A Terrifying Truth

"How well the idiots here cook. Don't you think so Kalishar?", asked Fenrir with a wide smile while he rubbed his belly.

"I never imagined that meat could have other kinds of flavors, it always tastes the same normally, but this one is different.", replied the girl cheerfully imitating the man's actions.

"You damned wretches."

Fenrir and Kalishar look at the knights, who had come to eat together and spend a nice moment remembering the fallen, but they get the unpleasant surprise that those two idiots were eating without them. The cook apologized but felt his life was in danger if he did not accept their demands.

Captain Bruce just looked at his men and told them not to make a fuss, each person handled their grief in the best way possible, for now, no one was going to make a fuss over little things and it was a better decision to remember with joy and cry sweet tears for the memories of the great departed heroes.

"Lord, how long must we go on putting up with that cretin? He already cried for his dead, insulted us and rested while he recovered. We should kick him out of the place.", Triforn commented between whispers.

"The truth is, even I started to get angry with those two." The elf added.

"What happened Ahori? Trouble with your future husband?" sneered a light-skinned, bald, and completely white-eyed, but not blind, companion. "You want me to use my special vision to assess your fate and his?"

"Try it just for a second Zafren and I'll kill you throwing zerbarix."

"How cruel even though I'm trying to be a good partner."

"Calm down everyone, I won't lie even I had planned on forcing Fenrir to leave once I learned the truth about his brother. I thought that once he experienced a bit of that terror that instilled the nest into the hearts of the bravest knights, the rude and rebellious spirit in him would subside and thus he would be easy to take out without resistance."

"But in the end that idiot entered the nest without even a second's thought," replied a lizard man in black with purple stripes.

"I know Serek, at the time I didn't know if Fenrir was brave, stupid, suicidal or all of the above. Truth be told, I wrote him off and a part of me felt guilty because no matter how much of a cretin someone is, our duty as knights is to keep people, magical creatures or beasts from stupidly risking their lives." He sighs and looks at the young man talking to the girl who rescued him in laughter. "Those two were lucky to get out alive. Despite the weird or annoying personalities of our new guests, there is one thing that is certain about them and it would be idiotic of us not to appreciate it, no, rather take advantage of it for our noble cause."

"But that idiot came almost dead all the way here.", said Triforn observing Fenrir as well. "He doesn't look like he has anything special and he forced the power of the boots that hurt his feet, he's an idiot who makes desperate moves.

"I don't think Fenrir would have put up with so much if that's all it was. Perhaps, he has a few things he can offer, only if that young man doesn't fix his attitude, it will just be a waste of potential."

Kalishar asks Fenrir about how one managed to do great wonders with few things to make a simple rich meat of a wonderful meat. He answered him based on his experience, but as he spoke, he quietly listened to the conversation of Bruce and his boys. Whenever he felt someone was talking about him, he instinctively moved his face in the direction of where he felt the sensation.

The girl sensing the man's attention elsewhere asked out of curiosity, he didn't know what was going to happen next. Act as he normally would, roam and steal, play on the pride of the knights, and make his legacy based on the pain and humiliation of others. He was a scumbag after all, it was like being a fish that came out of the water and had to return to its habitat. Despite that, Fenrir remembered the words he said at Lion's funeral, he knew that this would perhaps be his best opportunity to be the good person that his younger brother wanted Fenrir to be.

"I really wish I didn't have to do this. I want to leave now, but this dilemma is keeping me from being myself" He thought. "By the way Kalishar, I need you to answer the questions I ask you if we want this partnership to work."

"Is it that important for you to know things about me?"

"Well, I understand that as someone of dubious reputation, it is best to avoid giving information about oneself to others. You never know who to trust let alone between two scumbags of people, although I don't know if that applies in your case because I don't know how dirty your nose is, but let's start with some simple things and you should answer me yes or yes." Fenrir notices the look of disgust on the girl's face. "Well let's start, I already know your name is Kalishar, but now I want to know, your home."

"I don't have one."

"I told you that you should answer me."

"It's that I don't have that which you call home, I am someone who must keep moving and sleep little to stay alive. That's an honest answer I can give you."

"Ok, it's funny, but I guess it's inevitable, I too spent some time moving from place to place with no place to call home, though now my carriage is the closest thing to one with my beloved horse Ray." He smiles. "Anyway, my next question is, how did you save me?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"I mean, you were there before, after talking to enough people, no one knows anything about you, let alone having seen you enter the nest on any occasion. It's strange, it almost seems like you've lived there your whole life."

The girl readied her scarf under the table pointing at Fenrir's heart ready to strike if the man said anything to make her feel threatened. She didn't want to get to that kind of thing, but it was easy for her to escape, she didn't want to lose that flame that inspired her.

"Were you perhaps someone who lived in this city or was nearby when the earthquakes occurred that revealed different entrances to the zerbarix nest?"

"Uh?! Yes, that's what happened."

Fenrir noticed that little flash of doubt, he sighed but didn't point it out, he knew the girl was hiding something, but in a way, he would let it go because she saved his life and helped carry Lion's body outside to receive a dignified burial.

"Finally, you're good at fighting, I won't lie to you, thanks to my lifestyle, we might run into a lot of people or monsters willing to kill us."

"I can assure you that if I fight, there will be no enemy that can withstand my strength."

"Well, with that I'll be satisfied for now!" he grins from ear to ear. "We'll work together for a while, I'll just say that it's more than obvious that if I feel you betray me, I'll abandon you without any remorse. Understood?"

The girl shows a serious but honest look, she nods knowing that she is being warned, something completely natural for her, after all, her life is about agreements with this kind of code. Bruce approaches Fenrir and asks him if they can talk. The man accepts to discover that the captain of the Knights of the Sun of Rinhood wants to ask him for a favor.

Because he and that mysterious girl had so far been the only ones to enter and leave that horrible nest and live to tell the tale, their knowledge, and experience should be shared to help win that battle. The captain was going to use threat and negotiation if necessary. They had been more than good to Fenrir despite his unbearable attitude and he would not take no for an answer. Surprisingly, Fenrir agreed to help pay for the old man's help and understanding of him and his younger brother, they agreed to a meeting to discuss it further after Bruce finished eating.

"Help them with the zerbarix nest?!", Fenrir said surprised.

"Yes, that's exactly it, after all, you and that girl are so far the only ones who got in and out of there alive."

"I don't know if that's possible."

"Please, I wouldn't want to resort to the typical, we helped you, we saved you from death and you owe us one. But if I have to, I will move what resources I still have in my possession to force you in, after all, you don't have your relics in your possession and I don't think it would be hard to hold you here if it came to it." The man looks at Fenrir's reactions, he expects the offensive and annoying comments that he has always given since he entered the base.

"I wish I could help, I can give all the information I got, but if we look objectively speaking, I don't think it can work. At the end of the day, these things are frighteningly adaptive, yesterday's strategy won't work tomorrow." He sighs heavily. "The zerbarix if they were the sign of imminent death before, today is the sign of the undeniable end."

"I beg your pardon?"

"While fighting down below with those things, I could see that these creatures fight and are capable of using tactics like us, arguably even better than us because they are not afraid to sacrifice each other to achieve their goals. They apply cannibalism among themselves because they know that their reproductive capacity is the most efficient to prevent extinction, but the most curious thing is that these seem to starve themselves voluntarily."

"Voluntary starvation. Please can you explain more? Even if it's true that you can't give much, I need you to still be able to share what you've learned." He invited Fenrir to sit down.

That man who did not respect authority approaches and accepts the knight captain's show of generosity.

"When I was inside that place, I could see the piles of corpses these things have accumulated, except for Lion. It looked like the zerbarix didn't want to waste time on those things, but they kept them. At first, I thought they were saving quality food for later, but when one zerbarix wanted to eat from that pile, it turned into food for the others." Fenrir remembers the terrible scene, and even with those feelings, he would not forget: fear and curiosity were what he felt about the creatures' strange behavior. "It's just a personal theory and, as I said, it may not help much, but that starving behavior may be due to one thing."

"And that would be, in your opinion."

"Natural selection, they seek to know which zerbarix are capable of enduring hunger so that they eat the weakest of their kind and only the strongest are left to rule."

"Are you sure about that, I say. natural selection to eat the zerbarix that can't stand hunger? That sounds ridiculous if I may comment."

"It may be, and I hope I'm wrong, but seeing how they treat each other, devouring each other only when one can't stand starvation and resorts to human flesh, what if human flesh was no longer the glorious sustenance we thought before. What if there was another way to feed and that somehow that food gave you an advantage over others. I ask you how much do we really know about the zerbarix? And I'm not talking about the old books that only show an obsolete zerbarix."

"For they are supposed to be soulless machines to eat all living things, animal, animal or other kinds of beings, their hunger does not distinguish good food from bad. As long as they fill their stomachs it is more than enough, but those things seem like they will never know satiety because they just eat and eat until there is no more to eat but each other."

"Sadly, we seem to force that last part and what's worse, rather than benefiting us, it benefits them."

Bruce, for a second, that Fenrir was just telling him nonsense just to annoy him, that it must be another one of his jokes or misleading comments to irritate him. Fenrir recognized the old man's expression and apologized to him, but he assured him that those remarks were things he thought, they were not about any bad taste jokes, it was about a truth that was in front of them that they should be worried about what it might imply.