Blessed by Night

Chapter 81  His Mother

The screaming of the doppelgänger was truly horrendous, and Malachi felt like he was listening to some kind of dreadful sonnet. When his eyes fluttered open, the first thing he saw was the beautiful and always cheery Bianca, with a face that was smeared with blood. "B..."

On the other side of the cavern, he could see Aisha embedded into the stone wall. Not only was she bleeding from her abdomen, but she was also bleeding heavily from her face just like Bianca. Although it was very clear that she had endured much worse treatment, as the sight of her was nothing short of heartbreaking. Spurred on by the scene of the women he cared about hurt, Malachi buried his knuckles in the dirt as he finally started to push himself up from the ground.

He was only able to lift his head up a few inches away from the dirt before a foot landed on the nape of his neck and brutally forced him back down. "GIVE BACK THE TREASURED YOU REVOLTING CREATURE! DO WHAT YOUR MOTHER TELLS YOU! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SUCH A DISGRACE?!!"

The doppelganger continued to stomp on top of Malachi's head with seemingly no end in sight. 'Damn... I have to get us out of this.' Mal thought.

Crackle. Malachi ran a strong current of electricity all over his body, and the doppelganger was temporarily stunned by the voltage.

"AAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

Malachi used this brief opening to escape from underneath the boss and put some much needed space between them.

Even though his vision was still blurry from having his head stomped in, he could now see very clearly that this thing wasn't his mother.

"Why the hell do you look like that?! You think this shit is funny?!" Ten daggers flew out of Malachi's pockets on their own and pointed at the monster wearing his mother's face.

However, the creature seemed to be largely unconcerned with anything that did not involve the beast egg that had been taken from it. "YOU THIEF GIVE IT BACKK!!!" Once again, the doppelgänger displayed inhuman speed as it rushed at Mal before he could even react. Booom!

After receiving a hard punch to the stomach, Mal's body was temporarily lifted from the ground and he felt a few of his organs rupture.

"Ugh!"

The doppelgänger immediately snatched him out of the air by his neck and held him above her head. "GIVE IT BACK GIVE IT BACK GIVE IT BACKKKK!!!"

She continued to pummel his ribs and abdomen with her free hand, and even Mal's electric bursts no longer seemed to be working to dissuade her.

'Damn it... why is this happening?'

-

Malachi blinked, and suddenly he was no longer in the boss room getting pummeled, but in a black void filled with stars.

All around him, he was surrounded by a swirling galaxy filled with beautiful dark colors.

It took him a moment to realize that he was not alone and he was currently in a woman's embrace with a pair of breasts pressed against his back. "It's been too long since we've had a chat, my son." "Nyx?" The goddess of the night suddenly released Malachi and spun him around to face her. She gently cupped her face in his hands and looked at him with a pitiful expression. "Malachi... do you know that I do not particularly like humans?" Mal was admittedly surprised that she so openly admitted such a thing, but he nodded yes nonetheless. Studying with Rowan had allowed him to learn a great deal about Nyx as well as her usual disdain for humanity. "But you, my boy are the exception. I love you very much because I see in you all of the qualities that most of them claim to embody. And even if you are not perfect, you have never once stopped growing."

Suddenly, her black eyes became a bit more serious as she continued. "But my dear boy... that is also why you are having such a difficult time lately." "What do you mean?"

"You're too trusting. You believe that most everyone is honest and has good intentions just because you do and that is simply not the case. You are also gentle and overflowing with hope, but that is also the reason why the creature you are currently facing was able to manipulate you so." Malachi flinched in his Nyx's gentle grasp, and her eyes softened a bit as she took his hands. "Do you know why the mimic took the form of your mother?"

"No... I don't." "It is because you had the potential to harm it and were also the easiest to manipulate. It red your memories in an instant and used it's shapeshifting abilities to create a scenario you desperately wanted to believe." Malachi hung his head in shame. His emotions had put both Bianca and Aisha in jeopardy, and it was all the fault of his foolish delusions. Nyx quietly pressed her forehead against his and spoke to him so gently that he hardly heard her. "Even though I am not the mother who gave birth to you, will you listen to me anyway?"

Malachi nodded without a moment's hesitation and Nyx spoke to him as if she were really his parent. "If you're going to be kind, then you must also be conscious. I'm not asking you to turn into the same kind of egotistical monster that we both despise, but I am telling you that you should learn how to see things for what they are, and act accordingly.

If you do not learn this soon, then the likelihood of you being taken advantage of and the people that you love being hurt as a result increases everyday."

That was undoubtedly Malachi's worst nightmare, and he could not imagine the amount of guilt he would feel if any of the women around him suffered so much as a scratch. "I won't let that happen... I'll do whatever it takes." Nyx revealed a smile more beautiful than all of the stars in the sky and gave the young man a reassuring hug. "You know that I think of you as my own son, don't you?" "...I do." He said with a mild guilty feeling.

"Fufufu~ Don't be uncomfortable. I am not trying to replace the mother you lost, but I do want to care for you in my own special way. I hope that you'll eventually come to see me as such but I will not force you."

Before Malachi could respond, he received a gentle yet firm push that sent him falling backwards.

Nyx waved him goodbye with her same charming smile, and said a sentence that nearly made his eyes pop out of his skull.

"I'll be coming to visit you soon! And I'll be having a little chat with these three women who seem to have fallen in love with you~"

'That sounds...Wait, three? 'Nyx had already met Sei and approved of her, so why was she saying there were three more women left for her to meet? n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

He knew about Luna and Bianca, but other than that who else could it be?

'Well... I guess I'll find out soon enough.' Before he vanished, he smiled helplessly and let the goddess know that he would be waiting for her.

"Sounds good. I'll see you then, mother."

After he left this space, Nyx smiled warmly as she placed a hand over her chest. She was quite surprised to hear Malachi call her mother so suddenly, and it had sincerely warmed her ancient heart. She was so overcome with happiness she was tempted to plunge the world into eternal darkness and give it to her son with a bow wrapped around it.

"You have no idea what it means to accept me as your mother, my son.... I am quite touched."

-

As the doppelganger held Mal's body overhead, a chill ran down her spine and she felt an instinctive sense of danger. She quickly released the young man and did a massive backwards leap before crawling up the wall like some kind of monstrous spider. "What is this..!?" She hissed. She watched in horror as the shadows within the room vibrated and rushed directly towards Malachi.

All of the surrounding darkness was easily absorbed by his body, and his flesh and skin burned away from the drastic influx of energy. The clothes he was wearing simply passed through his body harmlessly, as if they were not capable of making contact with him in this form.

Slowly, Malachi stood up and revealed a completely changed physique. All of the features that made him such a handsome and easily recognizable man were now gone save for his very long dreadlocks.

His body was now resembled a living mass of darkness, stars, and nebulas, quite similar to that of Nyx.

But unlike her, he had no eyes, nose, mouth, or ears. Even though he hadn't actually done anything, the mimic was already trembling with fear. Malachi's power was now very clearly leagues above her own, and she had no choice but to rely on his weak heart to remain alive and recover the egg she was supposed to protect.

"My son... you wouldn't hurt your mother, would you? You know how much I love you...I'm just very sick and I need you to help me with-"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!