Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1940: He is not… that bad, right?

“Come on, everyone!” the Commander shouted, snapping the survivors out of their thoughts.

They immediately followed him, rushing across the uneven terrain as he continued leading them away from the approaching monsters.

Even while running, however, the survivors couldn’t resist glancing back at the slave they had just condemned.

In the distance, Lackey was soon surrounded by the creatures, their twisted bodies closing in from every direction.

Then, they saw him fighting back with his bare hands as the monsters attacked him from all sides.

“Arrrgh!”

“No!!”

“It hurts!!”

His desperate screams carried across the landscape, making several survivors flinch.

For a brief moment, something stirred in their chests, an unfamiliar sensation that made them uncomfortable.

They couldn’t explain it.

Whatever the reason, his earlier words had somehow struck a chord within them.

Meanwhile, Lackey was having the time of his life.

He shoved his hand into a monster’s gaping mouth and ripped its entire insides out with a single violent pull, spraying the ground with grotesque remains.

“OH, MY GOD! IS THERE NO ONE WHO WILL HELP ME?!”

Chcucckk!!

The monster collapsed to the ground, its body twitching before finally falling still. Another creature immediately lunged at Lackey, swinging its razor-sharp, clawed limbs toward his body.

Just before the attack connected, Lackey disappeared.

In the next instant, he reappeared behind the creature, grabbed its limbs, and tore it apart with brutal ease.

“I AM SO PITIFUL! THE HUMANS HAVE ABANDONED ME! OH, MY GOD… IT HURTS! HEARTLESS HUMANS~!”

He screamed with the utmost desperation, his voice carrying the anguish of a man who had reached the absolute limits of his suffering.

The creatures, despite their apparent lack of rational thought, seemed to be confused.

One tilted its misshapen head. Another paused mid-step, its rainbow-colored Origin Crystal pulsing faintly beneath its blackened flesh.

For a brief moment, their movements became strangely uncertain, almost as though they were communicating with one another.

What’s going on here?

Why is he screaming as though he’s being hurt?

Shouldn’t we scream?

Just then, their entire bodies flinched when they saw Lackey looking at them with a huge, wicked grin that stretched unnaturally across his face.

!!!

The monsters recoiled as though they had encountered something far worse than themselves.

Their twisted limbs trembled, and their rainbow-colored Origin Crystals flickered erratically beneath their black skin.

In the next second, with a series of small, frightened screeches, they scrambled away like cockroaches fleeing from a human.

“…” Lackey blinked in utter confusion.

He had wanted to perform even more of his little act, yet the audience had suddenly decided to leave.

“Hey, wait! Don’t go! I haven’t finished the rest of my script!!” Lackey immediately ran after them, reaching out as though he could somehow convince the creatures to return.

This time, however, it was the monsters that scrambled to escape, fleeing in whatever direction they could find.

Some stumbled over the uneven ground, while others disappeared into the tall grass, their desperate screeches gradually fading into the distance.

“…” Lackey stood there like a statue, watching the empty landscape with a bewildered expression.

“I am… not that bad, right?”

“Pfff!!” Grace almost burst into laughter, but she immediately composed herself, although the smile lingering on her face gave her away. Her tiny shoulders trembled as she struggled to suppress another laugh.

Lackey gave her a dead-eyed stare, prompting Grace to slowly avert her gaze and pretend to examine the surrounding scenery.

She knew that even if those monsters weren’t rational, they still had one thing in common with every other living creature.

Fear.

The fear of encountering something worse than themselves.

Apparently, Lackey had managed to accomplish precisely that without even trying.

Lackey pouted slightly before glancing back and realising that the Commander had already led the survivors away.

Fortunately, they hadn’t witnessed his humiliation.

Otherwise, he would have had to deal with an entirely different kind of problem.

“Whatever…” Lackey shrugged before turning his attention toward the forest, his playful expression gradually fading as he focused on the task ahead.

In the next second, his body blurred.

Step!

Step!!

Step!!!

He raced deeper into the forest, dodging the fleshy appendages moving between the trees as they tracked him behind.

His movements remained graceful as he leapt from one tree to another, twisting his body in midair to avoid the appendages coiled around the trunks. The forest seemed almost alive, its grotesque appendages shifting and writhing as though the entire landscape were attempting to swallow him.

Some of the fleshy tendrils dragged themselves across the ground, leaving wet trails in the soil.

Crack!

THURRRRRR!!!!

Lackey calmly pushed himself off a branch just as a massive appendage slammed through the air, splintering the wood and sending fragments scattering across the forest floor.

Without even glancing back, he adjusted his trajectory and landed on another branch.

Step!!

He continued forward without breaking his stride.

Just as before, he noticed several old mech-suits scattered among the trees, their armoured frames covered in blood, rust, and layers of grime.

Some lay half-buried beneath the undergrowth, while others were entangled in the fleshy growths spreading across the forest floor.

Lackey spared them only a brief glance, just for the direction.

He simply kept moving.

And finally, he arrived at his destination.

A mountain of corpses stretched before him, piled high with torn organs, shattered bones, and remnants of human flesh. The bodies were stacked in a grotesque heap, their ruined forms barely distinguishable beneath the layers of blood and decomposing tissue.

Countless root-like appendages had burrowed into the dead bodies, twisting through their remains as though drawing sustenance from the mass.

The roots pulsed faintly, their movements slow and rhythmic, like the beating of countless hearts hidden beneath the flesh.

And sitting atop that mountain of corpses was… the skull-headed monster.

Lackey stood before the horrifying sight and took a deep breath.

Then, he glanced at Grace.

“Grace… I will leave the rest to you.”

Grace nodded without hesitation before gracefully lifting herself from his shoulder. Her little wings fluttered rapidly as she flew away, hovering at a safe distance from the scene.

She watched him silently.

Lackey turned his attention back toward the skull-headed monster.

Then, he flashed the creature a grin.

“Hey, boy… Daddy’s come for you~”

He winked.

!~Ding~!

[Perfected Genome Activated!]

The moment the notification appeared, something stirred deep within his domain.

The crimson bat let out a furious screech.

An oppressive sensation spread through the depths of the domain, and the air around Lackey seemed to grow heavier as the transformation began.

Lackey’s eyes lost their colour as his body convulsed violently, as though something were moving beneath his skin. His blood began pumping with brutal intensity, each heartbeat pounding through his body with enough force to make his veins throb visibly beneath his flesh.

His muscles bulged and trembled uncontrollably, their contours shifting as the transformation spread through him. His fingers curled involuntarily, and his shoulders jerked as another violent spasm seized his body, his face too convulsed violently.

And then…

“KKRRRRRRRRRYYYY!!!!!”

A monstrous, bat-like screech erupted from his mouth, reverberating through the forest and sending a shudder through the surrounding trees.

Meanwhile, Aether’s consciousness began to fade.

It felt as though he had fallen into an ocean of blood, sinking deeper and deeper into its endless depths.

The crimson liquid stretched in every direction, an immeasurable expanse without a horizon or a shore.

He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, and couldn’t even struggle against the sensation dragging him downward.

His entire consciousness felt weightless and powerless as he drowned in the boundless sea of blood.

He couldn’t tell whether he was sinking or whether the ocean itself was rising to consume him.

Then,

“Alucard Xal’thren.”

The words reverberated through the sea of blood.

And then…

Splash…!!