Time seemed to slow. The silver piece rolled into blue magnetic rails and vanished with a sonic boom.

The coin, accelerated to several times the speed of sound, slammed into the jet’s midsection, right through the fuel tank.

A clean hole was ripped straight through it.

Crystal-clear fuel spilled down the fuselage, pouring into the belly of the chamber.

Watching the fuel gauge plummet, Falling Feather’s eyes lit up.

“It worked! Hold on, don’t ignite it yet. Let it leak for a bit first!”

There wasn’t much left in the tank, maybe a hundred liters or so, but it was enough.

Seeing the fuel gauge finally stop dropping, Falling Feather reached under his seat, pulled a signal flare gun from the emergency kit, aimed at the pool of fuel beneath the nose of the plane, and squeezed the trigger without hesitation.

A crimson flare shot from the barrel and struck the puddle dead-center.

With a blinding flash of red light, the fuel, mixed with the black viscous fluid, ignited in an instant, bursting into a spreading sea of fire.

The flames caught the tendrils wrapping around the jet. They convulsed in agony, thrashing wildly in the blaze.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Falling Feather braced against the searing smoke, crawled out through the cracked canopy, and leapt from the jet just as the fire reached its fuselage.

The moment his boots hit the fleshy ground, the flames reached the fuel tank.

The explosion engulfed the tendrils in a flash of light; the shockwave slammed into his back and sent him staggering forward.

Night Ten, who had been clinging to a tendril watching the show, was blown off and crashed hard onto the ground.

“Son of a...!”

Falling several meters hurt like hell, and he gritted his teeth in pain, but his titanium bones held. He dusted himself off and stood up again.

The entire digestive chamber’s tendrils were gone, scorched to ash. The pulsating mass had lost any means of defense.

After the chaos subsided, the scarlet “stomach walls” were nothing but black, charred crust.

For a Main Mother Body that stretched across kilometers, the damage wasn’t fatal, but it was enough to make it hurt.

Especially now.

Most of its nutrients were being diverted to nurture the newborn Thea, leaving little energy to repair the damage. It was the perfect time to devour it.

As the oxygen inside dwindled, the flames dimmed and went out.

Dragging his battered body, Falling Feather limped toward an intact section of the chamber and pressed his right hand against the throbbing red flesh.

Its pulse carried a tremor of fear, desperately trying to expel him.

Shame. It was pointless.

He had fought too hard to get here, he wasn’t leaving now.

Taking a deep breath, he whispered softly, “Please... Little Feather.”

“Yiwuuuu!”

Then, thin pinkish fibers sprouted from his palm, spreading across the crimson flesh.

Just like when he had piloted the Lofty Cloud, he felt his consciousness slip from his body, flowing forward along the filaments.

Somewhere in the haze, he heard a distant roar. It was raw and furious.

And just as he understood Little Feather’s whispers, he could understand its rage.

(You’re courting death!)

Feeling its wrath, Falling Feather couldn’t help but grin.

It was funny.

Death?

To players like them, that was only a three day respawn timer.

Falling Feather chuckled, “Then let’s see you try.”

Sensing his defiant resolve, the Main Mother Body screamed soundlessly. Its roar carried scorn and fury, yet hidden beneath was the faintest hint of panic. It had the body of a leviathan, but it was far from invincible.

Fueled by the surface’s endless organic matter, it had revived again and again, even evolving resilience strong enough to withstand nuclear strikes.

This time, it wasn’t facing a nuke.

It was facing a monster that had clawed its way through two centuries of survival under impossible conditions.

Their understanding of consumption and resource utilization existed on completely different planes.

When it couldn’t drown Little Feather beneath swarms of spawn and mutated drones, and was forced instead to fight it in the realm it ruled best, something unexpected happened. The god-like entity proved not as mighty as imagined.

Little Feather, the small, child-like creature, proved not as fragile as it believed.

Little Feather was a cancer cell, a cancer cultivated for 200 years, designed solely to kill It.

The script had been written long ago, since the fall of Shelter 404’s level B6.

The scarlet flesh began to fade, turning pink.

Within moments, the patch of Slime Mold beneath Falling Feather’s palm had changed entirely, splitting the chamber into two distinct halves. One was pink, and the other was red.

The red colored Slime Mold thrashed violently, trying to reclaim lost ground, but no matter how it strained, the pink colony continued to spread, swallowing everything.

Night Ten stared with wide eyes at the scene before him.

He wasn’t the only one.

Even Falling Feather himself who had his hand pressed to the walls of the creature, was shocked.

He didn’t know he could have done that! No... It was all Little Feather!

While he stood dazed, half the chamber had already fallen under his control, his arm now fused completely into the wall.

The once-arrogant Main Mother Body finally sensed the threat. It convulsed in panic, trying to purge the invader from its body.

It had to kill them all, at any cost! Even if that meant severing a part of itself!

With a shriek, malformed Mutant Slime Mold dropped from above, splattering onto the ground, stunted creatures with swollen bellies, insect-like heads, and undeveloped wings.

Veteran players recognized them instantly. They were Suicide Bombers from the previous Tide.

Screeching, they charged toward Falling Feather. But before they could take two steps, a burst of automatic gunfire ripped them apart.

“I’m not dead yet you fools!” Night Ten yelled as he grabbed a fallen assault rifle. He emptied the magazine, reloaded fast, and kept firing at the incoming swarm.

He didn’t know the full plan, but he knew one thing, nothing could be allowed to reach Falling Feather.

The Main Mother Body, now truly enraged, threw everything it had into its own gut.

The two fought in perfect sync, one holding off the endless swarm and the other focusing with Little Feather to devour every strand of the Main Mother Body.

Seemingly having gained enough control, the space above them suddenly slammed shut. In that instant, the entire digestive chamber became part of Falling Feather.

It was only an organ, but one linked directly to the innards of the Main Mother Body.

Unless the creature stopped breathing entirely, it could no longer spit them out.

In a surprising turn of events, Falling Feather no longer needed to breathe. The Main Mother Body’s respiratory system was far stronger than his lungs.

“Please... stop...” A pleading voice rang in his mind suddenly.

A cold smile formed on Falling Feather’s face and he sneered, “Didn’t you say I was courting death?”

“...”

The silence that came next made Falling Feather lose all interest in teasing it any longer.

When the Main Mother Body refused to answer, he turned his attention back to devouring the struggling Slime Mold around him.

The Mutant Slime Mold Night Ten killed was absorbed by him and became nourishment, strengthening him.

Even the corpses of the players of the Burning Corps were digested, reborn as part of his body.

The only person Falling Feather spared was Night Ten. The dude barely had any flesh left, but he was still alive. Falling Feather couldn’t bring himself to do recycle him.

Then the voice returned. It was much weaker than before. “Don’t... I don’t want to die...”

“What about all those you devoured?” Falling Feather asked, almost amused. “Did they want to die?”

It didn’t notice the irony.

“They were weak... ugly... filthy. Being consumed by me makes them stronger and more pure! It is the law of nature.”

Falling Feather nodded as the smile returned to his face. “Good. Then I’m relieved.”

Sensing his cheer, the Main Mother Body almost relaxed, thinking it might be spared.

But its relief lasted only two seconds. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

“Since you agree it’s the law of nature,” Falling Feather said softly, “I’m sure you won’t complain when I eat you.”

“Can’t even digest what you’ve bitten off... You’re really weak!” (Yiwuuuuuuu!)

As their voices faded, the pink tendrils wrapped around the chamber began to spread, infiltrating the Main Mother Body’s circulatory system.

The cancer cell known as Little Feather raced through the Main Mother Body, delivering the final, fatal blow.

The process went so smoothly it startled even Falling Feather.

He wasn’t the only one. Little Feather, who was safely wriggling around in level B6 of Shelter 404, was equally shocked.

Its power had once terrified Little Feather so much that it hadn’t dared reveal its presence before the Main Mother Body.

Yet now, the mighty Main Mother Body crumbled so easily.

There was no time left for It to evolve an antibody to defeat Little Feather.

It was like a dying emperor slumped on his throne, still mighty enough to command legions, yet powerless before the inevitable decay of age and death.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” It howled in despair, struggling to resist the incomprehensible force tearing through its body, but its collapse was unstoppable.

In the skies above, the spore clouds over Clearspring City churned like a storm-tossed sea.

On Boulder Town’s Great Wall, Eberts stared at the center of Clearspring City, eyes wide with disbelief.

The colossal spore tree that had stood for over two centuries was collapsing.

It was the sight Mayor Fang Ming had dreamed of all his life, and Eberts had lived to witness it for him.

He thought he would never see the day.

After all, those foolish organics had always been such disappointments, wasting their precious time in meaningless bloodshed.

Tears filled his eyes as he whispered, almost delirious, “Incredible... They actually did it?!”

The miracle before him thrilled him more than rivers of blood ever could.

By the horns of the Great Stag God, he was witnessing the impossible come true.