18. A demon prowling the streets.

Dwax traveled down the river and into the city. The algae pools that had blown the skyscrapers up had been filled with rainwater and became a breeding ground for all kinds of water-loving organisms. All around the buildings, vegetation grew through their cracks. Giant mushrooms started growing through the mycelial insulation on the walls. The water damage has accumulated on the streets where the drainages have been clogged by rotting vegetation.There were an incredible number of rats running around.

Dwax thought about it. Everything was fucked. Everything has always been fucked. He picked up a rat and produced a needle.

"I hope you like the bombadier beetle genes. All your descendants will have it." He picked up rat after rat until the liquid in his finger had been depleted."He stood, satisfied. He decided to inject everything with bombadier beetle genes."

He cooked some mushrooms and several rats together in a stew. After a great feast, his needle was re-filled.

He decided that, from now on, every mushroom he saw was going to spew irritating spores. This world should be as unhospitable as possible. Whatever those who did this to him wanted from this planet, they were not going to get it easily.

He walked around like a fucked-up fairy mother and mutated beasts into abominations. Nearly everything had bullet ant venom, irritating surfaces, bombadier organs, stench bombs, or acid spitters.

He imagined that the people who would come here to take this land would use machines and suits to make themselves comfortable, no matter what he did. He decided he would take it upon himself to create living beings that could compete with heavy machinery.

He remembered what Dong Jun said about creature design. It worked more like art. He needed to outdo the innovating capabilities of men to some degree. He ran the design program in his secondary brain, putting all deciphering processes on hold.

He pulled up a classic rabbit genome and instructed it to grow larger with every generation.

"First, energy intake fails."

He edited the genes to make sure the rabbits became omnivores in the tenth generation.

"Second, the birth canal fails."

By the twenty-fifth generation, they would start laying eggs.

"Third, the heat management of the body fails."

He created a secondary water-based cardiovasculer system and used magma slug genes to make it welcoming to water and heat. It is designed to spray out steam to keep the animal cool so it can keep itself cold.

"Fourth, the oxygen fails to reach the flesh, killing it."

He created extra lungs so that the size-related oxygen distrubution wouldn't become a problem. Dwax was satisfied with the result. At the end, the rabbit had become colossal.

The entire design took him ten hours. It was shoddy at best. It had a 99 percent chance the rabbits would fail during one of these transition periods.

He didn't steel his design against mutations. In fact, he made it vulnerable to mutations. That way, if there was a better design, the rabbits would have a chance to survive through evolution.

Dwax wasn't stupid to begin with. When he took creature design classes from Dong Jun, he absorbed these classes like a sponge.

Since his secondary brain burned through a considerable amount of calories, he picked up more rats to put in the stew. While eating his meal, he saw something interesting in the corner of his eye.

A praying mantis snatched a rat and started eating its face. The rat screamed as it was being eaten alive. Dwax imagined a human being being eaten the same way and decided that Ashur-5 needed an infestation of dog-sized praying mantises.

He walked to the city library and booted up the AI projection.

"AI, what is the animal that killed most people?"

"Musqitoes. Musqitoes spread diseases from person to person, causing way more deaths than any other animal combined."

Dwax smiled.

"I should make plenty of musqitoes then. Better make them resistant to poisons too. Everything should just fucking suck. AI, what other pests did mankind struggle with?"

The AI projection shimmered. It gave a long-winded explanation.

"Pesticide-resistant fleas, leeches, and locusts it is, then."

Dwax smiled a baleful smile. Every fiber of his being was thinking about how to make a hostile hell out of this world. As long as he had a sample of a genetic code, he could create any living being by creating a silk ball and putting a fertilized egg within it. All he has to do is fill the egg with enough nutritious liquid to support the creature until its babyhood. It was really easy for him to do it for small insects.

He sat on the ground and gave his back to the wall made of mycelium. The elements had weathered it and opened it to producing fungal growths. Of all the living beings that went through catastrophe, funnily enough, the fungi were the living things that thrived the most after the catastrophe.

Suddenly, rain started to fall. Dwax escaped to a building. It was a shop trashed beyond recognition. It was a giant playground for years. He kicked and pooled clothes together and laid on top of them. He was back in dog life. Everything was going to be used outside of its purpose again. He was back to whacking things with sticks. It was absolutely shameful for a modern human being. He was, once again, reduced to being a caveman.

There were other survivors in other cities. Dwax was trying to do terrible things with this planet's biosphere regardless. The bioweapon had already irreversibly damaged the Ashur-5's ecosystem. Since his enemies were ruthless, Dwax couldn't afford not to be. Otherwise, Dwax would have no way to retaliate except by trying to attain apotheosis through constant metamorphosis. That was a long shot, and Dwax was in no position to accomplish that in the time scale that is viable for his revenge.

He slept for several hours and eventually felt a coldness on his back and feet. The water had made its way inside the shop.

Annoyed, he ran out into the rain and found a building that had a second floor. He pooled furniture on its balcony and lit a fire in a big iron pot as he hung his clothes to dry. Rats, too, escaped into the buildings. They were crawling all around Dwax. He picked another one up and put it in his mouth. He chewed the rat and swallowed.

"If these things insist on coming near me, they shouldn't be surprised at the fact that they are getting the snack treatment." He thought. He decided on his next augmentation. He decided to add the bombadier beetle's boiling chemical attack to an organ he planned to add to his right wrist. It was like a petrusion out of his skin.

He sat down on a chair, naked. He had brought some soda. These sugary nonsense drinks were only consumables except for wine, which survived the passage of time. Even though all their gas was gone, they were still sugary and pleasant to drink.

He downed five bottles of soda and went to work. He was not the size of a bombadeer beetle. So he understood he had to pack a little more punch into the organ. Which meant a deviation from the original design. Such deviations always carried the risk of failing. He was told that as long as he was careful in his calculations, he could mitigate dangers.

He understood that the size difference affected the viability of the bombadeer beetle's strategy and its applicability to Dwax's body. He decided to wait for the rain to stop and research industrial water jet cutters for inspiration. He picked up a metal tong from the kitchen and started cooking the rats one by one. The rats were trapped with him here. The flood didn't let them escape; they were easy prey. Dwax, in preparation for his coming metamorphosis, decided to stack up as many calories as possible. He kept cooking the rats and swallowing them whole until he couldn't eat anymore.

Rain has stopped, and he has made his way to the library again. He looked up spray designs as planned and decided on a changing structure. That way, he could spray his chemicals wide, narrow, and anything in between. Adaptability was necessary.

He opened his mouth and started spraying his hand with silk. His hand was going to be out of commission for a while. It was alright. Rats were abundant and easy to catch. Dwax remembered the man he had killed for a rat. He started laughing like a madman.

He would kill him again. He didn't give a fuck anymore. He would bash his fucking head in. He would spray him on the walls.

His wife was dead, and his daughter was dead. His best friend was dead. His mentor was dead. His teacher was dead. What was stopping him from living like an animal? He remembered the praying mantis and the way he ate that rat mercilessly. That was what animals did. He was an animal now. He was going to eat his enemies just like that.