Soon! None! Soon! One! Soon! None!

—Words of the Last-survivor before dying of parasitic infection of the six who had survived the incident, but lost their mind.

My world turned upside down and darkness swept me. I experienced weightlessness for a second, a feeling similar to the sensation of falling. The chamber disappeared behind me and, my body shot at a blisteringly unreal pace toward some distant place. In the end, I was dumped into a wide and open tunnel, which was dark, silent and airy. Everything happened in an instant; like an explosion, an expanding ring of light left my body, replacing the viscous darkness up to a certain radius before fading away, dipping me back into a world of black.

The sickness associated with transportation had my head spinning for a brief moment, and then I was doing great again. I wasn’t missing anything or anyone. The ring of light had been there for a reason. Everyone was around; Genma and Dark a few paces to my left and the rest behind me. As for David, I could feel his piercing gaze on my back. But he didn’t speak. He didn’t create a commotion. He watched me, angry and seething, his mandibles gaping. Then, he calmed. “Converge around my voice!” He finally ordered.

“It’s too dark, there are no pheromones in the air, and I can’t see.” I heard Pyro sputter nonchalantly, the sound of him walking toward David being thoughtlessly loud. Other's comments soon followed, bringing madness into the deafness of our surroundings.

“Where are we?”

“I don’t know? Does anyone have any clue? Jack . . .”

“The ground is solid. Whoa!”

Meanwhile, something moved further down the tunnel, creating a crunching sound and gaining my attention. “Hurry—” I said looking with sight, and though the darkness interfered, the skill brought to light something woeful. My sensitive hearing located it almost four meters from us, though I couldn’t accurately pinpoint its location or its make. I knew my companions wouldn’t be able to see lest it neared us —their visions being not even a fraction of my sight— so I conjured a light ball. The result was a radiating globe about the size of Pyro’s head instantly appearing above my antennas, lighting my surroundings and companions in a stable and soothing glow. The light ball took 9 mana points, but it hovered above me without any further assistance and brought to light almost a meter of the ground around us. Unfortunately, its radiance also brought to light the horrible makeup of the tunnel we occupied.

The tunnel walls were made up of severed ant heads stacked one over another, their open mandibles jutting out toward the hollow we occupied, and eyes empty sockets which still retained in detail the horrors dealt too them in life. The ghastly sight disturbed me truly. It enraged us all.

“How can such a horrible place exist?” Genma vocalized his distress while my fury fuelled senses picked our visitor coming dangerously near us. It pierced through the shadowed region and entered the scrutiny of my light, becoming visible to us all. It was none other than an ant with jet black body, green legs, and red face. It was agitated about something, maybe by our presence. Its mandibles were long and sharp, almost similar to mine, but they didn’t have that luster, that sharp feeling to them. This ant of the unknown variant stood at the border of lightened zone, refusing to come any closer, or act.

David asked, “What are you? What is this place? And what do you want?” and it answered with a stare. This ant behaved with such similarity to the parasite-infected ants of the past that I activated mana sense right away to remove my doubt and found its body glowing in the yellow of earth, which wouldn’t have been possible had it been infected. It had mana, meaning it wasn’t dead, but there was something else. Behind it, there were more glows of concentrated mana, some small, other rich and strong. It wasn’t alone.

And they were coming!

“Get ready!” I barked, and the glowing blobs of mana entered the range of my sensitive hearing, closing the distance between us at a frightening pace. “He isn’t alone!”

“How many are there?” David asked urgently, worried, yet doing an excellent job of masking his dread. He had voluntarily walked into this, sure, but who isn’t afraid of death?

He wasn’t the only one worried though. The things worrying him had us all nervous. The bugs and the caterpillars, twenty of them would be the death of us all. I had fought two ladybugs alone, but I hadn’t fared well against them. To fight twenty . . . but no one complained. Everyone looked ready to die.

“I don’t know.” I blankly spat back, closely keeping my eyes and senses on our approaching enemies. “There could be as many as twenty or even more.” However, it didn’t take me long to figure out what we were up against. “They are not bugs! I repeat. They are not bugs!” I yelled right after, breathing some life back into my companions. Their arching backs straightened once again.

“Well, well, that’s exactly the kind of welcome I like.” Pyro mocked, conjuring a flickering ball of fire above his head.

“Should I go, check them out?” Dark asked next, no longer silently waiting in the back with his tentacles out, securing the perimeter for our last stand.

David chided them, aggressively flaunting his antennas, and I bellowed a warning as tens of shapes —big and small— came tearing through the veil of shadows and into the lighted region, “Here they—” however, were the only words that I said, for something unexpected had happened. I saw Billy among the crazed ants; his body bulkier than the last I had seen him.

“I’ll handle the first wave.” Someone said, and I quickly refused. “They are from the farm!” I bellowed, calling worried responses from my companions. We had endangered our lives to save them! Why were they attacking?

“Are you sure?” David questioned back but didn‘t drop his guard, and neither did the others. They were ready to slaughter, if it needed be. I understood they were not in the position to hesitate; the fight was being brought to them. But . . . it was Billy. His presence in the opposite group alone meant trouble. We were possibly up against those we were sent to rescue. It was a disaster, something none had anticipated. We all had gotten so engrossed in gaining the best deal of honeydew that we had completely forgotten the central problem. Why did the bugs take the soldiers? Had we made any contingency plans we could have acted according to the situation, but with no real plans in place, we acted according to the only plan.

Our enemies saw us for what we were, not who we were and had attacked. We, in response, reacted similarly.

“Bind them!” David ordered. His orders were for me and Dark, who instantly rushed forward. He could have disappeared into the shadows, was the option available, but my light ball had left none around. It was a reasonable response from David, to bind rather than to kill. Seeing Dark already in action I couldn’t hesitate any longer and rushed off myself. However, I went straight for Billy. I had come for one objective, to save him; my mind refused to leave him alone. Dark was using his opponent’s shadows to bind them, but the bind was proving to be too weak, for none was sticking. The ants in response attacked him wildly, like beasts. None worried about their health or strategies; they rushed in waves and tried to drown Dark! But he held his own against them. I moved with the shock wave from rhythmic quake pushing my opponents out of my way. For each step I took, at least three of my opponents would get blasted away, only to stand back up and rush at me again, leading to a strong concentration of bodies between me and Billy.

Slowly, their numbers rose to the fifties, with most of them concentrated around me, and Billy nowhere to be seen. I tried roots, but there were no plans for it to work, and sculpting-mana ropes mid-fight proved to be too laborious a work for me to repeat without stopping.

I had already seen many farm soldiers mixed in the lot, not easily distinguishable from the rest, but still identifiable thanks to my photogenic memory and amazing sight. This information only made it harder for me to physically invest myself in the task. Do I only save Billy? What about the rest? My thoughts provoked. It wasn’t much later when our orders changed.

“Let’s go!” Dark returned, brushing me with a cold tentacle, surprising me. I turned and frowned. David was planning on a confrontation and had made Genma create a barrier: similar to the one of the past, but larger.

“Come back!” David urged; his whole body taut in tension. The barrier still retained a single opening from which Dark slipped into. It was slowly shrinking however, closing the vulnerability. I looked back at the wave of ants. None of them looked hurt, for I hadn’t attacked them with such intentions. Billy was still among them somewhere. It won’t be wrong to say I was becoming anxious. What if I kill them? The thought scared me so much that I rushed back to the safety of the barrier. It seemed Genma could control the barrier in any way possible because the opening remained until I passed through, after which it quickly closed. The barrier, however, wasn’t a globe; rather had been fashioned as a see-through blanket of blue, which divided the tunnel in two.

It wasn’t much later when the first from the mass of ants collided with the barrier, flashing a fading yellowish ripple outwards from the impact. A second later the rest arrived and the barrier was outrun. Some bit, others head-butted and rammed their whole bodies into the shimmering wall of blue, creating a festival of glowing ripples. It was only when David shook me did I come to the realization: There is no one to save. Only five seconds, the barriers held for only five seconds before the first of cracks appeared on its surface.

“Jack . . . mana . . .” Genma forced out before he slinked back, unconscious. I took his place right after. I didn’t extract any of my companion’s mana —that would have been disastrous— rather opted to go for the natural mana and surprisingly found it saturating the whole tunnel. I threw meditation into the mix to relax my mind and found out that the cocktail of skills I was using had upped my mana extraction efficiency from 20% to 24% and my natural regeneration to 4 times the normal. My secondary mana bar filled at an astonishing rate, but still not fast enough. I bestowed the barrier with the extracted mana anyways. The sudden injection did stop the cracks from expanding, but I knew it wouldn’t hold for long. No matter how small, the damage was accumulative on the barrier, and even the hundred points of mana that I had bestowed to it wouldn’t have lasted long. “There are too many of them . . . the barrier won’t hold for long.” David didn’t waste time after my warning and came to a quick decision.

“We attack!” Two words and a life full of regrets. David's face was distorting; his antennas stiffening. Yet, I cried out. Not understanding that he was taking it upon himself to take us to safety. No bugs meant a chance at survival. We could take on the ants; they weren’t that dangerous. But to kill them all, just to save our lives—

“W-wait… they are our allies’ from the farm, they—”

“Didn’t I tell you?” He blared. “Everything we do is for the colony. Whether it is to give our lives; or in this case… taking some…”

His words felt so far away, so confusing. I couldn’t understand. It didn’t matter to David that he was trying to gorge a path of survival through the bodies of our own brothers. But it mattered to me. I thought I had it in me to become an explorer. Turns out, I was just an idiotic idealist who had no idea what it meant to be responsible for more than myself. I thought I understood, but I didn’t. I didn’t understand. So, when Pyro ignited a few ants touching the barriers I couldn’t take it anymore.

“No!” I cried out and unknowingly used a skill. It was not the cry full of hope and determination which the skill used was associated with, but desperation. A rancid and foul odor exploded out of me and filled the whole tunnel. My companions all fell to the ground, their eyes wide open and their bodies stiff. What have I done? I asked myself thinking them dead. The system then rung in my head, informing me of my deed.

{Required conditions have been met.}

{Your Fury has evolved into Rage unstoppable.}

{The negative effect of Fury and Anger no longer affects your wisdom and Intelligence.}

[2.5 points have been restored to your Wisdom.]

[2 points have been restored to your Intelligence.]

*****

{Your Rage has affected the skill war cry.}

{All intelligent beings around you have been paralyzed and stuck by the status effect: Fear, for the next ten minutes.}

{Fear: None affected can regenerate Health, mana or stamina, or move until the status effect remains.}

The barrier shuddered behind me, its glow quickly depleting. The scream had failed to stun the crazed ants on the other side of the barrier.

The next ten seconds passed very slowly. I felt so alone and lost. I had done it again. I had hurt my companions. First, my foolishness took Minnie’s life, now it was going to get us all killed. The poisonous thought gorged at my mind. The barrier was already cracking under the combined effort of our opponents. Were they really my opponents? I couldn’t think. I blankly stared at my companions sprawled on the ground, their eyes wide open, in fear, toward me.

The crazed ants rushed at the barrier with enhanced fervor, biting the light screen with their mandibles and crushing it with their antennas. Even Billy rushed at the barrier at one point and tried to get through it. He was so close, so near. I could have saved him; could have let the barrier break, take him and leave.

A crack snaked its way up the middle of the barrier with a loud shuddering sound. An ant —the biggest among them— got ready to charge at us. Would we have survived without the barrier? I surely would have, but I don’t know about the others. Time seemed to slow down for me as I saw the gigantic ant, at least thrice my size, charging toward the barrier in a craze, crushing everyone in its path. I saw Billy scratching the barrier with his mandibles. He no longer looked cheerful. His eyes were clouded; his body breaking at the joints. I stood in front of him on the opposite side of the barrier, but he didn’t recognize me. I made another war cry, this time with noble intentions, and its vibrations did what it was supposed to do. My teammates stood up right after, the effect of fear no longer keeping them stunned. But Billy kept trying to get through the barrier without stopping. The skill had no effect on him or the others. Either, whoever had turned him and the others into these mindless crazies had better skills than me or, Billy was no more. Either way . . . it was my last chance, my only chance at redemption.

I felt cold. I had entered the dungeon to save the kid, now I was going to kill him with my own hands.

‘Friends until they don’t attack you, huh? So what am I?’ the cursed thought impeded me, but I trudged through and used one of the skills I had slotted.

“What did you do?” David whispered behind me and the rest watched quietly as a whirl of light exploded above the ants on the other side of the crumbling barrier. The whirl rapidly expanded to a fifteen-centimeter radius above them and rained horror upon the lot without any warning. Stars fell like drops of rain obstructing our sight. Exploding light and their absolute numbers had me dazed, but it didn’t stop the sound of the ants dying from reaching our way. The barrier stopped shuddering moments after the stars started falling. I blankly watched until only a wet sloshing sound remained, at which point I woke from my daze and canceled the skill — my mana half depleted.

No one was left standing. Only shredded carcasses of previously healthy ants remained. There was not a single ant left with a complete body. In the mangled mess at my foot lay Billy’s torn head, his clouded eyes looking straight at me, questioning me.

Someone rubbed my back, but I couldn’t shake this horrible feeling which had me trembling. I had killed them all. I had chosen my team over them and sacrificed all of them to save our lives. That made me a murderer, a killer. I had killed many in the past, but for the first time, I wondered: Why am I even bothering with saving the colony when death comes to everyone?

There were no fires burning, but the air was filled with the repulsive odor of burning bodies and grief. I blamed myself for their death. The more I blamed myself, the colder I felt; until the dead bodies worried me no more. It wasn’t the resistances which made me forget, but something inside me changed that day.

“Don’t be sorry no more.” David’s calm voice penetrated into my thoughts. “I know it must be difficult. But you can’t blame yourself for this. You are not the one responsible. If you want to blame someone, blame the one who had them turned. Blame the shade. Blame the world, for it has made us so helpless. But don’t blame yourself. Blame me instead, for I couldn’t even do the work of a leader.”

“No.” I refused, denying his consideration. “You have your responsibilities. True. But this was my choice. Mine and mine alone. You can’t take that away from me. As for the one who’s responsible—” I said, holding Billy’s head. “Everything will be returned multifold in due time.” And sunk into the world of souls leaving the physical behind to see through Billy’s eyes what had really perspired after he was taken.