The Villainous Son Loves His Mother - Chapter 85

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I stared intently at the black gem in my palm.
On the floor, amidst the remains of an Inferior Woman, lay another Inferior Man, sprawled awkwardly.
Both had gaping holes in their chests, where their hearts had once been.
Feri’s work was impeccable.

“So, the ‘Night’s Dew’ was their heart, huh?”

I muttered, glancing down at the gem again.
It was a fathomless, abyssal black, like polished obsidian, yet it seemed to emit a faint inner glow.
As I shifted the angle, stardust-like sparkles danced across its surface, an eerie beauty that captivated me.
It was as if a fragment of the night sky itself had been solidified into this gem.

This was the Night’s Dew.

According to the Inferior Nude Woman’s information, the Night’s Dew is a “Crystal of Longing” that drips from the Soul Core of a high-ranking Undead the moment they harbor a profound desire for life.
Hmm, indeed, this might be worth adding as one of the materials for Mother’s gift.
Yet I felt a lingering dissatisfaction.

“…Something just doesn’t feel right about this.”

I acknowledged the gem’s beauty. Its rarity was undeniable. But something was off.
Mother’s garments, the aura she exuded, the very nobility of her being—to create jewelry that perfectly harmonized with all of that, the Night’s Dew alone was insufficient.
Or perhaps…
Perhaps it was too much.
The gem’s dark, almost suffocating aura of longing. The very thought of such a tainted object touching Mother’s pure skin felt almost sacrilegious.
Well, any impurities could be purified during the processing anyway.

“And the other one is completely useless. It’s too small and the color is too pale.”

I retrieved the second “Night’s Dew” from my pocket, the one I’d taken from the inferior Male Bloodsucker earlier.
Compared to the female’s gem, it was a full size or two smaller.
The color was closer to a sooty dark gray than a deep black, and its luster was noticeably inferior.
There was no way I could use this as a gift for Mother.
At best, I could give it to Feri or Misha, or use it as experimental material.
I shook my head in dissatisfaction.
I had no further use for this tower.
Time for the next one.
The results weren’t as impressive as I’d hoped, but at least I wasn’t leaving empty-handed.

“Feri.”

At my call, Feri, who had been waiting silently behind me, stepped forward without a sound.

“Bring that inferior woman here. I’m going to destroy this tower. It’s bad taste. When Mother seizes control of the world, I won’t allow such ugliness to remain in her glorious reign.”

“As you command, Young Master,”

Feri replied with a respectful bow. She turned toward the corner of the room where the inferior Nude Woman still sat dazed and completely naked.
Whether the woman understood our exchange or not, she simply stared blankly at a spot on the floor.
Without a second thought, Feri grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the tower as if she were a piece of luggage.

I followed suit.

About thirty meters from the tower, Feri carelessly tossed Ayla onto the ground.
Unable to brace herself, she rolled onto the ground with a dull thud and lay motionless.
She didn’t appear to be dead, but she was clearly at her breaking point.

Well, whatever.

I turned back to the tower and focused my mind.
I needed to obliterate this grotesque structure of bone and flesh precisely, without causing any collateral damage.
I specified the coordinates.
The target: the tower and its foundation.
I set the direction and convergence point of my power.

—Grau V’Omnis, Grau V’Niil. Tremble, wrathful strike.

The quietly spoken words dissolved into the atmosphere.
Then, I declared the name of the spell.

—Terra Cradle.

In an instant, the grotesque tower began to slowly but surely contract, as if crushed by an invisible, colossal force.
Creak… creak… The bones groaned.
Rip… rip… The flesh was torn apart.
Even these sounds were immediately sucked into the tower’s core the moment they arose.
The bones and flesh of the countless victims that had formed the tower were crushed and compressed under immense pressure, gradually transforming into a grotesque, shapeless mass.
Not a single fragment escaped the tower’s confines.

The supergravity field generated by the tower had turned it into a self-contained, closed space.
Eventually, the towering structure that had pierced the sky was reduced to a sphere roughly several meters in diameter.
Even that continued to shrink, until finally, it became a black, heavy mass the size of a marble, which sank into the ground.
Not a single leaf stirred on the surrounding trees.

A perfect job.

My gaze fell upon the Inferior Woman lying naked on the ground.
Ah, right. She mentioned something about her comrades.
She wanted me to save them, didn’t she?

“Hey, Inferior.”

The woman’s shoulder twitched at my voice.
As she slowly lifted her face, her eyes seemed devoid of any light.

“You wanted me to help your comrades, right? Just so you know, there’s no one alive in this tower besides us. At least, that’s what I sensed.”

Normally, I wouldn’t bother sharing such information with an inferior being.
But, well, you see.
Consider it after-sales service for her teaching me how to make “Night’s Dew.”
I’m surprisingly conscientious.

The Inferior Woman stared at me blankly for a moment.
Then, tears began to trickle from her eyes, one by one.
The next instant, she burst into loud, unrestrained sobs, like a dam had broken.
She cried like a baby, utterly and completely.
How pathetic.
I truly believed that.
But…

“Inferior Woman, you lost your comrades, didn’t you? They were killed. By those filthy Undead—so cruelly.”

I spoke to the Inferior Woman, who was sobbing like a fool.

“Don’t you think it’s pitiful?”

My words momentarily interrupted her sobs.

“The comrades who trusted you and followed you lost their lives because of your misjudgment. Naturally, you must hate them. The ones who killed your comrades. But listen, Inferior…”

I paused.
I could sense that the woman’s trembling had shifted, becoming something different from before.

“Isn’t it yourself you truly hate?”

A fierce glint ignited in the Inferior Woman’s eyes.
Deep within her hollow gaze, a flicker of human emotion finally returned.
It was hatred.
Or perhaps despair.
Either way, it didn’t matter.

“…What… are you trying to say?”

She asked, her voice strained.
The sound of her clenching her teeth sounded awfully loud in the silence.

“Angry? People get angry when you hit a nerve. But you’re inferior. You’re not even human!”

With that, I slapped the Inferior Woman across the cheek.
The dry crack of the blow reverberated.
Her face tilted slightly to the side.

“Inferior. You’re inferior. You couldn’t protect what was important to you. Weak, fragile! Inferior! But—well, whatever.”

As I spoke, my eyes drifted to the Inferior Woman’s hand.
She was clutching a sharp, jagged piece of stone, likely picked up when she fell.
Though Feri was gripping her wrist, making it impossible for her to move.

“You’ve got guts trying to defy me. That’s why I’ll give you a reward.”

I said, focusing my attention on constructing the necromantic spell.
This was a technique I’d learned from the dusty tomes in Damian’s library—the man who was my biological father.
It’s a dusty magic system that’s not particularly useful, but it will be useful here.
This woman’s hatred and despair, and likely her lingering attachments to her comrades, would serve as excellent catalysts.
Unlike simply rewriting an undead with magic power, reconstructing one from scratch required considerable effort.

—O soulless, hollow shadows, let us forge a bl00d pact anew. Unfulfilled wishes, tears of regret—become the guiding stars of my cursed path of magic. (Mors Sanctum Veneficum)

Then I declared the spell’s name:

—Helldes Nexus, the Binding Curse of Bl00d and Vengeful Dead.

As my words echoed, the earth around us stirred.
Clods of blackened soil heaved upward, and from the depths crawled forth an endless horde of Undead.
A horde of zombies giving off a rotting stench.
Skeleton Knights, clad in rusted armor, emerged from the ground.
Several headless Dullahan, their black armor gleaming, rose from the earth.
But that wasn’t all.

“A-ah!?!”

The Inferior Woman’s eyes widened as if she had witnessed something beyond belief.
Before her eyes, apart from the undead that had emerged from the earth, the pale, shimmering, translucent forms of female warriors appeared.

Phantom Warriors.

Powerful spectral Undead, their forms retaining vivid traces of their former lives.
Three female warrior spirits gazed sorrowfully at the Inferior Woman.

“Marcia… Alice… Mia!!”

“As I thought, your companions are dead. Now then, I’ll give you command of all the Undead here, including these ones.”

I gestured casually toward the Undead.

“So kill them. Take your revenge. I need to capture two more towers and obtain the Night’s Dew. You’ll clear the way for me. Understood?”

The Inferior Woman glanced back and forth between the Phantoms and me for a moment.
I could see a whirlwind of emotions swirling in her eyes.
Finally, she slowly knelt before me.

“…Yes, my lord.”

Her voice had lost all its earlier weakness.
Only resolve remained.

“Then go.”

As I spoke, the Inferior Woman stumbled into the depths of the forest, her steps unsteady.
As I watched her go, I pondered my mother’s words.

–“Hain… Those with power—no, precisely because they possess power—must sometimes understand the desires of the common people. This doesn’t mean blindly obeying them. It means striving to understand what they want, what they suffer from, and what makes them angry. That, too, is part of the duty of those in positions of authority. True dominion cannot be established through brute force alone. Sometimes compassion is needed, sometimes strictness. But above all, you must guide them to follow you of their own free will. That is the true essence of nobility.”

Ah, Mother… Mama.
Have I lived up to the noble ideal you envisioned?