Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 193 - 180: The Prince’s Revenge

The scroll clung tightly against the stone wall, and as Kevin’s palm left the red cover, from the very top of the scroll, a fresh red liquid seeped out from the crevice, soaking the red cover. An old, muffled friction noise followed as the stone wall engraved with a twisted pentagram unfolded to one side, revealing a path just wide enough for one person to pass through.

The two exchanged glances, bracing themselves, they entered the secret chamber.

Before Lyle left, he caressed the digesting Nia, who now resembled an overfed creature, not yet returned to her usual tentacled form, and turned into a fluctuating black mass on the floor, like a throbbing heart.

Perceiving that Nia’s transformation posed no danger, Lyle left some parting instructions.

"After you get up, Nia, remember to take good care of everyone," he said.

After the pair left, Nia’s black mass underwent a tremendous change.

From the mass sprouted grid-like tentacles, like budding saplings, then branches. The grid-like tentacles grew upward like chains, reaching the ceiling and suspending Nia’s black mass in mid-air.

The black mass pulsed in the air, its appearance resembling the throbbing flesh that Lyle and the others had first seen at the center of the stone chamber, belonging to the Duke of Hamlet.

The rhythmic thumping became the only sound in the entire desolate stone chamber.

With a squelch,

the black mass burst, and its innards, a viscous black substance, spilled all over the floor.

Nia emerged from the cocoon.

Her head lacked facial features, as if she wore a smooth knight’s mask. Her upper body was a slender female form, and one could even sense a hint of beauty from her streamlined figure. Her long arms were boneless and supple, each ending with five sharp hooks. Were those nails?

It seemed Nia had developed some sort of skewed fixation; her large eye with the yellow vertical pupil was preserved, not on her head but rather set like a massive pendant in her chest, blinking as if breathing.

Nia’s appearance was very similar to that of the Duke of Hamlet, but her lower limbs were not tentacles with joints; they resembled a fungiform structure akin to a mushroom cap. Grid-like tentacles hung densely from her waist, like the shattered, bulging crinoline of a lady’s dress. Her current mode of transportation was by pushing the ground with those grid tentacles, gliding along like a starfish.

Nia looked toward the secret chamber where Lyle had disappeared, turned her head, and tapped her smooth head with her nail.

"Nia must take care of... everyone?" she mused.

Nia approached the white cocoons.

"Eggs...?"

Observing Heinz asleep within the cocoon, Nia imitated Lyle and scratched her chin with her finger.

"Eggs... take care of...," Nia let out a giggling laugh as she climbed on top of Heinz’s cocoon. "Nia understands now, Nia has to hatch the eggs!"

The grid-like tentacles proliferated rapidly, like a mass of snakes falling from the sky, completely enveloping the cocoon.

When Heinz opened his eyes, what he saw was himself being engulfed by darkness.

————————

Lyle vaguely remembered walking past two turns to arrive at the main chamber before him.

At the center was a huge pool, bottomless, its contents unseen for the liquid was like fresh blood. Many red tentacles emerged from the pool, attaching themselves to the walls like wildly spreading vines, now shriveled and disintegrating into red dust that scattered in the air.

Including chains, some tools were placed on an experimental table, facing which was a recess holding strange instruments. Lyle had an intuition that the massive chunk of flesh hanging in the center of the chamber had originally been situated there.

Like a flesh jungle, the mangled tissues were dissolving, making the room’s space expand.

"Lyle, over here!" Kevin called out from a secluded corner, uncovering human bones after the encasing flesh had melted away.

The skeleton still clutched fragments of fine clothing, curled up against the corner, as if alive when the room had been invaded by the flesh.

"Who is this?"

"Don’t know, but first, let’s look at this," Kevin revealed a scroll from his hand, its edges still smeared with sticky flesh. "Found near the bones, I have a feeling it will answer our doubts."

Upon unrolling the scroll, the handwriting was very sloppy, a far cry from Serio’s neat script, and it worsened, becoming illegible towards the bottom.

[He’s gone mad! He’s gone mad! He’s gone mad! He never used to be like this, he was always a gentle person. It all started when that maid died! He’s destroyed our family! He’s destroyed the future of the Hamlets! He’s destroyed everything about the Hamlets!

Filthy, lowly, damned, horrifying Serio!

My father’s ritual is nearly complete! After years of experimenting on those foreigners, after studying that piece of flesh dredged from the sea. Father said it was the heart of a god, and the Hamlet family would ascend to godlike beings!

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion until that effeminate boy became Father’s assistant. Yes, yes, he was clever, a bastard’s unnatural cleverness, I still remember him groveling like a poodle for Father’s praise, disgustingly humble. That trash deserved a lesson! I certainly knew who the maid was when Father decided to select a test subject for the final adjustment, I made a trivial suggestion.

That night, I heard the delightful howl of that stupid dog, not knowing it was wrong, I had created a nightmare. No, of course, it wasn’t my fault, he was a devil all along, I just accidentally released him.

One evening, Father proudly announced that all offspring bearing the Hamlet blood would ascend with him, leading to a night of wild revelry. That boy also carried our blood, I saw him tucked in a corner, a chilling and disgusting smile on his face.

No one knew when his mysterious ritualistic prowess surpassed Father’s. All I knew is that when Father turned into a monster, Serio stood beside him, smiling, watching Father devour his own children.

The chaos quickly spread throughout the entire Hamlet, the lowly people struggled to flee, they were wrong, they were already bound to this land, their mutations had begun!

I was left behind, locked in this stone chamber, made to watch Father consume his brothers, children, and concubines. That terrible Serio, too, stood beside me, emotionlessly recording everything with pen and paper.

I feared being with him, especially the smile he always wore, like the bared fangs of a demon. I feared him and also hated him.

In the name of Blaze Hamlet, I will await you in the depths of Hell, within the Abyss, I will tear your flesh with my teeth, I will rend your skin with my nails, I am willing to trade my entire soul for the most vicious curse!

I will be waiting for you in Hell! Serio!]