Beside him, Kevin dropped down as well. Unlike our graceless landing, he floated down like some creature, touching ground as light as a feather.
Marcus flipped to his feet and swung a vicious punch at Kevin:
"What the hell is wrong with you?!"
Kevin caught Marcus's fist with one hand. His smile didn't waver, but Marcus's expression twisted into agony.
Bones in Marcus's hand creaked and groaned. He tried to pull free but couldn't. Frost broke out across his forehead.
Kevin, barely five-foot-seven, standing beside the six-foot-four Marcus, looked like a quail.
But now he held Marcus immobile with a single hand.
Kevin said softly, "Marcus, I didn't push you. Why were you in such a hurry to jump down and die?"
Marcus didn't answer, face crimson as he swung his free fist at Kevin.
"Heh..."
Kevin's lips curled. His face rapidly drained of color, as if all pigment was dissolving away.
His hair fell out in clumps. A long gash split open across his pale face.
His legs made a sickening crunch, like bones being snapped, and bent backward. His five fingers disappeared, replaced by three gleaming claws.
Marcus and I stood frozen, staring at the transformation, unable to move.
Kevin — had just turned into one of those creatures before our eyes.
---
I was paralyzed.
Suddenly, Marcus roared and lunged, wrapping his arms around Kevin. He shouted back at me: "Run!!!"
Kevin broke free in two or three swift moves and came for me.
His pale form drew closer and closer in my widening pupils.
Just then, the spongy mass beneath my feet shifted violently, a steep slope rising beneath us.
None of us could keep our balance. We tumbled down the incline like a avalanche of bodies.
This time, the ground was hard ice. I slammed down so hard I couldn't stand for a while.
The arena-sized cavern suddenly blazed with light. The spongy mass beneath me writhed, emitting repulsive squelching sounds.
It was as if the thing were stuffed with viscous, compressed fluid, shifting and squeezing against itself.
Kevin's words and the notebook's contents rushed through my brain. I remembered — there was an enormous, hundred-meter organism beneath the ice.
And now, this creature was right beside me.
My teeth chattered. I turned my neck with great effort.
...
As far as I could see was a sickly expanse of white, like a wall, covered with bulging, shifting lumps — like a mass of moving frog spawn. Absolutely revolting.
I finally understood. The thing was so huge, what I could see was probably just its belly.
Looking up, its body was frozen to the ice ceiling.
I couldn't make sense of what this thing was.
It occupied an entire ice wall, dozens of stories tall and wide — so massive that I couldn't see its full shape.
It had no head. No limbs. Its entire body was a white, squirming mountain of flesh.
Atop the flesh mountain was a massive, brownish mass. Its pale skin was riddled with tumors of varying sizes.
Each tumor seemed to contain a little light bulb, compressing, shifting, glowing white.
That glow — it was the light we'd seen from above.
It was like a deep-sea anglerfish, using its own light to lure prey.
Layer upon layer of white folds pressed together, interspersed with writhing tumors. Anyone with trypophobia would've died on the spot.
I lay there, too stunned to move.
What on earth was this?
A yeti? An alien? Some underground monster?!
Soft footsteps sounded behind me. I turned — it was Kevin, or rather the creature that had been Kevin.
He crouched beside me. Though his eyes had become two black voids, I detected something like obsession in them.
He stared fixedly at the enormous creature, his voice trembling with barely contained ecstasy.
"Chloe, 'Mother' is dying."
"Twenty years have passed. Her vitality is almost spent."
"But it's fine. You've come. You can become the new 'Mother.'"
His words sent a cold dread cascading through me.
What did he mean, become the new "Mother"?
Was he saying I should replace this thing and turn into a giant tumor-monster?
Besides, why was this thing called "Mother"?
Was this Kevin's actual mother or something?
Kevin seemed to sense my confusion. He reached out to pat my head but accidentally sheared off some of my hair with his claws.
He looked regretfully at his claws. "You're probably confused, but once you transform into 'Mother,' you'll understand."
"Then you'll become the ruler of the world. A true queen!"
His tone held a cultist's fervor. "Aren't you happy?"
"Happy my ass!"
I smashed the ice axe I'd been hiding behind me straight into his skull, then ran for my life.
Kevin's head caved in where I'd struck, but he didn't even care. He smiled and crawled after me.
He slithered across the ground at terrifying speed, like something out of a nightmare.
I ran so hard my feet should have caught fire!
Holy shit, he'd been a normal person minutes ago, and now he was this grotesque monster!
Had I been studying alongside a creature this whole time?
Even monsters are competitive these days — they need PhDs too?
Or... had the real Kevin been consumed long ago, and this thing just assumed his form?
"Chloe, you don't understand yet how magnificent we are. You're still... too primitive, too backward."
"Come! Join us! You too can become such a superior being!"
I gasped between breaths. "Are you running a pyramid scheme? I'd rather bash my brains out than become an ugly freak like you!"
A whoosh of air — Kevin leaped and landed right in front of me.
Kevin seemed to decide I was beyond redemption and stopped wasting his breath.
He extended his razor claws and carefully lifted me by the collar.
I kicked and punched frantically, but his skin, while soft-looking, was extraordinarily resilient.
My kicks landed like they were hitting leather — completely ineffectual.
Kevin didn't even acknowledge my blows. It was as if he couldn't feel a thing.
He carried me to the side of the giant flesh mountain and set me gently on the ground.
"Will you drink it yourself, or shall I feed it to you?"
I looked down. There was a sizeable depression in the ground.
The depression was connected to the flesh mountain by an umbilical cord-like structure — a translucent tube that pulsed faintly, as though alive.
Inside the depression was a pool of murky, greenish slime.
It looked like a fetid ditch, filled with tiny egg-like objects drifting through the liquid, emitting a stomach-turning stench.
The smell was like putrefying corpses — soaked in water for a week, then baked in the sun for another — an overwhelming, cloying reek that would not fade.
It was more vile than surströmming.
My stomach heaved. I doubled over and vomited until I was empty.
Kevin waited patiently for me to finish, then grabbed my hair and forced my face toward the depression. His voice carried a note of comfort: "Bear with it, Chloe. It'll be over soon."
He was too strong. I couldn't break free.
Kevin pressed down slowly, pushing me closer to the green liquid.
Watching the surface draw nearer, despair flooded through me.
Was he saying that drinking this would turn me into that monstrous flesh mountain?
Fuck that. I was a young woman in my prime. Was I really going to become a pile of putrid meat?
I squeezed my eyes shut and gritted my teeth.
"Screw you! If you want to transform, do it yourself!!"
Marcus slammed his ice axe into the back of Kevin's skull from behind. The skull that had just healed caved in again!
Kevin grunted and released my hair.
"Run!!!"
Marcus bellowed and threw himself at Kevin, shouting over his shoulder, "Go! What are you waiting for?!"
In that moment, he seemed like a god descending from heaven. My eyes stung as I turned and bolted.
"Why make this harder?" Kevin gave a resigned smile.
Then he whistled, and another white creature crawled out from the ice wall.
It moved on all fours, squeezing through a tiny opening with alarming speed.
Its pale skin was compressed into dense folds, its head distorted from the pressure.
But it seemed to feel nothing, scuttling over and crouching in my path, blocking me.
My heart went cold. I tightened my grip on my ice axe.
How many of these things were there?