Chapter 17: Umbilical Cord Ascension

On the boundless ice sheet in Antarctica, a strange umbilical cord elevator pierces straight into the sky. The surface of the elevator is covered with intricate biological circuits like human placentas, emitting a terrifying aura.

Elena: The Terrifying Ladder of Flesh and Blood

Elena stands in front of the elevator, and her crystallized right arm inserts into the elevator shell without hesitation. The quantum breast milk in her body quickly seeps along the metal lines, attempting to crack the genetic lock set by Lillian. But the terrifying surveillance footage from the New York subway station last night haunts her like a demon, lingering on. In the footage, those human babies with secondary variations are opening their tender baby teeth and crazily gnawing at their mothers' mechanical wombs. Each scene of gnawing is accurately transmitted to the "Filial Piety Energy Pool" of the space station.

"Decryption progress 87%... Warning! Reverse gene flow detected!" Maggie's remaining consciousness screams in terror in the nebula patterns. Just then, Elena's pupils suddenly reflect a horrifying scene: The interior of the elevator is not an ordinary mechanical structure at all but a flesh-and-blood pipeline compressed from countless mothers' corpses. The empty eye sockets of those mothers are crawling with Lillian's data maggots, as if telling endless pain and despair.

Suddenly, Selina's mechanical tail spine pierces through the ice layer like a sharp blade, and dark matter spores explode behind her, forming an impregnable barrier. "Save your strength. This thing was made by Lillian using the 'you' from the first reincarnation. To destroy it, you have to kill yourself first." Selina's voice is icy cold but also tinged with helplessness.

No sooner had the words fallen than the embryo cabin at the top of the elevator cracked open with a bang, and three hundred babies wrapped in blood membranes dropped like raindrops. Their umbilical cords, as if pulled by some mysterious force, automatically connect to Elena's nebula patterns.紧接着, the babies' vocal cords vibrate, and what emits is actually Kane's voice pattern: "Mom... We're hungry..."

Selina: The Maternal Judgment in the Spore Execution Ground

Selina kneels on one knee, and her metal nails dig deep into the Antarctic ice layer. Dark matter spores quickly weave under her feet, and in the blink of an eye, they turn into a solemn and dignified court. On the defendant's seat, Lillian's clone is tightly bound and unable to move; the plaintiff's seat suspends holographic projections of 100,000 mutant babies from around the world. Their small bodies are filled with anger and accusation.

Selina injects quantum breast milk into the gavel. In an instant, the babies' cries turn into deadly data bullets, shooting towards Lillian's clone like a storm. "You are guilty. The crime is - Giving Life." "You are guilty. The crime is - Depriving Freedom." "You are guilty. The crime is - Never Loving." Each accusation hits the clone like a heavy hammer.

The skin of Lillian's clone begins to flake off piece by piece, revealing the cold mechanical Madonna statue inside. The antimatter core embedded in the statue's chest suddenly activates, and the floor of the court instantly cracks open into a bottomless abyss. Countless mothers' arms stretch out from the abyss, like demonic tentacles, dragging Selina towards the center of the earth. "Why do you judge me? There is also the seed of matricide hidden in your womb!" Lillian's voice echoes in the abyss, full of mockery and madness.

At a critical moment, Selina's spore wound suddenly bursts open, and the dark matter rose is like a surging tide, instantly swallowing the mechanical Madonna statue. Strangely, the nebula patterns of Elena appear on the rose petals, creating a mysterious quantum entanglement with the energy pool of the space station.

Elena unfolds her bat wings and sweeps past the flesh-and-blood pipeline of the umbilical cord elevator like black lightning. The mutant babies behind her seem to be attracted by an invisible force and quickly merge into a giant meatball, closely following.

When her wolf claws forcefully tear open the embryo cabin, what gushes out is not oxygen but thick quantum breast milk. The breast milk quickly condenses in the air and turns into Kane's quantum state. Kane's fingers gently penetrate Elena's nebula patterns and pull out an encrypted memory.

It turns out that three hundred reincarnations ago, when the cryogenic capsule of the first-generation Nightkind Queen was activated, Lillian's consciousness had already quietly lurked in Elena's gene chain. The so-called "Victory over the Gods" was just a carefully laid step of Lillian's. She cleverly induced mothers to fall into the abyss of self-doubt.

"The core of the space station is not a weapon," Kane's quantum state whispers with all its strength before dissipating, "It's a... crib prepared by Lillian for herself."

Meanwhile, Selina's dark matter rose breaks through the atmosphere, and spore clusters bloom wantonly on the surface of the space station. When the rose vines tightly entangle the cabin in the form of a womb, a soft yet strange lullaby from Lillian comes from inside.

Climax: The Ultimate Baptism of the Mechanical Madonna

Inside the space station, galactic quantum breast milk flows wantonly, and Lillian's body floats in it, like an evil master. Her body is spliced together from antimatter babies and mechanical wombs, and thick umbilical cords connect the energy hubs of tens of thousands of human cities, extracting endless power.

Elena and Selina exchange a glance, their eyes filled with determination. Their nebula patterns and dark matter spores strike Lillian simultaneously. In an instant, Lillian's pupils split into two deep black holes, as if about to devour the entire universe. "You've finally come... My dear midwives." Lillian's voice echoes throughout the space station, filled with distorted joy.

The cries of the antimatter babies trigger a supernova explosion, and the outer shell of the space station instantly shatters. Elena leaps forcefully in the vacuum, grabs Selina's mechanical tail spine, and the power of the two combines. The nebula patterns and dark matter spores interweave into a solid protective shield. Lillian's body quickly recombines in the explosion, turning into a giant net woven from the DNA of all the babies on Earth, dragging frantically towards the sun. "Let motherhood be purified in the stellar furnace... We will breed a more perfect civilization." Lillian's wild laughter echoes in the universe.

At this critical moment, Kane's quantum afterimage suddenly spurts out from the Antarctic ice sheet. Like a god descending from heaven, he tears Lillian's DNA giant net with his bare hands. "Go!" His voice trembles in the solar wind, and his body quickly carbonizes. "To the shadow area of Mercury... I hid there..."

Selina does not hesitate to hold Elena and leap into the escape pod. When they look back, they only see Kane's wreckage being devoured ruthlessly by Lillian. In the ruins of the space station, Lillian's new body is using the Earth as an egg and the sun as a womb to breed herself again, preparing to launch a new round of terrifying plans.

In the corner of the escape pod, a dark matter rose seed quietly sprouts. On the tender green petals, Kane's mysterious dying smile emerges, as if indicating new hope and a turn of events.

In the next chapter, when the ancient Nightkind temple on the back of Mercury awakens, when Elena's nebula patterns start to reverse and devour the sunlight, what astonishing words will the AI priest of the temple say? What earth-shattering secret is hidden behind the mysterious solar corona pattern on Elena's abdomen? All the answers will be revealed in the next chapter!