Chapter twenty-seven - If he wants it, he'll have to come and get it...

"This place hasn't changed at all..."

Locke was standing on the abandoned village, in the rift in which he had defeated the queen and almost been killed by the Raijū, he was on a hunt for revenge, it was time to teach the sparkler a lesson. The sparkling demonic horse had draconic lineage and through him Locke could finally complete the requirements for his evolution, two birds with one stone.

"You are mistaken, this place looks worse than before!" Tia complained.

Locke looked around, the abandoned village looked a little more destroyed than before, there were lightning impact craters all over the place, the forest had grown again after the fire he was caused but it was still far from the previous green splendor, and he he could see insects in the distance, but they number was sparse. "It looks like the sparkye went out of control around here... Was he trying to kill everything? Why?"

Locke started walking without an apparent direction, he was trying to find the entrance through which the Raijū had entered, since it was obviously not the same entrance as his, but he was out of luck, however he found a second nest of estirges.

"Just look! Our old friends! " Locke smiled. "Last time that son of a b*tch appeared after I killed the queen, will he show up if I kill this one too?" Locke raised his hand, a black fireball started to form and increases in the air, Locke used a quarter of his total mana to create a huge flame attack and launched it.

The sphere of flames emitted an absurd heat, while it tore the space to the nest a trail of black flames and burnt earth covered the path, the walls of the nest began to burn even before the sphere touched it, when the gigant fireball reached the wall the sphere caused a huge explosion, so big that even Locke didn't wait for her, he had to run with Tia to avoid the shock wave.

"You crazy pyromaniac!" Tia screamed in protest. "Are you trying to burn this world up?"

When Locke attacked the nest he was expecting a fight, he did not think that his attack would bring pure annihilation to the insect monsters, the few survivors were so burned that they died shortly thereafter.

"That did the trick" He replied, trying to make an innocent face, but the fairy crossed his arms and ignored him. Locke sighed.

Locke camouflaged himself and waited a few hours, yet there was no sign of the target.

"Was my guess wrong?" Locke questioned.

"I highly doubt it... the other time that arrived shortly after we killed the queen... maybe she died too quickly this time and he didn't notice?" Tia replied with another theory.

"Worth a try! Let's test your theory!" Locke left looking for another hive.

This rift was small compared to the earth, but it was still a considerable size, Locke walked for four hours until he found another nest, this time he did not attack with fire, he used a sharp blade of shadows to cut the wall and make an opening, he invaded the nest directly.

The interior of the nest was disgusting, the walls and floor were covered with a strange gooey substance with the consistency of pus and the smell was horrible rancid, there were a lot of holes and intricate shaped tunnels all over the wall, the paths that the monsters moved by.

"Are you going to get into one of these? Gonna be fun to watch!" Tia scoffed.

Locke looked at the gooey-filled tunnels. "Over my dead body!"

Locke covered his face with the gas mask, the same one he used in his first pyromaniac moment, when he burned the forest and the nest, he created drills made of shadows and began to violently destroy the walls, turning the labyrinth into a straight tunnel.

"Cheateeeerrrr! Boo-hoo!" Tia joked.

Locke's invasion did not go unnoticed and soon a swarm of estirges came together in an massive attack. Locke didn't even have to take his hands out of his pockets, the creatures were shattered like flies by the shadows drills before they could even approach him.

"These are smaller than the ones we found before..." Tia commented.

"I feel like a bullie, it looks like I'm taking advantage of the weak..." Locke replied, he wasn't even leveling up, so the whole killing spree seemed unnecessary. 'Well... We do what we have to do' he thought.

It didn't take long for them to reach the queen's chamber, it was a circular chamber in the middle of the nest, the queen was lying close to one of the walls, with her swollen abdomen next to a pile of eggs, this queen was different from the previous one, no only her body was smaller as she was also much less hideous than the first queen, her shape was similar to that of the other estirges, but she had six wings, her body was barely larger than a horse, her legs were stunted and despite her sharp beak, that resembled a mixture of sword and handsaw, The queen did not appear to have offensive capabilities, in fact, she looked weak and miserable.

About twelve hunting estirges surrounded the queen, they were also smaller than Locke remembered, their blades also looked blunt. They charged against Locke as soon as he entered the queen chamber, the shadows formed two giant hands in the air and began to smack down the estirges as if they were mere mosquitoes, at last Locke was there facing the queen, he was ready to kill her when he stopped.

Locke was confused, the queen was not trying to fight, she had raised her two front legs withered in what appeared to be a sign of surrender, She tried to make an effort to cover the eggs using her body.

"Does this thing think?" Locke shouted.

"Maybe she is a mutation!" Tia replied "Her shape is different from the standard too! She looks more fragile... but also... more intelligent than usual ones..."

"And now? What do I do?" It seemed wrong for Locke to kill a surrendering creature. "Maybe I should look for another hive?"

"Hmm... She looks smart enough, maybe you can get some information from her?"

Locke looked at the queen, she was still standing in front of her eggs, with her paws in surrender, as soon as she realized the vision of Locke she lowered her head to the floor, exposing the back of her neck, there was no better way to make it clear that she had surrendered herself to Locke.

Locke approached the queen, he did not know how to proceed, he saw the queen's antennae that swayed each of his movements, shivering the closer he got.

"Wait, if she is smart you may be able to extract her memories! Give it a try!"

Locke touched one of the antennae grudgingly, even though this queen was not as ugly as the other, her appearance was still ugly, when touching the antennae he began to feel a sensation similar to when Tia spoke to him mentally, but it was strange and weak, almost imperceptible, and he could not understand anything of what she was trying to communicate, it seems that the queen simply had neither the power nor the mental capacity to pass through Locke's defenses.

"I hope this thing has memories"

Locke felt the queen's fragile mind and hesitated, he feared that the memory spell would destroy that very small mind, but in the end he decided to go ahead, the queen's guards tried to kill him so she owed one to him, he activated the memory seeker.

His mind crossed the creature's barriers as if they were made of paper, the queen was paralyzed, it was as if the sea invaded a drop of water, Locke plunged into the creature's mind and began to observe everything the creature knew.

The insect queen's mind was strange, a alien mind, her way of thinking was totally different from what Locke was used to, and it was difficult for Locke to understand. Her mind was a mixture of colors, smells, flavors and pheromones, a cacophony of confused and scattered information.

The fact that Locke's mind is invading the creature didn't seem to help, the mind of the script was extremely confused and frightened, it was different from all the other times that Locke used the spell. Locke started to get sick with the confusion, so he forced the creature's mind to calm down, his power invaded the creature, and the strange mind began to be affected, calming down and organizing herself in the most useful way for Locke, an unnatural way.

'Did I break her?'

As the mind began to change slowly, Locke began to understand what he needed from the creature.

Although her memories were still broken, Locke got enough for what he needed, he abandoned the creature's mind and returned to reality.

The creature woke up from paralysis at the same moment, it lifted its insect head and looked at Locke in a strange way, Locke looked back at her confused, he felt that something had changed in the queen, his eyes seemed... grateful?

The queen turned and started to wrap herself in a cocoon, it seemed that she had total confidence that she would not be attacked, she was soon completely sealed off from the world.

"What happened? She looks... different?!?" Tia questioned.

"I have no f*cking idea," Locke replied. "Let's go outside, I already got everything I needed ..."

Locke started walking the same way he had come back, he stopped for a moment and looked back towards the queen's cocoon, he looked for a while.

"What's it?" Tia asked curiously at Locke's enigmatic expression.

"Nothing..." Locke replied, still looking at the cocoon with a complicated expression, at last he turned and walked outside. 'What I have done?'

Inside the cocoon, the queen's body and mind began to change dramatically.

***

"So, are we going to attack another nest?" Tia questioned.

"No, I know how to get that dipsh*t straight to me," Locke commented.

"So ... are you going to share the knowledge with your partner here?" Tia protested.

Locke started to explain what he had gotten from the queen's mind.

The insect queen's memories were inherited through the generations, although they were confusing, they were enough to know some important things, through them Locke can discover that this world was a small secondary dimension that had been chosen as a cultivation field for the Raijū, the estirges and the other monsters did not are originated from that dimension, In the past this rift was a settlement of a human tribe, when the insects arrived they destroyed all humans and native creatures, the Jackaloupes being the only survivors, due to their abnormal ability to reproduce.

The insects were 'harvested' periodically by the thunder beast after a certain period of time, so that they contributed to the creature's strengthening. The reason the Raijū broke protocol and attacked before standard time had nothing to do with the death of the queens or the fire caused by Locke, It was not uncommon for insects to kill each other after all, the reason was the disappearance of the fragment of sin.

Apparently, the queen with the sin fragment was different from the others, the Raijū avoided her during her hunts, as if she were being left to grow purposefully, when Locke killed the queen the Raijū invaded the dimension as quickly as possible, in search of the sin fragment, Locke deduced that the only reason the Raijū did not confirm his death was because he did not realize that Locke had obtained and sealed the fragment of the gluttony sin, for that reason the Raijū went out killing everything he saw along the way, he was looking for the thief.

Locke opened the system screen and the inventory tab, he observed the sphere full of 'dirt' that he he had forgotten stored there a long time ago.

"I'm glad I didn't destroy this thing, I never thought it would be useful! I have no idea why this sparkly b*tch wants this dirty sh*t but... If he wants it, he'll have to come and get it..." Locke's smile was scary. "We are going to prepare a stage for this show!"

Locke spent the next few days getting ready, even though he was not absolutely sure that the Raijū would perceive the energy of the sin fragment as soon as he released the seal he decided to bet on that chance.

He went back to the abandoned village near the exit of the rift, after all, if things went to sh*t he could always run, he started to analyze the environment and prepare traps, the enemy could fly and that gave him a little worry, he feared the Raijū would flee as soon as he attacked, so he set up a plan, he piled up the debris of the houses and turned the village over, destroying almost everything, giving the appearance of a great battle having happened on the site, he started to pile up the insect corpses that he had achieved during his journeys, he also took a living antilion.

"Sorry about that buddy, but you shouldn't have tried to eat me..." Locke started pulling out all the creature's limbs, leaving only his head and his torso intact, then he threw the scripture among the corpses, the insect without members began to try bite everything in his rage.

Locke started charging silver coins with witchcraft, carrying silverligth magic on each one, he fastened the coins on the walls and the surrounding soil, hiding his existence with the Concealment rune, he hoped his plans were sufficient. That way he would have many rays of light coming from the most diverse directions, ready to hit the sparkly at the right time, even though the silverlight was not strong against living creatures and was more effective on undead monsters, he hoped it would do enough damage to delay the Raijū.

Locke removed the sphere filled with black-purple smoke from the inventory, he jumped over to the injured antilion and grabbed it with one hand.

"Open the mouth!" Locke shouted as he brought the creature close to him.

The antilion tried to bite Locke in anger, but Locke stuck his hand inside the hole in his jaw with the ball and all, maybe the creature could hurt him in the past, but now the creature's clamps felt like a baby's grip. "Swallow, don't spit!"

After shoving the sphere with the gluttony sin into the insect's throat, Locke threw it over the corpses. "Undo the seal!"

Tia used the system screen and undid the seal of the sin, the antilion began to squirm, purple smoke came out of his mouth nonstop and he trembled.

"I hope this works..." Locke disappeared with the camouflage.

The insect looked crazy, its jaw started to work on the pile of corpses, and even with its body ripped open and its wounds expelling purple smoke, it devoured everything with voracity.

His body started to grow at a visible speed, his carapace started to tear and sharp hair grew on it, the limbs started to be grow back, in a wrong and crooked way.

The creature seemed to be in a frenzy, he ate the corpses at an absurd speed and then began to swallow dirt and debris around.

"This thing is getting a little out of control..." Tia commented.

Locke looked at the sky, waiting, he knew that the creature would never become stronger than the queen and he could now kill the queen with one single blow.

The creature did not seem to be combining well with sin, its body was growing twisted and confused, some limbs were becoming huge and others were small, the creature began to tear off its own limbs and devour them with madness.

"Come on, you bastard! I know you want this!" Locke spoke to the sky, hopeful. "Come and get what is yours!"

The sky started to darken, and Locke's smile took on a somber touch.

"Come on motherf*cker, come on!"