“Watch your step.”
Maurice wrinkled his chubby little face, a look of deep thought flashing across his green eyes. He had not spoken those words to Lim without reason. Firstly, it was to defend Eliotte. As a journalist, he knew how rumor could corrupt truth and how easily people fell into herd mentality, but he simply could not bear to see prejudice and disdain cast upon Eliotte.
Secondly, he wanted to use Lim to gather information, specifically regarding the old Count’s true intentions.
Lim was not like Adam, whose brain lacked any real substance. Lim would never believe that after suffering such a humongous disgrace, the old Count was acting out of the goodness of his heart by bringing an ignored mixed-breed back to the manor. With Lim’s clarity and sharp wit, he likely knew the old Count’s true purpose.
Maurice had a few theories in mind, which boiled down to illegal genetic experimentation, murder, or a combination of both. However, the cub felt no real fear. This fearlessness stemmed from his hard-to-kill nature as a former college student, and from his thorough understanding of his own male psychic power.
He did not believe any other male Zerg in this world possessed the ability to defeat him. He considered himself to have seen right through the weak, superficial nature of these so-called sons of God. They blustered loudly but were incredibly fragile. If Maurice wished, he could even use his psychic tentacles to create a massive spatial collapse, leveling the entire earldom and its surrounding cities.
He chose to surrender not only because he wanted to end this trouble once and for all, but also because of his damnably fierce curiosity as a journalism student.
Just after stepping off the airship, Maurice saw the entire Count’s manor brightly lit. A floating pathway unfolded beneath his feet, and Adam, suppressing a wave of bitter resentment, shoved his chubby little body aside and walked into the magnificent estate on his own.
Maurice squeezed his chubby little hands. His psychic tentacles resonated with him from across a thin barrier of space, sensing the energy fluctuations of this world. Oddly enough, the manor did not seem to have any ambush laid out. The chubby cub looked up at the sky. Naturally, he could not see the First Army’s warships, but he felt the starry night sky was exceptionally brilliant.
He took heavy strides with his short, chubby legs and entered the manor. Along the way, countless female Zergs and sub-Zerg servants knelt in submission before him. This was the treatment a male Zerg, a son of God, was supposed to receive in this world, yet it made the cub feel as if he were sitting on a bed of needles. Without a word, he followed the servants’ guidance toward the parlor, contemplating how he would confront the old Count.
There was still no ambush inside the parlor; instead, it was completely peaceful and harmonious. Count Schmidt, who had suffered profound humiliation not long ago, sat at the head of the room. His flirtatious, fox-like eyes rested with a smile upon the cub, who was still marching forward aggressively on short legs, showing no trace of malice.
To be fair, Count Schmidt could not be called old. He was well-maintained, fit, and remarkably tall for a male Zerg, looking to be only in his early thirties. His eyes were a deep brown, just like Adam’s. However, when looked at by those similar eyes, the curly-haired cub could not help but bristle, sensing an underlying threat.
He stopped his advance a short distance away.
Count Schmidt’s expression shifted slightly as he stood up, speaking in a soft voice with a distinct aristocratic cadence:
“My male son, blessed by the Mother Goddess! Your divine power is a miracle for the Empire, signifying that the entire Schmidt family is on the verge of prosperity! This is a revelation given to us by the Mother Goddess. My male son, you must be grateful for this divine gift. In a few days, you will lead our family back to the Imperial Capital Star. At that time, the entire capital will bow and worship before you.”
The glazed glass chandelier flickered above the noble male Zerg’s head, perfectly reflecting the unvarnished greed hidden within his brown eyes. Maurice frowned slightly; this was entirely different from any scenario he had anticipated.
But that did not mean the malice directed toward him was lessened by a fraction.
“I am quite confused, Your Eminence Count,” the cub said. “A few months ago, you viewed me as a disgrace. The name Maurice sounds pleasant, but in the Zerg language, it means dark-skinned. You held a deep grudge against my skin color and my origin, which was likely proof of your own indulgence. Now, my abilities have caused you suffering, yet they suddenly make you look at me in a new light. Does my background no longer bring you shame?”
The cub emphasized the word suffering heavily. He had to admit he had underestimated his cheap male-father’s resilience. He had always assumed the male Zergs of this world were shallow and easily angered because the environment they grew up in was far too smooth.
“My dear male son, how can there be an overnight grudge between a father and his son? Besides, who could possibly resist the glory brought by the gifts of the Mother Goddess?”
Under the cub’s piercing, discerning gaze, Count Schmidt’s expression twisted slightly for a brief moment before returning to a warm, loving facade.
“Your background, you must hold an extraordinary obsession regarding it. My poor male son, your lowly female-father obstructed your path to glory. You must understand that the Imperial Family’s ban on the Fallen Species made your circumstances incredibly difficult. These are all issues left behind by the Holy War.”
“The Holy War?” Maurice knit his brows, and the old Count, seemingly having finally found a topic of interest, began to speak volubly:
“Yes, the Holy War, my dear male son. The Holy War launched by the Imperial Family expelled the Fallen Species who dared to rebel against the Golden Plume, forcing them to flee into the Chaos Star System. That place is perpetually shrouded in particle storms, making the living conditions exceptionally harsh. Later, many of the Fallen Species left the Chaos Star System to survive, and your female-father was one of them, cough, cough.”
The old Count coughed twice. His face was pale to the extreme, yet his cheeks flushed with an abnormal, eerie redness from excitement. Maurice evaluated his state and thoughts, finding the unresolvable mysteries in his mind piling up higher and higher.
“Where is my female-father now? Everyone in the Empire knows that the Fallen Species cannot give birth to male Zergs. What exactly am I? A sin of your forced violation of my female-father, a botched experiment, or a mere coincidence caused by a genetic mutation?”
The cub’s voice was aggressive and demanding. The old Count coughed once more as he stepped closer to the cub. The female and sub-Zerg servants of the manor watched their master with anxiety and trepidation, but they were waved away by the old Count.
“You are a creation of the Zerg Mother, my child. Every son of God is her darling.” The Count’s voice was loving and smooth, winding around like a vine. “And I never forced your female-father. He was a Fallen Species incapable of being marked by a male Zerg. His savage habits left him devoid of maternal love for his own offspring. He belongs to the wilderness.”
His withered finger rested upon the cub’s head, and it was only at this moment that Maurice realized the man was almost skeletal.
“My time is running out, treasure of the Schmidt family. We both know Adam lacks capability, and the family requires a more powerful son of God to lead us. I have opened the Schmidt treasury for you, my male son. You will ensure the glory of our family endures eternally.”
The middle-aged male Zerg’s voice carried a slight tremor. It was not hard to detect his urgency and excitement; his frail body shook slightly, appearing exceptionally bizarre under the circumstances. Yet, it drew the lingering, pitying, and heartbroken gazes of many female and sub-Zergs.
The male Zerg slipped a signet ring off his hand and bent down, attempting to place it on the cub’s hand.
“That won’t be necessary, if this is the reason you called me back.” Maurice pushed the signet ring away, smiling somewhat maliciously as his unfooled gaze locked onto the male Zerg. “I have no interest in the glory of the Schmidts or the wealth of a male Zerg. Now that Eliotte has left this planet and returned to the First Army, I don’t believe the Schmidts have the power to touch him anymore. My female-father is either deceased or missing; either way, it is not a lever you can use to threaten me. You can only rely on deception, and when I refuse to take the bait, you are left utterly helpless.”
“I simply do not understand, what exactly is your true purpose?”
Under the cub’s gaze, the old Count’s facial skin twitched rapidly, but he forced out a strained smile, his voice turning artificially sweet:
“My male son, a criminal Zerg like Eliotte, even with an Imperial background, cannot become your female monarch. Once you successfully mature and become a true male Zerg, the entire Empire will be captivated by you. Of course you can have him; his beauty is outstanding even among the Golden Plume.”
Maurice suddenly felt a wave of revulsion and irritation. His nasal passages were filled with a strange fragrance emanating from Count Schmidt, acting like an inescapable, malignant rot, as bizarre and unsettling as burning corpse oil.
The cub’s hairs stood on end. He summoned his psychic tentacles to force back the approaching old Count, taking a few steps forward with his short, chubby legs as his vision began to blur.
“Do not speak of him in such a blasphemous tone! Are you even worthy?”
Maurice lowered his brows. The energy inside his body surged violently, and his blood felt as though it were boiling. That bizarre fragrance still hovered in his nose and mouth, making him feel lightheaded. His power compressed tightly within another dimension, letting out a painful roar. In a trance, it suddenly occurred to him that once this energy found a new outlet, he would form a cocoon and undergo metamorphosis, becoming a true male Zerg. This meant he would be able to help Eliotte escape that terrible fate.
This thought struck him suddenly, causing his consciousness to drift for an instant, when a male Zerg psychic tentacle suddenly wrapped around the cub’s waist, dragging him forward a few meters. His own psychic tentacles quickly tore the weak, attacking tentacle to shreds, causing the old Count to let out a sharp shriek.
The damage from having a male psychic tentacle shredded was fatal, and ordinary male Zergs possessed only two. The cub felt dazed and his body tensed, but when he looked up at the old Count, he found a bizarre smile plastered over the man’s pain-ridden face.
“Ungrateful brat!” His voice nearly cracked as the space behind him ripped open, revealing seven or eight psychic tentacles of varying sizes. Strangely, those tentacles differed in color and size, looking entirely as if they could not possibly belong to a single male Zerg. “I exhausted my efforts merely wanting to help you undergo metamorphosis! A creature that brings shame to male Zergs actually spends his time fawning over a criminal Zerg, yet you can’t even manage to mark him! Do you not want to completely mark him? Do you want to watch him seek pleasure beneath other male Zergs? Useless piece of garbage!”
The psychic tentacle torn to shreds by the cub turned into burning points of light, slowly melting into the ground. The cub’s heart tightened suddenly as Lim’s warning echoed in his ears:
“Watch your step.”
Maurice shifted his feet, but it was already too late. A hexagram shape slowly materialized on the ground, and an eerie red light flared up, instantly engulfing the bewildered female and sub-Zerg servants in the parlor. They did not even have time to scream before their flesh and bones melted into the floor like wax. The female wings they had no time to unfold stiffened, ultimately turning to dust and vanishing.
More points of energy merged into the hexagram, causing it to emit a crimson glow that turned his eyes bloodshot.
“You killed them!”
Having come from a peaceful era in his past life, Maurice had never witnessed such a brutal death. Even when he had hung around the dark corners of the lower districts, he had never personally seen such mechanical, merciless slaughter. The cub’s eyes turned red as he stared at the male Zerg before him in utter disbelief. This so-called male-father of this body must have known that many of the female and sub-Zergs killed by the hexagram array were his own concubines and slaves.
This was precisely why the cub had stepped into this place. Subconsciously, he still maintained the mindset of a peaceful era; he could not fathom anyone being so utterly insane as to sacrifice their own kin and partners.
In fact, if Lim had not temporarily taken Adam away under the pretext of having a meal, Adam would have been here as well, witnessing the gray-skinned cub join the Schmidt family.
“So what? I only fear the energy of these lowly female Zergs is too low to catalyze your metamorphosis!” the Count said with complete indifference.
Maurice’s chubby fingers dug into his palms as space began to roar. Several psychic tentacles as thick as tree trunks erupted from the ground, charging furiously toward the old Count, only to abruptly collide with a crimson barrier.
The gray tentacles roared. For the first time, this energy from a higher dimension encountered a force capable of obstructing and burning it. They twisted like vines but showed no intention of retreating, striking the transparent barrier repeatedly with everything they had. The shockwaves from the clashing energy caused space to tremble, and blood began to gush from the cub’s nose and mouth.
“How powerful! This is true divine power!” Standing outside the barrier, the old Count’s skeletal body trembled with excitement, the greed in his eyes practically bursting forth. He shouted loudly, “The Imperial Family did not lie to me! This is the power of the Mother Goddess! Do not waste your divine power, you cannot resist it, you fool! Hurry up and form your cocoon! You crippled, dirty mixed-breed, do you want to remain a useless cub forever? You garbage!”
Seeing Maurice’s psychic tentacles hammering against the barrier with loud thuds while blood poured from his nose and mouth, the old Count cried out like an anxious, loving father. This reaction instantly made Maurice realize his true objective.
He wanted this body. The selective Count Schmidt had hidden his intentions deeply. He cared nothing for disgrace, family, or glory, nor did he care for his kin or his only successor, Adam. What he had always wanted was power, the supreme, absolute divine power.
Those psychic tentacles behind him, looking like grafted pieces of corpses, were the most direct evidence of his desire.
Rage and frustration built up in Maurice’s heart. The college student within him did not want to admit he had made a reckless mistake, but he did not regret it either. Now that he knew Count Schmidt’s long-hidden true face, his greatest relief was that he had not involved Eliotte. His happiest realization was that on the Path of Shame, he had taken Eliotte away, ensuring he would never fall into the hands of such a disgusting male Zerg.
He still wanted to see Eliotte again.
Maurice’s green pupils were cast over by a shadow as he exerted all his strength to suppress the boiling energy inside his body. His cub body could not sustain the male power triggered by the sinister scent and the hexagram array; metamorphosis or forming a cocoon was his only way out.
“Metamorphose,” a voice whispered in his mind. “Only by metamorphosing can you mark Eliotte and save him from the male psychic deficiency syndrome. Do you not want to save him?”
Maurice’s palms were cut open by his own fingernails, leaving bloody marks. He breathed heavily, a roaring sound filling his ears. Grayish-white cocoon silk began to appear beneath his feet, formed from pure energy, and his consciousness grew increasingly blurred.
The cocooning period was the most vulnerable time for a male Zerg, as their bodies underwent a complete transformation from a cub into a youth. During this period, they were extremely weak both physically and mentally. Maurice did not even need to think twice to know what the old Count intended to do with this opportunity.
That greedy, disgusting gaze rested upon him. Frankly, Maurice did not particularly like this cub body; he desperately missed his original 188-centimeter height and eight-pack abs. However, that did not mean he would allow the old Count to possess and defile his body.
The old Count was wrong. This was not a creation of the Mother Goddess; it never had been. This body was made by the female-father he had never met, and it was the cub body that Eliotte cherished. That was its true meaning. It was not a vessel for the old Count’s greed.
Thinking this way, Maurice closed his eyes as if he had stopped resisting. The grayish-white cocoon silk instantly submerged his short, chubby legs, then crawled up his chubby chest, his neck, and his face.
The grayish-white cocoon silk piled thicker and quicker, gradually eclipsing the light of the hexagram array. The strength of the cocoon during metamorphosis directly reflected the male Zerg’s power level. Most male Zergs had only a thin layer of cocoon coating, but Maurice’s cocoon was not even finished and it was already on the verge of swallowing the entire space. The old Count’s expression twisted with jealousy, but soon he remembered that this would shortly become his own body, and greed filled his face once more.
Once the light of the hexagram was suppressed, the old Count could not contain himself and slowly walked toward the unclosed giant cocoon. This was not the first time he had stolen the power of another male Zerg, but it was the first time he had been so close to divine power. A single phrase flashed repeatedly through his frenzied mind: become a god!
Become a god! Become a god!
When he was manufacturing a mixed lineage with a low, Fallen Species, he had never imagined a male Zerg of mixed blood would appear, let alone that this bastard’s power would be so immense! The Mother Goddess was blind and partial; he had made so many efforts to grow stronger yet had never received a gift so easily within reach.
He would take everything he deserved from the hands of this mixed-breed. This body of his, which was barely hanging on due to experiments and devouring, had reached the end of its lifespan. He was about to obtain a truly powerful body.
With these thoughts, the Count’s eyes turned crimson with intense desire. Dragging his dying body closer to the giant cocoon, he slowly extended his psychic tentacles, preparing to obliterate the defenseless spirit wrapped inside.
The psychic tentacles entered the giant cocoon smoothly, wrapped in energy-filled cocoon silk that caused the old Count’s gaunt face to flush with comfort. In his wild ecstasy, he could no longer hold back, slowly kneeling within the giant cocoon as his psychic energy opened completely, attempting to fully envelope and devour Maurice’s psychic power.
Right at that moment, the snow-white cocoon silk suddenly burst into flames. The previously dimmed hexagram array flared up with power once more, burning the snow-white cocoon silk and, at the same time, burning the old Count who had entered it.
“No! This is impossible! This is impossible! How can you not suppress the array’s power? Do you want your metamorphosis to fail and be burned to ashes?” The old Count roared through the agonizing pain of his soul burning. He could not understand it. Everything about the plan had been perfect, had it not? The Imperial Family’s array was a weapon that gathered the power of the Mother Goddess. With the array triggering Maurice’s divine power, coupled with the temptation of the Mother Goddess’s glandular scent, Maurice would definitely enter the most vulnerable cocooning period! Once he entered that state, he would be completely defenseless because suppressing the hexagram array would exhaust his spirit, leaving him extremely weak and exceptionally easy to devour.
This was practically a foolproof plan! Honestly, without the full support of the Imperial Family and the generosity of His Majesty Corrin, Count Schmidt would never have had the courage to challenge such a powerful male Zerg alone!