A Chronometric Defect

We escaped the damn dragon. Or— should I say, gluttony god? Ha! Mission success. Uh, probably. We got a nice inscription recording of his transformation and I'll be sending it back to our god shortly.

Seeing him eat that deliciously red star; it makes me so hungry. I'm always hungry.

More hungry, I guess?

When will I be able to eat a star?

No wonder our gluttonous god holds an interest in this 'Chronomet.' Ah, we've learned the dragon's name from the planet's Mana transmissions. He'll hopefully like this as well. I don't think he knew the dragon's name, since he kept referring to it as 'that dragon' and showed me only images.

However, I'm a bit worried he'll ignore us and instead focus on the dragon. I didn't tell the crew my worries because leaders must withhold irrelevant information. Now I'm wondering if it is legitimately irrelevant.

He seemed super-fixated on this dragon. Almost like he wanted to eat Chronomet right now rather than wait. I'd never seen him before, in all his tentacled writhing glory, but something tells me he wasn't acting normal.

Plus, even though we were successful, I have a bad feeling. Something wasn't right. The first transformation went as expected. The second one, though? He went from a massy blob right back down to his dragon shape. It didn't look quite right, anymore, so I guessed he was taking a form he was more familiar with.

They all revert to a blob later.

That last transformation; THAT'S what has me worried. He didn't become a dragon covered in Gluttony's hungering maws. He became a maw. His ENTIRE body became a maw.

I look down at the fleshy mass that is my body.

I want to be a maw. I'm jealous.

*schlop*

*shclop*

I shake my head. For a given definition of 'head.'

It worries me because we have no data on what that is, or what it could be. Even a descended Abyssal won't look like that. I mean, he had some sort of glinting spikes we couldn't really get a good image of, and those did look similar to an Abyssal, but not exactly. Abyssal spikes aren't clear— they're solid white.

I play the recording again. He shifts from dragon to giant maw. His clear spikes are like perfectly aligned teeth, all within his maw. Then, he shifts back to being a dragon, said spikes protruding everywhere almost haphazardly.

I shift the recording's images back and forth repeatedly.

What exactly am I looking at? What IS this thing? It doesn't make any sense. It's like we succeeded but also didn't. Maybe we succeeded at creating something entirely different?

*splorp*

I feel a dark shiver run down my blobby flesh. THAT'S not good. THAT'S only supposed to happen when someone touches upon a truth they shouldn't meddle with. It often portends the deaths of many.

Then. Then if I take this teaching of Gluttony as gospel, does that mean we didn't create a gluttony god?

We created something...

Worse?

*sploop*

I feel the dark shiver again. Far more powerful this time.

"Captain, something's coming up behind us."

"In boson slip? How the hell?"

"Sir, I've got a lock."

"How'd you get a lock in boson slip? That's not even remotely possible."

"Well, sir. It is if we get a lock before entering boson slip."

"No way. The target?"

"Yessir."

That thing is chasing us through boson slip?! I don't think even the virtues' avatars could pull that off.

Then, what if w—

I remember the shivers from earlier. I scream at her.

"E-TRANS?! YES NO?!"

She looks panicked, never having seen me freak out.

"Sir— we— just used it. It takes thirty-seven Elythria hours. We don't have nearly enough fermions in the reserve."

...

"You were a good crew. Thanks."

I grab a nearby food transferrer and swallow.

*chglup*

There's nothing we can do.

Nothing at all.