Mutual Animosity
The interior of the nest was thick with suffocating humidity that crushed the lungs, mingled with the stench of blood and semen.
The walls of organic matter, formed from a nauseating warmth like being inside the guts of some colossal beast, pulsed with a steady, unsettling rhythm like a heart of their own, emitting a faint glow.
And at its center.
Sitting upon a massive throne dripping with sticky fluids was the Carapace Lord.
This was a space born purely from her own horrific aesthetics and desires, incomparable to the crude nest hastily thrown together atop the shabby command post in Hongwei-7 long ago.
"Ah—! Aah—!!! Aaaaahhh!!!"
The moans of mingled pain and pleasure echoing from deep within the nest fueled the Lord's excitement.
The Carapace Lord's eyes turned to the empty air of the nest.
There, suspended by mucous tentacles binding her limbs, was an ECHO.
Once an elite doll guarding Ark 74, she was now shattered and broken, reduced to the Carapace Lord's plaything.
"Heeek! Eek! Eek! Oooh!"
As proof, the ECHO's vacant eyes gleamed with manic ecstasy.
It was the result of the mental contaminant toxin the Carapace Lord had personally injected, burning away her logic circuits countless times until she craved only primal pleasure.
And behind her…
"Urgh! Eek! Oh! Oooh!"
"Aaaah! There! There—!!!"
"More! Thrust deeper! My pussy! Pussy!!!"
In the darkness, ECHOs and human women hung in similar poses, their bodies violated by tentacles as they wildly twisted their hips in madness.
"Kehihihit—!"
Gazing upon the sight, the Carapace Lord let out a satisfied laugh.
"Your creations will soon bring about your ruin."
The Carapace Lord rose from her throne.
A grotesque futanari form, fusing male hardness with female voluptuousness.
Beneath it, her cock swelled with the lust of conquest, rearing its head greedily.
The Carapace Lord slowly approached the nearest suspended ECHO.
She roughly spread the screaming woman's legs in her hallucination-induced frenzy and thrust her own length deep inside without a moment's hesitation.
"Kahahak! Ah, aaaaaah—!!!"
ECHO's body arched like a bow from the impact of penetration.
Her dilated pupils contracted sharply to pinpricks as her body began to convulse.
"How's that? Like it???"
As the Carapace Lord pistoned her hips and asked, the ECHO trembled violently and barely managed a reply.
"Y-Yes…! Cock—! Love the cock!!!"
With her mental circuits already collapsed, the ECHO was a slave utterly obedient to the Carapace Lord.
Satisfied with the answer, the Carapace Lord grinned and ravaged her insides mercilessly.
Then, she unleashed her corrupted genetic payload, infused with hatred for humanity.
But it was no seed of life.
It was a cursed seed that birthed death and mutation.
"Ah, aaaaaah! Haaaaahhh!!!"
Impregnation happened instantly.
The ECHO's lower abdomen visibly, unnaturally swelled upon receiving the Lord's poisoned semen.
"Kekekeke. Humans are so stupid. Why would they leave a function like this in a mere weapon? Or could they not remove it?"
Through the ECHO's thinning abdominal skin, wriggling shapes began to show, deforming her bloated abdomen.
Gazing at them, the Carapace Lord burst into gleeful cackles.
"Guh! Gruuh! Eek! Aaaaah—!!!"
The false ecstasy in the ECHO's moans finally shattered into a tearing scream.
But even that pitiful cry was drowned out by the groans of the other women and ECHOs being violated by tentacles and zombies.
Soon, from the ECHO's bloated belly crawled a horrific thing drenched in blood and mucus.
A malformed zombie crudely mimicking human form, with twisted limbs and a ravenous maw.
"Tch… Is it because the host is outdated? Boring."
"Ah, aaah…"
The ECHO—now little more than an emptied breeder, also known as host—hung limp.
But the Lord's mercy was nowhere to be found.
"Shall we go again?"
The Carapace Lord impaled the zombie breeder once more with her scorching cock.
As she shook her hips violently, relentlessly seeding her, she suddenly let out a dissatisfied groan and looked down at herself.
"……."
A cock with an incomplete cross-section, one side unpleasantly gouged out.
The memory seeped in like phantom pain.
The human squad commander from Hongwei-7 she'd dismissed as insignificant.
The scar left by that bastard's single bullet had become impossible to erase.
"Fucking hell."
The memory ignited into rage in an instant.
Her mood soured disgustingly, so the Carapace Lord grabbed the ECHO she was raping by the hair and hurled her toward the nest wall.
"Kahahahahahahhh!"
Just before she hit, a massive tentacle from the nest caught the precious breeder like a treasure.
But only for a moment—dozens of smaller tentacles shot out, greedily ravaging her holes.
The Carapace Lord gazed at the scene indifferently before sinking back into her throne.
—Bang!
A single gunshot.
The horrific pain and humiliation of her proud phallus exploding into pieces.
The more she recalled it, the more vengeful fury welled up.
"I won't let you get away."
Those ECHO bitches she'd encountered would birth her zombies until they died.
And that arrogant young commander…
"I'll drain every last drop of cum from him, turn him into a woman right before he dies. Then I'll fuck him senseless until he wails that he can't bear my children."
Just imagining it made her cock twitch and leak precum.
"Kehit! Kehihihihit!"
Unable to contain her arousal, the Carapace Lord gripped her member, jerked it roughly, and laughed.
In response, every tentacle in the nest plunged deeper and more savagely into the ECHOs and hosts, unleashing a frenzied orgy.
"Send more zombies to Hongwei-7—! Find that commander bastard and the ECHOs!"
At the Carapace Lord's command, an elite entity with a body like razor-sharp blades—a Boneblade—inquired.
"…What about Ark 74?"
"Obviously, we attack it. That's where that young commander is most likely holed up, right?"
"Yes."
"And send zombies to Hongwei-7 too."
Boneblade bowed at the Lord's order.
As expected of humanity's last refuge, the resistance was fierce, but time was on their side.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
[Poo—. Popo—!]
The Hachishakusama had been in a foul mood lately.
A few weeks ago, the human man she'd stumbled upon by chance had been the finest feast she'd ever tasted.
His essence brought incomparable sweetness, satiety, and pleasure beyond any sacrifice.
And it wasn't just tasty.
Each time she absorbed his vital energy, the very source of her power writhed and grew stronger.
That was why the Hachishakusama happily accepted the man's secret pact.
For one thing…
[Come here, you bitch.]
[Tighter, tighter, you fucking slut! Good! You like it, right?!]
His dual nature intrigued her—trembling in instinctive fear at first sight, yet turning rough and passionate once they coupled.
But cracks were forming in their private pact.
Instead of the man providing his essence, ECHOs now prowled the area.
He occasionally appeared here and there, but showed no intent to honor their pact.
Worse, the essence he owed her was being squandered on other ECHOs.
[Pooooht! Popopopopo!!!]
Thinking of it filled her with betrayal and raging thirst, spewing fury.
A sharp and black aura extended from her nails, gouging deep scars into the concrete wall.
[Poo—! Popopo!!!]
Wasn't he the one who'd proposed the pact first?
If he kept withholding her essence, she wouldn't sit idly by.
"Krurrut! Kruk!"
As she vented her resentment toward the commander at the concrete wall, unpleasant vermin began crawling into the Hachishakusama's view.
[…….]
Zombies tainted with the blood of that freakish monster from the old Hongwei-7 command post—the Carapace Lord.
[Popopopopo.]
These pathetic, filthy things dared.
Even that monster carrying that disgusting shell on its back couldn't touch her, yet these low-grade zombies mixed with a few drops of that being’s foul blood bared hostility toward her.
[Pooo…….]
Fury surged in the Hachishakusama's eyes.
Were they idiots?
These filthy creatures dared try to use her as a zombie breeder, as a mere host?
The next instant, her form vanished like a heat haze.
"Kueeeek!"
With movement too swift for human eyes—like a beast—the advancing zombie's head tore off like wet paper amid squeals.
The Spitter variant zombie spraying acid had its limbs twisted and ripped at grotesque angles, while the quadrupedal Runner had its spine yanked out.
An everyday slaughter.
Thus, the Hachishakusama swiftly erased the zombies lunging at her.
A purely instinctive purge of pests defiling her domain.
And she instinctively knew that only without these zombies would the human man feel safe enough to enter her territory.
"……."
And that gruesome, bizarre scene was being watched in hushed silence from the shadows of the ruins by two pairs of eyes.
Moi and Rai, the wanderer ECHO sisters who'd snuck into Hongwei-7 days ago.
"S-Sis…."
"Shh, Rai."
Moi quietly pressed a finger to her pale-faced sister's lips.
She'd heard that anomalies hostile to humans would attack zombies on instinct.
But witnessing an anomaly directly slaughtering them—unilaterally, no less—was a rare sight.
That's the Hachishakusama….
Moi swallowed dryly.
Not top-tier like the Crimson Witch of Fury or Bride of the White Night, but a potent anomaly firmly in Danger Grade B.
And even a zombie horde with intelligent elites was no match, getting massacred.
"Back to the hideout."
"Y-Yeah."
Watching from afar, Moi quickly decided.
Grabbing her frozen sister's arm, she plunged into the darkness.
The moment that monster spotted them, they'd be torn apart like the zombies.
With their meager gear, they couldn't withstand her attacks.
Finally back at the temporary hideout, Rai asked tearfully.
"W-What do we do, Sis?"
Pondering her sister's question, Moi sifted through her memories before speaking slowly.
"There's an Ark nearby."
"…An Ark? Around h-here? Then 82? Ah! 66 maybe?"
"Nah… 82's way further west. Too far. And 66's south."
"Then?"
Moi spoke with a mix of conviction and unease.
"Ark 69. Rumored to have been completely smashed by the Crawler Queen."
"Sm-Smashed…?"
Then wasn't it totally contaminated?
Despair crept over Rai's face, but Moi latched onto that very point.
"Exactly—so aside from a few zombies, it's probably empty. For wanderers like us, it could be safer. We'll monitor the Hachishakusama's movements, move when she leaves, and the zombie encirclement loosens, then head there."
"You know the location?"
"Of course. What's most vital for a wanderer? Info."
Moi tapped her temple at her sister's question.
"Heehee—! Sis is the best!"
Stroking Rai's head as she clung close, Moi waited for the Hachishakusama and zombie clash to end.
Rushing out blindly and catching the ghost's eye would be disastrous.
They needed a few days to observe her patterns and gauge the situation.