Song Zang was trying not to laugh. Trying very hard.
He buried his head beneath the blankets and struggled for a long time before finally managing not to make a sound.
Because Yin Chen had clearly been so shocked that he temporarily could not form a rebuttal, giving Medisa the perfect opportunity to unload on him.
“You’re carrying his child and already thinking about cheating? Once you actually give birth, you’ll be carefree and unattached again, is that it? Are you planning to make every goddess beneath Heaven bear your children next?!”
The corner of Yin Chen’s mouth twitched. “I didn’t…”
“Ambitious little bastard. I can’t imagine how my son ended up falling for a bad man like you. Fine, bad men are admittedly more attractive. They’re admittedly sexier. Every man I’ve ever fallen for became more disgusting than the last… This is all because my personality is terrible, so he inherited it from me!”
“…You aren’t even his biological mother,” Yin Chen retorted gloomily.
Medisa was already too emotional to hear him and continued her overwhelming assault. “My child being blind doesn’t mean I’m still blind now. If you dare betray him, I’ll turn your head into a spatial anchor and make your skull a breeding ground for filth and monsters!”
“So you remembered?” Yin Chen’s phoenix eyes narrowed. His scrutiny openly settled on her. “Song Zang and I never once used the term 【anchor】.
“Opening a passage into another world, creating a spatial anchor, attracting an Outer God, and bringing in that whole mess of monsters… all of that was your work, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, I did it. I really have remembered part of it. Lucifer is fucking gay. He never loved me. Right now he barely trusts me, but that won’t necessarily remain true in the future.
“So I turned his head into a cesspit and toilet. I made his true body into an ovary and gestational sac for incubating filthy monsters, completely destroyed his Jerusalem, and while he’s been busy chasing men, he still has no idea what I did… Hah. Arrogant, narcissistic idiot.”
Medisa’s red lips curved as she dropped one enormous revelation after another, her brilliant, arrogant smile containing absolutely no guilt. “You can keep making me angry. The angrier I become, the faster my memories return. That benefits both of us.”
But Yin Chen refused to cooperate further. Instead, he looked resentfully toward Song Zang, as though accusing him of hiding beneath the blankets this whole time without saying a single word in his defense.
Song Zang was still processing the revelation that Lucifer might be gay and had not even recovered yet…
Receiving no response, Yin Chen stared fixedly at Song Zang and said sarcastically, “Lady Medisa, making you angry doesn’t matter. But if I anger the tyrant lying in that bed, I’m the one who suffers most.”
“Oh? As long as you understand that yourself.”
Medisa folded her arms. The cold fury in her scarlet eyes immediately faded somewhat, and her attitude inexplicably shifted into that of a mother educating a younger family member.
“Being ruthless and wildly ambitious are not absolute flaws. Ruthlessness is necessary for accomplishing great things. As long as you direct that viciousness at outsiders and save all your gentleness for your family, your future will be extremely happy and smooth.”
“Save all the gentleness for family? I see.” Yin Chen became thoughtful and, astonishingly, seemed to take some of the advice seriously.
Two people with thought processes far removed from normal society were remarkably good at dragging a conversation completely off course. The subject changed instantly from mutual hostility into taboos and precautions for building a happy household.
Ignored beneath the blankets, Song Zang rolled around several times. Finally, curiosity defeated him and he abruptly sat upright.
He loudly interrupted their enthusiastic conversation. “So Lucifer really is gay? Who does he love?”
Medisa froze briefly. Then she raised her index finger with a mocking expression. And pointed upward.
“…Huh?” Song Zang’s pupils shook.
Lucifer loved God? Seriously?
“Pretty perverted, isn’t it? There’s nothing wrong with liking men, but falling in love with your own father and launching an armed rebellion with accomplices because of it? He deserved to get thrown into Hell. Fucking serves him right.” Medisa sneered, clearly hating him enough to grind her teeth.
Song Zang silently exchanged a glance with Yin Chen. Both their expressions were stiff. Neither could remotely understand the plot design of this instance.
Yin Chen struggled to digest the revelation before carefully speaking. “Agreed. He deserved it. I hope he dies horribly… So, do you know the Goddess of Frost and Snow? Is She actually a true god? I’m not trying to betray Song Zang. We share the same objective. I only want to obtain some knowledge from the Goddess of Frost and Snow.”
Song Zang hurriedly nodded. “Yes, Mother. I want to find the Goddess of Frost and Snow too.”
Medisa sounded suspicious. “What kind of knowledge do you want?”
“The supreme mystical knowledge monopolized only by true gods,” Yin Chen answered.
Medisa sank into thought, turned, and poured herself a cup of mint tea. The expensive white porcelain had crossed oceans to reach this country, exquisitely and extravagantly crafted. The matching saucer alone could have supported a poor family of five.
She lifted the steaming tea. Her red fingernails unconsciously scraped the handle as she cautiously began explaining. “My memories remain blurred and chaotic. I know only one thing about Her. The Goddess of Frost and Snow may not yet qualify as a 【true god】 under this world’s rules, but She absolutely possesses the knowledge you want.”
“Then why does your private seal contain cloud-and-mist patterns connected with the Goddess of Frost and Snow?”
“I don’t know either. Perhaps instinct. Even while I was still an ordinary noble girl, that seal already represented my identity. I’ll tell you everything I know. Perhaps something will prove useful.”
Medisa took a small sip of tea and gently stroked Song Zang’s head. When only Yin Chen wanted the information, she had been willing to hold things back. But now Song Zang’s objective aligned with his, Medisa naturally intended to tell him everything she knew.
According to her, two separate sets of memories currently existed inside her mind. One belonged to Lilith and encompassed an extremely long, painful existence. The other belonged to the brief human life of Medisa.
The human woman called Medisa had been deliberately arranged to be born into the human world only after Lilith witnessed the Crescent family’s prophecy.
Even while she remained inside her mother’s womb, she was already a stillborn shell whose soul had been erased.
The true Lilith divided her consciousness and soul into two halves and successfully moved into Medisa’s body. Under ordinary circumstances, the half of Lilith’s soul that retained full self-awareness never surfaced.
Methods similar to spirit possession were extremely easy for a high-ranking demon such as Lilith, and she could secretly manipulate the process in many different ways.
Medisa slowly grew up completely unaware that she herself was Lilith. Yet everything she did throughout her human life was constantly influenced beneath the surface by Lilith’s personality and temperament.
That was why she was more “selfish,” more “□□,” more rebellious and untamed than other women of this era. That was why she refused to let the values of the era and society restrain her.
Elio’s Notes: The □□ is already missing from the Chinese source. Whatever additional quality the author placed between “selfish” and “rebellious” is unavailable in this raw, so the gap is preserved.
She cared more about her own power and rights. She paid greater attention to her own needs and desires. She wanted to walk alone toward the future she personally sought and felt absolutely no shame over it.
Yet whenever Lilith took control of the body, Medisa retained no memories afterward.
For most of her life, she had no idea she had ever visited Hell. She had no idea she possessed the ability to do whatever she wanted atop Lucifer’s goat head, quietly preparing an earth-shaking revenge plan and secretly stirring enormous forces into motion.
As Medisa grew older, she could only discover her own strange and unusual traits bit by bit.
At first, she assumed she was merely an exceptionally beautiful noblewoman. She did not seem to possess any controllable supernatural ability. She did not even have the talent required to become a witch.
…Yet countless men still became madly obsessed with her, willing to abandon wives and children and burn through entire fortunes as though bewitched.
Those men even included her supposed “biological” father.
Then, at ten years old, an elderly pedophile grabbed Medisa by the throat and strangled her to death. The next instant… She came back to life.
Only then did Medisa discover her true peculiarity. She was like the immortal phoenix of myth, reborn through blood. She could not die. No matter how someone killed her, she simply would not remain dead.
From that moment onward, Medisa’s free life finally set sail.
“My former dream was to enjoy myself to the fullest while becoming the most powerful woman in the entire world. To accomplish that goal, I was willing to use any method necessary.
“Only by personally controlling power would I gain the ability to change the fate of more pitiful people. Only then could I rescue more… versions of myself at ten years old.” Medisa sighed softly. “Once, I also possessed a pure, unstained soul.”
And whose fault was it that such a pure soul became contaminated by a demon?
Human beings shared the blame. So did omniscient and omnipotent God, for His countless failures before His faithful believers. Medisa hated Him. She despised Him. She wanted nothing more than to see Him condemned beyond redemption for all eternity. No outsider had the right to tell her she was wrong.
“Maybe God failed in His duty long ago.”
Song Zang looked at her. “You should also know about the catastrophe that nearly exterminated the Crescent family. What kind of existence could drive an entire race of immensely powerful vampires into collective madness?”
That was right. A very long time ago, unknown foreign deities had already appeared. An ancestor of the vampires had experimentally created spatial heraldic magic and, entirely by accident, attracted the horrifying gaze of an outsider.
That indescribable madness possessed a terrifying, nearly exterminatory contagiousness. Even powerful vampires could not resist it.
God should have eliminated the lingering danger and protected the stability and safety of His world.
But what had actually happened? The power system and industrial development had apparently been falling apart for a very long time.
Vampires already possessed an enormous survival advantage over humans. They were immortal, extraordinarily difficult to injure, and incomparably beautiful.
Precisely because of that, in a properly balanced world, vampires should never have possessed the aptitude to become mages as well.
Yet spatial magic capable of opening passages into other worlds and the unbelievable power of future prediction had been passed down within the Crescent family to this very day. God had never paid attention to them. He had never attempted to reclaim any of these unbalanced advantages.
The turbulence and decline of this world had shown signs of beginning hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
Even without Medisa, sooner or later another pagan worshiper would have appeared and used spatial magic to attract a foreign deity.
Everyone condemning God together put Medisa in an excellent mood.
Smiling, she sat beside the bed and tidied Song Zang’s sleep-mussed hair. “I remember now. My memories didn’t begin recovering because of your accidental interference. I deliberately designed a special mechanism for myself. “Whenever my private seal comes too close to an anchor connected with another world, it triggers a chain reaction.”
Song Zang tilted his head and let her fuss over him. “Then why did the parchment turn into a mass of… sprouts and attach itself to my flesh?”
It had hurt far too badly. The uncontrollable sharp nerve pain remained difficult for Song Zang to forget even now. He never wanted to experience it a second time in this life.
“Because I wanted to steal Her knowledge. I wanted Her abilities, but I also needed to guarantee my own safety. That parchment was supposed to merge with the lipstick mark I left behind and wait for me to harvest the results personally…”
Medisa pinched his cheeks, hiding nothing, her smile loving and deeply pleased. “I never expected my child to be this exceptional and quick-witted.
“You obtained a great deal of extraordinary knowledge, and you suffered considerably for it. Those are the experiences and rewards you earned through your own effort. Never forget the sensation of surviving the edge of death and receiving a new life. It is precious.”
Song Zang gently nodded. Guilt flickered inside his dark eyes.
Part of that guilt was real and part was performance, because Song Zang was also thinking… Medisa should not be behaving like this. She would never normally feel this pleased.
The Lilith who had once been threatened with her children’s lives by angels and thrown herself into the sea in fury had died long ago.
Under normal logic, Medisa should be trying to seize the resources from Song Zang’s hands, confronting him directly, or temporarily cooperating because their objectives aligned… No matter what, she should not be this selfless.
Even if Song Zang truly were her biological son, she should not be this selfless.
This maternal love forcibly imposed by the game skill inexplicably made Song Zang’s skin crawl. It felt as though someone had twisted a living person’s fundamental nature, erased her truest personality, and forced her to betray her own experiences and the principles by which she had lived…
But Song Zang had no alternative. He needed to do this. Otherwise, completing his personal mission alone would consume far too much time. He could not afford that.
Medisa, however, slowly revealed a thoughtful smile, seemingly able to read part of what he was thinking.
“Song Zang, do you think I’m losing out? Do you feel guilty toward me?”
“…Mm.”
“Then answer me. Once you obtain everything you want, will you kill me without hesitation?”
“No,” Song Zang answered immediately.
Perhaps once, he would have. But after interacting with her several times, Song Zang had to admit… He could decisively devour an Aberrant identical to himself, yet found it difficult to kill a stepmother who genuinely loved him.
Even if that sincerity existed only because the system forcibly imposed it, Song Zang still felt reluctant.
He suspected he lacked affection.
An absence of family love could create flaws in someone’s personality and all sorts of unnecessary hesitation. He could not act like Yin Chen and simply chop people apart whenever he pleased. Song Zang became cruel only when killing people he had personally identified as enemies.
Medisa continued. “When the time comes, if I want information about some Outer God, will you absolutely refuse to give it to me?”
“…No.”
Once his mission was complete, what did Song Zang care if the flood came after him? The moment the transfer countdown began, Medisa could ask for anything and Song Zang would willingly hand it over. After all, the instance would reset again. Her present life would immediately come to an end regardless.
Elio’s Notes: “Let the flood come after me” echoes the familiar after me, the flood expression. Song Zang’s meaning here is practical: once his transfer countdown begins, he no longer cares what happens to the instance afterward.
Medisa’s smile deepened. “If you become powerful enough, would you be willing to accompany me in my revenge and kill Lucifer together?”
“Of course!”
“Then there’s your answer. I treat you well because I have eyes. I know you are inherently gentle and deeply loyal to people you care about.
“I also know that as long as the evil things I do never cross the bottom line inside your heart, then the investment and love I give you will receive something in return… “And even if I receive absolutely nothing, I can still live peacefully and happily. Isn’t that right?”
Song Zang fell into thought and slowly nodded.
The image of a loving mother and dutiful son was so bizarre yet harmonious that Yin Chen finally could not stand watching anymore. He strode to the bed, sat down, squeezed Medisa aside, and pulled Song Zang into his own arms.
Expressionless, he clamped both arms around Song Zang’s waist and impatiently asked, “Finished communicating your feelings? So where are the Goddess of Frost and Snow’s contact details?”
Medisa remained unhurried. She smiled meaningfully, red lips curling upward. “I am a mother who longs to see her child establish a family. When you successfully marry, I will be extremely happy. And once I become excited… “Perhaps I’ll suddenly remember a great deal of important information.”
“Fine. We’ll get married tomorrow,” Yin Chen agreed instantly.
Song Zang: “Huh?”
Medisa set down her tea and smiled brightly. “Wonderful. During the days you were away, I already completed most of the wedding preparations. Your formal clothing was custom-made under emergency orders and will arrive tomorrow morning.
“There is no need for cumbersome ceremony. The wedding itself will be held at Carlisle Cathedral, rebuilt by holy light, and His Excellency the Bishop will personally preside.
“I have a feeling Carlisle Cathedral is about to become the newest sacred site where believers from throughout the world gather. Barring accidents, His Majesty the King will also arrive tomorrow as scheduled and can conveniently attend the wedding.”
Song Zang: “…Huh?”
“If I kill the king, can Song Zang immediately take the throne?” Yin Chen pinched Song Zang’s bewildered face.
“Divine authority is recovering. Good days are returning for the Church. As long as His Excellency the Bishop agrees, my child will become the next king chosen by God, perfectly legitimate and beyond dispute.” Medisa smiled ambiguously, the hint in her words unmistakable. “That gentleman was kneeling beside my bed crying not very long ago.”
With confirmation that Song Zang could inherit the throne, Yin Chen was satisfied. Medisa was equally pleased with his decisive attitude.
She lifted the exquisite tea cup and hurried away like a storm to inspect the final wedding preparations.
The bedroom door slammed shut. Song Zang remained sitting blankly in Yin Chen’s arms.
The direction of events had abruptly taken flight without warning. He had only just crawled back from Hell. And now he was getting married?!
Judging from Medisa’s unhurried confidence, she clearly already possessed clues for contacting the Goddess of Frost and Snow. Her condition for revealing them was simply seeing her child settle down and establish a family… In that case, marriage actually seemed fairly reasonable?
“Are you afraid of marriage?”
Seeing Song Zang remain dazed for so long, Yin Chen narrowed his eyes unhappily and deliberately pinched the soft flesh at his waist.
Song Zang jolted. His left hand immediately slipped beneath Yin Chen’s shirt and pinched him back in retaliation.
“Mm… not really. I’ve gotten married inside instances before. I even wore really beautiful red wedding robes.” Song Zang touched him while sighing and did not bother concealing his sentimental thoughts. “My feelings are just complicated. It seems like I’ve been taking advantage of her the entire way.”
Yin Chen raised an eyebrow. “She tied you inside a carriage, trafficked you into an asylum, and had Sister Pudu feed you small doses of arsenic so you would slowly die. Forgotten?”
Song Zang froze. His mood immediately lightened several times over. “Huh. I really did forget. In that case, we’re basically even.”
“She’s only treated you well for a little while and you’ve already thrown everything bad she did out of your mind. Aren’t you afraid she’ll sell you a second time later?” Yin Chen mocked gloomily.
“Of course not. You can’t look at it that way.” Song Zang kneaded Yin Chen’s warm abdominal muscles with a half-smile. “Yin Chen, your attitude toward me was terrible in the beginning too.”
“…”
Song Zang’s lips curved. “But that’s simply my personality. As long as you eventually treat me well enough, all those formerly bad qualities become virtues that can be shaped.”
Yin Chen paused. His expression became slightly uncomfortable, because Song Zang was correct.
If Song Zang held grudges too fiercely and simply could not tolerate some of Yin Chen’s irrational behavior… The two of them might have ended up hacking each other apart until only one survived.
Unable to refute him, Yin Chen quietly changed the subject. “Virtues that can be shaped? What does that mean?”
“Guide the bad side of you into another kind of bad… “The kind I like. The kind that makes my life comfortable.”
Song Zang explained openly while innocently leaning against Yin Chen, looking remarkably harmless.
In reality, he rather liked Yin Chen’s possessiveness. He liked the unreasonable favoritism and attention. There were many other indescribable details that were simply personal preferences, pleasures only Song Zang himself could properly appreciate.
Yin Chen stared blankly for a moment. He vaguely understood something. But perhaps not entirely.
With a dark expression, he muttered, “Song Zang, you’re a terrible person. A psychological pervert. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”
“Then aren’t we perfectly matched, two rotten peas in a pod? You wildly ambitious violent lunatic.” Song Zang tilted his head.
“…True.”
＊
Two men were getting married tomorrow. And it was a shotgun wedding because of a baby.
On the very day God had finally manifested and rebuilt the cathedral, this sudden explosive news was enough to scare every mentally normal person inside the asylum half to death.
Fortunately, all of them would soon become madly infatuated with Lady Medisa. They voluntarily begged to help construct the wedding venue and even tried stealing heavy labor from the muscular knights merely for a chance to perform in front of her.
When a woman was too weak, beauty and charm could bring endless catastrophe. But once she became powerful enough, the same traits that had once caused her suffering transformed into an endless source of assistance. Medisa exploited her strengths to their absolute limit and felt not the slightest guilt about it.
Captain Litt left the city overnight and captured five people suffering from severe or unusual terminal illnesses. They were fed generously and quarantined inside cottages, prepared for Yin Chen’s public demonstration of medical skill.
Boxes upon boxes of luxurious jewelry were carried inside. The storerooms filled with expensive furs and pure blue silk. Freshly cut flowers still glistening with dew arrived carriage after carriage. Their intense fragrance attracted night insects.
Famous musicians and performers arrived without even being invited. There were handsome wandering poets, singers and dancers, even two vampires hiding their true identities and secretly handling security… Sister Pudu became completely idle and spent all her time having an affair with Joseph. She no longer needed to worry about anything.
The extent of Medisa’s connections was almost impossible to imagine.
By the time Song Zang dragged Yin Chen off to wash up and sleep, faint noises of preparation still rose continuously from downstairs.
Song Zang fell asleep with a mixture of shock and complicated emotion… Then encountered something even more astonishing.
God had come into his dream to have a breakdown. And this time, He had not dragged Yin Chen inside.
That terrifying, smooth white hand hooked Song Zang by the collar and shook him back and forth in complete emotional collapse.
“Lucifer loves me? He really loves me? That’s actually love? Where is the prophecy Lilith talked about?! I didn’t see it! I don’t know!!”