The crystalline pantry room M and the girls are in continues to shake as the wailing of the escaped beast continues to echoes from the outside. The screeching has not impeded and is actually getting stronger. Selica is trying her best to push the noises out, as the screeching reminds her of the sounds of mages dying during the test. Resurfacing horrible memories in such a nightmarish fashion can only turn bad.

“What is that thing M?” Ashlin shouts as she tries to pierce the wailing with a question.

“It’s one of the “tenants” of this place.” M surprisingly was able to pick up what Ashlin said. She places her hand over the chamber and the crystals around them start to harden, muting the noise from outside. “There”. The screeching is still prominent, but no longer unbearable. “If you’ve been looking around, there are other chambers aside from where we are and your room from earlier. Some of these chambers house some “undesirables” or “unwanted” things that other people have asked me to keep them here isolated.

”Is...is that safe?” Selica immediately asks. So we’re technically in a prison right now, and one of the inmates has escaped, she tells herself. “Shouldn’t we be worried??”

”Normally, yes. We should be worried, and I should kick you out of here immediately for your safety.” M immediately states, but instead of doing what she said, she is simply looking up as if assessing something. “But...for this case I think it would be better if we did the opposite.” M walks towards one of the walls and it slowly opens, revealing a familiar corridor they’ve been through. “I think the best course of action is to witness its final moments.” M then slowly walks towards the corridor before any of the girls respond.

Selica and her friends stand speechless. Aside from the screeching they’ve been hearing, everyone is silent and is questioning what they will do next.

“Should...should we follow her?” Gallian cautiously asks while still keeping her ears partially closed.

”Again, do we have a choice?” Selica asks again. “But seriously, if she wanted us harmed she would have done that already earlier.”

”We can’t say for certain, that’s for sure.” Ashlin answers. “But we can at least be confident that she won’t.” Ashlin starts walking towards the corridor. “Let’s go before we lose her.” The rest of the girls followed without another word.

The girls tagged behind M as they slowly crossed the crystalline corridor. Though the screeching hasn’t ceased, the thicker walls of the corridor seem to mute out the noise even for a little bit. Though when the girls are about half way through, the hallways begin to rumble, harder than it was from before.

”What’s going on?” Selica looks around, her vision begins to visibly shake as the rumble intensifies. She looks up as if to find the source of the rumbling and sees a huge slithering creature crawling above them with its centipede-like legs. She freezes at the sight as not only is the insectoid frame scares her, but its massive size makes it difficult for her to process what exactly she is looking at.

“Oh shit!” Gallian follows Selica’s eyes and she too witnessed the centipede-like creature crawling on top of them. But instead of being stricken in fear, she immediately screams and falls down to the floor. “I-Is t-that's-what I think-?” Gallian stutters as she shudders in fear.

Ashlin, on the other hand, simply looks up and stares at it in fascination. “Amazing.” Contrast to her friends, she seems to be more curious rather than afraid at what they’re seeing. “M! Is this the creature that got loose?” ”Why are you so calm, Ash?” Gallian shouts at her friend. “It could attack us at any moment!” She nervously watches in both in fear as the crawler skitters through the corridor. But instead of breaking the ceiling and attacking them, the skittering creature simply ignores them and moves forward.

“It won’t attack us.” M, hearing the screams of the girls, walks back to them. “It’s following a signal made by one of your...new neighbors if you want to call it that. It wouldn't have awakened if it wasn’t for that.” M helps Gallian stand up, who was still shaking. “You okay, girl? You seem awfully terrified.” ”I-I’m okay! And I’m acting rational, thank you very much!” Gallian immediately spats back. “My fear is rational and not because it’s...c-crawling. Ughhh.” She shivers when she said the word “crawling”.

M wickedly smiles as she nods at Gallian’s reasoning. “Sure, sure.” She looks at the rest of the girls. “Come, if I’m correct, we can see its final moments right inside your room.”

“Our room? You mean where we came from?” Selica asks.

M simply nods in approval and continues walking with the girls following suit.

It took the group a few minutes until M stopped in front of a wall and placed her hand on it. The wall slowly opens, revealing three bedrooms and a bunch of gear. They’re back to their original room. By this point, the screeching has subsided and the only quick bursts of wailing can be heard. If Selica listens closely, these wailings can be heard directly at the opposite side of their room.

“Come girls, take a seat in your bed.” M ushers the girls in as she enters first. The girls slowly enter and place themselves comfortably. Gallians sits back at her bed alongside Selica, while Ashlin decides to stand up beside the wall where the screeching can be heard. Once everyone has been settled, M places her hand on the wall and the crystalline frame slowly becomes transparent.

At the other end of the opened wall is a large centipede-like creature straddling beside a crystal ravine. Aside from the elongated and centipede-frame the creature the girls saw, the creature also has a pair of huge white human-like limbs protruding by its side and a large insectoid face on top of it all. Selica immediately reeled at the sight of the creature but as she continued to stare at it the more she realized that it wasn’t hostile. In fact, when she looked down at its body she could see visible cracks on its carapace, especially so at the part where she guessed wings are supposed to be in.

Selica stands up from the bed and looks closer at it and finally realizes that this insect creature is in fact not an organic creature, but rather metallic in nature. Its legs shine like swords and its broken carapace looks more steel rather than chitin. Its long human limbs are also layered with thousands upon thousands of spring steel welded together to look like muscles.

It was an anomaly that Selica could not even comprehend. Yet by staring at it longer, she can understand what it feels.

“It’s in pain.” There’s a hauntingly somber feeling in Selica’s voice as she feels pity for it. “What is it looking at?” The creature has been staring at something on top of the crystal ravine. Selica tries to look closer but she really can’t see anything.

”Your new neighbor.” M answers. “You can’t see them now since they’re in a different “room”, but the creature can see them just as fine.” Suddenly the creature roars once more, bellowing human screams mixed with insect chittering. As it does so, its back slowly pushes out as white light slowly breaks through its already broken carapace. After a few more pushes the white light emerges into beautiful angelic wings. Long silky smooth wings that shine iridescently inside this cavernous ravine.

The once uncomfortable Gallian has also lost her fear the more she looks at this creature. The juxtaposition of its insectoid frame with the angelic wings is too otherworldly for the girls to fully comprehend.

While the girls are staring at the creature, M places herself between the girls and begins speaking. “That thing is called a Faith Crawler. Their purpose was to “crawl” the planets they are deployed in and gather worship from the followers of the same gods that made them, singing the songs of worship it’s heard in the chorus they’ve heard using their mandibles. But this one was modified by one of the opposing gods, turning it to what it is now and forcing it to kill the worshippers it once listened to and instead kill them under the pretense of burning heretics. I found this one hiding in some long forgotten planet dying all on its own with the screams of what it has slain still present in its memory, repeating their anguished screams as it too roars in agony. I took it in my dimension here to live its last remaining days in comfort and solitude.” She explains in full detail with a sobering tune.

Selica could scarcely hear M’s explanation as she is still transfixed at the creature wailing its final moments. “Why...are you showing this to us?” She asks. The presentation is melancholic, but Selica doesn’t understand its purpose.

”I’m showing this to you girls as a preview of what you can expect once you’ve joined the Hameza district. There will be hostile creatures in the dungeon you’ll be entering, yes. That much has been confirmed, but there will also be creatures like this, those that carry a frightful face but have a domestic nature instead. So I guess what I’m saying is, don’t judge a book by its cover?” M pauses as her statement ends with a question. “Looking back, this all sounds convoluted just to state a very simple reminder.” But instead of ridicule, Selica suddenly laughed. There was something absurd about M having this grandiose visual in front of them only to conclude with a very simple, but still important, reminder for the girls.

“Come on, it’s not THAT bad.” M annoyingly pouts at Selica.

“No, no it’s not.” Selica, still trying to contain her laughter, waves her hand. “In fact, I-” She looks at her friends, who has also caught the laughing bug, but nods at her at the same time. “We are thankful for the reminder. I think we would have also been caught off-guard if something like that suddenly showed up. We might act defensively without even trying to understand it.”

M sighs with relief after hearing Selica say it. “That’s really good to hear.” She composes herself. “There’s also something I need to emphasize. The city is very strict regarding its policy regarding the district capital. What I mean is, the city really demands all the citizens to perform directly unless they want to be reprimanded. So in Hameza’s case all you girls are expected to enter the district directly and explore the dungeon.” She pauses for a bit, letting the information sink in. ”Fortunately though, From what I can hear from your potential neighbors, I don’t think they’ll let you young kids take the brunt of the exploration alone. There’s a lot of retired soldiers and some experienced fighters with a knack of survival-seeing as what the test you’ve all been through that doesn’t surprise me actually-that seems to have taken upon themselves to be extra careful with you kids.”

“That’s...good to hear.” There’s a brief relief in Selica’s side. To hear that there will be people she could trust beyond her friends and Shellons’ is a great idea to cling on. But there’s a bit of sting as well from that statement. After finally deciding to face the challenges of her new home head-on, she feels a bit dissatisfied that said confidence will only be coddled by worried adults. Hearing that her other neighbors would give them special attention makes her think that they will spoil them and rub her off the wrong way. She wanted to protest, but at the same time it wouldn’t be bad as well since such special care could give her more time to expand on her personal studies.

Selica sighs; she doesn’t really know how to take it honestly, she’ll just have to live through it to get a feel of things she guesses.

“Eh,” Gallian on the other hand seems to have decided to react for her instead. “We may be kids, but we can handle ourselves.” She says in confidence. Gallian’s annoyed look says it all. As someone who’s probably been out on her own till now it may seem both jarring and disrespectful for her to suddenly be given special attention.

”Despite the good gesture, I have to agree with Gallian on this.” Ashlin speaks up as well. “Also, being coddled and given special attention might put us kids in a worse situation as people might think we are being spoiled here. I might not be a resident yet, but I can already say that perception matters greatly in a mage-centric city. I’m sure the other kids our age will say the same” Selica agrees as well. The city is still a mage-centric city, and pride is still a currency they can’t afford to lack any off. Especially as new tenants of the city, they have to prove to the other mages, whether they are kids or adults, that they’ve earned their spot in the city and not because they were just carried by the adults during the test. ”Hmm, you are correct.” M’s eyes flicks for a bit then returns back. “Okay I did tell them what you said, and they do agree. But some still think otherwise so still be prepared to be spoiled by the older neighbors.” She answers back.

But Gallian simply shrugs. “Ehh old people are as stubborn as kids anyways.” She stands up from her bed and walks closer to her bag.

The Faith Crawler screams once more, but instead of the howling of frenzied screams like prior before, the cry sounded softer, weaker.

M notices the scream and immediately looks at the windowed wall once more. “It's time.” She walks closer towards the window. The girls noticed the softer cry as well and followed M’s action to look at the Faith Crawler in reverence. They watch as the dying creature’s movement becomes slower, its human-like hands go slowly limp and its metallic carapace sheen becomes duller. In its final moments the Faith Crawler’s insectoid face simply stares at one thing, something invisible for everyone except for M. The Faith Crawler slowly places its head on top of the cliff it’s perched on and slowly, one by one, its eyes closed for the last time.

As the Faith Crawler ceases to function, the only evidence of its vigorous life is the angelic wings sprouting vibrantly on its back. Continuously brimming in radiance above its deceased master.

There was a silence preceding the Faith Crawler’s passing. The girls, once afraid of the creature, now look at it as if a faithful dog has just passed away. Selica couldn’t hold back a single tear to rush down from her face as reflects on the passing life.

“May you finally find peace, friend.” M says as she places her hand over the wall making it become opaque once more. For the first time, the silence they are in right now deafens the girls even more than when the Faith Crawler was screeching just a while ago.

”Can you tell us who that new neighbor is supposed to be?” Selica asks. She didn’t want to ask before as she was afraid it would ruin the moment, but she thinks now is a good time for it.

“They aren’t that hard to pass by, you’ve probably seen them during the test.” M responds. “It’s the angel carrying a spade. The angel is a weird fellow so I personally recommend being wary of them. But, just as I said earlier, looks can be deceiving so please don’t judge them on how they act and look from the get go.”

“We understand.” Ashlin responds. “Do we still need to answer anything else, M?” She asks. Selica has wondered if they have overstayed their welcome in M’s magic.

“No, not at all. I do think it’s time for you girls to return home.” M nods as she walks across the opened wall on the other side. “Once I close this wall all three of you will be able to return back to where you came from.”

“Hey wait!” Gallian spurs from her melancholic state. “What about our requests? We’ll still get them, right?”

M smiles at Gallian’s inquiry. “Of course, don’t worry about it. Regarding your requests earlier. I will be sure to have your requests approved as soon as possible. Though I may not be there when they are implemented, I will emphasize to them that you guys will leave the district if these conditions are not met. So no need to worry about it.” By this point M is already on the other side of the wall, her hand placed by the side.

“Now then, this is goodbye girls. Thank you once again for your cooperation with the investigation. Good luck and be safe in your new home.” She presses her hand on the side of the entrance and the wall slowly closes.