Fear was all that was left to them. Surviving one second longer than before had become the priority. It didn't matter how. Rational thought had been completely abandoned. The pns for a final honorable mission were left behind. Now, they fled like rats, cornered, like those on a sinking ship. And no matter how fast they ran, there was nowhere to go. The screams of the creatures brushed against their heels, and occasionally, a desperate, aimless burst cut through the air. The explosions from the cannon flickered down the hallway, and the disfigured masses of the monsters crawled with jerky movements. It reminded them that the advance was relentless. With every stride, Max's lungs gasped. His chest ached, and sweat drenched his body. There was no point in wasting the st cartridge. The fireflies were coming for them, and there were too many to face. Sometimes he wondered if it would be better to succumb to them. For seconds, that illusion of happiness seemed convincing. But then he remembered the screams uttered by the disfigured bodies, corrupted by the alien tissue into a pulsating, Siamese abomination. It didn't take much imagination. Those howls were of agony. An unspeakable torment. His own howls would become part of the amalgam if the fireflies devoured him. Max could almost name the monsters he had killed. Comrades he had ensnared with an Reverse Field net and then cut through with the Psma Saw, just to carve his way through and survive. And in those moments, he didn't care in the slightest. Levan Escobar from Operations. Carson Umaru from Hydroponics. Grace Flores from Engineering. Seraphina Starling from Processing. Kurena Watanabe from Data Filtering. Addara Martínez from the bridge. All of them massacred in his path. Max tried to convince himself that he was tearing them from their misery. He was giving them rest from their torment. But the screams did not cease. Ambrose Pendleton. Ryota Nakamura. Jade Mercer. Emma Wang. Finn Westwood. Eli Hayes. David Rosenthal. Tess Rivers. Cleo Morgan. Mei—li Kim. Aiko Nguyen. Marcos Janhonen. Cristóbal Singh. Andrés Morales. Leonardo de Garza. Jean Piere Ducroix. Sarina Ivanovna. All of them were chasing him. Their tormented souls, twisted by the pgue, dragging their viscous limbs, tendrils, and tentacles, dispying their agonizing faces to take him with them to hell. To make him part of the forest of fireflies. And Max did not want to end up like them. He wondered if fear had stripped him of his human decency. —. !!Ayna!! — he answered himself when he spotted a Fairy emerging from the darkness in front of them. Aaliya Denison's face clung like a tumor to a tremendous jaw, full of sharp teeth. Upon seeing it, Ayna stumbled, dropped her weapon, and froze in a fetal position, almost inviting the tendrils of the beast that were thrashing in the air to slice her —. !!No!! — Max activated the Reverse Field net without thinking, and the beast froze, caught in a cloud of white noise. He lunged at it, with the incandescent psma stream projected from his tool. And with two movements, he dismembered it. The energy beam pierced the nanotube barrier as if it were nothing, and blood gushed inside, falling as if it were within a gss sculpture. Aaliya's screams were heard muffled, and the Fairy's entrails glowed with a repugnant and sickly light. Max took the opportunity to deliver a final blow and end its life. Max swung the psma saw against the helpless monster, again and again, until he was sure the screams had ceased. He wanted to know that it would never rise again. That there was nothing left to cut. That Aaliya was finally dead. When he deactivated the Reverse Field, the pieces colpsed, like a pile of offal, and the blood spread as if a barrel had been thrown with it. Max contempted the disaster, trying to catch his breath. He wondered if he would be able to do the same to his comrades, or if they would do it for him. Imagining Naomi transformed sent a chill down his spine and brought him back to the present. His gaze tried to find her. Instead, an aberration leaped at him. The scream barely formed when the tentacles lunged at his neck and torso, lifting him off the ground. A horrendous sculpture of carcinogenic flesh loomed before him. Of a sickly brown and yellowish hue, repugnant networks of writhing cilia twisted like a mass of worms, forming its body. Reused limbs of assimited crew members contorted in unnatural positions, along with a cluster of heads merging with the putrid flesh. It was like a vine of flesh, and it was about to become part of it. A rancid sweetness struck his nostrils, the nauseating smell of rotting and sickly flesh. His instinct forced him to fight, and his hands nded on the slimy, slippery stalks. The creature shrieked in fury, squeezing harder, with distorted cries of agony and a sinister hiss, like that of a lurking abyssal beast. Unpleasant memories were triggered in its pce, like when Naomi lost control and tried to strangle him. A guttural and desperate growl emerged, choked, suppressed from his chest, as tendrils of tentacles squeezed him tightly. They pulled him towards a mouth filled with toothed suckers that opened and closed, making disgusting sucking sounds. When the beam from the Psma Mountain pierced the beast's body, it let out a horrendous, metallic, and piercing scream, like nails on a chalkboard, and then freed Max from his prison. He fell to the ground like a balst, and immediately after, a heat ray shot out from Harding's Argus cannon. The Entangler produced an ethereal and ghostly ment, with an unnatural sadness that froze his bones, and with a terrifying crack, the monster burst into a sinister mass of worms that shot out in all directions. He heard cursing, and then one of them lunged at his neck again, without even having a chance to catch his breath. He had no strength to fight, and a tunnel began to narrow his vision. Struggling proved futile, and before he realized it, everything had turned bck. As he danced in unconsciousness, those fateful memories began to project again. Naomi's eyes stared at him, fixed and devoid of shine, while her hands tightened around his neck with the strength of a steel press. He was sure he would die then. He jolted back to the present when Naomi peeled the worm off his neck. —. Max! — she shouted, but her voice sounded unreal and distant. Her expression had turned apprehensive and desperate as she tried to bring him back. He tried to respond. He heard gunshots and the distorted screams of the monsters around him when he fell unconscious again. —. Are you sure you want this, Max? — asked Matías Nakamura's voice in a nguid tone, or someone who sounded like him —. It's not advisable, especially not before a prolonged hypersleep. — Why was his brother-in-w asking him that? Where was that memory from? —. Max, please wake up! — Naomi shouted at him again, and a paroxysm of dry cough pulled him from that feverish dream for brief moments. His back was against the cold metal floor, and Naomi was holding him —. Stay with me! — —. I'm not going anywhere, Nam. — Did he say it or think it? Max wasn't sure, because his consciousness dissolved once more before the crackling of a burst that Naomi fired. The muffled thuds inside the Atomic Crab reverberated against the walls of his skull, along with his sister's sobs, pleading for help. His muscles were rigid, and then he felt that paralyzing fear again. A sensation took hold of him. His crew needed help. Naomi. However, like that time, his body did not react. —. Wake up! — Max's consciousness screamed at him, but his body refused to listen, and the images distorted like a blurry painting until they became a bck void with yellowish clumps of light. Then, he saw himself again in the firefly forest, chasing Lay. And as always, she slipped through his fingers. Again he screamed in impotence. Again he lost her. Again he failed in his promise. But something changed. The whispers of the forest seemed to take shape, along with the misty fshes. Little by little, they took the form of runes. He was sure he understood them. They were giving him instructions. The secret of life, and somehow, Chronos was the key. His ship, and all the Starscraper s that humanity had built, were potential life factories. In light of the revetion, Max opened his eyes, with a sense of epiphany. He had to tell everyone. His gaze met Naomi's, with a mix of tenderness and sadness. But that knowledge and feeling of unknown wisdom began to fade little by little under the touch of her hands caressing his head. An impossible peace rexed his chest, and then he wanted to lie there for life. But the peace sted little, when he realized where they were, and the surprising silence, in contrast to the infernal chaos he remembered. Quickly, he leaned back, to Naomi's surprise. Then he found Harding sitting on the other side of the dark hallway. Ayna was sobbing while Yakiv held her and whispered words of comfort. —. Good night. — the security chief mocked. —. What happened? — Max asked. —. Someone closed the corridor's bulkheads. — Naomi replied, in a tone that sounded like an apology. She lowered her head and rested it on her knees. —. Whoever it was either saved our skin or cornered us. — Yakiv added. —. Could it have been EREBUS? — Max wondered in his head. The answer came quickly. A crackle in the communicator, and without thinking, he responded. On the other side, a gasping and pained breath. —. Are you all okay? — Gavin's voice asked from the other side. —. Mendoza? — Harding inquired —. You're alive! — —. More or less. Satoshi gave me three Alfevac pills. That's the only reason I'm not howling in pain. — he dared to let out a ugh that a dry cough immediately silenced —. Who's with you? — he asked. Harding scanned the faces. Murat's death pyed over and over in Max's mind. He tried to remember his friend, but all he could see was the mass of writhing tentacles destroying the section.—. From the crew, only me, Naomi, and Max. From the colonists, Yakiv and Ayna. We're trapped in a bulkhead on our way back to the bridge. Those things are out there. I can hear them. — a scratch from the hatch startled them, and for a agonizing minute, silence fell. Max turned, expecting a hit, a dent, a roar from the other side. The adrenaline rush left him trembling and expectant, ready to fight or flee. Naomi's hand tightened around the first officer's, and Yakiv made an effort to keep Ayna behind him. When nothing happened, Harding let out a painful sigh before continuing —. What about you? — —. Not much difference. — Gavin replied, lowering his voice suddenly —. It's just Satoshi and me left. Delih and Oscar are dead. They ambushed us, boss. EREBUS went crazy. Someone messed with it, but it seems to be dead now. That's the st thing Delih did. Anyway, our pns A, B, and C just went to hell. I'm gd to hear from you. — he finished —. So what's the pn now? — —. None. — Max cut in —. Back to where we started. But with those things waiting for us, I think it's impossible. — —. Yes. — Gavin added —. I can hear how those things are chewing on Oscar and Delih's corpses. I don't want to end up like them. — —. It doesn't make sense. — Naomi observed —. Where did so many come from? — —. The Crew's Hypersleep Section is a nest. — Satoshi replied —. That's what I could find out. — hearing this, Max felt his soul leave his body. He understood they had nowhere to go. If they had managed to get out of the Treatment Pnt, they would be doomed —. They made a hole through several decks and made their way through. — Max held his head. There was no backup pn left. —. It's a mess, but I have a way to get us out of here. — —. How? — Naomi asked him. —. With EREBUS and Riven Liu's drones. — Gavin boasted. In the server room, the lights flickered. The inert bodies of the Jorogumo Units y scattered. Some of them charred, in the st position they were in before dying. Others y powered off, simply waiting to be activated. —. Five of them are still operational. — Gavin added —. I can pilot them and create a distraction. They have ser cannons equipped with enough battery for combat. There will be noise and the smell of burning. That way you can return to Residential and think about what to do from there. When you hear it, run like there's no tomorrow, and don't stop for anything. — —. Excellent. — Max replied —. It will give us time to come for you. — —. No way. — Gavin stated —. I'll hold them off. Run now while you can. In a few minutes, it will be impossible. — —. I'll take care of that, Mr. Picard. — Satoshi stepped forward —. I'll carry Mr. Mendoza with me. — but then, Gavin grabbed him by the wrist, and his reddened eyes locked onto his with a mix of determination and pleading. —. No, Satoshi. When the distraction starts, when the drones start frying those monsters, you run too. — he ordered —. If you try to save me, we'll both die. — Satoshi wanted to protest, but a horrifying roar made him stop. It sounded like an infernal symphony of helpless souls cutting through the air, followed by heavy impacts shaking the ground. Amid the flickering lights, they could see it. A grotesque, swollen mass of twisted brown and putrid yellow flesh. A horrible stench of metallic rot and rancidity filled the air. With goril-like movements, it moved its heavy limbs like pilrs, ending in cws that looked like scythes. A repugnant sludge oozed from chitinous scales covering its body like armor, and a huge abdominal blister filled with pus glowed with a disgusting yellowish hue, pulsating, den with decay and begging to be burst. They understood they were cornered. With a crack, the jaws opened, revealing gigantic sharp teeth, followed by a thunderous roar. Cracks hit the air as sharp tongues shed out of its mouth. In the midst of horror and expectation, Gavin recognized two human faces in the beast's head. Merged with the mutated and sickly flesh and covered by a pulsating, veiny mesh, Dmitri Daimonji and Dr. Gabrie Cortázar, as part of the snout of that grotesque cerberus. Amid the strobe effect, the Wrecker roared again, pounding its fists against the ground, and this time, Gavin heard the howls of his companions, subsumed in the body of the beast. Satoshi swallowed hard. —. Gavin. I can't do that. — Max's voice pleaded from the other side —. I'm the First Officer, and the Acting Captain of the Chronos. I can't afford to lose more crew. You're our Chief of Operations. We need you. — Gavin just nodded as he entered a couple of commands on the screen of his bracelet, and suddenly, the five fallen drones came to life and rose. The Wrecker and the aberrations that followed it like remoras suddenly fixed their attention on them. The monster roared furiously, as if it were nervous to see those androids move. —. Well, Max. With all due respect, your opinion doesn't count right now. I'll open the bulkheads in two minutes. — —. Hey, wait! Don't you dare... — and as Max protested, the cannon of the android in front of the Wrecker lit up. A green ser beam shot out and pierced the beast's decaying flesh, vaporizing the tissues with a screech, followed by a scream of pain and fury. —. It was an honor to be part of the Chronos. —***The uproar did not take long to arrive. The atmosphere filled with scorching whistles and crackles of disintegration as the beam sliced through the disfigured bodies as if they were butter. A fetid stench of cauterized flesh and sulfuric decay became present, along with dense spirals of smoke that quickly flooded the compartment. Amid the flickering lights, discharges could be seen with a blinding green light of electric tones. With viscous sounds, the pieces fell, with jets of murky blood spilling out, gushing from the charred stumps. The Wrecker, however, protected himself with his arms, and with a stomp, pulverized one of the units that was retreating at a frantic pace. The beast let out a primal howl, and creatures, like dogs that came with him, ran after the androids. The screams of the monsters became reverberant and distant, as did the buzzing of the sers. —. It's done, it's our chance! — said Satoshi. Gavin couldn't protest when the young policeman threw him over his shoulder as if he were a sack. But other monsters were waiting for them. Creatures like horrendous infernal hounds lunged at them as if they were a piece of raw meat moving in front of them. Made of sick flesh, coated in a viscous and shiny sludge, they charged at them, opening their maws filled with serrated teeth. One was shot in the neck, another kicked in the snout, and another stomped on the head as Satoshi jumped to dodge them. The Wrecker began to return down the hallway. The young policeman felt a chill run through his body when he saw him start to run towards them, like a goril, pounding his feet against the ground. In front of the flickering lights, the eyes of Daimonji and Cortázar pierced him. A visceral fear almost made him stop running. He felt he had looked into the eyes of the embodiment of evil itself. He used it as motivation to run even harder, until he reached the espnade. His unpleasant surprise was when he found some Goblins and Fairies still wandering around the pce. Gavin was right, but he refused to admit it. If he didn't let go, they would both be caught. The circumstances were unfavorable. Only one could leave the bridge alive, and that would be the less injured. But Satoshi refused, even if Gavin forced him to. However, luck was already cast, and his fate sealed. A Hound attacked them without them seeing it. It charged at them and knocked them both down. Satoshi saw the monster's teeth snap just inches from his face. He struggled and tried to get it off him, but its cws had sunk into his colrbone. Then, that horrendous dog opened its mouth and bit his right forearm. He could feel how those sabers penetrated his flesh and shattered his bones as if they were talcum powder. A sharp and gut-wrenching howl escaped from his throat. The only thing he thought about was how stupid he had been. Gavin was right. He had only managed to get them both killed. Then, a shot. The beast's brains exploded along with its blood from a hole that pierced its skull. The body colpsed like a balst. In the brief seconds that the shock sted, Satoshi saw Gavin holding his weapon. —. Run, Satoshi. — he had blood on his face, and he was making a superhuman effort just to stand. He wasn't going to st much longer —. Get the hell out! — he shouted. It was the st chance, and Satoshi decided to take it. He didn't thank him. He didn't say goodbye. He just stood up and ran towards the exit. The Goblins came to meet him, but Gavin shot them, which allowed him to have a clear path. He didn't look back, he just kept running. He encountered the Jorogumo shooting at the crowd at the crossroads. The main hallway was clear, and for the st time, he wondered if he could have gone back for Gavin. Then he turned once more, only to see how he was surrounded by the beasts and was being taken towards a horrible and imminent death. It was then that Satoshi moved away from the server room, from the gunfire, and from what he ter realized were the screams of his friend. At that moment, he had given him up for dead, but he didn't know that his agony had only just begun. The adrenaline faded as soon as he felt safe, and the pain made him fall to the ground. He pleaded that Naomi had lived to heal the disaster he had on his forearm and his ear. A brief sense of peace washed over him as he saw his companions running towards him. Harding, Naomi, Max, Yakiv, and Ayna. Murat hadn't made it. Only then did remorse hit him, and he thought that Gavin should take his pce.***The atonement that Gavin tormented himself with had arrived. But he still feared for her, and that’s why he tried to fight when the hounds came at him. He shouted in frustration as the monsters lunged at him. Then, it was pain, when one of them bit his shoulder, threatening to separate an arm from his body. Another did the same on the inside of his hip, near his groin, and a third struggled with his knee. Being torn apart seemed a sufficiently miserable fate. Although he was getting ahead of himself. –Stop.–The voice of EREBUS commanded imposing, and it seemed to resonate throughout the command module. Immediately after, a deep buzzing, and the monsters trying to kill him suddenly y paralyzed. A cloud of white noise covered them, distorting their already deformed silhouettes into a web of Reverse Field. Gavin could feel how life was slipping out of his body. At that moment, he was nothing more than a bleeding puppet. The only thing reminding him that he was alive was the fact that he hadn’t died yet. He was afraid. More than by the way of dying, by what he would find on the other side. Was hell waiting for him? Heaven? Reincarnation? As what? A moth? Maybe he would have to die crushed over and over again like one of them before he could sleep forever. The void? It used to terrify him, but now it sounded like a true rest. He tried to lean back, and in front of him stood his angel of death. His judge and executioner, and who would fulfill his destiny. The Wrecker. He was in a position he couldn’t decipher. He seemed to be squatting, staring at him with his two faces and four eyes. He felt out of pce in the brutalist interior, and the white lights along with the contrast of the white walls made him look completely, with every grotesque detail. The corrupted and exalted flesh. His chitinous limbs. Hardened pieces on his shoulders and arms made from bone tissue. Eyes too human for a monster, on the faces of his companions. He wondered if there was anything left of them inside. The ck of shine in their gaze, and the expressions of agony perpetuated in that abomination, made him know that there wasn’t. –I’m sorry, Gavin. I can’t let you die.–EREBUS told him, and the engineer’s expression shifted from agony to weariness. The projection of the AI appeared again, like an absolutely bck diamond surrounded by a whitish halo. –You were dead.–was all Gavin could say. –I backed up on the old server.–he replied. –I couldn’t leave this ship unprotected. I must protect the crew of the Chronos. You included.–Gavin coughed blood, staining the chest of his yellow and bck suit. –I’m losing blood.–he told him in a faint voice. Fireflies appeared fluttering around him. A humanoid and glowing figure appeared at the end of the room. When he tried to focus on it, it disappeared. –Just let me die.– –I can’t do that, Gavin.–EREBUS insisted. –I need you alive. I can take you to the nearest medical capsule and heal your wounds in a few hours. But I need to know if you can help me. Me. The rest of the crew. We need to save them, Gavin.– –What...?–he managed to ask in confusion. –The fireflies have shown you.–EREBUS interrupted him. Gavin wrinkled his nose. –For most humans, colonists, passengers, and crew members, the visions range from ghosts to a blinding light. But a small percentage manages to see something more.– For a fraction of a second, the server room disappeared and he was back in the forest of fireflies. The nightmare of the collective unconscious of the crew of the Chronos and the colonists of Lacaille 8760. Lena Caspersen was waiting for him. Her blonde hair moved slowly around her oval face. Her bulky red and bck engineer’s spacesuit looked as shiny as when he met her. Just like the day he lost her. It was the first time Lena didn’t slip through his fingers, as in all his nightmares. She smiled at him. Then, the murmurs that ter tormented him took shape. Instructions. He had been hearing them shortly after the boarding attempt, but he never understood what they meant. With that, yellow and glowing runes were drawn on the trunks of the trees, echoing the whispers of the forest. –You must do what she asks, Gavin.–Lena’s voice requested, reverberating. Close and distant at the same time. –That way you can bring them back.– –How?–was all he could ask. –Isn’t it clear enough?–she questioned him. –By following the instructions. That way you will spread the light. There will be no more darkness, because in the Forest everyone shines. We are all fireflies.–Her voice for a few seconds merged with EREBUS’s. Gavin wanted to question her, but then the instructions were shown with complete crity directly to his head. Pns drawn with glowing light appeared in front of him, like quick slides. A kind of machinery that had to be built. No. The machinery already existed. It was aboard the Chronos. They were indications, commands to break the barriers with which they were created. That way they could create life. Just as the farmers had done in the past. And that way he would bring them back too, guiding humanity towards the light. He was an incorporeal witness to that. For a few seconds it was beautiful, watching how wastends like Lohengrin came back to life, turning from a desert wastend into a garden. And for what seemed like an eternity, it was horrible. Every twisted organism, mutated, melted, recombined and assimited by a yellowish slime, reduced to a disgusting and bubbling living broth. It boiled, oozed, and absorbed everything in its path like a flood of pus. It writhed, took shapes, and then life was made again, but it was corrupt, aberrant, and impious. Sinister roots and yellow fiments appeared everywhere, as well as structures of pulsing flesh, which, little by little, took the shape of trees, sowing a hellish forest. A hungry tumor that crawled and extended its tendrils towards healthy cells; pnets, sor systems, seeking to reproduce, seeking to perpetuate itself and satisfy its voracious appetite. Until everything was part of the forest. Until everyone was fireflies. –You’ve seen it, right?–EREBUS’s voice asked him, and then Gavin returned to the present. He was still lying in the server room, as life slipped from his hands. He had stopped feeling pain a while ago. If it weren’t for the Alfevac pills keeping him doped, he would have died just from the shock of the wounds. The projection of EREBUS flickered. –It’s what Daimonji and his people tried to prevent. That the Replicators of the ship accessed the Formu of Life. Unfortunately, they succeeded. They wanted to kill the crew, and we tried to prevent it.– –They wanted to save her from this nightmare.–Gavin replied in a faint voice and tried to adjust himself. It was useless. His body barely reacted. It was as if they had cut the strings of a puppet, except the strings were his own torn tendons, nerves, and muscles. –And you can finish it, Gavin.–EREBUS objected. –You just have to follow the instructions that the fireflies indicate to you.– –Why don’t you do it yourself?– –You know I can’t do that, Gavin.–he interrupted him. –Accessing the Replication systems is a privilege of Organic or Semi-Organic Baseline Humans. Likewise, entering the Formu of Life. It’s a code for a program of 114 instructions. 1597 pages. 75025 lines. It will trigger a series of reactions that can transform inorganic matter into self-replicating organic matter. In other words, life. I know you can see them.–Gavin thought he saw Lena Caspersen once more, among the creatures paralyzed by the Reverse Field. With that, the runes that had begun to torment him. Indications that seemed to order him to enter them somewhere. As if the very life he was about to create was pushing its way through his own being. –Help us finish the job, Gavin. Help us create more seeds for the Forest. That way everyone will shine. And you can bring them back.– But then he realized that Lena was never there. It was an apparition from the Forest of Fireflies. There was nothing miraculous about the instructions being projected. It wasn’t a formu for life, but for a cosmic parasite seeking to perpetuate itself. With a superhuman effort, he lifted the rifle and unloaded it against the Wrecker lying in front of him. The bursts crackled deafeningly, and the bullets hit the Reverse Field net with sounds of gss being cracked. The monster remained impassive. The projectiles fell to the ground like metal hail, until the weapon stopped. The barrel was smoking, and exhaling puffs of smoke. Then, it slipped from his hands and fell to the ground. –How dare you use her image? Why are you such fucking miserable beings?–he managed to say. –I’d rather die than follow your messianic delusions, the fireflies, and the fucking traitor who altered you. Go to hell.–And then, he gave them the finger. Upon hearing this, the projection of EREBUS remained unperturbed. –That is an affront to the crew, Gavin. I cannot allow it.–With a buzz, the Reverse Field net faded, and the monsters surrounding him were freed from their bindings. In a futile effort, Gavin tried to corner himself. With his crippled hand, he tried to reach the Impulse Rifle lying on the ground, while the beasts approached, lurking. –You are a threat to the crew, and I must protect them at any cost.– Gavin cursed and managed to shoot two hounds, but the third reached him. He couldn’t shake it off, and then the whole pack lunged at him. The screams emerged torn and shrill. They sounded like pleas from a tormented soul, but EREBUS completely ignored it, while watching impassively. Gavin’s st prayers merged into a cry of agony mixed with terrible bloody crunches. The beasts shook him on the ground, trying to tear him apart. But then the Wrecker made his way. He threw the smaller monsters off with a sweep, grabbed Gavin, and smmed him against the ground. Then he took him and brought him close to his jaws, while sharp tongues snapped like tentacles and grabbed him to drag him along. A primal howl emerged from deep within his soul as the viscous tissue settled on his flesh, burning him as if it were acid. The faces of his companions remained indifferent, ignoring the st and painful minutes of Gavin writhing as he was assimited, being torn to shreds and reduced to a howling carcass. The tentacles dismembered him, tearing off piece by piece as veins and fiments joined and pierced his flesh, prolonging his agony. With no peace at all, his existence ended with the deadly sound of his vertebrae separating, his tendons tearing and the bubbling crunch of his flesh as his screams joined the beast's roar as he was swallowed and completely assimited, the monster clinging to his terrible and disgusting flesh.