Chapter 684: The Mother

The bubbling grew louder, and the black lake began to churn violently as though something enormous was struggling to rise from its depths.

Thick waves rolled across the surface, crashing against the stone ledge and sending black water splashing onto the ground.

Then, another abomination slowly stepped out of the black water.

It was ten meters tall, its grotesque body stitched together from dozens of mothers, their remains fused into a single horrifying mass.

Arms, legs, and torsos had been sewn together without any apparent order, forming a towering creature whose proportions defied reason.

Its skin was pale and swollen, stretched tightly over the bodies that made up its frame, while thick black threads ran across its flesh like the marks of an ancient and cruel surgeon.

Dozens of eyes covered its body, scattered across its shoulders, stomach, arms, and even the sides of its head.

Some were tightly shut, while others rolled restlessly in their sockets, staring in different directions as though searching for something to devour.

Beneath its head, several mouths opened and closed, revealing rows of broken teeth.

Their lips moved without speaking, producing a wet, clicking sound that echoed throughout the cavern.

Its arms were even more disturbing.

Too many arms extended from its enormous body, overlapping one another and dragging against the stone as it emerged from the lake.

Some were thin and withered, while others were thick enough to crush a man’s torso. They twisted and stretched independently, their fingers scraping across the ground.

Where its chest should have been, a cradle of ribs protruded outward.

The enormous rib cage formed a hollow enclosure in the center of its body, its curved bones resembling the bars of a prison.

Every step it took sent a deep tremor through the cavern.

The stone beneath its enormous feet cracked, and the surrounding water recoiled as though the lake itself could not bear the weight of the abomination it had released.

’What in the Abyss is this?’ Thoren cried in his heart as he looked at the abomination that emerged from the depths of the black water.

It was scary.

Frightening.

The creature’s appearance alone was enough to crush the courage of an ordinary person.

Anyone without strong willpower would abandon all thoughts of fighting and flee if they could.

There was something deeply wrong about the abomination, something that made its existence feel like a terrible mistake that should never have been allowed to exist.

Thoren felt his spine crawl, and all the hair on his body stood on end.

He could even hear the heavy pounding of his heartbeat against his ears.

His throat tightened, and an uncomfortable chill spread from the back of his neck down his spine.

The creature had not attacked him, nor had it even directed all its eyes toward him, yet his instincts were already screaming at him to get away from the lake.

For a brief moment, he found himself wondering whether he had made a terrible mistake by stepping onto the ledge.

Thoren swallowed hard, but he refused to succumb to the frightening sight.

Without hesitation, he opened his Undead Space and released the undead Horn Lizard King and the undead Scorpion Men King.

The two powerful undead emerged in succession, their enormous bodies radiating dark energy as they took their positions on the stone ledge.

However, Thoren was not satisfied with merely releasing the two undead kings.

The creature before him was too frightening, and he had no intention of discovering its full strength by sacrificing his most valuable undead servants one after another.

To be safe, he even released the Pressurefang Wolves.

One after another, the undead wolves emerged from his Undead Space, spreading across the cavern with their jaws bared and their soul fires burning in their eye sockets.

The Alpha took its place at the front of the pack, its powerful body crouched low as it faced the enormous creature near the lake.

Dark auras spread across the ledge, overlapping and colliding until the atmosphere became suffocating.

"..H-Human... Hu...m...an... Human..."

Kekekeke.

"...C..Come..."

"..F-Fresh... meat...."

Jejeje...

The horrific words echoed throughout the cavern, accompanied by a series of disturbing laughs that sent chills down Thoren’s spine.

The sounds did not come from a single mouth.

Instead, dozens of female voices spoke at the same time, each voice overlapping with the others in a disjointed rhythm that made it difficult to distinguish one from another.

Some voices were weak and trembling, as though the women were struggling to speak through their final breaths, while others sounded strangely excited, their laughter filled with an unsettling hunger.

The mouths scattered across the abomination’s body opened and closed in unison, yet the words emerged at different intervals, creating a cacophony that seemed to crawl directly into Thorens’ mind.

"..H-Human..."

"Kekekeke..."

"..Fresh... meat..."

"Jejeje..."

"...I...want..."

Kekeke...

"..Blo...Blood"

The laughter continued, growing louder as the creature’s countless eyes shifted across the cavern.

This was a nightmare.

A ghostly nightmare.

Thoren felt the dozens of eyes lock onto his body, and his muscles stiffened involuntarily.

’Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!’ he cursed repeatedly in his mind.

The sensation was unbearable, as though every eye could see through his flesh and bones, searching for the most vulnerable part of him.

No, the most delicious part of him.

Even with his powerful undead legion surrounding him, he felt an instinctive urge to retreat from the abomination’s attention.

He clenched his fist and a cold sensation settled in his stomach.

There was something deeply sorrowful about the countless female voices, as though the remnants of many lives had been trapped within that monstrous form.

Still, Thoren maintained his calm expression without revealing his inner emotions.

He could not afford to show fear in front of an enemy whose mere presence invoked the hidden terror in his heart.

Instead, he kept his eyes fixed on the abomination, carefully observing its movements while preparing himself for whatever might happen next.

Just then, a word appeared in his mind.

’The Mother.’