In the direction that Ren and her companions were moving, standing atop of one of the taller hills that littered the landscape as he watched the vivid, unnatural display, was Al.

-"So~" Hesitation laced Eve's voice. "Are we really going to walk into that?"

On the horizon, dark, ominous clouds were illuminated by forces of terrifying power, both natural and unnatural, as screams of fury and pain, along with the stench of blood and more unsavoury scents, carried with the breeze.

-"Hmm? I guess that depends on our hosts. They might have changed their minds or come up with some stupid plan like trying to kill or enslave us."

-"Yes, that is the first thing that comes to your mind when approached by a creature that kills fifty hostile enemies and looks like a horror from their nightmares. 'Oh, they look like they could rip my throat out and eat my intestines for breakfast, let's piss them off'."

Al couldn't help but shrug as watched what appeared to be a massive boulder soaring through the air get hit by multiple streaks of lightning originating from the ground. -"True, I would opt for the 'Nuke it from Orbit' approach."

-"Anyway, we really need to try and make sure as few of the Rakorn return as possible. Though I have no delusion that we can get them all, the fewer stories they tell regarding us, the less info they will have if we meet them again."

The scene ahead both terrified and excited Al, his two hearts thundered in his chest and, although he was as still as a statue, he was rapidly becoming restless and, it wasn't for Kallis, Al wasn't sure he would have stopped.

-"Sure~," chuckled Eve. -"And the fact that we have actually halted the near-mindless cycle of kill, eat, sleep, repeat the last few hours while carrying Kallis here, and you have started thinking about our existence again has nothing to do with it? Right?"

Al shook his head. -"Well, you have to admit it is pretty weird. Seeing your own skeleton lying in a pit while you have regressed into the body of a child, having probably survived so many near-death experiences that a cat would be envious of how many lives I seemed to have, and am talking to an ex-parasite in my mind while killing and devouring sentient creatures so that if I have my body torn to shreds, I can rebuild it."

-"Hey, why did you bring me into it?" hissed Eve, not liking the direction the conversation was turning.

Al sighed. -"Well, what if you are just a figment of my imagin-"

-"Don't drag me into your existential crisis," bellowed Eve, anger with a tint of fear in her voice. -"I exist. I am me, but also, I am part of you. You are you but also a part of me. We are real, both together and separate."

-"Just what a voice in my head would try to convince me of," chuckled Al darkly,

-"Oh fuck you. Don't think I don't know what you are doing. You are bored, and instead of getting too deep into your own thoughts, you are going to torment me," growled Eve, her behaviour and speech becoming more similar to Al as the days passed. - "I think I liked it more when you silently brooded over the most mundane things."

-"What can I say. It's nice to have someone to talk to that can't run away or hang themselves." Al went to rub his tired eyes but stopped when his claws tapped the surface of his bone mask. He was absolutely exhausted. -"When this is over, I am going to sleep for a week."

-"Promises, promises. You do realise that until we are dead, it is never over right? Nature doesn't have weekends or fridges so that we can kick back and relax... Now where the fuck are these humans? Maybe I can have a somewhat intelligent conversation for once."

-"Alright, don't get your body in a twist water snake," sighed Al. He had decided to stop at a reasonable distance from a familiar scent, though he couldn't tell which of the five humans that Al had previously met was close. -"They should be here any minute."

Al had allowed the weird bird-like shapes in the sky to see him as he approached, not that he could have done much with the limited cover available, and noted that they had flown in the direction of the group.

Not long after that, the familiar scent and their accompanying group had started moving towards Al confirming his suspicion and allowing him to avoid, at least what he considered to be, an awkward approach.

Awkward or dangerous. Whoever the scent belonged to was surrounded by people that reeked of blood, metal and sweat.

-"I still say that walking up to them wouldn't have had as much of a negative impact on our image as you think," sighed Eve. -"Everyone walks. Even confused, slightly psychotic killing machines that have forsaken their own race. I think you just like forcing people to your rhythm."

-"Hey, if I just appeared, they might have attacked, then I would have to kill them and then not only would we have a horde of angry Rakorn to deal with, but humans to deal with. Also, you know I hate walking up to people, it feels like they are judging me."

-"Of course they are. They are trying to work out if we are going to eat them, maul them or just scare them to death."

A column of fire erupted in the distance, causing Al's eyes to narrow as he tried to see what was going on.

Even though his sight was magnitudes better than what it had been back on Earth, due to the hills and distance, he could only make out small shapes and what he believed to be the flashes of spells.

Noticing the hiss of the female Rakorn who was laying on the ground at his feet, probably warning her child, who was currently using its tiny claws to scale Al's scale-like exoskeleton like a jungle gym, Al took in a deep breath. -"They shouldn't be too close, and I want to see this with my own eyes. Not like I will get a chance when its over."

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-"I'll be on watch. Like always~."

Al's arm rose, and he grasped his bone mask before squeezing, shattering it and, for what felt like the first time in weeks, he felt sunlight on his skin.

Movement at his feet told him the female Rakorn had moved forward to try and see his face but, for some reason, he didn't feel the need stop her.

Amber eyes blinked rapidly as they adjusted to the light as a smile appeared on Al's face. While the exoskeleton felt like a second skin, it muted all of the sensations that he would usually feel.

Sighing noisily, the mask quickly started to rebuild as disappointment appeared on his face. -"Seems my natural eyesight is worse than I thought it would be. I can't see half the distance."

Eve chuckled. -"Well~ If you try to think of the face of our exoskeleton basically being one giant eyeball, it kind of makes sense.”

-"How does it even start to make sense?" Al could only frown at Eve's comment. -"In fact, how can I see anything at all?"

-"Later," playfully cooed Eve. -"We have guests."

Al tilted his head, straining his ears until he could hear the muffled sound of conversation, mainly a female voice that was being overly loud. -"Seems like they are trying to be noisy."

-"If you were them, would you want to sneak up on something like us?"

Al chuckled, though to Kallis, it sounded more like a warning growl and she immediately tensed and slide herself back to his feet not knowing what had caused his outburst.

However, even though Hope had felt the same way at Al's reaction, instead of returning to her mother, she quickly climbed onto Al's head, avoiding the multiple sharp spikes, and released her own hiss as she scanned for threats.

The somewhat cute hiss caused Al to chuckle again as he recalled how quickly the little creature had adapted to his presence.

It seemed that unlike human babies, Rakorn were similar to most reptiles in which their young were born fully developed.

The moment that Hope had realised that Al wasn't a threat but a protector, having witnessed the quick deaths of her kind that he had come across on their journey here, she had quickly started trying to subconsciously emulate his mannerisms considering him as the Alpha male and thus, the one to impress.

Al had, much to Eve's wonder, taken to the little Rakorn surprisingly well.

She had thought that by repressing the memories that Al's subconscious was trying to access, he would treat Hope just like an annoyance or maybe even had killed or abandoned the pair after he had gained the information he wanted. Eve didn't know whether it was his past experiences that had changed his core temperament or that his weakness for young was his nature, but it pleased her at an instinctual level.

-"I wonder when I am going to have a child of my own?" Eve mused, not realising she was openly projecting her thoughts. -"I can't wait to become a mother."

"Wait! What?" Al's mind stopped working for a moment. -"You want to become a mother?"

Eve mentally grimaced, only now realising Al had heard her. -"Well, of course, I do. My instinctual desire to have healthy offspring has been increased by my new intelligence. Even you believe it is pretty much the main driving force of life. To survive and procreate, passing on the genetics to the next generation."

Al was shocked at Eve's statement, mainly at how she had used his own logic against him, and decided to quickly change the direction of this conversation. -"But aren't you forgetting something?"

Eve was silent as she pondered what Al meant. He had got better at hiding his thoughts from her.

-"You were just a parasite before we became one so even if you were a female, that was in the past." Al had, in the interest of self-preservation, subconsciously decided to take what Eve had said at face value. Even if she was a parasite before, he didn't consider her one anymore. If he didn't, then he would have never been able to accept her messing with his memories or, even though she tried to hide it, having control over his body. -"If anything, we would be a father. You know, that thing between dangling between our legs and the fact we don't have the... facilities to grow anything."

-"Huh?" Eve was almost shocked speechless. Out of all of the responses she had imagined, this wasn't one of them. Not only did Al not immediately dismiss the subject or ignore her entirely, but he actually referenced their body as something that was both of theirs and not just his.

Al was oblivious to this, as the train of thought latched onto something deep within him. -"Plus, I don't think I want to have children with just anyone. Ignoring the fact that it might be impossible to impregnate another due to what I have become, or them for that matter, but..."

A dull, throbbing headache returned in the back of Al's mind, only to be quickly crushed by Eve.

-"I don't think I want children." Al's projected voice was filled with pain, why, he didn't know. -"I..."

-"Enough," Even though Eve felt they would have to tackle this situation eventually, she didn't want to press Al now.

Though she had never been a human and the emotions did not carry over from Al's memories, she was still a sentient creature. What Al had endured, while those of a more Darwinistic tendency might consider natural, was one of the of the only things that she deemed increased intellect a disadvantage. -"I think we are too young for little Al and Eves running around destroying the local ecosystem anyway. And we can always release our frustrations with the Rakorn. She seems like she could be receptive to our advances and it would be unlikely to get her pregnant."

Al wanted to argue that he had no intention of staying with the female Rakorn or its child any longer than it took to get them to safety but the lump in his throat and the sense of an unknown loss kept him from responding.

He knew it came from the memories Eve said she was repressing and was tempted to ask her if she could do something about the mental anguish that was still present.

"Hello?" Eventually, a familiar voice broke him from his thoughts, causing him to shake his head as his gaze turned towards the new arrival, his expressionless mask once again, covering his face.

"Little Fox." Al's voice thundered in the minds of the three people standing at the bottom of the hill, his abilities having been significantly increased from all of the Rakorn Mindcrafters he had consumed, causing them to stagger.

Even though the ability wasn't very different from the Crawler's, with each one Rakorn consumed, the small variations in each that had been caused by tiny mutations had refined his own.

Ren's mouth open and closed as she shivered. While Al had been intimidating when they first met, comparing the him then to now would be like comparing a kitten and a lion. Unlike before, Al had forgotten to retract his spikes and, due to the optimisations during his hunt, his body was over eight foot tall and covered with the dried gore of his victims.

After a few moments, she finally found the courage to speak.

"Welcome back, Reaper or do you prefer the name, White Hunter?" Ren's voice was nothing more than a whisper, but Al was paying more attention to the tall, armoured men behind her as his body weight shifted in subconscious preparation.

Ren finally noticed the little lizardman laying on Al's head and frowned, only to instantly forget it as the threat in his voice caused her to take a step back.

"Seems you brought more company than last we met. Expecting trouble, little fox?"