The Record of Unusual Creatures

1Io, the planet of water, was undergoing a tremendous change. Looking down from space, almost no one would have believed what they were seeing: the ocean that covered the entire planet had quickly turned white. Thousands of white spots appeared on the ocean of ​​Io and rapidly turned the ocean into ice, defying the known law of nature. Waves, thousands of meters high froze mid-air instantaneously while whirlpools turned into ice caves. The freezing storm carried thousands of tons of ice and snow into the air before raining back down on the glaciers that had just formed. The planet was becoming a frozen hell. Lily was shocked looking down from the Petrachelys in space.      3

The holographic projection in the centre of the flight deck showed the radar images under the ocean of Io. However, the visual was blurry as interference oscillated on the images. The interference was the result of the topical collapse of the Wall of Reality. Though the instantaneous double explosions had closed the portal, the effect of the collapse of the Wall of Reality remained. A certain powerful force was amplifying the interference. Lily had no idea what these images meant, but she knew something was amiss. Her hair puffed up. "Please quickly think of a way, MDT! Drop me down there if can, I'm going for Mr. Landlord!"     

"You're kidding me! You can't possibly dig through the dozen kilometres of ice," Vivian grabbed Lily who became panic. "MDT, what else we can do here?"     

The MDT did not say a word. It quietly activated the weapon system of the Petrachelys.     

The belly of the spacecraft slid open, exposing two rows of subcannons flashing in blue light. The holographic projection on the flight deck showed the visual of the ocean of Io as the MDT scanned the ocean surface. Then it found the traces of Graviton Grenades explosions and did a little bit of calculation before firing the subcannons.     

The spacecraft's 'air-to-surface attack restrictions (ASAR) had been turned off earlier as the spacecraft had determined that Planet Io contained no civilization. The MDT would not have been able to access the subconnons without authorisation if ASAR was still active.     

Light beams shot across the space silently before mushroom clouds of vaporised ice rose up from the white surface of Io. The bombardment had created a temporary escape route in the heavy ice.     

A moment later, the door of the flight deck slid open silently. Hao Ren's trembling voice was heard. "We… we have made it... anyone can help knock the ice off me?"     

He staggered into the flight deck, covered in ice. Behind him, Y'zaks' baldhead poked out from cloud of water vapour like a glaring eye. "Help the sirens; they have become ice pops. Wuyue, you know what to do, don't you?"     

Lily lunged at Hao Ren, scraping the ice off Hao Ren's body. "Mr. Landlord, you scared the hell out of me. You've scared the hell out of me! I thought I wouldn't be able to eat the braised pork that you make anymore!"     

Ice fell off his body to the ground. Hao Ren finally regained mobility. He stared blankly at Lily. "How could you still think of braised pork in such situation?"     

Lily rubbed her nose. "I've also thought of noodles… and spare ribs."     

Seeing Hao Ren was back in one piece, Vivian breathed a sigh of relief. She said with a smile, "You should be grateful. You are like food to her; both are equally important."     

Nangong Wuyue came up to examine Hao Ren and Y'zaks to make sure they were all right. Then she saw the three sirens who were behind Y'zaks. "Queen, Shaqira! Oh, no wonder you called them ice pops!"     

The three sirens were behind the door and frozen like ice pops. It took Y'zaks and Hao Ren a lot of trouble just to bring them from the shipbound portal to the flight deck. After all, with their lengths, manoeuvring around sharp corners in the corridor was a challenge.     

Wuyue came up before Shaqira and knocked a couple of times on the ice. "Are you okay?" she asked.     

All Shaqira could do was blink. She tried to spit out a bubble, but there was too little liquid water inside.     

The siren queen tried to move her tail. She could only bend it a little.     

"Let's thaw it slowly, you will be fine," Wuyue said as she got to her feet.     

Hao Ren took the three sirens as if carrying flagpoles into the command lobby, found a space near the wall, and put them up like a bonfire before letting Y'zaks set a fire and grill slowly. Hao Ren then looked up at console. "How did you blow up the ice just now?" he asked.     

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," the MDT replied listlessly.     

Hao Ren glanced at the console, shocked. "What the heck! You bombarded with the subconnons?"     

"Calm down, man. You're a man with ID!" The MDT sounded as bitchy as ever. "It's just a self-defence subconnons. It aimed it properly not to hit you. Besides, even if the shot hit you, there was a thick ice layer above you, you were not going to die."     

Hao Ren: "Holy moly! I've just cheated death!"     

"What was going on just now?" asked Nangong Sanba who was still visibly shocked. He watched the planet freeze and the orbital bombardment; he could no longer pretend to be smart.     

"How I know?" Hao Ren spread out his hand. "As if something has woken up, the ocean suddenly turned against us--"      

Before Hao Ren could finish his sentence, Vivian suddenly screamed. "Look! Io's ice is melting! Something is coming out!"     

On the display monitor, an incredible scene was unfolding on the surface of Io: the planet that had frozen a while ago began to thaw. The thawing process was quicker than the freezing process earlier. Hundreds of thousands of kilometres of cracks developed across the planet. The huge glaciers began to disintegrated into the seawater and raging waves surged from under the glaciers and covered the entire planet in the blink of an eye. With the rapid thawing of Io, something shocking emerged on the surface.     

It was a face.     

A lifelike female face covering the planet.     

The creepy face was entirely composed of seawater, which spanned from the southern to the northern hemisphere. The choppy waves constantly changed the details of this face, making it as if 'she' had a new face every second. The face quietly stared at the Petrachelys in space, but its eyes flashed with madness and paranoia.     

'She' opened her mouth slightly and immediately there were countless ice blades shooting out of the water on both sides of the face, as if anti-air guns shooting at the Petrachelys. At the same time, seawater on the other part of Io began to break away from the surface, forming an arm and reaching to grab the spacecraft in the orbit.     

However, due to the distance, the 'ice anti-air shells' and liquid arm could not keep up with the spacecraft. The Petrachelys, hauling the black spacecraft wreckage behind it, quickly dodged the attack. But the situation still terrified them. Lily grabbed Hao Ren's arm and cried, "nnn...nnn...nnn... what's that thing?"     

Hao Ren's body shield flickered and he broke away from Lily's plier-like claws. "How would I know?"     

At this time, there was a loud noise coming from another room; the siren queen, Shakira, and Soma had completely thawed. They looked around in surprise. "What's wrong? Why are you people screaming?"     

"Is that the local specialty of you home planet?" Nangong Sanba pointed to the horror scene on the hologram. "Can anyone explain to me what the hell is in the water?"     

The siren queen glanced at the hologram and was stunned. "This is... Eva?"