I finished eating the snake, a question rising in my mind.

[How exactly was I able to eat that? It was quite large.]

[Pretty simple. You essentially have two stomachs, one of which is used to eat. It can be filled as soon as, you know, you get full. The other one, however, is directly connected to your Void. Any time you get too full, the food is just diverted to the Void, and, well, that doesn't exactly get full.]

[I suppose that makes sense. Speaking of which, how much energy did we get from the snake?]

[About... ninety spiders worth.]

I'm completely stunned.

[We really need to start hunting bigger animals.]

[I highly advise against that. The only reason we survived this time is because of emergency conditions, and I still don't even know what that means. Until we're bigger and better, we need to keep going for mice, or even all the way back to spiders.]

I think about it for a moment, then remember something.

[Didn't you say I'd get bigger the more my void expanded?]

[...Not exactly. Your overall abilities will increase dramatically as you absorb more and more energy, kind of like when you eat a lot to stretch out your stomach. There's a difference between what's available and what your maximum is.]

[That makes sense. How much of a difference did the snake make?]

[It's difficult to tell exactly. I can make a better estimate because I exist inside your Void, but it's still a needle in a haystack in comparison. The best I can say is that your physical size should improve by about four hundred percent over the next few days.]

[That's quite a lot!]

[It really isn't. Remember, you're an ant. The bigger you get, the slower you'll grow.]

It brings down my mood a little, and my antennae droop.

Seeing them in front of me, I suddenly remember what happened a few days ago.

[Hey, Joule. Some time ago, I was trying to find prey and I had a strange feeling.]

As I describe the unique sensation of seeing everything, I sense Joule getting excited.

[If I had to guess - and my guesses are usually fairly accurate - I'd say that you were developing Noah's Atom Sense, albeit on a MUCH smaller scale.]

[Can I do it again?]

[In a word? No. Most of the really cool stuff that your Void lets you do will be locked until your energy grows to a higher level. The only reason you're able to even do it once is because your Void is still settling in.]

[It's almost been a week...]

She laughs into my head.

[I don't think you really get how old Noah Cosmic is. He's completely immortal - even if the universe ended, he'd just hop into an alternate one and see how it goes. He's been doing that for quite literally forever.]

[What about his mother?]

She's quiet for a moment.

[Remember how I said that I couldn't quantify Noah? That's because he's simply too powerful.]

[Okay, I get that, but...]

[I can't even exist near his mom.]

[That's terrifying.]

[Absolutely it is. He was talking about his mom on the phone. Apparently she slapped someone, and it destroyed most of the galaxy.]

[That's another word I don't know.]

[Suffice to say, it was quite a lot more powerful than anything has the right to be.]

[Fair enough.]

Having finished with the technically one-sided conversation, I began heading back to the hill.

[How long will it be before the queen lets me back in?]

[Well... since you'll constantly be improving and changing, there's an extremely good chance she won't recognize you from your earlier state.]

I stop dead in my tracks.

[Are you serious?]

[Perfectly serious, yes. Despite how much you admire her, her intelligence just isn't anywhere near your level.]

[...Well, crap.]