The capsule defied all logic and breathed like a living organism, with its clear membrane moulding around both of us as a fully developed support system. Initially, I felt a sense of wonder at the briny, slow, pulsing rhythm that maintained internal pressure throughout our arduous journey across the cosmos. However, each time the ship adjusted its tilt, the shifting fluid sent a wave of motion sickness through my stomach.

The telepathic voice of Physalia pierced through the nauseating fog blurring my vision. "Open your eyes, Jax. We're home."

I forced myself to blink my eyes open and stared through the transparent gel, and there it lay with startling reality. My new home planet. A world of water, gleaming with vast, deep turquoise and wrapped in wisps of white clouds, far unlike the dried-out husk I'd left behind.

"Wow... It's beautiful," I murmured back through our tactile neural link.

"Brace for impact in ten, nine, eight," Physalia warned from beside me, refastening my restraint with a click. My breath caught in my throat, fear being one of the first emotions I could fully recognise, and I weakly entwined a limb around her for support as she continued the countdown audibly. "Three, two, one."

My stomach lurched and almost turned inside out as we plummeted through the green haze of the atmosphere in a tight spiral before breaking through the mangrove trees with the finesse of a rock. The impact struck the water with a deafening slap, rattling every bone in my body with the force. Fortunately, the hull fluid absorbed the brunt of the heavy impact, but the abrupt change in momentum sent bile rising to my mouth.

I should have felt relieved to be alive, but the ship groaned and listed beneath the pressure of the ocean as we continued our descent into murky darkness. I held my breath, and after what felt like an eternity, the vessel finally stabilised.

My voice wavered through our merged minds, "Are we in danger?"

"No, we are quite safe, now hold on."

My muscles trembled, and my skin was cold with sweat, but I relaxed and slumped back as the sphere began its gradual ascent, bobbing towards the surface. Finally, the view cleared as we breached the water, revealing a colossal Siphonophore canopy rising partially from the ocean like a living continent a mile ahead.

The sheer, alarming scale of it looming over us as we continued forward made my chest tighten painfully. Translucent and swirling with pink and blue, the gas dome caught the sunlight, almost dazzling me with its reflections as we approached. Thick root-like tentacles tethered the structure deep beneath. As an ex-soldier, stripped of my old enhancements and emotional dampeners, a sense of hopelessness took over as the shadow consumed me. I couldn't tell if this was going to become my prison or my sanctuary.

Eventually, we docked within a marina, nestled deep amongst the roots. Then, with a hiss, the cabin seal split open, exposing my relatively comfortable body to the damp, suffocating atmosphere beneath the expansive canopy. The air was thick with the scent of marine algae, which had a surprisingly sweet taste on my tongue, but the humidity became painful and constricted my lungs. I soon realised that my mate had already removed her chitin restraints, unfazed by our abrupt landing, and was extending a tentacle towards me to step out.

The moment my limbs touched the mossy floorplates, another wave of intense nausea hit me, and I buckled. My evolving indigo-tinted tentacles flailed uselessly, and I didn't think I could move again if I tried from the floor. Instead, the broken pointers in my pupils blinked on and off, repeatedly scanning for potential danger in my increasing agitation as two identical guard-drones glided forward to haul me upright. It quickly became evident that the rest of the colony would not allow me to live as a free man, contrary to what the Queen desired.

"Leave him!" Unlike before, Physalia's command was spoken aloud, and she swelled to her full size, making the guards freeze as they still held me with their muscular arms. A moment passed before she spoke again, recognising disobedience. "If you won't release him, then tell me who made this order?"

They spoke in unison, unable to form an individual, intelligent thought. "The council, our honoured Queen. You are to report to them immediately. The Xendrian will answer for his crimes."

"Then give me a moment to speak to him first." She knelt beside me upon the deck, cupping my jaw with affection. Energy surged between us as her moist, translucent skin made contact with mine, snapping our private connection open, and my raw physical and mental distress flooded straight into her mind. A flash of light flickered over my monstrous body from her black orbs for eyes before settling upon my stomach. "This weakness is understandable, considering your species' disposition, Jax and the strain your new body is under while it continues to change. We shall need to conduct tests for certainty, but for now, we have other concerns to attend to. I'll do anything within my power to prove your innocence and save you. I promise."

I managed a nod, unable to voice words in my vulnerable, trembling state. "Then, I entrust my life to you," I projected back.

Several hundred robed, terrifying entities, each resembling Physalia, peered at me from above as I was dragged into the inner sanctum and brought to the centre. I stared up at the audience chamber towering over me, its membrane-like walls pulsing blue and shimmering with bioluminescence that stretched across the atrium ceiling like an immense fin. Water enclosed the chamber from every side, reflecting the celestial glow from above, leaving only the narrow central floor panel leading from the dock beneath me. But instead of admiring the unusual, alien architecture, I felt the palpable danger as they spoke amongst themselves in grating clicks that my simplistic Xendrian mind couldn't comprehend.

My fingers, stripped of their reinforcement, trembled upon the wet ledge as I chose to prostrate before them for leniancy. I was trapped in an enemy's lair and did not know whether I would see daylight again. I only knew it was due to Physalia's power over me that I could witness their true form and hadn't died upon the spot. But without the foresight of what I know now, I also couldn't be certain that I was of sound mind and wasn't in the midst of a fever dream while still stuck upon my old dying planet, either.

"The Xendri you brought back with you is unstable!" a voice boomed, assaulting my skull with a deep vibration that made the throbbing ceiling above sway. Coldness filled every word, treating me as a commodity, rather than a living being. "You also know the rules of the codex we have set in place are absolute to ensure our own survival."

Physalia stood half-submerged, at her entire, gigantic size, casting multiple tendrils toward an expansive mirror-like waterfall. "He isn't like the rest of his kind—" Extreme pressure enveloped my brain, before she finished speaking, forcing a yell of anguish to erupt from my chest and my body to writhe in agony. Images of the war and the subsequent catastrophic implosion killing my kind burned through my skull, raising my level of turmoil. Simultaneously, my body felt like it was being crushed while my heart was squeezed and almost torn asunder in my psychological assault. "Stop it! I have chosen him personally, so he is under my protection."

The pain ceased as abruptly as it started, and it was then, as I panted in shock, that I noticed the watery panel rippled, then morphed into the huge form of a monstrous face that stared down upon me, and spoke from a gaping mouth. "This was the commander who carried out the attack upon our fleet, Physalia! Killing your last consort, your sisters and our entire lineage in one fell swoop. The law demands his dissolution! He must die."

All remaining energy disintegrated at the ruling. In my old life, I would have been deemed an irregularity and killed on the spot for exhibiting such emotions or insubordination, but remaining stripped of my cybernetic interface, my nervous system lay entirely bare. I was close to reaching somatic shock, with my heart erratically thudding against my ribcage.

"I know as well as you that our spires and nurseries are empty after ten years of war. I witnessed my own clutch mates die, and now we stand at only two hundred of us. We face extinction or, at best, further rapid de-evolution, but I have already taken him as my spawnhost. If we purge him, the future of our civilisation collapses with him."

The council members immediately began arguing from above, some switching to the same monotonous tongue that Physalia had used to communicate with me. The majority that I could understand wanted me eviscerated on the spot for the Physalii blood that had been spilt.

One screamed down at us directly, "We did not ordain this union! The Queen must put her selfish desires aside and seek out another. The Xendrian should have died alongside his vain leaders."

"The Xendrian is a war criminal, but our plight outweighs the need for his death. He should be utilised to restore our nation, but not as the Queen's consort. Put him to work replenishing the lower ranks. The royal line must not be degraded by Xendri blood."

Physalia spun to address the refutes, standing with her head held high and her shoulders even. I couldn't keep my eyes off her as she fiercely defended saving me. "This Xendri commander is honour-bound to me for the rest of his life. He will bear the burden of restoring our once great nation by my side, but I will not allow you to treat him poorly. He will be my consort, and his strain will run for generations to come."

The room fell silent, but I knew a mental battle was still unfolding among the council members as Physalia defiantly stood beside me and squeezed my shoulder. My chest remained confined by shallow, uneven breathing. It felt like I was already dying, and she was wasting her time. "This isn't what you hoped for, is it? They're going to execute me."

"It does not bode well, but stay strong. I will not allow the echo of past matriarchs to kill you."

The glow of the ancestors flickered as her final statement was processed among the others. Then the form spoke once more, extending its own ghostly tendrils into the pool, which Physalia told me was the ledger of ancient decrees. "The law allows for an emergency harvest if it is deemed that he is successfully mated, but the vessel remains condemned. The moment the brood period is resolved, his dissolution will be fulfilled. Now take him away to confirm the fusion."

I couldn't speak or fight back as multiple drones seized me, hauling me backwards over the slippery ground towards the hole of a transport tube. Physalia had managed to buy me some time, but a stay of execution would still result in my death.

-----

The suffocating descent through the vertical shaft to the lower depths was torturous in itself, with the freezing, dense liquid filling my mouth and lungs. Saline burned my throat, and my brain turned frantic, making my limbs wildly thrash at the walls of the tube in my mortal instinct that I would drown. However, I didn't perish even as my respiratory system convulsed and instead attempted to reconfigure to the water flooding my airways while I plummeted.

I felt lightheaded and continued to inhale desperately as I was eventually left in a bath-like examination pod, which moulded to my figure, preventing any chance of escape. My body still felt devastatingly human as I shivered in the cold. There was no doubt that it was a clinician's room, despite it feeling more like a half-submerged laboratory, but the tall Physalii scientist didn't approach with sterile instruments to open me up. Instead, she hooked me up to hyper-oxygenated fluid that instantly gave me relief by stabilising my pulse and breathing, then dipped several tentacles into the liquid surrounding me.

I tensed as the probes dived beneath the murky water, causing it to ripple towards me. Only a small sliver of pearl blue, occasionally breaching the surface, was evidence of it drawing closer.

It touched one of my legs first, slimy and stinging, and my entire body shuddered as it wound upwards while others held me still as if I'd been bound in rope. I couldn't move and felt my hips being parted and pushed back.

"Ugh..." A moan escaped my lips, anticipating the moment as it passed my inner leg and immediately crawled towards my thick, penile stub.

I braced for pain and flinched, yet Physalia's telepathic voice rushed to soothe me as she wrapped a cool limb over my shoulder. "It will not hurt as badly as you expect. This is the resonance scan. It is an internal check that all consorts undergo once the colonisation is complete to ensure all is well."

Considering her words, I forced myself to relax as the spiralled tendrils once again made contact, then slithered within. As she had said, there was no pain, other than from the stinging nematocysts, but a bio-electric sonar pulsed and rippled deep inside, functioning as a sonogram to map my internal structures. It was a sensation that caught me off guard, and as the waves continued to thrum, reverberating an intense warmth, pleasure melted throughout my core.

"Ahh! That feels—" The sound slipped out, and I reddened.

I didn't know where to look or how to react, but it was hard to not feel embarrassed as a once-fearless commander, stripped naked and now a prisoner of war, with a body that betrayed him. But as much as I tried to suppress the feelings and covered my mouth, I knew I couldn't. Through our contact, Physalia could sense my spike of arousal too, and magenta biolumescence flared from her limbs as my organ grew.

Her eyes sought out mine, and her mind whispered to me as she absorbed my surging heat. "You do not need to hide your pleasure from me, Jax. We are bound by the union of our flesh."

My resolve broke as she flooded my mind with vivid memories of our coupling. My abdomen tightened with an involuntary spasm as the pulsation traced over the contours of my developing pelvic region, vibrating against my most intimate areas until the panic that had gripped me since my arrival disappeared and was replaced by heavy longing that made my heart catch. The internal probes continued to stimulate my newly formed nerve clusters until I boiled over, forcing a gasping cry from my throat as my violent climax made my inky tentacles thrash around the pool of water, which turned curiously pink with my cum.

The examiner remained indifferent to my release of pure, electrified ecstasy, radiating from my evolving organs even as I continued quivering from the aftershocks. Instead, she parted my multiple legs and tightened them within hanging stirrups before resuming the deep dive over my reproductive lining, which became exposed as my cock became flaccid and others entered into my anus, making me pant and groan from being screwed endlessly. "Hm, the vessel is indeed fertile, and at least one hybrid has anchored, my honoured Queen. Yet despite the successful colonisation, he is struggling to adapt to our climate, so he will need to remain here to be monitored and kept alive."

Physalia shook with red phosphorescence. "He is dying?"

"He will, without continual intervention. I'll need to conduct tests, but for now, he is still in the slow process of transformation, so I will do all I can to keep him stable," the doctor replied, impassively. "I'm not finding any more hidden inside, but I can't be fully certain until the process completes. It is a shame you couldn't procure more... The structure of Xendrian musculature will be an extremely beneficial addition to our future generation."

My sphincter tightened, involuntarily. "Physalia... Why does it feel so good?"

"It's meant to feel good so your entire reproductive tract opens for examination. Now, this physiology is fascinating." The examiner was by now rubbing my prostate while beaming a light from head to toe, jotting down my bodily reactions to what she was doing. "He's extremely reactive to stimulation and enjoys it like we do. If we find a way to keep him alive, the sexual compatibility will be fruitful, my Queen."

"Then, I will leave him within your capable expertise, but I want a status report the moment anything changes." The tendrils withdrew, leaving my core hyper-sensitive and tingly from the extremely invasive scan. But despite my face burning, I also felt relief while Physalia projected a final, fiercely protective thought into my mind. "With this confirmation, it proves that you are mine now, Jax. I will find a way to save you."

It was a difficult and painful two months as the micro-zooids implanted within me took hold. I had arrived as a partially formed alien atrocity and remained a biological specimen to be studied, pinned to the examination table by thin, needle-like sprouts that grew from the membrane beneath me and pierced my nervous system. The intimate procedures continued, and from what I learned, the systematic erasure and ongoing alteration of my humanity from the waist down into something more sexually ambiguous was expected, but my respiratory function was changing slowly and left me weaker. The sired offspring was also growing at an accelerated rate, draining my body of nutrients faster than I could consume them through my supplemental feeding tube.

On my sixty-second night within the medical facility, the door valve of the transport tube opened with a gurgle. I expected the cold-hearted doctor, arriving to extract more data or to administer additional medication, but instead, the dark shadows of the laboratory were chased away as Physalia glided into view and then shed the regal rigidity she had maintained before everyone else, shrinking into a lithe, delicate form.

Her ribbon-like hair flowed like an intangible wisp and gently glowed as it swirled around me, stroking every inch of my skin with affection. She reached out to press a cool limb against my feverish, still Xendrian cheek. "Jax, I don't know how long we have, but I needed to see you. The council members refuse to go against the decree. I fear we have no choice but to leave here the moment you are well."

I spoke back to her through our link, her unusual, bulged eyes reflecting the eerie golden glow emanating from my distended abdomen. "It is only a matter of time, Physalia. Whether I die by the dissolution acids or by my body failing, I am no longer afraid. Do not do anything that could harm you."

"No!" she responded with sudden intensity, flaring aggressively red. "I cannot lose you. These weeks apart have been harder than I can bear. You have changed me, and my heart beats frantically when I think of you. I didn't save you just to have you die at their barbaric orders, and you are not just a biological resource for others to use either."

Defying everything I expected from an ancient astral aberration, she rested her head against my bare shoulder as she held me. Instantly, the weeks she had experienced locked in a never-ending battle between those who demanded my death and the loneliness of her chambers overflowed to me, and the biological tether anchoring us together jolted in recognition.

"Your laws are ingrained and flow in the very water surrounding us, my love. We cannot run from it," I said, smiling at her. "But, currently, our son kicks, and I also hear his voice."

"I hear him too... I can already sense that he'll be a powerful force to reckon with." Physalia's black eyes widened. "But this also means we are running out of time. The moment our son is born, the elders plan to have you put to death."

She passed a limb over my stomach, then rested it upon my chest to feel the thumping of my Xendrian heart. For the time being, I was still alive thanks to the doctor, but I sensed her love for me and the desperation to keep me safe from her unshielded thoughts.

The words I was struggling to verbally convey, realising her deepening feelings for me, drifted to her, "I love you too, Physalia. If anything were to happen to me, I want you to know that I am content to have had this experience that my old world denied me. I don't regret a single moment since we met."

Her telepathic voice quaked with a sudden, strong determination. "Do not speak as if this is the end! I will show them all the strength of what we have created. When this child is born, he will be an apex being with you directly woven within his DNA. The council will have no choice but to accept our union and break with archaic laws to keep your genetic strain alive. I will cast the entire council to their deaths if they refuse."

It was wishful thinking, but I couldn't help but hold out hope that her words were true. The alliance of our flesh, resulting in a powerful being, was exactly what the Physaliis wanted. My hand squeezed against her softer, silicone-like appendage with gentle reassurance, then I leaned forward to kiss her cool, bluish lips that stung on contact. Paralysing fear was gone, and instead a stubborn will to survive burned. "I trust your words and the life growing within me, my Queen. I did not fight for survival to give up now."

-----

The maniacal doctor nor I could predict when the evacuation date would arrive, but I woke in the early hours a handful of weeks later, feverish, with back pain and my long tentacles unfurling listlessly around the room. The countdown to my impending death was ticking down again as twenty drones arrived the moment it was confirmed.

They spoke once again in unison. "The council has ordered the vessel's removal to the inner sanctum and scheduled his execution for today. If the hybrid does not arrive quickly, the order to manually extract is authorised. He has lived long enough."

"This is without precedent! All vessels are secluded within the incubation chamber with their Queen for the duration of the process." The doctor was shouting; however, she was ignored and shook her head as I was forcibly removed from her care by the guards. "There is nothing I can do. The law dictates that you're held accountable for the crimes of your leaders in their place. The best I can do is offer a sedative."

It was a hard labour, officiated by the ancient ghostly being within the swirling panel, without Physalia being allowed by my side. I could do nothing but trust my half-monstrous body to get me through it, but the entire time, I was aware of the final outcome. I didn't know what would be worse, a manual removal or to be dissolved before I'd got my breath back after enduring relentless pain. I just prayed that I would be given a chance to lay my eyes upon the one I had brought into this life first.

I collapsed the moment it was over, releasing the coral pillars I had twisted my multiple limbs around for anchorage. My eyes half-shut, thinking it was the end as a swarm of drones moved in to encircle me, holding containers of foul, bubbling black acid.

What I didn't expect was the blinding flash of electricity that erupted throughout the sanctum as Physalia raised our infant from the pool. A shockwave of electromagnetic energy froze every guard in that instant.

The child was entirely Xendrian at first glance, with bright amber eyes. However, purple cyber-tendrils, entwined with gold cord, reached from each limb, spanning the entire room and slammed into the mirror and the pool surrounding it. Strange letters, the official written language of the Physaliis, were being deleted as quickly as they appeared upon the surface while he interfaced with the liquid mainframe. For the life of me, I didn't know what to make of the bizarre event unfolding before me, but my son continued to shine wonderously like a godly being as he rose high into the air.

The grotesque face of the elders, formed in the mirror, abruptly shattered like ice, causing water to gush continually. The sanctum floor was quickly flooded, sweeping my death sentence away, alongside the disappearing laws.

A screeching voice cried out from up high, "It's killed our Elders and erased our ancient laws! We are doomed!"

The council members who had arrived to observe my execution were screaming in terror from the benches above while the drone-like clones remained still, ungoverned by the laws that no longer existed. I knew only a miracle would save me, but never in my wildest imagination could I have foreseen this.

"Jax! Oh, Jax..." Physalia ran towards me where I lay, still panting from my arduous exertion. My beacon of hope was still levitating and causing mass hysteria like a mystical saviour. "Our son... The enhancements that were embedded within you have shaped him. I felt it the moment I held him."

I kissed her, beyond elated by this new turn of events, though extremely weakened. "My Queen... I would like to retire for the night, if I may?"

Exhausted and still panting for breath, with my retracted appendage aching within my core, I was finally brought to the Sovereign's chamber, suspended at the uppermost corner of the palace. Sunlight filtered through the membrane ceiling and undulated over the sargassum carpeting, casting a kaleidoscope of colours. Sweet-aromatic kelp stood like living walls, dividing off an enormous central bed-like basin carved within the mossy floor.

The bed was cool and filled with a thick gel that eased my pain as I sank into it and curled my limbs around me. An ocean breeze rustled gently through an open archway, soothing my mind into rest. Unlike the flooded clinical lab and the oppressive council chamber below, I was comfortable in my permanent home in my duty as Physalia's mate.

The doctor followed us in, disturbing my tranquillity with her fussing. "He will need to continue with his treatment, my Queen. He used all of his reserves of energy during the process. If we're to secure our next monarch, then we will need to build up his strength."

I outstretched my arm, ready to be hooked up for my nutrient-rich fluids. "And, how long until that happens?"

"The vessel spends much of his life in incubation. The Queen will often lie with you within days of the last, so you should recover quickly. Those before you would normally have twenty or more in one brooding period, so with only one between you, the lineage is extremely fragile."

My mouth dropped. Twenty? Within days? Physalia didn't say a word as I stared at her, but I knew she had no intention of seeking out an encounter with her mind opened to me. Instead, she climbed into the bed beside me and coiled her limbs with mine, speaking softly. "Rest for now, my love. Today has been hard for you."

-----

The fallout from the havoc our child had wreaked upon a millennium of laws was severe. All drones remained idle, completely mindless without orders to blindly carry out. The council was fractured between those who couldn't deny a miracle had fallen upon them, propelling their entire species into rapid evolution and those who still cried for my death because I'd unleashed a monster signalling the end. I would have been amused at the panic amongst such higher beings, but it kept Physalia from me, and she was growing tired from the long hours locked in diplomatic battle. Bored and lonely, without my matriarch to serve, I instead began to secretly venture from our suite to seek out the nursery where our son was to be raised, breaking with tradition.

Days later, I was sitting outside on the balcony ledge, staring out upon the view of the lapping ocean at sunset. The air carrying the scent of salt, tickled my dark hair and played against my bared, Xendrian chest. I was grateful to see another day and enjoy the harmony of relative peace. For as long as I could remember, I had only known war or violence, and in my old world, I could never experience a quiet moment like this.

The delicate crest of Physalia appeared, gleaming in shades of violet and blue as she rose from beneath the waves, casting a soft light before her. She carried several pearly shells within her multiple limbs, and her gracefulness as she floated towards me made my pulse quicken and ache for her touch. "Here you are. I was told you went for another wander today outside the confines of the suite."

She sat next to me, placing down her collection, and I smiled as I took hold of her extended limb. "I had a great need to see our son again. I am told he has been growing stronger by the day. The young of the Physaliis grow quick so I needed to witness it for myself."

"It is unusual for the consort to seek out his brood... I believe you must be the first to have also bestowed a name."

I laughed quietly at the difference between us. These great cosmic aliens possessed knowledge that defied my limited understanding, including methods to reshape my physical body, but they rarely experienced the warmth we mortals sought. "In my kind, it is natural to take an interest in the child's rearing and naming. I thought Aegis would be fitting after his great display of power and protection."

"Did your parents raise you?" Her bright eyes politely awaited my answer, instead of rifling through my memories.

"I am not sure. The moment you wiped out my fake memory bank, I realised I had next to no memories of my childhood, other than being whisked off to be created into a soldier at some facility."

She rested her head against my shoulder in familiarity. "All Physalii know their parents. Our father is the one who brings us into this life, and his name will be etched for an eternity upon our walls. My mother was the previous regent. Both fell in the battle."

"I am sorry. I wished there were a way that we could undo the deaths that the war caused. I, for one, am still committed to making right the harm I caused."

A glow reflected across her cosmic skin beneath the fading sun as I attempted to gaze upon her amorphous features. She was breathtaking in a way words couldn't fully convey, with gleaming onyx eyes that reached deeply into my soul and a body that glistened like constellations trapped within sea glass. But my attraction to her stemmed from fascination and worship of her intelligent, interdimensional mind, which I could only briefly glimpse for fear of becoming lost in its deeper recesses and swallowed by insanity. To have been chosen and experience the love of such a divine entity felt like a single grain of sand being noticed by the universe itself.

My arm wrapped around her waist, and I gently pressed a kiss upon her pearlescent lips as her beauty consumed me. Physalia studied my face, then flinched as she felt my passion burning brightly for her.

She bloomed pink as I thought about my next move and playfully pushed me away as I tried to kiss her again. "Jax? I do not wish to tax your body further. I know it was hard on you."

I stroked one of her tendrils between my calloused fingers, gasping at the static-like buzzing against my skin. "But I want you, and I feel much recovered. I don't know whether this is because we've been sleeping naked together all week, but I've been fantasising about you taking me again, and I know some of that was your mind blending with my dreams."

I dropped to my knees and lifted up her silken robe. Already, the irresistible sweet nectar that would lead to my ruin had grown heady. I licked my lips with urgent arousal. I knew the moment her potent aphrodisiac seeped within my bloodstream that I would lose my mind and become a slave to sex. It was a powerful toxin that would render me unresponsive to anything other than her touch and a desperation to mate. But it wasn't irrational. I wanted her to make me her plaything and to perform my duties again.

Physalia placed her limb over my lips in a final warning. "You know how dangerous that is, Jax. You'll..."

The scent was overwhelming, and my tongue dipped to her vulva, which zinged on contact across my watering taste buds. The effect was almost instantaneous as I ripped her dress back and gazed upon her naked, celestial form, her black eyes mirroring my growing heat. "Fuck me, my Queen. I want to be bred by you."

Physalia stopped wavering, and every one of her tentacles snaked around my body and stripped me of the scrap of fabric covering my waist as she lifted me onto my back in the air. My body was already glowing with desire from the pheremones surging through my tongue, and I leaned back to cry out to the sky above as the first burrowed into my spincter, laced with a spurt of venom-filled nemotocysts.

"Your body is mine to command, my love," she spoke to me, licking her elongated tongue across my ear, and thrusting deeper. "You'll be my incubator by the time I'm finished with you."

Her touch had my cock emerge from within the protective sheath, and the true spectacle of my mutated biology manifested, revealing a sharply angular, tapered helm with a pronounced edge. It curved upon a dense, rooted structure, with ridges that continued down an engorged shaft with pulsing, thick veins wrapped around it, harnessing the still-growing, muscular mass against my pubis. I needed to brace my tentacles and tether myself to prevent tipping over with suction as it stood firm like a trunk, ready to fulfil the first part of our elaborate process.

I hadn't expected it to grow so large and was unsure of how to proceed with something so unwieldy, but given Physalia's natural size, I should have expected as such. Instead, she took the reins, and I couldn't form a single word as she reached forward, spearing me deeper upon her muscular, prehensile limbs that squelched lubrication on each thrust. I could barely breathe as another plunged into the back of my throat.

"Uhh... Mngh..." I could see a thick tentacle running against the wall of my abdomen with a ripple as it dug deeper into my anal cavity, and another passed through my engorged, immense penis. I was utterly dominated by her and barely able to form a coherent thought. "Oh... Fuck..."

She didn't hold back as she pumped within me, and each coiled tentacle drove deep through every orifice and zapped my body like a live wire into convulsions. "Your body... It responds greatly..."

My body was quivering with longing, and my seed was already throbbing within my weighty testicles, awaiting release. "Take me... Fill me, my Queen. Use me and breed me... I'll forge an entire legion for you."

Tendrils tightened around my wrists and behind the back of my legs as she pulled me into spreading apart. Her body was vibrating as she grew larger, before she fully devoured my erect cock inside her cunt and suctioned. "Then, cum for me, Jax... Your seed will be mine."

My eyes were rolling at the pressurised seal encircling my cock, and my blood rushed as I grew engorged before coming undone, pumping my fully loaded cum into her. But, she didn't release me. Instead, she continued riding my organ, with an audibly wet shlick, shlick, shlick while I trembled with sensitivity and remained effectively gagged, deep throating a writhing alien limb.

Purple radiated through her opalescent skin, and her own pleasure continued to build. I was licking her clitorial nub on the tentacle twirling within my mouth as her melded mind compelled me. Deep within her, I knew our copulation was still in process, and it was only a matter of time before she penetrated me to imbue the entire cargo.

My own tentacles were stroking over each of hers, circling the swollen, pink clitoral structures, revealed upon them. I could see straight into her mind and gasped at the overwhelming sensations flowing over her, experiencing the pleasure as if it were my own. As if it were natural, my appendages entwirled with hers, holding us locked together while the waves crashed and smothered me in gooey-cum.

I cried out as she suddenly speared me with her ovipositor, and a smile passed over her lips. "I hope you're not tired already, Jax... Let's move this to somewhere more comfortable."

Before I could crawl towards the archway to take this to the bed, she dragged me inside, and grew rougher in her domination of my lesser, smaller body. Whip-like stinging tendrils landed across my back and buttocks, flaming blistering welts as she threw me. Others twisted around my tentacles and wrists before she thrusted her entire black tongue deep into my arsehole.

"Fuck... Oh my god!" I grew lightheaded as she whisked her aphrodisiac saliva over my internal walls at speed, and it extended deep within the crevice. I could hardly breathe as my moans sank into the moss my head was buried against, and the helm of my cock bulged back into action.

Before I could cum again, she reeled me backwards, tearing me away from the kelp I'd been clutching, as her legs spread to reveal her large, pink vulva, which was frilled with petal-like nodules. I didn't need to read her mind to quickly realise her intent as I was fully drawn in as prey.

Physalia was crying out aloud as she opened up around my limbs and tightened her grip around my chest. I felt like her vaginal walls would crush me as I was thrust in, with my tentacles pulled back and flailing within her as she used me aggressively like a fully-powered-up sex toy. Pink, slimy secretions covered me entirely, keeping me in a permanent state of lust as the bumps rubbed over every inch of my naked body.

"Jax... Mm, I feel so good..." She was humming with contentment as she kept rubbing me against her G-spot.

"Uhh..." Physalia's own tentacles were driving within her to massage my thick cock before another slithered back through my sphincter, stretching me open. I was being twisted, and felt like she was eating me alive as the strength of her ripples constricted around my body.

I could hardly contain the surging pleasure as a river of cum exploded across her internal ridges and me as I climaxed from inside her. I was drenched entirely, and salt tingled on my tongue as I fell still and awaited what happened next. Much larger, in her normal giantess size, the ovipositor lurking within was a daunting prospect.

"Stop holding your breath and breathe normally. It will be over soon, my love." I calmed my breathing at her words and mentally prepared myself for what was to come, when it penetrated deep into my cock, pushing me out of her with the force.

I had never seen it directly before, and it was a vivid pink that continued to cleave down my shaft, making me cry out in a mixture of pain and pleasure while she held me in place. But the most alarming part was the swelling of the organ and the weight of what was implanted within me, pulsing out like a multitude of dense, ellipsoid pebbles that landed with a heavy plop until my brood pouch grew heavy.

The first time she'd lain with me, copulation ended after this moment, but her tendrils wrapped around me once more and bent me over. Nothing of my body remained sacred. It was just another part for her to explore and turn on with unusual tricks, and I felt her slide between my legs to my swollen bud. My fingers twitched as a now thicker tentacle pushed through, then one tunnelling limb increased to two.

The tendrils of her arms, taut around my biceps, held me fully in submission as her thoughts invaded mine. "Open up for me."

I was violated, repeatedly, with the stinging limbs, deliberately trying to work my internal walls outwards while another sought out my throbbing, aching prostate. I could see everything that Physalia could see, and the excitement building within her at having me helpless and prone. My walnut-sized pleasure-button was growing larger, as if it had been stung, as she fondled it.

Another wrapped around my throat like a leash, chaining me down. It felt like my filled rectum was squirming with eels violently struggling out of water, and deep moans erupted from my constricted throat as they flexed through my third sphincter and bottomed out, flaring my hole wide.

My eyes scrunched as another flood of venom burst within my cave, and I saw her third tentacle prying inside. At this point, I was trembling with horror at the extent of what my newly formed body was experiencing and a dark desire to endure it as she spread my hips open. Another was lassoed around my cock that hung limply to the floor and eased me into relaxing.

Tentacles passed one after another through my sphincter over the course of what felt like hours, as I gradually stretched open to the invading, mucus-covered limbs. My stomach bulged as it curved towards my belly button, and I grew lightheaded on the pleasure coursing through me.

Physalia continued to brace my body, taking my weight from my failing legs and wrapping them around her waist while she pummelled into my depths. My poor nipples were twisted and slurped relentlessly by her tongue and tentacles, leaving love-bite-like bruising in rows across my body. Already, I was feeling another potent dose of nematocysts seeping through my skin like an anaesthetic.

Thwap! - Thwap! - Thwap!

My ears filled with nothing but the slapping of her jelly-like abdomen against my rump as she pumped the multitude of limbs through me. I was sticky and dripping with slime. Pink goo was pooling beneath me as I drifted in and out, moaning deliriously with lust as her incensed thoughts merged with mine.

I could see she was prizing me wider for her perverse exploration, using her limbs like a speculum, which expanded my rectum. I gasped at the sight of my reddened rosebud emerging through her mind's eye, oozing with the cum she'd secreted into me.

My weighted cock pulsed as she licked straight over, then probed in, forming a seal with her lips. The pressure was immense, and she began to draw me outward. "Fuck... Oh fuck..."

She broke the seal, causing it to slip back with a chuckle. "The Xendrian parts of your body are fun to toy with."

The suction resumed, mercilessly bringing me almost to prolapse. Wetness glooped between my jellified legs, over my balls, then dripped the entire length of my meat. I was flushed and pricking all over, almost immobilised by the numbness that spread deep within my core, across my tongue and every inch that had been within her. A by-effect of a pre-evolutionary need to render prey helpless before devourment.

I writhed within her tight embrace and held back from climax, needing it within her. "Physalia-ah! I am struggling."

She spun me within her prehensile arms and straddled my waist, taking my cock as she shrank down so I filled her. I was stunned by the sight of her pulsating pussy as she rode me, barely able to move due to the colossal size of my manhood. The limbs within me continued to push forward, as I came apart and spurted like a fountain within the constricting cunt. I barely had a moment to breathe before another load was bestowed upon me, filling out my abdomen.

I couldn't say a word as she leaned forward and kissed me, abruptly filling my mind with the knowledge of how long this ritual would last. "It is beautiful to see you grow so full with our brood, my love, but we are not done yet. Let's see how well you can keep it up."

For an entire week, we made love with my body kept in a never-ending state of arousal and then loaded up repeatedly. I lost count of how many times we actually performed our intense sexual rite within the chamber. The reason for the room's emptiness, aside from the bed, became apparent quickly as I was dominated and practically thrown around or glued to a surface in what became an extremely messy affair.

"My head... What day is it?" My entire body was paralysed to the point I couldn't lift a single limb. "I don't think I can move."

Her toxins were beginning to wear off, and I felt like I had been on a long, mind-altering trip. Every bone that remained in my Xendrian half felt like I had been in a lubricated, naked wrestling match with a voidworm. My tentacled half was limp as seaweed. I couldn't maintain an erection even if my life depended on it, given how much she had drained me. Physalii were incredibly ferocious during mating, and I should have heeded her warning. My stomach was left extremely swollen and swirled with numbers I couldn't possibly tell.

"It's the ninth day before the next moon, my love. It also would not do if the consort was seen able to leave the chamber, standing."

I couldn't look her in the eyes, knowing exactly what dirty things she'd done to me. Instead, I glanced at her nude form as she reclined in the afterglow. Dark, purplish bruises covered each limb, and I vaguely remembered testing to see if I could mark her squishy flesh with lovebites during our sex marathon.

Her tentacles wrapped around both of my wrists, and she held me captive beneath her. If she released another burst of liquid pheremones at this moment, I'd possibly lose my mind again. "I enjoy being your prey, My Queen, but I fear I'll die if I endure another week in my current state."

She slid down my body instead, draped my weak limbs over her shoulders and lapped over my softened nub, which was slowly withdrawing from action with the job truly done. I was too tired to gain another erection, but it felt good to be gently caressed by her tongue and lips after such a vicious ravaging. "I have no need to create more with you now... I want to explore."

"What are you doing? It feels like you're..." I twitched with excitement as she let me glimpse into her mind as she parted my unusual, succulent mound open. The helm of my cock lay inside, much smaller in its fully unerect state, revealing a channel that glistened with opalescent cum. Before I could ask, she was eating me out and tonguing the slit left behind. "Ahh... Mm."

"Imagine how you like to be touched."

I thought about rubbing a finger over the exhausted head, then dipping it within the creamy hole. Physalia followed my directions, still holding me parted with her arm tendrils, then showed me how it stretched open around her tongue.

My jaw clenched as I held back a moan. It was more sensitive than I expected it to be, and I flinched as she brushed over the head of my cock that remained buried and sucked. My legs trembled, and I bucked against the spongy bedding as pressure was building within me. I felt my core contract and tighten rhythmically with a powerful orgasm like none I had experienced. It lingered, enveloping me along every inch, with a sigh.

Her forking tongue continued to urge my pleasure on as it delved within, tickling across the delicate retracted flesh that spread open like a cavern inside. I could read her mind, and everything she could see through our intimate connection, and I looked down at her in shock as she gazed back from between my legs. My altered, blurred anatomy would take some getting used to.

Physalia swallowed, then kissed me so I could taste my release upon her mouth. One of her tentacles remained slid between my legs and circled over my smaller penile tissue, before slipping inside my wet entrance. "Relax... I want you to cum for me again, my love."

"Oh god... You're..." I groaned at her view of my tunnel spreading around her swelling appendage as it moved deeper. The perverse thought to push myself to my limit crossed my mind, and she immediately swelled bigger. "Shit... Oh fuck..."

My hips opened to the tentacle thrusting deep within me and the other flicking rapidly at my clitorial-sized cock, bringing a rasping cry to the back of my throat. I felt helpless to the pleasure flowing through me and writhed beneath her as she continued to grow larger to fill up my pulsating cave that was begging to be ravaged.

She smiled with mischief and flashed her own filthy thoughts. "Your body and fantasies are mine, Jax... Forever and always."

-----

Unsurprisingly, I was confirmed as being impregnated again by my alien lover as my tract was enticed into opening up by the doctor's tendrils. I trembled within the stirrups.

"So, how have you been?" My words instantly rambled in my nervous state as she glared over my spread legs. "We should stop meeting like this."

"For as long as you breathe, it is good for us to meet like this. A healthy, strong consort is exactly what I want to see. Now breathe out, this may pinch a little."

Understatement of the century. My hips tried raising from the bed as a sharp snap ran deep through my internal walls, manually opening me up, before descending further inside and pulsating. My head tipped back, and a deep erotic moan released through the bedchamber. Physalia continued to pat my head and held me as cum splattered over my stomach.

The doctor immediately continued her examination before giving my excited Queen the news. "And we have three in total. Still less than I'd like to see, but thriving. The vessel is extremely hospitable."

"My name is Jax, not the vessel," I barked back, panting from the excitement that quivered through each limb. "Could we not look into other methods than this? In my world, we used—"

"Your world used vast amounts of energy to power machinery. It's the reason why your people died. We use physical methods and the natural world around us." The slimy tentacles were withdrawn. "I'll set him up with extra nutrition, fluids and monitoring, but the vessel... I mean, Jax is stable this time."

I glanced at Physalia. I could read the happiness bouncing in her beautiful, orb-like eyes. I was pleased, too, but also apprehensive, remembering the astronomical amount of energy I expended the last time I went through this. At least she would be by my side throughout.

As the doctor finally scurried off, Physalia passed me an unusual garment to re-dress into. From the look of it, the transparent material would cover very little, with pearls and the shells she collected arranged to lie across my chest. "We will attend our first meeting together this evening, so you will need to dress in the ceremonial clothes befitting the Queen's consort. Please try them on."

"These are not like any clothes the Xendrian wear other than perhaps in the pleasure houses. I'm not sure how to—" Physalia took the clothing and fastened metallic clasps at my hips, leaving the entire length of my legs exposed. She then draped it around my shoulders, crossing over both nipples, with the fabric gathered in the middle falling down to cover my pelvic area front and back. It barely contained my anatomy. "Oh? In my nation, our bodies are only revealed to our lovers."

"Your nation is nothing but dust, Jax. You're a Physalii now, and it pleases me to see you finally adorned in the attire befitting the prestige of your position. Your form is akin to sacred in our culture as it inspires hope that we are back on our path to reattaining our full strength."

"So you're saying I'm to remain almost nude?"

Physalia stroked over the pearls hanging around my throat and chest like a necklace. "I'm saying that the consort rarely has a moment to leave the bedchamber. He remains bound to fulfilling his duties so often that he never has time to be anything but partially clothed."

My core twitched, undeniably recognising the truth that I enjoyed my duty of being fucked by the Queen. The exposure of my body would reveal the success of our coupling as a beacon of hope to the dwindling hive. "Physalia... You're turning me on again."

-----

The news, however, did not carry the same level of joy for the council that convened that evening. The might of the monach's line was growing while their individual familial influence dwindled. Normally, more than one male would be secured from a dying planet and introduced amongst the Spires alongside the Queen's. I understood the frustration at the imbalance of power without the old laws to protect the status quo, but I remained steadfast in my devotion to my Queen. Before the council that night, I swore that I would never allow another to dilute the prestige of the royal lineage, however much they pressurised Physalia. Others still deemed the Ancients' deletion as sacrilege and my existence a stain, and continued to fight against my name from being carved upon the walls.

Little did we know they were already planning to target me where they thought I was the most vulnerable in a final act of insidious subversion as I returned from my first engagement. Our young were growing rapidly, just like their brother, so I spent most of my time resting within the cosy nest of our private chambers. The vitamin-rich gel was being constantly supplied into my bloodstream directly from the central line running deep beneath the ocean.

Physalia was trapped in a debate some months later when the first wave of agony struck me, and my eight limbs contracted into a death curl. Sweat was instantly beading across my forehead, and a fiery fever flashed throughout me. It was unlike any pain I had felt before, but my immediate concern was for my tightening stomach, and I yelled out to anyone nearby who could hear. It was fortunate that my health was being regularly monitored, and the doctor discovered me when she did.

Taking one look at me, she snatched the tendril within my arm away, which gushed with green, not clear liquid. "You've been poisoned... Fight it, Jax! For your life and for your Queen, you need to keep going."

I was quickly taken to the intensely organic incubation chamber, where towering walls of glowing velvet moss dripped into a lake of warm turquoise water. My body was already convulsing as the toxicity took hold, rotting me from within. Desperation flickered in my eyes during a brief moment of lucidity. I was ready for the worst, prepared to give my life if necessary, but I couldn't find the words to demand it from the doctor.

It was over quickly. As I lay shivering among the aqua fauna, wrapped in multiple gowns to warm me, my heartbeat—irregular and thumping loudly in my ears—began to slow. I was exhausted, and the lights of my life dimmed, but I had fulfilled my duty. A surge of power was the last thing I experienced before froth bubbled in my throat.

However, those who planned my death had vastly underestimated my tenacious Xendrian will to survive. I held on, hovering in the abyss after my son brought me back, with my love urging me forward. There was nothing anyone could do from that point on other than wait as my immune system fought back. My muscles remained locked, but after several days, it became clear that I was no longer dying. The technology implanted in my nervous system flashed a wall of text across my mind as it rebooted, amplifying my healing.

My mutated flesh, both Xendrian and the lower half, assimilated by the parasitic-like zooids, fused with my man-made machinery. I could feel a hardening amongst my tissues as my body aggressively encapsulated the poison running rampant throughout. Physalia sensed the change in me, the moment that I did and pulled away from my clammy body, glowering a deep purple.

Her thoughts hissed through my brain with frightening wrath as she realised I would live. "I will root out the evil that festers beneath this canopy and plots against my bloodline. Those who refuse to yield will be cast into the open ocean. Justice will be swift and merciless!"

The fact that I lived remained hidden, and instead, Physalia plunged the hive into mourning days later, arranging an urgent conclave to discuss the future of the Physalii among the council. My physical body was severely weakened by the attempt upon my life, but my nervous system rapidly regenerated and augmented to my cybernetics, which became fully under my control. My mind was sharper, and just like my son, I found I could tap directly into the liquid mainframe and watch events unfold within the walls of the council chamber.

One particularly contemptuous Physalii dripped with condescension as she addressed the matter. "Our honoured Queen, the death of your consort was unavoidable. His failure to thrive was beyond your control, and his body wasn't strong enough to endure the burden of carrying your lineage into a new age. We implore you to seek out another."

Physalia smiled with menace. "My consort hasn't yet grown cold, but you already bid me to move on?"

She held her ground even as her Queen zeroed in on her, not realising the danger. "It is not the Physalii way to put aside what is necessary to grieve, especially for a land-dweller. It was a natural correction of the universe, and in only a few weeks, your next clutch will be needing a new consort."

"There will not be a new consort when mine still lives! Those who attempted to have him murdered and brazenly stand before me now will be judged immediately." Physalia was shaking, and I could feel the strength of her rage pulsating from her reddened body as over two dozen council members stood up, horrified that the plan to kill me had failed. She grew to an immense, terrifying size and immediately struck out with her tentacles, devouring their guilt directly from their brains as they shuddered to hold back the details. "I am the sovereign of this hive, and those who conspired against the father of the royal line will not see this new age. You will be dissolved for your crimes."

Fifty-six council members were executed in the following purge, but a part of the Physalia I fell in love with also died alongside them as she grew into something for her nation to fear. The age of democracy was now over as her will became absolute.