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| The Beloved Little Mother Insect (LITTLE MOTHER) |
The powerful Narga People desperately wanted to leave a good impression on Pearl's mind, but realizing the New King was still so young, they temporarily set aside the idea and accepted the "snake" and "snail" labels. Even though they stood seven meters tall, they obediently lowered their bodies, allowing the Little Mother Insect to use a palm-sized damp rag to clean the half-meter-long wounds they had torn open themselves.
Both Ega and Hui were among the elite of the Narga People.
Their top-tier physical constitutions promoted rapid wound healing. By the time Pearl gathered the damp cloth to finish wiping away the blood and prepared to rinse it, the wounds on the two giants had already half-healed.
What if Mother notices it's healing too fast?
Better tear another wound open then...
Ega and Hui's thought processes collided. The two High-level Narga exchanged a glance, simultaneously looked down at their wounds, and extended their sharp pincer limbs and mouthparts as "weapons," ready to tear open a bit more to avoid exposure.
But before they could act, the little Artificial Human, who was slowly washing off the blood, spoke up, "If injured, don't move recklessly."
His tone was gentle and unhurried.
Yet Ega and Hui, with pincer limbs suspended mid-air and mouthparts half-open, froze in unison.
Even though their King's voice was so soft and tender, neither fierce nor stern, lacking any sense of intimidation, the usually fearless pair felt an odd sense of guilt.
They didn't dare move, didn't dare move.
The two colossal beings crouched by the shore, their massive shadows completely blocking the sunlight and enveloping Pearl in cool shade, each obediently watching the busy Little Mother Insect by the water source.
The monsters' gazes were intensely focused.
Within their compound eyes that were eroded by Frenzy Syndrome, flowed a surging red, like a gathering pool of blood concentrated in the vision of the High-level Narga.
Such aftereffects made their vision somewhat unclear. They only knew this newborn king had long white hair that was somewhat dry and frizzy, with a slender body. His wrists and ankles were so thin they seemed as if they would break with a snap.
He was so small, and so pale.
No insect patterns, no tail stinger, no insect wings...
The New King seemed entirely associated with softness. Through obsessed, desire-concealing compound eyes, Ega and Hui captured the most scorching, crimson parts of the King's body in their primitive thermal imaging vision.
His chest.
His abdomen.
His soft flesh.
And the blood flowing beneath his skin.
The Mother Insect's attraction to his offspring was innate. Just as the two monsters nearly couldn't resist the urge to burrow into the little Artificial Human's embrace, Pearl, who had been cleaning the torn cloth, timely interrupted the two non-human perverts' desires.
Pearl: "L-let's wipe a bit more."
Ega snapped back to reality, first rubbing his tail stinger over; Hui, who was a step behind, let out a hiss but won a soft consolation from the Artificial Human.
Soft hands touched Hui's hard scales, the chill beneath the palms sufficiently demonstrating this creation's non-human characteristics. Yet Pearl, usually timid and fearful, wasn't afraid.
He didn't know why, but when approaching the two large creatures, he always had an intuition that they wouldn't harm him. He even felt they would protect him, care for him, and obey his commands...
It felt like a dream.
How could that be possible?
Pearl shook his head, hiding that strange feeling, and continued pressing the wet cloth against the large creature's wound.
But just as he touched it—
Huh? How was the wound gone?
Pearl, who had touched nothing, froze in confusion, his faint blue eyes brimming with bewilderment.
Thinking he might have mistaken the location, he felt around the large creature's hard scales in all directions.
How... were there none?
Above Pearl, Ega, seeing the Little Mother Insect touch empty air, guiltily swallowed, now blaming the wound for healing too quickly! Couldn't it see that Mother hadn't had enough fun yet?!
Beside him, Hui let out a silent laugh, feeling no camaraderie toward his kind.
He turned and directly knocked Ega over. Amid the dull roar and billowing yellow sand, he naturally used his massive pincers to shield the mini-sized Mother below and take the opportunity to press his own wound against Pearl when he curiously checked the situation.
The enormous pincer limb pressed against Pearl's waist and abdomen, tightly against his warm flesh.
Pearl shivered from the cold, but the pincer limb, having taken advantage and still pretending innocence, rubbed against him again until the Little Mother Insect's hand landed on the wound, then it stilled.
Hui thought he could enjoy Mother's care.
But his beautiful thought froze before it could last two seconds—
Just as Pearl's groping hand found the wound on the pincer limb, the active cells had already urged the Narga powerhouse's body to close the last bit of the gap.
Hui: ...
Ega: Hehe.
Pearl: Huh?
The little Artificial Human even widened his hazy eyes a bit.
How was the wound gone again?
Pearl was baffled. He carefully felt over Ega's tail stinger and meticulously rubbed Hui's pincer limb, but the wounds that were there before had vanished without a trace, leaving only smooth, cold, hard, and slick scales.
It felt like a dream.
Pearl blinked, his face full of confusion as he asked, "S-so, it's healed?"
Healed. All healed.
Two guilty big guys looked at each other, until finally Ega cautiously extended his tail hook and lifted it halfway to gently brush against Pearl's cheek.
He had only meant to reassure Mother that they were alright.
But the moment his tailhook made contact, everything spiraled beyond control.
So soft, so tender!
The dark-textured compound eyes of the Narga in primal form gleamed faintly and the scales covering his body bristling slightly. Unable to restrain himself, a torrent of psychic murmurs—mad enough to be detected by the Mother Insect—crazily spilled forth:
【Like. Want to lick.】
【Soft and small. So fragrant, smells so good...】
【Want to hide it away, somewhere no one knows...】
【Like, so much! Hide it deep in the nest...】
Ega's psychic murmurs were chaotic and obscure, carrying a suppressed madness.
Much like his own nature—a vine growing in muddy shadows, sticky and cold. Each breath and desire felt like being targeted by a python, instinctively stirring danger in weaker herbivores.
Yet, this was the feeling of being needed.
A sensation of being intensely desired by a peculiar, non-human anomaly.
As if being loved, being fervently watched.
The numbness at the back of Pearl's neck eased under this twisted "affection." He clenched his slightly sweaty palm, like a young animal leaving its den for the first time—bewildered and hesitant, yet lured by bait, tempted to reach out once more toward the dangerous monster.
What ordinary people found terrifying in these murmurs, Pearl found joy in—the happiness of being needed.
Like a little fool in an inverted world, trading embraces with danger for love.
The soft, harmless pad of his finger resting on the tailhook that carried Pearl's touch, once again ignited the wish he had long abandoned.
On his seventh return, when his boss sent him to the disposal plant for destruction, he had made a wish—
He wanted many, many people to love him.
But as the disposal fluid was about to pour over him, Pearl changed his mind.
He feared the gods would deem him greedy.
He didn't want anyone to love him. He hoped the stray dog that never returned would find an owner who loved it, hoped the destruction wouldn't hurt too much, hoped he would never have to be an Artificial Human again...
...
The dangerous tailhook was carefully cradled in Pearl's arms. He lowered his head, gently rubbing his cheek against the cold scales, and softly responded to the previously obsessive monster's murmurs, "N-No licking randomly. It's not clean."
So... if it's cleaned, then it can be licked?
This thought simultaneously crossed the minds of both Ega and Hui. The two Narga in primal form ground their mouthparts, suppressing an uncontrollable desire.
No rush. They had already found Mother. There was plenty of time.
The issue of wound healing was temporarily resolved.
Facing the blue-bleached sky, Hui lifted his head, sniffing the scents in the air.
Not long after this year's trial grounds opened, the Radiation Storm arrived. Its duration was uncertain, but the longer it lasted, the more variables emerged—
Countless Beasts survived in the vast, boundless desert. Even though the grand battle between two High-level Narga had scared off many Beasts, it didn't mean safety.
As the storm continued, the radiation's influence would deepen indefinitely. Beasts that originally retained some capacity for thought, fear, and self-preservation would be completely eroded and assimilated.
At that time, all the Beasts on this planet would transform into bloodthirsty, combative puppets—gathering in hordes, fearless and painless, they would frantically tear at every prey. Even when their spines were torn out and only their heads remained dragging on the ground, they would cling to their last active nerves, attempting to bite and chew.
It would be a bloody battle.
Though their minds were still hazy, both Ega and Hui were veterans who had endured years in the Beast trial grounds. In the brewing storm, they faintly detected an ominous aura.
They could no longer stay here.
Compared to the thick-skinned Narga People, the New King they protected under their wings—emanating a sweet fragrance—would become the sole target for these Beasts once they lost their sanity.
Hui let out a low hiss.
He slowly bent down while extending pincer-like limbs resembling ghostly claws, with sharp serrated edges on the sides. Yet, in the center, he carefully fashioned a small, safe space—a means of transport he had prepared for the Mother Insect.
Like a tiny glass jar meant for fireflies.
[Mother... climb on.]
Pearl could distinguish that this was the voice of the other large creature.
Deep yet carrying a hint of clarity and coolness, relatively calm and gentle, not as out of control.
Pearl gripped the tail hook Ega used to guide him as he uncomfortably murmur in rebuttal, "I-I'm a boy.""
How can a boy be called Mother?
As he spoke, he stepped barefoot onto the inner side of Hui's forelimb, his soles reddened from the grit. Around his slender, pale ankle, an extremely fine strand of Mycelium clung tightly, utterly concealed.
The massive Narga curled his lips, silently uttering words dripping with viscous desire—
King, Mother Insect, their little mother... What did it matter if he was a boy?
A boy is a boy, after all. A boy cannot become a mother.
If he were to become a mother, then the offspring would have to press against the mother's soft, tender chest, and bury themselves in that sweet, fragrant abdomen, and draw upon the warmth of a nest...
So a boy must be a mother—oh no, we mean a boy can also become a male mother.
Slowly closing his pincer limbs, Hui twitched his sharp mouthparts. But neither he nor Ega refuted the Little Mother Insect's words; they merely bowed their heads obediently, hiding this tiny pearl within an indestructible cage.
The wild dogs coveting Mother... were not few...
Ega, with his tail hook resting at his side, tilted his head. His cold-blooded, sinister compound eyes swept over the dunes merging with the sky.
In the hazy distance, something seemed to flicker past.
Just as the two offspring in their primal forms prepared to leave with their Little Mother Insect, on that dune, a StarCloud Hound with dead prey in its mouth watched with heavy eyes. The faint, pale Mycelium fur that had bloomed on it swayed in the wind, seemingly on the verge of further fading.
Its trophy, its young, had been taken away.
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