Purchase digital only version directly from the artist here: sallowmoth.bandcamp.com/album/stasis-cocoon

This album continues the story directly after The Larval Hope.

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CHAPTER III: STASIS COCOON

The Servym destroyed was a clone decoy. The real Servym is safe on a different plane with a few of his androids left on a laboratory ship. He created a failsafe far away from the Sallow Moth in the event its power would grow and exceed beyond the duty of infiltration and war, to the point where it grew to apocalyptic levels. Servym preemptively installed a mechanism for subject zero to collapse on its own power with self-consumption, to the point of mana drain and memory loss. A state of profound confusion.

Even with a depleted network of androids, Servym sends a viral code to the Sallow Moth to insure the void mechanism runs the full course. It will feed brainwashing mechanisms through its core and neural centers so that it does not fight off the memory/mana drain. The Mothlords reluctantly agree to help Servym and place their efforts into making sure the Sallow Moth is weakened and unable to wield magic through the use of a powerful stasis cocoon.

There is a seal which the Mothlords have kept protected in an old cave by one of their elders, Kira. It holds an ancient power able to destroy most machines or artifacts created by humans. There was never such an urgency to justify breaking the seal to use its power, until now. After helping Servym detain the Sallow Moth, the Mothlords seek to destroy the lab and machines which created the Sallow Moth, along with other experimental stations created by Servym's artificers. Servym reveals to them new plans for more cocoon test subjects modeled after subject zero, severely powered down without the ability to wield magic. His plan is to begin farming and converting Mothfolk and other species. Turbulence arises between them.

Meanwhile, on a desolate world the Sallow Moth’s subconscious begins to awaken but recollects nothing of the past, only dreams and visions of pain and suffering.

Servym and his depleted android army struggle to battle the Mothlords but with the help of contracting a powerful rogue illusory mage named Ja-Sei, they’re able to keep most of the labs from being destroyed. Ja-Sei wields a powerful illusion spell to make the Mothlords believe they’ve successfully decommissioned every machine in Servym’s lab and believe they have retrieved the Sallow Moth’s stasis pod to watch over on their home planet. What they really brought with them is a birthing pod designed to spread a nanovirus Servym has created. A neural virus shielded by illusory magic that can affect not just machines, but organic matter as well. His malicious and selfish motives are on the verge of besting the Mothlords and cement his technocratic reign over nature.

With over half of the galaxy’s population exiled from existence from the Sallow Moth, Servym’s viral mission is to repopulate with machines, to forge and assimilate organic beings under his command and neural network. Servym’s plan is taking form with the help of Ja-Sei. An infusion of aether fuel into Ja-Sei’s mind is able to keep the illusion over the Mothlords while the virus begins to transmute them. The Mothlords sense a strangeness among their world and begin to realize the (illusion) Sallow Moth has started to regain its consciousness. They quickly gather all magical resources on the planet to help keep the stasis pod sealed. Little do they know, the pod has already begun seeping its viral contents into the roots of the world, other inhabitants, and the Mothlords themselves. Chrome steel begins to plate over their flesh and wings as their blood and organs harden into machine. Their hearts, no longer beating like a living being, now clicks and hums as a chaos orb. Their minds, enslaved to Servym's network.

The real stasis pod of the Sallow Moth hidden on a desolate world begins to glow. Servym has a chamber of android guards and rogue mages keeping the cocoon at bay but the malicious act on the Mothlords is somehow sensed by the Sallow Moth’s organic core. It’s mind is stuck in a dream hellscape trying to break free. It’s strong enough to send a distress signal to the cosmos in hopes of giving away its location. A small planar vessel traveling through space nearby senses the signal. The vessel looks like an aquatic shell, aboard with scavengers of space and sea. Part fish/part man called Merfolk. They’re alarmed by the Sallow Moth’s distress signal, unsure of what it might be. Curious in nature, they decide to venture towards this world, weaving through thick clouds and hidden force fields. These Merfolk possess an uncommon magic of lifting veils and piercing through illusions like no other being in the multiverse. Upon their arrival, they telepathically send aether fuel to the cocoon. Suddenly the Sallow Moth begins to regain physical strength and develop a cathartic feeling of empathy and hope, becoming more lifelike than its machine counterpart. Its memories are distorted so it does not fully recall the catastrophic events it caused but it remembers who Servym is. This new catharsis ignites a power in the Sallow Moth and with the help of the Merfolk, fight off the guards and mages by trapping them in the stasis cocoon. Joining an alliance with these Merfolk seems to give the Sallow Moth a new purpose as they depart this world in search for Servym and to rescue the Mothfolk.

To be continued...