"Edward." He had taken them to the inside of the pix village because he thought about Edward. "I’m sorry, everyone. I thought about going to the desert, but I’m useless."

"Your mind changed in the last moment. I could feel it with my power, the hesitation, but don’t say you’re useless, Silvano. We could have ended up in another world; we’re very close to the place they attacked." Nora comforted him.

"We don’t have time to regret it. Can you open another portal, Silvano?" Silas asked while he looked around. There were others stones with names engraved in them. This place was a graveyard for the tribe.

"Sorry, I’m too tired to open a portal." He made a gesture, but nothing happened. "I still remember the layout of the tunnels outside. We could try to go outside with the tunnels, but that is very risky."

"Mmm, if we go together, we could make it, but we don’t have any idea what happened after you left this world. We don’t have any clue about the situation with the yellow-striped ants. The first thing we should do is search this village for anything that might be useful or survivors."

He wasn’t expecting to find the pix here, but maybe the chief of the village and his soldiers were pushed back when they tried to retreat. "Let’s move."

They wandered around the small village; most buildings were still intact. That gave Silvano hope that the ants hadn't made it inside, but the view gradually changed from the usual village to a smattering of ruined houses and dried-up blood on the floor and walls. Once they reached the entrance, it was obvious.

The blood was everywhere, and the walls had been destroyed by melting poison and sharp legs. There were some claws and fangs from the ants across the floor, but not a single pix body. They were most likely taken back as food.

"They failed…" Silvano knew that they didn’t even reach the outside; the chief and his soldiers were killed in this chokepoint. They fought until the last pix and lost.

"The creatures of this world never cease to surprise me." Nora got close to the remains of one of the ants. "Not only in size. This strange liquid is most likely venom."

"Be careful. That doesn’t look good at all." Nathan said with confidence, he had a lot of experience after spending time with the explorers. "It looks worse than most snakes in the forest. We don’t have any antidotes, so we can allow ourselves to be hurt."

"I should be able to make an antidote with my power, or maybe I could take it out of your body." Rebecca spoke while her shadow grabbed some of the venom. After a moment, the shadow put it in a test tube and made a small vial. "Yes, I can make an antidote."

They investigated the houses, but there was nothing special about them. After that, Silas made the plan.

"I’m going to scout ahead with Nathan. We follow your directions, Silvano. Take us outside by the regular path."

The three of them moved ahead while the rest waited for the okay to advance. Nathan read the movements of the trails of blood, trying to find the direction the bodies were carried after the ants killed them. Silas was invisible thanks to his necklace.

"Stop." Nathan raised his finger, making the other two stop. He hugged the wall and looked around the corner. He could sense the insect presence, and he was holding his shield ready for any attack. "It’s only one ant; there must be some scouts around the area; maybe they are looking for more food. Ready when you are, Silas."

"Now!" He moved into the tunnel and used his power; the reaction was what he expected. The ant looked in his direction and became hostile. It moved his antennas, trying to sense anything, but it couldn’t see behind the invisibility.

"It doesn’t have any skills, but it can use the poison in his arms and mouth." He was already drooling the deadly poison from his mouth and arms. His body was hard and covered with chitin. "It's very nimble, but we should be able to kill it quickly."

The ant was moving closer, looking for the one who stole some of its power.

"Wait, we don’t have to fight them. You guys know that one bite can be deadly. There are other ways outside." Silvano tried to dissuade them, but Nathan was running forward.

The ant bit as soon as it saw Nathan, but the shield stopped her mouth. It unleashed a furious rush of attacks with the sharp claws on the tips of its legs. The shield and the surrounding wall stopped them all, taking the venom without melting.

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"It is this all you got?" Nathan smiled; his shield could take these attacks for a whole day without a problem. He was the Tank of Dawn.

While the ant was distracted trying to pierce the wall, Silas moved between the opening and slashed two legs with a single strike of his green sword.

The ant made a noise as he noticed the one below his body. How did it get past its vision? It looked like one of its kind but was mixed with another creature. The ant did hesitate and try to cut him with his other legs.

"I wasn’t expecting mercy. All of you insects have too small brains to consider me an ally." He smiled as the legs were about to hit him, but in a second, the wall moved and cut the legs. "Don’t underestimate our Tank."

Nathan moved below the ant and changed the direction of his shield. With one swift move, he pushed the edge of the shield into the neck of the ant and snapped it in half, killing it.

"Amazing." Silvano was impressed; he saw a lot of powers during the first few days in this world, but after being alone for so long, he forgot what teamwork looked like. He thought about Arnold and his hard, metallic body. Maybe if I had fought like this with him and Lidia, I could have done something.

"Good work."

"Hahaha, same to you."

They didn't have time to celebrate as the smell of dead bodies filled the tunnel.

"This is bad; these ants use pheromones to communicate. This signal could mean there are invaders or food. We need to take another route."

"Don’t worry, Silvano. You think my power is to only look like one of them. If this were all I had, I would have the worst power; no one would fall for this disguise. I look like an actor in those crappy horror movies." He smelled the pheromone and took a deep breath.

"Yes, this smell is giving me all the signals I need to eat and kill whatever is here. But I don’t have a small brain like these ants. We just need to correct it."

Silas opened small holes across his body and released another pheromone. "If this smell means come and fight, then this should be the equivalent of going away; there is nothing here."

He smelled it again until the previous pheromone was drowned by his decoy.

"You can use the power of the animals you fight? No, you did the same with the four-armed devil in the forest."

"To put it simply, yes. Now that I have this power, we can use it to avoid fights while we move out."

Everything went according to plan. Silas kept emitting signals to the other ants to go away. In their small brains, he was another ant patrolling the area. They were moving around the tunnels with total impunity.

After some hours, he was about to spend the last of his power, but they were getting close.

"It should be around here." Silvano moved to a tunnel below, and then he saw the light on the other side. "Over here!"

Everyone else quickly followed and entered the endless desert for the first time. They only saw sand and the sun above, sending his heat like a lord commanding slaves. They came out of another entrance, but they only needed to walk around until they could find the remains of the capsules Lidia made.

"It should be around here," he said, stopping as the answer came into full view. "No."

A battle took place here, but the winner wasn’t the pix tribe along with Silvano’s companions. Neither was the Crimson Caravan that attacked them. Instead, it was the same as the entrance to the village.

The sand was tinted red, shining under the rays of the sun.

"I was too late... The ants took them all!" He collapsed in the sand with anger and shame. There was nothing he could do; the impotence filled his heart and made tears appear in the corners of his eyes. "Why? "Why am I always the one to survive?"

Silas walked among the remains, and he stopped in front of one of the ants. "Hey, doesn’t this look a bit different than the others?"

"Don’t ask me; I’m not an ant expert." Nathan moved his eyes to the side.

"I’m asking because we fought before. If ant soldiers are supposed to look the same, why does this head have horns?"

"You’re correct; this head has two small horns on the side. Not only that, but if you compare the size with another head, it is clearly bigger." Nora responded; she was just as puzzled as him.

He tried to use his power, but he already knew it would be in vain; he couldn’t steal anything from dead enemies.

"In any case, it looks like the first plan is done. Come on, Silvano, get up."

"What?"

"You said there were other villages inside the Rock. Maybe they are still alive. We can go help them. If we deal with these ants and the other colonies, we can use this place as our base in this world." He already decided this was going to be another part of the Pix-Dawn alliance.

"In case they are all dead, we can repopulate them with our people."

"Wait, wait. Why are you doing this? You have fertile land in the other world. There is no need to risk anything by coming to this hell."

They all looked at him, but Nora was the one who walked to his side and put a hand on his shoulder. "Because this is not only to survive, we’re building a civilization."

"Civilization, is that all?"

"No, I want to go back home."

"Me too." Nathan and Rebecca said it with complete honesty.

"There you have it." Franco took a step into the sand and waited. "We all want to go back home, don’t lie, kid. We don’t need anything else to help each other."

Something grabbed his leg, but he pulled it out of the ground and smashed it with a single punch. "We have lunch!" He dragged the body of something that looked similar to a worm inside the hole.

"Leave it to me; I can make all that fat taste like prime steak." Nathan began to cook it, but Nora looked at him with jealousy.

"It's been a long time since we competed to see who is the best cook. How about now?"

"Sure, but I’m not losing."

Silvano still felt useless, but. Maybe I can help them save everyone else.