Chapter 1: Son of God
The Black Domain, a decayed land plunged deep within the Barrier of Black Mist, shrouded in eternal night.
On the horizon crouched an enormous reddish-bronze giant moon, its cold, rust-colored radiance spilling across the black earth.
Within the black forest dotted with motes of colored fluorescence, two women darted swiftly through the trees.
Behind them, several wandering treants towering above the canopy pursued at a leisurely pace, closing in step by step amid the crackling sounds of splintering wood.
After fleeing and fighting all the way, the Black Domain power within their bodies had long been nearly depleted.
Yet they had to escape this forest as quickly as possible—every additional second spent here risked being swallowed by Black Domain demons surging from all directions.
“Kasha, I… I really can’t run anymore…”
The woman lagging behind spoke in a feeble voice, clutching her abdomen as she pitched forward and knelt on the ground.
The spherical lantern hanging at her waist flickered, its flame on the verge of extinction.
“Hold on just a little longer, Hilda!”
Kasha crouched beside Hilda, grasping a clump of grass-like black fuzz, her face alight with shock and joy.
“Look, it’s corpse-devouring grass—we’re almost there!”
Corpse-devouring grass typically grew only on the edges of the Corrupt Blood Marsh.
That was a venomous place instinctively reviled by nearly all life; only dying Black Domain creatures would set foot there.
“I truly can’t walk anymore…”
Hilda panted, lifting her hand to wipe away her hood, revealing flaxen long hair and a face devoid of color.
“The holy water and sacred oil… they’re all running out…”
The woman rubbed the Black Domain lantern at her waist, twisting the oil valve.
The flame, originally the size of a bean, gradually swelled as if in a final burst of light, emitting a gentle golden glow.
“I still have some!”
Kasha hurriedly moved to undo her own equipment at her waist, but Hilda firmly pressed her hand down.
“No, listen to me, Kasha…”
Hilda pressed one hand to her abdomen, the other resting on Kasha’s shoulder, her expression weary.
“The map was fake, or someone tampered with it… It was nothing more than a trap set to annihilate us… Please forgive me for dragging you into this…”
A smile emerged on the beautiful woman’s face.
Her fingers, mottled with black spots, gently brushed across Kasha’s grimy cheek.
“But… but why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant!”
Kasha’s voice suddenly rose.
“No, Hilda, you can’t fall asleep!”
Hilda began to grow dazed, more black spots spreading across her exposed neck and the backs of her hands.
The corrupting power of the Black Domain was accelerating its erosion of her weakened body.
Kasha quickly pulled out a vial of holy water, carefully prying open Hilda’s mouth and feeding her two sips.
Wiping away a tear at the corner of her eye, Kasha knelt on one knee, gripping her sword hilt tightly with both hands and raising it to her forehead, tilting her head to gaze at the enormous reddish-bronze lunar disk in the distance.
‘O Saint Sura of Eternal Slumber, source of all power in the world, embodiment of courage!
Grant me fearlessness, that upon this land eroded by terror I may raise the shield of faith and face the threats of darkness.
Grant me resilience, that in the wilderness overrun by demons I may wield the sword of victory and sever the chains of evil.
Ignite my soul, that in the labyrinth of night I may illuminate the path ahead and guide my companion forward.
Sura, with Your scorching will, burn away the night and warm the flesh and souls of the devout…’
After silently reciting the prayer several times, Kasha drew a deep breath, brightened her own Black Domain lantern, and hoisted the unconscious Hilda onto her back.
The golden halo spread outward; the prying eyes and unrest in the darkness seemed to ease considerably, leaving only the two women’s heavy breathing.
…
…
The black forest was finally left behind.
A few strands of black silk quietly crept onto Kasha’s face, yet she still bit her lower lip hard, carrying her companion on her back and inching step by step toward the grassland ahead that glowed with snowy white fluorescence.
The Oasis of Divine Tears, the most precious pure land in the Black Domain, was like a fragment fallen from paradise into hell, distinctly separated from the surrounding darkness and decay.
These were the tears of approval and pity shed by Saint Sura for every brave soul daring to venture into the Black Domain, transforming on this black earth into a brief sanctuary of divine purity.
The Oasis of Divine Tears, carpeted with snow-white flowers and grasses, measured no more than five meters in diameter.
Several peculiar plants resembling dandelions swayed gently in the breeze.
The instant Kasha stepped into the Oasis of Divine Tears, countless tiny fluorescent spirits with lives of their own rose into the air, soothing the exhausted lantern bearers who had strayed here with their silent yet gorgeous dance.
Carefully laying Hilda flat on the grass, Kasha collapsed beside her, gasping heavily.
The foul stench drifting in the air inexplicably vanished, and even the burning pain in the corrupted areas of her face slowly subsided.
“So strange…”
After a brief rest, Kasha sat up and looked around.
“Why would an Oasis of Divine Tears appear near the Corrupt Blood Marsh? Where exactly are we?”
Kasha’s gaze shifted to several hundred meters away, where corpse-devouring grass spread like a black carpet.
On the dim horizon, beneath the shadow of a small hill, gray-black vapors reeking of blood rose steaming—that was the signature sight of the Corrupt Blood Marsh.
“Kasha… my belly…”
From behind Kasha came Hilda’s feeble groan.
“Hilda, we’re safe. This is the Oasis of Divine Tears.”
Kasha turned back, smiling brightly.
Yet the smile lasted only a second before freezing—along with the black spots on her face—into a distorted expression of horror.
Before her, Hilda’s abdomen bulged high, as if some mysterious force had accelerated time, leaping directly from early pregnancy to the brink of delivery.
Within that swollen belly, something seemed imprisoned, twisting and struggling wildly, pushing out all manner of terrifying shapes.
Lost, hiding, fighting… Hilda had lingered in the Black Domain far too long.
Even with holy water, she could not halt the deepening corruption, let alone while pregnant.
The terrifying power of the Black Domain, which twisted everything, had already begun to erode the fetus within.
“Ugh…”
Just as Kasha stood petrified by the sight, soul scattering in helplessness, a low, drawn-out, eerie wail rippled from the direction of the Corrupt Blood Marsh.
Kasha turned her head stiffly, slowly.
Several hundred meters away, at the edge of the Corrupt Blood Marsh, the massive shadow she had mistaken for a hill began to writhe slowly.
More than a dozen slick, glistening tentacles emerged like giant pythons under the rust-colored moonlight, bending, twisting, swaying amid the foul mist.
Hilda propped up her upper body, drew the dagger from her waist, despair fully etching her face.
“Kasha, don’t look at it—run… It’s the ‘Mother of Foolish Obsession’ in her egg-laying phase… She’ll tear apart any life that draws near. She’s sensed us…”
The heavy wail sounded again.
At the edge of vision, the white hill rose from the ground!
Thick tentacles flaunted under the rust-colored moonlight like massive arms, propelling the enormous, bloated snow-white body and the wrinkled, gigantic head-sac slowly toward the Oasis of Divine Tears where Hilda and Kasha sheltered.
“Run, Kasha… Thank you for accompanying me this far… I can die in Sura’s embrace.”
Hilda’s lips began to blacken, yet a trace of calm smile lingered on her face.
“No—we’ll die together!”
Kasha shouted hoarsely, shaking her head fiercely.
As a Forest Whisperer, Kasha’s combat plant seeds had been exhausted in the earlier battles.
Now, she could only draw her short sword, shielding her companion behind her, staring at the ever-approaching white behemoth radiating terrifying pressure, her pupils dilated in utmost fear.
The Mother of Foolish Obsession, the most wondrous creature in the Black Domain.
Snow-white and flawless, pure as a newborn lamb, gentle and timid.
That creamy, alluring body could dazzle any first-time beholder.
Yet when pregnancy arrived, she transformed into the Black Domain’s most fearsome apex killer, her infamous name enough to make even the mightiest Black Domain demons tremble.
A Mother of Foolish Obsession in killing mode could shred all life within hundreds of meters with a single unconscious shriek, its chaos power tearing souls apart.
More terrifying still, even without acting, any intent to attack or malice toward her would trigger a fatal chaotic curse backlash.
The white Mother of Foolish Obsession, like a bride from the abyss, crawled forward slowly.
On her corpulent body, more than a dozen thick, powerful tentacles pulsed with scarlet veins.
Even the ordinarily soft suckers on her tentacles now bristled with barbs, displaying utmost savagery under the rust-colored moonlight.
The Mother of Foolish Obsession finally halted at the edge of the Oasis of Divine Tears.
On her head-sac, five ruby-like eyes rotated slowly within their sockets, gazing coldly at the two human women huddled together in the oasis.
“Urgh… it… it hurts so much…”
Hilda cried out in pain, the writhing in her abdomen growing more violent, as if the fetus might burst forth at any moment.
A white tentacle, slick with mucus, extended silently.
It deftly bypassed Kasha, hovering with its softest tip above Hilda’s heaving abdomen.
A gentle touch—so tender, as if a mother from the depths of hell’s abyss shared an indescribable empathy with a human mother in dire straits.
Feeling the wet sensation on her belly, Hilda squeezed her eyes shut, trembling uncontrollably.
Moments later, the Mother of Foolish Obsession withdrew the tentacle.
Her massive body began to turn.
Several minutes later, she coiled once more at the edge of the Corrupt Blood Marsh, becoming a silent white hill beneath the night.
Watching the Mother of Foolish Obsession depart, cold sweat soaking her clothes, Kasha felt as if she had run a lap through the deepest hell.
Within the Oasis of Divine Tears, another wave of fluorescent spirits rose, drifting lightly around Hilda and Kasha, then falling like snowflakes onto Hilda’s high, ceaselessly writhing abdomen.
A minuscule particle of light, flickering with pure silver radiance, silently sank into Hilda’s belly.
The unrest within quieted.
“Kasha… I think I’m about to give birth…”
Hilda’s pained groan came again from behind, snapping Kasha back to reality.
Hilda lay supine on the snow-white grass, eyes tightly shut, body twitching slightly.
Beads of sweat rolled from her forehead, soaking the stray hairs on her cheeks.
“Kasha… hold your sword ready… If it’s a demon, end it all at once… Urghaa… it… it’s coming!”
Hilda let out a heart-rending scream; the fetus within collided desperately.
No longer concerning herself with the distant Mother of Foolish Obsession, Kasha drew a deep breath, carefully cutting open Hilda’s hunting garb with her dagger and pouring the last half-vial of holy water over her hands.
‘O Saint Sura of Eternal Slumber, weaver of life and flesh, guardian of the first cry!
With Your holy and merciful gaze, behold this moment of agony; let the newborn life cross the darkness untainted by chaos.
With Your arms dipped in honey, weave a barrier of protection, that the tender heartbeat may reach the pure shore amid rivers of blood.
O holder of eternal maternal love, sing a gentle lullaby; let this sacred blood tide’s channel of life birth Your devout new follower!’
Reciting the birthing passage from the holy prayer, Kasha knelt at Hilda’s side, fully focused, ready to receive the new life.
A black-haired male infant, slick with mucus, landed steadily in Kasha’s palms—damp with holy water and trembling slightly.
The baby’s tiny body was soft, wet, sticky, warm with life.
Kasha removed her lantern bearer’s cloak, carefully wrapping the crying boy.
“Thank goodness—it’s a healthy boy, no corruption! You did it, Hilda… Hilda?”
The woman who had just given birth in the Oasis of Divine Tears gave no response.
Joy on Kasha’s face abruptly ceased.
Hilda had stopped breathing after delivery.
She lay as if asleep, a satisfied smile lingering at the corners of her mouth.
“Hilda…”
Kasha cradled the swaddled infant; scalding tears surged forth, falling onto the baby’s wrinkled little face and the gradually dimming snow-white flowers and grasses.
The Oasis of Divine Tears seemed to have exhausted its final trace of purity.
The fluorescence dimmed and died; the snow-white plants withered rapidly as if scorched by invisible flames, charring and crumbling.
An Oasis of Divine Tears lasted at most one day from appearance to disappearance.
Sura’s tears would eventually evaporate in this dark, decayed world—they offered only hope to persevere, not lifelong shelter.
Meanwhile, several hundred meters away beside the Corrupt Blood Marsh, the mountain-like Mother of Foolish Obsession, after a bout of violent, pained tremors, finally laid snow-white egg sacs the size of human heads, wrapped in mucus and blood threads.
A fluorescent spirit drifting from the Oasis of Divine Tears floated lightly and settled atop one of the egg sacs.
A faint particle of pure silver light, like a water droplet seeping into sand, quietly merged into the white eggshell.
Having fulfilled her final mission, the Mother of Foolish Obsession’s life also reached its end.
Her mountain-like body and all tentacles slowly curled and contracted, tightly guarding the egg sacs.
Thus the Mother of Foolish Obsession lay quietly at the edge of the boiling Corrupt Blood Marsh, sinking into slumber.
Before finally submerging into the Corrupt Blood Marsh, this colossal remains—condensed from an abyssal curse—would still emit a terrifying aura that deterred most Black Domain creatures from approaching.