“Well, that was exciting.” Leon muttered as he looked over the aftermath of the battle. Mounds of centipede bodies were gathered and strewn alike all over the cavern. There were some in the tunnel network on the way here, and a few that had tried to hide in the breeding chamber.
When he took stock of his troops, he noticed, to his dismay, that despite all the precautions he had taken, a dozen of the white Undead Millipedes had died in the battle. With a shrug, he let out a helpless sigh. There was nothing he could do about it now; it was just one of those things in life, he guessed.
“Alright, chop chop!” Leon clapped to get everyone’s attention to him. “Let’s start cleaning up the place. We can’t leave all these to sit here and rot. Pack them to the millipede nest so that the newly hatched can eat.” He instructed before turning to leave with Nedra, Kaladin, and Nero behind him. The Undead Millipedes quickly began doing as he told them, hauling the carcasses of the Ghost Centipedes with their mandibles as they rushed to take them over to the millipede nest.
“That was a bit too exciting.” Leon said with an undertone of amusement as he watched the millipedes work on his way out of the nest. He was dutifully followed by his three most powerful companions as he walked, with the two Obsidian skeleton summons taking up the rear, and Nedra hanging off his shoulder in her miniature form. She was a bit bigger than before, so she was only able to hang on with her forelegs. Her behind swung behind him as he walked.
“Indeed. Who would have thought that their queen would be that strong? Maybe they had been feeding her kills.” Nedra concurred, and Kaladin nodded. Nero just gave a low grunt as a reply.
When the foursome reached the surface, Leon suddenly got a hurried ping from one of his Undead Millipede summons that he had tasked with scouting the surface for any centipede that might have gotten away. Before it could properly convey its thoughts, the flames of undeath that gave it life were doused, and it died.
“What?” Leon stopped mid-step, his bony facial expressions crumpled into a forceful frown.
“What’s wrong?” As the closest to Leon, Nedra obviously noticed the change before the others, and she quickly inquired on the cause of his sudden pause.
“I just lost contact with one of my summons after getting a distress signal from it. Something is wrong.” Leon replied. As he had been here for a while, he had come to learn that if something felt off, then there was most likely something wrong. It was not just a ‘feeling’ that would pass away after some time like back on Earth.
Leon could feel Nedra tense on his shoulder, before she immediately spoke up, “We should check it out. Maybe some strong centipedes escaped, or some monsters from the surrounding areas wandered into the town.” Leon agreed with her and quickly organized a small battalion of summons to follow him to the area where he had felt the millipede before it was killed. He also worked on summoning the millipede once more so it could share what it had experienced before it was killed.
A black-purple wisp of smoke appeared before Leon before into black flames that coalesced into the form of a black Undead Millipede Soldier. The purple tipped antennae of the millipede twitched and wiggled in the air before it turned to Leon. Their minds connected, and a scene unfolded before Leon’s eyes. With a single glance, he could tell that he was seeing things from the millipede’s point of view.
He saw as the millipede scurried through the ruined town, hunting down a few stray millipedes. It easily dispatched any creature that it came across, and that was how things went on until it reached the borders of the town.
The millipede rushed forward as it sensed another threat that was not one of its kind up ahead. It rounded the corner, only to be met with a heavy blow from a sword. Luckily, the initial strike did not kill the millipede, and it quickly righted itself to face its attacker, before getting attacked one more time. It was the second hit that ended its life.
The millipede had no idea what kind of creature had ended its life, but when Leon set his eyes on those ‘creatures’, he drew in a deep breath through his empty chest cavern. He recognized those creatures very well. How could he not? After all, they were humans.
(A/N: For a moment, I almost wrote ‘they were humen’ xD)
“Humans.” He told Nedra after a moment. He could feel her tension from his shoulder. Unlike before when she had the protection of her former master’s title, now, she was truly seen as a stray monster by any mercenaries of hunters. Even her current master, Leon, would be seen as a monster.
“What are humans doing all the way here? Perhaps Elena ratted us out?” She shared her thoughts.
“It’s possible.” Leon sighed and rubbed his forehead. “We should handle this. We can’t let them run amok here, and we also need to silence them so news doesn’t spread.” He said with a resolute tone. He already knew what he had to do. Even if those people were humans, if he let them go, then his own life would be at stake. He did not fancy the idea of dying a second time.
Nedra turned to look at Leon, her compound eyes flashing with uncertainty. She knew that Leon used to be human, and from what she understood, he had never killed another of his kind.
“Are you sure?” She asked him.
“Yes. It’s either them or me. I can handle the aftermath of whatever happens when they are dead.” Leon replied resolutely. He was not taking the risk of going easy and letting them leave alive. At the very least, they would become his prisoners, or he would raise them as undead.