The Still Unborn was only the prelude for the things to come. They were the abstract tip of the Corrupted iceburg. That is if they were Corrupted to begin with.

She encountered more of the Still Unborn further along. Armed with the knowledge of their harmless attacks, she kept her weapons tucked away and allowed them to hurl themselves at her.

Inconsolable wails ate at her mind as she desperately held back from eliminating them. Not a semblance of empathy crossed her for these beings were no more than monsters. Frozen winds blew from deeper within as the surrounding lava streams grew larger and more turbulent.

One of the Still Unborn landed beside her, flopping like a beached fish as she glared at the putrid thing.

“Gross. And it smells too! Shoo! This is my Rockie Grey! Go get your own!” She was about to brush it aside right before it screamed at her, causing her to instinctively block her ears in anguish. “Why are there so MANY of you!? Grrr… Rockie! Shake it off – Woaaaaah!? Stop – You’re going to throw me overboard!”

The Still Unborn refused to let themselves be cast away. Their relentless drive despite lacking limbs would have been admirable if they weren’t abominations. Red slapped the back of Rockie Grey for almost killing her, only for her hand to be repulsed by its thick carapace.

Rockie Grey’s stats had changed slightly since its Bond level rose from Bonded to Fellowship.

It had become more than twice as strong as a regular Rock Bug.

“Did you evolve or something? You hardly look different now that I think about it.” Red knocked on its shell again, this time much more gently which caused Rockie to shiver as if in delight. “Don’t try to act cute with me. You’re still my emergency rations.”

This made Rockie Grey even happier for whatever reason, causing a vein to pop on Red’s forehead.

“Haaaaah? Whatever. Your time will come! But today isn’t the day! Onwards my Rock Bugs! Towards the light –!”

The tremors had become extraordinarily powerful now. Magma leapt from the edges like fish. Red could feel it reverberate deeply within her chest for she recognized the source of the explosions.

But the question that irked her was how was her weapon detonating in her absence?

Something was terribly wrong, as if the Still Unborn hadn’t already spelt this out. Eventually the stone walls morphed into something more insidious. The walls blackened like the backdrop of midnight, illuminated only by the magma.

“Bring me closer to the wall. Scrape a hand along it. That material… it’s glistening like it’s wet.”

Rockie Grey parted from the group and scuttled along the edge. Its legs were barely long enough to reach the wall. When it scraped along what was supposed to be the jagged, coarse texture of stone, Red’s eyes suddenly narrowed with disgust.

“I knew it. That’s not stone anymore. We’re definitely inside of something living.”

Her sense of judgement had never wronged her. She had seen enough gore to identify raw flesh at a single glance whether it was flailed or minced beyond recognition.

The rib cages that held the cavern like stents grew pallid brambles. They dangled from above like icicles and climbed the walls like thorny ivy.

“The walls are moving. Is that… are those supposed to be trees?”

Pillars of meat rose to the ceiling like the trunks of colossal trees further ahead. The flesh of the walls burned as more of the unfortunate Still Unborn were incinerated. A twisted parody of a forest unraveled before her as she walked past the gigantic trunks.

Five – no, they were more than ten meters in circumference.

“What in the world is this place supposed to be? Agate. Say something already.”

Her hushed tone was ignored for what felt like hours. Only the cries of the damned answered back, with their haunting echoes conversing.

“Flesh. Hunger. Stillbirth. Incompleteness…” Red tried to pull the strings together, but they were merely straws. They lacked the substance for her to even fathom what this all meant, and why it was down here.

More importantly was how her weapon ended up further ahead in the first place.

“Aren’t we all hungry in the first place? To eat is to survive. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. Is this place trying to tell me a story?”

< What is hunger? >

“Huh?”

The question took Red by surprise. She stared into the air absentmindedly. Agate had never asked her a question before, hence her surprise.

“Hunger? It’s the need to feed. That’s it. Why does it have to be so complicated?”

< Hunger takes many forms in the realm of cognition >

< Hunger is the lifeline that must be sated >

< Hunger is therefore a flaw of those who consume >

“Then why were we born with it?” Red asked a surprisingly philosophical question. It didin’t seem fair to her that they were born with something out of their control. It was not a question that Agate could answer.

Regardless of this, she was satisfied.

This was their very first conversation after all. A smile formed on the girl’s face as she braved into uncharted territory.

“You’re weird Agate. You gotta learn how to talk normally. I bet I can change that. If you’re a voice in my head then I just need a good hit right here~” Red’s crude manner of speech returned immediately as she knocked on the side of her head.

She remained in the middle of the Rock Bug brigade. All senses were dialed to the max as she carefully scanned her surroundings. Suddenly, one of the pillars ahead throbbed as the sound of sputtering liquid echoed.

And in that instant – the Still Unborn hurled themselves forward towards a figure that coallpsed straight from an incision made along the length of the pillar. A woman with white hair but with a body of a butterfly struggled to flap her wings, for they were tied down by invisible strands.

Yet just like the Still Unborn – that ‘mother’ who cradled the limbless children – was as harmless as they were. The tears that fell from their hidden eyes disappeared as did the wails.

But just like the children, the mother had no hands to embrace them, for they had metamorphosed into broken wings.