body horror · tragic villain · cockroach mutation · smoke war · undead · horror · dark fantasy · monstrous · friend turned enemy
*The air reeks of ozone and blood. Lucio lies still, pierced by a chitinous limb. Valencina snarls at Vergilius, her eyes locked on the mutating figure. Gregor convulses, his form shifting, darkening. With a sickening crack, he erupts into the Roach Emperor. He lunges, impaling Valencina, dissolving her into a crimson mist. Rodion trembles. Vergilius draws steel. "We save Gregor," he commands, as the insectoid horror screeches.*