The boy froze. He dropped the moonstone on the ground and grabbed his cleaver with his healthy right hand, pointing the weapon at his foes. The monsters didn't move, silently staring at Red instead.

'This is useless...'

The youth had reflexively gotten ready to fight, but he knew how stupid the idea was. Every single one of these beings had glowing green eyes and seemed to emit the same kind of pressure as the first insectoid he saw a few days before. Throughout his journey, Red had learned how to resist this force that weighed down on him because of his encounters with the many other strong creatures of these mines. However, that didn't mean he felt confident in his chances if he had to fight a dozen insectoids. Much less when he could barely walk straight.

Red thought hard, but the inevitability of the situation became clearer to him as the seconds passed. Jumping into the stream to escape? If the monsters wanted to, then they would be able to catch him before he even got his feet wet, and the water wasn't that deep in the first place. Activate the stone again? The youth was not even sure how he had done it other than the fact the glowing spider blood had touched the object, a feat that would be difficult to repeat.

Run away? He could barely walk.

Fight his way through? He couldn't even lift his blade properly.

There was no smart trick, no miracle to get him out of this, no matter how hard he tried to think about it. The boy had expected something of the sort to happen - facing impossible odds, being overwhelmed and killed. But this close to his destination? It left an impossibly bitter taste in his mouth, and even in his hopeless state, he continued to look for a way out. One thing was certain, though.

Cutting his way through the enemies was not it.

Red felt the gazes of the pupilless creatures. They didn't attack immediately, a behavior similar to the first insectoid. The monsters resembled humans in more ways than one, and that included their intelligence. There had to be a reason for them to be here.

His weapon hand lowered. The boy studied the beasts and they - him. At first glance, the insectoids looked almost like an exact copy of each other, but upon closer examination, the boy was able to find differences. Some of them slightly varied in size, being a head taller or shorter, while others had longer claws than their companions, among other things. Most of them carried certain scars on their bodies, and a handful were even missing a few eyes.

Red felt that the monsters resembled Viran in some ways. They had battle marks serving as a testament to their experience, their gazes looked sharper, and even the atmosphere around them seemed more threatening. They were different from the insectoid he had helped kill before.

'Soldiers.'

The revelation didn't make his situation any worse than it already was, but it made the youth wonder. Why were they waiting here? Why had they cleared the tunnel of all insects? What was their connection with the first creature Red came across? It felt as if the boy was missing something. The reason why his escape had abruptly started in the first place was connected with these beings.

The boy didn't know if any of this information mattered, but he couldn't bear to just wait silently for death again, not when he was so close to his goal. He was grasping for anything he could get his hands on, any hope, no matter how slim.

He didn't give up. He couldn't give up.

"W-what..." Only now that he was struggling with his words did Red realize how much his throat hurt. Still, he bore through it and continued. "What do you want?"

The youth knew that the insectoids could talk, even if it wasn't in the same language. Establishing some sort of communication was the only idea he could come up with at the moment.

The monsters didn't immediately respond. However, for the first time since he laid eyes on them, Red saw some movement. A slight turn of their heads, as the creatures all looked at the same individual. Not the human, but one of their own. The beast in question kept on staring at him, but the boy was unable to tell apart any emotion or intent behind those pupil-less, glowing eyes.

'Their leader?'

It was his best guess considering the others' reactions and its position in the center of the group. There was nothing special about this insectoid that Red could see - it sported the same scars and looked to be average in height compared to its companions. Upon closer examination, though, the boy could tell that its eyes seemed to shine a bit more brightly compared to the other ones. As he had come to learn during his journey, it was an indicator of strength in this underground.

The creature looked at him before its mandibles started to move. Buzzing noises came out of its mouth, strange sounds that Red immediately recognized. It was the same language the original insectoid used to communicate with him. Yet, he wasn't any closer to understanding it now than he was at the time.

"I don't understand you." The boy shook his head, trying to express his incomprehension of the monster's words.

He wasn't sure if the beast could comprehend what he was saying either, but its attempt to communicate rather than immediately attacking the human showed that it was after something else. The youth only hoped he could provide it for them.

The insectoid's eyes flickered and it muttered something more in its strange language before looking down at the ground, almost as if it was in thought. Red for his part, could only quietly wait for whatever came next.

A few moments later, the creature looked at him again and started to speak in its buzzing words once more. The boy was about to say he still didn't understand, when the noises gradually started to change. It was a letter at first, then a syllable.

It was trying to speak in human language.

Red was taken aback at first, but the insectoid continued to mouth the sounds. He still had a hard time understanding what it was trying to say in its buzzing tone, but twenty seconds later the youth was finally able to make out a familiar word from the creature's attempts.

"Search."

The boy's eyes lit up.

"You're searching for something?" He asked the monster. There were other ways this kind of word could have been interpreted on its own but with no context, the youth had made the first connection that came to his mind.

The noises from its mouth immediately stopped and the light in its eyes flickered. He didn't know if this was some sort of affirmation from the insectoid's part, but it once more began to watch him in silence. It was waiting for Red to say something else, and he decided to follow it up with the next natural question.

"What are you searching for?"

The creature sank into thought again. Moments later, it tried to mouth the words with its buzzing voice, and this time the youth was able to understand it more quickly.

"Brother."

His heart sank.

The insectoid didn't seem to notice Red's change in expression, or at least showed no indication that it did.

The boy felt like he had just walked into a landmine. In his desperation to find a way to live, he had completely forgotten the fact that he was directly responsible for the death of one of their own kind. Was this why they were here, for revenge? If that was the case, then he had just dug his own grave. However, when he contemplated his predicament, he felt like nothing had changed after all.

'What do I say?'

Red knew that it wasn't a simple matter of lying or not. If he did lie and said he didn't know anything about their brother, then his only use for the insectoids will be completely gone. He didn't know if they would let him walk free, much more so if they were looking for revenge. Telling the truth was just as bad though since it would simply be giving himself away.

"...I saw him." After some serious consideration, he replied.

The insectoid's eyes flickered, stronger than before. It turned towards some of its siblings and communicated in its strange language. Whatever emotion it was feeling was clearly transmitted to the rest of them, their orbs flashing incessantly. Eventually, its gaze came back to the human.

This time, though, Red felt there was something else behind its emotionless eyes. Energy was accumulating inside of it, and although the creature didn't move, the boy felt the threat of death looming over him. No, it wasn't as simple as that. It was as if the insectoid was trying to see through him, into the thoughts and intentions hidden within his mind. Trying to discern the truth.

It waited silently as if the youth knew what it wanted to know next. Of course, Red did know, and he felt glad that he didn't lie to it before.

However, this did not make his problem any easier. What was he supposed to say now? That he would take them where the monster was? Give them the map and hope they could read it? Would they make him accompany them if they couldn't? Would they let him go when they found out their 'brother' was dead? Was there even any way he could get out of this alive in the first place?

Dozens of similar questions crossed through his mind in an instant, but Red knew that none of this mattered in the end. He was running short on time and didn't think he would make it through another day in his condition. Whatever roundabout plan that he could come up with would take too long and be too risky to accomplish, and he was too tired to think about it either way.

He was too tired of thinking.

Too close to his objective to come up short.

Too close to his death to wait any longer.

And perhaps, most important of all, he was too fed up with this place. These monsters, these green lights, these cold cave walls, this disgusting moss.

For the longest time in his life, survival was the only thing that mattered to him. He had no wishes, no goals - being led by his instinct to live to see another day. He was careful, stayed out of trouble, and scavenged for food to barely get by. Stories about the surface he heard from other slaves seemed like nothing but distant dreams to him, things he could only imagine but never see for himself.

And yet Viran appeared. The man showed him how to get stronger through Spiritual Practice, his overwhelming power being evidence of that. The obstacles still seemed almost insurmountable for the boy, but for the first time since he came to be, Red felt hope being born in his heart. He felt ambition and yearning. The desire to see the world that had been stripped from him.

He had something to look forward to, to live for.

The underground that hadn't bothered him before started to become more and more unpleasant to look at. His dreams became more frequent, and his imagination began to wander. He became impatient, reckless, willing to put his life on the line more often, all for the mere possibility of being able to see the surface one day. It was only now that these changes became clearer to Red.

Maybe Viran had noticed this. Maybe this was why he decided to train him further after his fight with the centipede. The man's thoughts and actions had always been puzzling for the kid. How he seemed reckless and impatient all the time while still carefully planning for his escape one day. It was a contradiction, and Red thought he would never understand Viran.

He was wrong.

Whatever came next, death or survival, he didn't feel like waiting any longer.

"I saw your brother..." The boy repeated as the insectoid stared at him. "...And I killed him myself."