The Record of Unusual Creatures

“This is the remains of Lockmarton?”

Hao Ren sighed as he received the shimmering substance from Tunalar.

Only the size of a fist, it felt muzzy like a smoke ball without a solid core. But it had a certain weight too it. Hao Ren could not tell if it had a physical or non-physical body. The main body was dead, but this fragment was pulsating as if it was still alive.

A layer of spider silk glowing in silver light enveloped the fragment without touching it. It seemed like a fragment floating inside a loose cocoon.

The spider silk worked to isolate the exchange of energy between the fragment and the outside world—just in case.

“It’s like the ‘image’ of a shattered mighty soul,” Anthony, the expert in the field of souls, said as he stroked his beard. “Lockmarton’s power was incredible. If we hadn’t harnessed the power of the goddess to suppress him, he would have posed a great threat to the ordinary inspectors.”

“I could feel god-like opposing energy when I attacked him. It is consistent with the information provided by Bomb Maniac. Others probably didn’t feel it clearly, but that was the feeling.”

Tunalar had similar credentials as the dragon queen. As a demigod promoted from a spider demon, Tunalar had an excellent perception, which was an evolution and extension of her natural talent.

“Ahem. Miss Tunalar, my name is Hao Ren, not Bomb Maniac.” Hao Ren looked at the songstress with a poker face, seriously suspecting that she deliberately called him by his nickname. “If what I’ve read from the Tablet of Commandments is true, Lockmarton does have some divine nature of a true God. But he lacks the vital information and the true control of his divinity, so we can’t call him a true God.”

Tanalar crossed her arms. Her narrow red eyes were filled with excitement. “Oh, is that so? That’s interesting. Once you find out more about him, do send me a copy of your findings. I’d like to learn about this.”

“Maybe we can find out now,” Hao Ren said as he fiddled with the spider silk, which shrouded the shimmering fragment. “Do me a favor by casting a protection spell.”

“A protection spell? What do you mean?” Tunalar was perplexed.

It was Anthony, who had more interaction with Hao Ren and knew what the Bomb Maniac meant. The old mage recalled Hao Ren’s special abilities he had read about in the database. “You want to read Lockmarton’s memory from the fragment?”

“His body is dead, and this is only a fragment of his soul, so it’s not dangerous.” Hao Ren smiled and waved the “cocoon” in his hand. “Miss Tunalar, how should I open this thing?”

“Call me Tunalar; we’re colleagues after all. Don’t make it sound so formal,” Tunalar said with a smile. A high-power cutting tool was needed to break the spider-silk seal open. But with the wave of her hand, Tunalar made an opening on the “cocoon.”

“I kinda guessed what you wanted to do. Anthony and I will help you. I’m excited to see your legendary mind-reading abilities.”

With his mind focused, Hao Ren reached his hand to touch the fragment of Lockmarton.

He felt his fingers had touched a cold and spinning air mass, which got denser toward the center. When his finger was about two centimeters deep, the resistance reached a point where his finger could go no farther.

A slight vertigo hit and followed by a flood of memories from ancient times rushing into his mind.

At first, it was a faint light, then something was swaying in the light. As the swaying image became clear, the details were visible. It turned out to be a red ocean and a monotonous sky.

The image of the dull sky and sea surface lasted for a long time until a figure suddenly appeared.

The figure rose from the red ocean, covered in fog. Perhaps due to the age of the memory or some other more mysterious reason, Hao Ren could not see the face. But Hao Ren knew that it was a “she.”

In Lockmarton’s view, the figure quickly came up and circled him dozens of times in an excited manner. Soon after, a voice rang in Hao Ren’s mind—Lockmarton’s heart back then.

“Ahh, it’s moving! It’s moving! I’ve made it!”

The joy spread throughout his spiritual connection, and joy became the first feeling in Lockmarton’s memory.

The birth of life was worthy of joy.

“You will be with me from now on!” The figure that Lockmarton knew as “mother” quickly said, “I’m going to name you. A name is necessary; it is very useful!”

It took the mother a long time but she still could not come up with a name. She did not even know what a name was.

The name Lockmarton came only after the glowing fireball whizzed through the sky a few thousand times.

Slowly, Lockmarton learned about his mother and his birth.

Mother seemed to be the only life in the world, excluding himself as he was born later.

She had been living in this place for many years, not knowing where she came from and where she should go. Mother never talked about herself, did not explain why there was no similar individual like her in this world. She meandered around in this vast red ocean aimlessly, doing nothing. Before Mother thought of the idea of “making a little thing as a company”, her greatest hobby was lying on the sea to observe the activity of the sun, and the stars at night. Sun-gazing was boring as things were always the same. But watching the stars was fun because there were many of them and things were everchanging.

Occasionally, things got more interesting. Burning rocks would fall from the sky and make a splash on the sea surface.

Mother would be excited for a thousand days and nights because of the splash.

But stargazing and waiting for the meteorite to fall on the water was not too exciting. Mother finally got tired and bored, and her growing sense of loneliness was depressing.

After a long time, she finally decided to create something that could accompany her—something that was similar to her or at least moving and with which she could talk.

She failed many times. At last, during a random attempt, she made it; she made Lockmarton…

A wriggling and ignorant piece of meat.

That was the birth of Lockmarton.

In some beautiful, detached perspective, Hao Ren saw Lockmarton during his childhood.

Hee was a small piece of dark red meat, just the size of a human head, Lockmarton had no visible body parts and did not look symmetrical. He floated lazily and naively across the water, and sometimes snuggled in his mother’s arms, talking clumsily to his mother using rumbles and vibrations.

Mother took Lockmarton to travel the “world.” They chased storms and the sun; they watched stars on the red ocean; dived to the bottom of the sea to search for glowing cracks and even went into the fissures to explore the hot lava. They had found a small piece of land on the surface, which was the only land in the world. Mother had built a house with stones, and the open space around the house was filled with Mother’s collection: stone tablets from the bottom of the sea, crystals, and metallic cores of the rocks falling from the sky.

In Lockmarton’s earliest memory, everything felt warm.

But as time went by, emotions faded from those distant memories. Hao Ren read Lockmarton’s mind. Except for the initial joy, most of the contents were empty and cold.

It became a record of a distant memory. Like an emotionless computer that stored its data, the memory was left in the corner of his soul.

Lockmarton gradually grew up.

Mother gradually grew up as well.

Then, the mother slowly discovered her strengths. Bit by bit, she tried them out and mastered them.

She seemed to think that her child should also learn these skills, so she injected her divine power into Lockmarton’s body.

Later, the memory looked even colder and paler.

The powers of the goddess were great toys for Lockmarton, and he was deeply fascinated by them.

Lockmarton began to squander these powers. He enjoyed all of them irrespective of whether these powers would bring creation or destruction.

Lockmarton was gradually dissatisfied with his mother’s control and the dull world.

His mother liked to gaze at the stars and had the idea of going to visit them. She had learned how to get into space, even flown around the glowing fireball in the sky. When she came back, she told Lockmarton that it was a very bright place.

Lockmarton thought it was an opportunity to leave the red planet. So he behaved and hoped that he could explore the stars with his mother.

The memory felt cold. Even a blanket of black fog gradually covered the moving images.

It seemed that something terrible had happened during that expedition. That would explain the reasons for the complete distortion of Lockmarton and some secrets of the goddess of creation. But the memory was buried in his subconscious.

Hao Ren continued to dive into the memory.