Several consciousnesses splatter and pop. Some tentacles fly everywhere and anywhere. Teeth are crushed. No pain. But I can feel how almost every part of my body is bruised and beaten and battered. I lost-, what? Ten consciousnesses in just that?... And God knows how many tentacles were thrown off and destroyed.

I want to groan, but it’s another one of those pleasures a lack of airways has stripped from me. So, I’m left lying here in a pile, almost dead.

I can’t know if my survival was only guaranteed by the purchase of that upgrade, but I kind of hope so. Together with buying that strength skill, I’m left without a single point.

Hm. Cool.

I lie around for just a few minutes, letting the full extent of my body recover, my eyes turned skyward.

Huh. The sky isn’t all blue. That’s kind of weird. No, I’m serious! Something about the sky is weird, like there’s some shimmering, vaguely purple-ish barrier around it. Which would be-, well, I’d say it was impossible if it wasn’t for the fact that I might just be looking at the origin of that strange bubble. In a sense, at least.

Just over the horizon, past my view, there’s what seems like a massive pillar of purple light, piercing into the sky. Likely creating that barrier.

...I guess that means I’ve got somewhere to go, huh?

What, did you think I wouldn’t head for the mysterious light pillar? Impossible.

Hm. Just like I saw on the way down, I seem to be surrounded on all sides by long strips of immensely tall mountains. They are entirely white, poking out like punk spike bands. In between these mountains, right where I’m standing, there are what I can only see as ice glaciers, seemingly going on for just as long as the mountains, stretching parallel to them.

Right as I stand up, stretch myself into that cloak-like standing situation, I can feel how my tentacles start to slip on the shiny ice below. Man.

It’s just black down there.

If you look straight down at the ice, it's just black, while if you look from an angle it’s this strange, eerie light-blue. Momma always told me not to stand on black ice, but here we are. I start walking. Slipping. Talking a new posture. This… might be a little hard.

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-That is, assuming I don’t act clever and use my own mouths and teeth as ice prods to keep myself from falling. Hehe. Purple light pillar, here I come!

...On second thought, it’s kind of weird that this cold isn’t getting to me, right? I mean-, it’s literally ice.

Then again, I have been out in space all this time, and space is very cold. Huh. Weird. Maybe I’m just made for cold regions? Either that or I’m just tempered against all temperatures and settings. I’d like for it to be the second option. Dying from heat would be far too alike to my human life.

I continue wandering, anxiously questioning how tall these enclosing glaciers would be to a human. It feels really weird that there’s wind all of a sudden, blowing straight in my face, too. Haven’t had wind in a long time. I continue wandering, almost feeling the urge to squint.

And then, I notice a few living creatures.

They’re just sort of trudging around over there, a fair way ahead of me. Really, from this angle, they look almost like cows, or fluffy white bison. I’m not sure either way.

Well, there’s only one good way to check! Wait for me, burgers!

Moving quickly on ice is no easy feat, but I’m able to reach a remarkable speed once I put my mind to it, the group of animals coming closer with every step until I’m finally close enough to make out a few real details. For one, they do look a lot like cows, what with their massive coat of fur and general bovine shape, but a few other details tattle that it is far from bovine. For one, its colour is pretty strange, with the sides of it having light blue stripes, the bottom being white and the very top of it almost being black.

How do I know that the top of it is black? Well, uh, I’m kind of looking down at it from pretty high up. It is… small. I think.

I’m a few paces away from them, and everything considered, I don’t think they've seen me since they haven’t attacked ye-,

Oh, no, wait, one of them just met my eyes.

Hello there.

I tense my body, expecting a short battle when instead, the cow just sort of… Opens its mouth wide, and turns tail. The others react in a similarly frightened manner, with only a single cow remaining to face me. It’s large, compared to the others. Maybe the size of a kitten compared to me? At most, that is. The only mildly threatening aspect about it is its sky-coloured horns. Or, horn. It’s a long horn, too, long and branching at the ends, faintly curved.

While the rest of the herd tries to escape, the one who I can only imagine is the leader of the pack remains, pacing his thick hooves against the ice, bringing down his horn in preparation to charge.

...And something here feels really off.

It’s just-, I’m clearly the aggressor here, right? If I wasn’t here, these guys just wouldn’t have done anything. Heck, only one of them is even trying to attack me, and it’s just in order to buy time for them to escape.

...Am I the bad guy here?

Golly. I don’t-, I’m not sure I feel fully happy about that? Bugs and possums that instinctually attack me is one thing, but… These guys were just walking. Mere prey, right?

I feel terrible.

I let my body relax, falling a little in height. Yeah. Killing and eating defenceless animals… I understand the point, but I think I’ll skip for the moment.

I turn away from the bull, and start slowly walking. Proving that I’m not here to fight, maybe even that I’m surrendering. Thanks to having eyes on all sides, I can easily see how the bull grows confused, lifting his horns a little to get a good look at me. I continue walking. I don’t need him to know I mean no harm, I just need him to-, I dunno, relax? Take it easy, I guess.

I’m able to get pretty far away from the bull before he fully stands up. His herd stands a fair way from him, but they, too, watch my back. It feels kind of weird to be watched by so many eyes at once, but it’s not that important.

I continue walking, trying to keep most of my eyes on the pillar of light, but as the herd starts slowly walking, keeping great distance from me, it gets a bit hard to focus.

We just happen to be going the same way, huh?