Godzilla Earth: Origin (Patreon)

Volume 2 Chapter 111: Destoroyah – Escape (Part 3)

"Now, begin sampling the complete insect body."

The dissection continued—what came next would be the most critical phase of sampling.

In this phase, the robotic arms were tasked with extracting samples from the bizarre "muscle" structure composed of a mass of arthropod-like organisms.

Ideally, a complete specimen would be removed for further study.

A monster.

That was the thought shared by everyone present.

Destoroyah was not a single organism.

This fact had been discovered by humanity during the period following the Kaiser Ghidorah Disaster, when the Rift Laboratory had reopened and begun analyzing Destoroyah’s wounds.

It couldn't be classified as a lifeform in the traditional sense.

Scans of the insect-like bodies along the wound's cross-section revealed something shocking: the sample they had brought back—barely a few dozen centimeters in size—contained thousands of distinct lifeforms along just the surface of the wound.

The captured entity, referred to as Destoroyah, was not a single lifeform at all.

Its true nature was a colony composed of over 800,000 tiny, millimeter-sized arthropod-like creatures.

And not only was Destoroyah itself not a single lifeform—even the constituent organisms could hardly be considered individual creatures.

Because further testing revealed something even stranger.

Through scans of the abdomens of several of these small arthropods, researchers discovered that these organisms were incapable of surviving independently after separating from the collective.

Some of these arthropods had no ability to crush or process food.

Their digestive systems could only handle pre-digested liquid nutrition.

They had to rely on others to pass already-digested food from their anuses into their mouths.

Another type had disproportionately large mandibles—so large they couldn’t move on their own.

These "mouth" organisms required other muscle-like arthropods to physically pry open and hold their jaws in place for use.

There were even smaller ones—still not fully catalogued—that had abandoned all bodily function.

These microscopic entities served only one purpose: to sew together other, larger arthropods, fusing them into the structure of the Destoroyah organism.

They had entirely given up on individual survival, choosing instead to be part of a larger whole.

The relationship between these micro-creatures and the Destoroyah "organism" wasn’t symbiosis or parasitism—not in any biological sense that humans understood.

Rather, it resembled the relationship between cells and a human being.

And yet, these creatures were not single-celled organisms.

They were fully multicellular.

In that sense, Destoroyah was a multicellular organism composed of countless other multicellular organisms.

A being entirely unlike any form of multicellular life known to modern biology.

. . . . . .

Now, with the protective carapace removed, several surgical knives moved in.

They sliced into the exposed area, removing a thick segment of "insect meat"—1 centimeter thick, and 3 centimeters wide and long.

Next, a circular saw was used to cut through the mass of microscopic arthropods connecting the underside of the sample to the rest of the "muscle."

The now-detached insect mass—no longer fused to the rest of the colony—was extracted and sealed in a bag.

The sealed bag was placed by robotic arms into a pressurized containment box, which was then transported out of the dissection chamber via an unmanned lift.

After a series of airlocks and decontamination steps, the sample representing Destoroyah's muscle structure was officially extracted—delivered to the bio-laboratory’s containment storage.

Here, it would quietly wait for a while.

Until several hours later—after the dissection experiment was completed and the researchers began their study.

As a sample possessing a physical strength far beyond any known material, the Destoroyah specimen was expected to usher in a new wave of technological innovation for humanity—If not for what happened next.

. . . . . . . .

Biological Laboratory — Sample Storage Room

While the outer world continued dissecting and probing the Destoroyah sample, in the darkness, within a sealed bag, something was quietly wriggling.

The solidified insect "meat patty" had begun to come apart.

If someone had been present, they would’ve noticed that the edges of the patty had begun to spread out—and more disturbingly, the sealed bag now showed signs of damage.

A few small black dots were clinging to its surface.

Crunch, crunch

Something was chewing.

Crunch, crunch

They were chewing.

Crack—snap—crack

They had broken through the material encasing them.

Bang!

The tiny beings greedily gnawing away at the enclosing plastic had chewed everything down bit by bit.

A small hole had been opened on the wall of the container.

They were eating through the plastic.

And at some point, inexplicably, the once-separated insect mass had reformed into a single entity again.

But this time—it didn’t look like a chunk of meat.

It looked more like... an insect.

A reptile-sized crawler now rested inside the pressurized container, frantically gnawing away at its very walls.

As it fed, the inner surface of the container became pitted and scarred. The box was visibly on the verge of collapsing.

It kept eating, and at the same time, its body grew larger.

After it consumed the inner protective casing of the box, its mouth latched onto an electrical wire.

Bzzzzt—

Electric current surged through the newborn glutton’s body.

Though not especially powerful, the current had no significant effect on its body.

However, something in the current seemed to spark a change.

It temporarily stopped gnawing on the wire and instead turned its attention toward the source of the electricity—the place it instinctively sensed as the juiciest, most delicious target.

BOOM!!!

The moment its jaws sank in, the power supply of the mechanical containment box exploded.

The entire lower portion of the container was blown apart, and the creature—previously clinging to the interior wall—was blasted out along with it.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG—

At the same time, the explosion triggered the alarm system inside the storage room.

As one of humanity's most important laboratories, its security measures were, of course, top-tier.

Shaken by the sudden explosion and sharp alarm sounds, the newborn creature seemed momentarily dazed.

It lay motionless on the floor for a few seconds, then suddenly perked up—like it had just spotted the most delectable treat in the world—and began bouncing toward it, full of excitement.

Something tasty was over there.

Somewhere in that direction.

That was what its instincts told it.

But before it could reach its prize, a metal wall stood in its path.

Time to break through.

Two minutes later, when the staff and mechanical security units arrived at the storage room, what greeted them was a scene of chaos.

Debris scattered everywhere, a giant hole melted through the wall, and exposed, chewed-through wires within.

The Destoroyah specimen had escaped.