Jumping from tree to tree, the group began to tire, even Enar who had the highest [Stamina] overall began to slow down. Allanae had said that the hideout was near, and she was right, five minutes after saying that, the group had stopped on the branches of a tree and fell towards the roots.

There they then entered beneath the tree, into the roots and spiralled through a maze made out of them, they arrived at a dead-end, before Allanae did a special knock. Three short knocks, followed by two longer knocks, and then another three quick knocks.

The roots around the dead-end began to move away on its own, revealing a secret entrance. Allanae told them others to follow her as they entered the private hall to show a massive space. It was cleared out, the roots were cut and a dome one hundred metres high was there.

It was illuminated with lamps which were filled with some glowing yellow liquid were placed around for lightning, and it was filled to the brim with white tents. The group’s jaws dropped, as they looked at Allanae in disbelief.

“When I was a grub, even though I don’t remember anything, I entered through these routes, there I began to recruit, and in a few days, we made this!”

“Are all of these?” Atogin was cut off.

“[Insect Demihumans] that we liberated, it just started with me eating my silk, now this.”

“Allanae!” A voice called out from a tent.

An average-sized man, with an orange exoskeleton, large insect abdomen, and antennae attached to his head then came out a tent. He wore some a white overcoat jacket as well as some short pants and sandals, all of them the same colour.

He also had orange hair and iris, as well as dark sclera exactly like Allanaes. He ran towards her and waved, smiling.

“This is Elm; he is a [Mole Cricket Demihuman], we’re not sure how, but he has direct control over the roots here, he is also the alarm for dinner, as some of his instincts remain,” Allanae glared at him.

“Easy now,” Elm backed away. “I’m just saying that the leader is waiting for you,”

“You have my thanks, are my guests welcome?” She shifted her gaze towards the [Heroes] party.

“They’re discussing plans, so I guess so,”

“Thank you, everyone, follow me.”

Elm went back into his tent, and the group walked towards the most massive tent. Unlike the rest, which was a white colour, this was a dark orange, and as they entered, an argument was taking place. A large lantern was in the middle, and five chairs surrounded it, they were made of rock, and we’re all the same size.

Four people were sitting there, and two of them were arguing. One was a massive beetle, whilst the other seemed to be some scorpion, they could tell by their size and shapes, that both of them were boys. The other two were also looking at them, one was a small cockroach, whilst the other seems to be a bee of some kind, both of which were girls.

Allanae seeing this didn’t react, and all she did was use some silk and spun it across the two debaters throats. Quickly and carefully looking over, they saw Allanae with an angered face and sat back down, both of them still glaring at each other.

“Glad you could make it, how far have they reached?” The bee asked.

“Not too well,” Allanae began to walk again onto the remaining seat. “They’ve taken Limral, so we’re in enemy territory now, they’ve taken over,”

“At least some of them aren’t going without a fight, closer to the middle, our scouts have heard of riots, but they’ve all been stopped by the nine Yggdrasil guards,”

“Eight, my guests took one down, Muspel the flame of nature,”

“W-well done to them,” The cockroach girl softly stuttered.

“Hmph, I won’t believe you until you have proof,” The beetle stuck his nose in the air smiling.

“Allanae, I’ve known you for all my life, so I’ll bet you my share of food for tonight if you did defeat Muspel,”

“Well then get ready to starve, Sten!”

An arm flew out of the darkness and landed on top of the lamp; everyone screamed. Soon after the head of Muspel landed directly on the arm and the cockroach girl shouted before the bee calmed her down. Using his stinger, the scorpion carefully picked it up and examined it.

“Huh, I’ll be damned, well I hope the moulting day is today cause going hungry that day is the best thing I can ask for,” The scorpion said.

“Now if you all, believe me, say hello to the [Heroes Party].”

The group came out of the shadows closer into the light; the four [Demihumans] looked at them in disbelief.

“Now if I remember, you were arguing about what to do, am I correct?” Allanae continued.

“Yeah, I was trying to go with that we should increase our forces, whilst el goliat over there said we should increase our territory,”

“It’s simple if we have more land, we have more power,” replied the beetle.

“But that means our forces would be stretched thin,”

“I’ll take on a thousand of those enemies before I give up!” The beetle cracked his knuckles.

“Now, before another fight begins, I hold another option, we tackle the main source with the [Heroes Party].” Allanae imposed.

The room fell silent for a moment, and the small cockroach girl opened her mouth, stumbling out a sentence.

“I-i t-think that’s a great I-idea, but i-is it worth the r-risk?” She stuttered out quietly.

“If they were here, it would raise morale, Allanae you’re a genius!” The bee yelled out.

“Hold on!” The beetle’s voice shook the ground, “How do we know their up to the challenge,”

“I guess you didn’t read the papers, *Cough cough*, ‘New [Hero] and her companions start their journey by taking down an original [Demon]’, that was a fortnight ago, and they’ve gotten stronger,” The bee pointed out.

“It’s not just that, I don’t agree, as for I, want to see their strength’s first hand,” The beetle got up and stomped over towards them, scanning over the four choices as if so they were the same thing.

With his massive left index finger, the beetle pointed at Harrian. He smiled and stuck his nose up again, speaking to the pink-haired boy who was third of his height.

“Pink-haired, I want to see your power, let’s rally the troops, ‘raise morale’ as you put it.” The beetle said in a cocky manner.

He stomped his way out of the tent, looking back and scoffing at the group. The scorpion also got up, putting his right hand on Harrian’s left shoulder, feeling this Harrian stared at the scorpion.

“Don’t worry, he’s a total airhead, just trip him with a rock.” The scorpion then walked out of the tent as well.

Seeing this, Harrian also decided to exit as well, smiling. The rest of the group followed all except Nicko who made a seat out of the earth for him to sit on instead, and Vespa, the bee [Demihuman].

“Aren’t you worried about your friend, Goliat isn’t a kind fellow,” Vespa asked Nicko.

“*Sigh*, don’t worry, he can handle it himself, not with might, but instead with [Skill].”

A crowd of different [Bug Demihumans] appeared around Harrian and the beetle. Getting his wand and staff out, Harrian put them into his tophat as well as [Chaos Column] and his cape. Meanwhile, the beetle began to stretch, revealing his abbs and huge muscles.

“Just cower in fear of my shredded abs!” The beetle yelled at Harrian.

“Let’s just see who will cower very soon,”

Elm with an old fashioned megaphone, got up onto a massive bug, similar stature to the beetle and began to calm everyone down, and allowed the fight to commence.

The beetle charged at Harrian, screaming and sucker-punched him in the stomach in the first ten seconds of the duel. Harrian’s eye almost popped out of his skull, and he coughed up blood which stained the beetle exoskeleton.

Removing the arm, the beetle began to walk away; it was before he heard Harrian say ‘Wait’, which was when he turned around.

“One punch, that’s all you got? A battle isn’t about power alone; it also includes STRATEGY!!” The last word Harrian had said was in a monstrous and deep tone of voice.

“Hmm, let’s see if you can say that... again...”

Harrian’s hair began to fall out, revealing red scales, which started to spread across his body. His fingers turned to four on each hand, his nails and teeth growing yellow. His head became more lizard-like, with black armoured plating on it, as well as two yellow eyes appearing behind each of his regular eyes.

Harrian began to grow, his width and height increased, tearing his clothes to shreds. It revealed an underbelly also plated with the black material, as well as a tail, with a black spearhead at its end. Spikes began to appear on Harrian’s back, elbows, shoulders, knees, and even the back of his feet which had also changed.

After thirty seconds of transforming, a vermillion, massive, spiky, and armoured lizard appeared where Harrian once was. It had a short neck, was seven metres tall, three metres wide and fifteen metres long. A roar shook the root dome, and many people took cover.

Now towering over the beetle at three times his height, Harrian looked straight down in his lizard form and opened his mouth. In a heartbeat, the beetle was halfway in Harrian’s mouth, slowly slipping into his throat.

But instead of going into his stomach, it stayed in Harrian’s throat, where a small pouch began to expand, similar to a frog. The beetle began to yell for help as he was stuck in the raised pocket, and as it was starting to shrink as well.

After an airtight seal was made, Harrian spat out the beetle, as he was gasping for air shivering. He got himself back up and made his way back into the tent where he once was. Not even talking to Allanae and the rest, he made his way to the other side of the tent, where he was met by Harrian still in his lizard form.

The two eyes on his right stared into the beetle’s soul, he blinked and the saliva which coated the beetle began to turn amber. Slowly, the beetle lost all sense of movement, and then Harrian began to morph back.

His body appeared in midair during the transformation, and very gracefully, Harrian floated back towards the beetle. He took out his right hand and summoned [Chaos Column], Harrian placed the blade onto the beetle’s neck, and with his left hand, he reached into the beetles left ear, before removing it, blood spilling from the ear made the beetle fear Harrian even more.

“That was a part of myself, set to your body, so that if you ever decide to betray us… before you can even tell us where we are, it’ll explode, killing you, is that clear?”

“...I guess there’s nothing I can do in this situation, you win, [Mage] of the [Heroes Party].”

The saliva around the beetle began to dissolve into steam, where it made the dark blue carapace of the beetle into a vermillion red, the same colour of Harrian’s lizard form.

“I’ll be damned, say, mind if you make my entire carapace the same red? I like it!” The beetle asked.

“To be a stretch,” Vespa said whilst coming out of her tent, “Coat all our exoskeletons in that colour, as it will become the colour of our revolution,”

Harrian halfway through his lizard transformation then said, “My saliva in this form stains, and so does the rest of me, take my scales and put it in water with herbs, grind them and paint yourselves,”

“Very well then, to the [Heroes Party] and the colour of our revolution!” Vespa raised a cup high, and the people around cheered.

A deal was struck that day between Enar and Vespa, the leader of the revolution, and the agreement would be that they would help each other, to kill the father of all [Bug Demihumans], the persona of pestilence, Beelzebub.