The elevator winch gave a teeth-grating screech. As the car passed through the final isolation gate, the smell in the air changed. It was nothing like the sea salt and fresh greenery of the surface, but a mixture of ozone, chitin, and something sickly sweet and fermented-the smell of the insect hive.
Veylin stepped out of the car, his leather boots making wet squelches against the ground blanketed in fungal carpet.
This was five hundred meters underground, an absolute forbidden zone.
Countless glowing sacs hung from the enormous dome, casting flickering light over the underground palace. In the central Hatching Pool, Sarah soaked in pale green nutrient fluid.
Compared with their last meeting, her human features had become even more pronounced. The chitin shell that had once covered her entire body was receding, revealing pale, soft skin. Only the joints of her limbs retained their sharp bone spurs. She looked like an unfinished work of art, beautiful yet monstrous.
"Father."
Sarah opened her eyes.
They were no longer terrifying compound eyes, but a pair of mesmerizing deep purple ones.
Two pools of clear spring water seemed to lie within them, their shifting gaze carrying a young girl's distinctive liveliness and slyness. Were it not for the surrounding fungal carpet and slime, anyone would have mistaken her for a carefree young noblewoman gazing at her father with affection and trust.
Her lips, gleaming faintly purple, parted. Her voice was low and resonant, elegant and composed, carrying an innate air of authority.
"Congratulations on another perfect molt." Veylin looked at the shed shell fragments floating on the pool's surface. His tone was level, but held a trace of barely perceptible approval. "The new shell has an excellent sheen."
"This was a necessary elevation." Sarah slowly rose from the nutrient fluid, her movements