Her Tentacles 85

Chapter 85: The Source

Just as Lin Ran was feeling extremely sad because of Shu Yao’s mutation—

The darkness that had originally surrounded her, like boiling water, began to boil violently because of her overly obvious emotional fluctuations.

The [Martyrs] who had approached according to the [Lighthouse]’s instructions outside, seeing that this darkness, which they were not allowed to enter, had suddenly become so dangerous, couldn’t help but retreat one after another.

The edge of the thick blackness was like raindrops, splashing finely and in pieces.

This was a sign of its instability.

As if it had sensed that its owner was once again experiencing a terrible, strong negative emotion, it came over with tolerance and forbearance, wanting to eat up all these bad things as it had before.

It was already very skilled.

Wisps of black gas entered the octopus’s huge body, into this unique space that was originally one with them.

From Shu Yao’s perspective.

It was the person standing in front of her, her body suddenly wrapped in that dark aura that she was so familiar with. She suddenly remembered the operating mechanism of this darkness.

No, no, she didn’t want to be forgotten by Lin Ran!

At least not now!

In the short pause when the other was invaded by that darkness and her memories and emotions were thus being stripped away, Shu Yao quickly pounced on her!

“Lin Ran, Lin Ran! I’m fine!”

“It’s okay. I don’t blame you. I’m the one who wants to become like you—”

“Don’t cry. Don’t be sad. Don’t be sad, okay?”

…

She finally understood how sad Lin Ran had been when she had shown that broken and desperate expression on the cruise ship.

Now, although it was she who had mutated, Lin Ran was the one who was about to break.

The little octopus, who had always liked beautiful bottles and would happily slip into them when she became small and cute, was now like a bottle that was about to shatter.

Shu Yao didn’t know how to hold her carefully so that she wouldn’t break.

She tasted the tears flowing from the octopus for the first time.

But she could only repeat what she had just said over and over again, trying to bring Lin Ran back from that despair.

She took the other’s palm and repeatedly rubbed her cheek against the cool temperature.

She kissed the corner of the other’s eye. It didn’t matter if it made her even worse, because she just wanted to stop the other’s sadness.

“I love you, I love you, so I’m willing to be influenced by you…”

“Can I be your first believer?”

“Lin Ran, don’t cry. Don’t cry.”

“Don’t—don’t forget me now—”

She spoke in a jumble, not even bothering to organize her words, and could only hastily pour out her most passionate and surging feelings.

If she could.

She wanted to cut out her own heart and hold it up to the other, to let her see that every beat of this heart was telling her of her love.

She could endure this mutation, and she could also accept becoming a monster, but she did not want to be a believer forgotten by her god.

The octopus, which had been letting the darkness cover it and had been powerless against the erosive force, suddenly trembled.

Even the mimicked tentacle, which was still connected to her, also reacted.

“Don’t—don’t forget me now…”

She heard Shu Yao’s sad, pleading voice.

At the same time, she could feel the darkness that had entered her body relentlessly erasing the images of the person she was holding from her mind.

At first, it was at that banquet of a strange twist of fate.

She had wandered into her hunting ground.

With a beautiful little bottle that she had seen at first glance and had felt very familiar, and had felt close to from the depths of her blood and soul.

She had caught her just as she was about to fall, and had also caught that bottle.

And then the next moment.

Everything went dark.

Like countless rooms in a long corridor of time, at this moment, one by one, the lights were extinguished, from near to far, and more and more rooms went dark.

She suddenly felt an incomparable anger.

From the moment of her birth, she had never owned anything. Until she had inadvertently drifted to the continent of that new world, and had accepted a human’s repeated requests, and had, by a strange twist of fate, started a new life with a new identity.

The first gift she had received was from Shu Yao.

Later, she had fallen in love with this person who had given her a gift.

Her heart, which had always been empty, and no matter what, could not fill that strange void, had finally, slowly, begun to feel satisfied.

The beauty that the abyss had failed to bring her, Shu Yao had given her all—

So, she, who had never received anything from the abyss since her birth, would also never allow any existence in the abyss to plunder the treasure she had so hard-won.

…

That darkness was still rampaging in her body.

In order to eat up those things that made her sad and hurt her as soon as possible.

Until, when she had first stripped away her abilities, this small space that had remained in her body, which could only store Shu Yao and this house, under the drive of the [Monarch Slayer]’s will, like a spirit snake that had been sleeping for a long time, opened its eyes.

It finally also resonated with the same source of power from the outside world.

And then it began to take big bites, trying to tame it, and to eat it into its own belly.

The two forces were locked in a stalemate.

It made Lin Ran unable to be distracted for a moment to comfort the person in her arms, who was also crying.

How could she bear to forget Shu Yao?

This was the person she would never let go of.

But now she could only choose the more important thing first—

To take back the important, precious memories that had just been taken away by that darkness.

At first.

The darkness seemed a little surprised when it sensed her will. But after it reacted and understood her will, it showed a strong joy and encouragement.

It was its master calling it.

Its master wanted it to return to her body.

And so the long-abandoned ability was finally able to return to her body, and it also carried with it everything that she had forgotten in the desolation, and at the same time, it rushed in.

Shu Yao noticed that something was wrong.

The black mist that had previously just been passing through, freely entering and exiting the person in front of her, had at some point changed its behavior pattern, and had become large streams, just pouring into her body.

At the same time.

Shu Yao could also feel that the connection between her and this darkness was becoming less and less.

It was disappearing. It was being devoured.

By Lin Ran, devoured.

This was also not the ending she had expected—

She even wanted to cover Lin Ran’s eyes or ears in self-deception, her tone filled with another kind of pleading, “Don’t remember, don’t look at those… okay?”

Shu Yao didn’t know what to do to keep this darkness away from Lin Ran’s body.

They were too dense, like a thick fog in the mountains in the early morning, and also like wisps of thread. Although they would also dodge a little in her futile attempts to drive them away, they would continue on another path.

In the brief pause.

Shu Yao could still feel the reproachful emotions they were casting at her, as if to say, we know the master likes you very much, but we also miss her very much. We’ve wanted to go back for a long time. Can you not get in the way?

No.

This was Shu Yao’s answer.

…

But just as she couldn’t change the past that had happened in her dreams.

Now she also couldn’t stop Lin Ran’s original [Gluttony] power from returning to her body.

From the perspective of the [Martyrs] outside, it was that this darkness, which they had never been able to get close to or even enter before, was actually becoming less and less.

Along with it becoming thinner, the huge octopus body hidden inside gradually revealed itself.

But its size was even larger than when they had pursued and besieged it before—

Every huge, red and black tentacle, covered with fanged suckers, was grotesque and terrifying, and wisps of ominous black mist spread around it.

This monster had not even revealed its mountain-like torso, and was only hidden in the remaining, not yet completely absorbed thin mist.

It could already exude an evil aura that enveloped the entire abyss.

Just one look.

Was enough to make the [Martyrs] feel a chill.

They would be eaten! They were going to be eaten!

Their instincts exuded such fear, and even made them, who had always been invincible, suddenly feel empathy and remember the fear of their stinging tentacles being torn and broken, which was branded in the [Lighthouse]’s memory.

The abyss was about to change.

The darkness returned to her body, expanding the unique space in the octopus’s body to infinity.

Because of the re-fusion of power, the houses that had been stored here also trembled slightly with the chaotic changes, forcing Shu Yao inside to hug Lin Ran’s body tightly.

She even raised her hand and pressed the head of the person in her arms down—

Although she was the most fragile human in this house, and she was embracing only one of the monster’s tentacles, when faced with danger, her first reaction was to protect the other.

Until Lin Ran had finished receiving the memories of that long past.

She came back to her senses.

She looked up from Shu Yao’s embrace and saw her lover’s frightened look from her previous abnormality, her eyes misty with tears, her usually cold eyes filled with worry and heartache.

She raised her hand and touched the corner of Shu Yao’s eye. Because of this short period of contact, the patterns of change had also begun to appear next to the corner of the other’s eye.

“It’s okay,” she said in a very light tone. “Didn’t you say so? It was just a nightmare.”

Lin Ran would certainly be deterred by that gray, extremely painful past.

But she already had the treasure to fight against those.

Her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the vase on the dining table, filled with fresh flowers. Embracing the warm body temperature of the person in her arms, she felt that those flowers had also begun to grow from her desolate, empty heart.

She once again had a person worth cherishing, right in front of her.

Just like when she had first called Flower Hat big sister, that little octopus had understood that her former friend would never come back, but she would have a new family.

Now.

What she wanted to cherish was Shu Yao.

Only Shu Yao.

This time, she absolutely would not lose her again.

…

Because of the return of the original [Gluttony], Lin Ran was able to switch all her abilities more freely than before. For example, she, who had previously only been able to secrete a healing mucus when she entered this space, could now also switch to a paralyzing component.

She used the ability she had once gotten from her big sister to gently let Shu Yao temporarily fall into a sleep, protecting her from being sad because of seeing more mutations on her body.

She held the unconscious person horizontally and walked into the bedroom.

She placed the person in the bed and carefully tucked her in.

Before she left.

She placed a very light kiss on Shu Yao’s forehead.

“Good girl. Have a sweet dream.”

“When you wake up, everything will be alright.”

She would make everything alright.