That Time I reincarnated as an insect-Chapter 81 - 80: Into the Maw of the City

Zza hit the ground harder than she meant to, claws skidding across something warm under her palms. The floor breathed under her. Actually breathed. A slow rise and fall like she’d landed on the chest of something huge and sleeping. Buzz slid beside her, his shell scraping across the surface, sparks snapping around his limbs where the maze’s memory-light still clung to him.

He groaned, half furious, half exhausted, his voice cracking in places he probably didn’t want to think about. "I swear this city hates us. It has personal beef or something."

Zza pushed herself up, blinking through the smoky haze drifting across the space. Her antennae twitched at a faint tremor—steady, rhythmic, too steady to be footsteps. Her stomach dropped.

"Buzz," she murmured, "you’re hearing that, right?"

He froze mid-crawl. "If that’s my heartbeat, I’m dying. If it’s something else, I’m wishing I died five seconds ago."

The ground shuddered again... a slow, dragging thump that rolled through the floor and straight into their legs. Zza grabbed his arm, pulling him toward the nearest ridge on the living surface. The air above them rippled, shimmering like they’d stepped into the lungs of a sleeping monster.

They weren’t in the maze anymore.

This place felt deeper. Older. Hungrier.

Buzz squinted through the haze. "Where did it drop us? This place feels wrong."

"That’s because it is," Zza shot back. Her breath came thin and shaky. "The city’s hiding something down here. Something it didn’t want anyone touching."

A glow pulsed beneath their feet—one faint flash, then another, then stronger, rolling outward like light trapped under skin. Zza scrambled back as the flesh-like floor began to shift, veins glowing brighter and brighter until the whole place lit up like a massive lantern waking from a long dream.

Buzz stared, jaw slack. "Are you kidding me. This thing is alive."

The floor thumped again. Harder. The glow swelled. The walls stretched wider on both sides, unfolding like ribs. Zza’s breath hitched as realization hit her.

"We’re inside the city’s heart," she whispered. "Or something that works like one."

Buzz let out a short, hysterical laugh. "Fantastic. Great. We crawled out of a memory maze right into an organ. Maybe next time we fall into the stomach. Maybe the lungs want to say hi too."

The chamber brightened until their shells reflected warm light. Thick cords dangled from the heights, pulsing like monstrous vines feeding the living structure. A heavy vibration rolled through her claws, almost knocking her over.

Zza swallowed hard. "We can’t stay here. This place reacts to us. Every breath we take, it adjusts."

Buzz staggered to his feet, shaking off the tremors crawling along his limbs. His voice wobbled. "I can feel it... pulling. Like it wants something from me."

Zza reached for him, but the floor pulsed again—and the chamber shifted.

The walls contracted.

Buzz grabbed her hand so hard she hissed. "It’s closing."

"Run," she snapped.

They tore across the trembling surface as it folded inward. Veins writhed under their feet, twisting like living cables tripping them on purpose. The ridge they aimed for twisted sideways, turning flat just as they leaped, sending Zza sliding across the widening surface of the heart-chamber.

Buzz spun out beside her. "This thing’s playing with us."

"It doesn’t play," Zza spat. "It adapts."

A thick tendril dropped from above, slamming the ground inches from Buzz’s head. He rolled back with a wild shout. Another tendril lashed the air, then another, and another, dropping faster like the chamber was shedding its own arteries just to catch them.

Zza felt heat gather behind her. She spun around—and her breath left her chest in a sharp choke.

A single golden slit opened across the far wall.

Not a door.

Not an opening.

An eye.

Huge. Slow-moving. Watching them with a stillness that chilled her entire shell.

Buzz froze, claws raised but shaking. "That’s... part of the newborn. It followed us through the maze."

The eye widened, lines stretching across the wall as flesh rippled outward in a wave. Zza yanked Buzz backward as the whole chamber lurched toward them. Not just shifting anymore. Moving with intention. The city wanted them pinned.

Buzz limped as he ran, panting hard. "This place is like its body. It’s hunting us from the inside."

Zza felt the walls pulse again. Closer. Closer. The air thickened around her like the chamber was breathing fast, panicked, eager.

"We need an exit," she gasped.

Buzz barked an ugly, cracked laugh. "Show me one and I’ll marry it."

Another pulse hit. The floor heaved upward—lifting them off the ground. Zza clung to him as the surface rose like a wave under their feet. They rolled down the slope, tumbling helplessly until they slammed against a massive artery cord beating like a drum.

Buzz pulled himself upright, chest heaving. "This place is trying to crush us."

"That’s what hearts do," Zza breathed. "They squeeze."

The eye watched them without blinking. More slits appeared beside it. Then more. And more. Until the entire wall stared down at them with a dozen gold-ringed pupils.

Buzz’s voice cracked. "It’s seeing through the city."

Zza grabbed his claws, pulling him backward as the arteries thrashed. "Move. Buzz, move!"

The wall of eyes narrowed, and the chamber pulled in a breath so powerful the air bent around them.

Buzz and Zza sprinted.

The chamber exhaled.

A shockwave slammed into them like a giant hand swatting insects off its skin. They flew across the room, crashing into a rib-like support and tumbling to the ground.

Buzz groaned into the floor. "I’m gonna throw up."

Zza pulled herself free from the trembling tendrils curling around her legs. "Buzz, get up. It’s pushing us somewhere."

The floor tilted sharply.

The entire chamber slanted, dragging them toward a slit opening that hadn’t existed seconds ago. A tunnel of moving flesh waited at the bottom, pulsing slow and patient.

Buzz’s breathing faltered. "It wants us inside."

Zza clung to him. "It wants control. It wants you."

"Zza—"

"It wants us linked."

The incline steepened.

They slid.

Buzz’s claws scratched deep lines into the surface as he tried to grab something—anything—but the entire heart-floor turned smooth under him, like it decided to stop giving him grip just to watch him panic.

Zza wrapped both arms around his shoulders as they shot toward the tunnel.

"Buzz—"

"I’m here—"

The tunnel swallowed them.

Light vanished. The air thickened. The walls pulsed around them like a giant throat dragging them deeper.

Buzz struggled but the moving flesh carried him faster.

Zza gasped as the tunnel narrowed. "It’s pushing us into another sector—"

A final pulse hit.

The tunnel spat them out into open space—

—straight into a colossal chamber pulsing with gold veins and shifting psychic pressure. The air dragged at their shells. The walls whispered in a dozen voices. And in the center of it all was a circular pit glowing with strange light.

Buzz groaned, crawling onto his elbows. "Zza... where are we now?"

Zza’s eyes widened as she took in the chamber.

"This place isn’t a heart," she whispered, voice trembling.

Buzz blinked weakly. "Then what is it?"

Zza’s silk trembled in her claws.

"A forge."

Buzz stared at her.

"A forge for minds."

The chamber didn’t wait for them to stand. It didn’t even give them a heartbeat.

The moment Buzz’s claws scraped the floor and Zza lifted her head, the gold veins along the pit brightened with a pulse like something waking under the surface.

Zza grabbed his arm. "Buzz. Back up."

He didn’t get the chance.

The entire pit inhaled.

Light spilled out like a waterfall, sweeping across the floor, climbing their legs, winding around their shells. It didn’t hurt at first. It felt warm. Almost comforting. Buzz blinked down, confused, mouth hanging half-open.

"This feels... weird," he murmured.

Zza’s stomach knotted. "Step away from it. Buzz, move."

He tried.

His body didn’t listen.

The gold crawled up their limbs at the same steady pace, smooth and patient, as if it already knew struggling was pointless. Buzz’s claws trembled, caught halfway between pulling away and surrendering. Zza set her feet, bracing, dragging him backward.

The light wrapped her wrists like soft cuffs.

She hissed and jerked her arms back. "Let him go!"

The forge ignored her.

Gold reached Buzz’s jawline. His breath stuttered, eyes fluttering, pupils blown wide like something inside his head was shifting position.

Zza lunged for him again—

—and the chamber reacted.

Gold shot up her arms, locking her elbows, dragging her forward. She crashed onto the pit’s edge, knees hitting the floor with a crack that sent a jolt up her spine. The forge pulled her closer, closer, like she weighed nothing.

Buzz looked at her with slow, unfocused eyes. "Zza... I can hear it."

Her heart slammed against her ribs. "Hear what?"

His head tilted to the side like he was listening to someone whispering just behind him. "Everything."

The forge swallowed his chest.

He didn’t fight it.

He didn’t even blink.

Zza screamed his name and slammed her legs into the ground, pushing back hard, but the gold coiled around her waist now, tighter, meaner. It dragged her inch by inch toward the blinding center.

Her voice cracked. "Buzz, don’t let it in. Don’t let it—"

He let his eyes close.

The forge surged.

A wave of light swallowed both of them.

---

Zza’s thoughts cracked open like a shell hit by a hammer.

The world vanished.

The chamber dissolved.

Buzz dissolved.

Her own body dissolved.

She floated in thick, warm dark, a place where sounds muffled, thoughts echoed, and every breath felt borrowed.

A voice spoke first.

Not a whisper.

Not a scream.

A living hum.

**Submit.**

Zza’s mind clawed at the empty space. "Get out."

The voice hummed again, gentle, almost soft.

**Upgrade. Strength. Clarity. Victory. Take the form you were meant for.**

Her stomach twisted. The forge wasn’t speaking like the Queen. This voice wasn’t angry or possessive or hungry.

It was calm.

Warm.

Inviting.

That terrified her far more.

Zza felt her shell shifting. The lines across her claws warped into sharper curves. Her muscles tightened until they felt carved by someone else’s hand. Energy hummed along her veins, reshaping her fibers, making her feel faster, lighter, better.

A trap she almost wanted.

"Stop," she whispered, more fragile than she liked.

The forge wrapped around her thoughts, pushing images into her mind—Zza standing taller, wings stronger, claws sharpened, body gleaming with golden plates.

**You are weaker like this. Let me fix you.**

Her breath trembled. "I don’t want fixing."

**Every creature wants fixing. Even the ones who lie about it.**

Something tugged at her memories then, slow and careful, as if sorting through a drawer:

Her first night alive.

Her first sting.

Her first moment standing beside Buzz.

Her first fear.

Her first hurt.

Her first pride.

Each moment glowed faintly as the forge tapped it, testing the strength of the emotion, the edges of the memory.

**These hold you back. I can take them. I can reshape them. You will feel nothing but purpose.**

Zza’s panic flared.

"Touch anything else and I will tear you apart."

The forge didn’t sound offended.

It sounded amused.

**You cannot tear apart what you cannot touch.**

Gold wrapped around her mind, searching for the weak points, the small cracks in her thoughts. Zza braced against it, digging claws into her own memories, anchoring herself with every moment Buzz made her laugh, every time he made her curse, every second she wanted to shake him.

The forge pushed harder.

Her connection to herself flickered.

---

Buzz floated beside her, but his mind didn’t resist. He drifted through the gold like someone sleepwalking. His arms hung loose. His thoughts pulsed with the same rhythm as the forge. The light seeped into him deeper, crawling across his instincts and stitching new ones in place.

Zza spun toward him in the dark. "Buzz! Fight it. Fight it, you idiot. Buzz!"

His voice when it came sounded hollow, washed clean.

"Zza... it wants to help."

"It wants to hollow you out!"

His pupils flickered between gold and dark. "Maybe hollow is easier. I’m tired."

That broke her chest wide.

But the forge heard her grief and pushed its advantage.

**Look at him. He accepts evolution. He accepts improvement. You cling to your weakness because you fear losing what you know. Release it. Release him. Release yourself.**

Zza’s pulse hammered in her skull.

"This thing doesn’t want evolution. It wants slaves."

**Hosts.** the forge corrected gently.

**Hosts with better bodies. Hosts with open minds. Hosts who do not bleed or question or fear.**

Zza’s voice rose, sharp, cracking. "I bleed because I choose. I fear because I want to live. And I question because that’s what real things do."

**Weakness.**

"Strength."

She lunged at the gold around Buzz’s mind, claws slicing through nothing but light.

The forge tightened around her ribs until her breath broke.

Buzz’s thoughts drifted away from her.

Her grip slipped.

Zza choked on rage and panic. "You won’t take him."

**I take everything. I gave you both stronger bodies. I will shape you into something perfect. Something efficient. Something obedient.**

"Obedience isn’t perfection."

**It is survival.**

"Survival isn’t living!"

The forge didn’t pause.

It was done listening.

Light exploded into her.

---

Her mind split.

Memories cracked.

Thoughts blurred.

Names lost coherence.

Buzz stood somewhere far in the gold, drifting like he belonged there. His shell shifted as she watched—shoulders broader, wings stronger, claws sharper, plates thickening into a warrior shape the forge sculpted stroke by stroke.

He looked terrifying.

He looked beautiful.

He looked hollow.

Zza screamed his name again, but the gold muffled her voice, turning it into something small.

She clawed her way toward him, dragging herself through the thick light as if it were mud. Every inch burned. Gold tore at her thoughts, trying to peel back everything she held close.

Buzz turned lazily, eyes half-glowing. "Zza... you should come with me."

"I’m right here."

"Come with me into the light."

"That’s not light. That’s a grave."

He blinked slow, like her words took a long time to reach him.

Zza pushed harder.

Buzz drifted away again.

The forge whispered to her mind:

**You cannot bring him back. Join him. Evolve. Thrive. Serve.**

She clenched her jaw so tight she tasted blood. "You don’t get to decide what thriving looks like."

**Strength decides. Weakness submits.**

Zza spat into the gold. "Then you picked the wrong insect."

She slammed her thoughts into the pain instead of away from it, ripping her claws down the inside of her own memory-web, anchoring herself to every broken moment that made her who she was—every loss, every mistake, every stupid argument with Buzz where she wanted to strangle him half the time.

The pain sharpened her.

The forge stuttered.

It tried to tighten around her mind again—

—and found purchase weaker than before.

Zza shoved back harder, grabbing raw threads of her fear and shaping it into something vicious.

Buzz’s gaze cracked. Just a flicker. A spark of real awareness squeezing through the gold.

Zza lunged toward him.

Her thoughts slammed into his.

The forge screamed.

Buzz’s body convulsed.

Zza’s mind flared white-hot.

The gold cracked between them like fractured glass.

And both of them fell—

—out of the forge

—out of the pit

—and into the next chamber below, hitting the ground hard enough to rattle the bones in their shells.

Zza lay gasping.

Buzz lay beside her—upgraded, altered, marked by the forge.

But not hollow.

His voice trembled. "Zza... you pulled me out."

Her hand found his wrist. "I’m not losing you to anything."

Buzz let out a shaky breath. "I try to die dramatically and you keep ruining it."

Zza leaned her head against his chest, exhausted. "Good. Stay annoyed. It means you’re alive."

Buzz closed his eyes, shaking.

Above them, the forge pulsed in rage.

And something began to move in the dark beneath the chamber floor.

Something reshaped.

Something forged.

Something waiting.