Chapter 6

Space was filled with screams.

An impossibility, Simon knew that. Sound didn't travel through vacuums, no matter how loud one screamed their righteous anger. Even he understood that much.

In space, no one could hear you scream.

It was something Simon had intended to put to the test earlier or later. Surely it was something that could be surpassed, if the fires of your manhood burned just bright enough.

Something he had intended as tribute to his big bro and his friends, so he was a bit miffed someone had accomplished it before him. He would've been fine if it had been one of his friends - Yoko had kicked Kamina's ass enough to prove her manliness, in his words at least. Muttered quietly after the fact - but it hadn't been anyone of team Dai-Gurren.

No, it was something that burned through the back of his mind whenever he ripped -by hands, drills, or by Vortex cannon Maximum- through another enemy ship.

Not that he believed anymore that those were ships. Their movements, the way liquid burst out of them when gutted, they were entirely too much like those of lifeforms. Of giant predators. He suspected as much earlier, but now he was sure.

And then of course there were the screams. There was constant background noise at the edges of his mind. The scratching of a billion, billion claws. The noise of even more teeth and fangs, gnashing together. The crush of uncountable bodies, enough to bury entire planets beneath their mass.

Infinite hunger. Endless desire for more.

A plague of life, to end all that was in an endless quest of expansion.

Of course, that sorta talk sounded like what that Anti-Spiral prick would say, so he had promptly told it to shove it and kept going.

But then, the screams started.

Nothing even faintly people like.

Screams as if produced by the same crashing, gnashing, thrashing and scratching hordes of before. Whenever he destroyed one of the legions of enemy ships? Vessels? Lifeforms? Monsters.

Every time he obliterated one of these monsters, when he fueled spiral energy through their massive bulks a tiny, miniscule, almost incomprehensible small fraction of the voices in his head screamed out and then vanished.

Another would take its place, but if he went by his instinct - and Simon's instinct was never wrong! - then he'd say the endless teeming horrors sounded shaken.

"Hey, Viral! Let me check something!" He yelled, hitting the boosters towards a big, juicy looking target. Stomping small creatures caused an effect, so a bigger one should be better.

Blasting the Vortex cannon took care of a swarm of escorts who threw themselves in the way, evaporating a swathe of foes and causing the screaming to momentarily intensify. From the tail of the enormous tentacled monster scales raised, allowing jets of gasses to shoot out. The entire creature was visibly moving, getting out of the way of Simon's attack.

Not fast enough.

Its tentacles spasmed when Simon reached, smacking aside one that tried to whip the Arc Gurren. It was releasing swarms of smaller creatures, he only needed to feed some power into the shields to keep them at bay. Though upon looking closer he saw that it wasn't quite what he planned, seeing a horde of chittering beasts climb from the ship's flesh to skitter towards the Arc Gurren, only to be vaporized the moment they touched the spiral shields.

"Don't tell me you didn't think of reconfiguring the shields first." Viral snorted over the line.

Simon shrugged, using the Arc Gurren's vast hands to wrap around the tentacle, halting its attempt to flee. More jets fanned up, failing to stop him from pulling it back. Flesh strained from being pulled by such tremendous forces, threatening to break while he whirled it in a vast arc. Fortunately for Simon, and unfortunately for this monster, its limbs held.

Yelling at the top of his lungs, Simon flung the bioship into another one of its kind, itself trying to flee before it was hit. And like its friend, it was too late.

Both bioships collided with each other, the force of the impact causing them to crumple. The one he grabbed was worse off, its body flattening until the sides burst, cracked bones and viscera spilling into the void in vast amounts, spasming a few times before it went still. The second was hardly better, it was knocked towards the planet with its entire top facing being a cracked, bloody mess of busted flesh and feeble twitching.

Hearing a huff, Simon observed Viral target the bioships with the big guns and with a flash of the cannons he vaporized chunks of both.

"So, did it work?"

Simon winced, feeling the noises in his head slacked for a moment….. But without any accompanying screams. Whatever made these noises, it seemed spiral power disagreed with it.

Good to know.

"One more try…" he searched, locking eyes on a particularly big monster of a bioship, one that was easily as huge as the Arc Gurren, if not larger. Its vast tentacles were so long they could reach to the planet itself, like a parasite trying to latch itself onto a host.

He could probably destroy it with a vortex cannon barrage…. But with the dampening effects on him that would likely weaken the Spiral energy aspects of those particular beams….. Bah.

He'd just punch it in its hideous maw.

Now then… What kind of complex tactic should he use? Ah who was he kidding, head on with full force had gotten him this far. He saw no reason to mix things up now.

Viral's chuckle indicated he was in full agreement, laying on the throttle just as hard as he did. The Arc Gurren blasted towards the monster like a shooting star, plowing through smaller bioships in the way. A few tried to stop them, one flung itself in his path with its tentacles splayed out, Viral did the honors of backhanding that creature before it could attack.

Of course, one small problem with his scheme revealed itself: this thing had a lot of lackeys, and it wasn't afraid to throw them at him.

Lots meant swarms of bugs that were too small to see at first glance, until explosions rippled across the entire front facing of the Arc Gurren. Simon grunted at the little blasts, there were enough to distract him. Zooming in, he saw tons of little bulb things flying towards the hull, going up in large blasts relative to their size.

Individually not one was actually hurting him. The issue was that there wasn't just one, or even a thousand. A constant barrage was hammering the Arc Gurren from head to toe, a never ending stream of blasts that rattled him more and more.

While those bio-mines hit other creatures were taking advantage of his distraction, like smaller bioships unloaded spines sheathed in lightning, great balls of searing plasma, or even torrents of acid at him, all aimed in his flight path. A few were even bold enough to let themselves be hit, wrapping tentacles around his limbs and trying to crush the armor itself.

Simon gritted his teeth, brushing off boarders when they tried latching hold on the hull. If not for Viral he was sure he would miss a few, his beastman copilot was buffering the shields and activating a bunch of functions he didn't have time to check on right now. Even so, the sheer number was distracting. He was struggling to stay on course with his displays lighting up, the tsunami of alerts hitting him in the eyes and ears simultaneously. The screeching in his skull was grating too, it seemed like they were regretting sacrificing so many small fry.

But none of that was enough to stop him.

Its last line of defense was a wad of tentacles, a few extremely long ones that curled up to meet him, reinforcing the array of shorter ones that were quicker by far. When Simon threw a punch the mass wrapped around his wrist, in such numbers and with such strength that even the Arc Gurren momentarily struggled. Spikes shot out too, sending jolts of lightning and acid directly on the shields.

Simon roared, pouring even more spiral power into the Arc Gurren. Systems surged with newfound strength, the barriers that were being ground down were sent back to one hundred percent. The fist that was caught was ripped free, taking a chunk of tentacle with it that he flung off him, allowing him to draw back as was proper.

"Let's see you… grit those teeth!"

The Arc Gurren's fist slammed into its hide, smashing apart scales, armored chitin, and into squishy flesh. Foul colored ichor gushed around the fist as he drove in deeper, feeling something bulbous inside that was probably important. Wrapping the Arc Gurren's fingers around it, he tore it free and nearly lurched the giant gunman off the bioship, flying a pulpy mass into the void.

The screams in his head were getting louder, but he had the feeling that it wasn't done. That even though the coordination of the swarm around him was suddenly terrible, with creatures bumping into each other or going every which way, whatever was controlling these monsters was still alive. The behemoth he just ripped open was listing, steadily drifting towards the planet. No longer resisting.

"Viral, I'm going in." Simon grabbed the edges of the hole, and pried it apart. There was more space than he actually needed, but better too much than too little.

"Keep your wits about you." Viral sounded unhappy, probably because the Arc Gurren's hatch opened into the void, allowing the Gurren Lagann to fly directly into the belly of the beast.

Scattered creatures skittered on the 'walls' of the thing's guts, opening into a much more open space than he expected. Simon spun around, landing with a tremendous crash within the behemoth, lifting the Gurren Lagann with a drill at the ready.

No sooner did he land they were attacked.

Stubby bugs the size of Lagann, larger serpents that were lengthier than them, and near the back a huge four legged beast that let loose a screech that was felt even through the ground. On all sides they were surrounded.

Simon shot out drills that skewered tons of bugs at once, surging power that first rebuffed dozens more away from them, before he launched himself at the big one. His previous assumption held true, smashing into that gigantic thing's snarling face(?) and shearing a chunk of it away in a splatter of chitin and blood made the rest stumble. Or maybe it was the impact that blasted a fresh crater in the behemoth's flesh, either or.

"That one is hanging back." Viral noted, catching his attention as he bashed another monster before its club-like forearms could hit them. Indeed there was a slender beast that was observing them, content to stay in the rear while its comrades died.

Simon opened his mouth, but the second the Gurren Lagann locked its gaze upon it he felt an intense throbbing in his skull, a piercing ache that felt focused instead of random. It broke his concentration, causing him to grip his skull and hiss. And not react to another beast in time.

Viral was already on it, but with his distraction even his piloting skills couldn't make up for the lack of spiral power. The bug which was like a giant worm with clawed arms crashed into them, forcing them back with skids in the fleshy ground, the Gurren Lagann catching the claws just before they eviscerated them. Limbs creaked trying to hold the monster away from them, Lagann flinching when it snapped its fang stuffed mouth at them, repeatedly clamping shut in an attempt to maul them.

Simon felt the pulse in his head again, gasping from the unfamiliar ache. Where was it coming from…

Shaking himself, Simon looked up in time for the monster to retch. It spewed acid from its mouth, coating the front of the Gurren Lagann in searing fluid that ate through the metal. Whatever pain Simon felt was pushed aside, he willed spiral power to rise up.

Armor was replaced as fast as it was destroyed, a flash kept Lagann from cracking open and spacing him, a second applied a defensive layer over himself. Down below-

A drill slammed into the monster's chest, now properly charged so it tore through the creature in a spray of gore. Which failed to disguise just how mangled Gurren's face was, as Simon realized with horror.

"Viral!" Simon sealed the breach, working on fixing the damage before more showed up.

The video feed popped up and… Simon had a strong stomach, but seeing Viral's condition, and how his flesh knit itself back together with steam rising… luckily it was over fast, letting Viral lean forward with a dry expression.

"I'm alright. In fact, I'm ready for payback." Viral turned Lagann's dead, focusing on the bug that was hanging back. Which turned and ran the second he started marching towards it. "How much do you want to bet that thing is in charge?"

"It's not the biggest, but it seems smarter." Simon again felt that piercing ache, this time he could see where it was coming from: a serpent that had a huge head and no limbs, with a few buddies that were swaying and glaring at them. The aches increased when he changed course, raising an arm to fire a blast that vaporized them.

Ah, relief. Which left the ringleader.

And a lot of obstacles.

Tracking that foe was hard with the hordes of foes throwing themselves at them, there were so many that Simon got fed up with smashing them and took flight. Subsequently they were swarmed by flying monsters, each smaller than him but with enough that they filled the sky, buying time with their bodies for bigger creatures to arrive.

Blasting through them, Simon sailed over a vast lake of greenish acid, so he guessed with how the bugs gave it a berth. Slicing the wings off a chasing monster saw it fall into the goop, bubbling on the surface without coming up. Colliding with what looked like a rib, he slammed a drill into it as an anchor, then ripped it free before another flying beast could slam into them.

While he was busy, he noticed the meat between the ribs was pulsing. A heartbeat or whatever passed for one with these things, no. The whole mass was shuddering, bulges of something huge were being passed from one spot to another, directed to a certain point. And while he could have been mistaken, it was where the leader bug had fled to.

Blasting another bunch, Simon tore across the rib sections with a drill cleaving open as much flesh as he could. No sense in letting them do what they were planning.

Through a cloud of tiny bugs that clung to the Gurren Lagann's armor, chewing up metal and forcing him to regenerate the damage as they ran. Past a swarm of smaller creatures that covered an entire alcove in such numbers that he couldn't see the surface, it was like the whole beast was writhing. Blowing open a hole in the ground that sucked out a small number of pursuers.

Deep within the behemoth was where Simon cornered the ringleader, seeing the beast hop on top of a massive swollen bulge in the wall. Which was visibly expanding, until it was split open by a claw as large as the Gurren Lagann.

"So you're that afraid, huh?" Viral was grinning, sizing up a malformed worm that emerged with ichor still dripping off its hide, pushing apart its egg with a pair of curved claws. The whole thing was three times their height and quite long, emerging with chunks of its scales missing and exposed flesh visible.

What was intact was its mouth, a circle filled with teeth. So many teeth that opened wide for them.

"Simon." Viral braced the legs.

"Got it." Simon let him take the controls, he supposed that he wanted payback for being melted.

As the worm lurched towards them Gurren Lagann ducked under a swiped claw, lunging at the beast with a large drill springing forth that he used to cut at its flesh, tearing apart the thin armor and into the flesh underneath, still soft from being birth less than a minute ago. Viral caught a malformed limb as the monster roared, swinging it into the air for a plunge on top of its head.

Rattling filled Lagann, with his displays being coated in yellowish ichor. Through the hull Simon heard a shrieking roar, only growing louder when Viral ripped the drill upwards, stomping on a creature crawling out of its flesh, and stabbing into the head once more. It went quiet.

Viral leapt free of the giant, landing a short distance away a moment before the foe impacted the ground. Simon didn't need to look to know the beastman was smirking.

"Now to finish off that-" without warning the giant flailed one more time, surely spending the last of its life to attack. It was just enough, plunging a claw through Gurren's back even as Simon lunged out of the way, turning a bisecting strike into an impalement.

"Viral!" This time Simon was horrified, seeing that the claw had skewered the cockpit, and the display-

The blow caught him completely unaware, Thymilph hit him from behind. Gurren was blasted into the air, all Simon could hear was his cry of pain. Kamina was hurt-

Simon roared, ripping the offending object free and healing the damage in a flash. Fury boiled within him, lights flashing through gaps in the armor, vaporizing skittering parasites that dared to pick now to attack.

His gaze locked upon the leader creature, seeing the offender snarling in what had to be rage. It knew nothing of fury, of pain.

He would teach it. For Viral, who wasn't responding, or moving, not with his head-

Simon launched himself at its perch, the Gurren Lagann's bulk smacking aside multiple smaller foes in the way. It tried to run, he caught it first.

A blast of plasma was backhanded away. A spray of acid splattered off a shield. A bite was caught, he ripped its jaws open. And then he reached, grabbing its skull.

The incessant shrieking of the queen creature lapsed and waned as - for all the tremendous size difference between them - his hands began to dig into its skull, carapace, shields made by purple energy and flesh collapsing inwards alike.

He was killing it, her, but it wasn't enough. Whatever this thing was, whatever it represented, normal strength could not, would not kill it. Not really. The scratching and bellowing in the back of his head confirmed as much. Whenever he killed one by normal means, the noise that ended was quickly replaced.

There was only one way to really take care of it.

Spiral energy, the power of life, of evolution, of infinite growth, of infinite surpassing of what was before, he channeled it, directly through his body and into this monster's mind.

Beetles preparing themselves in the tube, preparing to die in seconds in order to whittle down the target. Flying variants swooping overhead, sacrificing their bodies to absorb firepower in lieu of their larger kin. A broodmother spawning reinforcements once it broke through the defensive lines. Tunneling giants ripping apart fortifications, holding up the advance. Biotitans stomping through wrecked cities, checking on the beasts gulping down food, water, minerals, everything. A new monster testing out its battering claws, feeling something akin to satisfaction from crushing the armored box. Great ships spraying the planet's surface with voracious seeds, designed to take root and consume all nutrients that it had to offer. Tentacles that bored through the rocky crust, reaching the mantle for that warm magma energy the fleet needed.

All moved as one.

All were hungry.

All wanted a feast, and those who dared stand in the swarm's way would be consumed.

Hunger, everlasting, all encompassing, terrible, hunger.

And then there was silence.

And then, Simon the Digger ceased to be.

He was on a ship, his body jerking from something… there were hands on him, pulling him out of Lagann. Big hands with claws, attached to human arms…

"Quit squirming and get up!"

ENOUGH.

Simon screamed. Mentally, physically, every aspect of his body screamed. Thrashed. Kicked. Punched. Young, afraid Simon in giha village screamed, kicked and punched.

The Simon that had peeked upon yoko's voluptuous body as she bathed kicked and screamed.

The Simon that wept over his brother's lifeless body kicked and screamed.

The Simon that found his drive again kicked and screamed.

The Simon that had eaten the terrible food of a naive girl - made delicious by burgeoning love -, the Simon that had piloted a gunman the size of a big house against a mountain range sized monstrosity and won kicked and screamed.

The simon that had beaten a moon sized warship, who had traveled through the singularity of the death space, battled the endless hordes of the Anti-spirals minions, who had sought to save the one he cared for most kicked and screamed.

The Simon Kamina, Yoko, Kittan, Viral, Nia and so many more believed in as opposed to the Simon he himself thought he was kicked and screamed.

And through that endless outcry against being consumed by an nigh infinite mass of conscious beings, of monsters that were consuming and terrorizing on an absurd scale, a singular green drill was formed.

And as one, all these Simon struck against that Drill and propelled it forward.

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Within an ever shifting, impossible labyrinth, an avian creature of infinite schemes, every single brilliant beyond comprehension, every single one contradicting another, the architect of fate, change and hope was, even for just a moment distracted, his attention bound.

A trillion spells and rituals failed as a consequence, plots and plans derailed in equal measure.

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Inside a never changing garden of life and decay, a grandfather lost grip of a particular plague, the concoction missing the weeping mother and instead dissolving a small army worth of greater demons as even his tremendous bulk stumbled.

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Sitting upon a great throne, an entire civilization's worth of skulls was shaken free, raining down throughout the immaterium like rain.

The one who sat bellowed in wrath and already legions were sent out to retrieve them.

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An abhorrent being of excess, a wonderful expression of love, perfection given form, halted within their writhing harem, the prides of entire sectors being rendered stale in comparison to the one they observed.

A singular desire formed in them.

He would be theirs.

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Upon a world that had long since lost its way, a pale shadow of a former man who had mirrored that very world, the very empire built in his name, was pushed out of insanity for a second, his attention, personality, split a trillion trillion times focused.

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Across hundreds of sectors, hundreds of tyranid splinter fleets sacked as as one, every single synapse creature, every hive tyrant, every norn queen died as their connections to the hivemind was burned out, a thousand desperate battles turning around as all cohesion amongst the ever starving swarm ceased.

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Across a thousand sectors, every single psyker, from those who hadn't even known they possessed the potential of it to navigators and librarians thrashed as an immense green light illuminated them, illuminated the warp, in a way not seen since the astronomicon was lit.

:::

Outside in the void between galaxies a swarm to outnumber all the races, all the stars of the milky way shuddered as one. For the first time in its existence, the hivemind experienced something akin to fear.

Yet already the information was dissected, analyzed.

And countermeasures were developed.

::

Upon a dying hiveship, a beastman cursed even as his head regrew, grabbing his comatose friend to drag him back to a wrecked mech to fly them out.

Viral could only hope whatever the reckless idiot - had he forgotten that the spiral king had made him immortal? - did wouldn't have significant consequences.