When I wake up the sun is shining in the sky. Only a few cirrus clouds streak the homogeneous blue blanket, while a cold air creeps into the forest.

The cobwebs flutter sinuously and Sely and Filo have breakfast.

They don't say anything, they have nothing to say.

Sely thinks back to Endya and the two assassins.

Who knows if they will believe me in Vanoge?

How should I put it down?

Endya is a coward, but his story is believable. Maybe I shouldn't accuse him, just cite him as a victim.

I don't know, I really don't know...

⁂

Resuming the journey, Sely begins inserting bullets into her belt. The night before she only reloaded the gun.

Fifty shots.

There are a lot of them. I left home with twelve bullets and now I find myself with this treasure!

Who knows where the spiders found them?

Those questions could be answered in the Silver Chronicles. Sely recalls that in Book VI, the human ability to store and mobilize large quantities of material is mentioned.

It is called Logistics.

Administration.

The lunar insects descended to punish humanity for its wickedness and arrogance and were very surprised to discover that a natural gift to them was considered a science by humans.

The spiders must probably have found a secret warehouse, like that of Vanoge's torches.

Of course, ancient humans must have been very different from current ones.

I imagine they were a lot like us.

Beings shaped by the earth to remove insects.

Nevertheless…

How should I consider myself?

These are not new questions. These aren't even questions that haven't already been answered by Tossyllia.

“You are who you are, don't fill your head with garbage.”

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That's what she said.

Too bad it was you who taught me the silver cult!

I have yet to understand why!

⁂

Walking on the way back, Sely hears something moving in the vegetation. Rustles. It was only thanks to passing in the path with an antenna that she heard him.

“Filo, did you hear?”

“No what?”

“Someone in the vegetation.”

Filo looks around, interrupting his journey. “Are you sure it's not spiders?”

“Sure. We talked about it yesterday and they followed us. Here it's different. It's as if someone stood up given our passage.”

Both Filo and Sely look around.

Silence.

Nothing that can't be traced back to the wind.

“I don't know,” Filo confesses after a few moments. “I think it's the wind, are there forests where you are?”

“Certainly!” Sely is slightly annoyed by that doubt about her abilities. “But it could be a fearful animal… yes.”

“Let's stay alert.”

Filo takes a last look at the undergrowth and sets off again.

The golden light that forms long beams from the foliage to the ground enchants Sely. As in the first leg.

The fact is that the woods around her house are much thicker and wetter, full of rocks and low plants. Furthermore, the spiders there are at most the size of a fist.

The arrival near the first clearing - the one discarded because of the two adventurers - puts both of them on alert.

“Footprints.” Sely points to them and nods faintly.

No doubt. They are boot prints and they head towards the exit from the forest.

“Do you think they waited for us?”

“Hmm… it could be. But if you said Endya ran away, maybe they came back with him. Maybe they are discussing with the mayor and… ah!”

"Row!?"

The boy takes Sely by the shoulders and shakes her. “What if they were lying? Things like you're in cahoots with spiders and scolopendras and..."

“Calm down! I thought about it. I swear I thought about it.”

The boy lets go.

Did this possibility only now occur to him?

“So? Have you found a solution yet?”

“Hm-hm, more or less.”

“Okay, I trust you. Shall we continue?”

Despite the agreement reached, continuing becomes an insurmountable option.

Sely instantly brings her hand to her sheath and takes a step back.

A scolopendra with a horse-like jaw and hair is watching them from a little ahead. It snakes around the trunk of a tree.

Infinitely smaller than the Titan, with its countless legs it remains a couple of tens of meters long and is at least as wide as Folfo.

It is twisted around the stem of the plant, the cobwebs around it have been severed and it moves its slimy teeth.

“S-Sely… s-did they come all the way to-here…?”

Sely doesn't turn to look at Filo. Her gaze is everything to the monster.

She has seen them in action. They are swift creatures.

Fifty shots don't mean fifty certainties. That's fifty possibilities.

AND…

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Without hesitation, Sely interrupts the exchange of glances by emptying the magazine into the enemy.

The trunk of the tree shatters and splinters are shot forward as it falls.

Sely opens the cylinder, it's an automatic gesture, and lets the smoking shells fall. She is ready to reload.

Her eyes are still fixed on the enemy who, as best as it could, dodged the direct hits; it suffered only the explosion and part of the splinters.

Its long, broken, and tortured body does not give up, and, roaring, Sely throws itself at it.

Filo's spade gets in the way, but the animal's strength is too much and with a flick of its stumped tail it knocks Filo to the ground.

Then it launches itself again on Sely who…

Boom!

The creature's offal and dark sap spill everywhere. What remains of the insect falls lifeless to the ground.

Sely puts the weapon away after replacing the two used shells.

She turns to Filo.

The young man is terrified and dirty with dark sap. Like her anyway.

“If they got this far…”

“It means that the battle with the spiders was just a diversion…”

It was just a diversion to aim for something else.