Enlightenment at Longchang

A beautiful, flat-chested, white-haired girl, $1.55$ meters tall, is usually called a loli; and a monster covered in tentacles, barbs, eyeballs, mucus, and suckers is usually called a Tentacle Monster.

What happens if you put a loli and a Tentacle Monster together and mix them up?

(Connect – Love Woven by Girl and Tentacles)? No, this isn’t hentai.

It’s me, Aphrodite.

Please don’t misunderstand; I am not currently making friends with a Tentacle Monster named Squeaky. I am the Tentacle Monster.

At the same time, I am also a beautiful girl.

Aphrodite is my new name, and I can no longer remember my original name… It’s as if… rainwater slowly dissolved in tears, and boundless waves washed away those weak lives. I vaguely sense that I don’t belong to this world; I should be a “Transmigrator,” but my very existence seems to have been erased.

Erased by some unspeakable entity.

It is high and mighty. It kneaded my body and destiny into fragments, mixing in some other things, some things I can’t describe and that make everyone terrified.

Well, perhaps not everyone. The knights guarding and interrogating me don’t seem to notice, but my “cellmates” are extremely afraid.

I cast my gaze towards the “cellmates” locked in the room opposite mine.

They are a group of Succubi.

I won’t use any special rhetoric to describe them, will I? Anyway, just open a pink manga app, search for the Succubus tag, and find the ones with the broadest cleavage and who save the most fabric for the country—that’s them.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t pass the censorship review.

I used to be imprisoned with those Succubi.

I was reportedly found in a heap of those Succubi, with no prior memory. However, compared to those “cellmates” whose brains are full of lewd nonsense and are completely incapable of normal conversation, I am articulate, and thus, I secured a solitary cell for myself.

While being locked up with the world’s finest eye-candy is a beautiful thing, for me, it is, more or less, chicken talk (i.e., meaningless/nonsensical).

And there is a very important reason.

I am hungry.

“Fawningly seducing and tempting men when they come out, but shrinking in fear when I am here… such disgusting lust, such sickening greed.”

I am hungry. I haven’t eaten or drunk anything for three days. I want to eat… more accurately, I want to eat people.

I can feel anger and disgust breeding like wildfire in my heart. I stand with my back to the incandescent light, and I see the shadow cast by my body becoming increasingly pitch-black, deep, and abyssal…

Until a streak of red emerges from that deepest darkness.

“AHHH!!!”

The Succubi begin to scream, even though this isn’t the first time they’ve seen what lurks in my shadow… That is a flesh-colored tentacle, full of sharp and irregular barbs, possessing several irregularly shaped mouths and round eyeballs… a Tentacle.

I can feel the existence of those tentacles. This is perhaps what the unspeakable entity stuffed into my body—or conversely, I was stuffed into this unspeakable monstrous mass.

I can’t tell whether the white-haired, small thing, just over $1.5$ meters tall and undeveloped, that can stand in the sunlight is the real body, or if the multi-ton Tentacle Monster lurking in the shadow, covered in harmful barbs and gashes, peppered with blood-red eyeballs and corrosive mucus, is the real body.

But we are one. The tentacles are my extension; I am the tentacles’ disguise. Everything is so perfect, so deliberate, so… dangerous.

The Tentacle Monster is hiding in my shadow, craving flesh and blood.

The Succubi tremble and huddle together. They fear me, fear my existence, fear my power. They are perceptive, thus, they sensed my presence. They are scared, crying, and boiling over.

I have the power to easily break out of the cell and the power to easily devour those Succubi completely. But I did not make such a reckless move.

“Endure it a little longer, Aphrodite. Assimilate into human society. It’s full of delicious, tender children running around in the streets. You will love that fresh meat.”

I cannot tip them off. I don’t know what horrible things might be waiting for me outside. I need to eat, but I must eat cautiously and carefully.

I am locked in here. Even though the cell is dilapidated, the guards are weak, and my little pastries are right in front of me, I still have to endure.

The top predator always disguises itself as the prey.

Any anomaly from me would give those knights the idea of executing me. Although they are weak, they might have some helpers I completely cannot understand.

I’m not stupid. Since I’m not entirely a Tentacle Monster, I must utilize the advantage of being a beautiful girl to perfectly disguise myself as a human.

Suddenly, the Succubi stopped fearing my presence. They dropped their terrified expressions, and lovely blushes once again colored their cheeks. They began to preen and posture towards the entrance of the dungeon. They stuck out their long, flexible, pink tongues and started licking the bars, resuming their seductive and charming poses.

“So… lust triumphed over fear. You truly are a pathetic lot…”

The reason these Succubi became seductive again was not because my tentacles had been retracted. On the contrary, my tentacles were still slowly writhing in the pitch-black shadow. The desire that drove them to overcome their fear came from the knights.

Young, vigorous, tireless, and masculine-smelling knights.

Before those knights reached my cell, I retracted my tentacles, and the shadow ceased to be so deep. Everything returned to normal.

A young knight came before my cell.

His gaze was extremely determined, like blue ice freshly retrieved from an ancient glacier—cold and hard. He didn’t look towards the Succubi’s room, not even a glance. A normal man, upon hearing those sounds, would probably have collapsed from a nosebleed long ago.

But surprisingly, the young knight not only showed no physiological reaction but his gaze even became colder.

This young knight stared straight at me, took out paper and a pen, and questioned me:

“Your name?”

“Aphrodite. I’ve answered several times already. Can you ask some different questions?”

The young knight looked down and wrote, like a robot that hadn’t passed the Turing Test.

“This is a standard cognitive test. To monitor changes in the demon currently latent within you.”

Demon latent within me? What a joke! I am the demon of all demons! Even those Succubi fear me. Even if the Demon Lord showed up, he’d be my snack!

“Why can you speak?”

Another ridiculous question.

“See, I have a mouth just like yours. So I can say ‘good morning’ to you like your dear mother, and I can kiss you like your loving grandmother. So, what’s the problem?”

The young knight glanced at my cellmates next door. It was less of a look and more of a cold “scan.” Only a man who has recently satisfied his lust or the most devout believer could possess such a firm gaze, and personally, I think he is the latter.

“Do you see that Succubus next door? She also has a mouth, but her mouth is only used for roaring and smoking meat-flavored cigars. Why are you… different from them?”

“I should be asking you, how am I similar to them?”

I first tilted my head, carefully confirming his question, and then abruptly stood on my tiptoes and puffed out my chest, showing him my gigantic body, a full $1.55$ meters tall, and my vast cleavage, wide enough to land $77$ carrier-based aircraft.

Even the USS Gerald R. Ford can’t land as much as me!

“Do your eyes lack the ability to distinguish size? I am a child; they are big trucks! Even our intelligence levels are different, okay! Look at my wise eyes! Look!”

I’m angry!

In your world, is there no difference between big-breasted women and lolis? What a tragic world!

But the little knight’s next words made me instantly widen my eyes, unsure of what to say.

“The demon parasitizing you might still be latent, or perhaps you are an undeveloped Succubus. It is common for some organisms to regress their brains after sexual maturity, leaving only their reproductive organs. This is very common. And late-stage hemorrhagic diseases can easily cause mutation.”

Goddammit… your world truly has some big problems.

But for a moment, I couldn’t refute what the knight said, because even on Earth, there are many organisms that regress their brains after reaching adulthood. For example, some sponges are such creatures. And thinking of this, I couldn’t help but think of Spongebob again… No wonder Spongebob raises my blood pressure so much…

But, no matter what, I absolutely cannot admit I am a Succubus. Although my mind is confused, and I don’t know what kind of entity I am, my knowledge is very systematic. And I am very clear about the torture and fate one encounters during a medieval witch hunt if they admit to being a witch.

Although no Succubus has been tortured to death yet, I have already seen some of these knights’ instruments of torture—pure silver, realistic dildos soaked in holy water. And I do not want to experience that extreme torment.

“It doesn’t matter what I am! I get it now. I know you people have no shame. You are just a bunch of uncivilized barbarians, medieval ignorant missionaries. Damn it, I even tried to judge your backward actions with modern morality…”

I sighed, finally giving up on arguing with this little knight. I’ve tried criticizing, insulting, and crying, but none of it had any effect. These guys are like stones, unmoved by my performance. I’m not an old hand; besides the emotional card, I don’t have any extra cards to play right now.

Faced with my insults, the young knight’s face remained as cold as ice.

After asking a few irrelevant questions, the young knight prepared to leave. However, before leaving, he did grant some of my requests.

“Here are the Kathis Cult Scripture and the Teutonic Encyclopedia you asked for.”

He placed the two books and a blanket in front of my cell, then resolutely turned and left. Meanwhile, the Succubi, driven again by instinct, retreated to the corner. Driven by fear, they looked at me, huddled together.

Dirty, alluring, and rank-smelling.

“These brainless creatures, driven by instinct… how pathetic.”

I softly cursed these unintelligent beings as I slowly walked towards the items the knight had brought me.

However, just as I saw the word “Scripture,” I quickly realized something.

Since this world has Succubi, it has demons. Since it has a Church, it has a deity the Church worships… Perhaps gaining freedom is not difficult. I don’t necessarily need to prove that I am not a Succubus.

I can choose to prove that I am a messenger of God!

God doesn’t speak, but I do!

However, regardless of the path, the life of enlightenment at Dragon-Slaying Ground has begun.