After severing the Mind Flayer's head, Renato flicked the lingering blood from his longsword.
His opponent had never turned around, even at the moment of death, but had kept casting spells at a pool. Renato found that puzzling.
The pool resembled a head with its skullcap removed. Smooth bone formed its rim, and a viscous, transparent liquid filled it.
Black tadpoles about the size of a finger joint lay motionless at the bottom, as though asleep.
On closer inspection, the tadpoles looked more like worms. Fine, dense cilia covered their bodies, swaying slowly in the water, while their tails tapered to needle-sharp points.
Most unsettling were their mouths: circular mouthparts lined with sharp little teeth that extended inward, like those of a lamprey.
Klauthsura floated in through the passage on the other side, the tentacles around his mouth coated in Silver Blood, a trace of satiation in his eyes.
"You dealt with the remaining personnel in the 'transformation chamber'?" Klauthsura glanced at the corpse on the floor, his tone flat. "Good. I'll open the passage to the 'prison'..."
"That's disgusting, Klauthsura!" The female Drow who entered after him covered her nose and mouth, her purple eyes full of revulsion. "Did you have to chew on another Mind Flayer's head right in front of us? You splattered it all over me! Couldn't you just... put up with being hungry for a while?"
"I need to consume fresh brain tissue with high neuronal density and abundant synaptic connections to restore my psionics."
The tall Mind Flayer stood before the flesh-and-blood console, reconnecting its Neural Bundles, his tone as calm as if he were discussing what he had eaten for lunch.
"Besides, I acquired the relevant operating knowledge through the other's brain tissue. With a little verification, I can open the biological authentication