"Are those luminescent bacteria poisonous?" Lea whispered.

Zero shook his head. "If you look closely, not all the moles are dead."

Sure enough, only a portion of the moles had died, but some of them were still alive from the luminescent bacteria that had stained their bodies and were still gnawing on their plump mycorrhiza. After a hearty meal, they slowly walked around, ignoring the corpses of their own kind. After being eaten by the giant rats, the trunk of the ...