Becoming a Monster
Chapter 352: Be Mindful of What You Eat

Chapter 352: Chapter 352: Be Mindful of What You Eat

The general could foresee its end, and it could also taste its victory.

But the general, and more importantly, the Queen, forgot one important trait. As Dummy devoured more and more of the general, his body adapted.

He chose to keep the beast hybrid’s shape and wings, but the general’s unique essence, the essence of unbridled strength, was being completely consumed and assimilated into his very being.

And that wasn’t all. With every shred of flesh torn from the general’s body, Dummy’s regeneration accelerated.

The cracks in his skull were mending mid-pulse, bones pushed back into place, almost resisting the destructive pressure the general applied. His once mangled jaw unhinged wider before it realigned itself.

The general noticed, and by then it was far too late.

Indignation? Resentment? Honor?

The general’s beady eyes reflected a turmoil of emotions. Its mission was a failure, its purpose for its creation was being eaten alive. It wasn’t even possible to have the satisfaction of a good fight, to die honorably in battle, as a good soldier.

In its eyes, the abomination didn’t fight fair at all. In fact, the beast didn’t fight at all! Not one fist thrown, not one blow dodged, not one attack defended, not a single traditional interaction that the general lived for, was born for.

The general wasn’t just being defeated, it was being invalidated.

And that played a part in its resentment.

Why was it sent here? Why was it abandoned? Why were they sent on such an impossible mission? And most importantly...Why hadn’t the Queen created it to consume instead?

It was that last question that lingered the longest.

It came with the belief that it was powerful, overwhelmingly more powerful than its kin. It had power, technique...And in the end he wasn’t even acknowledged by his foe as an equal. His queen created him to be just... food.

The last of its vision faded as the general’s remains slipped into Dummy’s body. A wave of heat rushed through Dummy’s core as the general’s core was fully consumed.

The general’s essence was then completely absorbed, and it was then that Dummy’s power truly spiked. His body didn’t grow taller, however, every muscle bulged with power. His exoskeleton grew twice as dense. Cracks formed beneath him from the sheer weight gained from his condensed hide that weighed even more than steel.

A low hum emitted from him, not a growl, not a snarl, but the grinding of his teeth that was hungering to be put to use again. He was still hungry.

His head turned, looking over to only see three corpses left, two were either covered with tar or layered with an unrecognizable poison. But even though the creatures that should no longer be edible, the maw in Dummy’s torso smiled. Its mandible twitched excitedly. Especially since, the moment he consumed the powerful general’s core, he was able to advance in his path of gluttony.

________________

Deep within the other half of the forest, layered with a cluster of trees, a mountain lay within.

A mountain that shouldn’t belong. The structure that defied physics, because just two days ago, the structure never existed. It was only when the ant and bee Queen appeared, conjoining their two species that the appearance of the mountain was created.

But this was no ordinary mountain. Blood dripped from its outer shell. When the light that barely broke through the gaps in the conjoined trees were able to reach it, one would see what the mountain truly was.

It was a combination of an ant hill and a bee hive. Yet unlike a hill created from dirt, mud and saliva; unlike a hive created from wax and resin...

This structure was made of flesh. A flesh that was regurgitated by the new hybrids, a new form of their special wax, a wax that pulsed as if it were alive... a living hive was created.

Threads of muscle wove through its fibers, cords of tendons laced through it like veins. Pores dotted its surfaces, oozing a translucent ichor that hardened in the air to form layers over key sections.

It smelled of sweet rot, fermented by honey tainted in blood. It was a lure to predators, and a trap for fools.

Inside, the chambers echoed with a pulse, thousands of pulses that signified the life that was being pumped towards only one location.

Deeper into the hive, at its very depths that suck meters under ground, built within tunnels funneled for complexity and protection. The deeper one traveled, the more oppressive the air became, heavy with pheromones and heat.

In at the end of the tunnel, a room much bigger than any area within the hive layer. A room that was created solely for their Queen.

Walls of glistening muscle contracted in a fast steady rhythm, its muscles working in overdrive to pump its resources into its desired purpose. Massive biological cords stretched across the ceiling, cords that acted no different than umbilical cords that supplied to a large sac.

And attached to that sac, was their Queen.

A Queen who bore traits of a forced assimilation between two creatures.

In the face of extinction, under the looming terror that was Noah and the fervent desire to become their own rulers over the forest, they were forced into desperation. Forced to adapt in a way nature never intended.

They wrapped themselves around one another. They called their children to surround them. Hundreds of their colonies swarmed. And then, they began to kill one another. Their corpses were layered atop of their Queen’s, creating a ritual that was so demonic and so abhorring that demons would even praise the scene.

Flesh was chewed, regurgitated, spun with wax and the Queen’s royal jelly. Their organs melted and stretched thin to soon create the embryo that covered the two Queens, at the expense of their own colony.

But that sacrifice paid off. Because now they created a Queen that defied natural order. A Queen whose ascension was inspired by Noah’s own uniqueness. A creature that can ascend their colony through constant evolution.

This Queen, who should contain the pride and resentfulness of both aspects of their Queen, was shrieking in rage that caused the entire hive to tremble.

She was livid. Her creations, her perfect children, failed to accomplish their duty. Two of her promised children were defeated in battle, forced to retreat back to the hive without any results. And then her last, was consumed by a beast that desecrated their very existence.

How could she take this?

Her vision shifted. Eyes stacked upon eyes dimmed across her misshapen face as she searched through the last memories of her general.

Dummy.

The Queen screeched again, bile spewing from her mandibles. Her drones scattered, and her two remaining generals, kneeling in front of her, flinched, stiffening as they prepared themselves for their punishment.

But under the furious shriek, suddenly a silence struck the room. The two generals looked up and saw their Queen no longer convulsing in fury.

She had gone eerily still.

Yet, the four antennae on her head were twitching so fast that they became a blur, vibrating with such intensity that the confusion it generated had sent the entire hive, sync with her hive mind, into a state of disorientation and agitation.

The Queen hadn’t noticed it before...her rage had blinded her to a detail that escaped her. A detail that first left her confused, and then that detail finally gave her hope, and a thirst for revenge.

Clanking of the Queen’s mandibles thumped together as her jaws quivered in agitation. And in the end... she laughed. A laugh that was too hideous to listen to.

The walls around her convulsed, responding to her manic glee.

The beast she abhorred more than the tree had failed to understand exactly what it had done.

Gaining the power of her children gave it strength, but that would also be its undoing. As Queen, she held total dominion over the unique hybrids she gave birth to, her control over them was far deeper than a physical attachment.

She may not have given birth to Dummy, but the moment he evolved his body to take on the same essence as her children, fragments of her essence, he also became a part of her.

She became determined. She would use Dummy to succeed where her generals had failed. She would kill the tree and its companions with their very own. The thought sent a shiver of delight down her spine. The satisfaction she would have if she could see the new king’s expression when he came back to find his home destroyed, and his soldiers killed by his very own.

But her revenge was secondary.

Something much more important took priority. Her imprint on Dummy wasn’t just a means for controlling. It acted as a living archive. That imprint was what allowed her to never have to venture outside her hive and yet still enabled her to continue to perfect her children based on their encounters.

Dummy’s mutation, his adaptation, she understood. And through that archive, she could replicate it to birth a stronger child.

Not a soldier, nor a general, but one of its kind. It will become the child that will begin their rise to obtain their rightful place as superior beings.

The Queen hissed a low, delighted chitter. The hive pulsed, responding to her swelling anticipation.

It was time to make them experience what her children had gone through.