As I followed the roads, I came upon a village. Along the way, I found no trace of any other patrols nor bandits. I was about to get closer to see if I could either find a squad of my brothers, or at the very least a map. It was difficult to figure out where to go without being connected to the Queen. If I could get a map, then I'd at least be able to go in the direction of her iron tower.

As I was about to go to the village, I had noticed something truly terrifying. Outside the village, there were my brothers and sisters. They were impaled and held up by pikes. Crows and ravens began chewing away at their flesh. I was stunned to say the least. It was not something I would have expected. I couldn't have believed that they were traitors or anything of the sort. The Queen wouldn't have allowed her own loyal soldiers to be punished like this. That was when I realized that the Queen had nothing to do with this horrific display. Although I was used to seeing this, I wasn't expecting to see it with my own kind outside of that horrid dome.

As soon as the villagers saw me, they yelled.

"Hey. There's another one!"

"We missed one!"

"KIll that bug and put it up with the rest!"

Was it some kind of rebellion? Did these villagers rebels against the Queen? I didn't know, but I ran away as a couple of mercenaries followed me. I ran into the forest as they kept up. When I had nowhere else to run, I stood my ground and fought. There were only three of them, but it was still a difficult fight. I stabbed one in the chest, sliced one in the neck, and shot a bolt at the last guy's head.

Everything felt so strange. I had no idea what was going on. I wanted to connect to the Queen as soon as possible. But for whatever reason, I just couldn't.

My theory was that there was some kind of large-scale rebellion going on. I put down the occasional revolt and had plenty of run-ins with rebels in Hiroga City, but this one seemed far different. In any case, I decided to try and blend in. If these rebels specifcally targeted any roach on the road, then I would have been an easy target. That might have been why that patrol was attacked.

One of the bandits wore an old cloak. I took it off and covered myself with it. I looted whatever gear they had and equipped myself with it. I put on a knight's helmet that one of them wore that hid my face. It was similar in design to what Cutter wore when I saw him with those terrorists. But it didn't bother me. I wrapped any part of me that showed my exoskeleton with cloth and steel armor. And if that didn't work, my cloak covered my entire body anyways. It even included a hood to go over my head. I looked at myself in a puddle to make sure that I couldn't be recognized as a roach, and I thought it was a pretty good disguise. It didn't attract any attention and bore no insignias. It was just simple armor albeit rusted. If anybody asked, I could say that I was just a vagabond or a sellsword.

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I decided to pass the previous village and go towards the next one which was a bustling town - Jarley Town. When I entered, it seemed like they were having a celebration. There were fireworks and festivities all throughout the night. However, I still couldn't find any of my own brothers or sisters. At this point, I would just settle for just one.

When I went into a local inn, I picked up a map. I memorized the best route towards getting into the capital of the Queen's empire. The red, iron tower was the landmark that I needed to get to.

As the festivities grew louder, I asked the innkeeper, "What's going on? There some kind of holiday I don't know about?"

"You haven't heard?" she replied.

I shook my head.

"The empire has fallen."

Upon hearing those words, my eyes widened in disbelief. She kept talking, but I couldn't hear her words. It was impossible for that to happen. The Queen couldn't have lost. Her dream was nowhere near completion. We were her most faithful soldiers. We couldn't have lost. We couldn't have failed. It must have been a hoax. These people must have heard the news wrong.

I began to walk away without hearing another word. As I left the inn and stumbled onto the streets filled with partygoers, there was some crowds gathering in one spot. I walked towards it and I couldn't believe my own eyes. They were parading around my brothers and sisters.

They threw rocks and trash at them. Their starved bodies were dragged around as the crowds cheered. I wanted to do something. I wanted to stop this. I was about to take out my electric crossbow, but before I did, I stopped myself. I knew that I couldn't kill all of these people. And I didn't fully believe that the Queen could have lost. Getting myself killed here wouldn't help anybody, I thought.

As I saw one of my brothers collapse, they immediately impaled him and put him up for the rest of the crowd to see. He didn't even have any energy to scream. It was horrible seeing my own kind being treated this way, but I remembered that was how we treated them. We put up enemy soldiers on pikes and we cheered for it. This was no different. It was just that I was on the other side this time.

I walked away trying not to attract any attention, but every inch of my body wanted to fight. I wanted to kill every last one of these barbarians. They were slaughtering my family right in front of me. But I resisted the urge. The only thing that kept me sane was that there was a chance that the Queen was still alive. I might not have felt her presence because of being in the Shadow Lands, but I had to believe that she was safe. As long as she was alive, the dream was alive. The dream to unite the world. The dream to unite the universe. Her dream. But what of my own dream? I never really thought of it. I never really had any dreams to think of.

I left the town and followed the map towards the empire's capital. The only way I would learn the truth is if I've seen it myself. I needed to know with my own eyes if the empire has fallen. It was a long journey. I had hoped to find any brother or sister on the roads, but there were none if you exclude the dead. Not a single one alive.