The world was barely coherent now, just like a feeling or a thought.
But it persisted, stubbornly, refusing to be completely devoured by the darkness.
The creature's heart gave a final, shuddering beat.
Then it stopped.
The massive body went still, its thrashing ceasing as death finally claimed it. The countless tendrils that had been fighting Nero's shadows went limp, floating in the darkening water like dead seaweed.
But Nero didn't stop eating.
He couldn't, as the darkness was in full control now, and it wouldn't be satisfied until every scrap of the creature had been consumed. The dark coils spread through the corpse like roots through soil, seeking out every remaining morsel of flesh. Every organ and piece of bone, cartilage, and even the stranger materials.
He ate the creature's spongy lungs, all six of them, arranged in a cluster near the creature's spine.
He ate its liver— a massive organ filled with chambers of toxic bile.
He ate its intestines.
