Torture

Vivian slumped in the wide stone chair like a heap of mud.

Her body, wracked by persistent pain and the weight of her abdomen, could find no comfortable position.

Each breath tugged at her taut abdominal muscles and compressed diaphragm, turning into short, labored gasps.

Sweat had soaked through her shirt, clinging coldly to her skin.

Strands of damp purple hair stuck messily to her pale face.

After the initial wave of pain, Vivian panted, feeling a brief reprieve.

“…Settled down?”

A flicker of hope crossed her mind, wondering if this was just another playful jab from the child about to be born.

But then, an irresistible force twisted violently from the depths of her body.

“Ugh—!”

The next wave of pain struck so suddenly that Vivian, caught off guard, arched upward, letting out a sharp cry.

Then, she felt her water break.

“Huff… huff…”

Sensing her body’s condition, Vivian stuffed a piece of soft cloth into her mouth, clenching her teeth.

At first, the wrenching pain came in intervals.

Vivian used the brief ten-second gaps to desperately, greedily gulp air, trying to muster strength before the next wave hit.

She could clearly feel the eager life within her, following nature’s rhythm, pressing downward, ever downward.

Each peak of pain brought a terrifying, bone-deep tearing sensation from her pelvis, as if she were being ripped apart.

Sweat streamed like rivulets from her forehead and temples, dripping onto her clothes and the stone chair, forming puddles.

Her body, battling the pain, grew cold, as if wounded, yet the immense agony persisted.

Vivian trembled uncontrollably from head to toe.

Huff… huff…

Her breathing quickened, and the intervals between pains shortened mercilessly.

The pain rolled in like relentless waves, one cresting before the last had ebbed, leaving her no chance to catch her breath.

Each wave was fiercer, longer, as if her organs were being squeezed and crushed.

Vivian felt the child within, desperate to break free, as if it would tear through her body to enter the world.

It hurts… it hurts so much!

Vivian clenched her jaw, gasping, drenched in sweat.

She had anticipated childbirth would be painful, but not *this* painful.

It felt like unending torture.

Her body, weakened by three months of accelerated pregnancy, could only endure the excruciating labor pains in silence.

Ah—!!!

Finally, as another overwhelming, bone-crushing wave of pain descended, Vivian could no longer suppress her agony.

A shrill, tortured scream tore through the silence of the underground delivery room.

The sound stripped away all traces of a Demon Lord’s dignity and restraint, leaving only the raw cries of a mother enduring the immense trauma of childbirth.

Immediately after, Vivian felt her mana spiral out of control.

The searing pain and shock of labor destabilized her power.

Her Demon Lord strength leaked uncontrollably from her body, forming chaotic energy currents that howled and swirled through the underground room, shaking the thick walls and floor with dull tremors.

“Huff… hah… huff…”

Some time later, Vivian’s hair was disheveled, her body soaked in sweat, utterly disarrayed.

Each internal pang and tearing sensation felt like an invisible giant hand gripping, tearing, and crushing her.

Her body was like meat struck and sliced by a massive cleaver, her inner strength laced with a raw, ripping force, as if it would tear her apart.

“Come out… hurry up…”

After an unknown stretch of time, Vivian felt utterly drained.

She let out broken, beast-like growls, mixed with indescribable fear and near-desperate pleading, yearning for the labor to end—if only a minute sooner—to free her from this hellish torment.

It was too painful, too torturous.

Since transmigrating—no, even before—Vivian had never felt so helpless, so despairing.

This was pure torture, and she had no idea when it would end.

Time lost meaning; each second stretched into an eternity of agonizing purgatory.

She felt herself adrift in boundless pain, her consciousness blurring under its assault, only to be jolted awake by the next, fiercer wave.

Her body’s instincts pushed frantically, each effort accompanied by muscle-tearing pain and near-suffocating dizziness.

Just as she felt the endless pain might consume her entirely, her consciousness teetering on the edge of darkness, an indescribable sensation of falling and tearing surged through her body and mind.

“Arghhh—!”

A primal, guttural scream, born of her last reserves of strength, echoed through the underground delivery room.

With that cry, she felt a presence, accompanied by soul-rending pain, wrench itself free from her.

The pain peaked, as if her entire body had been split open.

But what followed was an inexpressible, sudden lightness—a vast emptiness and a sense of release.

“…Finally… huff…”

Vivian collapsed onto the birthing bed, as if all her bones had been removed, lacking the strength to move even a finger.

She panted heavily, each breath aching through her organs, her consciousness wavering in the exhaustion following the pain, her vision flickering with darkness.

In that deathly stillness of depletion—

“Wah—!!!”

A loud, vibrant infant’s cry suddenly rang out in the underground space.

The sound was so real, so vivid, so pure.

It was the primal declaration of a new life arriving in the world.

Vivian’s unfocused gaze snapped into clarity.

With every ounce of her remaining strength, trembling, she struggled to prop herself up, urgently looking downward.

There, amidst the blood and amniotic fluid, she saw it—a tiny, red-skinned life, lying there, vigorously waving its small fists, crying loudly.