The human sank into Blurb's black goo, and she shuddered.

It was not [ huNgeR ]. The warmth that flushed her stolen human cheeks was not [ gaAsTriC aciD ].

"Blurb... protect." She allowed the human, allowed her Peterey, to sink deeper and deeper into her swollen chest.

Where he was safe.

Where he was [ neAar ].

There came a crack of lightning, and Blurb's thoughts turned [ to wHiTe fuUZz ]. Because while the iron arrows punched harmlessly through her black membrane, [ my tReaSure ] rested within her ooze.

She found the warrior and erased him. She fell upon the wretch with her full weight and burned away his armours, burned away his skinflaps, burned away [ tHe daNgeR ] because she... she was most [ hapPy ] to have recovered her treasure.

It was not safe here. She had made fire of the man-thing carriages, and more and more would be drawn to the smoke. Then there was the red-headed worm. Blurb did not [ aNnD coUuLd nOot ] know how that wretch would react her theft.

Blurb stilled as she took in the warrior's nutrients. She offered what she could to her treasure and then hardened the goo that encased him, that caressed his aches.

And more cracks of fire rang out. The warriors had gathered and their trumpets roared. She had to leave.

Blurb collapsed her weight, so that she disappeared behind the rows of toppled human brick. Her mind was consumed [ witH tHe biiG waAteR ]. The ash-filled boats, their sails replaced with a mechanical purr. They had carried her to this roost, and they would take [ heEr tReaSuuuRe ] to safety.

She slid across the ground, a strangeness alight in her breast. Because she would make dozens and dozens of [ egGs ] with her treasure. Somewhere safe. She would be [ nEaAr tO ] her delight and none would separate them. None would dare.

The ground in-front of her exploded in a shower of dust and human stone, but Blurb did not fear. The human firesticks and firework both were but a tickle. She would overcome. She would escape.

And the red-headed worm roused from amidst the the spew of debris. Blurb saw the red hate of her slathering jaw, but could not react.

[ deEeaaAatHh! ]

Blurb was lifted off the ground and into the air as the worm's jagged teeth sank and burned away her blackened goo. The worm's own flesh pulsed and writhed in an endless crisscross of swollen red veins.

Blurb thought nothing of her own safety as she reached the apex of her flight, and then, still bound by the worm's powerful jaw, began to crash back to the ground below. Petre lay within her belly, and she mustered all of her strength to harden his cocoon.

[ i wiLl deeevoOUur yOOuuU, siiiiSstEr! ]

The earth seemed to explode with the impact of their crash. Blurb felt her body splatter and die. All at once she felt smaller, weaker, as her blackened membrane was blasted away.

[ YoOOuu! YoooUuOUu! YOOOUUUOU! ]

Blurb could feel the white hate that roiled from the depths of the red-worm's belly. With a terrible jerk, the worm tore more of Blurb's gelatinous flesh away. There was nothing she could do. She was powerless.

[ i wAiteEd soOooOoOOOooo LooNg, bUuT nOo mOoREe! ]

Blurb's vision was a blur of discarded black. The worm's massive, slathering jaw of razor sharp teeth ripped and tore at her body with a reckless hate. Smaller and smaller. Weaker and weaker. Softer and softer.

Blurb would [ ...diE... ].

Blurb would [ ...diSaPpEar... ].

Blurb's treasure would be [ ...stOoleN... ].

b a d

so c o l d

s o s a d

n̵͔̐o̴͖̾

n o n o n o

n o n o

c an t di e

m u ś̸̥ ț̸͑ l i v e

m u s t

h a v e t o

m u s t

m u s t

[ ...mu... ] [ ...st... ]

[ ...pro... ] [ ...tect... ]

Special Entity Zero-One loosed a low wail.

The noise could scarcely be heard as Manya chewed and tore at the thick ropes of Zero-One's black membrane.

The noise brought to mind the final breath of a tired old man. It carried in its tone an unconscionable exhaustion. And it carried across the horrible scene, made foul with debris and dead and dying.

Special Entity Zero-One wailed, low and tired.

And her children answered.

Manya did not notice the tickle of heat at first. She continued to destroy Special Entity Zero-One. She gnawed on the hardened carapace of black slime that denied her Petre Predav. But the heat increased in tempo. Less a tickle now and more an itch.

Manya relented in her assault to inspect the flame that touched her snakelike form, and there she found a small lump of black goo. Lumps of black goo, for they covered the interconnected red veins of her flesh like a rash.

Manya shook her body. She slid and scraped the intrusive black across the disaster-strewn street, but the burning black lumps showed no discomfort. Their smashed forms simply spread farther across her body.

And still more seemed to crawl out from amidst the wreckage that filled the way.

More than a dozen burning lumps of black slithered and burned across her body, and Manya howled with frustration and pain.

She began to gnaw at the black scourge. Forget the incubator, Manya ripped and tore at her own flesh. And where her sawlike teeth cut, the black slime slid and invaded. No sooner had she started to rip the lumps away did the black slime begin to burn and bake from beneath her skin.

And still more answered their mother's low wail... Still more slank and slithered...

How it buuuuuurned!

Manya could feel great sloths of flesh fall off her in puddles as the black lumps continued to fester and burn like a pestilence.

She slithered towards Petre Predav. She had been so patient. She had waited. She had been careful. So why? So why?

If Manya had not been in such agony, she may not have noticed.

If the whisper of death had not pushed her senses to such extremes, should would never have noticed the low hum that purred from above the baby blue sky.

Manya watched the small black speck appear over Solca.

A speck.

And then it flashed with the white fury of God.

And she felt its heat, but she could not feel its heat.

Manya Predav dissolved into a puddle as the AB-014 thermonuclear bomb detonated fifteen kilometers over Solca, her red wet mixing with Special Entity Zero-One and the carapace that desperately covered their treasure.