Wet, humid air clung to Danna as she sprinted through the trees. Since Chaos always sought to propagate life, all of its corrupt worlds tended to be some type of forest or swamp. Not always, of course, but often enough that Danna found it ironic.

Like the First One had said, there was some Order to Chaos.

A chaos-spawn of impossible limbs and awkward faces crashed through the trees, seeking to kill her, but Danna simply pressed down with one of her limbs of light and crushed it against the forest floor. She didn't even need to stop running.

Between her slowly recovering divinity and the equipment that Plutus had given her, she was stronger than ever before, but it wasn't her strength that made her current assignment easy. The world she currently scouted might have had a Corruption rank of C, but the spawn here were all made from rank F beasts.

She, Gi, and the First One were all functionally immune at C Corruption so they'd split up to scour the easiest worlds first. Each of them had done a handful since they'd arrived at this point, but none were successful. The First One was still elated at their progress though.

"Thrice as fast!," she'd explained after their first successful solo scouting missions.

Another chaos spawn leapt from the top of a branch towards her. This one looked almost identical to a panther. She crushed it in her projected fist and felt a slight sting at murdering such a cute kitty, but there was nothing for it. For some reason, all chaos-spawn were aggressively insane.

There could be no diplomacy or cat nip.

"Whoa," Danna said as she burst into a clearing and suddenly slid to a halt. In front of her was a massive pulsating heart, it was twice as tall and nearly three times as wide as her. With each beat, it slid in a circle. Despite it still obviously beating, it looked dried and cracked as though it had been left in the sun for years.

"Guess I should check it..." Thankfully, Danna could use her divinity at a distance. Gi would have had to press some rod that Plutus had made against this disgusting thing.

Resonating her light, she let a gentle beam emit from her real hand and it lay across the massive heart like a stream through a window. Danna had little hope this was the Filter so when there was a complete lack of resonance, she manifested her hands of light even larger than the huge disgusting thing.

It spun more and a face slowly appeared in the center of the heart. Misshapen eyes locked onto her and gnashing teeth worked up and down like they were trying to bite her despite the distance. She slammed both hands down into heart and it burst.

A ridiculous amount of gore spewed out of it. There was more viscera than would have been expected from even a spawn of that size. Danna turned to light and shifted backwards several dozen feet to avoid the sudden river of gore.

"Another one down," she muttered under her breath before turning and opening a portal to the D grade world that they used to detox.

---

Tiria's eyes looked off towards the forest that held the chaos entity that she still needed. They'd continued their guerilla war against the demons even through the winter when most of their army was sitting tight and waiting to renew its attack on the two human empires.

Her upgraded [Skulk] had turned into the passive [One with Shadows] which despite its name had given her a damage boost during the war. For now, she used it for its original purpose. She, Nori, Chum, and Orchid had pushed far ahead of their meager army, skirting around both demon and human encampments to find themselves deep in Demon territory. It was dangerous, but they had to know.

And that knowledge was terrifying.

The army that they saw currently marching west was massive. Their red coloration almost made them look like ants covering the horizon, but Tiria didn't delude herself. Every single one of them would be armed with a shortsword and one of their stock types of Skills.

Moreso than any other species, the demons had militarized the system.

"Looks like they're heading back west," Nori said, one hand shading her eyes form the noon day sun. "It was impressive that the human empires survived until winter, but their fall is only a matter of time now. Sadly, I don't think we can push an army this far north on the east side of the forest."

"If we hurry back, we might could cause some damage as they move to the west" Tiria said. She knew from other scouting missions that there was only a well guarded pass in the forest before it continued impossibly further north. That pass might be used to get access to the forest, but unless she could convince Nori to assault it for her, it would be an impossible endeavor.

"Hmm...," Nori said, thoughtfully. "I think you're overestimating how much the winter melt will slow them down, but we can try. I'm not confident nipping at the heels of whatever forces they have pushing into the mountains so it's our only shot."

Their small group pulled back and started the slow process of sneaking back through enemy territories to their slowly growing army of recently spawned monsters. They were still fairly weak, but with luck they could find some wins to help them grow while the demons were still preoccupied with the humans.

Just wait for me, Gi. I promise I'll find a way...

---

"We keep having to range further and further for supplies," Samba said. He and Mark were sitting in Mark's house, drinking some beer that was brewed in Wavecrest. Mark's little girl Rae was sitting at the table with them, calmly working on some small sewing project.

For Samba who had three very rambunctious children, it was wild to think that a child could just sit.

"I know," Mark said, his accent still was a little rough, but the winter had given him a ton of time to practice. Samba hated to admit it, but Elizabeth had helped the most since she knew both languages. "We can't just turn these people away though."

"I know," Samba agreed. If he'd thought Igna had it rough, the main continent was far worse. Between the refugees and Elizabeth's Subgenitor, Ry, they'd gotten a good picture of the rest of the world. It was a bleak picture. "What do we do if Veridia falls?"

Mark spared a glance for his daughter, but they were speaking the monster tongue so there was no way she'd understand the gravity of their conversation. Mark thought for a long moment before taking a long pull of his beer. "I don't know."

"Is there not anywhere that we could flee to?"

"Maybe Frosthelm? I'm not sure though. All I know is that it is east of Veridia. I'm not exactly well travelled."

The pain of Gi's passing had fallen to a dull ache in the months since his death, but the slight panic that Samba was feeling now seemed to follow the well worn grooves of that pain. He finished off his beer in one long pull. It had little effect on either of the men due to their Vitality, but Samba was chasing any relaxation that he could get. Mark continued.

"Demons are coming from the east. It's possible that Frosthelm's already fallen too. I'm not sure anyone in the world is safe." Samba could see the pity in his eyes as he looked towards him and he knew what he was going to say. "We'll have to fight. I don't think there's any other way."

Samba was quiet for a moment, but then he had a great idea. "What about ships? We could survive just by roaming around the seas."

Mark shook his head, crushing any hope that Samba had. "At best, that would delay the inevitable, but humans can't drink saltwater. We'd have to land eventually. If you need to take your clan and leave, you can. I won't think less of you."

"I couldn't just leave you behind."

"I know you don't want to fight and I don't want to either, but there are people that we need to protect in a world that doesn't want them. Do we spend our lives running? Or do we take a risk now and hope for something better?"

Tears sprang to his eyes. Maybe he was getting old, but he was much quicker to cry than he ever remembered being. "Helm, Greave, and Shield are all adults now. They'd get caught up in whatever we do decide."

"They'd get caught up anyways," Mark countered. "Just be glad they aren't still children when the time comes."

Both of them looked to Rae and Samba cried a little harder. A lot of litters had been had in the last few months, easily doubling the number of otters that were in the Clan. However, many of them were still children just like Rae and no matter what they decided, it would be terrible for them.

"I'm sorry, Mark."

Trying to drop the tension in the air, they turned to other topics. Mark started telling Samba about how his latest wood carving was going, a family of otters that might have been Samba's family if you squinted your eyes a bit. He knew it was a distraction though.

Mark was giving him space to process the fact that he'd have to fight. Samba was sure that he was desperate to start preparing, but he'd rather give his friend the emotional space that he needed to cope. Maybe it was because he was human or maybe it was just Mark, but he'd never met someone so caring before.

If Samba was a better person, he'd push through his feelings and discuss what fighting meant with Mark. Instead, he selfishly let them continue to talk about nothing so he'd have space to grieve his dream of peace.

****

Dory watched the horrific amalgamations before her play in the village square and felt only mirth. If someone had told her, that she'd enjoy watching some part dragon fly and part rhino children play, she'd have called them mad.

Poe's children had thick grey skin that stretched over their slim bodies, making them almost look like a hairless cat with dragonfly wings. They bounced and crashed into each other and a few took to the air. Poe flitted around them, trying to entice them into a game, but none of them had the attention span for that.

Dory scratched her head. Life was weird.

She glanced around at the other villagers and she saw similar expressions there. She was sure the fact that the Rhinos had helped protect them from the Monster Surge was part of it, but... they were just cute.

Yeah, life was weird.

Poe eventually flew over to her. Hiya, Elder!

"Hello, Poe, your children are starting to get quite lively."

I knoowwwww, right? I was never this hyper as a Child. Well, I did battle against some scary horrific creatures in a haunted forest so they're probably doing better than me.

"What?" Dory couldn't have heard him right. The dragonfly sometimes said the most horrific things that had happened to him so casually as if he spotted a nice flower on the way over. As usual, he skipped on.

Anyways! I just wanted to let you know that I'm heading out to look for Kumo some more! The Boss told me that I have to keep the clan together and it's totally not together right now.

"Okay, we will be fine with you gone." It would be annoying that he felt the need to explain every time if it didn't come from a good place. They couldn't talk to any of the other monsters than him so Poe always overcommunicated when he left.

But you will miss me, right? Dory wasn't sure how, but it felt like the dragonfly in front of her had a shit eating grin.

"Bah, just go on, you fish bait."

Poe's laughter rang out joyfully in her mind as he took to the air. With the air whipping past him, he spun in a few tight circles over Doryville, which probably wasn't the real name.

"North and east were a bust," Poe mumbled to himself. "Just a bunch of empty human settlements. Sooooo.... west it is!"