Chapter 509: Parasitic Brainwashing

“Ughh… my head.” I wake up and look around. I’m in a room full of furniture that looks almost normal, but the smell of everything is suspicious, and the colors are all the same—everything is pinkish.

It’s furniture made of tentacles! Immediately I sit up, but I feel as if something is crawling inside my head. Besides that, my head feels heavier.

“…” I start trying to overheat my body to kill whatever got in there, using the trait I stole from Lilith, but as soon as my body begins to heat up, I feel something cold filling my skull.

I writhe and fall to the floor, convulsing for a few seconds while everything seems to blur.

“A-aah…” It feels like my brain is turning to mush. Something viscous is soaking my brain, preventing my body from overheating.

“Hi, Pandora.” I look toward the sound and see Mnemosyne. A cold rage surges for just an instant, until I’m hit by pure confusion, as if I don’t quite understand what I’m supposed to be feeling.

“Mother?” I say, confused. Something is very wrong inside my head. How is she my mother? Why do I feel she’s my mother? Why does my body just accept this? Something clashes with my memories.

“…” She approaches me, and I try to punch her, but my punch comes out so weak it’s like I’m hitting her with a pillow.

“Haa… haaa” I breathe heavily. The headache is strange, and my body refuses to hurt this woman who is my “Mother.”

“Is something wrong, daughter?”

“Y-You’re not my mother…” I say, but there’s no confidence in my voice. Something is scrambled. Something seems to be missing, and I have some memories with her. They seem displaced, but they exist.

’It’s a lie… it’s all a lie… I don’t know this freak!’ I try to use magic to remove whatever is in my brain, but this thing clings firmly, sensing the threat, and it makes me writhe and almost fall, but I’m caught by Mnemosyne.

“…” She looks into my eyes and gives a sweet, maternal smile that makes me melt in her arms. I feel something being injected into my brain. I try to bite her, but even my bite comes out weak, unable to injure her.

“Aahh, daughter, you’re so feisty,” she says with an exaggerated moan.

“S-Stop fooling me! You’re not my mother!” My voice comes out slurred, clear effects of something wrong, but the wrong feels right.

“…” I gather all the magic I have and fire it in a beam without aiming at her. The beam hits her, but the amount of magic is so small it does nothing.

“What impressive willpower… but, daughter…”

“Don’t call me that!! I only have the Goddess of the Abyss as a mother and—”

“But I was there. Where did your regeneration come from? Have you already forgotten what I told you, daughter? Your regeneration came from using my body as a base.” When she says this, I stop talking.

Something seems to click into place in my brain. I feel whatever is inside there moving, shifting the strange memories like pieces of a wrong puzzle that somehow fit together.

“Mother?”

“Yes, I am your mother. I’m not replacing the Goddess of the Abyss. Echidna-sama is also your mother. We are both your mothers.” She hugs me. Her smile is so genuine it seems to break through my defenses.

“S-Status…” I open my status, but everything is blurry. I can’t see my information, as if something is interfering with my vision.

“No, no, daughter. Status is only for obedient daughters. You haven’t been very obedient lately. Remember when you fought the heroes and injured your arm? If you had followed my advice, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.” She says something that confuses me.

“H-Huh? You weren’t there… were you?” I don’t remember. Everything is a mess. How does she know that? Was she really there?

“S-Stop fooling me! You weren’t there! I got revenge by myself! I don’t need anyone’s help!” I shout, trying to push her away.

“Yes, daughter, you did it by yourself. But I was there, proud of what you did.”

“Stop rewriting what I did, you lunatic!” I try to push her harder, but she hugs me firmly. My tail whips the floor violently until I feel calmer.

“There, there, feeling better?” she asks, stroking my head.

“W-What was I talking about again?” I get confused, as if everything that happened vanished in a second.

“I don’t know, daughter? But if you don’t remember, it must not be important, right?”

“A-Ah… yes, Mother… it must be…” I put my hand to my ear and see blood trickling out, but I feel no pain.

“…?”

“Don’t worry, daughter. Just calm down and wait… I’ll make you feel better if it hurts.”

“Hurts… yes, it hurts… my brain is throbbing…”

“It’s alright, daughter. I’ll make you feel much better… trust me?”

“Mhm…”

“Then just relax.” When she says this with a smile, I feel something being injected into my brain. My muscles relax, and I slump into her arms, feeling calmer.

“Daughter, I hadn’t noticed how much you’ve grown. Look how magnificent you’ve become. I remember when you were little, when you hatched from that egg. Now look at the strong, beautiful woman you’ve become.” She praises me, stroking my back.

“Y-Yes, I’ve grown a lot…” I say, somewhat embarrassed.

“Yes, you’re so mature now… so, daughter, how about helping your mommy here? I want more children. You know how I need many tentacles to maintain my power, right? Would you like to help me?”

“…” I say nothing until I feel a stab in my brain. I immediately feel hot, very hot, as if I’m melting.

“Aahhh… haaa…” I breathe slowly, feeling my whole body heat up, and then I remember Mommy Mnemosyne having her children—memories of when she showed me the process.

’W-When was that?…’ I don’t remember. I have the memories, the method, what she does, but I don’t remember when she showed me. When did that happen?

“…” She stares into my eyes. She seems frustrated about something.

“Daughter, I’m disappointed in you.”

“W-what?” My voice comes out weak, with a tremble that has never happened before in my entire life.

“Yes, I’m very disappointed in you, daughter. How can you refuse to help your mother like this? After all I’ve done for you, now you can’t even answer something so simple?” She begins to cry.

Her tears drip onto my breasts, trickling to the floor. This makes me look directly at her, and then I start to cry. An overwhelming fear hits me for having disappointed my mother.

“I-I’m sorry… I-I didn’t mean to… M-Mother, I’m sorry.” I look down like a child who did something wrong. My body trembles with fear of having disappointed her too much.

“I-I’ll do anything!! I-I’m sorry for not answering! I-I remember!!! Please forgive me!” I apologize, but apologizing feels so… wrong… as if it’s not normal.

How many times have I apologized in my life? Almost never, and those times were very limited. So, begging for forgiveness in tears like this feels… wrong… but why is it wrong?

“…Apologies don’t change anything, Pandora… my disappointment won’t vanish so easily… but it’s fine. I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself, daughter…” She lowers her gaze, and I understand.

“I-I’ll do it… y-you can put your tentacles in me.” I say with a smile, even though something seems wrong, I can’t figure out what it is. But as soon as she smiles, I feel such intense euphoria that my legs go weak.

“Excellent, daughter. Thank you for deciding to help Mommy here. Then we can start right away!” She begins to lay me down on the floor. The floor is soft and smooth.

“M-Mother… b-but what about Mommy Echidna…” I don’t understand how I have two mothers? This gap is strange. Mnemosyne is my mother, but Echidna is also my mother. This strange gap is interpreted as being “the same,” as if Mnemosyne is attaching herself to the place of my mother, and it confuses me.

“…” She stops at my question.

“Daughter, do you want to make me angry? Or do you want to make Mommy Echidna angry? You know Echidna hates weak little girls who disappoint her, right? Remember your sister? You don’t want to be a failure like your older sister, do you?” When she says this, fear surges in me.

“N-No!! I don’t want that!!” I know well how my sister is treated. She, who is seen as a failure, can barely speak with our mother. I don’t want to end up like her.

“Then you shouldn’t disappoint me, right? You don’t want me to ever get angry and disappointed again, right?”

“N-No!! I… I’ll be better…”

“That’s right. You’re better than that failure of an older sister. You’re special! The best of all, so you must strive to always be the best.”

“So, Pandora, will you be better than you are now?” she asks with a big smile on her face, waiting for an answer.

“I… will… uhhmm… I…” I get confused. What should I be? My brain can’t find the answer, which is strange. Why have my cognitive abilities declined? I, who was capable of formulating millions of thoughts per second, can’t find a word.

But something moves in my brain, as if searching for the word for me. I look at Mommy Mnemosyne, who waits patiently.

“I-I…” Her smile slowly fades, like a clock showing my time, but my brain finds the answer before her smile vanishes.

“I-I’ll be the best mommy for your tentacles,” I say with an almost too-foolish smile.

“That’s right, daughter. You’ll be the mommy of my tentacles. I’m glad you know.” She strokes my head as I lie on the floor. A strange joy rises with all of this.

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