by N. Heller
"Tell us what you see," Silvan said softly. He was always kind and tender to women, regardless of their age or species. This did not include Caster, however; she was an exception.
Caster omitted silence for a few seconds, her shallow brows furrowing tighter and tighter, and she looked even more bitter as seconds went by.
"You two have no idea what that thing behind you is, do you? I have never seen such a big… brain," she said softly as if afraid to startle that thing.
'What?'
For a moment there, Lin Sanjiu thought she misunderstood what Caster said.
"Brain? I am not asking you for a divination. Can you be more specific?" Silvan repeated what she said in a cold tone.
"I cannot be any more specific. Behind you is an enormous brain. Have you ever seen one before? Well, make it many times bigger," Caster nagged.
Lin Sanjiu almost turned around for a glance, but she controlled the urge just in time. She listened to the sharp s.u.c.k.i.n.g sounds, to the little rustling from the broken shells and ground meat, and to some strange hissing behind her, but she still could not understand what Caster meant. "Behind us is a... brain?"
"Yeah, as big as a hill. It's dark in here, but it seems like it's a pinkish-red color, and the sulci is crooked and deep…" As Caster squinted her saggy eyes, her long face drooped further.
Lin Sanjiu immediately thought of the crooked indentation on the ground across the spaces.
Could the indentation be caused by the sulci when the brain was moving around?
"It isn't just big, and there's even a layer of transparent shell around it," Caster said softly as she pointed towards the brain further behind them.
Shocked, Lin Sanjiu immediately asked, "Does it look like a shrimp's shell?"
"It's, more or less, a layer of shell above the flesh." Holding onto Silvan's arm with her long and sharp hand, Caster managed to hold herself up amid the rapid airstream. After she regained her balance, she continued, "But a small part of its shell is wide open. It looks like a hole that opened up in the brain."
"To suck in all the things on the ground?"
"Yes, all the things on the ground are being s.u.c.k.e.d into the small hole." Caster watched as the grinded mushy meat on the ground dissipated slowly and got s.u.c.k.e.d away; she frowned in disgust.
'Why is that thing s.u.c.k.i.n.g in all the meat?'
"Okay, tell us the direction, and we will attack," Silvan said right after her words subsided, as though he had been waiting for it.
"Then you guys better bring out something with firepower," mumbled Caster. She then raised her voice and shouted sharply, "7 o'clock!"
Silvan was prepared, for without looking back, he swung the crescent silver light in his hand. The light immediately swept across the air and flew behind him. However, right after the arching silver light was hurled into the air, it gradually dispersed before even getting close to the brain. Like snow falling into water, it melted away without a mark.
"What happened?" Lin Sanjiu asked right away. Caster was also shocked, as she quickly shouted, "4 o'clock!"
This time, before Lin Sanjiu summoned her cards, she already knew why Silvan's strike disappeared halfway through.
'Protect me.'
An unfamiliar voice buzzed from the deepest part of her soul, making her body tremble. It was not the voice of a human, nor was it even spoken in a comprehensible language. It felt like it was the shuddering that rose from her feet and spread throughout the planet. 'Protect me, protect the planet.'
Lin Sanjiu's raised hand slowly went down.
'Good, good… I need more nutrition, more nutrition.' The voice that shook her bones, brain and organs was as loud as thunder exploding within the silence.
She had heard it a few times now, the familiar rustling that sounded from the air; however, with the loud voice's presence, the sound was now as clear as though it was bleeding through her ears.
"Are you... the queen?" Silvan asked gravely in a shaking voice as though he was someplace far away.
'Yes.'
The frequency of the rustling grew faster and closer, like swarms of locusts flying down from the horizon.
"What are you trying to do?" This time around, it was Lin Sanjiu who asked arduously.
'I want to grow.'
Before the two of them could utilize their consciousness to ask more questions, the queen spoke again.
'Give me nutrition, I want to grow. Give me nutrition.'
It seemed that Caster could not hear the queen's voice; she gripped the scarf that dr.a.p.ed over her shoulder and looked at the two of them, who were in a daze. However, when the queen's words subsided, she suddenly looked further away. The Special Item in the form of an old lady was shaken, she screamed, "Behind you! A lot of worms are coming out of the brain. They're already behind you! Hurry, Silvan, send me back!"
"What?! No, you can't go, we cannot turn around!" Lin Sanjiu said, audaciously yet anxiously.
"The worms are black, and it seems like they have shells on them…" Caster extended her neck for a few more glances before she took a few steps in the opposite direction of the worms. "Miss, the worms are about to reach your legs and… Aaah, they are spitting needles!"
Lin Sanjiu knew without even looking that the worms were the countless purplish-black worms that Silvan and her killed earlier.
However, she did not feel nervous at all, her mind feeling nothing but comfort and calm. She knew if she continued feeling this way, it would not end well for her. "Fight back!" Following Silvan's shout, the silver light grazed Lin Sanjiu's legs and plunged into the darkness behind her. She bit her tongue hard, and as the bloody smell rose, she extended her hands behind her.
She had to utilize her consciousness to fight back, but she was a little too close to those things; there was no time for her to fight herself anymore. In a breath's time, Lin Sanjiu came up with an idea that would not require too much of her consciousness.
The ground shook several times by a loud bang, with splashes of mud and dirt following. A long and heavy equipment box landed onto the ground behind her. She quickly looked at her feet and saw purplish-black bits splash all over around her feet. Those things that got too close to her were all squashed into a pile of mashed meat by the equipment box filled with red crystals.
However, she had only dealt with a tiny portion of them, as many more purplish-black worms crawled over from afar, accompanied by the disgusting rustling. Crescent arches shone in Silvan's hand one after another, and countless more purplish-black worms and shredded bodies that were on the ground stirred up into the air.
Before the pieces of shredded bodies in the air could fall to the ground, they were s.u.c.k.e.d away by an abrupt airstream. The queen once again 'ate' everything with an irritating creak.
Lin Sanjiu quickly understood what the queen was doing and shouted a warning loudly, "It's recycling! The queen is eating the shredded bodies and remaking them into new worms. There is no end to this fight!"
Stunned, Silvan stopped everything he was doing. The muscles on his b.a.r.e back glistened, seeming to be covered in a layer of sweat. After a few seconds of thinking, he shouted, "Queen, we will give you nutrients! What nutrients do you need? Tell us!"
'I want human brains.'
"Why human brains? What is the use for them?" Lin Sanjiu added.
'The nutrients in human brains can allow me to grow faster. I cannot wait any longer.'
"What are you waiting for?"
'I want to connect with the body as soon as possible.'
Lin Sanjiu had no idea how long this question and answer session with the queen would last, so seizing the chance to ask the queen while still had the intention to reply, she said, "Where is your body? Maybe we can help you reconnect to it!"
The queen went silent for a while.
Silvan, Lin Sanjiu, and Caster, who could not hear the voice, held their breaths. A while later, the queen's voice shook their minds once more.
'I am inside my
body, as are you. This planet is my body, and I am its brain.'
Chapter 787 - Hippocampus
The planet had a brain?
Lin Sanjiu was astonished for a moment and perplexed on the spot, unsure of how to respond. During the question and answer session, the empty space in the ground finally calmed down, and only liquid from unknown origins kept dripping into the puddle of slime, an echo spreading in the silence.
Silvan, who was a little further away, turned his head around a little, the contour of his straight nose showing. He looked away and averted his gaze toward the queen. "I understand now. How many nutrients do you need in order to grow? Maybe we can help you.'
'I don't need help.'
The voice that sounded like it was suppressing their souls was vast and boundless in their minds. It was difficult to determine what kind of tone the queen was using, if it even had one to begin with.
'A steak should act like a steak.'
When the words entered their minds, Lin Sanjiu trembled and looked up immediately. She would never forget that sentence until her death. Back at home in Hyperthermal Hell, it was Ren Nan's words that started her first day as a Posthuman.
It couldn't be a coincidence.
She opened her mouth and felt her lips shaking, "Silvan, those words… those words it said, I've heard them from someone else once. I suspect that it can extract information from our brains."
"It's one of your memories?" Silvan slightly raised his voice, but before he was done, the queen's voice came pressuring down on them once more.
'You will always be isolated on this side of the glass, watching the lives of others… It's a parallel line that never crosses.'
She was unfamiliar with this sentence; it didn't seem to be from her memories. When Lin Sanjiu looked up, she saw Silvan immediately look away.
Right after the queen's voice subsided, the empty space went silent. It seemed to have given up on attacking them with the purplish-black worms. Amid the dead silence, Lin Sanjiu took a glance at Caster, and the Special Item in a humanoid form met her glance and immediately understood her meaning.
She did not say anything, meaning that the queen did not do anything.
Hence, inside the empty space deep underground, the scene froze with the two of them turning their backs toward the brain. It was as big as a hill; no one moved or made a noise.
What was the queen trying to do?
"You are right," Silvan suddenly said, shattering the silence. Unlike his usual lackadaisical voice, his tone was grave and it sounded like he was truly furious. "It can reach our memories, but now, it should only be able to extract fragments."
The sentence from the queen had been from his memories.
"How is it possible? How? Could it be that we are infected with the parasite? Are parasites able to do such things?" Lin Sanjiu's nails were tightly piercing into her palms.
"Have you heard about the toxoplasma parasite before? It is usually found in cats, but it won't do anything to the cat's body. However, when rodents are infected by the toxoplasma parasite, they will no longer fear cats and will even brazenly appear in front of them, walking by their predators as if it is nothing. They won't even know how to run away," explained the man with the golden hair.
The queen behind them was still silent as if it didn't exist. If Lin Sanjiu didn't already know it was impossible for her to be this lucky, she would suspect that the queen had the intention to spare them.
"I've heard of it before… Are you saying the parasite that infected us is similar to the toxoplasma parasite?"
"Yes, but it is a lot stronger. Once this parasite invaded our brains, it split up into three new sources of infection, and prompted us to spread it further out. It seems like the first thing the parasite invaded and destroyed was our temporal lobes," theorized Silvan as he further pondered upon the question.
"That's why our sanities are still with us, but we don't know fear or doubt anymore. The information about Shambhala was sent into our brains through the parasite, wasn't it?" Lin Sanjiu said.
The man with the golden hair nodded. "That's the only reason."
The more clarity in their conversation, the quieter the queen became behind them. The astonishingly huge brain only had its contours drawn out by the dim light, most of its body still being hidden in darkness. Lin Sanjiu pictured it as a ghost ship that haunted them in silence, listening to every word they spoke.
"The parasite must be inside our hippocampus, where we store our memories, which might be why it has access to our memories." Silvan pressed his fingers to his temple but did not turn around.
Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh and thought for a moment before coming up with a rather appropriate analogy. "I get it now. The parasite was somehow able to read fragments of our memories, and it transmitted the information back to the queen, just like a Bluetooth!"
"Correct." Silvan nodded and seemed to want to continue, but held his tongue. He thought for a bit before continuing, his tone sounding a little distant, "But I am not as optimistic as you. I have a feeling that the queen is not after our memory fragments."
"You're saying…"
"I suddenly lost the words that I was about to say… It's goal is obvious, which is that it's trying to suck our brains for nutrients. Many people came to Shambhala, but those who were able to fight back like us were probably only a handful... It is rare for the queen to run into such a situation, so I think it is trying to figure out a new way to deal with us," said Silvan after he shook his head to regroup his words.
"Is it trying to get to us through our hippocampus?"
This time, a few seconds after her words subsided, she still did not hear an answer from Silvan. He looked like he was terrified, standing straight ahead. Lin Sanjiu called out to him a few times and finally managed to bring him back to his senses. "What did you just say?" he asked.
Lin Sanjiu was stunned for a second. "What… What is wrong with you? Continue!"
"Continue what? Why is the queen not moving?" Silvan seemed a little bit dismayed as well.
"I don't know… What are you trying to say?" she muttered.
She knew she was thinking about something, but in a flash, she forgot the thoughts running through her mind and failed to remember anything of her analysis.
"I forgot," Silvan said, word for word.
Lin Sanjiu had also forgotten.
"Such a coincidence, it's not normal… Weren't we talking about why the queen is not moving?" she muttered.
The conversation lasted for half a minute, yet somehow fell into the water like a lock of threads, flowing along with the current, moving deeper into the brain. No matter how much she tried to catch them, she always returned empty-handed.
"No, no, no!" A hoarse voice caused them to shift their gazes to Caster. Her long, crooked nose sagged, and a drip of sweat glistened at the tip. "How could you two forget what you were talking about? You were discussing the hippocampus and what it has to do with memories. How could you simply forget that?"
The sudden realization was like a beam of moonlight during a dark night; it illuminated Lin Sanjiu's brain, but it was soon devoured by dark clouds, leaving her with a fuzzy image.
Right after Caster's voice subsided, she forgot again.
It seemed like Silvan was having the same problem as well.
"I faintly remember that we were talking about the attack, which did not work, and you have a Special Item that can attack automatically without control?" he said softly.
Lin Sanjiu heard Mrs. Manas's voice faintly fly across the deepest part of her brain, but it scattered into nothing before she could hear it.
Was Mrs. Manas trying to remind her about something?
"I do," she answered without a second thought. The artist was summoned twice within a short period of time. He seemed a little lost, but this time, his goal was clearer. Lin Sanjiu pointed behind her, and he immediately carried his bucket and brushes in front of him, and sat down after setting up his easel.
; The empty underground space was dark, the light was dim, and details were hidden behind a veil of blur, so he drew very fast. Once he stopped his brush, a strong jet of airstream stirred up in the empty space and flew towards the blank space on the canvas. The wind kept hitting the thing behind them, creating a clear, rapid noise on the surface of some soft-shelled material. Albeit the queen's enormous size, it was being pulled by the suction force of the canvas. As it fought the suction force, its giant body was dragged along the ground, causing the ground to tremble heavily.
Silvan did not move.
"I feel like we have forgotten something important," he said softly in a voice that was almost inaudible amid the quaking of the ground caused by the queen. As he spoke, he glanced at the large canvas that opened up in the air. His movements froze right away.
"Lin!" he suddenly raised his voice and pointed at the canvas. "Can you see it? In the empty space beside the queen, there seems to be a person laying down!"
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. She squinted her eyes at the canvas, but the artist had run a little too far away while trying to capture the scenery, so she could not see anything for a moment. Silvan looked down for a few seconds and heaved a long breath. "It's Meme!"
'Sh*t!' she instantly thought in her heart.
The queen was being s.u.c.k.e.d towards the canvas, and was struggling and rumbling behind them. Her struggles shook the empty space violently, and a dust storm stirred up. Meme was too close to it; if that giant brain ran over his boy, it would not matter if he was dead or alive now, for all that would be left would be a puddle of flesh and blood.
"I'll go bring him back!" Silvan swung his hand, and the crescent-shaped silver light and Caster disappeared. What replaced them was a metallic cylinder on the ground that was as tall as his waist.
Lin Sanjiu was startled for a moment and nervously hollered, "Hold on! Don't turn around!"
However, she was too late. By the time Silvan turned around, she had also forgotten the reason why they could not turn around.