“Samsara,” I echoed telepathically.

  She continued to sob. “It’s not fair. Why can’t I save her?”

  “It’s not your fault,” I said, hugging her.

  To be honest, it was kind of hard for me to care about Aisling. I was a bit upset about losing a worshiper, but I could get more later. Of course, Samsara’s sadness seeped into my mind, but it just made me feel sorry for her that she was like this.

  Samsara sniffled and tried [Sacrifical Mana Transfer] and [Sacrificial Soul Transfer] again. She was already upset and had yelled at me (telepathically) before, so I didn’t want to make things worse. Instead, I focused on the giant monster girl blob that was nearly as tall as my chest.

  I licked my lips as I saw the giant meal in front of me. Hopefully, this would allow us to mutate or even evolve, making all this worth it.

  I activate [Serrated Tentacles] and began tearing off pieces of the limp monster girls. My tentacles brought chunks from different monster girls straight into my mouth, mixing flavors together. Sweet, salty, and sour. Flaky, soft, and crunchy. This blob had every flavor in the world.

  Something was off, though. None of the monster girls had Cores inside. They had stomachs, lungs, hearts, and even brains. Where were their Cores?

  I continued eating the monster girls on the blob. The last one, the upper half of a fish girl, woke up and tried to bite me. I jumped backwards over the blob, avoiding the slow girl’s chomp. A crater appeared as I landed on the other side of the blob, where Samsara was still trying to resurrect Aisling.

  The blob turned around. No. It was more like the fish girl used her hands to turn the blob around. None of the monster girls I ate regenerated on the blob.

  Seraphina’s wings fired six more orbs toward the blob. White sparks jumped across the blob, running up and down the fish girl. The fish girl wailed. Its head fell to the ground.

  My tentacles sliced it off the torso of the blob. The blob was more like a sphere of white flesh. I dug into the fish girl, her scales tasting like syrup. My teeth broke and pulverized her scales, letting sour blood enter my mouth. Tastes like a lemon.

  Now all that was left was the giant fleshball. My hair tentacles began digging into its skin. Each crunchy chunk tasted salty, like the triangle-shaped chips I used to have before I became a monster girl.

  The red blood inside the flesh sphere tasted sweet, which only made me hunger for more. I stepped up to the sphere and plunged my head inside, sucking up all the blood as if I were a vampire girl. Actually, I think they would just bite the outside and use their fangs to transport the blood into their mouths. But this was more efficient.

  Something Orange shone through the blood. The monster girl Cores! Here they were. Dozens of them were in the center of the sphere. They were large, though. Each one appeared to be larger than my fist. And they were growing.

  My hair tentacles grabbed all the orbs and brought them to my mouth. I slurped each one in like it was gelatin.

  I devoured the rest of the meat blob, making sure there was nothing left. It seemed to stop growing after I ate the Cores. Why were they so large? It didn’t make any sense because they clearly weren’t Kaiju Cores; if they were, the blood would be blue, not red.

  Speaking of blood, my face was now painted red. I tried cleaning myself with my tentacles, but it turned out not to be very efficient. Bloodstains were all over my tentacles and face. Okay, I might have gotten a bit greedy eating that monster girl blob.

  Devotio, still superimposed over our visions, flashed their eye red again. Samsara jolted backwards, seemingly scared by the red flash. She stopped trying to do [Sacrificial Mana Transfer] and [Sacrificial Soul Transfer].

  [It seems that you have enough excess mana (25,000) to trigger a mutation. I can help guide the mana into one of two paths. Please let me know which mutation you prefer, or you can request I not interfere with the mutation process.]

  [Ink Toggle + Scale Molt]: You can toggle your ink production off and on, and you can molt out of your scales, quickly ejecting from them in case of an emergency. The scales will grow back at a significant mana cost.

  [Blood Rust + 2 Extra Hair Snakes]: Your blood turns caustic against metal, rapidly damaging any metals and electronics. Additionally, Samsara’s head will grow two extra hair snakes.

  “Wait, what?” Samsara asked, looking at me. “When did we get enough mana for a mutation?”

  She stared at my bloodied face. I grinned at her. “I ate the rest of the monster girl blob so it wouldn’t be a problem anymore.”

  “Oh.” Yes.

  “Also, we should take Aisling’s body with us,” I said. “I’m not sure if we’ll find out how to heal her here, but we can keep her body safe in Lateo. And then you’ll have all the time in the world to save her.”

  “That makes sense,” she said. She sighed in relief. “I was worried you were going to say we should eat her.”

  “Well, I know you were upset,” I said, walking up to her and hugging her. “I didn’t want to anger you anymore.”

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  “Thanks. And sorry for the outburst earlier. I know that’s just how you are, and I should always expect you to act that way.”

  That sounded weirdly passive-aggressive, like I was an animal that couldn’t control themselves.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Samsara shook her head. “I don’t think of you like an animal.”

  “Thanks,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Although, if you did mean to refer to me like an animal, that would make you one too.”

  “What?!” Samsara asked.

  “We’re connected, remember?” I grinned. “Plus, we are animals. Every monster girl and human is.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” Samsara repeated herself.

  “Ah, so you meant that I was acting like a non-sapient animal,” I asked, poking her cheek.

  “Yeah, exactly—wait, no,” she said, getting flustered.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I forgive you.” Truthfully, I couldn't care less about what Samsara thinks about me as long as she was safe.

  I grabbed Aisling with one of my hair tentacles. “I’ll hold onto her so that you don’t have to carry her.”

  Samsara nodded.

  “We should focus on the mutations,” I said.

  “Right.”

  Hmm. [Blood Rust] seemed really good. It affected both of us and would be really useful against mechs. [Scale Molt] would maybe buy us a few seconds, but wouldn’t do anything to our attackers. And each scale requiring mana to regenerate seemed very unappealing.

  “Those are the better two choices,” Samsara said. “[Ink Toggle] and [2 Extra Hair Snakes] don’t seem to have any combat purpose at all.”

  Actually, with Samsara’s venomous mutation, the extra hair snakes could be used to paralyze more opponents.

  “Oh, right,” Samsara said. “In that case, wouldn’t the second mutation be better?”

  “Yep,” I nodded. “We’ll take [Blood Rust + 2 Extra Hair Snakes].”

  [Excellent, I will guide the mana into that mutation then.]

  I felt our blood… shift. If that made any sense. Samsara’s hair started to grow and lengthen. To an ordinary person, it would look like her hair was growing into scaly pigtails. My brain connected to two more pairs of eyes.

  [You will need 50,000 mana for the next mutation.]

  “Should we return to Lateo?” Samsara asked.

  “Actually, we should eat every human here,” I said. “Do you want them to turn more monster girls into those monster girl blobs or meat blobs?”

  “No,” Samsara asked, balling up her fists. Anger rose inside of her. “They were the ones who did this. They are the reason Aisling won’t wake up.”

  “And we should eat them so they can never do this again,” I said. “Plus, it would stop the humans from making more mechs.”

  “Yes, we agreed we wanted to get rid of the lab,” Samsara said. “But if we let the humans here live, then they will just build another lab. And then more monster girls will be kidnapped, experimented on, and fused against their will.”

  “Hey Seraphina!” I called out, looking at the air.

  She was sobbing in the air, muttering, “Azar.” I grabbed her with one of my hair tentacles and brought her closer to my face.

  She whimpered as she saw me. “Please don’t eat me.”

  “I’m not going to eat you,” I said.

  “But… you ate Azar!” Seraphina cried out.

  “Yeah, he was really tasty and crunchy,” I smirked.

  “Let me kill you!” Seraphina exclaimed. She tried to get her wings to attack me again, but I asserted my control over them. “Stop controlling my wings!”

  “I’m not going to let you stun me,” I said. “I do have a question to ask you, though.”

  She tried escaping from my tentacle’s grasp, but I held on firm.

  I sighed and stood there. My tentacle squeezed her, causing her to cough and shut her mouth.

  “Do you know where the bunkers are?” I asked.

  “Bunkers…?” She said, panic rising within her.

  “Yeah, you said you didn’t want us to eat anyone in the bunkers,” I repeated. “But did you know that the scientists here were experimenting on monster girls?”

  “They must have a good reason for it!” Seraphina said firmly. She still struggled to break free of my tentacles' grasp. “Monster girls like you are a threat to humanity!”

  “Yeah, but where are the bunkers?”

  She closed her mouth. Seraphina must have realized that we must have had some way of tracking what she said. And she didn’t want to reveal any more information.

  Fine. I released her from my hair tentacle. She floated behind me. I would need it to grab any mad scientists. Plus, I could control Seraphina and stop her from attacking me, so there was no need to hold her.

  Samsara and each of her hair snakes hissed. I sniffed the air for the scent of salt. It came from four distinct places. Those must be the four bunkers. They were located in each corner of the base. I decided to walk towards the corner closest to where we broke in. There was a four-story building nearby. My nose told me there were humans down below.

  I kicked the building with my foot, sending the structure flying. A few seconds later, I heard a distant crash.

  “Look at that!” I told Samsara. “Wasn’t that so cool?”

  “Yeah, it didn’t even stand a chance against your kick,” Samsara nodded.

  Below, I could see a gray metal slab bolted with multiple hinges. A tiny door led into it. I grabbed the slab with my tentacles, bringing it to my right hand. I crushed it in my fist, my red ink dissolving the tiny concrete fragments.

  The bunker was below. A deep, square hole was dug into the ground. Stairs surrounded the edge of the bunker walls. The bunker was around four stories deep, the same height as the building I kicked.

  At the bottom of the bunker, I saw over 20 humans. Some of them wore lab coats. Others wore gray vests. And I spotted a few Monster Purifiers. All of them had the blue beam guns. They aimed them towards my eyes and fired.