Chapter 120: The Mother
"Master Ren, what do you think is the reason for the spiders?" Remu asked as Ren sat at the edge of the cliff, looking at the settlement below. They had come a long way since they started, with multiple houses built and lots of families of monsters living inside now.
"Remu, I know I said we would be an organization, but this looks more like a home than anything else," Ren said with a soft smile on his face.
"Indeed it is, Master. You seem happy to have it."
"Well, yeah. I discovered that the reason why I have always longed for a place to belong was not really the truth, and yet it managed to make me appreciate it more.
That aside, you were asking about the spiders, right?" Ren asked.
"Yes, Master."
"The spiders are a plan to take over something. The issue is I do not know what exactly they want to take over." Ren said and then folded his arms. "I want to know what they want to control and why they want to control it."
"You saved that adventurer, Leon. He was inside the spider. Do you believe he might have an idea of what is happening since he felt it more in depth?"
"Hmmm, that’s actually a sound plan. We should head over to where he is resting," Ren said enthusiastically and leaped off the edge. He landed on the ground while Remu flew down. They both headed toward the building that had now been dedicated to treatment."
When they arrived there, Ren pushed open the door. Inside were mostly female hobgoblins and lizardwomen that had somehow evolved to have some healing magic or abilities.
When they saw Ren, they all bowed their heads and paid their respects.
"That’s alright," Ren said, waving his hands. "I did not think we had this many monsters in the health section," Ren muttered.
"We do indeed, Master," an older hobgoblin lady stepped forward and spoke. She seemed very mature, both physically and in the aura that she gave off. She bowed the moment she arrived in front of him.
"Do you have a name?" Ren asked.
"Yes, I was named Mira, my Sir Ragna," she said.
"Oh?" He turned and looked at Remu. "You guys have been giving names?"
"Yes, Master Ren. You are always busy, and names help identify each monster, so we have been trying to name every monster in Primordial Crimson."
"Oh, that’s nice then. I don’t have to worry about that." He turned to Mira.
"Nice meeting you, Mira. I’m sure we have not spoken face to face before."
"Yes, Master, but we appreciate how much you have changed the lives of everyone here at Primordial Crimson. We all have new and better lives because of you.
I would have been a no-name barbaric goblin all my life if it was not for you." She gave a smile as she spoke.
"Nah, I barely do anything anymore. You all keep this place running while I’m running around.
That aside, was a young human brought here?" he asked.
"There are two humans, Master. The one that you helped save has been recovering for days and has been in our care, and a new one that was brought in in bad shape," she stated.
’Shit, I forgot Roger was here. Damn, I should pay him a visit after this, probably tell him what happened to his home now.’
"Take me to the new one."
"Alright, Master Ren, come with me."
She led the way into the building. There were not a lot of patients, but the ones that were here simply had little issues that were getting fixed with healing magic.
She led them inside to where the private rooms were.
’Damn, their architecture is getting better than I even planned for. This is way beyond what I had in mind, and they are doing it on their own.’
Ren kept looking around the place and was pretty astonished by what he was seeing. When they got to Leon’s room, Ren and Remu walked in, seeing Leon lying there on the bed, but he was not alone. His party members were all here, which meant they had all managed to survive the attack on their town.
They all got on their feet the moment they saw Ren, bowing their heads to him.
"Thank you for saving him," Shadow spoke first.
"It’s nothing," Ren waved it off before walking to the side of the bed where Leon lay. Leon looked at him and let out a weak smile.
"You really saved me," he said.
"Yeah, yeah, I got lucky. I could not do the same thing for the other infected."
"Infected, that’s a good name for it," Leon replied.
"I need your help, Leon. I need you to tell me what it felt like to be controlled by that spider. Was there anything going through your mind or anything at all?"
Leon went silent for a heavy second. He took a deep breath and then finally spoke. "I heard things." His eyes began shaking as he said that, as if recalling the horrors of what he had faced back then.
"Voices? Tell me what they said," Ren demanded.
"I heard it over and over again. It kept saying it, ’Obey the mother, obey the mother.’ Every time that it came to me, it made me want to kill, to consume, to grow, and also to find the mother.
I do not know who the mother was, but I could feel her presence. I could feel where she was, watching and looking through us," Leon explained with fear in his eyes.
"Hmmm, I see. She was controlling you all like a hive mind." Ren grabbed his chin.
"You said you knew where her location was, right? I’ll need your help to find where she is. If we can find the mother, we can put a stop to it before it escalates beyond what we can control z."