The embryo before her was larger than any image she had ever seen, more terrifying, more like something that should not exist in this world.
Its surface was silver-gray, but it lacked the sheen of metal. It had a texture more ancient, more primordial, like both mineral and living tissue.
The ravines across its surface were the patterns of its skin. Each one was hundreds of meters deep, with a dark red glow shining from the bottom.
That was its blood, its energy, its life.
Between the ravines rose structures like mountain ranges. Those were its bones, its framework, the pillars supporting its enormous body.
Its body was curled up like an infant waiting to be born inside its mother's womb.
Its knees pressed against its chest, its arms crossed over its breast, its head hung low, its chin resting against its collarbone.
It had no face. Its head was a smooth, oval protrusion with no eyes, no nose, and no mouth.
Yet Tina could feel that beneath that smooth surface, a pair of eyes was waking from sleep, watching him from the darkness.
Loren hovered before the embryo's head, less than a hundred meters away.
His silvery-white energy shield shone especially brightly amid the embryo's dark red radiance, like a star burning in a dark abyss.
He stared at the embryo's head, at that faceless being that was nevertheless watching him.
"Celestial embryo, you cannot be born yet." Loren's voice was calm as it echoed through the energy field.
The embryo did not respond. There was no sound, no energy fluctuation, no signal that the senses could detect.
But Loren could feel its consciousness rising from the depths of slumber.
It was not fully awake, only half-awake.
Like someone startled from a dream, its consciousness still lingered at the