Chapter 76:
King's Landing, Royal Medical Academy, Dean's Resting Chamber.
The faint light of dawn filtered lazily through the gaps in the heavy velvet curtains, spilling onto the disheveled wool chaise lounge. The air still carried the lingering musk of last night's passion mixed with a faint metallic scent of blood — the unmistakable aroma left behind by the entanglement of predator and prey.
Victor Pompeii fastened his belt and put on the marshal's uniform that symbolized absolute power. He glanced back at the lounge.
Lilith Mort lay curled up in the sheets. Her originally flawless skin was now covered in bruises and purple kiss marks — brands left by Victor when he had lost control the previous night. Her eyes were red and swollen, making her look as though she had just survived a violent storm, fragile enough to shatter at the slightest touch.
"Rest well." Victor leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead. His voice had lost some of its usual coldness and gained a trace of indulgent tolerance that belonged to an owner. "From today onward, you are my woman. In King's Landing, no one will dare cause you the slightest grievance."
Lilith timidly reached out, her fingertips hooking onto the hem of his coat, her voice hoarse. "My lord… will you come back?"
"Whenever I want." Victor gave a domineering smile and turned to stride away. The sense of conquest from thoroughly possessing a "saintess" left him in an unprecedentedly pleasant mood.
The moment the door closed.
The trembling fragility on Lilith's face vanished instantly. Like a slippery snake, she sat up from the sheets. There was no trace of tears left in her sapphire-blue eyes — only bone-chilling coldness and greed.
She reached out and gently stroked her still-flat abdomen.
[Black Mother Goddess System Notification:] [Congratulations, Host! "Chaos Conception" judgment successful!] [S-rank male gene collected (True Dragon / Fire Element / Industrial Overlord).] [Embryo status: Implanting. Estimated gestation period: Accelerated (fueled by maternal energy feedback).] [Special reward: Partial access to the opponent's system "底层 logic permissions" (parsing in progress…).]
"What a… strong seed."
Lilith extended her crimson tongue and licked her lips. She could feel a vast, scorching life force taking root and sprouting inside her body. It was Victor's power, now turned into fuel for her destruction of him.
"Children, are you ready to welcome this world?"
Barefoot, she walked to the window and looked out at King's Landing slowly awakening.
On this morning, in the city's sewers, the first wave of infected had already begun coughing up blood.
...
Forty-eight hours later. King's Landing, Flea Bottom.
"Help… help me!"
A shrill scream shattered the silence of the slum.
What had begun as scattered cases of the strange illness had exploded into a full-blown outbreak in just two days. The infected no longer simply had fevers. Their skin was now sprouting bizarre purple-black crystalline formations (an improvement Lilith had made by fusing Victor's intelligence on the "crystallized Others"). Their veins bulged grotesquely, and they mindlessly attacked anyone alive around them.
"This isn't an ordinary plague!"
A Pompeii medical officer wearing a hazmat suit stared in horror at the sample under the microscope.
"My lord! Penicillin is ineffective! Sulfonamides are ineffective! Even the maesters' herbal decoctions are useless! This thing… it's alive! It's devouring red blood cells!"
Victor stood outside the quarantine line, his face as dark as still water.
Behind him was a row of armored vehicles mounted with machine guns. To prevent riots, he had been forced to deploy the army to seal off the entire slum district.
"Damn it." Victor slammed his fist against the vehicle door. "Was Varys's intelligence wrong? Or has some other sorcerer slipped in?"
His first reaction was to blame an external enemy — perhaps a warlock from across the Narrow Sea, or a poison master from Dorne. He never once suspected the "frail and exhausted" Lilith lying in her sickbed. After all, on that frenzied night, he had personally confirmed her delicacy and helplessness.
"My lord! We can't hold them back!"
The Hound, Sandor Clegane, ran over covered in sweat. "The mob is storming the Mud Gate! They're calling this divine punishment, saying we dug open the hell beneath the North and brought forth this demon sickness!"
The situation was spiraling out of control.
Victor's industrial system was showing its first major weakness when faced with this supernatural "biochemical magical attack." His tanks could crush city walls, but they could not crush bacteria.
At that moment.
A holy white light suddenly pierced through the murky fog.
"Do not be afraid, my children."
A gentle yet firm voice, carrying a resonant echo, rang out across the chaotic streets.
Lilith Mort had appeared.
She wore a blood-stained white robe and walked barefoot through streets covered in filth and vomit. Her face remained deathly pale (maintained for her "weak" persona), but her eyes shone with frightening intensity.
Dozens of white-robed followers trailed behind her, each carrying a large silver urn.
"Drink this. It is the blessing of the Mother Goddess."
Lilith approached a rampaging thug whose body was covered in festering sores. Without the slightest disgust or fear of infection, she pulled him into her arms and fed him a spoonful of fragrant "holy water" (in reality, a mixture of viral inducers and temporary suppressants).
A miracle occurred.
Within seconds, the purple patches on the man's body began to recede, and his frenzied roars turned into peaceful breathing.
"A miracle… this is a miracle!"
The surrounding rioters froze, then erupted into earth-shaking cries and sobs.
They dropped the stones and wooden clubs in their hands and fell to their knees before Lilith like harvested wheat.
"Saintess Lilith!"
"Save us! Only you can save us!"
Lilith stood at the center of the crowd, arms spread wide as if embracing the suffering of the entire world. She raised her head slightly, her gaze cutting precisely through the kneeling masses to meet Victor's eyes in the distance.
There was no trace of the seductive charm she had shown on the chaise lounge — only a divine, compassionate "godliness."
...
One hour later, Red Keep, Council Chamber.
Victor looked at Lilith sitting across from him.
She appeared on the verge of fainting at any moment, yet right now she was the only lifeline left for all of King's Landing.
"What exactly is in that water?" Victor asked in a deep voice.
"It is my blood, my lord." Lilith smiled weakly and pulled up her sleeve, revealing countless fresh wounds on her arm. "My family possesses an ancient antibody. I know it sounds absurd, but… for the sake of your people, I am willing to bleed until my last drop."
Looking at those wounds, the last trace of suspicion in Victor's heart was washed away by a powerful wave of guilt.
"She went this far… for my city."
And the night before last, he had treated her so roughly in bed.
"Enough." Victor stood up, walked over to her, and took her hand with pained tenderness. "Stop hurting yourself. I will have people analyze your blood components and try to mass-produce the antibody."
"There's no time, my lord." Lilith gripped his hand back, tears welling in her eyes. "Only fresh, active blood works. Please, grant me authority over the city's entire well and water system. If I dilute my blood into the water supply… the plague can be stopped."
The water system.
It was the lifeline of King's Landing.
Victor hesitated for a single second.
But the desperate cries of the people outside the window, combined with the steadily dropping [City Stability] value on his system panel, forced his decision.
"Fine."
Victor unfastened the token from his waist that symbolized supreme administrative authority and placed it in Lilith's palm.
"From now on, the management of King's Landing's water supply belongs to you. But I have one condition — you are not allowed to die."
Lilith clenched the cold token tightly, feeling the residual warmth of Victor's body heat on it.
She lowered her head, her long hair concealing the狂喜 (ecstatic triumph) at the corner of her mouth.
"As you command… my King."
...
That night.
Lilith stood before the largest reservoir in King's Landing.
She did not slit her wrist to draw blood.
Instead, she simply took out the vial of [Black Mother Goddess · Second Stage Evolution Serum] and gently dripped it into the water.
It would indeed suppress the plague, but it had one major side effect — extreme addictiveness.
From this day forward, the people of King's Landing who drank this water would no longer be Victor's subjects.
They would become Lilith's faithful believers.
And if they ever stopped drinking the "holy water," the plague would return with tenfold fury.
Lilith watched the dark ripples spread across the water's surface and gently stroked her belly.
Inside, two tiny lives were beating joyfully.
[System Notification:] ["Twins" development progress: 5%.] [Maternal sphere of influence: Entire territory of King's Landing (water supply control).] [Next objective: Use "pregnancy symptoms" to remove Margaery Tyrell from the picture.]
"Victor, you thought you had conquered me."
Lilith smiled at her own reflection in the water — a smile more beautiful than any demon's.
"Little did you know, you were merely having an emperor's dream inside the cage I wove for you."
Early access to upcoming chapters is available on Patreon.
Support the translator and binge ahead! patreon.com/arthursink Means a lot – thank you! ✍️