Being expelled by the digestive tract of a god isn't an experience one puts on a resume.

  But physics is ruthless: what goes in, must come out.

  The Dreadnought was fired out of the Leviathan's final sphincter like a cannonball lubricated by acidic bile and hydraulic pressure.

  We were thrown into the dark water of the deep ocean.

  The methane gas bubble that exited with us exploded, creating extra propulsion that threw us toward the surface.

  "Hold your vomit!" Valéria shouted, fighting gravity while we rose vertically.

  We breached the sea surface with a bang. The truck flew ten meters in the air, spun, and fell into the water with a splash that washed (partially) the dirt from the fuselage.

  The emergency flotation system activated. We drifted.

  Silence fell.

  No more monster roar. No more Siren scream.

  Only the sound of waves hitting metal and our panting breath.

  "Are we... in one piece?" Luna asked, voice trembling, checking if she still had all limbs.

  "The truck is sealed," Valéria checked the panels. "But the new paint job is gone. Stomach acid ate the polish."

  "Look back," I said, cleaning the glass of my chitin visor (which was now cracking and falling off, since the Parasite didn't need to maintain it anymore).

  We opened the top hatch and climbed onto the vehicle's roof.

  The sun was rising. And illuminating the new geography of Rio de Janeiro.

  The Leviathan was dead.

  But it didn't sink.

  The chemical reaction I caused in its core—Ether petrification—turned the monster's flesh into floating pumice and calcified coral instantly.

  His body, kilometers long, floated in Guanabara Bay like a new island. A mountain range of white bones and gray flesh stretching from Sugarloaf to Niterói.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The corpse had become a continent.

  "It's... big," Gristle commented, climbing onto the roof with a protein bar in hand. "Did we kill that?"

  "We gave it terminal indigestion," I corrected, feeling the salty wind on my face. "It died from the inside out. The immune system collapsed."

  Valéria pointed to the coast.

  In the ruins of the slums and on the rooftops of the remaining buildings, people were starting to come out.

  Survivors. Ex-cultists of the High Tide who woke from their trance. Mutant fishermen.

  They looked at the dead monster.

  They saw solid ground.

  "They will colonize the body," I realized. "In a month, there will be cities built on its ribs. They'll mine the bones. They'll eat the preserved meat.

  "The Leviathan came to destroy the city, but ended up becoming the foundation for the next one."

  "Irony is the only constant force in the universe," Luna sighed, sitting on the edge of the truck, dangling her legs over the water.

  The Parasite inside me vibrated. It was satisfied. It had "tasted" a god and learned from it.

  [DATA ASSIMILATED: ABYSSAL PRESSURE RESISTANCE.]

  [NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: CORAL SKIN (INCREASES PHYSICAL DEFENSE BY 200%).]

  "At least we got an upgrade," I muttered.

  "Arthur," Valéria called, adjusting the long-distance radio she had fixed during the trip. "I'm picking up a signal."

  "From the Church? From Petrópolis?"

  "No." She frowned, turning the frequency dial. "It's a Shortwave Radio signal. Old Morse code.

  "It's coming from the North Atlantic."

  We all stopped to listen to the rhythmic beep-beep-beep.

  "What does it say?" asked Gristle.

  Valéria grabbed a notebook and began to translate.

  "This is the Azores Sentinel Station..."

  "We detected the fall of the Omega Signature in the Southern Hemisphere..."

  "Confirm visual... Does Brazil still exist?"

  "If anyone is listening... the Ice Bridge has broken. They are crossing the ocean. I repeat: Europe has fallen. They are heading South."

  The signal cut to static.

  We stood in silence, looking at the infinite horizon of the sea.

  The Leviathan wasn't the only one. He was just the doorman.

  The "Ice Bridge" mentioned... probably meant the magical cold containing the monsters in the North had failed.

  "Europe has fallen," Luna repeated softly. "Paris, London... it all became a war zone?"

  "Probably became a pasture," I replied, closing my lab coat. "The world out there is worse than here."

  Gristle wiped her cleaver.

  "So we have to go there and clean up their mess?"

  "No," I smiled, a tired but predatory smile. "We are going to fortify.

  "We have a continent of flesh now. We have Petrópolis with its steam technology. We have the Amazon with its biological weapon.

  "Brazil has just become the superpower of the apocalypse."

  I pointed to the Leviathan corpse-island.

  "Let's dock there. I need to collect samples of its pineal gland before it rots. And Valéria needs a dry dock to fix the Dreadnought."

  Valéria started the engine. The truck-submarine, now a boat, sailed smoothly toward "Rib Beach."

  The sun illuminated the ruins and the new world.

  The smell was of salt, blood, and opportunity.

  I spoke to the Parasite. "Prepare your stomach. The main course hasn't even been served yet."