Chapter 129: Maman (2)
by fnovelpia
A god among gods, a transcendent deity.
After killing the Supreme God [System] and absorbing its divinity, she solidified an overwhelming divine status.
She was confident that no one could defeat her.
Even if all the gods of the continent rushed at her at once, she possessed enough power to radiate the divinity within her and make them all kneel.
When her beloved son, Albus, entered the Demon Realm with numerous allies, she felt no need for caution.
She was simply proud of his ability to recruit other gods as his supporters.
Even when they suddenly appeared at the heart of the Demon Realm, confronting her, she remained composed.
No matter what schemes her son employed, she could easily thwart them.
“You’ve come.”
Her goal had always been to raise her son to godhood and welcome him back into her embrace.
She longed to see him demonstrate his newfound abilities.
“Come into your mother’s arms.”
Thus, she revealed her dignity as an absolute being to gauge her son’s reaction.
“Ma maman~~~!”
Her son’s response completely shattered her expectations.
‘Ma maman… Ma maman… Ma maman…’
The words echoed endlessly in her mind.
Although Albus had always referred to her as ‘Mother,’ she had never heard him use common terms like ‘Mom’ or ‘Mama.’
Due to her immense maternal instincts but lack of actual experience with childbirth, such terms were foreign to her.
Yet the word “Ma maman,” neither ‘Mother’ nor ‘Mama,’ struck her with an incomprehensible destructive force.
Albus had chosen the term simply to bewilder the Demon God, but its effect exceeded his wildest imagination.
Frozen on her throne like a stunned beast hit by Rudera’s unique stun effect, the Demon God was immobilized.
Poof.
Albus slipped effortlessly into her stiffened embrace.
The Demon God’s mind, already shaken by “Ma mama,” wavered even more.
Though she’d observed her son for countless years, this was the first time they’d met in person.
To have her long-dreamt son nestle into her arms—it was surreal.
Kyung-kyung.
Her lower abdomen, which had created Albus, resonated as it sensed the quality of his soul.
This resonance became a secondary blockade for her thoughts and movements.
But Albus wasn’t done yet.
“Grandma!”
Flinch.
A small, squishy creature wrapped its arms around her neck from behind.
The young god, Duamutep, whom Albus had created, had joined the fray.
Knowing her son’s exploits well, she was familiar with the girl’s identity.
Duamutep was a god born from the faith of beastfolk, with no blood relation to Albus.
Although Duamutep called Albus ‘Dad,’ Menhera had never once thought of her as a granddaughter.
She only admired her son’s grand achievements in creating a god.
That was all.
This girl was supposed to be just a creation of her son, nothing more.
“Ehehe!”
Yet the sight of Duamutep in her arms didn’t feel foreign at all.
‘It’s over.’
Seeing the Demon God frozen in reaction to Duamutep’s adorable antics, Albus proceeded with his next step.
[Unleashing Rudera.]
“Ugh!”
As divine energy radiated outward from Albus, Menhera finally realized something had gone terribly wrong.
While she could overpower the entire continent in this space, if the area became Rudera, things would change.
‘To think he’d act while I was distracted!’
Under normal circumstances, she would have been proud of her son’s cunning.
But this time, the situation was different.
‘No!’
Boom.
She hastily tried to suppress the transformation into Rudera, but—
“…Uh? Grandma?”
Crack.
Her divine energy, tainted with dark magic, faltered.
She couldn’t risk harming the small creature clinging to her.
Hum.
As she hesitated, the Rudera transformation—supported by Deus and Alia—was completed.
[Manifestation of Imagination.]
All Menhera could do was watch in a daze as Albus wielded his authority.
[Entry.]
Ding-ding-ding-ding~.
“Mother~. We’re here~!”
“Come in~!”
“Oh my, is my little one here?”
Menhera put down the remote control for the TV she was watching and dashed toward the door in her socks.
At the entrance, her beloved son, Albus, was taking off his shoes, holding hands with a small granddaughter.
“Grandma!”
Before Albus could fully remove her shoes, Duamutep ran forward and clung to Menhera’s leg.
“I missed you, Grandma!”
“Oh, my little darling! Did you miss your Granny?”
Menhera scooped Duamutep up and tickled her sides, causing the little girl to wriggle and giggle joyfully.
“I’m sorry, Mother. The road was crowded, and we ended up late.”
Albus began unloading the bags he had brought.
“It’s fine. It’s a holiday. You’ve already worked hard traveling this far.”
Albus, Dua, and Menhera sat together in the living room, sharing stories and laughter.
Seeing her son and granddaughter after such a long time was enough to fill Menhera’s heart with happiness.
“Eek! Stop! No more!”
Dua, her cheeks puffed out with fruit Menhera had fed her, pushed away the fork.
“You need to eat more. Look how thin you are.”
From Menhera’s perspective, Dua was alarmingly skinny.
She couldn’t bear the thought of her granddaughter and son being underfed, so she used the money she’d carefully saved to prepare a spread of Shine Muscats and nectarines.
She kept feeding them to Dua, though it was clear her granddaughter had already eaten plenty.
“Ha ha, Mother. She’s had over ten plates already. It’s time for dinner,” Albus interjected.
Menhera, who was about to push another piece of fruit into Dua’s mouth, stopped at Albus’s words.
‘True, no matter how precious the fruit is, it can’t replace a proper meal. But still, my little angel… looking at those thin arms, she must be eating at least seven meals a day!’
To Albus, Dua seemed more on the chubby side, with her small and stocky frame.
But to Menhera, she looked nothing short of malnourished.
“Hehe, it was delicious!”
After finishing her meal and helping clean up, Dua patted her round, protruding belly with a satisfied grin.
“My sweetie, how about some dessert to help you digest?”
“No… no more…!”
Even though dinner had ended, Menhera’s feeding schedule had not.
After a playful struggle, the three of them gathered in the living room again, chatting and watching television.
“Mother, would you like to see something?”
Albus pulled out his smartphone and handed it to Menhera.
“Oh dear, my old eyes can’t read such small text anymore.”
“Just a moment.”
After a bit of fiddling, Albus enlarged the font and handed the phone back to her.
“What’s this?”
The screen showed a search engine page, its history neatly displayed below.
“I lent Dua my phone for a bit, and she secretly searched for these. They were so sweet and endearing that I thought you’d like to see them too.”
Menhera adjusted her glasses and focused on the list of search terms.
- How to see grandma
- How to meet grandma
- How to fall asleep quickly
- Grandma’s house
- Time for Chuseok
- Directions to visit grandma
“All of this… our little Dua searched for these secretly. She missed you so much, Mother. Though, I think she finds the amount of food you give her a bit overwhelming.”
“Oh, my sweet little angel!”
Menhera caught Dua, who was rolling around on the sofa, and lifted her up high.
“Hieek! Grandma!”
“My precious darling! Did you miss this grandma so much?”
Proud, touched, and overwhelmed by her granddaughter’s love,Menhera rubbed her face against Dua’s soft cheeks.
***
A pitch-black mental space.
“…My… sweet angel… you need to… eat more…”
In the depths of Menhera’s mental world, Albus observed the sleeping Menhera, who was trapped in an illusion, muttering as if in a dream.
The plan had worked.
Menhera’s original consciousness was entirely ensnared in the fabricated illusion, constructed perfectly to reflect her desires using Albus’s knowledge and experience.
Within that illusion,Menhera could find peace and fulfillment.
Albus surveyed the surrounding mental landscape.
My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥
The deranged nature of Menhera’s inner world was palpable.
Having spent thousands of years in anguish after losing her son, it wasn’t surprising that her psyche was this warped.
If anything foreign intruded into this deranged mental space, instead of being consumed, it would likely be tainted black and devoured in reverse.
That level of madness explained why, in her desperation to bring her son back, she would go so far as to destroy his reincarnation.
LV ??? [???]
“Right, [System]?”
The voice came from an entity that had once taken the form of a massive outer god.
Now, however, it had assumed Menhera’s exact appearance, a testament to its corruption by her influence.
“It’s been a while.”
Albus addressed the entity submerged in the deepest recesses of the mental space.
This was the Void God, the transcendent deity that once invaded the continent, now devoured and imprisoned within Menhera’s mind.
Though it had become a fragment of Menhera’s twisted affection, its overwhelming corruption continued to provoke and distort her original consciousness.
Albus stared into the darkness.
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