Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power-Chapter 88: Echidna, The Mother of Monsters

Chapter 88 – Echidna, The Mother of Monsters

Inara held herself together, doing her absolute best to keep her mind from completely shattering by clinging to her mantra.

As for her fracturing soul? She didn’t even try to do anything about it because truly, she couldn’t.

The soul was something few had ever dared to delve into. Hell, she doubted even her mother understood it fully.

So all she could do was grit her teeth hard and endure the soul-breaking agony.

It was torment.

It was hell.

It was... madness.

The pain lasted for hours. Hours of pure insanity and during that time, unknown to Inara, her body began to change.

Not outwardly.

But inwardly.

Her vibrant green blood was being overwritten, replaced by a deep, inky black ichor that screamed of profanity and monstrosity. Wherever this blood passed, change followed.

Her heart shifted, its shape morphing into something unfamiliar, something more cradle than organ. Pitch black and lined with faint, red tree-like veins pulsing across its surface.

Her veins expanded, becoming denser, more resilient yet somehow softer, more supple.

Her organs transformed. Her intestines coiled in unnatural shapes. Her very biology was being rewritten from the inside out.

Even her soul was shifting.

She was no longer a snake.

She was no longer just a girl.

Her bloodline had been overwritten completely.

She was becoming something new.

Something monstrous.

The Womb of Monsters.

And yet... despite all this terrifying change, her outer appearance remained untouched. She still looked like the same soft, harmless, innocent snake-girl.

No—in fact, her beauty intensified. Her skin gleamed with an ethereal sheen, her features sharpened, and curves started to form gently beneath her torn robe. She looked...

Radiant.

More womanly. More alive.

But oh—

Hadn’t they always said that the most innocently beautiful ones are the most dangerous?

And it seemed the blood of Echidna was determined to take that truth to a whole new level.

But all this meant nothing to Inara right now. She was still drowning in agony.

Until suddenly

BADUM—!

Her new heart pulsed.

A deep, low thrum of power. A heartbeat that echoed through her veins like a lullaby laced with dominance.

Instantly, her mind cleared. Her soul stabilized. Her body relaxed. And for the first time in what felt like an eternity...

She breathed.

"Ah... ah... ah..." she gasped, chest rising and falling erratically.

She lay there, flat on the cold ground, eyes staring up at the dark ceiling of the trial chamber. A deep, disgusted curse coiled at the tip of her tongue, but she refrained.

She didn’t want to insult whatever being had the power to do all this.

Then—

"Third Trial Completed."

The voice echoed again.

"Third Lesson: To become the Mother of Monsters, you must carry their weight in your blood."

Inara listened, silent. Every trial had taught her something.

The first had made her understand that if she wanted to be the mother of monsters, she had to become one.

The second taught her how to create them and more importantly, how to act with them.

And this third trial... it taught her the true weight of the legacy. The sheer madness. The power. The profane, unholy nature of monsters and the strength required to contain them within.

She had to stand above them. Carry them. Control them.

And now—

"Final Trial: Face Echidna, The Mother of Monsters."

The moment the voice spoke, the chamber began to change.

The dark floor beneath her shattered and shifted becoming a sprawling field made of bones, rotting corpses, and dried pools of monster blood.

The space expanded endlessly, filled with nothing but death and remains.

Above her, the ceiling cracked and vanished—replaced by a sky of blood. A literal red sky loomed overhead, swirling around a dark, black sun.

The air grew heavy. Pressurized. Saturated with the stench of rot and decay.

Inara grimaced, her body instinctively tensing at the overwhelming, grotesque atmosphere.

’Ah fuck...’she cursed inwardly.

She scanned the new realm quickly, eyes flickering with nerves until they stopped.

There.

A throne.

It was pitch black, massive and carved entirely from the bones and bodies of ancient beasts.

It was terrifying.

It was beautiful.

But that’s not what captured Inara’s gaze.

What held her still... was the woman sitting upon that throne.

"...Beautiful..." Inara muttered without thinking.

And she couldn’t be more right.

The woman sitting on that throne was tall—statuesque, divine in posture—with pale, almost translucent skin. Her golden eyes were slitted like a serpent’s.

Predatory yet maternal. Dangerous, yet comforting.

Her hair was long, black as midnight, and moved ever so slightly on its own with glimmers of bone and scale hiding between the strands.

She wore a flowing black-and-crimson dress that clung to her form like a second skin, breathing in rhythm with her.

When Inara looked, the woman raised her head to meet her gaze.

And then she spoke.

"Oh... finally, a worthy heir," she said.

Her voice was soft, motherly, a lullaby wrapped in silk.

But beneath it...you could feel the rottenness of her voice. And also something ancient, something utterly wrong and profane.

Inara couldn’t put it into words. But after everything she had endured, her instincts screamed:

This woman was not as gentle as she looked.

She raised her guard instantly.

"Are you... Echidna? The Mother of Monsters?" Inara asked though she already knew the answer.

"I am," Echidna replied, her expression full of motherly warmth. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel-com

"And I am your final trial, dear candidate."

"How am I supposed to...?" Inara began to ask but trailed off. Something felt off.

Though Echidna radiated maternal aura... Inara felt like she was being watched.

Thousands—no, millions—of invisible eyes, all staring, unblinking, from every direction.

It felt like one wrong word, one wrong movement... and she’d be devoured.

She shivered.

Echidna didn’t respond to the question. She simply sat, regal and still, watching.

And that’s when Inara understood. She had to figure this out alone.

She then remembered the name of the trial,

Face Echidna.

Not fight her.

Not kill her.

Not defeat her.

Just... face her.

Inara’s mind clicked and calmed down instantly.

Three trials in, and she was no longer the naive, unsure girl who had entered this place. Her instincts were honed now. She saw what others would’ve missed.

So she asked herself the most important question,

What does my opponent want?

’A heir.’

Why?

She didn’t know.

But what mattered was Echidna needed her.

That gave her power.

That gave her leverage.

So Inara took a deep breath.

"I will fulfill any task you need of me as your heir... as long as it does not endanger me or those I love."

Her voice trembled slightly but her words were resolute.

And for the first time, Echidna smiled.

A real smile.

And what a terrifying thing it was.

Because in that smile, it felt like something else was looking at her.

Watching her from inside her mouth.

Then Echidna whispered softly...

"...Indeed. A worthy heir."

—End of Chapter 88—

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