THE HERO'S SON IS A MONSTER-Chapter 40: Lullaby Time

"If you’ve decided to kill him, you might as well hand him over to me, don’t you think?"

Ariane sprang to her feet and snatched the child from the arms of the Ruler of Pandemonium.

The latter did not react, remaining as impassive as ever, while the child showed no sign of resistance.

"You always jump to conclusions..." sighed the Ruler of Pandemonium, rolling her eyes. "Forcing the creation of his spiritual body is nothing more than a simple trick for me."

Ariane, holding the child tightly against her, clutched him as if she were protecting him from a threat forgetting that she herself had similar plans. It wasn’t hypocrisy. There was only one specimen.

Her wary gaze scrutinized the Ruler of Pandemonium, searching for any sign of deception.

"You don’t understand anything, Ariane. This kid isn’t just a human. There’s something different about him. You’ve seen it, haven’t you? Something like that shouldn’t be an issue... and yet..."

The Ruler of Pandemonium’s gaze lingered on the child for a moment. A barely perceptible smile appeared beneath her mask.

"This could become interesting."

Ariane grimaced.

"Tch. You’re never interested in anything. So why him?"

The Ruler of Pandemonium shrugged.

"Maybe because his existence bothers me. Maybe because he has potential I can’t ignore. Or maybe simply because I want to. The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is that he belongs to me anyway."

The child, who had been silent all along, reached out again, trying to grasp something invisible.

A shiver ran through the room. The air vibrated, resonating with him and his surroundings.

Ariane cursed under her breath.

"Tch. This isn’t normal...!"

"I thought he had stabilized. Good thing we’re inside the Wandering Castle," she grumbled.

The Ruler of Pandemonium’s smile widened.

She took a step forward, extending her arms to take the child back.

"Give him to me."

Ariane clenched her jaw, casting one last glance at the small being in her arms. Then, slowly, reluctantly, she handed him over to the Ruler of Pandemonium.

A flash of light shot through the room. An invisible pulse shook the air the moment the child touched the sovereign again.

Ariane instinctively stepped back, shocked.

"What the ?!"

A laugh escaped the Ruler of Pandemonium’s throat.

"Interesting... Very interesting..."

She had also abruptly let go of the child, as if to avoid something.

Her gaze locked onto the infant’s, and for the first time, she saw something other than pure innocence.

Something ancient. Something dangerous.

And it thrilled her.

Something inside that baby saw them as threats. Threats that needed to be eliminated.

The baby fell to the ground. Its skull was crushed.

"Oh no!" Ariane cried out, a sudden sense of loss overwhelming her. She rushed toward the child, desperate to pick him up and find a way to heal him, but she quickly snapped out of her stupor.

There was something she had forgotten, despite being the one who had led the experiments on this strange child. His regeneration ability had made things difficult for her before.

The moment his skull cracked, it instantly healed.

"Magnificent," the Ruler of Pandemonium whispered, delighted.

"What the hell ?"

The child’s body convulsed, entering an endless transformation. His face and form changed so rapidly that there was nothing left of the baby from before only an abomination.

"Is this the effect of the Scarlet Bloodline?" asked the Ruler of Pandemonium.

Ariane, who had also stepped back instinctively, wore a grim expression.

"I may have underestimated the sheer amount of information contained within him. And now, all of it is activating at once. What I had sealed was nothing more than a drop in the ocean. He’s not just a human he’s the perfect mutant. There’s so much data..." She paused briefly before adding, "And we’re screwed."

"Seems like it," the Ruler of Pandemonium replied.

Spikes erupted from the abomination, aiming straight for Ariane and the Ruler of Pandemonium. The two dodged with ease. At their level, it was as effortless as sidestepping a bullet moving in slow motion.

"This kid’s like a porcupine. You won’t be very popular if you keep shutting yourself off from others! Stop this nonsense!"

If a hero were present, the system would have likely displayed a message along the lines of: Stop the rampaging monster to bring it back to its senses.

The spikes burst from the abomination with terrifying force, piercing through the floor and walls like paper.

The ground was no ordinary surface after all, the Wandering Castle’s structure was special but the child, or rather what he had become, emitted such chaotic energy that the air itself distorted around him. His body continued to mutate without pause, fusing and reshaping itself at an absurd speed.

Ariane and the Ruler of Pandemonium had already moved fluidly out of range, but the floor beneath them suddenly cracked apart. Fleshy and bony protrusions shot out, reaching for them.

"If this kid evolves every second, we have to neutralize him fast," Ariane muttered, her eyes scanning every detail of the monster before her.

She was more worried about her laboratory getting wrecked. In an instant, she expanded the space in the room stretching the walls and everything inside as if pulling them away intentionally creating distance.

"Hmph. It’s been a while since I had some fun. Let’s see how far he can go."

Without hesitation, the Ruler of Pandemonium made a swift hand gesture, and the space around the creature seemed to fold in on itself. An immense, invisible force pressed down, attempting to compress the abomination into a perfect sphere.

The beast convulsed under the pressure, but within seconds, its ever-changing form resisted, even absorbing the energy of the attack. Jagged appendages sprouted from its body, releasing a shockwave so powerful that the entire room distorted under the impact.

Ariane leaped away, narrowly dodging a spiraling bone spear that tried to skewer her. She reappeared next to the Ruler of Pandemonium, her hand crackling with lightning.

Without warning, Ariane lunged forward, a glowing energy dagger materializing in her grip. She struck with blinding speed, but the mutant flesh absorbed the blade and tried to engulf her arm.

A surge of electricity exploded, tearing away the parasitic matter and sending the creature sprawling backward.

The Ruler of Pandemonium took advantage of the opening. She extended her hand, and the void itself seemed to collapse inward.

A pitch-black sphere formed, devouring everything around it before detonating in a silent explosion.

The shockwave was so intense that the surrounding space trembled. But when the dust settled, the beast was still there. Its body was mutilated, parts of it vaporized, but it regenerated at an unnatural speed.

"...We need to knock him out."

Ariane turned to the Ruler of Pandemonium, nodding slowly.

The two moved in unison. Ariane traced a series of glowing symbols in the air, and spectral chains began materializing around the creature.

"Try not to destroy him by accident!"