Chapter 628: True Despair |
One foot pressed down onto the floor littered with shattered vessel fragments and sticky goo, Lynn flexed his wrist, the corners of his mouth lifting as he walked out.
His left hand, however, kept clicking and painfully expelling that strange mucus that had filled her, making her extremely displeased.
"Brother?!"
In the distance.
Alice, who had rushed over at the coordinates Lynn had given, stared in utter shock at the naked, fleshy figure walking out of the vessel, barely daring to believe her eyes.
She sprinted forward, staring incredulously at Lynn's cheek, at his sentient left hand listlessly lifting to wave at her.
"This... what on earth is..."
Lynn smiled and tilted his head back, his neck crackling as he moved it, and said,
"A clever rabbit has three burrows. The lesson from last time taught me that for anything, if you don't have absolute confidence of victory, you should never put yourself in true danger."
This was his true body.
The Lynn who had gone to the First Chamber earlier was merely a puppet temporarily fashioned from Losh's body combined with some of Lynn's own flesh, created with Miss Puppet's assistance.
He had always felt uneasy.
Because without finding that book, he could be almost one hundred percent certain it had ended up in someone's hands.
At first he suspected the Mechanical Cult.
They were the faction most likely to access that book after he fell unconscious.
But there was nothing.
If they had truly seized it, then when they were afflicted by the Flesh Plague they would have ruthlessly used the book to cleanse every observer of the Flesh and Blood Cult in equal measure.
And if they possessed such a devastating weapon, he could have indirectly probed that fact through the Mechanical Girl.
Still nothing.
That mechanical girl's linear thinking was practically non-existent.
So who else remained?
Aside from the two branches of the Flesh and Blood Cult, only the Plague Doctors remained.
When he had obtained authority second only to Doctor 315, he used his power to investigate, and oddly enough, most battlefield records inside the Leviathan were normal, except for one period that contained a blank with no records at all.
At this point,
Lynn could almost certainly determine where the book had gone.
That was also why he had arranged for Alice and Silver Fantasy to exit early. He had long prepared a countermeasure: when he modified that body, he had Miss Puppet install an automatic fuse mechanism into the puppet's brain.
The moment the book was triggered, that mechanism would immediately sever the connection between him and every puppet in the First Chamber.
He had considerable flesh-modification skill.
Miss Puppet was an outstanding puppeteer.
So this was actually very simple.
Anyone who knew him should have been suspicious when Doctor 315 snapped his left arm; if that hand truly had consciousness, would she really stand by and watch it be crushed without a sound?
Alice stared at the reborn Lynn in stunned amazement, her mouth slightly open, taking a long time to slowly accept the truth.
"Br... brother..."
She couldn't form another word.
Without a doubt,
in her eyes at this moment, Lynn was practically a god—she was struck speechless by how handsome he appeared.
At the Main Hall's exit, Silver Fantasy, who had hurried after them, was equally stunned when she burst through the doors and saw the scene.
Hearing his earlier words in passing, she immediately understood.
This...
this guy...
She stood frozen, a massive emotional gap swelling in her chest, feeling an unprecedented sense of defeat.
He had truly pushed control and scheming to the extreme...
"Alice, come into brother's body. It's time for us to finish this farce."
Lynn opened his arms in a smile.
Alice nodded forcefully, eyes full of trust and reverence. Her body instantly turned transparent and became a shade-like spirit, slipping straight into the center of Lynn's brow.
An immense Death-Omen Tier evil spirit power surged, draining color from his face.
Lynn's muscles twitched and writhed, rapidly adapting to this force.
He put on his Monocle, a mysterious smile crossing his lips. He pulled the Night Demon Blade from System Space, rested it on his shoulder, and strode toward the doors, his body still bearing the exposed flesh.
"Miaomiao, don't worry. He'll vomit out everything he knows."
"What must be repaid will always be repaid."
Wading through the surrounding writhing, distorted bodies, Lynn, shouldering the Night Demon Blade, brushed past a dazed Silver Fantasy and looked up.
"Let's go."
"Since you can use part of your Father's Root-level power, you'll have to handle dismantling his soul vessel."
He rubbed his brow, glancing with a coy smile at the mechanical girl who had clearly taken a heavy blow.
"Don't disappoint me, Miss Intelligence Machine."
Silver Fantasy bit her lip hard.
Without question,
putting aside sheer force, this operation had given Silver Fantasy a profound sense of humiliation.
The gap in strategy and intellect was enormous.
To such an extent that she felt like an optional accessory in this mission. After that little girl possessed him, even the gap in power shrank to near insignificance.
Being comprehensively suppressed by flesh creatures that had once deeply humiliated her had dealt a heavy blow to her pride.
A flash of mortified fury passed through her eyes as she clenched her fist.
Still, she quickly turned, gripped her Monomolecular Blade, and hurried to follow the swaggering exhibitionist carrying a huge sword.
...
Inside the First Chamber.
Looking at the monster that still stood before him with a faint smile despite having half its skull sliced away, he slumped to the floor, murmuring to himself, utterly inconsolable.
The black chains binding him continued to tighten with a rustling sound under the influence of the Cursed Eye.
The spreading white light kept confirming the same reality.
He was not dead.
Everything just now had been a mockery.
Like a creature high atop a viewing platform watching him perform, savoring his clownish juggling routine with contempt.
Thud—
A heavy footstep shattered the silence of the First Chamber.
He shuddered and turned his head tremblingly toward the chamber's main door.
Through the scattered decay he saw that smiling creature slowly walk in, the freak wearing a Monocle and square-cut shorts.
Despair.
It pierced to the bone.
"Doctor."
Lynn lifted his head as blinding white light spread from his feet, accelerating the weakening of the Leviathan's curse. The smile on his face at this moment looked to the man like an invitation from Death.
Beside him, Silver Fantasy materialized as well, Lynn's face reflected in her eyes. Root-level data swelled and surged across her body.
Lynn adjusted his Monocle with a smile and said,
"Now, shall we have a proper conversation?"
...