NOVEL NEXT Chapter 118: A Kind Smile
|This weeks recommendation: Goblin Slayer MAIN THEME HQ Metal Cover
Silence suddenly descended upon the pair of demons (as well as sword angel) as they could only stare wide eyed at the old cat; specifically the sword piercing through her torso with black blood gushing out.
Their silence was hardly shocking as, at one moment, they were having an epic fight/getting beat up then the next their opponent suddenly ran through. Nobody expected this… Except seeming the cat herself who held a smug - almost mocking - look within her eyes. Slowly tilting her head to look behind herself as a chuckle escape.
Black blood leaking through her mask.
“I raised cha wrong for cha ta do something so monumentally stupid~.” <Cheshire Prime>
“Very funny last words ohohoho~.” <Mother>
When the shards of their reality began to peel away; the form of Mother slowly appeared with her right hand lazily holding her mercy. Her kind smile was still firmly upon her plump lips however now it was marred with the black blood that gushed from her teachers back. Suddenly that face seemed to reflect her true role perfectly; she was no saint but a tyrant covered in the blood of those who got in her way.
But that didn’t answer the questions they had.
Cheshire was, by far, the most perceptive to the point where even the smallest inconsistencies.She was no double able to easily notice the lurking true god even if they couldn’t (especially since Vivi had been able to dodge her sneak attacks in the past) so it was inconceivable. All three of them were also observant enough to recognise her earlier movements, she was going to dodge, so why didn’t she avoid the no doubt fatal blow?
Fortunately or not… The answers soon arrived as the true reality of their situation came to light and caused the always strong Elizabeth to fall to her knees with tears in her eyes in disbelief.
They found Cheshire’s one major weakness.
Her morals.
“Ara~ I really wished you didn’t need to see this, my daughter, but I’m afraid you’re just too innocent so I can’t help but wish you would finally grow up a little ohohoho~.” <Mother>
It was hard to even focus on her words due to the cries and struggles of the thing, or rather person, who she mercilessly held by their feeble neck. Specifically it was a little child who had only just been converted into spirit during the Munzumira invasion of the capital city. The poor thing thrashed around - clawing at the tight grip around her neck - with no success in stopping the hand that was crushing her neck.
Mother didn’t seem to care at all about the struggles of the girl. Merely tilting her head to the side as her closed eyelids turned down to the fallen Lizzy with sadness and disappointment. Even the literal demon god empress found herself shocked back to her senses as a new kind of anger welled up inside her.
She didn’t actually care much about the little girl but more that her fight had been robbed from her through use of such a petty trick. It was hard not to be angry yet the anger she felt was a colder one that allowed her far more control than even her hannya mask allowed. The very ground beneath her slowly frosted over as the flames of the demon realm begged to be released in order to freeze the sinner.
On the other hand, Vibrant was not too different from her “sister”, the sword saint narrowed her eyes yet such sharpness was not enough to seemingly touch the True God. Sparks merely bounced off what seemed like an invisible barrier that surrounds her. That sword fanatic’s cold rage was due to the shameful use of a sword; believing such a cowardly attack had no place being committed on someone who she found respectable due to their own mastery of the “arts”.
Yet there was one more person who was even more emotional than the tortured child.
A dragoness who had lost her own kind smile.
“You… YOU MONSTER!” <Elizabeth>
The usually flirtatious girl was now hyperventilating - her entire body trembling as pearl coloured ice slowly covered her entire body - as she clutched both sides of her face so hard that blood leaked from beneath her fingers. Tears rained down from her quivering eyes as they untold amounts of contained confusion, sadness and rage. In response the entire realm seemed to shake as cracks began to form; this time leading into a realm an array of seemingly random colours.
Everything around her began to literally vanish as absolute zero became the average; clenching her teeth soon no longer being enough to contain her feelings. Reeling back she let out a maddening scream that caused the world to begin to twist. The colours take on a deeper tone as reality bent to her anguish.
Matter itself twisting into various elements as well as shapes, causing literal waves to form from the grieving goddess of dreams, making the two heads of Violet back away. Mother meanwhile just continued standing there with the same kind expression on her face as always. If anything she seemed a little bored as she began to twist the sword in her hands despite the body of Cheshire already being limp.
A sight that finally made the dreamer explode as she charged forward - forgetting the skill intensive martial arts she had trained in in favour of throwing a regular punch. It was a punch that caused space itself to break but not even void beasts dared to come out in the presence of the girl. The only person who didn’t care was Mother. Who, with Cheshire still hanging off her sword, casually used the flat of her sword to push the fist aside only to lift up her geta to deal a monumental kick to Elizabeth’s gut.
Spewing blood out her mouth as the blow sent her flying through space and into the void itself.
She didn’t even seem to exert herself during the process.
“I do not understand why you are so upset; it was just a mortal and they die all the time~.” <Mother>
That did little to actually quell the flame that had lit inside Elizabeth; if anything it just allowed it to become a raging inferno. When she pulled herself out the rubble, being caught in one of the waves and dragged under the stone ocean, she no longer had the appearance of a human with a few twists. Now completely covered in her frozen scales with a snarling maw that soon flew towards the True God.
Such bland attacks were never going to work, however, and it would have made more sense to go against her using the drunken martial arts she was known for. Although it was impossible to use such a technique in an emotional state - even its own creator evidently wasn’t at that level yet. Almost as if it had been planned to be like this.
This time Mother didn’t even bother to attack as she merely stepped aside while leaving a leg behind for the snarling beast to trip over. Vivi did attempt to deliver her own powerful blow but Mother merely warded her off with the butt of her sword while also delivering a cut down her torso. Meanwhile Vibrant had no intentions of working with Vivi anymore. Just looking on in destain at the pitiful attempts to catch the supposed all seeing goddess off guard with simple attacks.
“You really are a hopeless girl… I tried to make it up to you since you hold great potential to be my successor just like I was for my own predecessor yet you are just too childish and unstable. I guess I was right to seal you away after all; I can simply use SYSTEM since she’ll no doubt fill my expectations as the goddess of order. Now… I guess I’ll show you just how weak you actually are ohohoho~.” <Mother>
Tilting her sword forward until the corpse slowly and unceremoniously slid off onto the floor; with great grace Mother flipped her sword while flaring her large white haori. Sliding the blade into its sheath, the centre one, with a satisfying & sleek sound of metal. While doing that she stepped forward with a-
*crunch* *crunch*
Stepping right on the arms of the unmoving cat without a single change of expression.
“I do not even need to touch you~.” <Mother>
Lifting her now empty hand from Mercy’s sword handle to point her palm towards the unstable beast who almost seemed to be melting her own scales with rage. Something that Mother didn’t care to take notice of as she bent her fingers - as if forming a cage - as a jade barrier instantly formed around both her supposed daughter as well as the recovering Vivi. Both growled angrily as they seemed to slowly grow in response to their demand for more power.
Nonetheless they could not break through the barriers made by Mother so easily.
Mother slightly opened her left eye, a bit of magenta slipped past her eyelid as her lips seemed to quirk up that bit more, as she looked at the two in a manner that made that “kindness” appear more like mocking.
“Looks like I have two caged beasts but I do not have much use for animals that do not know their place so maybe some we can see about… Shrinking those egos you have developed~?” <Mother>
Those dainty fingers slowly closed inwards which made the barriers respond in kind; shrinking as Vivi continued to grow angrier & stronger. Throwing her clawed fingers against the barrier without much care about the state they were in. Strangely Lizzy seemingly stopped struggling altogether as she remained lying on the ground where she had been dropped.
That actually got more of a reaction out of Mother than anything before; her smile returning back to its default form as she finally stepped off the shattered corpse. Kicking it aside to instead bring attention back into the newly born spirit. Literally lifting it up in front of her to make sure that everyone could see them.
“Ara~ ara~ I suppose I have no use for this thing anymore~.” <Mother>
Crimson sparks began to form on Lizzy’s body as it soon became perfectly clear what was happening inside of her body… She was using the cursed power of the indigo. Flame of crimson coming out her pours as she literally melted herself in order to get even a little bit more power out of her life.
Despite that she turned her head around as if looking for something before shaking her head and reclosing her slightly opened eye. Making a blade out of her jade aura alone which she instantly turned onto the child in her grasp. Truly showing no remorse as she proceeded to thrust right towards the poor thing's little chest. Afterall… It wasn’t a mortal so why should she care for it?
“t…T… [𝕋ℝ𝔼𝔸ℂℍ𝔼ℝ𝕐]!!!”
A voice no one could have expected sounded out with all the force of a dying star. Those familiar ripples of reality came into existence as one could see, just for a moment, fear as well as regret appeared to dance across the face of the True God. Yet all that was gone by the time those ripples ended as a confused sight came into existence.
Gone was the little black cat.
In front of the Infinite Mother was a feline cloaked in a fleece of pure white flame with that unusual crows beak still present on her face. The whites of her eyes were replaced with countless galaxies while the iris glowed a menacing red with slim pupils in the centre that seemed to curl up in a smirk. Truly looking like a bipedal flaming white cat.
The goddess couldn’t seem to rationalised the situation which allowed the cat to swing her legs up to wrap around the woman’s arm. Twisting her body allowed for the hand to release her own neck yet that agile
kittie actually swung from the still outstretched arm - ramming her head into Mother’s chin which made her fumble backwards. That in turn caused a simple illusion to break to reveal a rather shocking scene; her spare hand instead pointed towards the caged Elizabeth with a little magenta ball of energy sitting on her finger in preparation to deal with her troubling daughter.
Seeing this revealed made her brow furrow as she instead chose to make that ball form into a thin blade which she swung at the cat who was just hanging in there.
“NYAHAHA~!”
With a familiar laugh she fell down from her place but that only made the god change her aim to catch the cat just as she fell on the floor. Fortunately that troublesome minx was a step ahead - pushing off the abdomen to vanish into a white flash. Following that she appeared a little bit in the distance as two Munzumira appeared with three needles each; wearing sexy nurse outfits which… Well they were still Cheshire so they didn’t exactly have the sexy nurse bod.
“Roid me up~!”
The white pussy didn’t seem to care though. Those two nurses plunged their needles into the holes in the plague doctor's mask - the crimson fluid held within was soon emptying out. For a moment she closed her eyes while taking a deep breath only for the mask to be ripped from her face by the two.
Now, for the first time in aeons, that iconic smile appeared on its originator.
She didn’t remain still for long as she showed off her pearly whites (surprisingly the only part of her that seemed unaffected by her life of horror) but instead leaned forward. The next second she exploded into a glorious white flash. Disappearing from where she stood yet Mother didn’t actually look around for her.
Instead she looked down to the arm which she had previously used to hold her hostage… Or at least where it should have been.
Tilting her head backwards she saw that little white cat with her severed arm clenched between its little fangs looking like how a house cat would after bringing a dead bird home. Even down to the wide eyes and slightly tilted head as she met Mother’s eyeless gaze. Dropping the arm from her mouth
“Didn’t I teach ya to look at your opponent~.”