Celestia stepped through the portal and saw the thing that was devouring the Earth. The Black Tide stretched away like a dull black sea. The rubbery mass of it rippled randomly, disturbingly. Surrounding what the humans called the "biomass", which was the main mass of the Tide, was the "nano-ring", a circle of pure jet black, perhaps a tenth of a mile in width, bubbling and churning as it devoured the rock surrounding the Tide itself, adding more and more material to the mass behind it. 