Lilith lifted her finger, and the grotesque insect froze. The hundreds of crystalline lenses within its compound eyes flickered simultaneously with sparks of confusion.
“What role should I have you play, you eyesore?” Lilith gritted her pearly white teeth, her knuckles cracking.
In that instant, a cold draft seemed to blow straight out of hell. Her roommates felt as if they had been plunged into a cavern of ice; their blood froze, and their fear of Lilith far surpassed their terror of the monster.
“How about you play the role of a pathetic wretch that devours its own tail!” Lilith’s lips curled into a smile brimming with cruelty and a twisted sense of humor.
At her command, the monstrous insect let out a piteous wail. It curled into a ball on the ground and forced its own hind legs into its mouth. It began to chew with savage intensity. In an instant, its exoskeleton shattered, its muscles tore, and blood erupted like a geyser.
The monster’s mouthparts were exceptionally sharp, cutting and grinding like a mechanical press. It devoured itself with the speed of someone gnawing through sugar cane, quickly reaching its own knees.
However, its digestive tract could not expand infinitely. Once pushed to the limit, a muffled explosion echoed from within its body. Its intestines ruptured, and the internal contents filled its entire abdominal cavity before the pressure forced the severed guts out through its excretory pore.
Even then, it wasn’t dead. It was still struggling, craning its head to reach the mangled mess of its third body segment…
Mapeel and several other roommates looked away, unable to bear the sight of the creature’s wretched end. Standing beside them, the golden-haired girl let out a chilling, ecstatic giggle. To them, Lilith was a monster in human skin, a hundred times more terrifying than the beast she had just tortured.
Finally, an academy teacher arrived, waving a staff to end the creature’s agony.
“Thank you for protecting me.”
When Prima’s soft, moist eyes met Lilith’s, the golden-haired girl’s heart felt as if it had been seared by a hot iron. Her entire body flushed with a sudden, uncomfortable heat, and her breathing grew shallow and ragged.
An unprecedented sense of shame—so sensitive it was almost neurotic—welled up inside her. Her panicked gaze darted elsewhere, and she deliberately raised her voice, shouting:
“I wasn’t trying to protect you! I just thought it was too ugly to live… Don’t go getting ideas, do you hear me?!”
The Waystation.
The tall, thin man finally reached the water barrel. As if exhausted, he collapsed to his knees, kicking up a cloud of dust. His violently trembling hands reached above his head to grasp the faucet, his movements resembling a cryptic, ritualistic dance of worship.
“Hey! Don’t drink directly from the tap! There are cups here, ten cents a piece. This is drinking-grade groundwater, sold at a fair price…”
The old water merchant spoke while wiping a wooden cup with a rag. He squinted at the tall, thin man, terrified that this strange guest might contaminate his source.
But the guest clearly had other plans. Not only did he turn a deaf ear to the old man, but he twisted the faucet wide open. The slightly murky water, which had been sitting for days, spilled onto the ground, stirring up the scent of damp earth.
“I said, follow the rules here!” the old man barked, his tone hardening.
The tall, thin man didn’t drink. His throat convulsed, and he began to vomit.
He didn’t bring up half-digested food. Instead, he retched out cluster after cluster of pale yellow eggs.
The eggs were the size of hen’s eggs, long and elliptical with pointed fronts and blunt ends. They were soft and springy, but the moment they touched the water, they split open. Dozens of wriggling, soft larvae spilled out.
The larvae underwent a rapid metamorphosis. In mere seconds, they grew into pupae. An instant later, the pupal cases shattered, and fist-sized gadflies crawled out.
The old man scrambled to his feet, knocking over his chair in the process. The gadflies were instantly drawn to him. Suddenly, countless compound eyes snapped toward him in unison.
The old man felt a wave of hopeless malice wash over him.
It felt as if his mind were being dragged into a swirling dark vortex connected to a distorted, alien world. No matter what the insects intended to do, the “interest” they showed was utterly terrifying—to say nothing of their hideous forms.
These gadflies were as large as fists, with exaggeratedly large eyes. Their mouthparts were a nightmare of a dozen razor-sharp, serrated mandibles. Their wings were as sharp as daggers, their sides bristled with malicious spikes, and their tails were covered in wriggling tentacles.
Buzz!
The swarm took flight, streaking toward him.
Their horrific features loomed larger and larger in the old man’s vision, bringing with them an indescribable, soul-tearing dread.
His scream began and ended in an instant.
His mangled remains collapsed to the ground, blood spraying in fountains. The body continued to twitch as torn muscles and fascia spasmed.
