I am going to die.

  What a strange thought.

  It is a thought that I never wanted to ever have again.

  All those years ago, I could only watch helplessly as the humans killed everyone I loved. They didn’t even know that they were doing it.

  But now, the men on the Bioship that I foolishly allowed within me are fully aware of their actions.

  At first, I thought they were my friends. All these ships are so small, and those inside them are even smaller. But the instant that hangar door opened, I saw the evil in these men’s eyes. They carry stone swords and stone daggers.

  I am stone.

  I am Granix of the stone giants of Quandroiz.

  They will not kill me with stone, though. They intend to kill me with a Pnet-ripper.

  They just pced the first piece in my mouth. If my memory serves me, there are three pieces.

  I will bide my time until they reach my stomach, then and only then will I kill every st one of them.

  I will not die here.

  You humans won’t find me as passive as my siblings so foolishly were.

  Three of the men have reached my head. My eyes are closed. I won’t grant any of these monsters the pleasure of seeing their home before they die.

  I am not one for violence, but Smith and Nadeden are yet to contact me, and all of you arrived in a ship simir to the one they left in.

  I have made an assumption that I can only hope isn’t true.

  I will act on it nonetheless.

  Some of the men are inside my stomach now. As they wade through the steam engulfing the area, I finally remember where I have seen their uniforms.

  These men are from the Republic of Humanity. They are the ones who sucked the life from my people and my world.

  Revenge is unhonorable, yet I fear that I may enjoy this.

  I unch five spikes into the man still in my head. He is behind the others, so I hope that none of them will notice.

  I wait a moment.

  Once I see that no one has looked back, I kill another man. This time, I wrap around his feet and turn the ground into a spear that I stab into his brain.

  The men have now noticed me. It was a dozen who first entered me. I have killed two, which leaves only ten.

  This shall be easy. Especially considering that they are now all holding their ground as if I am not the very ground they stand on.

  Idiots.

  I open the ground beneath them. Most of the men scream as the darkness engulfs them. Some are less cowardly and know that this is only the beginning. One of them sms down another piece of the pnet-ripper.

  Clever.

  I’m cleverer.

  I flood the tunnel with my lifeblood. Somehow, five of them manage to start running for the exit before the liquid even falls.

  I move the floor of the tunnel to keep them in pce. I know that the liquid will drown all of them, but I can’t take any chances.

  I transform every surface of the tunnel into a jagged edge of rock. The men bash against it as they try to swim for the exit.

  One of them is caught in the current. His intestines are caught on me while his blood mixes with mine.

  The rest of the men quickly wise up and begin stabbing their bdes into me. I have no choice but to spin the tunnel and spit out the men.

  There are nine now.

  I trap them in a box of fauna and reach out my vines to strangle them. The men cut at me. I honestly should have expected as much.

  This battle of stone can only be fought with stone.

  I reach out two arms of rock, yank two of the men from the box, and smash them together. I then allow the box of fauna to explode into a room of stone full of my apparitions. Each one of them has my eyes and my face.

  I want for them all to see me as they die, and I want to see them as well.

  “Loeb!” One of the men calls out to his commander.

  “Put the st one down already!”

  The commander refuses to back down. “It killed my men.” He says, visibly enraged as I approach him.

  “And it will kill us too! Put the other one down already!” Another calls out.

  The one called Loeb raises his bde. “It killed my men!”

  Interesting.

  You are foolish, Loeb, and yet we are alike in many ways.

  Very well then.

  The st good fight I had was with my sibling, Fallinix, in a winter that was over five thousand years ago.

  I won that fight.

  My army of apparitions strikes out against the army of men.

  I lunge out with bdes at first, but thrusting and parrying is so tedious. I don’t think I will ever understand the appeal of swordsmanship, granted, I don’t really want to.

  Needless to say, I am beginning to grow bored. I simply transform the ground into spikes again. Three of the men die with this act.

  Only six remain, the one known as Loeb included.

  This Loeb man puzzles me. He is honorable, and I can admire that, but I loathe everything else about him. Perhaps I’ll py a game with them now. Six is indeed a good number for a game.

  I join the spikes and apparitions together to form walls. One of the men screams at this. I don’t know why. It’s as if he’s never been inside a sentient maze before.

  The Loeb man is the first to run deep into the maze of me.

  I am thankful that he is too prideful to put down the pnet-ripper, for I am also too prideful to ruin our game.

  The other men all slowly work their way into the maze as well, although I do send them all running off in different directions.

  I find myself taking pity on the one who screamed. He hasn’t moved. I think he’s overwhelmed. I’ll show myself to him. “Are you alright?” I ask only for him to scream again and run off into the maze.

  Perhaps he just needed encouragement then.

  What I do not find encouraging is the man who is beating on me with his dagger. He simply keeps smming the sharp end of it into the wall, over and over and over again.

  It’s rather annoying, and it does hurt quite a bit…

  I kill him with a spike.

  Five men are left now, and all of them are within the maze.

  When I told Nadeden that having corpses inside my body was unsanitary, I really did mean it.

  The blood of all the men I’ve killed is pouring onto my stone and staining it, leaving massive puddles behind. I would vomit if I could.

  This is getting rather disgusting.

  I didn’t want to kill these men, but they wanted to kill me. They still might want to.

  Please do stay prideful and arrogant, Loeb. My life rests in your hands.

  Actually…

  I could just kill him, right?

  I fear that I am not the brightest person, although I suppose I am the brightest stone giant simply by the fact that I am the st.

  Enough meandering, I need to focus on Loeb.

  Each of the walls around him sprouts spikes. He ducks and weaves and draws his sword from his back. I cry out in pain as he slices off one of my spikes.

  How in the universe did he do that?

  When Smith stabbed me with that metal bde they summoned, I held back my pain, but I can’t do that now. Because now I’m becoming rather mad.

  I try to smash a wall down on Loeb, yet he dodges it. I smash down walls on some of the other men, yet only two die. What are these other three made of?

  What is it that fuels them?

  I must know.

  I must know!

  I have never met someone like this, Loeb. Only Nadeden can compare to him, and even then, I was more horrified by her than impressed. Is it odd to consider one’s own friends terrifying? I don’t know, and I definitely don’t have time to think about it.

  The other two men have reunited with Loeb. Bringing the walls down was a mistake. Yet then again, every single space inside of my body is its own wall. I will turn the walls into tendrils.

  The tendrils unch out at the trio, who skillfully fight back with leaps and quick sshes of their swords. I would be impressed were I not so enraged.

  I twist the room on its head. The men spin.

  “Loeb!” One of them cries again. “Put the fucking ripper down!”

  Loeb grits his teeth in response to his subordinate. He stabs his bde down, piercing my stone with his and forcing the spinning room to a halt.

  You all py so dirty.

  Fine, I’ll py dirty too, you miserable little organics.

  I wrap their feet down and send up spears. How did I only manage to stab one of you with this method! What is happening?

  Who are you, men? Who trained you? How are you breaking free of your bounds?

  You’re taking your boots off! What?

  Alright, you’re smart. I’ll admit that much.

  I turn the ground to spikes, again. Although this method is extremely boring, the jagged rock will still cut into your now bare feet.

  I have you two trapped.

  You’re as good as dead.

  “Loeb! Do it already,” The second man shouts, knowing that- LOEB DO NOT REACH FOR THE PLANET-RIPPER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

  I…

  I…

  I kill the second man.

  I manifest an apparition and grab Loeb’s hand.

  I can’t die.

  Not like this.

  Not like this.

  I can’t die…

  I don’t want to die, please, Loeb, don’t kill me.

  Don’t kill me.

  “Don’t kill me.” I plead to you through my apparition, Loeb, please.

  Look me in the eyes! Hear my words!

  Loeb, don’t look at me like that!

  Don’t shake your head and shed a tear!

  “You killed my men.”

  “You made me do it,” is the only thing I can think of saying to possibly forestall this.

  I want to live.

  I…

  I want to see Smith and Nadeden again. I want to ugh and py games with them again.

  Don’t fight me, Loeb! Stop trying to wrest your hand away!

  Put it down, Loeb! Put that thing away! Keep it off of me!

  KEEP IT OFF ME, LOEB! DON'T DO IT!

  “I don’t… want to die.” I can only mutter it now.

  My mind is racing.

  Please, Loeb, why can’t you understand! Why are you smiling?

  DON'T PUT THAT THING ON ME!

  GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!

  WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING, LOEB?

  WHY? WHY?

  WHY DOES EVERYONE WANT TO HURT ME AND THE PEOPLE I LOVE?

  WHY IS THIS UNIVERSE SO CRUEL?

  WHY ARE YOU STILL LAUGHING AS THESE THINGS DIG INTO ME?

  “For the Republic.”

  What kind of dying words are those?

  Is that why you did this?

  FOR YOUR GOVERNMENT?

  YOU’RE KILLING ME FOR YOUR GOV-

  The fire.

  The fire is spreading inside me.

  The Pnet-ripper is joined now.

  I am going to die.

  Smith, Nadeden, I’m sorry. I wish I could have done more for you two.

  It made me happy to have friends again, even if it was for such a short time.

  The fire is burning every part of me now. My stone will be ash soon.

  Fallinix, Deterix, Wellinix, Haterix, Gaterix, Jilltrix, Xetirx, Fanix, Solumenx, brother birds, and sister foxes, I will see you soon.

  I am going to die.

  What a strange th-