Harem Stealer: Reborn with the God-Tier Sharing System Chapter 437 - Swallowed by Mother of Mothers

Noah had anticipated many outcomes when approaching the cradle, but he had vastly overvalued his own mental fortitude.

Horror saturated his gaze as he peered into the cradle's depths. His eyes stretched wide in utter shock, witnessing a sight so depraved it felt as though his very soul was being dissolved and tainted.

Beside him, Gaia’s presence shifted into an eerie stillness. The fury in her voice vanished, replaced once more by that deceptive, foxy grin.

"So predictable." She giggled softly, shielding her mouth with her hand like a bashful young girl. "You are truly so predictable, little Brandon. Did you honestly believe I wouldn't be aware of the flaws in my own game?"

Noah found himself unable to speak, his vision locked onto the churning, visceral mass of flesh before him.

The cradle was not an object; it was a womb.

It was the womb of Gaia, the Mother of Reality and the Ultimate Progenitor. She was the source from which all life emerged and the destination to which all must eventually return.

As the very Will of the Perfected Reality, she governed every universe—including Noah’s—and wielded the kind of unfathomable power that lived only in legends.

She was Gaia, The Will Eternal.

This was the entity Noah was currently scrutinizing. He wasn't simply looking; he was staring into her most private, internal sanctum.

The sight was repulsive, yet it possessed a terrifying beauty.

Under the weight of the vision, Noah’s mind began to fracture, and his soul started the agonizing process of being ground into molten mist.

The cradle's opening expanded, clearly intending to consume Noah entirely. Gaia remained unperturbed, rising slowly on her powerful legs and strolling about with casual grace. Her form was a masterpiece of existence, a figure worthy of worship in every possible sense.

Her voice resonated throughout the entire realm like thunder.

"The most effective strategies are those concealed within other schemes, little Brandon," she remarked. "When you choose to feint, you must do so with grand and bold conviction."

Turning on her heels, she faced Noah, who remained paralyzed under her gaze.

"The true challenge lies in keeping your other hand hidden from view," she added. "But I believe I managed that quite well, wouldn't you agree?"

She let out a sharp laugh.

"If you had ignored the cradle and chosen to strike at me instead, your prospects for victory would have been significantly higher, you know?"

"But naturally, such a thought never crossed your mind." She smirked. "I ensured your focus was entirely captured by my charming little womb."

As her words sank in, the pieces of the puzzle clicked together in Noah's mind. A wave of intense shame washed over him, dragging him into a dark abyss of realization.

He understood now that from the moment he arrived in this bizarre realm and encountered this woman, every step had been orchestrated.

His psyche, his reactions, and his very logic had been manipulated by Gaia in ways he still couldn't fully grasp.

The game itself was merely a distraction. Even her deception was just a tactic to provoke a desperate reaction, forcing him to seek a desperate exit.

And that exit was, by design, the cradle she had pretended to value so highly.

He had been a moth lured toward Gaia’s flame, completely oblivious to the trap.

The freezing sensation in his soul intensified as the womb enveloped half of his body.

Total consumption was imminent.

Noah felt his physical form beginning to revert... into what?

It felt as though he was being regressed to a state prior to his own conception. He was becoming a solitary, primitive cell fighting a desperate, bloody race for existence.

Terror gripped him. Despite the fear, Noah fought back the impulse to scream for mercy. He refused to debase himself in that manner.

Instead, he gathered every shred of his remaining willpower to look at the triumphant Gaia.

"W-Why?" He stammered, his voice thick with a mixture of bewilderment and dread.

What was her motive? Why was she intent on devouring him?

He had come here seeking the means to forge his own system.

He finally understood why the Records had guided him here after detecting Gaia's immense power, but the situation was beyond absurd.

How was a mortal supposed to triumph against such a being?

He was standing before a force that defied human comprehension.

What possible move could he make?

Was the path to becoming one's own master—a king who serves no higher power—truly this impossible?

"Yes," Gaia replied, answering his unspoken thoughts. "It is exactly that difficult, little Brandon. The goal you seek is far beyond your current understanding. What else did you expect?"

She walked over and knelt beside him. Only his head remained outside the engulfing mass.

Reaching out, she stroked his hair with a touch that felt both tender and cruel.

"To be a king means being free from His influence. But it also requires being free from mine." She gave a cold, sharp smile. "Did you really think I would permit that to happen? No, my child. I will not."

Noah ground his teeth together.

"So, if this is the extent of your power... if you have nothing more to show me..."

She stroked his cheek with feigned affection. "Then it is time to return to mother. Understood? You shall remain with me for eternity within this paradise. I will look after you and transform you into one of my exquisite flowers."

Her grin grew wider and more predatory.

"Just as I did with the one who came before you."

The final image Noah perceived was Gaia’s obsessive, twisted expression as her features took on a demonic cast.

"Everything belongs to me, little Brandon. And that includes you."

SNAP-!

Noah was plunged into absolute darkness.

Gaia's intent was as simple as it was horrifying.

She aimed to strip Noah of his individuality. Her goal was to dissolve him into a collective whole, a place of total uniformity where his essence would be reshaped into something unrecognizable.

The Will Eternal sought to erase everything that defined Noah as a person.

Given Gaia's overwhelming power, the plan should have been a success. It likely would have worked perfectly if Noah hadn't spoken with the Records before this encounter.

But the window for her success had passed.

Now, more than ever, Noah possessed a concrete sense of self. He understood his own identity and the weight of the duties he carried.

He could not permit himself to fail or die; the fate of his entire family rested upon him. It wasn't just his kin—the essence of two entire worlds resided within him.

His failure would not merely be his own end, but the extinction of billions, perhaps trillions, of living souls.

This massive burden served as his anchor, allowing Noah to grip his sense of self so fiercely that even Gaia's influence could not tear it away.

In that void-like space, Noah forced his eyes open—or rather, the sensory equivalent in his current state.

He no longer possessed physical eyes, yet he could perceive his surroundings.

He was now shaped like a microscopic seed of life, drifting in a crimson sea filled with various entities. The environment was unsettling, yet it held a bizarre, sacred quality.

Noah was witnessing the raw mechanics of creation. Or something very close to it.

There was a certain poetry to the scene, but he wasn't in the state of mind to appreciate metaphors.

His instincts were screaming in warning. He needed an escape, and his window of opportunity was closing rapidly. His current form was being pulled toward a massive, dark vortex.

Intuitively, Noah knew that crossing that threshold would be the end. Any hope of fleeing this nightmare would vanish forever.

He scanned his surroundings, searching desperately for any tool or advantage.

There was nothing but countless other similar entities and strange, abstract structures.

Then, as if directed by fate, a peculiar event occurred ahead of him. He watched as two of the entities collided and began to merge into a single, more potent form.

Noah noticed something else—a faint glimmer of raw power, a conceptual spark, surrounding the newly fused entity.

His internal vision widened as the realization struck him.

'This is it!' Noah roared within his mind, finally seeing a path to salvation.

He required strength, but it had to be a very specific, unique form of power.

He had set out to forge his own system, and what better foundation could there be than the very womb of the Will Eternal?

His mind ignited with enlightenment. Without a moment's hesitation, Noah altered his course and crashed into a neighboring entity. He absorbed its essence with ease. However, instead of simply merging, he fashioned a small "egg" within himself to store and isolate the stolen power. A predatory grin crossed his mental image.

He glanced back at the looming vortex, gauging the seconds he had left to finish his work.

Time was nearly gone. But it would have to be enough.

It had to be.

Noah cast aside all other thoughts, focusing his entire being on a single objective: consuming the power of everything within this realm.

The hunt had begun.

-End of Chapter 437-