In the dark seclusion of the deep sea, murky thermal slurry bubbles gurgled and churned. The still-unstable crust expanded and contracted slightly, firelight flickering on and off. The heat and light drew in vast numbers of seabed creatures to feed. A few extra waving tentacles and several hidden mouthparts among them were nothing strange.
But later on, after the large and small creatures drawn here during this period had basically been slaughtered and devoured clean, these things began to seem abrupt. Only then did they curl back inward, gathering together and fusing, twisting, and reshaping within the opening and closing rock fissures.
In the end, those highly abstract masses of flesh and blood rolled through the murky thermal slurry and finally transformed into a shapely female body. Without further delay, it slowly made its way along the seabed volcanic rocks, which had only recently cooled, toward the sea surface several hundred meters above.
Because of the earlier undersea volcanic activity triggered by external forces, a rather tiny island had appeared on the surface. In truth, it was more like a large chunk of rock. Walking barefoot on it felt somewhat soft and unstable; no one knew when it might collapse, and it could be swallowed by the sea again at any moment.
Mora had no interest in such a place. She merely needed a foothold above the sea, convenient for stargazing, determining her direction, and advancing toward the nearest large island or landmass—being a savage or an "Underwater Predator" for a short while was fine, but doing so for the long term really did not fit her life plan.
Changing life forms consumed quite a bit of energy. Mora had to live within her means, so she had only sensed this place from afar during this period and had not