Her Tentacles 86

Chapter 86: Arrogance

Just as the original source of [Gluttony] returned to the body of the [Monarch Slayer], the [Lighthouse], sensing this threatening aura, let out a very light sigh in the abyss.

From the time Lin Ran had brought Shu Yao back to the abyss until now, the [Lighthouse], which had always just been a spectator to the various actions of its minions, the [Martyrs], finally cast its gaze on her.

Only the true [Monarch Slayer] was worthy of Its attention.

It stared at the other, who had integrated all her talents and abilities, and had grown to the sky-covering size she had possessed after devouring the Leviathan whale, and also the two contradictory abilities she had torn from It.

[Reproduction] and [Immortality].

As a creation of the [Lighthouse], Lin Ran, like the other jellyfish It had given birth to, because her mother was too powerful, was different from ordinary creatures from the moment of her birth. They were unable to reproduce.

Because the [Lighthouse] did not need the energy on them to be too dispersed. They were just the many mouthparts It had created to prey.

Even if she looked like an octopus, she was different from the other octopuses in the deep sea. She only had a torso and those eight tentacles that could store other abilities.

Until she had first eaten [Immortality] from the [Lighthouse].

From then on, the main body of the [Lighthouse], which had lost its original characteristics, could no longer be fatally injured. It could no longer be reborn without any scruples.

So It no longer dragged any world into the abyss.

Instead, It chose to evolve a new way of seizing the energy of other worlds during this long period of time, such as projecting Its consciousness over and slowly eroding and polluting the races with good fortune in those worlds.

This was much, much slower than before.

Fortunately, the [Monarch Slayer] had also taken away [Reproduction].

This ability had made her similar to an ordinary octopus, and had unexpectedly turned her into a real octopus. After all, octopuses were a race that would die after mating.

She also had a contradictory characteristic on her.

To be immortal, she could not reproduce.

To reproduce, she was destined to die.

Just like when the [Lighthouse] had bestowed upon her [Gluttony] before, It had not thought that one day It would be unable to take back this ability of hers, and would instead be further plundered by her for more—

The [Lighthouse] vaguely realized.

For this abyss, the one who posed a greater threat now was not Itself, but the new king who was about to be born to replace It, the [Monarch Slayer].

This new king, in the long period of time, had not used the [Reproduction] ability even once. She, who was [Immortal], after integrating that original source of power, in order not to let her love for that human be eroded by those painful, dark memories, had actually grown a new heart on her own.

Iridescent and dazzling beyond compare.

That seemed to be a heart that such a powerful monster should not have.

The [Lighthouse] looked at the fourth heart in her body and thought so.

…

The [Monarch Slayer], which exuded a terrifying aura and was as terrifying as a mountain, began to head toward the [Lighthouse].

The jellyfish along the way, who were deterred by her aura and were still dazed, she only needed to gently wave a tentacle, and the ferocious, sharp, and newly grown fangs in her suckers, which were like steel whips, could easily cut open their bells and sever their stinging tentacles.

Compared to the [Monarch Slayer], they were really weak and pitiful.

Lin Ran didn’t even need to put her gaze on them specifically. In her eyes, there was only her true purpose for this trip—

That [Lighthouse] that illuminated most of the abyss into an eternal day.

Facing her threat, the [Lighthouse] had to admit that It had indeed been too careless before.

It should have, after the disaster of that year, worked hard to cultivate an existence that could pose a threat to this little octopus. But the [Reproduction] that the other had swallowed was like a curse. Later, because she could not bear the past pain, she had thrown away those memories and had always walked in the abyss in a flawed form.

Even if It didn’t pay special attention.

“As long as this little octopus was cleared by the [Martyrs] that It periodically sent out during her muddle-headed, half-conscious state, she would return to a weak state.

It had even specially dragged the other ordinary octopuses in the deep sea over for this.

All of them were male.

Even if it was just a small accident, this little octopus would easily step onto the path of death.

Who knew.

She, with such a small body, was most of the time unable to eat her fill in the abyss, and was naturally always thin and weak, unable to mature, and thus could not enter a suitable reproductive period.

Those passing by of the same kind could only end up as her food.

Until the [Lighthouse] finally got tired of it.

After all, from the beginning, It had had a hard time understanding what this little octopus was thinking.

Like sprinkling fine cheese at the entrance of a mouse hole, It had arranged the [Martyrs] next to that darkness, lurking and waiting for the little octopus’s next naive rebirth.

This time, the little octopus was tempted by the delicious taste it had tasted when it came out, and left that outer ruin, and chased all the way to the Eternity, and then fell into the trap It had set early on.

Even if she was allowed to escape once in the middle, how could she stand against Its thorough preparations?

The [Martyrs] once again beat her until she was weak and seriously injured, and unconsciously, dominated by the [Lighthouse]’s will, they drove her out of the abyss crack.

If there were no accidents.

She would never be able to return to that true original source of [Gluttony].

She would be infinitely weak, close to death, and would no longer be able to pose a threat to It.

This was the [Lighthouse]’s plan.

However, It had plotted for a long time, but it seemed that It was always one step behind the laws of heaven.

It had survived in the abyss for too long, for an innumerable number of years, and had also forgotten when It had derived Its own consciousness, and then had gradually evolved from eating duckweed and fish and shrimp to capturing larger prey.

It had thus eliminated many of the hegemons in the ocean.

Until It became the hegemon, and the ocean feared It.

First, the area where It was located had collapsed during an underwater volcanic eruption, and had just happened to form this seemingly infinite, but actually a cage with no way out on all four sides, as if to trap It to death here.

It couldn’t get out.

And so It had to start to reproduce smaller jellyfish, sending them to squeeze through the cracks for her and search for other food to bring back.

And so slowly—

Although Its main body could not leave, It still had freedom. And even after being nourished by those powerful races full of energy, It had become stronger than before.

Until one day.

It seemed to have suddenly felt lonely in the monotonous abyss, and suddenly wanted to give birth to a different child.

And then It had also bestowed upon her [Gluttony], expecting her to become Its most useful weapon, and to seize more and more energy for It.

Although she was a little strange, she was indeed slowly becoming the [Lighthouse]’s sharpest blade.

Later, this sharp blade was turned around and pointed at It.

And at that moment, It suddenly realized that there had never been any moment of sudden inspiration — it was simply that the abyss and this world had tolerated Its existence for too long. So It had used Its own ideas to let It personally create an existence that could kill It.

Perhaps the races that had been accidentally dragged in by It before were also abandoned in this way.

The abyss had even buried a fatal weakness for the new king in advance.

It had let her take away that [Reproduction] that was like a curse.

But she had no heart to be a king.

She just swallowed a third of the [L’Lighthouse]’s body, and then left like that, and fell into a long sleep, and even once fell into a weak state, and was plotted against by the [Lighthouse].

Now, seeing her return, the [Lighthouse] also understood that perhaps the new world she had drifted to, which could make her happy, was just another arrangement of heaven’s will.

Before It died, she would always be able to survive by a strange twist of fate.

Because she was the [Monarch Slayer].

If the monarch did not die, how could she be a king?

…

The giant octopus and It were already infinitely close. Even It could feel that Its longest stinging thread had also landed on the other’s tentacle skin.

At such a close distance, It finally belatedly opened Its mouth:

【I told you a long time ago. Being so sentimental is not good for you.】

【Before, for that child, you abandoned your original source and almost died with her. Now… you’ve grown such a strange new heart. It looks really fragile and pitiful.】

It didn’t even remember Flower Hat’s name.

Only the little octopus, who had been rebellious since she was born and had later severely injured It, was worthy of Its special memory.

【Now that you’ve become so powerful, you should also be able to feel it, right? The will of the abyss, of this world, what it hopes for most is that we will perish together, and both be injured.】

【You, who have grown this new heart, seem to be unable to swallow me as easily as before—】

【You really shouldn’t have brought that human over. She’s made you restrained, hasn’t she? You specially extracted the memories about her, and also hid her in the deepest and safest place in your body. But in this way, how can you swallow me like before?】

Its voice was exceptionally calm, as if the one who was about to face a natural enemy was not It.

Because the [Lighthouse] could not understand from the bottom of Its heart why Lin Ran was always trapped by these meaningless emotions, and thus had one after another of weaknesses.

If she could be like Itself, and would do anything to survive, and would cast aside those miscellaneous thoughts of the seven emotions and six desires, then even if It died because of this, there seemed to be nothing to complain about.

She was clearly Its most special child.

Why did she always have to be tied down by these unnecessary, weak existences?

Just like now.

Did the [Monarch Slayer] have the heart to perish with It, with her newly grown beautiful heart, and the human she had cherished and hidden in her body?

She should not have the heart.

The [Lighthouse] was so confident.

It even felt that It might be able to find a way to coexist peacefully with the [Monarch Slayer]. After all, they didn’t have to be mortal enemies.

Lin Ran let out a very light laugh.

From the giant octopus’s body, it turned into a chaotic and blurry, brief sound, making the surrounding seawater tremble finely.

The soil and ground under her tentacles also trembled.

Then she said, 【You seem to have forgotten the lesson I taught you last time. This preachy tone really annoys me.】

【…】

The [Lighthouse] fell into a brief silence.

A wise man submits to circumstances.

It graciously proposed a more tempting condition to the octopus. 【I know why you came back. I can provide you with a way to make that human return to her original state, and not be polluted by your power.】

【Wow, that sounds so generous.】

Lin Ran indifferently moved her tentacles and lifted the silver grass leaves that had been planted on the nearby ground at some point.

But the mucus secreted on the surface of the grass leaves was not the mucus she remembered that could heal wounds, but a mucus that was deadly poisonous to octopuses.

Even the flowing seawater.

When it had brushed against her skin before, it had made her feel a fine, needle-like stinging sensation.

The [Lighthouse], in order to prevent her from returning, had long since transformed this abyss into an environment that targeted her, and had even specially chosen plants that had a special meaning to her. And Its followers were not affected at all.

Lin Ran’s tone was filled with ridicule. 【Isn’t it because you’ve already used up all your tricks and are at your wit’s end, and can’t do any harm to me, that you have no choice but to bow down to me in order to continue to live a precarious life?】

Being exposed, the [Lighthouse] was not bothered.

Until Lin Ran extended her first tentacle—

A thick, strong, black and red tentacle, with the force of a thousand jun(15,000 kg), like a giant python as thick as the trunk of a hundred-year-old ancient tree, fiercely pulled down the thousands of stinging threads that It had extended.

【You are really too arrogant.】

Lin Ran announced that the reminiscing was over. 【Let me teach you the proper attitude for begging.】