Chapter 7 - Cold Hearts
Zanna sat chewing her lip as she watched the large box of human women writhing around before her. “So they just spawn more humans after they wriggle around like this?” she spoke quietly as she observed the fascinating scene unfolding before her.
“Yes, Mistress,” Tie responded in a dead tone. “With Overseer Vin’s help, I have manipulated their biology through the nutrition vapours to encourage them to spawn as much as possible.” The planet sounded pleased with themselves as she shared her achievements. The demoness leaned forward and focused on some of the tiny women rolling around on their backs.
“Looks painful, but they seem so bloated and juicy….” Zanna felt her mouth water as she observed the pain-stricken sweat-soaked human breeders. Reaching into the box, she hovered her fingers over a particularly large swollen female. The small woman cried and whimpered but did not run. Zanna smirked as she slowly lowered her fingers. “Brave..not running.” she mused as Vin’s voice emerged from the door.
“She can’t run. She’s probably got eight spawn inside of her.” The slave girl offered reverently as she entered and fell to her knees beside her mistress. Zanna felt the soft mortal compress as she pinched her between two fingers, lifting her out of the container and bringing the screaming woman up to her eye.
“Eight? They must be really small spawn to all fit inside this one supple snack.” the soft mortal’s pained writhing and screaming gave her a small twang of sympathy as she rolled her around between her digits. Before the uncomfortable feeling in her gut could grow, Zanna slid the bulbous woman into her mouth. The salty supple morsel immediately began to struggle on her tongue; the flavour of her fear made Zanna moan lightly, the niggle of sympathy evaporating as she sucked on her favourite snack.
“Yes, mistress, the spawn will be small at first. They will need time to grow. Maybe I could tempt you with some nice tasty men instead of the first harvest?” Vin offered pleadingly, realising the danger of her mistresses appetite. She could wipe out the first group of new humans before they were even born if she took a liking to these women. The audible squelch made her shudder slightly as her mistress finally started to chew her food.
“Mmm, certainly juicy, a weird crunch and a funny texture...it is a unique snack, although not as...potent as the normal males, it’s a bit watery.” Zanna finally decided as she ran her tongue around her mouth after swallowing her food. Reaching over to Vin, she stroked her worried overseers head and rubbed her behind her ears as one would a pet. “Don’t worry. I just had to see what they tasted like. I don’t want to interfere with your fine breeding efforts.”
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Ceresa pushed the new transparent glass containers into place. She worked with Tia to develop a more sterile environment for the new spawns to be monitored. In her human life, she had worked with children but never had any of her own. Her human life felt like so long ago already. Her fingers traced across her waistline, the hundred or so small men tied together into a thin belt. The only garment she wore, and it screamed at her as she ran her fingertip across it. “I could have been like you...insignificant..a possession for something greater…” she smirked, but she was the one wearing them.
“Overseers, it has started. The first of the breeding cows has expelled her brood.” Tia’s voice echoed through her mind as she snapped from her reverie. Ceri quickly placed the lid onto her new glass boxes and turned for the door.
“Tia, Bring the nursery box to a reasonable temperature and flood it with the new nutrition and sedation vapours; these spawns can get noisy if not correctly sedated.” Ceri had given the best instruction she could from her limited experience. She quickly weaved some of her new basic magic around her hand and brought it behind her head, neatening her hair into a tight long braid as she entered the main chamber. She couldn’t see it but felt better regardless as she carefully kneeled next to Vanessa, their excitable mistress transfixed on the box of birthing humans. “How is Tia handling the separations?” she whispered to Vin.
“With Cruelty, we may have to find a more humane method. Jagged spikes severing the cords and steep slides may be doing more harm than good.” Vanessa kept her head bowed, but her eyes were fixed on the screaming humans as the ground cut their offspring free and took them away, leaving broken women scattered around the container.
“Looks like a lot of them are not surviving the process; I thought the plan was to reuse the proven ones?” Ceri’s tone was laced with concern as she placed her hand on Vin’s knee.
“That was the plan, and we may have to rethink the easy approach to improve the yield.” Vanessa’s cold, calculating voice proved her dedication to results over the horror taking place before the three large women.
“I mean...should we not make them more comfortable and stuff so that they can go for a second round?” Ceri said, realising her concern for the women contained more empathy than perhaps it should have. Vin’s eyes shifted and locked onto her.
“Comfortable? We are mass-producing food, not raising pets. Honestly, Ceri, you have a bunch of men hanging from your hips; make them more comfortable.” Vin’s scolding words struck hard, but worse was that Zanna was now also staring at her.
“Overseer Vin, please see the spawn are surviving this...event.” Zanna declared as she waved her hand over the box of screaming women. “Ceresa, Go to my chambers and wait for me.” The demonesses smile was gone; there was no amusement in her cold tone. The stillness in the air was palpable, the small screams of pain the only sounds to be heard as the three women lingered a moment before surging into motion.
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Zanna tipped the remaining few men from her snack bowl onto the floor next to her feet as she wriggled her toes in anticipation. She wanted to let Ceri stew in thought for a while before disciplining her. The five men climbed to their feet as Zanna sat back up. “Okay, there are four of you, and my foot has four spaces between my toes. One man in between each of my toes, the last one gets stepped on.” She cooed as she spread her toes out before the group. The rushed tumbling that followed made her giggle as three men quickly found their places, the other two fighting to get between her small and fourth toes. “Ahh, I love these little games we play…” she sighed as one of the men dived between her toes, getting stuck upside down as she gently scrunched her toes. “Guess you lose, little guy…” she whispered, chewing her lip, slowly raising the foot, her scrunched toes causing its prisoners to scream in pain. Her slender red foot quickly eclipsed the small fleeing figure. Zanna took her time, slowly brushed her sole over his head, knocking him down. “No chance...no hope…” she moaned to herself as she tightened her toes, the small prisoners bursting into mulch as she lowered her sole down onto the final victim. “Powerless..” the thoughts that played through her mind vocalised as she savoured this moment, one of many such moments recently.
The air outside the farm was refreshingly warm as Zanna took flight, dragging her toes through a nearby magma flow to cleanse the mortal from them. Her mountainside palace came into view as she schooled a happy mood into a stern expression. Ceresa needed to be kept in check. Zanna had to appear at least serious, even if she wasn’t really upset.
“Mistress, Overseer Vin reports that from the 119 women, They created 510 spawns. Vin informs me that this is an incredible success even if more than half of the women did not survive the process.” Tia’s voice entered her mind as she folded her wings away. Zanna chewed her tongue as she thought about it; these tiny, powerless creatures could create more of themselves in such a short time.
“I take it back, Tia. I understand how creatures able to replicate so fast could be a virus to your kind...I am pleasantly surprised for my own sake, but I can see how Terra must feel. Please reach out to Terra and offer more extreme intervention to get her condition under control.” Zanna offered, her mind trying to comprehend the scale of the problem Terra must be facing if this was her result with only one hundred breeders.
“Do I have permission to send an envoy to visit my sister and observe the extent of the damage?” Tia hesitantly asked.
“An envoy? Like a part of yourself?” Zanna stopped in confusion at the request of the planet.
“I have been studying the humans, and They are simple constructions. I think I could make a small avatar to send back through the rift. It would grant me a stronger connection to my sister planet, and I would be able to assess her condition.” Tia’s proud voice dripped with hope as Zanna smirked.
“Request acknowledged. Keep working with Vin while I ponder it.” The demoness offered casually as her eyes focused on the door to her bedroom and the terrified slave she sensed inside.
Zanna’s room was comfortable, colourful and relaxing. The world was hers, but her bedroom was where she came to feel really at home. Ceri was almost cowering on her knees in silence as she entered, placing her bare feet in front of the woman. Zanna tapped her foot once, and Ceri immediately fell onto it, kissing her toes with fervent devotion. “Good girl,” she stated as she took a moment to enjoy her slave’s lips moving across her toes.
“Thank you, Mistress, and I apologise, Mistress. Forgive me, Mistress.” Ceri spoke each word between a quick kiss as she moved across Zanna’s toes.
“It seems to me we have a problem, and I don’t want my overseers getting attached to my food. I would...stomp out...such emotions before they could bloom.” Zanna offers with a sneering tone. She lifted her foot quickly and kicked Ceresa under the chin, flipping her roughly onto her back. One fluid motion later, Zanna sat on Ceri’s sternum, her nude form trapping her slave between her thighs. “I gave you everything. I could take it just as easily...easier, in fact.”
“Please, Mistress. It was a slip of the tongue; I have no feelings for the humans; they are food, nothing more. Please!” Ceri was clearly terrified as Zanna placed a finger on her nose.
“I would have you prove it….” Zanna declared as she gestured towards a small box next to her bed. The box drifted slowly into her hands as she excitedly popped the lid open. The collection of men inside barely stirred as she realised they were almost expired. “These are worthless…” she whined as she tipped them onto Ceri’s face. The small men bounced and rolled from the slaves pretty features before hitting the ground. “New plan…You will go with Tia and bring back some young, supple, innocent specimens to enjoy, a group of perfectly lovable personalities for me to snuff out. Tia will watch you, and should she declare you even slightly empathetic...well...I’ll give you to Vin as a toy.” Zanna slid down and rolled her body forward, smothering Ceri’s mouse and nose under her nethers. “This test will require the return of gift for now…” she declared as she wriggled and smothered panicked slave.
“Mmmm! Mmm! Mmmmmmmm!” Ceresa’s muffled begging fell silent as Zanna felt herself absorb the shared power back into herself through her womanhood. Her nethers slapped into the stone floor as Ceresa shrank back down to human scale, her massive pussy engulfing her as it landed on top of her tiny form. The barely conscious humans that had scattered around her overseers formerly large face splattered against her thighs as she descended.
“Heh, I feel you….” Zanna whispered as she slid her finger along her netherlips, finding the kicking legs of Ceri. One firm press and she vanished into her moist cavern, sending tingles throughout her body. “Mmm. Tia, Prepare your avatar. You can take Ceri to Terra with you.”
“Thank you, mistress! It would be my pleasure to administer this test for you!” The planet happily responded.
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Vanessa sorted the new spawns into groups; watching the tiny specks, it was difficult to view them as anything more than flecks of dust under her fingertips. Still, they seemed alive and would soon grow into the first generation of farmed humans. “Tia, you need to hold them like this for three human cycles; that should give us some time to figure out how we are going to teach them to speak. They do not need real education but our Mistress isn’t going to like it if she cant torment her snacks.” Vin slid the tray of micro spawn into the transparent rack and reached for the next. “Okay, let’s induce the next group. We’ll have to refine the process as not to kill so many of the fertile females. I was wondering if you design the chamber in a way where we could bypass natural birth and have them drop them all out together, then we could heal the wound?”
“Heal the wound? You would have me waste precious healing magic on these parasites?” Tie’s annoyed voice reverberated through Vin’s mind and the chamber around her. Vin sighed as she thought about it further.
“Okay, if the ‘parasite’ drops five or more spawn, you ‘waste’ the healing magic; they are clearly the more valuable breeders, the rest you can mulch down into nutrition vapour. Sound fair?” Vin shrugged as she wandered back into the birthing chambers, Tia’s shaping slowly shifting to turn all of the females over onto their stomachs. Vin caught herself touching her navel as a small tingle of guilt crawled up her spine. ‘They are just food…’ she reminded herself as the intense screaming grew louder.
“Overseer Vanessa, this new method produced 600 surviving spawn from 120 breeders. Thirty-five breeders qualified for healing.” Tia’s voice sounded satisfied with the results.
“So fewer survivors, but we can assure the quality of the survivors is better...I suppose that will do, and maybe we could heal them from four spawns? How many would have survived then?” Vin asked curiously as she manually plucked out the freshly healed survivors.
“If I had healed those with four, we have 85 survivors.” Tia offered casually. The light sound of grinding stones replaced the screams as she quickly mulched the ones previously agreed before Vin changed her mind.
“That’s a much higher survival rate and still good fertility, Let’s do four from the next batch, and before I forget, once you harvest Linda, that bratty bitch from batch seven, heal her and keep her for me.” Vanessa grinned as she passed her gaze over the next few birthing boxes. One of them held some fun for her.