Chapter 257: Even a Monster Is Still a Mother

"These should be enough," Magna muttered, wiping away the mud gathering on his mask.

Even this far from the clay Desolation, its aura was still affecting him. A heavy layer of mud kept forming over his cloths. His mask was especially troublesome, since he had to clean it regularly to keep breathing properly.

The lenses over his eyes needed cleaning too. After wiping them with the soft inner fabric of his robe, he finally had a clear view of the three figures on the ground.

His latest masterpieces.

All three were perfect copies of the flying worms, the Bleeding Desolation’s children, made entirely from mud.

They had no corrosive effects or any other attack abilities. He had only designed them to fly quickly in a straight line, but if his guess was right, that would be enough.

Magna picked them up and headed back to where he had left the two Desolations.

When he returned, the monsters were still standing in the same places. Neither seemed to have moved, though the tension between them hadn’t eased.

They were so focused on each other that they didn’t seem to have noticed him leave or return.

The material forming between them, however, had changed. It now seemed to have reached its final form... a thin, straight line of black, translucent material lying exactly where their auras met, its surface as smooth as porcelain.

The golden light coming from it was even stronger than that of the mana replenishing pills.

Seeing it gave Magna stronger reason to hope his plan would work.

He turned his attention to the clay monster and moved around it, looking for a clear path along which to launch his mechanical bugs.

Once he was diagonally behind it, he began winding the three figures. He locked each mechanism in place before lining them up on the ground.

Then he quickly pulled out their locking pins, trying to release all three at once.

Their wings began beating with a sudden buzzing sound. As the figures lifted off the ground, Magna backed away to avoid drawing attention to himself.

Neither Desolation turned toward him. Both remained focused on each other while the bugs gained enough height to shoot forward.

They quickly crossed the muddy ground, heading straight toward the clay monster.

Magna watched from farther away, hoping they would make it.

At first, they flew without any problems. The clay Desolation’s aura didn’t seem to affect them much, perhaps because they were made from the same mud as their surroundings, only hardened.

The closer they got, however, the more their movements changed.

Their wings began to slow. The steady buzzing became uneven as their bodies dipped and rose in the air.

Mud and moisture were gathering on them, adding weight while clogging their mechanisms.

"Come on," Magna muttered.

His minions were about to fall before completing their mission.

They didn’t even need to reach the clay Desolation. They only had to get close enough for the Bleeding Desolation to notice them.

For a few more moments, their struggling wings kept them in the air.

Then, just a few meters from the clay monster, their mechanisms finally gave out. All three dropped lifelessly into the mud.

The clay Desolation didn’t even turn toward them. They posed no danger that they hadn’t caught its attention.

The Bleeding Desolation, however, slowly turned its head toward the fallen bugs.

Magna watched it stare at the three motionless figures. He couldn’t tell what it was thinking, or whether it had mistaken them for its children.

For a while, it did nothing.

Then its bloody mouth opened.

"SKRIIIIIIEEEEAAAAAH!"

The piercing cry was so loud that Magna immediately covered his ears, even from that distance.

His eardrums felt as though they were about to burst. The sound seemed to shake his brain inside his skull.

Despite his high stamina stat, he couldn’t endure the sound wave hitting his body. He forced himself to jump backward, putting more distance between them.

’Damn, it really got angry.’

Only after getting far enough away could he raise his head to look again.

He hadn’t been sure what kind of motherly instincts the monster might have. That scream made him think she at least cared about her children.

Seeing what looked like three of them falling lifelessly beside the clay Desolation seemed to have been enough.

And she wasn’t stopping at a scream.

The blood forming her body began to boil and shift. Sections pushed outward, stretching into long tentacles.

As they grew, they also changed shape. Their surfaces hardened into something resembling red crystal, their ends narrowing into sharp points.

Within moments, a dozen spear-like limbs extended from the Bleeding Desolation’s body.

They shot toward the clay monster.

Magna couldn’t even follow them with his eyes. By the time he registered the movement, the spears had already pierced its body.

Flames rose around the points of impact. Blackened patches spread rapidly from the wounds as the blood’s corrosive effects ate into the surrounding clay.

Magna stared. This wasn’t what he had planned.

He wanted a fair fight that would keep both monsters busy. If one killed the other this quickly, he wouldn’t even have time to collect the material.

Fortunately, the clay Desolation wasn’t that weak.

Despite the spears piercing its body, it showed no sign of panic. It simply lowered its featureless face toward them, as though examining what had happened.

Then its mouth opened too.

’Damn...’

Magna barely had time to cover his ears before another scream struck him with a sound wave just as powerful as the first.

He hadn’t even joined the fight. Yet two screams had already done enough damage to make him want to surrender.

At least this one didn’t last long.

As the scream ended, the clay monster’s body began to swell. Its limbs and torso grew larger while the mud around its feet started bubbling.

The bubbling quickly spread across the surrounding ground.

Countless bubbles rose from the mud, swelling before they burst. From each one, a small clay figure emerged.

Still holding his dizzy head, Magna looked up to see what they were.

They resembled the clay Desolation, with the same humanoid shape, only much smaller. Each would barely reach his knees.

Their size wasn’t the problem, though.

Hundreds had appeared within moments, with more emerging from the bubbling mud.

The moment they pulled themselves free, they began rushing toward the Bleeding Desolation.