As she was wont to do whenever she was agitated, Skrr made a small s.p.a.ce for herself in the same spot where she was and started to pace around, her mandibles waving fiercely in the air while her many legs rubbed against each other and made the sound that her name was named after.
Meanwhile, the mating call was getting clearer and clearer, almost as if the one who was giving it had just woken up and was slowly starting to call out louder and louder, with the hope that someone would respond.
She knew that the goal given to her by her mother was to make sure that their race would survive, and for that, she knew that the best method was to obviously make more little Divine c.o.c.kroaches that she could mentor and watch happily as they grew, just like her mother had done when she had been born.
Typically, she would definitely have gone to respond to the call, but right now, the situation was different.
Her mother had always used to say that she was a bit simpleminded, and that she should always pause and think three to four times before she did anything, even if it felt like the simplest thing that should be obvious.
Hence, she decided to do that, and right away, she understood what was wrong.
This was right after she had been approached and then chased by that guy with that scary aura, so it could be a trap.
She didn"t know what he wanted to do with her, but what she knew for sure was that if there was an aura like that, she should stay far, far away, as the most important thing was to conserve her life.
Yet… Responding to the mating call was the second most important thing.
She had already been of the age where all of the matters of her race had been explained to her, so she knew that all it would take was a second, and after that, she could leave and safely give birth many times. Also, if she did so…maybe even her loneliness would be solved in this way, because she would no longer have only herself to talk to.
The only real problem was that she wasn"t very powerful. Typically, if she was living in the age of the Empire, she would have already become a Peak Hero level G.o.dbeast, and she would have been practically unkillable in the entire continent. Even if she couldn"t kill most people, she would have been able to survive and get away, and she would have definitely gone forward when she felt something like this.
Yet, the dwindling Energy level of the continent made it so that her level was still stuck at the Peak Champion realm, and she hadn"t even broken through to become a Hero in order to unlock the true powers of her Bloodline.
Her natural abilities were still there - she still had a very st.u.r.dy body, and she had the sense of danger that had always saved those of their species from many, many disasters.
Yet, it was nowhere near as strong and acute as it could be, and even her speed would take a major leap forward if she managed to break through.
Yet, she had been absorbing Energy for a long, long time, and because the Heavens were always fair, their species had also been cursed with slower training speed, when compared to other species.
They needed more time to grow in power level, but usually, this wouldn"t be a problem, as their strong bodies would protect them for how much ever long was needed.
But here, she was weak, and those outside were strong. She had always heard that humans would always find ways to solve problems no matter what came in front of them, and it was apparent that they had solved the problem of low Energy, too, or that they might have had resources from the age of the Empire which they must have used to become Heroes.
Whatever the case was, she had no intention to tangle with any Heroes, or anyone with that aura around them.
The memories of them having to run and then keep running for years on end from those of that terrifying race were still fresh in her mind, and there was no way that she would provoke it.
But… The mating call!
And her loneliness!
And the mission given by her mother!
Her pacing around got more and more agitated, but suddenly, she stopped, as something has occurred to her.
That guy was definitely looking for those of her species… If so, what if he had found another one, and that that member was the one giving out this mating call in the hope that someone would come to save it?
What if it was weaker than herself, and hadn"t been lucky enough to be able to stay in a stable place in hibernation for a long time, which had allowed her to grow from being just the Human level, using the categorization made by humans, to become the Peak Champion that she was?
Their main method of training always had been to hibernate, and during the time after the Apocalypse, she was sure that no training must have gone on at all, because for many years after that time, all G.o.dbeasts which survived would definitely have had to stay deep underground, in a hidden place, with no signs of Energy, unless they wanted to be hunted by the mad creatures which were able to sense Energy and come to destroy wherever they felt it from. And, of course, giving off no signs of Energy… Also meant not having Energy to absorb, too, to grow in power.
It was also important that the fact of their survival should be kept secret, so it was granted that they would be moving quite a lot anyway. All in all, if this was another member of the species… There was a possibility that they were not as talented, or had not been as lucky, and hence had to give off this call to try and look for help.
Rising into the air, determination flooded into Skrr"s mind.
She had always been like this - when she made a decision, she would follow through, just like in the case of her decision before to stay in that village and do whatever she could to help it, even though she had never understood exactly what she was doing. She had been happy that they had been flouris.h.i.+ng, and that was all that she had needed. Year after year, she had felt happy each time someone came to ask something of her, and she had treated them as her friends and family, even though she couldn"t speak to them.
She had to go confirm whether it is a trap or not. And if it wasn"t a trap, and if another member of her species was under danger, then she had to find a way to save them, hopefully using a method that wouldn"t require her to risk her life.
If it was required, though… Skrr decided to take care of that when the time came, so first, she honed in on the signal, and prepared to shoot forward in the direction.
She took a deep breath, and she allowed herself to enter the "zone" as she called it, in which she was always filled with the belief that nothing could stop her, and that she would keep going faster and faster until the very light which people used to see her would be left behind in her path.
This was the kind of self hypnotization that was taught to all Divine c.o.c.kroaches, and which allowed them to reach such high levels of speed.
BOOM!
Shooting forward, Skrr directly reached within a few hundred meters of the place in barely a few seconds.
It was quite far away from the original location from where she had escaped, and it looked like on the surface, there was only empty land.
Raising her mandibles, she carefully sniffed the air, as she had been taught to detect if there were formations lying around.
There were none.
Cautiously, she moved forward, until she managed to locate exactly where the signal is coming from.
It was right ahead, and in that moment, she froze, as some sort of detection method pa.s.sed over her.
She fought the urge to scurry back in the same direction she had come from, but as she cautiously moved forward again, she no longer felt it.
However, above the ground, she felt that same area that had scared her before pa.s.sed through the air, as if searching for something.
Thinking, Skrr understood.
That guy was probably searching because he knew the general location, but not the exact one!
What a meanie! Why was he targeting her poor species! They were just minding their business, right, without disturbing anyone?
Cursing him for a bit using her limited collection of curses, Skrr started to move forward again, all the while looking for formations again and again.
Finally, satisfied that there were still none, she reached within a few meters of the spot, and that was when she saw that she had come near a cave that was made in the same fas.h.i.+on that she had been taught.
Yes! This was definitely a Divine c.o.c.kroach!
Bracing herself, she broke through the thin layer of the cave which was built so that it could be easily penetrated when one had to leave.
She did so only with one mandible, so that she could scan the place, and she felt a s.h.i.+vering being in the center of the cave.
He looked so scared!
She could bet that he had detected that scary guy who was scanning above, and must have begun the mating call in fear.
What should she do now?
Her instincts told her that something was slightly off about the situation, but no matter how much she thought about it, she didn"t know how that could be the case. All other G.o.dbeasts had already died, and although that aura before was of a G.o.dbeast, she had a feeling that it might be from a consciousness, rather than from an actual being. That didn"t mean that it was any less dangerous, and that was why she had started running so frantically.
But still, she just couldn"t shake the feeling, so she decided.
She would zoom in, s.n.a.t.c.h him, begin the mating process and end it as fast as possible, before putting him in a safe place and zooming away again.
Any method that they could be using to track them could work better if both of them together, so this was the best thing to do.
Not wanting to dally, Skrr lay her gaze on the direction in which the Divine c.o.c.kroach lay, and with another loud sound, she set off with a cloud of dust that masked her presence.
It all happened in a blur, and she could see the shock in the many eyes of the male c.o.c.kroach that was in the cave when it saw her approaching him.
That feeling that something was wrong grew stronger, but Skrr trusted her plan, and she s.n.a.t.c.hed the c.o.c.kroach before shooting through another wall of the cave.
Just as she was about to begin the mating process, though… Something strange happened.
With extreme shock being visible in the c.o.c.kroach"s eyes, it suddenly… disappeared into a gas-like substance for a moment, and in its place, that same guy from before with that aura around him that had scared her appeared.
He looked like he had seen, or had been about to see the most horrific thing in his entire life, and because Skrr was also equally surprised and shocked, she couldn"t react in time.
He managed to grab hold of an array of trinkets present around his neck, and instantly, layers and layers of transparent walls formed around her.
They were barriers, clearly built to keep her inside, and at this moment, the zeal to never be trapped that was iconic in Divine c.o.c.kroaches sprang up inside her.
Her blood pumping through her veins, she sped up even more, and started to smash through barrier after barrier.
Yet, each barrier seemed to make some sort of ringing sound as it broke, and this kept affecting her mind more and more, even though she tried to block her ears.
Only, she was too focused on speeding, so she didn"t have time to stop and do this. She did leave behind that guy in her arms, though, in order to increase her speed, and soon, she was quite far away from him.
Yet, it was at this point that she finally had to squeal in pain and stop, as a very strong barrier had just come in front of her.
She didn"t want to stop, though. She tried going in different directions, but alas, this one was much stronger than any that had sprung up before.
At the same time, the same surveillance method from before that she had detected engulfed her, and she instantly turned around with the intention to either fight, or die.
Her mother had told her to live her life with honor, and she would do so. She would never allow herself to be trapped, even if it was the last thing that she had to do.
Yet, the words shouted in her direction by that same meanie who strode forward gingerly toward her made her wonder whether she was hearing right.
"Please don"t do anything drastic! I just want to ask a little something from you, and in exchange, I"m even prepared to give you something that will be of great help to you. This does not need to devolve into violence for any reason, and all I ask is that you listen to me, and decide for yourself whether you want to do it, or not. Please understand that I have no other choice. If it were up to me, I would leave you alone, but the survival of my species depends on this, and I know that you understand that, because you are doing everything for the survival of your own species. I respect that, and again, all I ask is that you listen, and decide for yourself. Now, will you please stop scratching the formation behind you? It"s very hard to maintain this thing because it has to be so strong to keep you inside, you know."