"Open wide—ah—"
March 7th picked up the lunch box she had brought for him, coaxing him like a child.
Aidan hesitated for a moment before slowly opening his intimidating mouthparts.
Inside were not human teeth and a tongue, but layers of mandibles and grinding structures for chewing. March 7th looked at the complex structure and paused her movements, clearly wondering how this thing was supposed to drink liquid food.
"Just pour it in... buzz..."
Aidan reminded her with the sound of vibrating wings.
"Oh! Right! I'm pouring then? Can you... can you catch it?"
March 7th mumbled as she brought the thermos closer to Aidan's mouth.
The taste...
How should I put it?
Aidan's compound eyes flickered.
If these were human taste buds, they would probably be screaming by now, but to an insect, it tasted quite good. Though his complex chewing mouthparts weren't exactly suited for liquid food.
"How is it? Is it good?" March 7th blinked her large eyes, looking at him expectantly. "I didn't try it myself, since the color looks a bit... well..."
"It's not bad... buzz..."
"I didn't expect your appetite to be so good after turning into a bug. If Pom-Pom knew, it would definitely be happy that its newly bought carrot juice didn't go to waste."
March 7th stayed with him for a while before tiptoeing away.
Little March brought him food; Little March is good.
After some time, the hatch opened once again.
This time, it was Ruan Mei who entered.
She still had that cold and aloof demeanor, holding a palm-sized device in her hand, her green eyes glowing faintly in the dim light. Standing at the door, she first glanced at the pile of sleeping True Stinging Insects in the corner before looking at Aidan, who was lying in the middle.
"You fed them."
"Buzz..."
Aidan responded weakly.
Ruan Mei took a few steps closer, knelt down, and lightly touched the remains of the nutrition spheres on the floor with her finger.
"You can convert Imaginary Energy into tangible nutrients."
Aidan's antennae twitched, unsure of how to react.
"I need you to perform a harmless test now. Can you command Skaracabaz?"
"Are you talking about... buzz... the Starcrusher Swarm King... buzz...?"
"Correct. A synthetic creation that can only exist for about thirty seconds after birth. Can you command it?"
Even so, Skaracabaz was a giant insect that inherited the Swarm King's mandibles.
"Don't worry. If it goes out of control, I will handle it myself. Herta would also be happy to test the limits of the Space Station's defense systems."
"That doesn't... buzz... sound like a comfort... buzz..."
They arrived at Ruan Mei's cultivation vat, where a massive insect egg was slowly pulsating in the air. A dark blue giant insect let out a low drone from within the egg.
"Are you ready?" Ruan Mei's fingers tapped on the terminal. "I'm about to disable the Suppression Field."
"Okay... buzz..."
Crack—!
With a crisp sound, a dark blue foreleg pierced through the eggshell, and cultivation fluid splashed everywhere.
"Buzz—!"
The blue giant insect that had broken out of its shell let out a roar.
"Buzz—!!!"
Before Aidan's brain could even process it, his body reacted.
The elytra on his back suddenly flared to their maximum width, and the blue-purple fluorescent veins flowing upon them instantly erupted with blinding light. His scythe-like forelimbs rose high and slammed down hard onto the floor, creating a sharp, thunderous bang.
The pair of dark blue giant mandibles slowly closed. Just as Ruan Mei had expected, even as a synthetic creation of an Emanator, its rank would not be higher than Aidan's.
Most importantly, it was brainless, just like other insects.
It didn't even last thirty seconds; before the giant insect could even let out a wail, it exploded into fragments.
"...?"
"You gave it a self-destruct command."
"I did... buzz...?"
"It realized its existence was an offense to you, so it proactively ended its own life."
Aidan's compound eyes flickered wildly, with hundreds of facets reflecting the egg fragments and cultivation fluid scattered across the floor.
"I... buzz... I made it commit suicide?"
"This means that within the hierarchy of The Propagation, your position is far above Skaracabaz." Ruan Mei stood up and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe her fingers. "I can now be certain that you are the 'peer' Tayzzyronth longed for but could never obtain after ascending."
"Buzz... buzz?!"
A sense of nausea welled up in his heart. This absolute control over life and death was so heavy it made Aidan, who was still human just yesterday, want to vomit.
"You don't seem happy." Ruan Mei tilted her head, a hint of confusion flashing in her eyes. "Based on my observations, most people feel a certain level of satisfaction when they learn they've been classified as a higher-tier being. Your current reaction does not match my expectations."
"This feeling... buzz... it's like... buzz... I've become... buzz... a tyrant... buzz..."
"In the Path of The Propagation, there is no concept of a tyrant, only a mother—or more accurately, the 'One' and the 'All'. You are the 'One', and they are the 'All'. You are the swarm, and the swarm is you. Would you feel sorrow over the death of a cell on your finger? Or would you consider it tyranny to control your red blood cells to transport oxygen?"
Ruan Mei turned around and looked at Aidan.
"To you, they are nothing more than extensions of your own body. Letting necrotic tissue slough off is a perfectly normal physiological metabolism."
"But I... buzz... am not... buzz... I am human... buzz..."
Aidan instinctively shrank back, his giant forelimbs restlessly scraping the floor.
"Human? But your current genetics are entirely those of a coleopteran insect."
"...Me?"
Silence.
The wing vibrations stopped. But then, Aidan opened his hideous mouthparts, inhaled through his chest, and let out a somewhat sharp, distorted airy sound.
"I am... human... I have... a human heart..."
Heart...
"But you no longer have the structure of a human heart; you only have a Dorsal Vessel to pump Hemolymph through your body."
Ruan Mei's words made him pause.
"..."
A strange sense of loneliness gripped his thoughts.
"You are sad, but... since you have no heart, what is this 'human heart' you speak of? Is it some metaphysical abstract existence, or..."
Ruan Mei looked at him.
"I need to clarify this concept to better understand your state."
Aidan's wings vibrated once, then stopped.
He tried to speak but found he didn't know what to say.
What is a human heart?
If he had been asked this question when he followed the Path of Preservation or Trailblaze, he probably could have gone on and on about it—passion, kindness, courage, a sense of justice, and so on.
But today, he was a coward.
But...
"I am... human."
"Even if... I am... a bug now..."
"I am still... human..."
He slowly stood up.
The power of The Propagation began to flow through his vibrating wings, gathering upon the lifeless head of the giant insect behind him.
"I am not... a tyrant... I'm not..."