The whole forest quieted along with the monster’s cry. Their apex predator, the Arachnid Herald, or better known as the Elsie, has somehow died. For whatever reason, something was able to kill this terrifying beast, and trumped over its formerly insurmountable strength.

Was it their guardian, the Wind Spirit Sylph? No, they all know how close the two powerful beings are. As far as they know, Sylph held the ancient monster as close as her pet and had never even raised her voice to it. Besides, if they did fight, everyone would have been able to see the tiny fairy’s magic from anywhere. Since there weren’t any gigantic tornadoes and compressed air orbs flying around, that couldn’t be it.

Then that left them with the only possible answer. Something else killed the Arachnid Herald. Something far stronger, ruthless, and frightening… and the very idea of this something even existing terrified them to their core.

It terrified them so much, that these so-called monsters, feared for their cruelty and savagery, ran away from their very home.

All kinds of creatures-- from the mindless green slimes to the intelligent and powerful wolves-- was left scurrying away from the center of the forest, from Yggdrasil. The very idea of that something chasing them fueled their nightmare-filled minds. The instinct of avoiding danger, like how normal slimes avoid bodies of water like the plague, was the only thing they needed to know everything.

They will die if they stop. So they ran, and ran, and ran…

Except for one tiny little fairy. A fairy full of hatred and anger; a fairy full of intent to kill.

After finally reaching Stage IV, he received , which granted him the ability to ‘rotate’ his three circular rows of teeth. It allowed him to bite through the monster’s hard flesh with ease. It honestly felt harder than a boulder, and yet with this new ability, he plowed through it like it was paper.

In comparison, he can probably bite through boulders with little to no effort now. Maybe he can use it to dig or something. But then, he’d have to eat dirt and stone... and dirt doesn’t taste good. Probably a bad idea.

Instead of eating useless things, he’d rather eat this fine meat below him. Maybe he can also use more for a better test drive.

“Buru~.” sounds like a plan.

He jumped back inside the hole he made and dug through another layer of meat. He felt like a mole digging through the earth-- a tasty, DNA-filled earth. Even bones were reduced to splinters when he passed through them, and sometimes he’d go straight outside as he doesn’t know if he was already at the edge of its body or not.

Still, even with this ability, he guessed that he’d take a while before he can finish it, and receive its DNA. This spider is really big, even towering over the roots of Yggdrasil. And it’s barely even noon, so maybe before night time?

For now, he’ll just enjoy the sweet taste of his victo--

A sound of the air being sliced over, then an explosion.

Everything happened so fast. He was just about to enter the monster’s body again, but then a giant crescent wave of condensed air exploded near him. The sheer force of the collision alone wrecked the surrounding land, and the following explosion of dust and gust sent several trees flying on the sky along with him.

He dully landed on a random spot in the forest, his body broken and unmoving all over once again. That single attack was enough to incapacitate his newly evolved body like it was nothing. Sparing a side glance later, he noticed how there’s suddenly a 500 kilometer-wide crater where he once was, with the spider’s corpse nowhere in sight. It must have been flung somewhere, too.

He… doesn’t know what’s happening. All he knows is that a tiny fly is hovering right above him, and it’s speaking gibberish language that’s similar to those humans from before. It looked a lot more harmless than the spider, but, somehow…

The aura it gives off is making him shiver.

“What have you done, you pest?!”

This annoying thing… it killed her pet! It killed Elsie!

At first, Sylph couldn’t believe it. Elsie is by no means a pushover. She’s the Arachnid Herald, one of the few ancient monsters still living to these days. She’s, to the very essence, a powerful creature.

And yet this, this unknown garbage, killed her. As soon as Sylph flew to the direction of Elsie’s nest, she immediately saw the unmoving corpse of her dear pet. That moment, all Sylph saw was red, and mindlessly erased a fraction of the forest in a single blow.

If she’s really being honest though, she could care less for this god-damned forest. Only Yggdrasil itself mattered.

“You’re even more annoying than that stupid Demon Lord!” she flew around in circles, all the while bobbing her balled up hands up and down. “Things like you are the ones that I hate the most… I should have killed you the first time I heard about you.”

She abruptly stopped and looked over the alien’s crumpled figure. “I’ll fix that mistake now.”

Sylph raised a hand, a swirling ball of green energy floating up above it. Even without knowing anything, anyone could feel the sheer amount of mana emanating from that single orb.

It just goes to show how powerful guardians, and spirits, are.

“Die and stay dead!”

This tiny being clearly feels superior to that giant spider. The sheer amount of mana that he can feel from its body is frightening. Compared to that of those humans he met before, even including that girl who destroyed his ship, their powers would be laughable.

Compared to him, he must be beneath trash to this being.

He saw it raised its tiny hand, with his gaze stuck on that green glowing ball of energy above it. It’s going to kill him, but what can he do? Him being able to kill that spider was just a stroke of luck. How could he possibly hope to defeat something even stronger than that?

If he was just able to finish eating that spider, he could have gotten a huge amount of DNA, even possibly jumping him up to the first milestone of Red Fleshlings; Stage V. Then, he might have had a chance against this fly…

“Kuru…!” Little by little, their surrounding began to darken.

But that isn’t possible anymore. For all he knows, the corpse of that monster might still be flying on the sky right now. It could have also landed far far away from where he is. The possibility is limitless.

“Du… ru?”

Why is everything so dark all of a sudden? It couldn’t be possible that it’s already night time. See, the sun still up… there.

They both looked up, only to see a huge black mass right above them. It was falling at an incredible rate, and as it got closer, its appearance was slowly revealed.

Crash!

With a thunderous bang, the splattered remains of the giant spider laid unmoving on the ground, right on top of the dying alien. The tiny fly was able to quickly move out of the way, thus avoiding being crushed to death like the aforementioned monster.

“Z-Zuru…”

It really looks like this is his lucky day.

He still had stock food on his stomach from the bits of flesh he ate before, and some of the spider’s. He regenerated right when it crashed at him, thus also regenerating the injuries he got when it hit him. It required precision and a little bit of luck, but he managed to pull it off altogether with his newly evolved Brain. That’s how he avoided dying from being crushed.

This time, he’s going to avoid that death-incarnate fly.

He doesn’t have enough time to savor this fine meal anymore. He’ll have to resort to his more ‘savage’ instinct; the instinct to consume everything. And consume he will.

He opened up his mouth wide, activated his , then took a large chomp off of the spider.

Sylph watched in horror as a large toothed mouth appeared right below Elsie, most probably coming from that monster. Several questions popped out on her mind. How is it still alive from being crushed? It can grow that big? Did it just eat half of Elsie’s body in a matter of seconds?

Among all these questions, the one that stood out the most would probably be…

“What, are you?”