Red's whole vision was covered in crimson light. The overwhelming smell of blood returned, but it didn't make the boy uncomfortable. His entire body began to resonate with the energy, and the youth felt something worming its way into his veins.

The youth could feel it. Strands of foreign energy within the boy's body began to awaken in response to this external stimulus.

They began to move through his body as if in joy before merging with the newly-arrived crimson light.

Red had a sudden realization.

'This is...'

The infection the insectoids had told him about had remained hidden within his body. It was merely dormant, waiting for something. The boy wondered what would have happened had he not gone to find the crystal in time.

Still, the crimson light continued to travel through his blood vessels, gathering all the remnants of infected energy. After it was done and Red felt no further stirring within his body, the light suddenly changed directions. It headed to the youth's heart, and once it dove into it, the boy suddenly felt a spasm of pain.

The energy was pumped to every corner of his body through his blood. The boy felt a transformation happening within his organs, but he was unable to pinpoint it. The process repeated itself a few times as the energy flowed back to his heart again. Upon every new cycle, though, there seemed to be less and less of the light remaining.

Red could only hold on as the strange sensation continued to assault his insides. Eventually, he couldn't feel any more of the crimson energy in his body. The mist around him dissipated, too, as if it was never there in the first place.

The youth couldn't sense the presence of anyone within his surroundings either. The boy did a cursory examination of his body, but he didn't find any abnormalities. At the very least, he wasn't going to be turning into some horrible monster yet.

'I need to hurry up...'

Further studying could be left for later. Red knew Narcha was potentially still locked in combat with those creatures, and he couldn't afford to take his time.

The boy walked over to a spot in the ground next to the trees. He then got to his knees and dug at the dirt with his bare hands. After some effort, the youth was finally able to reach what he had been looking for. He grabbed the handle of a cold and hard object before pulling it from the earth.

Red raised it into the air and examined it. It was his improvised cleaver - dirty and damaged from his fight with the spiders - but still as sharp as ever. At that moment, the boy felt ecstatic. However, he pushed this feeling aside before continuing to dig.

Eventually, Red came across his ragged pouch. He pulled it out and cleaned the dirt off of it before opening it up. What he saw, though, immediately dampened his delight.

His items were still there - the underground map, a page of Viran's diary, the insectoid crystal, and the moonstones. However, something had changed with the last two items. The crystal was still glowing, but the red lines were nowhere to be seen. Red had an idea as to what that meant, but it wasn't what concerned him. Instead, it was the moonstones.

They had completely lost their luster, becoming useless gray rock lumps. The boy squeezed one of them and observed in shock as it crumbled into dust. Whatever energy had been in these moonstones had disappeared.

'Could this be the work of that moon being?'

Red's mind immediately wandered in that direction. It was the most likely culprit, but there was little the boy could do about it. At the very least, he still had the insectoid crystal, which, according to Viran, was worth hundreds of moonstones. He only hoped it wouldn't suffer the same fate.

As the boy stored his items in his backpack, something suddenly stirred within his body. Red felt alarmed, but he instinctively turned to stare towards a set of trees to his left. At first, the youth saw nothing in between the dead trunks, but this didn't assuage his concerns.

The feeling was still there.

Cautiously, the boy got up and raised his cleaver in preparation. A few seconds later, a figure walked into view. Red's eyes narrowed in alarm, and he felt his blood run cold.

It was the zombie.

The creature was still missing one of its arms, but it didn't seem to have any other injuries. It completely ignored the boy and began to examine its surroundings. Eventually, its gaze lingered on the hole Red had just dug, and a frown slowly formed on its face.

It raised its head to stare at the youth. Red could immediately tell what it was looking for.

"Someone else took it." the boy shrugged.

The zombie smiled, and a strange croaking noise came from its throat.

'Is that... Laughter?'

Red couldn't tell. Eventually, he decided to take a slow step back in retreat. The creature didn't move to pursue him, staring at the youth with a mocking grin on his face. Knowing how fast the zombie was, the boy knew it wasn't concerned about its prey running away.

He immediately decided to change tactics.

"I thought zombies were supposed to be stupid." Red spoke, trying to strike up a conversation.

The undead continued to smile. This time, though, it took a step forward and extended its remaining hand in the boy's direction. A raspy noise began to come out of the creature's throat as if it was trying to speak.

"Give..."

Red was eventually able to recognize the word. He knew what the zombie was referring to, but there was no way he would give it up.

"What do you want it for?" The boy continued to speak.

This time, though, the zombie's smile disappeared. It was evident the creature had been able to tell what the youth's strategy was.

Red just wanted to delay for time because he didn't believe Narcha was dead.

He had seen the undead and the woman fight before, and back then, they were closely matched. Still, the boy could tell Narcha had been holding back in fear of getting hit. If the zombie ever managed to wound her, though, the woman would never let it go scot-free. The creature would likely be torn apart in her furious counter-attack once she threw caution to the wind.

Red thus concluded she likely wasn't dead, and the zombie had just managed to slip by her. His plan was to delay for time and hope the woman would come to his rescue. There was, however, no guarantee Narcha would be able to follow their trail or even arrive in time, for that matter.

And now, the zombie was getting impatient. Red tried to quickly think up a plan, and suddenly another question crossed his mind.

'Why is it not attacking me?

It didn't make sense for the creature to not simply take it by force, much more so when it was in hostile territory. Still, blindly guessing the reason behind this wasn't of any help at the moment.

"...I can't give it to you." The boy shook his head. "But maybe I can let you borrow it.”

The creature frowned and took another step in his direction.

"Okay, okay!" Red relented. "I'll give it to you if you let me go!"

The zombie stopped walking and continued to stare at the youth. Eventually, it nodded in agreement. The creature's cooperation, however, only made the boy more suspicious.

'Why is it so cooperative?'

Red almost felt compelled to push the subject, but the zombie's expression worsened once it noticed his hesitation. In the end, the boy could only pull out his backpack in order to prevent the creature from immediately attacking.

Red knew in what pocket he had stored the crystal, but he decided to take his time in searching for it. Eventually, the zombie growled in annoyance.

"I just forgot where I put it." Red explained.

Another growl, and this time the creature began to approach him.

"Here, take it!"

The boy abruptly pulled an object out of his backpack and threw it in the zombie's direction. The creature froze and extended its remaining hand to catch it. When it looked at its hand, though, a groan of annoyance came out of its throat.

It was a piece of bread.

When it looked up again, Red was already running away with his backpack in hand. The zombie didn't hesitate any more and immediately sprinted after the boy.

Red didn't even need to look back to know the creature was catching up. He weaved between tree trunks, but the zombie constantly closed the distance. The boy tried to measure the distance between them and focused on the sound of footsteps from behind him.

The youth recalled his battle with the monstrous mantis and the sheer concentration that survival had required. Then he remembered the lessons he had received from Domeron a few days ago. Eventually, his confidence surged, and he got ready.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps behind him ceased.

'It lunged!'

Red immediately reacted by diving to the side instinctively. The zombie's claw missed his body by a few centimeters and struck into a tree trunk instead. The boy could hear the sound of splintering wood behind him, but he didn't stop running.

The zombie groaned in anger and continued to give chase. Red tried to push his Upper Leg Vein to the limit, and his speed was momentarily boosted. Unfortunately, the boy knew it wasn't enough to lose the zombie. Not to mention, he wasn't confident in successfully dodging every one of its attacks.

Just as Red was wondering whether he should stand and fight, he felt something strange again. It was familiar to the sensation that had allowed him to discover the zombie earlier but somewhat different at the same time. Without hesitation, the boy changed course and headed in the direction the strange sensation was pointing him to.

The zombie either didn't notice this weird change or didn't care about it. It continued to chase after the youth and constantly gained ground. A few seconds later, just as the creature was getting ready to strike again, something jumped at it from between the trees.

Red dove out of the way of the shadow and rolled to the ground. When he got up and looked back, what he saw left him shocked.

The crimson demon had pounced upon the zombie and was in the process of tearing its living corpse apart. The undead didn't even have a chance to react before it was rendered immobile. Pieces of dead flesh began to fly into the air, and, in a matter of a few seconds, the zombie was completely unrecognizable.

Red could still see movement in some of its severed limbs, but soon enough, even that ceased to be. The boy was left dazed for a few seconds before slowly stepping away from the scene.

The demon continued to tear apart the zombie's body, but a few seconds later, it came to a stop. It got up again and turned around, staring at Red. The youth suddenly froze in his steps, feeling something resonating within his body.

Some of the aggression of the demon seemed to slip away as it gazed at the boy. Eventually, though, its murderous nature returned, and it roared in rage at the skies. Red immediately turned around and ran.

The demon, however, was even faster than the zombie. Red had no hopes of outrunning it and little hope of evading its attacks. There was only one option here. Red was ready to make his stand, yet the strange sensation again appeared in his body at the last moment.

Alongside that, the thunderous sound of air being split also appeared. A twirling saber flew through the air, slamming into the side of the demon that had been just about to pounce on Red. The figure of a panting woman appeared from between the trees.

"Fucking bastards!" Narcha grumbled. "You're way too fast!"