A name long whispered in sailors’ legends — a creature said to swallow ships whole in the black of a storm. For centuries, it was hearsay, a phantom blamed when wreckage vanished without a trace. But now, the myth has started to look real.
The Bell Maw is among the largest discovered invertebrates on Installation Infinity Horizon. Its original planet was Kala Paani, a deep-ocean world that orbited the star that entered supernova and became the Crab Nebula. Before the cataclysm, a small team of Bea’viskar xeno-biologists evacuated several marine specimens to Infinity Horizon for study.
From the tip of its trailing filaments to the dome of its bell, it can reach lengths of over 300 feet. The bell itself may stretch 55 feet across, capable of enveloping whole schools of fish or cephalopods and even small lumbering leviathans.
Its body is soft, translucent, and almost formless – a drifting veil of tissue held together by faint bioluminescent threads. It has no bones, no organs, no brain, only a network of electrical impulses guiding its rhythm. The entire interior of the bell functions as a digestive chamber, lined with countless cilia that release slow-acting enzymes.
The Still Hunter
Unlike most predators, the Bell Maw does not pursue its prey. Rather, it simply waits. The prey comes to it.
It suspends itself vertically within trench corridors, where the water moves sluggishly and light never reaches. Its body glows faintly –  slow pulses of blue and violet that flicker like distant ventlight. This glow draws curious creatures closer, mistaking it for a harmless patch of plankton bloom.
But the moment contact is made, the trap closes.
The bell contracts with astonishing speed, folding inward and pulling the prey into its hollow core. Inside, neurotoxins paralyze movement, and digestion begins – a process that may last for days. When finished, the Bell Maw expels what remains: bones, shells, or debris, drifting away like pale snow.
The Eternal Drift
These giants are often found near nutrient-rich trenches and volcanic vents, where life is dense yet fleeting. Their movement is subtle: slow pulses of their bell allowing gentle repositioning along the current. Many remain anchored to the same region for centuries, drifting only when the water grows poor.
No natural predators are known of a fully grown specimen. Once mature, the Bell Maw reigns unchallenged in its domain. Its young begin as tiny larvae, no larger than a thumbprint, floating freely for decades before settling into the deep. There, they grow – imperceptibly at first – until they become silent monuments of the abyss.
 Role in the Deep
In the trench ecosystem, the Bell Maw serves as both hunter and recycler. It clears the waters of overabundant life, then releases nutrients back into the current through decomposition. To nearby species, it is both threat and necessity: a force as natural as the tide itself.
Some researchers speculate that the Bell Maw may not be a single creature, but a colonial organism, much like siphonophores – a collection of specialized units working in perfect harmony. Whether this represents primitive intelligence or pure instinct remains unknown.
Closing Observation
Seen from a distance, a mature Bell Maw drifts like a cathedral of light in the darkness: vast, silent, and patient beyond imagination.
This entry was made by Artnoob100