Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 476: Chapter 476: Meadow, The Mad-Kissed

Chapter 476 – Meadow, The Mad-Kissed

Meadow suddenly halted, as if frozen by something no one could guess, something deep inside her.

She looked at Diaila, who was still screaming without a sound escaping her mouth. Quickly, Meadow used her power to kill the worms that had begun burrowing into the poor girl’s body, ready to fester there and feed on her blood until she was made entirely of worms.

At the same time, Meadow released Diaila from the freeze. She fell to the floor with a loud thud, huffing and breathing heavily, tears gathering at the edges of her eyes.

Cough! Cough!

Diaila Law coughed so heavily that she threw up, vomiting on the floor as she recalled the horrific experience she had just gone through.

’Why?!’ Oeil suddenly cried out inside Meadow’s head. ’Why did the esteemed host stop? Oeil was eager to play!’

The Halfmortal didn’t reply, still perturbed by what she had done, or rather, what she had been about to do.

’Why... why was I ready to inflict so much pain needlessly?’ she asked herself, raising her left hand and placing it over her monstrous right eye.

Oeil complained even more, but Meadow ignored the monster.

It had never been like her to do something like this. In fact, she had never liked being unjust towards other people, let alone cruel.

However, lately, things had started to change, her attitude towards cruelty shifting completely without her even realizing it.

Even before obtaining Rayel’s Characteristic, Meadow had been starting to grow used to villainous acts. But obtaining this monstrous eye had been like pouring oil on a fire, making it flare up dreadfully.

Looking at Diaila struggling to catch her breath, her body shaking, Meadow realized she didn’t feel an ounce of pity.

All she felt was the urge to make this woman pay for the trouble she had caused them.

’But that’s not me.’ The Halfmortal began to reason with herself. She staggered back, covering Oeil again with her Sun Mask, clenching her fists until they went bone-white. ’I am not like this. I do not hurt people just because they have annoyed me. If that were the case, I would have destroyed dozens of families with my wealth alone.’

Yet Meadow couldn’t ignore the fact that the person she had been was no more. And whatever she was becoming was far from who she was, or who she thought she was.

And she was frightened by this version of herself.

’Calm down, Meadow. Calm down.’ She took a deep breath, focusing back on the situation at hand. ’This is not the time for an identity crisis. You have been given a mission. You must complete it. All of this can wait.’

Having reached that conclusion, the Halfmortal gathered herself.

’Oeil want to play! Oeil want to play with this mortal! And can you not see, esteemed Host, that this woman is touched by the Seed of Madness? She will go mad, sooner or later! Oeil can kill her!’ Oeil was truly dissatisfied.

’Madness?’ The Halfmortal laughed humorlessly, licking her lips to wet them. ’I have the eye of a Dead God who was on the edge of Madness inside me. Aren’t I mad too? Aren’t we all mad, at this point?’

’Oeil indeed think that esteemed host has been kissed by Madness.’ Oeil blinked rapidly on its own. ’But Madness can be controlled. It can be used. For you.’

’I am not Inara Serpentine.’

’No one is The Womb of Monsters!’ Oeil said with strange protectiveness and pride. ’But esteemed host can come close. Walk the Path of Madness, and maybe you will touch the Warren and glimpse the Womb.’

’Stay silent,’ Meadow ordered, stepping closer to Diaila, who had now calmed down greatly. ’And if you don’t stop calling me esteemed host, I will pluck you out of my socket and throw you away.’

Oeil blinked rapidly again, as if laughing. ’Ah. You are sounding more like my Master.’

She ignored it. Using her worms, Meadow cleaned up Diaila’s vomit before squatting down in front of her.

Diaila was now looking at her with fear, and Meadow enjoyed it more than she would ever admit.

"W-Who... are you?" Diaila asked, her jaw clenched tight as if to stop her body from shaking. "Who are you to do this to me?"

"I have already said everything I needed to say," Meadow replied, her voice altered by the Sun Mask. It was soft, yet as piercing as truth and as searing as the sun. "Our leader wants you as a tool."

"A tool for what?"

"For Murder," she replied, lifting her hand and grabbing Diaila’s cheeks with stunning strength. She pulled the shaken girl close to her Sun Mask and continued, "We want a Murderer in our sect. We want someone who can kill without remorse. Most of all, we want someone who can listen to orders and follow them without a single question. You have been chosen. Aren’t you lucky? Now, Diaila Law, you have two options, and I have already listed them. I shall not repeat myself."

The Halfmortal paused, and her aura began to crackle outward. It was heavy, monstrous. To Diaila, it felt like thousands of worms crawling all over her body.

"What is your choice?" she finally asked. "Know that if you refuse, I will gladly finish what I was about to do earlier."

And a part of her truly wished Diaila would refuse. That would give her reason enough to torture her without questioning whether she was turning into something monstrous.

However, Diaila Law was anything but a fool. She had known from the moment she first heard the two options that refusing was not actually an option.

Because she refused to die when she had only just begun to live her life the way she wanted.

And what this disturbing masked woman was proposing, becoming a Tool of Murder, was not something that completely displeased her.

The only thing she was reluctant to do was place herself under someone other than Cassius, and by extension, the Desdemona and Hood families.

Diaila had been looking into these two families lately, and she was growing darkly fond of them. They said it took one to recognize one, and Diaila knew with certainty that the darkness and madness slowly filling her were of the same nature as those possessed by these two families, if not worse.

And that thought, delightful as it was, kept her awake at night, wishing she could serve under them, even as a mere servant.

An assassin, if they so wished.

’But I must survive for now,’ Diaila Law thought, and looking at the scary worm woman in front of her, she spoke through her squeezed cheeks. "I... accept. I accept to be a Tool of Murder."

Meadow clicked her tongue in disappointment. Still, she was glad she had completed her mission properly.

Now,

"Perfect timing," the Halfmortal said. "I witnessed your delightful talk with your father. You have been abandoned by your family. Do you plan to return in the future?"

"No," Diaila lied.

A bloody mistake.

BAAAM!

Meadow slammed her head into the floor mercilessly. The sound of cracking bone echoed as Diaila’s nose broke, blood spraying out.

She let out a pained scream, but the Halfmortal silenced her by squeezing her mouth shut. Lifting her head so that they were face to face, the Worm of Truth whispered to the dazed woman,

"Maybe I should have warned you. But I know when someone lies to me. And I hate it." She smiled with a hint of madness behind her mask. "So let me ask again: will you return to this house?"

"Y-Yes," Diaila muttered, blood running down her mouth.

"For what?"

"To be the Matriarch," she coughed. "I want to elevate this House beyond Tier Three."

Meadow cocked her head, then nodded. "That could be useful to us. Our members need to hold important positions. Perfect, then. We will help you in your endeavor. But you know the price, don’t you?"

She pulled out a Death Contract written by Cassius Desdemona himself.

"Sign this, my dear," the Halfmortal whispered, suddenly far too fondly, as if speaking to someone she loved dearly.

That sudden shift in tone made Diaila shiver.

"If I do..." Diaila began, taking the Death Contract in her own trembling hand. She wanted to wipe the blood from her nose and mouth, but was afraid of incurring this mad woman’s ire.

"If you do," Meadow Wealth - The Sun, The Halfmortal, Worm of Truth, Keeper of Truth’s Protégé – smiled behind her mask, worms almost slipping out in a sudden burst of excitement, "then you will be like me. Like us."

"Like... you?"

"A Fallen," she replied. "So, will you sign this, or do you need my help?"

Diaila shivered and, without any more hesitation, signed the Death Contract with fear in her heart.

Yet despite that fear, she still dared to ask the one question that had been on her mind since the beginning.

"Who..." she muttered, now wiping the blood from her mouth as she stared at the masked woman. "Who... is this leader you’ve been talking about?"

Meadow arched an eyebrow behind her mask, then let out a soft chuckle, as though Diaila had just asked her the most amusing question in the world.

"Who else could possibly be the leader of a Fallen Sect?"

Diaila stared at her in confusion, unable to make sense of the question, and the Halfmortal’s chuckle deepened as a wide, bloody smile spread across her face.

"A goddamned Angel, of course."

—End of Chapter 476—