"I don't even know who you are," the blank eyed man said, his low voice like a resonant hum that vibrated the very air.

"No, no, I clearly met you before. Damn, what's your name again? Fucking hell.." Sam muttered, snapping his finger repeatedly as if the action might jog his memory.

Still inside the golden dome, Gabby, Kaya, And Jason exchanged bewildered glances. The absurdity of Sam's behavior left them flabbergasted and filled their head with numerous questions. What the hell is happening right now? Are they in some kind of fever dream? Why is Sam talking to that monster like he's his friend? Didn't Gabby just told him to not linger any longer in here? What the fuck is he doing, is he out of his mind?!

The blank eyed man frown deepened, etching lines of frustration into his cold face. "I'm—" he began, but Sam interrupted with a raised hand.

"Wait! Just give me a second will ya?! Bloody hell.." Sam's voice was insistent, his demeanor utterly unconcerned with the literal monster in human skin before him.

The blank eyed man felt a bubbling mixture of frustration and amusement, over the countless humans he had slaughtered and corrupted, none had ever displayed such brazen impudence in such an... Interesting way. Despite his mission's urgency to wake up the 'mother,' he can't help but decided to indulge this peculiar human even if only for a moment. Besides, his domain will corrupted him the longer he stay here and if that somehow doesn't work, which is nigh impossible for a low level human like him, he can just simply kill him if he wanted to.

Amidst the tense silence, Sam's voice rang out again. "El... Yeah, that's it! You're that gloomy guy named El, and one of that rude woman's companions!"

El's frown morphed into a look of mold amusement. "You're quite an amusing human. If your goal is to entertain me, you've done well. Though I can't help but ask, what does it matter to you whether i'm El or not?"

Sam shrugged and said, "It doesn't really matter much, really. I just can't stand the itching feeling of knowing something but not being able to put my finger on it."

Sam pulled a piece of beef jerky from his satchel and took a bite. "Anyway, enough about me. What happened to the guy you possessed and his companions?"

"I gave them death," El replied, his voice flat and cold.

"What kind?" Sam inquired, chewing thoughtfully.

"Instant," El said.

"That's quite generous of you, given that your whole existence seems to revolve around corruption and destruction, which of course it's something you thrives in. Don't you think so?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What makes you say that our existence thrives on corrupting and destroying insignificant being like you? Your species is no different than ants among the countless races in the whole multiverse. No one bats an eye at a human's death or enslavement. The reason? You're disgustingly weak, and that's simply your predestined fate." El replied, his tone dismissive.

Sam chuckled in disbelief when he heard his ridiculous reply, especially regarding human predestined destiny and whatnot. "Oh man, I don't know what's dumber. The fact that you decided to destroy the human for god knows why despite knowing we're an insignificant being, or that a parasite like you had the gall to say human are worse than literal parasites who used the said dogshit human body to move around."

He took another bite of his jerky. "Sure, no matter how weak or strong a human may be, we're still no difference than an ants. But the same can be said of you. No matter how much you preach about how superior you are and yap about humans is no different than ants, your can't deny your entire existence is just another parasite in the multiverse. Now i don't know how accurate the shit I said is, but i'm pretty damn sure you're worse than us. We don't have the need to used someone else's body to use as a flesh mecha, and we doing just fine. Hell, even without this system magic we managed to harness a fraction of the sun's power. You on the other hand... Well you can answer that yourself."

El's staff glowed eerily as he pointed it at Sam. "Watch your dirty mouth, human. I can kill you anytime I wanted to, so don't test my patience any further or I'll give you a fate worse than death."

"Pfft yeah, whatever. It's not like this is the first time someone threatened to kill me today. But seriously, why are you so hellbent on killing and corrupting the human on this planet? Now, don't you dare say some bullshit like 'it is what it is.' Since you viewed us as something that existed in the very bottom of the barrel, there's got to be a motive or a reason why your race did all of that." Sam said, unfazed by the threat.

"What does it matter to you whether have any reason or motive? A stupid species like you probably won't be able to comprehend it even if I explained it." El retorted.

"If course it matters to me! Well, I mean.. aside from my own curiosity I want to know why you came to this planet and massacred everyone. Who in their right mind suddenly arrives on a planet just to kill and corrupt all the sentient species without a reason? Just look around you, man. I don't think either you or I see any kind of civilization establishment built by your kind here if your reason is just simply conquering this planet, there's got to be some kind of trace or something that indicating you're here." Sam argued.

"Watch your tone, human. I won't give you another warning. Besides, why should I answer you? I have no obligation to do so." El snapped.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Sam didn't immediately respond as he thought for a moment to cook up any bullshit he can think of. A moment later, he said, "Think of it as my last wish or a repayment for entertaining you. Since you can kill me anytime you want, it's not an unreasonable request right?"

El stared at Sam with his blank eyes for a few seconds that felt like an eternity for everyone, then he closed them briefly. "Very well, I shall grant you that wish."

As he descended to the ground, Sam instinctively jumped back, creating a considerable distance between them.

El raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh? I thought you weren't scared of me. Seems like was wrong."

"Nah i'm not scared, just cautious. I did it just in case you decided to kill me out of nowhere without granting my wish, It's pretty reasonable right?"

Once again El just stared at him, ignoring Sam useless question before continuing. "First of all, our race is called Gretel. Unlike you, we don't have individual names like humans do."

"Why do you guys don't have names? Like, how do you even recognize each other?" Sam asked, genuinely curious.

"We simply didn't need names, except for a very special exception. No matter how many of us there are, as long as we are close to each other, we're one collective minds since we can sense each other thoughts. There's no need to differentiate who is who."

"I see... But I think you're way too different from any other Gretel I've encountered before. They're just like a mindless killing machine and can't talk like you do. Are they just incredibly dumb or—"

Before Sam could finish his sentences, a magic missile suddenly shot past Sam, narrowly missing him. "Hey! what the fuck man?! What was that for!"

"Don't you dare called my brothers and sisters dumb with that dirty mouth of yours, human. My next magic missile will pierce your chest if you utter such words again."

"..."

"Good. Now, the reason i can communicate like this is simply because I've evolved."

Sam's mind raced. 'Looks like my hypothesis is true then. The records didn't mention any intelligent Corruptors. I wonder why, maybe it's because there's not enough time and resources for them to evolve?'

"What about the reason you came to this planet? Pretty sure it's not like a simple walk in a park I assumed." Sam pressed.

"This planet is rich in resources due to its recent evolution. Our mother noticed the energy fluctuations coming from this newly evolved planet and sent us here to grow and evolve."

"I have a funny feeling saying that you weren't welcomed when you arrived here yeah?"

El's gaze hardened. "The humans are nothing more than a nuisance to us. They just got lucky that their planet got to evolved despite of how weak they are, the rich resources are wasted due to them not being powerful enough to managed it. If only the human surrender, we would've used all of the abundant resources and made this planet our home. But no, you human decided to foolishly fight against us."

Sam rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah, sure, as if that kind of reaction would not going to happen to any other races. I don't think our reaction is foolish or weird, in fact it's a damn normal reaction. Imagine you're just chilling on your planet, and suddenly a weird ass invasive monster appears out of nowhere demanding you to surrender. I don't know about you but man, I'd be really so fucking pissed."

"Why would you be angry? Those humans should be grateful to us. If it were any other race, you'd be enslaved for eternity. The embrace of death is the greatest blessing for a weak species like you. Besides, when we turn someone into one of us, the original host is killed quickly without any pain unless we will it otherwise. This is just the way it goes no matter where you are in the multiverse, what more do you want?"

"Look, i'm not from here so I don't have the right to say something on their behalf. That aside, if humans are as weak as you say, why did all of you almost face extinction from your little conquest adventure? Even your so called 'mother' had to get involved." Sam said.

"You're wondering something as simple as that? Fine, I'll explain it as simple as possible for your smooth brain to understand. The Gretel you and the previous human on this planet fought were just newly born Gretel. Basically, what you killed were essentially babies. If we got just a few more evolved Gretel like me, there's not going to be a problem conquering this planet. So, there's nothing impressive or shocking that the previous human managed to win."

"Wait, what? Let me get this straight, you're saying that you almost conquered this planet with just a bunch of damn babies?? What the fuck, just how strong are you?" Sam asked, incredulous.

"Why is that so surprising to you? It's common sense not to send a powerhouse to fight a weak race like humans. If mother sent even one adult Gretel, they would be able to wreak havoc and destroy this planet. It defeats the whole purpose of us growing here by sending something like that no?"

"But you lost though?" Sam pointed out.

"I can't deny that, we miscalculated. When we arrived here, the system's laws were somehow still present. Since it's still present, the protection is obviously still online. Due to this unexpected variable our strength is cut down by halved, making the already weak baby Gretel even weaker. There's also no way for us to make contact with our mother and ask help, so we decided to aggressively increase our number to compensate for our lacking strength."

"So, long story short, you almost conquered this planet in a weakened state but unfortunately failed miserably in the end. And let me guess what comes next. Before you almost got wiped out entirely, your mother felt her children is being massacred and so she came here in anger or something like that. Am I correct?" Sam asked.

"Oh? You're not as stupid as you look. Well done, you guessed it correctly."

"Alright, last but not least, where is the 'mother' now?" Sam asked, his voice now turned serious.

"She's here on this planet, currently still asleep due to the punishment the system imposed on her. Since the system can't outright kill mother, she's been put into a very long slumber. El said, pointing his staff at Sam. "I have enough fun. I assume that's your last question before you die? I can't delay my mission any longer."

"Wait! Hold on just a sec, I have an offer for you. At least hear me out first!" Sam pleaded.

Unamused, El frowned. "Don't bite more than you can chew, human. Me killing you here is already a great gift for you."

"How about this, what if you let us go? We won't get in your way of waking your mother from her slumber, or we can help you in exchange for keeping us unharmed and alive. What do you say?" Sam proposed.

Soon after he said that, Sam felt an intense gaze on the back on his head as if trying to drill a hole through his skull. It doesn't take much to guess who it is, it's Kaya. He knew that she had a personal vendetta against El, but Sam didn't care about that kind of thing in this kind of situation. Go a head and hate him for all he cares, his priority of keeping everyone well and alive will not change anyway.

Sure, he was kind of exploiting the tension to his benefit on learning about what happened to this world, but that wasn't the point here. Engaging in a fight now wasn't a wise choice, while they might not necessarily lose badly to El, Sam got a feeling that the battle wouldn't be smooth and pretty.

Now, having rolled the dice, Sam hoped his gamble would pay off even if the likelihood of El accepting Sam's offer was slim to none.