5 5. Nightmare Winter | part 1

It was cold. Even under the blanket of leaves above the gigantic forest, the air would prickle your skin. The skies were as red as the snow that descended from the unholy winter that covered the world in blood. New monsters were born inside the fallen fruits of the colossal trees during this annual calamity. They ate and clawed themselves free from their grounded pods.

The shadowy man appeared in the darkened forest, his weightless steps freezing grass it touched. He saw something among the newly hatched polymorphs consuming the fruits they had just broken out of. It was a little fledgling worm. It had drilled itself free from a small deformed fruit, so small that it could fit in his hand, not even a quarter the size of the other fruits. The worm laid between the giant polymorphs around it, small, weak, armless, legless, barely even a monster. A bear-like polymorph grabbed its fruit before it could eat it, and munched on it right in front of the worm.

The man walked to the little one, invisible, and spoke.

"Do you want to be stronger?"

The wiggling worm halted, hearing his words.

"Do you want to take revenge? To become so strong no one could abuse you. To one day become so perfect that no flawed being could compare to you? I can grant you any desire. Speak. I will understand, just as you understand my words."

"I... don't... want..."

"What?"

"I... don't... want... to... be... alone..."

He was taken aback for a moment.

"Very well. I can grant you power to… never be alone…?"

The man stood up, and suddenly all the monsters around looked at him. They saw him, a human made out of darkness. Some polymorphs ran in fear, others watched cautiously.

Suddenly, a blizzard of red frost emerged from his form, surrounding him in a spinning snow storm that launched its blood and hail all around. The monsters left tried to escape, but their feet froze to the ground, the frostbite crawling up their legs.

Then the blizzard stopped.

The giant trees were blasted in demonic frost. The grass turned red with ice. Shrubbery, cold and dead. Ice thorns and spikes erupted outwards, melting and dripping what appeared to be glowing blood.

The polymorphs around were all turned into tainted sculptures. One of them was the bear monster, frozen in a horrific scream in an attempt to rip its legs off.

The man walked up to it, and with a precise hit its forehead split open, revealing its core. He took it from its head, and came to the worm, unharmed, wriggling in the red snow.

"Here." He dropped the core next to the worm, and sat by it.

"I will end any arrogance that belittles you. I will remain by your side, even in your weakest or strongest, I will lead you to your desire. I will guide you, and teach you the power to achieve it. You will never be forsaken. Every beast, reptile... monster, human... they will all know who you are, for your children will reach every corner of the world. The human-likes and humans, they will all know who you are! Your children will be abundant, they will rule every land, island, and star, and they all will be by your side. All so that you will never be alone. And in return, you will satisfy my dream to end humanity. What do you say?"

"... I... accept..."

...

Six months later.

The worm changed. She lived in a cave, armoured with a grey carapace, with mantis claws edged like a saw. Three pairs of legs on a long body, like a beetle larva. Mother started to resemble the scypede I remembered her to be.

She created her hundredth daughter, who looked as primitive as her.

"Congratulations, your one hundredth companion! A few more years and your friends will reach every corner of the world. You will never be alone no matter where you are!" The man clapped to himself.

"How... about... you...?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your... wish...?"

"... When the time is right, we'll strike against humanity, and destroy as much as we can."

"I see... what will... happen to my daughters?" I... don't want them... to be in... a war..."

"..." He looked away for a moment, and clutched the book inside his chest. "Right..."

He looked around the cave, many of her daughters were guards, protecting her and their home. One of them was missing an eye, the first daughter, Mother hated herself so much for accidentally creating her child with a deformity.

There were also two daughters who stood so close to each other, twins born by mother's mistake of splitting a core she was making in half, if it weren't for him, they would've died.

There was another daughter, as regular as any other, but Mother almost sacrificed herself to save her from a giant monster owl.

The man hesitated.

"We don't have to..." He muttered to himself.

"What...?"

"I'll be considerate. Keep working on your children. Only... uh... once they're all so powerful no human could kill them, when we'll do it." He let go of the book back inside of him.

"R-really?"

"Yes, come on, I found a monster down south that can create structures, we can make good use of that. We could make a nest wherever you want! Maybe even make multiple outposts for your family.

"Our..."

"Our what?"

"..."

...

One week later...

The cave, covered in red ice. Cold thorns and spikes riddled everywhere. Crimson pooled on the ground.

Mother clawed her face, and smashed her head to the wet cave floor over and over again. "My children! My children! My children!" She was missing an eye, ripped right out of her head, half her body crushed flat.

All around, dismembered primitive scypedes, bodies twisted broken, heads caved in, cores crushed before they could even be absorbed. There was a molluscoid monster that could barely fit in the cave. A giant clam with several tentacles emerging from its mouth. In between the tentacles was one large eye glowing green. The tentacles were dripping flesh disintegrating slime. It dragged itself forwards, its tentacles feeling around the dark cave.

The shadowy man stood in front of the beast, standing between the monster and Mother, cold blasting outwards from his form. He looked around, dozens of fractured corpses of my siblings scattered around their frozen home.

He pointed his hand forwards at the giant tentacle clam, and fired a lance of red ice. But before it reached, The monster's eye flashed a green light and the lance disintegrated into vapor. When he saw the monster unaffected, he dropped his arms, he couldn't even feel his own breaths anymore. He felt so numb. He didn't have the mana for this. His existence was flickering, he couldn't afford to be banished underground again, but he also couldn't let the worm die when there was no place for her in the afterlife.

Mother's face deformed beyond recognition as she repeatedly smashed her head on the ground, whimpering and screaming in despair.

The clam launched its tentacles towards him. It phased right through his body, and towards Mother. When he realized what had just happened, he grit his teeth and threw a fist into the monster's eye. His hand phased through, and grabbed the monster's core. The creature suddenly started whipping its tentacles at the man, but it went right through him. With a step on its face, he pulled the core with two hands. The monster's eye flashed a green light, burning his shadowy form, corroding his ghost. But even as his shadow began to break into smoke. He couldn't bring himself to see Mother suffer any more. It was his fault why she survived this long, he must take responsibility for the suffering he had brought her through. Even if he will disappear for another hundred years, a thousand years, he will at least make sure this demon will never live after what it's done.

Then he let go, and fell on his back. His hands were gone. Nothing but stumps where his hands should be on his silhouette body.

The monster ran away, escaping from the cave, its limbs frostbitten, and eye frozen blind.

Shaking, he stood up, and saw mother, too weak to smash her head on the ground.

"Everything... everything... where is... everything... why... did this happen..."

"..."

"Please... bring them back... my daughters... bring them back... please... please... I beg you..."

...

... Three months later – The present…

"Where... are they... where... are... they..." Mother clawed her face. Awaiting the return of many of her daughters, yet they are still gone.

"Look, t-they might not be alive anymore. We can't just keep waiting for them."

"They're... not dead! They can't... be, they can't be. Not this... again, never... again. Please, find... them, let's find them, we can... find them... please."

"Sometimes, we lose, sometimes we win. You've known that. Many of your daughters have never returned when they hunted. This is no different."

He walked to her, and placed a hand on her head.

"You won't lose everything again. We have learned from our mistakes, this green light within you is proof of that. That's why you need to calm down."

"I-I... I..."

"It's time to go. We might come back here a month later, and the humans never came, and your lost daughters were just waiting here for you the whole time, or they all return to die. But what really matters, is you live on. If you die, you will be alone forever, and your living daughters will wither in time without meaning. Don't you understand that?"

"I..."

"So, come with me. We'll wait the danger out, or find somewhere else to go. What do you say? Avarice?"

She was silent for a moment. "I... I wil-"

An explosion shook the earth. When The Queen realized, she immediately launched herself to the ceiling and broke through the roof. On top of the hive, she looked down to see what happened. All around the hive, surrounding, were humans. They encircled the hive.

And the strewed corpses of her children.

The Silver Knight was there. He placed a hand on the ground, and grabbed the soil. He pulled out a compact boulder of dirt three times his size and raised it over his head. The cloaked woman appeared and touched the boulder. He launched the boulder on the top of the hive, aiming for the queen.

Mid-air, for a moment, the giant ball of soil shined a light. Suddenly, not even half a blink. The boulder collided with Mother.

The ball split in half and slid around her sides. Revealing her form. Two pairs of scythes protecting her front.

Suddenly, hundreds of scypedes emerged from the countless entrances of the hive, pouncing right at the humans.

Below the feet of the adventurers, burrowed scypedes emerged like devouring jaws.

From the leaves above, scypedes dived down like birds of prey.

Yet the humans showed no fear. They stood steadfast, and pointed their staffs and weapons, and in a single moment… a dozen colorful lights flashed.

Fire balls, Wind blades, icicle lances, and other magical spells were fired. The Silver Knight stabbed his giant sword on the ground, freezing the soil and all scypedes hiding in it. Scypedes from above disintegrated by magic and shattered by bolts, arrows, and bullets before they even reached the ground. Pouncing scypedes, falling into a wall of spears and axes to be cut in pieces.

The scypedes retreated closer to the hive, being struck by countless projectiles. They countered the magic with flashes of anti-magic, yet they were overwhelmed and drowned by the humans' endless spells.

The Queen violently shook. She couldn't bring herself to move. She wanted to at least fight for her daughters, but she couldn't even conjure the courage to do so. She couldn't even do something as simple as remove the scythes covering her face.