121. Human Garden (10)
121. Human Garden (10)
A child born from Gluttony's cells.
A creature similar to Stacey, yet completely different in form.
If Stacey feels like a creature pretending to be human, the child newly born from Gluttony's cells feels like a human commanding tentacles.
'Come to think of it, why do the children always have white hair when they're born from humans?'
Well, there are probably many reasons, but that's not important right now.
Though born from a human womb, the child clearly possesses power nearly identical to Gluttony.
<Information>
Name: Gluttony
Species: Creature · Human
Country of Affiliation: -
Organization Affiliation: -
Gender: -
Height · Weight: 156.5cm · 198.5kg
Alignment: Chaos · Evil
<Stats>
Strength: 53
Endurance: 78
Agility: 55
Vitality: 56
Mana: 0
<Unique Ability>
Gluttony
Is it because I think of it as Gluttony? The status window also reads Gluttony.
From the fact that its unique ability is Gluttony, it means it is Gluttony.
Sweuk.
Gluttony's head turned toward the Archer, who had fainted after giving birth to her.
Sweuk.
Then it looked at me.
Gluttony tilted its head.
Gluttony is now curious.
About who her mother is.
The Archer who gave birth to her, and me, her mother by species.
She's confused about which one is her mother.
But honestly, I'm curious about this too.
Let's say I was born.
Would the human who gave birth to me be my mother? Or would the god who created that human be my mother?
Ah, thinking like that, the god isn't a mother but just a god, right?
But what if a god showed up and told me to abandon my mother and come under them?
I probably would choose my mother too, just like the Gluttony in front of me now.
Gluttony's tentacles moved rapidly, flying toward me to kill me.
Though the newly born Gluttony exists in my hive mind, she overcame that and swung her tentacles at me.
[ Queen Nim! ]
Evolute called out urgently, but I was unfazed.
Pababababang!
All of Gluttony's tentacles exploded.
Gluttony's eyes widened.
Right now, Gluttony is very weak.
The terrifying thing about Gluttony is that she gets endlessly stronger.
She's a late-blooming creature whose size keeps increasing the more she devours.
But right now, Gluttony is a newborn who hasn't even been born for five minutes.
She's so weak that she's considered the lowest among the Overlord-class children.
And in that state, she bares her fangs at me?
That's actually amusing.
Right now, I'm not afraid that a creature is rejecting my hive mind.
The original Gluttony's appearance was honestly a bit grotesque.
With mud-like tentacles squelching and growing larger the more she ate, even now that the Queen's consciousness has strengthened, I honestly hesitated to touch it.
But now?
Wearing a tentacle suit over a child's appearance, even rebelling against me—she just looks like a child going through a chuunibyou phase.
If I had my way, I'd let her do whatever she wants, but since she raised a hand against her mother...
She deserves punishment, doesn't she?
==
Gluttony, reborn with a new soul, was not born close to a creature.
She was born in a completely different state from Stacey.
Though Stacey was influenced by Gwen, it wasn't by much.
Rather, she absorbed more of Queen Leah's power, making her a lifeform closer to a creature.
But the newly born Gluttony is different.
No matter how much she was conceived from Gluttony's cells, the mother was ultimately human.
She combined with a human egg, stayed in a human womb for a month, and was born.
From the moment the Archer conceived Gluttony, a soul was born, and until birth, she fed more on the Archer's maternity than on the hive mind.
That's why Gluttony chose the Archer who gave birth to her over the Queen Leah in front of her.
From Gluttony's perspective, she decided that it was Queen Leah who was tormenting the mother who gave birth to her, and so she attacked.
However, Queen Leah was stronger than Gluttony had thought.
No matter how newly born she was, her essence is the creature Gluttony.
With the murderous instinct imprinted in her cells, she swung her tentacles to attack Queen Leah in front of her, but nothing worked.
Sensing something strange, Gluttony stepped back and was about to swing her tentacles again.
Then, Leah, who had been in front of her, vanished.
Gluttony hurriedly turned her head to find Leah, but before she could, Leah's hand grabbed Gluttony's head.
Leah's hand deformed and seized Gluttony's entire body.
"Even after being commanded not once or twice, you rebel like this. Amazing. So amazing and amusing. Interesting."
Leah grinned at Gluttony.
Gluttony felt fear as she saw Leah smiling.
Fine tentacles emerged from Leah's hand and began burrowing into every hole in Gluttony's body.
"—!!!"
"Hmm~ As expected, even the brain is different from Stacey's; it's a human brain. So if the brain is destroyed, she dies?"
Leah felt wonder at Gluttony's brain structure, which felt exactly like a human's from her own hand.
If Stacey is a creature pretending to be human, then Gluttony was exactly like Amber and Yui.
Her body was almost human.
That's why she was curious.
Whether she would die if her brain was destroyed.
"If she dies, I can just make her again, right? Isn't that right, Evolute?"
[ That is. correct. ]
"...!"
Gluttony realized Leah was serious, and tried to escape from her grip by releasing all her tentacles to attack Leah, but Leah, unaffected by the attack, simply crushed the brain in her grasp.
Cheolpudeok.
"Hmm..."
Leah looked at Gluttony, who had collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, and felt a pang of regret.
"If Gluttony can't even handle losing just one brain... that's disappointing..."
Twitch.
But because she is a creature, Gluttony regenerated her brain and barely got up.
Originally, Gluttony had such high regenerative ability that she was thought to be immune to any attack unless it directly struck the hero's soul.
But Leah was slightly disappointed that Gluttony couldn't regenerate easily from having just one brain destroyed.
When she was completely a creature, she had no weaknesses, but by taking on a human form, she seemed to have developed a weakness. The weakness called a brain.
"Is her regeneration slow because she's hungry?"
Gluttony realized she had no choice but to obey the Leah in front of her.
"Or was it because that human was inferior that such a child was born?"
Gluttony sensed that Leah harbored killing intent toward her mother, and slowly wrapped her mother in her tentacles while watching Leah's reaction.
"Hmm... I'll have to see by feeding her some humans first. Evolute, put Gluttony and the human into the Human Zoo for now."
[ Under. stood. ]
Gluttony accepted Leah's command, knowing she must never rebel, hugged her mother, and left the Evolution Room with Evolute.
==
"Ugh—!"
I woke up groaning from the immense pain in my belly and groin, and a suffocating tightness that made it hard to breathe.
"—!"
The moment I opened my eyes, I saw a child, and the Archer instinctively tried to scream but then felt something strange.
'She looks exactly like me when I was young...?'
The child staring at me, only different in hair color, looked exactly like my childhood self.
'Could it be...'
As the Archer raised her trembling hand, Gluttony's eyes followed her hand, and then Gluttony pressed her head against the Archer's hand.
Sweuk. Sweuk.
The Archer, unknowingly stroking Gluttony, was certain.
That this child sitting on her body was the baby she gave birth to.
And she felt a little relieved.
At least she gave birth to a human-like child, not a grotesque mon—
Twitch. Twitch.
The Archer swallowed hard at the clumps of tentacles on her daughter's body, which shouldn't exist in a human.
'But she's not a newborn; she looks like a girl of almost 10 years... Well, giving birth in just one month was abnormal from the start.'
"Yaaaawn..."
When Gluttony yawned loudly, the Archer tried to shift slightly to make room for her to lie on the bed, but Gluttony shook her head and instead clung tightly to the Archer's body.
As if she would never let go, Gluttony bound the Archer with her tentacles, hugging her tightly, and finally felt relieved that her mother had woken up, closing her eyes.
Gluttony fell asleep immediately, and the Archer's head became complicated.
'What am I supposed to do with this... It's true that I gave birth to a monster, but is it really a monster?'
Just looking at her body, she is a monster.
Black tentacles writhe, and the tentacles and body seem to be one.
But when you look at her actions, she's unmistakably a newborn baby.
Even now, the tentacles binding me don't hurt.
It's just warm, like a child who doesn't want to be separated from her mother, holding her tightly.