Chapter 637: So shall I call you Matriarch for now? |
"Matriarch, is that you?"
From within the massive skull that was being slammed and dragged, Lynn produced that hoarse voice, his enormous crimson eyes fixed intently on the darkness inside the rift.
He paid no heed to Doctor 315 beside him, who was raging and launching hysterical attacks.
His gaze never wavered from that void, as if he wanted to confirm the suspicion in his heart for real.
When Lynn spoke,
the pale hand that had been yanking him against the rift noticeably stilled.
There was no response.
Boom—
Another barrage of impacts followed.
At least while the curse took effect, he was effectively undying.
And he wanted very much to verify the thought in his mind.
Lynn bit down on her forearm and said slowly, "You didn't kill me, yet you seem to understand me. That strike just now didn't land on me, it hit the puppet I was controlling. You know that if I want the curse to continue, I need that eye, don't you?"
"But if you truly wanted to take this Plague Doctor from my hands, wouldn't killing me once be the simplest and most effective way? What, are you too reluctant? Does it hurt you too much to do it?"
There was a flirtatious undertone to Lynn's words.
But his tone was calm and serious, and his eyes remained locked on the darkness behind that arm.
To Doctor 315, Lynn's words were the ultimate blasphemy against the Mother Goddess he revered.
His eyes bulged with fury, rage and humiliation raging in them.
"Shut up!"
"How dare you speak ill of Her Majesty the Mother Goddess, I'll kill you!!"
[Ping! Doctor 315's Hatred toward you +10]
[Ping! Doctor 315's Hatred toward you +21]
Lynn didn't even glance at him. His eyes were only for the darkness behind that arm, deep and cold.
Still, the root-level being said nothing. The frantic black feathers continued to whirl with the mechanical motion, still trying to break free of his bite.
"It's useless."
Lynn stared at it as if he were a hog that wouldn't flinch at boiling water.
"Feel the aura of the curse on me. When I cast the head-hunting undying curse on myself, I simultaneously cast another curse on myself. You should be very familiar with this one—the same curse I used to bind that Plague Doctor of yours."
At those words the slender, pale arm trembled.
At the same time,
one by one, jet-black chains slowly rose from beneath Lynn's massive skull. Barbed chains clattered and coiled around him, snaking over his body, tightening the grip on his head and pressing him madly to the spot.
The arm he was biting was forced into a harsh restraint by the chains, cracking as it was bound tight.
Witnessing this, Doctor 315 took a trembling step back.
His mind thundered, and he immediately understood Lynn's intention.
He whirled his head, pale-faced, staring at the silver light crazily spreading across the surrounding walls—the ripples of Curse Purge. The weakening of the curse on Leviathan had already reached less than one third remaining.
"Madman!! You lunatic!!"
He trembled in terror, breathing hard.
Because he realized!
This guy…
The reason he had charged in and bit the Mother Goddess's arm with such a vile method was to exploit Leviathan's fall to inflict a devastating blow on his Mother Goddess!!
Lynn bit down on her forearm and said slowly,
"Although I can't be certain yet, if you won't answer me, then I'll call you Matriarch for now."
"I'm truly sorry, I didn't foresee your intervention. Actually, this isn't the first time—last time, when I was bullying that Mechanical Girl behind me, the sudden arrival of the God of All Machines really put me on the back foot."
"But having had a first time, the second time goes much more smoothly, like now."
"I didn't expect you'd personally intervene for this doctor, but I did leave myself a contingency. You can see it, right? The contingency I mentioned is this Leviathan."
Lynn raised his eyes and glanced around.
"Though I truly owe this Doctor a thanks for the reminder; otherwise I wouldn't have known that when this Leviathan breaks apart, it will erupt with terrifying power. Once I learned that, my mind lit up."
Doctor 315's face was drained, his whole body trembling.
"I originally thought that after I extracted more information from this Plague Doctor, I'd seize his consciousness and steer this Leviathan straight into those two Flesh and Blood Roots outside, sending them a gift they'd never forget."
"But who would have thought, I hadn't even put that plan into motion when you showed up."
Lynn shot a glance at the delicate hand he was still biting.
Sss—
The hand trembled.
Because Lynn used his tongue to give it a very polite greeting.
Lynn said, "So, I have no choice but to deliver this gift to you in this inhumane way. But rest assured, with your power, even if the Leviathan actually explodes, at most you'll lose an arm. As for me, don't worry—I will crawl out of the wreckage in one piece, still lively, and bring your arm to the Night City to do homage to my dear Matriarch."
"Then I'll be able to prove my suspicion, to prove whether the Plague Doctor's backers are indeed my most revered Teacher, my Godmother."
At first Lynn hadn't doubted it.
If anything could connect the dots,
it was the information that the System panel gave him when he first met his sacred, reverent Angel Matriarch.
The Twelve-Winged Inverted Angel!
But in the Alignment field, why did it have Chaotic Evil listed in addition to Lawful Good?
Why would that be?
At first he hadn't paid it much mind.
After all, the same situation appeared with his Big Brother Titan and his Wushen mother-in-law—they also carried Chaotic Evil tags, because once those beings fell under curse control and entered utter disorder, they'd immediately become unrecognizable to kin, losing sense of friend and foe, sinking into endless fury and malice-driven chaos.
But what about my revered Matriarch?