“You didn’t have to go so hard on him,” said Chloe, walking beside Henry.

  “I didn’t have to. I wanted to,” Henry responded. He gnced behind him. There, Barry was, trailing slowly behind them while shouldering Alex on his back. Barry was looking at him warily while Alex was unconscious. The pain from the kick was too much for him to stay awake. Henry felt a tad guilty, but it faded whenever he thought about how he left Chloe for dead. “He practically left you for dead, Chloe.”

  “Well, I’m fine, for the most part. I am angry, but I don’t think what you did is warranted.”

  “Henry didn’t kill him,” Ani said. “He’s still breathing, no?”

  “Killing him would have been better. He’s crippled now, probably for life.”

  “Probably?”

  “The world has changed a lot in just a few months. If he’s willing to spare the money, he could regain his health.”

  “Oh? Should I make it more permanent?” Henry asked with a devious smile.

  “No,” Chloe answered sharply. “You’ve done enough. It won’t look good on my report if he dies.”

  “I doubt it would look any better even in the current state.”

  “Just… leave him be. I’m sure he has learned his lesson. We should be focusing on the path ahead of us. We don’t wanna get ambushed again.”

  Henry looked ahead. There was nothing ahead except for more stagmites and stacites. They were not in a tunnel but in a vast area that spanned further than the eye could see. While this gave them more space, it also made them more vulnerable to ambushes and sudden attacks. “I don’t sense anything in the vicinity.”

  “Neither did I when my team was ambushed. I don’t know how they did it, but the monsters can hide themselves from our detection.”

  “Only if they stayed passive. I can sense them when they have any intention of attacking. I guess they are afraid of me.”

  “Perhaps, but there’s something else here.”

  “Something else? A different monster?”

  “I’m not sure. We haven’t seen it, but we have seen traces of it. It seems to be hunting these… lizard wolves for food.”

  “Lizard wolves, huh. No brilliant names, yet?”

  “We have only just discovered this massive maze of a cave.”

  “Who are these ‘we’?”

  “The Paranormal Investigation Commission, or PIC for short.”

  “PIC, really?”

  “It’s a tad ridiculous, I know, but the name is the least of my worries.”

  It was only a brief moment but Henry caught a glimpse of sadness and unease in Chloe’s eyes. “...You said the world has changed a great deal. Just how great a deal?”

  “Let’s just say the paranormal stuff had gotten too big to be hidden from the public. The existence of superhumans was revealed. New regutions and ws were being concocted to fit the new era, and it’s not going smoothly. Weirder things kept happening each day.”

  “Weird things?” Henry frowned. “Such as?”

  “The appearance of ghosts.”

  “Ghosts? Serious?”

  “Yes, ghosts.”

  Henry looked to Ani. “Do we have ghosts back in our world?”

  “There are ghosts, but they are rare,” Ani answered. “It was believed that only the dead with heavy regrets remained as ghosts, or if they were compelled to stay in the mortal realm by some spells.”

  “We still do not know the reason for these ghosts to appear, but they are not much of a headache compared to the others.”

  “The others?” The more Henry heard, the more he felt ill at ease. “You said my actions have not gone unnoticed. Do you mean the public has noticed?”

  “It was the government who noticed first, but they did a terrible job in hiding the aftermath of your… battle. Strange things start popping up after your departure. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that you might be somehow responsible for all these.”

  “Including this dungeon?”

  “We call them nests. That’s the official term. And yes, including this cave, or nest.”

  “How many nests are there?”

  “So far, there have been thousands of them.”

  “Oh… what have I done?”

  “Hey, don’t bme yourself just yet. It’s just a hypothesis and a theory. Nothing’s certain about why these things happen, yet. Even before you appeared, things had already been weird. You may simply be a catalyst.”

  “That doesn’t make things better.”

  Chloe smiled wryly. “I suppose it doesn’t.”

  “Ahead!” Ani called out suddenly in a hushed voice.

  Henry and Chloe snapped their gazes forward.

  “What is it?” Chloe inquired.

  “There’s something ahead.”

  Chloe looked ahead. There was the carcass of a lizard wolf, or what remained of one. There was only its head and less than a quarter of its body. Something had gouged out and emptied most of its innards. “It’s the predator of these monsters. This carcass is fresh. The predator must be nearby.”

  “Hmm… Strange. I don’t see any tracks near the carcass despite it being a recent kill,” Henry observed. “The predator might be light in weight.”

  “Not likely,” Ani said. “Look at the carcass. It was pretty much being torn apart by cws and fangs. Being light would not have such strength. Moreover, it is such a gruesome kill. Yet, it leaves no blood traces behind when it leaves. This predator is good at covering its tracks.”

  “It didn’t bother us when we were descending into the nest. It didn’t even attack us while we were busy fleeing from the lizard wolves. It’s steering clear of us.”

  “Or it might be waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike,” Henry suggested. “Maybe it’s wary of you, then. Now, it’s wary of me. Damn, these monsters are clever.”

  “Clever as they may be, they are still monsters in the end. We are meat and flesh. We are their food. There’s no way it would just let us leave without taking a sample of a bite at us.”

  “It can try. It won’t do much for us.”

  “It will try and it’s not us that I’m worried about.” Chloe gnced behind. “It’s them.”

  “Really?”

  “One may be useless and one may be scummy, but they are still my responsibility. I’ll have you know. I was appointed as the leader of the squad.”

  “Oh? Well, my condolences. You are definitely getting chewed out after this debacle is over.”

  “It would be nice if it simply ended with me getting chewed out. I might get tired for this.”

  “You’re not the perpetrator.”

  “You think the government would care? They just wanted a sacrificial mb. As a… superhuman, I would be their primary choice.”

  “That’s terribly unfair. Why do you even work for them?”

  “I don’t have a choice. Superhumans aren’t exactly being treated well by the world. People are afraid of us. We needed to be supervised and controlled, according to the general consensus. If I don’t work for the PIC, I would be locked up in some secret prison somewhere. Superhumans may have become prevalent but we are only one percent of the global popution.”

  “...I’m sorry.”

  Chloe rolled her eyes. “What are you sorry for? It’s not your fault. You didn’t compel them to persecute me.”

  “Still, I feel bad for you.”

  “Don’t. It doesn’t do shit for me.”

  “Well… I do have an idea that might benefit you.”

  Chloe raised an eyebrow.

  “You can come with me to my world.”

  Chloe widened her eyes. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I am very serious.”

  “I’ll be gd to have another sister-spouse,” said Ani.

  “Sister-spouse?” Chloe frowned. “Henry, what is she talking about?”

  Henry chuckled wryly. “Well, that’s— it’s complicated. We can discuss this further once we are out of this forsaken pce.”

  As if right on cue, a deathly and hushed growl echoed across the vast room.

  “What was that?” Henry questioned.

  “It’s that thing. The predator of those lizard wolves.”

  “Oh, god! Oh, god!” Barry began to panic. “We’re dead… We are so dead.”

  “Calm down, Barry.”

  “How can I be calm, Chloe!? Those wolves fear this thing. We should too.”

  “Panicking won’t do you, or us, any good. So, calm the hell down, or I will make you.”

  Barry calmed down immediately. “Alright… alright. I’ll calm… At least tell me, do we have a pn?”

  Chloe looked at Henry.

  “Don’t look at me. I barely know this new adversary.”

  “I’m counting on you that it doesn’t get the drop on us.”

  Henry grinned. “It won’t. If it does, we are fucked.”

  “Strange,” Ani muttered. “Why is it revealing its presence to us? It is an unusual behaviour for a predator.”

  “A form of intimidation?” Henry ventured a guess.

  “If it is, that will be a terrible move on the predator’s part. It couldn’t have not known about your fight with the lizard wolves. It should know that you are just as formidable as it is.”

  “An invite to challenge, perhaps?”

  “It wouldn’t have made an invitation without showing itself. These are animals, not humans.”

  “Whatever it’s trying to do, we should keep moving,” Chloe suggested.

  “Agreed. We can always retaliate when it strikes.”

  “Alright, then. Let’s keep moving.”

  They picked up their pace. Henry led the way. Ani trailed behind him. Barry followed behind Ani, with the still-unconscious Alex on his back. Chloe took her position at the farthest back. They strode through the room without giving into the constant growls that made the air shiver. It was a chilling, hushed cry, as if mocking them for running.

  “Henry, it might attack us at any moment now,” said Ani.

  “I don’t sense anything near us.”

  “If a predator sees something running away from it, it would think that it has the advantage. It will let this window of opportunity go.”

  “Then, be prepared to retaliate at any time, or be ready to run.”

  The growl was growing louder. Yet, they still couldn’t pinpoint where the sound was coming from. It was coming from everywhere. The vast emptiness had given the predator a huge advantage. Every noise it made was deflected and distorted by the walls and ground.

  “Oh, damn,” Henry muttered.

  “What is it?” Ani had to ask. The mutter was a sudden one.

  “It’s just a sudden thought. What are the chances that there isn’t just one predator?”

  “Possible, but it would be unlikely. The carcass from before seemed like the work of a single monster. If there are two of them, it would suggest that they had enough intelligence to fool its prey into thinking that there’s only one of them. Then, this growling might not be a form of intimidation but a provocation.”

  “What kind of provocation?”

  “Provoking us into running into a trap.”

  “Ah. Could we be heading into a trap right now?”

  “...Anything’s possible at this point. If we consider that we are underestimating the predator, or predators, we could be heading into a trap right now, as we speak.”

  “Everybody, stop!” Henry shouted.

  Everyone came to a halt.

  “Why are we stopping!?” Barry asked in a panic.

  “Walk slowly now, keep your eyes peeled on the ground and on the ceiling. We may be walking into a trap.”

  “What kind of a trap?” Chloe asked.

  “I don’t know. Just be on the lookout.”

  As soon as Henry gave the word of caution, something dropped down from the ceiling.

  Chloe donned her armour and tackled Barry to the ground along with Alex, as a stinger shot towards them. The stinger struck the back of Chloe, and she let out a loud grunt.

  “Chloe!” Henry yelled and lunged at the monster.

  The thing was humanoid, for the most part. Its limbs were far too long and twisted. Like every monster, it has cws, and they were as huge as its strange-looking head, which was eerily simir to a human’s head and face. It was very agile and quick. It had hopped back up to the ceiling before Henry’s attack could reach. It scampered away into the darkness.

  Henry didn’t pursue the monster. Instead, he went to check up on Chloe. “Chloe, are you alright?”

  “I’m fine. My armour protected me.” She winced. “But it still hurts a lot.”

  “Yeah, I know that feeling.”

  “Anyway, what was that? It looks like a human.”

  “A very deformed one, but there’s definitely an uncanny resembnce to a human. Just what is this nest?”

  “Um… guys?” Barry called out.

  “What?” Chloe responded.

  “I caught a glimpse of that monster’s face.”

  “And?”

  Barry’s face was pale. “I could be wrong, but… it kinda looks like Devin.”

  “Are you sure…?”

  Barry nodded.

  “...Impossible.”

  “Whose Devin?” Henry asked.

  “One of my squad members. He’s dead, or he’s supposed to be. We saw him getting ripped apart by those lizard wolves right in front of our very eyes.”

  “Oh… that’s unnerving.”