The young girl's teddy bear fell to the ground, cotton burrowing through the cracks and staining the blood in the standing water on the ground. The nanomite wings on my back unfolded to a width of five meters, each compound eye reflecting the star-shaped branding at the nape of her neck-exactly in resonance with the imprint on the back of my neck.
"Homologous gene sequence detected." The tactical eyepiece activated automatically, a new ability gained after devouring the Endbringer species. The maiden's DNA helical structure was projected on the retina, and the Starling bases at the end of the 22nd pair of chromosomes were glowing.
Hunger tightened the stomach like a noose, and the nanomite swarm emitted a high-frequency hiss. I could clearly sense the energy surging within the young girl's body; it was Star Spirit power that was purer than the Calamity species. My right hand lifted uncontrollably, and the black silk threads twisted in the air into the form of a predatory organ.
"Don't look into my eyes!" The young girl suddenly screamed as her antler-like energy crystals exploded. Countless fragments of memories rushed into my brain along the line of sight -
The research institute on a stormy night, the twelve baby bodies floating in the incubation pods, each with a star-shaped brand on the back of their necks. The mother in the white coat was humming a lullaby while holding experiment number 07, and the father was recording data in front of the monitor screen, "The seventh generation fusion body has experienced a rejection reaction, and it is recommended that it be destroyed."
The screen suddenly jumped to the dark sea, the submarine's searchlight illuminating the underwater temple. The hundred-meter-high Star Spirit Race ark slept in a coral thicket, vein-like energy patterns flowing on its surface. The mother's voice echoed in the deep, "When the keys are gathered, the ark will awaken the true devourer..."
The flood of memories was cut off hard, and I found myself choking the young girl. The swarm of nanites had pierced her skin, only to freeze en masse when they touched the star-shaped brand. The young girl's pupils turned a radiant silver-white, and the ancient language boomed directly inside my head:
[Inheritor detected]
[Origin protocol activated]
The entire shelter was suddenly enveloped in blue light, and all the electronic equipment burst into sparks. My temples throbbed, and the brand on the back of my neck burned with a charred odor. The ground cracked in a quantum-level tremor, some sort of gravitational pull from the earth's core pulling the young girl and I downward.
"Hold on!" I scooped the teenage girl up by the waist as a swarm of nanites formed a cushion of air. We tumbled into the wreckage of the starship hidden three hundred meters beneath the earth, the Starling writing on the bulkheads awakening like a swarm of fireflies surrounding two star-shaped brandings.
The young girl's palm pressed against the main console, and the starship's dome suddenly became transparent. A real-time image was projected over the Pacific Ocean - a fifty-kilometer diameter wormhole was forming, with octopus-like tentacles poking out of it, each wrapped in stellar-level energy. What's even more terrifying is the giant eye in the center of the wormhole, the pupil's pattern is exactly the same as the void brand I saw when I devoured the Final Seed.
[Primary Inheritor in position]
[Ark awakening progress 1/7]
The mechanically synthesized Star Spirit language echoed in the cabin, and I suddenly understood its meaning. The young girl leaned weakly against my shoulder, her body heat was rapidly draining away, "The other six... Are all in the hands of the Dark Organization..."
Before the words left her mouth, the entire starship shook violently. Three hundred meter long tentacles struck through the ground and adsorbed onto the observation windows. The densely packed compound eyes in the suction cups rotated simultaneously, reflecting the vortex of emptiness rising behind me.
"Take her to the Mariana Trench!" Professor Qin's projection suddenly rose from the console, half of the old man's body having been quantized, "The Blood Moon Organization has initiated the sacrifice ceremony, and within seven hours the Ark will..."
Tentacles blasted through the starship's outer shell, and fishy seawater wrapped around schools of mutant fish poured in. I ripped off the safety valves and the emergency thrusters catapulted us toward the escape tunnel. The young girl vomits blue blood under the hypergravity, her genetic strands disintegrating, her star branding flickering on and off.
A swarm of nanites spontaneously wrapped around her, devouring instincts fighting with the bonds of the inheritors inside her brain. I bit the tip of my tongue to stay awake, crashing through the ventilation ducts and rushing into the hangar. The parked vertical takeoff and landing fighter was actually covered in Starling runes, the instrument panel lighting up the moment I touched it.
"Identity confirmed, Lord Kronos." The fighter AI emitted a vocalization similar to that of Xingxuan, "Quantum leap engine charging, target: 11°20′ north latitude, 142°11.5′ east longitude."
The pursuer's cannon fire exploded against the bulkhead, and I pressed the Devouring Totem on the joystick. The weapons modules on either side of the fighter morphed into giant mouths, devouring the incoming plasma cannons as best they could. The energy counter pulsed wildly, and a danger alert flashed across my retina:
[Void assimilation rate 31%]
[Resistance to host consciousness detected]
[Recommended to completely unleash devouring instincts]
The young girl's breathing grew fainter and fainter, and the blood vessels at her wrists began to crystallize. I ripped open my combat suit and allowed the nanite swarm to pierce my heart - an ability gained from devouring a medical-type alien last week. Black threads reorganize the genetic chain inside her, and the star-shaped brand suddenly bursts into intense light.
"Brother..." The young girl's pupils regained their clarity as her fingertips lightly touched the scaly lines on my face, "We are the chosen sacrifices and..."
The roar of the leap engines engulfed the second half of the sentence as the fishy winds of the Pacific poured into the cabin. As the fighter broke through the clouds, I saw the most shocking scene of my life: seven sky-connecting water tornadoes encircling the wormhole, each with an astral brand bearer suspended at its center. The black-robed men of the Blood Moon Organization were forming a reverse pentagram formation on the surface of the sea, and the water under their feet was boiling into the color of blood.
The fighter radar suddenly locked onto a certain target, and the blood in my body froze - my mother's figure appeared on the sacrificial elevated platform, her mechanical prosthetic body revealed under her tattered suit, and a familiar void pattern flowed through her electronic eyes.
"Impossible..." I clutched the joystick in a death grip, "I watched you with my own eyes that day..."
"I'm glad you've grown this far, my child." The mother's mechanical vocal cords emitted a synthesized tone, "Now, become the cornerstone of a new world."
The giant eye in the center of the wormhole suddenly turned and met my eyes. Images from countless time periods exploded inside my head: sometimes I transformed into the Final Seed and destroyed cities, sometimes the young girl lit herself on fire in front of the ark, all possibilities pointing to the same end point - the opening of the Void Gate.
The nanites swarmed out of control under extreme emotional turmoil, and the war machine's devouring module automatically targeted the mother. I smell the fragrance of blood as the teenage girl lunges for the joystick. Her star-shaped brand is close at hand, and the genetic sequence of the inheritor is tantalizing like poison.
The instant the leap countdown hit zero, I made a decision even more insane than devouring the Final Seed - biting into the maiden's glowing neck.