“Pssst, Cain, go over to the right a bit, hehehe.”

“Huh? Why? Aren’t we the ones trying to catch up to them?”

“Hehehe, yeah and you’ve already caught up.”

“Huh? How can you tell?”

“Because you’re near blind and I’m not hehehe this should quell any thoughts about you trying to abandon me right?.”

“Well I mean, sure? How do you even abandon a devil?”

“If you don’t know then there’s no need for you to know hehehe.”

“Well what should we do?”

“You see that protrusion over there? The large circle poking out?”

“Well um no.”

“Just walk around the edge of this pit then hehehe that’ll show them.”

“Well what are we going to do?”

“You’re gonna walk around and get on top of that protrusion. There’ll be some bars right below for you to grasp on and stick your rear end in. Then you just shove yourself in there and have fun.”

“Bars? Will I fit through them?”

“Of course! There’re no workers or guards here, so that means they’ve gone through and you can definitely go through! Luckily you haven’t found any predators that have forced you to grow yet hehehe.”

“Grow? How would I grow? Do I become stronger if I grow?”

“Geez you really were just a stupid newborn worker! Well you don’t exactly get stronger exactly, but if you get bigger you’re able to exert force better. It’s like how if you try lifting a box form only one corner, you have to deal with the weight of the box itself as well as the rotational force from the box trying to fall off your hand! Growing bigger allows you to carry things better! It’s not just that though. With size comes mass. Say you’re punching someone. Who gets blown away first? It doesn’t matter who sent or received the hit because him resisting your punch is sending force at you and you hitting him is also exerting force on him. The one who gets blown away further is the one with less mass! Sure there are people who use their height and direct the force at the ground to resist getting blown away, but how do you attack? You can’t! Being smaller means you’re subject to every single one of his attacks while he gets to decide when to hit you and how to hit you! That’s stupid! Being bigger is better! But in this case, being small enough to fit through that gap is the best thing possible!”

“Wait wait wait. You still haven’t told me how I can grow!”

“What do you mean you don’t know how to grow! It’s in the instinct of every creature alive! But don’t do try to test it out yet. Wait until you’re inside first!”

“What instinct! I can’t feel it!”

“What do you mean feel instinct! You’re not supposed to be able to feel or control instinct! It just comes when you feel danger! What did you think instinct was?”

“I assumed I could feel it?”

“It takes over you! You can’t feel anything! Your brain shuts down and instinct takes over! That’s instinct! Your brain turns on and you can analyze what happened before, but that was instinct!”

“Well, let’s go! I wanna become stronger!”

--John’s Laboratory--

“Do you think that’s Senny digging against the wall?”

“Sure, who else would be dumb enough to dig through concrete when they can just corrode the metal wall?”

“Wait you can corrode the doors?”

“Sure why not? Give me a couple days!”

“...”

“How’s that any better than what Senny’s doing! He should be making his way thro -- Oh hey Senny, we were just talking about you!”

A circle with rough edges appeared on the wall as the outer edges broke through, a circular piece of concrete fell off to reveal a mouth full of blunt teeth. Seeing the mouth appear followed by a series of sharp plates, the

“Hey guys what’s up. We escaping or what? I’ve dug way too much to back out now.”

“Well, how do we get out without being caught? They’re sure to have known that we’ve broken out from the doors slamming down!”

“So how do we get out?” Well, there is another wall…”

“Again? Really? I’m tired!”

“Well how about some nice liquidated mole?”

“Oh you don’t want it?”

“Well I mean you won’t be tired if you eat the mole right? So you can dig through that wall!”

“...”

“I take that as you accept! Have fun!”

--Third underground layer--

A black film spread across the floor, clinging to every corner. It washed away the footprints of the now dead mole as it slowly rose. It slowly filled the shell that the liquid had left behind, turning the before crystal clear shell into one of a menacing black before swallowing it entirely. It spread down the hallway with rows of cages on one side, washing against the sides of the air tight cages.

The liquid rose even further through the hallways as it rose towards the ceiling but stopped halfway.

--Loading Dock--

The long trucks with cylindrical containers on their backs emptied the last bit of liquid from their storages. Off they went along the streets into the night.

“Captain, how much oil do we even need?”

“We’re gonna need more, a lot more. Say, you wanna fly a small drone down there?”

“Whooo! Yeah! You know me best capt’n!”

“Yeah sure, remember to not break it.”

“Of course I won’t!”

“Hehehe but first you’re gonna need to call in a few more trucks of oil before you do.”

“How many you thinking?”

“A couple dozen more, let’s go with fifty, a nice and round number.”

“Yeah no problem I’ll get one of the guys on that while I fly down the drone to watch that stupid slime get poisoned to death.”

“Remember to not fly the drone too close, don’t want it getting destroyed now do you?”

“Relax. I’m a master at flying drones, been flying em since I was a wee lad.”

--Elevator shaft--

“Oops.”

“What happened?”

“Elevator fell down.”

“Well, luckily we got those tubes out of there first.”

“But darn, still, elevator slammed down there!”

“Ah don’t worry about it, elevator was trashed anyways after we cut that hole in the floor to let the pipes drop through. They’re apparently gonna fill this whole place with crube oil and burn it down.”

“Darn, those tunnels must’ve been hella hard to dig, not to mention the surrounding pipes might be affected.”

“You wanna tell them about that? That the underground portion likely extends under some of the existing infrastructure and burning the whole thing down might bring down surrounding pipes and what not?”

“Nah, it’ll make for a cool story if the surrounding buildings collapse down hehehe. Friend’s child died just a few weeks ago at some skirmish over at the mountains.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah, funny thing is nobody even gives a shit about it.”

“They’re just like, oh, what a shame, doesn’t affect me so I’ll just go on with my life.”

“Yeah, all the poor people getting drafted. Even middle class guys pooled together a sizable sum to get the government officials to not draft them. They’re too productive to let go to waste fighting they say.”

“Hmph serves them right when they put a break in their energy and water pipeline hehehe.”