Royal Guards.

Outside the throne room, the room was quietly waiting for Zegion to finish his conversation with Zelanus. Then, suddenly a couple of the guards flinched and looked at the mosquito-like woman and the prince of their kingdom. They suddenly changed their postures into a readied stance.

They had just been given orders to capture the intruders. He wanted to use some of them for his new project and he wanted to use the others to teach Zegion a lesson. He wanted to torture and then kill his friends in front of Zegion. An action that caught them off guard as, usually, their king would not bother with things like this and just kill those who annoyed him. Whatever the outsider had said to their king must have really irritated him.

As the highest rank member in the room apart from the prince, the mosquito woman assigned the guards behind her with their targets to focus on. She was originally planning to take on the human woman herself when the prince spoke up.

"I'll take the human. Ever since I walked out of the throne room I felt she has been trying to do something to me. Whatever it is, I don't like it. Now that father has given us permission I will deal with her."

The tension in the room began to rise as both sides prepared for the upcoming battle when the youngest insectar in the room spoke up with a joyful tone. Seemingly not worried about their situation.

"I call dibs on the mosquito. I'm kinda hungry" Silk said as her form changed from human legs to her spider-like lower body.

And just as those words left her mouth the shit hit the fan.

…

As everyone acted they left destruction all across the room. Some were launched through walls and some were forced to run to catch up with them leaving only a small group in the hall leading to the throne room.

"I guess Veldora and Lord Rimuru were right… Mothman is real. And he's got friends." Apito said in a joking matter as she stared at the gathering of humanoid moth insectars that had suddenly surrounded her.

The moth insectars were wearing dark robes that covered their bodies from the light. And judging by their silent and serious demeanor they didn't seem to appreciate the joke.

They made a circle all around Apito as they blocked the escape routes she could take. They wanted to do their best to capture her without hurting her too much. Since their king wanted to experiment with having more children after being disappointed with the two he had. He had already wasted one of his finest warriors on his first experiment and now that he had outsiders it seemed like a perfect chance to try again.

The shadows that were cast from the moth insectars began to grow as they started to encompass the entire room. Climbing up the walls and ceiling and painting them black. The shadows were ink-like in texture as they trapped Apito.

This was one of the moth tribe's strongest moves. Using their commands on shadows they would encompass their target and render them immobile.

Apito began to hover in the middle of the room as she looked with interest at her surroundings. And she noticed that the walls seemed to become smaller and smaller as they began to close in on her.

"I guess you guys aren't really ones for words. You all kinda remind me of my brother. With your shadows and stuff…"

Yet the moths remained unresponsive as the shadows continued to envelop the room.

"Speaking of which, I think I have done enough distracting. Take me to them, you should have separated them from the rest by now.."

And from within the shadows, a gigantic tendril extended and pulled Apito down. Yet there wasn't a sign of struggle.

The moth insectars stopped for a moment in confusion. This was not their usual procedure when it came to capturing a target. And the presence of their target had vanished as if she was no longer in the room.

And they knew they were in trouble as they felt the control of the shadows all around them be forcefully taken from them.

It was then they realized. They were the ones who had been trapped in the room..

The thick and ink-like shadows in which they were standing suddenly began to bubble up. And a burning sensation spread all across their bodies.

"Air defense formation!"

Judging the situation quickly the leader of the moths yelled a command in order to leave the shadows they were standing on.

"This… how can an outsider have so much control of shadows? I didn't see one of ours among the intruders. And the burning sensation felt as if we were in acid…"

But they didn't get much of a chance to analyze the situation as shadow tendrils began to grow all around them. Shooting out one by one they wrapped around their targets and dragged them down underneath the shadows without even having a chance to scream or resist.

Once they entered the shadows it felt as if they were trapped inside a black void. They couldn't breathe, they couldn't see. And once they felt a slight puncture in their bodies, they couldn't feel anything. Moments later, as the poison worked its way across their body, they lost all thought as they died.

From among the shadows emerged Jouzu, the assassin bug. Yet he seemed to be a bit disheartened.

"They did most of my job for me…"

This was his first chance to put all he had learned to the test but it seemed as if all his preparation had been for nothing. His targets had metaphorically stabbed themselves in their heart before he even had a chance to act by covering the room with shadows.

"Didn't even get to use my other skills… Just shadows…"

Jouzu sighed before sinking back into the shadows.

The darkness all across the room vanished along with him. Leaving the room as it was before. Except with a few more broken walls.

…

From the shadows, five guards were spat out. They had followed to assist their commander in capturing the intruders when they were suddenly swallowed by the shadows underneath them. And now they were looking around in confusion and in preparation to defend themselves.

"Is this… the ballroom?"

Their eyes captured the familiar sights when they noticed one of their targets looking down on them while flying in the air.

"I remember hearing so much about all of you when I was young. I used to look up to all of you and I hoped for the day I would be able to come to this world. Now I know why they say to never meet your heroes. But I guess I can't blame you.

Let me ask you a question. Are you truly proud of working for Zelanus? Do you truly think he is someone worth surrendering your lives for? Would you change sides if a more worthy leader appeared?" Apito asked while looking down at the 5 wasp knights.

And it seemed her words did affect them as they hesitated for a moment and made an awkward expression. They exchanged glances among them before reding their weapons.

"Surrender peacefully and we will not hurt you. As for your words, don't let anyone else hear them, or else you will be executed. Our king wants you alive. So if you just endure it for some time I am sure you will be able to continue living. Though you might lose your strength."

One of the leading knights spoke up as his wings began to flutter in preparation to fight.

Apito looked at their reaction before letting out a small chuckle.

"Well, we didn't come here for a bloodbath. So I am glad I won't have to do it. Your words gave me the answer I needed."

The ring on Apito's hand that was connected to Ygdrassyl shined for a moment before a swarm of bees appeared out of nowhere from behind her. Hundreds of thousands to millions of bees began to flood the room as the group of knights launched into the air to capture Apito.

And with practiced movements, the knights began to cut and make a path for themselves. The bees that were swarming them did not appear to have anything special about them as they were easily slain. But even though individually they were nothing special, their strength showed itself when they were in a swarm.

"Zwei, take the lead."

One of the wasp knights moved to the front and spread out his arms as he activated his skill. Spreading all around his body a sphere made of compressed air pushed all of the bees around them and shredded them into pieces.

With more room to work with he pulled his fist back as more air began to compress around it before launching his fist forward, destroying hundreds of the bees in front of him.

"Drei, Vier, I will capture her. Cover my back. Funf, you know what to do"

Following his command, Drei released a blast of cold air freezing the bees on Eins' path. And Vier flew right behind Eins in order to defend him in case more got in the way.

"Queen's command. Explosive barrier." Apito spoke as hundreds of bees behind her launched to defend her.

Vier moved in front of Eins and was about to cut them down, but they exploded the moment he got near them with a huge amount of force, launching him backward. And not letting this opportunity go to waste Apito commanded once again.

"Queen's command. Paralyzing sting."

The bees that were near Vier as he landed on the floor suddenly swarmed him as they began to sting him over and over. Their stingers somehow were capable of piercing the strong exoskeleton as they glowed with a yellow hue.

Eins saw his friend falling down but he ignored it as the sooner they captured her the less damage she would cause. But Apito began to fly all across the room in an erratic pattern as more and more bees kept on appearing in the room blocking them from reaching her.

And Apito continued on giving her commands as the magicule bees she had created began to act in a more organized manner focusing on each of the four remaining knights.

Drei, who was supposed to be covering Eins, had to suddenly move back as the bees all around him began to emit a strange gas that covered his vision. And when Drei was about to launch another blast of cold air he realized that he had been totally surrounded by bees. Bees that exploded with tremendous force. And just like Vier, he was struck by hundreds of paralyzing stings.

It didn't take long until the bees overwhelmed the knights one by one. From releasing poisonous gasses to bundling up together and exploding near their target.

While the knights were extremely capable there was not much they could do when they were fighting against what seemed to be an endless supply of bees. And maybe, were it not for their subconscious care they put into their attacks in order to not destroy one of their king's favorite rooms and be punished or killed because of it, they would have been able to put up a better fight.

Looking at the unconscious and paralyzed bodies below her of the people she used to look up to the queen of bees nodded her head with pride

...

Maimai, the mantis insectar was currently jumping all over the room with his sword while parrying the attacks of the guards in front of him.

"I call early dibs for next time. Fighting groups is more of your style. Plus you are just leaving me to clean up your mess. Remember to close the way behind you. If I wasn't here you would just be a huge target for all of them at once." He said, trying to lecture the spider woman who didn't seem to have a care in the world.

Listening to his advice, Silk shot out a giant web covering the hall as she continued following her lunch.

The ant insectars working in perfect coordination attacked him from his sides and both his front and back.

"Damn it."

Using his signature shapeshift skill he grew arms from his chest and back and changed their hands to blades to stop all of the attacks at once. Only to be assaulted by a massive surge of pain from the newly grown limbs.

"Freaking ants and their ridiculous strength."

"Yo, that's kinda offensive." The one attacking from behind said with a reproachful tone. "We didn't say anything about you suddenly growing swords for arms."

"See! You seem so nice! Why don't we stop our fight and talk about this? We can probably come to an understanding!"

"Nah man we good. We get food, place to live. And if we have a good week, boss might just ignore us." The ant to his right said.

"Ya man, we gotta capture you so boss doesn't get angry at us. Trust me, you don't wanna see him get angry… I guess it's kinda late for that." The ant to his left said.

"Sorry dude, my condolences. Hey, boss might kill ya quickly if you behave! So it is not all bad." The ant in front of him said.

Maimai's arms that were transformed into swords suddenly changed as the blade grew and twisted, aiming to attack the off-guard humanoid ant guards. But they reacted quickly as they retreated giving him more space.

"I mean no disrespect. But how are you guys royal guards?"

"It's cuz we are strong, man. Honestly, you are pretty strong yourself my dude. Boss might spare ya if you decide to join him." Said one of them, making the other's nod in agreement.

Maimai was left speechless at the way the people who were supposed to kill him were acting. They were too friendly for him… But that gave him an idea.

"How about this. I don't wanna fight you guys. So how about I give you my proposal and my job offering and you guys give me your proposal and job offers. Who knows, we might become coworkers by the time this all ends. No need for us to kill each other."

"I don't know man, boss was pretty angry when he told us to capture you guys. What do you think Anthony?"

"But what if boss actually wants us to capture them to hire them? We might get a reward if we get him on our side. Don't ya think Antar?"

The ant guards began to mutter among themselves before nodding and putting their weapons down.

"Alright, we will listen to you first. But I can guarantee that you won't be able to beat the benefits that come from working under the king." Anthony said.

"Yeah!, if you work for boss he won't kill ya!"

"I see… Well, wait until you hear about Rimuru. I can guarantee he is better than your boss!"

"Impossible!"

And so, Maimai began to give his recruitment pitch to the royal guards. There was a surprisingly calm atmosphere as they began to talk among themselves in the middle of a destroyed hallway with one of the walls blocked with a spider web.

…

"Hehehehe, Finally, all to ourselves."

A beautiful woman with spider legs was crawling with impressive speed towards a terrified general. The mosquito woman kept on flying with erratic patterns as she dodged all of the webs being shot her way.

"Just one little bite. Here, I'll give you a bit of my blood in exchange." Silk said in what should have been a friendly tone. But to the Mosquito general sounded like a devil speaking.

"I was taught to repay kindness with kindness, and malice with cruelty. So If you stop resisting maybe I won't hurt you too much."'

As the youngest of Tempest insectars, Silk used to be the perfect picture of kindness and playfulness. She still had the childish attitude that made all of those around her want to pat her head and give her candy. Unlike the other insectars of Tempest, she hadn't lived for too long before meeting Rimuru. She was only a child when they encountered each other. A child that had gotten lost and ended near his territory by accident.

She had too much left to learn about the world. And she would have remained as a little angel had she not wandered off one day inside the labyrinth and met her very nice uncle, Guy Crimson.

Little Silk had gotten corrupted by Guy as she got a taste for violence. And now it was too late to go back.

The reason the "fearless" general of Zelanus was running away now was because of what happened moments after the shit hit the fan.

Zanzara was extremely confident in her strength and skills to steal the vitality of her enemies. That was until she had gotten tackled through the walls of the palace by Silk. That by itself would not have been enough to scare her. What did was the pain she felt in her arms and shoulder. What she saw brought the fear she hadn't felt for centuries back.

With innocent eyes, the woman on top of her was chewing on her severed arm. Taking big bites of it as if the taste was delicious. And the child-like giggle that left Silk's mouth as she offered Zanzara's own severed arm for her to try a bite. It had awakened her survival instincts. And they screamed at her to run.

The palace she had spent so long working on was currently being covered in webs as she flew through the halls. But even though she knew them like the back of her hand the crazy silver-haired demon behind her would keep up with her speed without problem, jumping from wall to wall. Leaving webs covering the hallways and exits behind her.

The spider demon was toying with her. She felt as if she could catch her at any moment, but was keeping only enough distance to give her hope. And it wasn't until she was about to reach the exit that she was tacked down once again.

"That was fun, did uncle Guy also teach you how to play tag?"

Silk was on top of her with a soft smile. Her lips were still covered with blood as she revealed her fangs.

And without any chance to flee, Zanzara decided to put all of her efforts into fighting back. She pierced the white skin of Silk and began to consume her blood as fast as she could. Hoping to weaken her.

"Well, since you are taking my blood it is only fair that I get to take another bite."

But Silk got a bit carried away and didn't stop with just one. It wasn't until there was nothing left. That she suddenly screamed in realization.

"Oh no! Dad told us to try to talk with them before fighting, didn't he…"

Silk looked all around her only to see the empty hallways.

"What am I saying. I totally talked with her. If anyone asks me I'll just say I did a good job…"

But after a few moments silk just looked down with dejection.

"I probably shouldn't lie…"

(read author's note)