“Follow and observe Jason Bright. There's something wrong with… that guy…” Alex paused in his tracks, looking ahead with a dumbfounded expression. With his pause, his assistant who was listening from an earpiece asked what happened, but Alex ignored him.

In front of his, there was a man wearing a leather jacket, a white shirt, and a pair of jeans. His eyes were scarlet red, and Alex felt as though he was looking at Chief when he was still in his prime.

“Hi,” the man standing in front of him raised his hand, placing it on Alex’s shoulder.

“UGH! Fuck, back off!” Feeling the searing pain on his shoulder akin to a hot metallic rod melting his skin, Alex backed away, taking out his pen in a hurry. The pen was leaking red ink, and Alex hurriedly opened the red book that was always in his pockets.

“How are you… alive?” Alex wrote on his notebook as he spoke.

“Ha! Good to see you too,” the man shrugged, his mix of black, gray, and red hair dancing in the air as he shook his head. Hearing the unexpected response, Alex clicked his tongue and kept writing on his notebook.

“You should be dead,” Alex spat, his hands gliding across the page as though they had a mind of their own.

A gentle breeze passed by, carrying with it the harsh cold of winter and forming an icy mist. The cold layer surrounded the man, and the man gave a lifeless applaud.

“Don't bother, I'm not here to fight,” the man waved his hand and the cold curtain was lifted, rising into the atmosphere as it disappeared like a bubble.

“Besides, I'm not alone,” the man shrugged, and behind him, seven birds landed, each being a foot and a half tall. Their feathers were crimson red, and small sparks of blue fell from their bodies. They had sharp, blue eyes with majestic, long red eye lashes. Their blue talons were sharper than most knives, and their beaks could easily pierce a man's chest.

“... what do you want?” Alex asked, scribbling down on his notebook.

“It's simple. I want to know where you jailed my brother. Tell me, Alex.”

+++-+++-+++

Time flew by silently, and Helzar had already moved to a different apartment building. On the other hand, Jason left his previous apartment room and rented a new one. His curiosity about the Spawns didn't lessen, however, and he was actively searching about them on the internet.

On the other hand, news about rampant attacks of strange bugs and animals kept appearing on the news, casting a looming cloud above everyone's head.

“All seven of the Colony Type Anomaies have been located. One is currently at the command of an ex-agent,” Alex said, attracting the attention of the three remaining Moonlights.

“Alex,” Ven asked, making Alex look at him. Unlike Alex's scholarly look and cold demeanor, Ven looked like a delinquent, with his hair wildly styled and his fingernails painted black.

He even had a tattoo of the letter V on his right cheek.

“I heard you met this ex-agent a few days ago. Who is he?” Ven asked, putting a lollipop on his mouth afterward.

Despite being a bad example to other teenagers, Ven never smoked nor drank alcohol.

“He is Jimmuel's brother,” Alex replied, rubbing his already aching forehead. On the other hand, Ven had his mouth open, and the lollipop fell to the floor with a tap.

“Didn't Chief kill Rex?” Ven asked, making the other two Moonlights nod their heads.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Chief indeed killed Rex, but for some reason, he's alive. Not only that, he controls the Sunlight Sparrows,” Alex groaned.

Sunlight Sparrows were led by the Sun Sparrow, however, Sun Sparrow was killed as soon as he was found, leaving the Sunlight Sparrows without a leader.

The Sunlight Sparrows looked like giant sparrows with red feathers, and their were extremely fierce, possessing the ability to turn into flames for few seconds before rematerializing back to their original forms.

Thankfully, they became timid without their leader, making it easy for the organization to keep them in captivity.

“How does one control subject C-103?” Bennett spoke, his voice crisp and loud, but at the same time mellow and deep.

Bennett looked similar to Alex in that he had an eternal poker face. Strangely however, he was great pals with Ven.

“I'm asking that too. Chief's goal has always been controlling the Colony Type Anomalies, but he never succeeded,” Alex said, making Ven and the others silent.

A tense atmosphere grew in the office, but Alex gave zero fucks about it. He was instead massaging his throbbing headache.

“Chief only failed because of Jimmuel. If Jimmuel hadn't betrayed us, Chief would've long achieved his goal,” Charles said, a growl mixed in his voice. Although the entire organization was controlled by Chief, all of them willingly submitted to Chief beforehand.

“Alex, watch your tongue. Do not become another Jimmuel,” Charles said in disgust, his tone scathing to the ears.

“Fuck this shit, this is why I hate meetings,” Alex groaned, trying to melt into the chair without success.

“Tyrant Bees, C-101, led by the Bee King, is relatively quiet in the north. Dessert Guppies, C-102, lead by the Ghostly Fish, is rapidly multiplying in numbers. They are currently at war with a small country in the northern region of the eastern continent.”

The world has four continents, evenly split into the northern, southern, western, and eastern continents.

“C-103, Sunlight Sparrows, is with Rex. C-104 is in the northern continent devouring humans, and so is C-105 in the southern continent. On the other hand, both C-106 and C-107 are in the western continent, and both are acting rather low-key despite both having the highest growth rate.”

After narrating the information he possessed, Alex turned to look at the three other Moonlights. They were sitting up straight, their demeanors changing from carefree to serious in less than a blink of an eye.

“Who do we exterminate first?”

Alex asked, and Ven, Bennett, and Charles answered at once.

“The Lava Ants and the Cosmic Bugs in the west.”

“The Ghostly… erm,” Ven paused, feeling the gaze of his fellow agents.

“I mean, yeah, the Lava Ants… and the other bug,” Ven laughed, albeit a bit forcefully.

Meanwhile, Helzar felt that his luck was running low.

+++-+++-+++

‘I’ve only just begun my attacks on humans, but they're already retaliating!’ Helzar couldn't help getting annoyed. After killing fourteen humans, he didn't expect that as soon as his spawns killed another human, a group of police officers would come in and turn the building upside down looking for his nest.

‘Thankfully I managed to evacuate in the nick of time, but my hunting speed plummeted. Do I have to be satisfied with small animals rather than the numerous humans before me?’

Helzar thought about it, but no matter how much he thought, he couldn't shake off a terrible feeling in his mind.

‘Things are about to escalate quickly. I'm certain of it, but why?’ Helzar pondered. He didn't do anything too explosive prior to the murder of fourteen humans.

‘No, what about that giant cockroach, or those red ants?’ At the thought of his former “colleagues,” the pieces began clicking into place!

‘They must've done nasty work to other parts of human society. If that's the case, then I need to rush before things get truly dicy!’ Helzar called for Zhar, instructing the latter on what to do.

‘Keep infecting humans, I want the Swarm to reach millions in numbers!’

‘As you wish, my lord.’ Zhar bowed before heading out. Behind him, a flood of Spawns and a few Motherbugs followed suit.

‘I need a new type of creature, something that can help in planting Motherbugs in humans,’ Helzar then sunk into his thoughts, brainstorming ideas one after another. He thought about making an improved version of the Spawns, but soon scrapped it.

The Spawns were already good enough for Helzar's purposes.

‘What about enhancing the Motherbugs?’

Helzar rejected the idea too. His Nest could barely produce one Motherbug a day, if he enhances the Motherbugs, the Nest might just pop like a balloon will with blood and guts.

‘What if I create a Motherbug that lays Motherbug eggs… no, that's even worse than the last idea!’

If enhancing the Motherbugs might overload the Nest, then creating a Motherbug that lays Motherbug eggs would surely do so and more!

Helzar groaned, his mandibles clacking in dismay.

‘If only they could fly…’

Helzar paused. Right, why didn't he think about it before?

With a new goal in mind, Helzar went to work. On the other hand, Zhar ran into trouble as soon as he left the nest.

‘This damned cockroach!’

Before Zhar stood a giant cockroach that was at least one feet long and six inches wide! It had obsidian black exoskeleton, and its eyes glimmered in blue along with its flesh.

‘Die!’ Zhar roared, his mandibles wide open and conveyed his command to the Spawn army he was leading.

Not a moment passed, but a tsunami of Spawns had appeared right in front of the giant roach!

TSS TSS TSS!

With a hiss, the cockroach opened its elytra, unfolding its wings whilst releasing the cockroaches hiding under its elytra! The cockroaches were miniature versions of themselves, and some of them were carrying dark cocoons.

Before the two forces could collide, the cocoons popped open, splattering acidic fluids all over the place and melting through a couple of Spawns nearby! From the chambers of life emerged the nymphs of the giant cockroach! They were all sporting strong and sharp mandibles, as well as empty stomachs.

CLACK! CLACK!

CRKK

The group of cockroaches only had a few dozens in numbers, incomparable to the hundred thousand Spawns that Zhar was leading.

However, the cockroaches had the giant roach, who was riding the wind and ready to fight!

BUZZZ

…or not.

‘It left?’ Zhar looked toward where the roach fled toward. It was a tall building, and Zhar recognized it as the building that was turned upside down by police officers.

After running into the giant cockroach and killing off its children, Zhar kept on marching onwards, before finally reaching a crack on the walls of a sizable apartment building.

Zhar worked fast and efficiently, and as quickly as he entered, he left. The army was now missing all of its Motherbugs, and Zhar ordered them to retreat!

‘The mission is successful. The lord will be satisfied,’ Zhar commented, when all of a sudden…

TZOOM!

A distortion in the air manifested, looking as though someone was poking the thin membrane of reality itself.

CRACK—