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You....

Come on, I'm laying here flat on my back, waiting for you to kill me. What do you need? An engraved invitation?

(Why would she suddenly surrender so easily...?)

...Whatever trick you're trying to pull, I'm not falling for it.

Killing you isn't the answer. I'll take you back to Rhodes Island for interrogation.

Nah.

You have to kill me, now. Or have one of those guys do it. That's what they wanted to do anyway, right?

Fire!

Wait!

Ah, sweet relief at last...

You said you wanted to know the truth, li'l Lava. So listen up. The reason I attacked the city is——

Lungmen's...

Hot peppers... aren't... spicy... enough...

Don't get it? That sucks.... Goodbye....

Nice... knowing you...

Be careful, she may still have some tricks up her sleeve.

No. She doesn't.

Shit——

We've been played.

What?

Her body... it's... gone?

She created an illusion of herself with the tremendous heat of the blast, and we——

Let her get away.

After all that effort, all that sacrifice, we let her get away!

Well, yeah. But it would be super lame if I just ran off, wouldn't it?

Huh?

I suddenly came up with a way better idea. Do you remember when I talked about making a big monster out of the whole city?

W- what?

The city... it's rising... what are you doing?!

You really think I was just hanging out there all that time? Of course I had to make myself a satisfying monster.

By the way, li'l Lava, you needed me to save your life in our little kerfuffle back there? You're not gonna make it through this one. Not by a longshot.

I'll have you try to kill my monster. Just maybe you humans have the power to contain its madness these days.

Ah, let's call it the Dark Devastator, a monster crafted with the matter and heat of an entire city. That's sexy enough to satisfy.

If you guys can't handle a fella like this, well... Sooner or later, someone else would've come along and done you in. My brothers and sisters aren't really the merciful type.

Too bad, li'l Lava.

We might not get to eat hot pot together.

'Zhendang Kongling, Bayin Siqi——'

Wait, wait wait! Don't just start with the mystical incantations in weird languages! That's not how this goes!

Why?

How am I supposed to wrap this up?

What? I'm the main villain. The audience expects me to do something awesome.

Not like this!

...I'm begging you. Were you ad libbing those lines back there? They didn't make any sense.

I can't follow this at all. What happened to the zombie horde attacking Lungmen?

Trust me. I watch like a hundred Columbian B-movies a year. They make bank.

But this is already way too messed up... Is this your one-woman show? All you're doing is monologuing. Where's everybody else?

Who cares? I'm the main character, aren't I?

I thought I was the main character? And the director, for that matter?!

Hey, li'l Lava, we're friends, aren't we? You're talking like you being the director means you get to boss me around.

No, no, that's not what I meant——

——And a two-step firecracker? Is there a reason it has to be a two-step?

I really hate the sound of firecrackers. They bring back nasty memories.

Like yesterday when Spot spooked me with one and I spilled soda on myself.

And what's with this giant monster at the end? How are we supposed to afford that?

It's wicked cool.

It's. Not. Cool!

Tsk, tsk, tsk, li'l Lava, think about it. What kind of movie are we making here?

Huge monsters, stripped of the constraints of modern society, reveling in their savagery——It's that call of the wild that city folk today are missing!

By the way, the actors you picked suck. They're all so stiff.

We should've gone with these ones... Here, check this file, what's her name? Blaze? And this one, Emperor?

Hey! This FEater is a movie star! What's with you just picking a bunch of Lungmenite nobodies? Some kind of avant-garde realism?

Hold on, now that I look at these, there's some classified records in here...?

You can't ever let my sis——you can't ever let that doctor know! Or we're done for!

Why are you so afraid of her? All right, all right. Let's just change up the ending a bit...

We're running out of time, and you're still obsessed with cultivating humans? Cultivating humans who can stop us?

...Wait. Nian, what are you doing?

Your breath is quickening, your consciousness is shaking... What do you see?

...Strange, did they actually make it...?

Huh? You're asking me?

How should I know? I went to Yan a long, long time ago and spread a fun little rumor along the way.

What, a few humans know your weakness and you can't fight anymore? Who put that thought in your head?

Huh? A two-step firecracker? You got killed by a firecracker?

Hahahahaha! Hey! I wish I could have been there. I'd have memorialized your defeat with the most perfect strokes——

I'm glad you finally got to eat crow.

...Lungmen.

I love this city. It has such chaotic struggles in it that just leap off the page. The perfect hunting ground.

Ahh, but it's not your turn.

I'm so tired of this cycle of sleeping and waking.

It's time to quench the fires of this world.

——ANCIENT FORGE 2——

——COMING SOON——

Wait wait wait!!!

What is it this time?

Who's that? Why do they want to eat people? Why the hell is there a sequel?

You don't think giant monsters that eat people and fight weak humans will sell?

W- well, maybe...

All you need is words like 'fire', 'slaughter', 'cycle', and a little bitterness, a little darker lighting, a little more camera shake, a little more blood, and you've got a picture!

It's called spectacle. We're creating the most profitable entertainment product in all of Terra right here!

Nope, that wasn't the deal. We agreed we're making a New Year's movie.

And that's your sister, isn't it?! I can't believe you're making a spectacle of your own little sister!

She deserves it. She put ice cream in my hot pot and dumped all my chili sauce.

I really don't get what you two got going on.

Glass houses. What's the deal with you and your sister? Do you like, like her or do you hate her or what?

Agh!!! We're not talking about this! I'm going back to fix all my lines!

And hurry up and put those files back before Amiya finds out! Where did you get them anyway?

I snuck a peek a while back and recorded them. My powers come in handy like that.

Really listen to me this time, or else you'll end up.... I don't even want to think about how you'll end up.

Seriously! Make sure you put them back!

All right. Take your time. I can't wait to see your new script, director!

Sigh.