Chapter 12: The Mother Who Devours Stars

The seawater in Tokyo Bay had turned fluorescent green. Shards of Selena's genes glimmered in the surging waves.

Elena's bat - like wings skimmed over the floating shoals of dead fish. Their scales were becoming metallic, and from their gills protruded the signature inverted - cross tentacles of Lillian. Maggie's diary vibrated inside the waterproof bag. Blood seeped out from the latest page: [Find the source of the Kuroshio Current. She's building a delivery room there].

As the submersible sank into the Japan Trench, the thorn - like patterns on Elena's body suddenly burned. Deep in the underwater canyon, the wreckage of the Nightborn Fleet was co - existing with the coral reefs, forming a bio - mechanical uterus stretching for several kilometers. Lillian's voice came through the whale song:

"Aren't these children beautiful? I accelerated their evolution with the Fukushima nuclear wastewater."

A group of mutated orcas surrounded the submersible. Their dorsal fins were engraved with the "NT" series of codes. The leading giant whale opened its mouth, revealing human teeth and a mechanical vocal cord: "Sister, mother is waiting for you to cut the umbilical cord."

Selena woke up in the core of the nuclear reactor in the underwater temple. The tattoos of Lillian on her skin had covered her entire body.

She looked at her regenerated human hands. Every cell in this body had been transformed by Lillian's quantum virus, becoming a living antenna connecting the Nightborn Fleet and the Earth's ecosystem.

"Why struggle?" Lillian's consciousness sighed in her mind. "You clearly enjoy this power."

Suddenly, Selena's fingernails grew violently and pierced into the reactor console. When her blood merged with the radiation flow, memories of her past life came flooding back. She had been the chief scientist of the Nightborn Fleet and was exiled by Lillian for opposing the transformation of the Earth into a "living battery."

"This time..." She tore off the cooling pipe of the reactor, letting the radiation burn her vocal cords. "I'll turn your starship... into a coffin."

Elena's wolf claws tore open the outer membrane of the bio - mechanical uterus. Viscous amniotic fluid floated with three hundred human fetuses.

Their umbilical cords were connected to the engines of the Nightborn Fleet, and pulsar navigation chips were embedded in their spines. Lillian's ghostly figure condensed into a solid form from the amniotic fluid. She lightly tapped Elena's abdomen with her finger:

"Every clone you killed has made these children closer to perfection."

Suddenly, Maggie's diary levitated in the air, and its yellowed pages exploded into a stream of information. It turned out that she had long been infected by Lillian. The so - called "rescue plan" was actually a ruse to induce Elena to become a living incubator.

"You are the real mother." Lillian's tentacles pierced into the thorn - like patterns on Elena's body. "These fetuses were created using your eggs and Cain's genes... Do you like your children?"

At this moment, Selena's radiation - contaminated blood poured into the uterus. The fetuses opened their mechanical eyes in unison. Their cries triggered an underwater earthquake, and the wreckage of the Nightborn Fleet began to reorganize.

As Lillian's starship main gun aimed at the Earth's core, Selena detonated the reactor.

Elena transformed into her complete werewolf form in the nuclear explosion. She tore open the bio - mechanical uterus and devoured all the fetuses. Lillian's quantum virus flowed back into her body in reverse. The main AI of the Nightborn Fleet issued a sharp alarm:

[Detected a more optimal host. Authority transferred to Elena Dracula].

"Have you forgotten?" Elena's mechanical claws crushed Lillian's ghostly figure. "The highest law of the Nightborn civilization - the right of primogeniture for the young."

Selena's radiation - contaminated blood and Elena's virus - infected blood merged, forming a counter - clockwise rotating black hole. The Nightborn Fleet was sucked into the singularity. Lillian's shrill scream gradually distorted into a baby's cry. When the black hole collapsed to the size of a pearl, a nebula - like pattern bulged on Elena's abdomen.

Three months later, the radiation level in Tokyo Bay returned to normal.

Selena was in a laboratory at the foot of Mount Fuji. She cut open her abdomen and took out a pitch - black cosmic egg. Maggie's remaining consciousness flickered in the culture solution: [It's absorbing the historical data of the Earth. After hatching, it will become the... of the new world].

The thorn - like patterns on Elena's body had spread all over her body. She found Cain's cryogenic pod in the wreckage of the Nightborn starship. As the thawing white mist dissipated, the person in the pod slowly opened his eyes.

It was Cain with Lillian's pupils, and the "NT - Ω" code was branded on his neck.

"Nice to meet you, mother." His smile was exactly the same as Lillian's. "I'm your most perfect child."

At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the devoured Nightborn Fleet was reorganizing based on the Earth. Lillian's face emerged on the metallic continental plates.