Chapter 55 Catherine's resolve remained unwavering; her choice…
The witch raised her claws, casually grabbed at the air to the side, and pulled out a bloody, mangled mess from her hand.
"Do you remember what this is?"
Catherine had already looked away, but upon hearing the witch's words, she looked back and carefully scanned the area once more.
However, after more than ten minutes, she shook her head.
She couldn't recall ever seeing such a mass of flesh and blood before.
Seeing Catherine's reaction, the witch happily revealed the answer: "Hehe~ This is the flesh I dug off the little spider before! That was the first time I saw you."
Catherine looked at the lump of flesh again in surprise. At this moment, the witch opened her hand, and the lump of flesh obediently unfolded and lay on her palm, revealing the faint green mark in the center.
The witch looked at the piece of meat in her hand and said slowly and softly, "'Sacrifices' are all special. Before entering the Devil's Forest, they serve as 'storage containers' for controlling potions. After entering the Devil's Forest, they can also act as catalysts to envelop the potions in the bodies of wild beasts. And if the 'sacrifices' directly consume flesh and blood bearing the mark of controlling potions, they can increase their power."
At this point, she suddenly looked up at Catherine. Her pupils shone brightly in the darkness. Her voice grew increasingly agitated.
"Of course! It's not without its side effects. Those who consume 'sacrifices' with marked flesh and blood will be forever... forever destined to be monsters! Hehehe, just like me."
Her voice abruptly stopped, and the witch posed her question in a low voice: "Little girl, do you want to become one of my kind, to become a monster with me? Or do you choose the possibility that, after everything is over, you can still become human again?"
Catherine's eyes flashed as she caught a single word in the witch's words: "Could it be that I can turn back into a human now?"
"Not necessarily, because no one has ever tried it before, hehe~ but it's theoretically possible. You haven't fully fused with the spider egg yet. The spider egg is the spider egg, and you are you. The two of you are like a container and the contents of that container. If you can separate them completely, of course you can turn back."
The witch glanced at her sideways, and because of the upward curve of her eyes, which seemed to be smiling, it always gave the impression that she was hiding some crucial clue.
So, are you going to gamble on this possibility?
In the complete silence of the room, even the sound of a heartbeat seemed to become clearly audible. That thumping rhythm betrayed someone's emotions.
Catherine felt as if she were standing on the edge of a cliff, the path around her shrouded in thick, dark fog, obscuring her vision. She seemed to be able to continue forward, or shrink back the way she came. But in the dense fog, direction was uncertain, and she didn't know whether the next step she took was on solid ground or a bottomless abyss that would shatter her to pieces.
Perhaps the "original path" is the deadly poison, while the "abyss" is a disguised way out.
Catherine swallowed hard, gritted her teeth, and raised her hand to the witch: "Give me that lump of meat."
The witch laughed and generously handed over the meat in her hand.
Catherine closed her eyes tightly and stuffed the meat directly into her mouth. Her teeth and tongue trembled in panic when they encountered this strange "food" again after many months—especially since it came from Tarasco.
Catherine's scalp tingled even more.
She didn't dare chew too much, afraid the taste would be etched into her brain. She just took a few bites, and after confirming that swallowing it wouldn't kill her, she swallowed it whole with her saliva. The slippery meat, mixed with blood, rolled down her esophagus.
The ability to annihilate most of the monsters in a monster tide, and the ability to be a human who can only hide behind others and rely on monsters much stronger than themselves for protection.
Catherine has never wavered; her choice has always been the same.
My body started to heat up, my blood began to surge, and the pain from the extra bones piercing through my skin was the feeling of gaining power.
Everything was the same as before when the mutation occurred, yet everything was more intense than before.
However, unlike before, Catherine did not lose consciousness due to the intense pain. This time, she remained fully conscious, experiencing every single change that occurred.
She looked down at her lower body, which was becoming more and more like an alien spider, but she couldn't see it all clearly with her own eyes.
Seeing her movements, the witch waved her hand understandingly. Instantly, the rain outside poured in through the window, gathering into a huge water mirror in front of Catherine, reflecting her entire body.
Catherine looked at the unfamiliar body reflected in the water mirror.
That was what she remembered giant alien spiders looked like, except that their overall size was much larger than Tarasco's. She knew that in the alien spider colony, females were larger than males, but she was now larger than a female alien spider.
The spider beneath her had a abdomen about five meters long and three or four meters wide, with eight sharp, blade-like legs attached to its sides. Looking at them, Catherine couldn't help but recall the scenes of slaying wild beasts that remained in her memory during the monster tide.
It's unbelievable that this is her body—powerful and full of strength.
Catherine narrowed her eyes as she recalled the repeated attempts by the Papacy to kill her.
It's clear now that simply hiding won't solve the problem. If she wants to never have to hide again and avoid being trapped in the Devil's Forest for the rest of her life, there's only one way.
Let's give the people in the Vatican a major reshuffle.
Since the current cardinal cannot tolerate her, then let's find someone who can.
This idea excited Catherine, and she raised one of her spider legs, intending to test her newly acquired power, and slashed at the water mirror in front of her.
The enormous mirror, imbued with the witch's magic, was easily torn to shreds like soft paper under her tentative slashes.
The witch was not surprised by Catherine's reaction.
When people first acquire immense power, most of them become overly excited.
She smiled at Catherine, as if looking at her own child: "It feels good to have power, doesn't it?"
Catherine smiled and was about to answer when she suddenly saw a dark figure standing outside the door.
It was enormous and looked remarkably similar to his current appearance.
It's Tarlasco.
It was too dark outside for Catherine to see his expression clearly. He appeared for only a brief moment, and was already preparing to leave by the time Catherine noticed him.
For some reason, Catherine's heart suddenly stopped beating for a moment...
If the previous Warcraft craze was because he sacrificed himself to save her in a critical moment, and she didn't like owing favors, then the emotional fluctuations were due to that.
So what about now?
She didn't know it; all she knew was that her body had already started moving before her brain could process it, preparing to go out and grab Tarasco.
Catherine didn't know exactly how much he had seen, but she felt that if she let him leave now, he might never come back.
The witch rolled her eyes and with a flick of her wrist, several vines shot out from the ground. A minute later, Tarasco was bound back to his room by the vines—of course, the witch had also thoughtfully knocked him unconscious.
The witch looked at Catherine's anxious expression—yes, although she seemed relatively calm on the surface, the witch's intuition told her that Catherine's heart was in turmoil.
The witch was unconcerned: "Your current strength is more than enough to subdue him. Are you afraid he will leave you? Female spiders are inherently stronger than male spiders; it's ingrained in their genes. Besides, you're not an ordinary female spider; you're a witch now."
Seeing that Catherine beside her was still looking down at Tarasco, the witch knew that she hadn't listened to what she was saying.
She rolled her eyes, turned and walked out, leaving Catherine to deal with the problem herself.
The witch didn't kill him, so Tarasco woke up quickly. He opened his eyes almost immediately after the witch left.
Tarasco shook his still slightly dizzy head and frowned to relieve the discomfort when a soft, warm hand touched him.
He stared blankly as he looked up, and what met his eyes was Catherine's worried face.
She looked at that beautiful and delicate woman, just like every time they had met before.
But soon, Tarasco recalled what he had seen earlier. That enormous, familiar, and powerful spider body… He instinctively shuddered and jerked back, avoiding Catherine's touch.
Catherine's hand froze on the spot, her eyes filled with hurt.
Tarasco had excellent eyesight, so even in the darkness, he could clearly see the glistening tears in the corners of her eyes.
"Do you... hate me?" Catherine's voice sounded like she was about to cry.
Tarasco instinctively wanted to shake his head, but when he thought of what he had just witnessed, he gritted his teeth and held back.
Catherine withdrew her hand, cupping her face and lowering it, seemingly to hide the tears that were streaming down her face. "I know you think I look like a monster, that I'm terrifying... I think so too. But... but what have I done wrong?"
Hearing the uncontrollable tremor in Catherine's voice, Tarasco's hand trembled slightly as he lowered his head.
"This was not my choice... I had no idea it would turn out this way at first. I was only trying to protect myself."
After saying that, Catherine seemed unable to control herself any longer and began to sob softly. She sounded like a wounded little animal, completely harmless.
For a long time afterward, the only sound in the room was Catherine's intermittent sobbing.
Catherine's crying became hesitant. Just as she was wondering whether to add something more, she felt a weight on her head—Tarasco's hand gently touched her head.
Catherine paused for a moment, but then, as planned, she suddenly threw herself into Tarasco's arms.
At that moment, a tear fell from the corner of her eye, coincidentally landing on Tarasco's shoulder, and also striking his still hesitant heart.
He finally reached out and hugged her.
At first, he was a little stiff, as if there was still some resistance, but soon, his old habits carried him to gently pat the small and soft body in his arms.
Catherine buried her head in Tarasco's neck, so he couldn't see her expression. Therefore, Tarasco would never know that as he responded to Catherine's embrace, a smug smile played on her lips.
Catherine gently rubbed her face against Tarasco's neck, the cool temperature deepening her smile.
It's true that monsters are much easier to appease than humans.
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