could move Su’s right hand that now had close to eight levels of power.
“No! You can’t kill it!” Li screamed. Her upper body suddenly moved upwards, throwing herself into Su’s embrace, her mouth fiercely biting towards Su’s chest!
Under the cover of the combat suit, Su’s chest immediately produced several flesh stingers, the sharp points shining with a heart shaking grayish black luster. This was the Heart of Darkness’ instinctive defensive reaction against those that threatened its host. If Li moved even a bit closer, these flesh stingers would immediately erupt and pierce through her brain.
Su's face changed, immediately leaving the tent. When he stood properly outside the tent, with a bang sound, the sturdy military drapery exploded into several dozen strips of cloth.
Su only had the most basic level of control over the Heart of Darkness, so he still couldn’t suppress its instinctive defense reaction and could only pull open the distance between Li and himself. In the tent, Li was like a startled female beast, quickly shrinking to a corner and half squatting on the ground. She assumed a stance that would allow her to attack or escape at any moment as she watched everyone standing outside with eyes full of vigilance. When her eyes passed over Su, at first, there was a crazy love, but it was then quickly replaced with fear and precaution.
The small life in her stomach seemed to be sleeping, only displaying some life fluctuations after a long time. Only then did she feel a bit of relief.