I lay there, my face pressed against the cold, hard floor, my body refusing to cooperate. The ghost girl's energy was like nothing I'd ever felt before—a depressive force that seemed to suck the life right out of me.
I lay there on the ground, helpless, and watched the ghost girl continue to hang herself.
"Burn me... End my torment..."
The ghost girl kept pleading, her body still swaying as her dead weight slowly pulled her down the wall.
I could hear Lilis sniveling beside me, her usual feisty demeanor completely crushed by the aura of despair emanating from her new sister.
"Ugh... get a grip, Morgana," I muttered to myself, forcing my hands to push up off the ground. My muscles trembled with the effort, but I managed to sit up, glaring at the ghost girl who was still suspended in mid-air.
"You're a goddess, for fuck's sake. This is nothing compared to the wars you've fought, the enemies you've slain."
And yet, as I looked into those blank, soulless eyes, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of fear. There was something deeply wrong about her—a darkness that not even my divine soul could withstand.
The worst part?
Her aura of depression made me doubt everything.
My accomplishments, my family, my very existence—it all seemed pointless, including sex and breeding.
Yup... for a moment I lost my horniness and the will to breed.
CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!! ME? MORGANA? THE MOTHER OF ALL? THE GODDESS OF BREEDING?
Lost her will to breed?
It's like... like... a chef lost her appetite for food! Unthinkable!
I'm a horny goddess, dammit! A being of pure, unadulterated lust and desire. I've fucked gods, monsters, and every creature in between. I've given birth to the World Tree itself! And yet, this...
"Oy!... Lilis... I'm scared," I winced, my voice trembling slightly as I stared at the ghost girl who was still trying to kill herself.
"Me too, Mommy... I'm scared too," Lilis whimpered. She regained her composure and crawled towards me, wrapping her arms around my waist, her body trembling against mine.
"She's... she's scarier than any demon I've ever faced," she whispered, burying her face in my shoulder.
"She's... she's worse than the thought of you not having sex for a week," I added, hugging her back tightly.
"What are we going to do, Mommy?"
"I don't know," I admitted, my mind racing. "I don't know."
The ghost girl's aura of despair was still affecting us slightly, but only the physical contact with her seemed to trigger that all-consuming depression.
'Herma! explain!' I exclaimed inwardly, calling my system. 'Why the hell is my new kid so emo?! And how the fuck does her aura affect me?!!'
Ding!
Herma's response was to slap the ghost girl's information in my face. It was about damn time.
[Name: Lament
Title: The Second Tower Manager
Race: Undead
Class: Flesh Doctor
Level: 400
Skills: Despair Aura (Passive), Vivisection Insight (Passive), Memory Manipulation, Psychokinesis, Stitchwork Anatomy, and Ethereal Form]
'Oh!... she's an undead, not a ghost,' I thought, rereading the information. 'So that means I can breed her?'
[...]
'Phew... I still got my horniness,' I sighed in relief.
'So what's the meaning of Flesh Doctor?' I asked Herma again. I needed all the information I could get.
Ding!
...
[Flesh Doctor: A practitioner of forbidden arts who specializes in the manipulation of living and dead flesh. They are masters of anatomical reconstruction, capable of creating and modifying biological constructs through a combination of alchemical processes and necromantic rituals.]
...
'Forbidden flesh arts?... interesting,' I rubbed my chin, a wicked grin spreading across my face. 'But that does not explain why she could affect me with her aura?'
Ding!
...
[Despair Aura (Passive): A field of psychic energy that constantly emanates from the user, causing feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, and a desire for self-termination in those within its radius. The effectiveness of this aura is directly proportional to the target's emotional sensitivity and mental fortitude. Higher-level beings are not immune, as the aura directly affects the soul.]
...
"Eh?" I blinked at that last line. "...directly affects the soul."
'But Herma!... I'm inside the tower, I should be immune to anything!'
As far as I know, inside the Nightmare Tower, nothing can affect me. I'm literally immortal.
Ding!
[Morgana, the tower's immunity system is set to default, which only prevents 'Harmful' and 'Lethal' attacks. Lament's Despair Aura is not classified as either. As The Tower Master, you can manually adjust this setting.]
"Great," I muttered, rubbing my temples. "Fucking fantastic. My kid is basically a walking antidepressant in reverse."
Lilis shivered harder, gripping my waist like a lifeline.
"Mommy… I don't like her aura. It feels like… like someone stuffed my heart into a blender… then forgot to turn it off…"
"Yeah, I know," I whispered, patting her head. "Mommy feels like she lost her will to moan during sex. That's how you KNOW shit is serious."
I forced myself back onto my feet—even though every movement felt like I was wading through liquid misery—then looked up at Lament.
She was still hanging.
Still swaying.
Still whispering.
"Hang me… burn me… let me die…"
"BY MY HOLY TITS, GIRL!" I snapped, throwing my hands in the air. "Do you ever shut up?! Seriously! For someone who wants to be dead so bad, you sure talk a lot about it!"
Crack!
Her head twitched. Not rotated. Not turned.
Twitched, like her neck bones were grinding together.
Slowly, her dead eyes drifted down toward me, staring right into my soul like a black hole dressed in a little undead girl's skin.
Whoosh!
The aura spiked.
A wave of pure, suffocating despair slammed into me so hard my knees buckled. My vision dimmed. My breathing hitched. I actually—ACTUALLY—felt the instinct to give up.
To stop fighting.
To just… lie down and fade away.
And then—
SLAP!
Lilis slapped my cheek.
"Mommy! Don't go blank! Stay horny! STAY WITH ME!" she cried, gripping my shoulders and shaking me like a broken snow globe. "Think of… think of all the things we're gonna do once we get rid of her! Think of breeding new monsters! Think of the fun, lewd things we could do with the new toys!"
The slap stung, but it was exactly what I needed—like a lightning bolt straight to my clit. My eyes snapped wide, the fog in my soul shattering as Lilis's desperate, teary face filled my vision.
"Lilis…" I breathed, grabbing her wrists and yanking her into a fierce, hungry kiss. My tongue invaded her mouth like I owned it—because I do—and I felt my divine lust roar back to life, hotter than ever.
Fuck despair.
Fuck giving up.
The only thing I was about to give up was my load deep inside something warm and wet.
I broke the kiss with a growl, my hands slamming Lilis onto her back against the floor. Her wings splayed out like shattered glass, eyes widening as I pinned her thighs apart with my knees.
"Spread wide, daughter," I snarled, my cock throbbing hard against her slick entrance. "Mommy needs to fuck this despair right out of us."
"M-Mommy!" Lilis gasped, her tail whipping across my calf, nails digging into my arms. "Yes... do it! Pound me until we forget everything!"
I didn't waste a second.
I thrust forward in one brutal shove, burying my length deep into her heat. Her walls clenched around me, pulling me in like a vice forged in hellfire. I rammed harder, hips slamming against hers, the wet slap echoing off the walls louder than Lament's pathetic whispers.
"Ngh.... fuck, yes!" Lilis arched, tears streaming down her cheeks as pleasure washed over her. "More! Hurt me! Make me forget! Make me feel alive!"
PAT! PAT! PAT!
I drove into Lilis harder, my cock stretching her tight heat with each savage thrust. Her moans rose higher, a lively symphony of desperation and release that drowned out the undead girl's whispers of misery.
...
Sweat slicked our bodies as I fucked the shit out of the little succubus. I didn't stop until I filled her with my hot cum more than five times. Then I swiftly opened the tower system and changed the immunity system for me and Lilis so that we were no longer affected by the aura.
"Haaah... So... what are we gonna do about her?" Lilis gasped, her body still trembling from the intense orgasm. She pointed at Lament, who was trying to change her tactic from death by hanging to death by impaling.
"Got any ideas?" I asked Lilis as I pulled my cock out of her, releasing a river of my cum onto the floor.
Lilis sat up, her emerald eyes fixed on Lament as the ghost girl tried to shove a spear she had conjured through her own chest.
"Ah!" As if she recalled something, Lilis leaned and whispered something to me.
Nodding, I stood up and walked to the suicidal undead.
"Hey! My sweet emo girl!" I began, my tone changing to something more motherly and caring. "You can't die yet, you still have a purpose, a duty."
She paused, her hands still on the spear. She turned her head slowly, her dead eyes seeming to search for any hint of deception.
"Purpose...?"
"Yes, a purpose," I said, my voice softening. "As the second tower manager, you have a very important job. You are in charge of floors eleven through twenty. You are to test the challengers, to make them stronger, to make them suffer in the most delicious ways."
I could see a flicker of something in her eyes, a tiny spark of interest that was quickly extinguished by her overwhelming despair.
"But... life... is meaningless... what is the point... of testing them... if they will all... die... anyway?"
"Because, my dear," I leaned closer, my breath hot against her cold skin, "I'll build a personal laboratory for you. A place where you can study the anatomy of any creature that enters your domain. You can explore the secrets of life and death to push the boundaries of what is possible. To create new life, to twist and corrupt existing forms, to perfect the art of fleshcraft."
A slow, subtle shift in her posture. The spear in her hands dropped, and Lament's dead eyes lit up with a glimmer of curiosity for the first time.
Lilis informed me about the undead girl's obsession with studying flesh, both living and dead. She wanted to understand the mechanics of life, the intricacies of the body, the secrets of the soul. And what better place to do that than a laboratory inside the Nightmare Tower filled with an endless supply of fresh, experimental subjects?
"So what do you think?" I asked, flashing a warm smile as I extended my hand to her. "Are you ready to walk the path of the mad flesh scientist and serve your mother as the second tower manager?"
"..."
Lament's dead eyes met mine, and for the first time, I saw something other than emptiness. It was hunger. A deep, abiding hunger for knowledge, for understanding, for the power that came from dissecting and reconstructing the very fabric of life.
"Yes... Mother."