Read Novel Full Chapter 1897: Our game begins... Father
Chapter 1897: Our game begins… Father
!~Ding~!
[Notice: Immediate Death Following Null-Return Detected.]
[Activating Forsaken Bloodline.]
!~Ding~!
[Rewinding 24 hours prior to the Original Save Point.]
….
…
..
A glint passed through Lackey’s eyes as his body jerked slightly before he looked at the person standing before him… Genome Beta.
Genome Beta’s mech-suit tendrils hovered around him, each one holding a different kind of surgical instrument, and all positioned as though they were waiting for the order to dissect him piece by piece.
Yes… He had returned to the very beginning of his journey, to the moment when everything first went insane… or perhaps, when he went insane.
One of the tendrils immediately slithered forward and hooked itself around the gag.
“Almost forgot about that.”
With a quick tug, the gag was pulled free.
Lackey stared at her quietly, even though his entire body remained restrained against the surgical bed.
“If you have nothing to say, then…” she muttered as she reached for the gag again, but Lackey suddenly mumbled,
“I am… Goddess Arcane’s husband.”
Genome Beta flinched as her tendrils halted in midair. For several seconds, she simply stared at him, as though she were trying to determine whether he was mocking her.
“What are you babbling about?”
Lackey merely smiled. There was no panic in his expression, nor any desperation in his voice.
“If you don’t believe me, why don’t you go outside and see for yourself? You can decide what to do with me after you’ve seen it.”
Genome Beta frowned, but when she noticed how serious his expression had become, her frown only deepened.
“What do you mean?”
“Just look at the sky, and you’ll have your answer.”
Genome Beta stared at Lackey for a few more seconds, silently studying his face for any indication that he was bluffing. Finding none, she finally waved her hand.
The Drones immediately flew toward him and hovered around his restrained body like silent watchdogs. Only then did she turn and walk out of the laboratory, still wondering how he had managed to speak their language in the first place.
That alone was strange enough.
But Arcane’s husband?
The goddess who had saved their world… had a husband?
What the fuck was that supposed to mean?
She stopped before the reinforced glass wall and stared outside for a moment, her expression filled with growing confusion.
“There is nothin—”
Her words died in her throat.
Something enormous had appeared in the distance without warning.
A dark, humongous sphere hung against the sky, so vast that its presence seemed to distort the world around it. Thick silver chains wrapped around its surface from every direction, disappearing into the darkness as though they had been forged specifically to restrain whatever existed inside.
Like a cage.
Thud!
The sight alone made her legs weaken.
A primal fear crawled through her body, so immediate and instinctive that her mind almost screamed at her not to look at the thing any longer.
She had seen weapons capable of destroying cities, machines designed to kill, and experiments that should never have existed, but none of them had ever made her body react like this.
She panted heavily as her helmet shifted backwards. Her shoulder-length, deep forest-green hair, carrying a subtle black hue, slipped over her shoulders while her golden eyes trembled.
“W-What’s going on here? It wasn’t there a few seconds ago,” she muttered, her voice barely steady.
She forced herself to look at the sphere again, but the moment her eyes met its dark surface, another shiver ran through her body. She quickly lowered her head, unable to explain why every instinct within her was telling her to stay away from it.
Her mech-suit suddenly displayed an emergency message from the President, ordering her to attend the Governor’s meeting immediately.
Genome Beta stared at the message for a few seconds before slowly taking a breath. Whatever that thing was, the President had clearly noticed it as well.
She turned around and walked back toward the laboratory. As she entered, her helmet shifted forward again, concealing her face and hiding the fear that still lingered in her eyes.
Lackey was already watching her.
An amused expression rested on his face.
“Did you see it?”
Genome Beta stopped several steps away from him. For the first time since she had entered the laboratory, there was uncertainty in her voice.
“W-What is that thing?”
“You won’t get anything by torturing me,” Lackey said, his voice calm but firm.
“If you truly want to know what it is, release me. I promise you, on the name of Arcane, that I will not run from you or harm you in any way.”
Genome Beta hesitated.
Her gaze remained fixed on him while the image of that enormous chained sphere continued to occupy her thoughts.
After a long moment, she took a slow breath.
Then, with a single command from her mech-suit, the restraints holding Lackey’s body released.
Click!
Lackey sat up slowly, rubbing his wrist before clenching his fist and looking toward Genome Beta.
She was clearly on alert, her mech-suit tendrils still raised and aimed toward him. Not even the surgical equipment had been lowered, each instrument remaining poised in the air as though awaiting the slightest movement from him.
“Easy… I gave you my word. I have no intention of harming you.” he said, raising one hand in a gesture of surrender.
Genome Beta did not lower her guard. Her eyes remained fixed on him as she frowned beneath her visor.
“What is that thing? Why did it appear here all of a sudden?”
Lackey fell silent for a moment. His expression gradually lost its amusement, replaced by something colder and far more difficult to read.
“It came to offer… salvation or… damnation.”
Hearing those words, Genome Beta flinched.
“Salvation? Damnation? W-What are you talking about?”
Lackey slowly shook his head.
“Do not mistake the Goddess’s silence for ignorance. She has seen everything you people have done.” His eyes suddenly began to glow as he fixed his gaze upon Genome Beta.
“The blood on your hands… cannot simply be scrubbed away.”
Genome Beta trembled as Lackey stepped closer. An unnatural white glow began to surround his body, casting pale reflections across the polished surface of her mech-suit.
“The stench of innocents still clings to your hands…”
Genome Beta clenched her fist.
“W-What are you talking about—”
“I know everything… Genome Beta.” Lackey’s voice remained calm, almost unnervingly so.
“I am the Goddess’s husband. I know everything, and nothing can be hidden from my eyes.”
As he spoke, his eyes turned completely white, glowing with an almost ethereal radiance. The sight was so unnatural that Genome Beta instinctively stumbled backwards.
Lackey stared at Genome Beta.
No…
His gaze shifted toward her suit for some reason, lingering there for a moment before he slowly turned his head away.
“Arcane saved you all, but she never had the heart to punish the children she had rescued. So I came in her place… to deliver her judgment.”
His voice became colder.
“Nova Kestrel.”
Tang!
The surgical equipment slipped from her tendrils and crashed onto the floor.
Genome Beta stood completely still, shock and horror spreading through her body.
“H-How did you know my name?”
Lackey merely smirked.
“Didn’t you hear me, Lady? I know everything, and…” He looked directly into her visor, as though he could see straight through it and into her eyes.
“I know who you have been searching for.”
Those words made her flinch.
For a moment, she could not even breathe properly.
How did he know that as well?
Her eyes trembled behind the visor. Was he truly the Goddess’s husband… or was he another one of the President’s schemes?
As though he knew exactly what she was thinking, Lackey stepped closer and gently took her hand.
“I am not one of his pawns.”
Genome Beta froze again.
“I know… He is alive.”
Genome Beta frowned, unable to understand what he meant. Then Lackey spoke the next words, and for a moment, it felt as though her heart had stopped beating.
“Aether… He is coming for you and… her.”
“…”
Genome Beta froze in place.
Her entire body seemed to stiffen as those words settled into her mind. She stood there silently for several seconds, unable to form a response.
Then…
Drip.
A tear rolled down from her eye.
The image of the man she last knew came rushing back into her mind, bringing memories she had buried beneath years of silence and unanswered questions.
“So… will you help me stop that monster?”
Those words finally snapped her out of her frozen state.
Genome Beta slowly looked down at Lackey’s extended hand.
She knew exactly which “monster” he was talking about.
And somehow, that frightened her even more.
Just how much did he know?
She looked at his extended hand and then slowly raised her eyes toward his face, which was half-disfigured and unsettling to look at.
Even after everything he had said, there was still something about him that made it difficult to decide whether he was someone she could trust.
She wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not, but hearing those hopeful words made something stir deep inside her.
A hope bloomed in her chest like a flower that had somehow survived beneath layers of ash.
At the same time, worry and fear crept across her face. Hope was dangerous when it was built upon uncertainty, and she feared that trusting him might only lead to another painful disappointment.
Noticing how tense and silent she had become, Lackey smiled as if he already knew exactly what she was thinking. After all, he had been with her for years in her house. He had watched her sleep, listened to her worries, endured her stubbornness, and even taken care of her when she had been on the verge of death.
He knew that expression.
She was such a worrywart.
“You will meet her and… him one day. I promise you, Nova Kestrel. You have waited long enough.”
His voice carried no grand declaration this time. It was strangely gentle, almost like a promise made by someone who had already seen how much she had suffered and simply wanted to give her something worth holding onto.
She bit her lip for a moment before looking at Lackey again.
The fear was still there, lingering behind her eyes, but something else had begun to burn through it.
The flame within her eyes suddenly flashed with determination.
She took his hand.
It was her silent agreement.
Lackey held her hand and smiled gently, but beneath that calm expression, something darker slowly curled within him.
A wicked grin appeared in his mind.
‘Our game begins… Father.’
His gaze shifted toward his Queen piece… Nova.
[What are you doing? Why haven’t you told her who you are? She has spent so long searching for you. Wouldn’t seeing your face make her happy?]
His Log spoke to him after a very long time.
Lackey inwardly shook his head.
‘I know she will be happy to see my face. Perhaps happier than anyone else would be… but that is exactly why I cannot reveal myself yet.’
His thoughts became heavier as he stared at Nova.
‘I know what happened previously. After learning about me, she refused to come to her world. That is what I cannot understand.’
His fingers tightened slightly around her hand.
‘Why?’
The question had followed him through every death.
‘Why did she refuse, even though she might have died there? She had every reason to come here. Yet she refused as if… the moment she appeared, either death itself would come for her… or something connected to me would happen.’
Just as he had told Log, there was something that had been bothering him.
She had given him 10,000 AP, an amount that proved just how much she was willing to sacrifice for him, yet she had still refused to cooperate with him.
Why?
Why would someone be willing to love him, to sacrifice for him, and yet refuse to tell him the truth?
Laceky had changed their situation… as if he were standing in her shoes and looking at the world through her eyes.
But why would he do that?
Why would someone who loved her so deeply deliberately keep her away?
Why would he refuse to answer her, even though he knew how desperately she wanted the truth?
Lackey began retracing the situation from the opposite direction, stripping away every assumption he had made before.
‘I want to protect her, but I cannot tell her the truth… why?’
He paused.
‘Because someone will hurt her?’
His mind immediately challenged the thought.
‘But if she knew about the danger, she would be ready to face it, wouldn’t she? She would choose the danger herself rather than remain ignorant.’
Another possibility surfaced.
‘Then what if there was no chance of winning?’
He remained silent for a moment.
‘Even then… I could still tell her the truth.’
His thoughts slowed.
‘Even if there was no hope of victory, I could at least give her the choice.’
‘Unless…’
Then the final possibility appeared.
‘Unless I physically could not.’
Something suddenly clicked inside his mind.
The answer had been sitting in front of him all along.
He had simply been too consumed by his own deaths, failures, and assumptions to notice it.
The Divine Contract.
Lackey’s lips twitched.
‘I cannot believe something so simple… but I didn’t see it until now.’
He almost laughed at himself.
‘Fuck!’
The more he thought about it, the more pieces began falling into place.
The victims of his people had been unable to speak about what had happened to them.
And if that principle had been used on Nova as well…
Lackey’s expression slowly darkened.
‘Then it explains everything.’
Considering who his father was, Lackey knew exactly how such a thing could have been twisted into a weapon.
‘Of course he would use it to his advantage.’
His gaze returned to Nova.
She was still holding his hand, unaware of the storm of deductions forming inside his mind.
‘First, I need to obtain the Contract details… but how do I do that?’
That was the question he needed to answer.
He could speculate all he wanted, but speculation would not be enough. If he wanted to understand what had been done to her, he needed to see the Divine Contract itself.
Lackey looked at Nova again.
“El—Cough, cough.”
He immediately doubled slightly as the words caught in his throat, followed by another rough cough.
Yup.
He still couldn’t say those words.