The mantis tilted its head.

"Not properly."

It paused. Then corrected itself.

"Better."

Clayne immediately became interested. The creature’s transformation clearly involved more than simple physical evolution. Its intelligence had evolved as well.

"What happened?"

The mantis considered the question.

"The food." "The lightning." "The red mist." "The crystals." "The shell."

As it spoke, images flowed through their connection. Clayne saw fragmented memories from the creature’s perspective. Countless crystals being consumed. Streams of red mist entering its body. The heavenly-tribulation-tempered energy hidden inside insect crystals. The power accumulated over countless battles.

Everything had gradually gathered within its body.

Everything had accumulated until it reached a limit.

Then the transformation occurred.

The mantis suddenly touched its own chest with one of its blades.

"Inside." "Different." "Before hungry." "Always hungry." "Now still hungry."

The creature paused.

Then a strange thought entered their connection.

"But not empty."

Clayne frowned.

Not empty?

The sensation transmitted through their link carried complex emotions.

The newborn mantis had always felt hollow.

Endlessly hungry.

As though it were missing something.

Now that feeling was gone.

The hunger remained. The appetite remained. But the emptiness had disappeared.

The creature looked down at its own claws. Then clenched them. A faint crimson glow appeared around the edges.

The floor beneath it instantly split apart.

A long crack stretched several meters across the concrete.

The mantis stared.

Then looked at Clayne. Then stared at its own claws again. A moment later, excitement flooded their connection.

"Strong." "Very strong."

Without warning, it vanished.

A loud explosion erupted where it had been standing.

Clayne’s eyes widened.

The creature reappeared several meters away.

Then disappeared again.

Another explosion echoed.

Then another.

And another.

Each movement generated shockwaves.

The speed was absurd.

Clayne could barely track it.

The mantis eventually stopped and returned to his side. Its excitement had become impossible to hide.

"Master."

"Look."

The creature raised one blade. Then casually swung. No wind blade appeared.

Instead, something stranger occurred.

The air itself split apart. A thin crimson line flashed across the room. The wall several meters away silently separated into two pieces.

The upper half slid downward.

Boom.

The structure collapsed.

Dust exploded everywhere.

Both Clayne and the mantis stared at the destruction.

Several seconds passed.

Then the mantis slowly lowered its blade.

"...Strong."

Even it seemed surprised.

Clayne swallowed.

The creature had evolved far beyond his expectations.

A sudden thought entered his mind.

The Mother Mantis.

The evolved creature’s mother.

That thing had nearly given him a nervous breakdown with its ability to dodge everything he threw at it.

And this evolved version?

It had inherited the same bloodline. Consumed heavenly-tribulation energy. Absorbed countless crystals. Fed on red mist. Then undergone a second transformation.

The result was obvious to him.

This thing was becoming a monster. A genuine monster.

The mantis suddenly sniffed the air. Then turned its head toward the window. Its eyes narrowed.

Clayne immediately noticed the change.

"What is it?"

The creature remained silent for several moments. Then it slowly walked toward the broken wall and looked outside. Its draconic eyes focused on the distance. Far away. Very far away. The mantis suddenly emitted a low growl.

The sound caused the surrounding air to vibrate.

Clayne’s expression changed.

The creature rarely reacted this way. Through their connection, he felt caution.

Not fear. But excitement.

Something had caught its attention.

"What do you see?"

The mantis continued staring.

Then a thought entered their connection.

"Food."

Clayne blinked.

The mantis continued.

"Big food."

The growl deepened.

"Very big food."

Its blades slowly extended.

The crimson glow around its body intensified. The connection between them transmitted another sensation. Anticipation. The same anticipation a predator feels before a hunt.

The mantis looked back toward him.

"Master."

The creature’s voice had become unusually serious.

"Something coming."

Clayne immediately moved beside it and looked through the opening.

At first, he saw nothing unusual.

Then he noticed movement on the horizon.

Something enormous. Something moving through the distant city. Several buildings collapsed as it passed. The distance made details difficult to see, yet one thing was obvious.

The thing was massive. Far larger than ordinary mutated beasts. Far larger than undead.

Far larger than anything he had encountered so far. The evolved mantis licked its mandibles.

Its excitement continued growing. The mental connection echoed with a single thought. A thought filled with overwhelming desire.

"Master..." "...I want to eat that."

The moment the distant creature finally stepped out from behind the collapsed buildings, even Clayne could not help narrowing his eyes. Earlier, it had only appeared as a moving shadow among the ruined cityscape, a silhouette large enough to flatten structures simply by brushing against them.

Now that it had emerged into clearer view, its appearance became far easier to discern, and the sight was enough to make him understand why his mantis had become interested.

The creature resembled an anteater.

At least, it had once been an anstreets

The thing roaming through the city now looked like the result of countless mutations piling upon one another until the original creature had become nearly unrecognizable. Its body towered above the surrounding streets. Massive muscles bulged beneath thick dark fur that resembled layers of armor rather than natural hide. Every movement caused those muscles to ripple like coiled steel cables. Its limbs were thick enough to snap utility poles without effort, and its claws left deep trenches in the concrete whenever they scraped across the ground.

The most disturbing feature, however, was its head.

The elongated snout of an ordinary anteater had become monstrous. It stretched outward like a spear. Rows of jagged teeth had somehow developed within the narrow mouth. A long black tongue occasionally slithered from between those teeth before retracting again. Two dragon-like wings folded against its back, their dark membranes covered in crimson veins that pulsed faintly beneath the skin. Every so often, those wings twitched, causing gusts of wind to sweep through the surrounding streets.

The creature looked wrong. Not merely dangerous. Wrong. As though nature itself had abandoned any attempt at consistency while creating it.

Clayne quietly watched the giant beast wander through the city while his mind pieced together the likely explanation behind its rapid evolution.

"It eats ants..."

The realization came almost immediately.

An anteater’s natural diet consisted almost entirely of insects. During the early days of the apocalypse, when the red mist first spread across the world, countless insect colonies must have undergone mutations.

The insects would grow stronger. Then stronger again. Some would devour others. Entire ecosystems would collapse and rebuild themselves around evolution through slaughter.

And an anteater?

An anteater would have been standing in the middle of a buffet. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

The more mutated insects appeared, the more food it gained. The more food it gained, the stronger it became. The stronger it became, the more insects it could hunt. The cycle would continue endlessly. Eventually, the creature before him was born.

Clayne glanced toward his evolved mantis.

"You can beat that thing?"

The dragon-headed mantis immediately released several excited clicking noises.

"Krrrkk!"

"Krrkkk-krrrk!"

The mental connection translated the meaning before the sounds had even finished.

"Of course." "That thing weak." "Very weak." "I want more." "Maybe ten."

Clayne stared.

"Ten?"

The mantis sounded almost offended.

"Master."

"That thing only big."

"Big doesn’t mean strong."

Its draconic eyes remained locked onto the giant anteater.

"Hungry creature." "Slow creature." "Clumsy creature." "Easy food."

The confidence coming from the mantis was so overwhelming that Clayne almost believed it completely. Almost.

Then another thought entered his mind.

"Wait."

The mantis turned toward him.

"If you kill it, the crystal won’t even be insect-type, right? It’s still an animal. Why would you want it?"

The mantis immediately looked confused. Then it tilted its head. Then another wave of thoughts entered the connection.

"Master." "That thing eats insects."

"So?"

The mantis looked at him as though he had asked an obvious question.

"Then it tastes like insects."

Clayne blinked.

The mantis continued.

"It eats insects." "Only insects." "Lots of insects." "Big insect eater." "Crystal become insect flavor."

Its tone somehow sounded logical.

At least to itself.

The creature even nodded proudly afterward as though it had explained an undeniable truth.

Clayne found himself speechless.

The logic was ridiculous.

And yet...

Considering everything that had happened so far, he genuinely could not prove the mantis wrong.

Eventually he sighed.

"Fine."

The mantis immediately brightened.

"Kill?"

"Not yet."

The creature visibly deflated.

Then Clayne pointed toward it.

"If you beat it, I’ll finally give you a name."

The effect was immediate.

The mantis froze.

Its eyes widened. Even its wings twitched. For several moments, it simply stood there. Then excitement erupted through their connection.

A flood of emotions nearly made Clayne stumble.

"Proud." "Happy." "Excited." "Finally."

The mantis straightened its posture.

Its chest puffed outward. Its claws gleamed. The creature looked ready to charge into battle immediately.

"Then I kill." "Very quickly." "Then get name."

Clayne almost laughed.

The thing sounded like a child promised a reward. Unfortunately, before he could give the order, something else appeared.

Movement. At first it came from a side street. Then another. Then another.

Figures slowly emerged from the shadows. The sight caused Clayne’s expression to change.

Undead. More undead. The city seemed incapable of running out of them.

The creatures emerged in groups. Then dozens. Then hundreds. Then thousands. The streets rapidly filled. The giant anteater noticed them as well. Its elongated tongue slowly withdrew back into its mouth.

The creature stopped moving.

Its entire body became tense.

Clayne immediately raised a hand toward the mantis.

"Wait."

The mantis reluctantly obeyed.

Its blades twitched impatiently.

Meanwhile, the undead horde continued growing. The creatures flooded the surrounding streets from every direction. They climbed buildings. Crawled through windows. Emerged from sewers. Some possessed ordinary humanoid forms. Others displayed grotesque mutations. Several resembled creatures Clayne had encountered during the first days of the apocalypse. Yet none of them showed any hesitation.

Every single one moved toward the giant anteater.

Then the attack began. The first wave slammed into the beast. The anteater reacted instantly. A massive claw swept across the street.

Boom.

Dozens of undead exploded. Another swipe followed. More bodies flew through the air.

The creature’s tail smashed into a building.

Concrete erupted. Undead were crushed beneath the debris. Its dragon-like wings unfurled. A powerful gust blasted forward.

Entire groups of undead were thrown backward.

The beast roared triumphantly. The undead simply continued coming. Thousands advanced.

Then thousands more. The giant anteater killed them by the dozens. The undead replaced those losses immediately. More climbed onto its body. More bit at its legs. More clawed at its fur. But for some unknown reason, their primary target was the wings. It looked like they didn’t want it to fly.

But the creature tore them apart without difficulty. Yet as the battle continued, Clayne began noticing something strange.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

The undead were not winning.

In fact, they were barely causing injuries.

Their claws failed to pierce deeply. Their bites struggled to penetrate the creature’s hide.

Many were simply crushed before reaching it. Yet despite that... The giant anteater seemed increasingly agitated.

Its movements gradually changed.

At first the difference was subtle.

Then more obvious. The beast’s attacks became sloppier. Its roars became distorted. Its body occasionally twitched in strange ways.

The undead continued piling onto it. The creature continued slaughtering them. And still the strange changes accumulated.

Clayne’s eyes narrowed.

"What the hell..."

The mantis had stopped joking.

Its draconic eyes remained fixed upon the battlefield. Even it sensed something unusual. Minutes passed. The slaughter continued. Thousands were crushed. The giant anteater remained standing. Yet something invisible seemed to be happening beneath the surface.

Then it happened. The creature suddenly threw its head backward.

A deafening roar exploded across the city. The sound shook windows. Buildings trembled. The surrounding undead froze.

For a brief moment, the roar resembled that of a powerful beast asserting dominance.

Then the second half emerged. A horrifying sound. A sound that made Clayne’s skin crawl.

The roar warped. Twisted. Changed.

By the end, it no longer sounded like an animal.

It no longer sounded alive.

The noise resembled countless undead screaming together through a single throat.

And as the giant anteater’s eyes slowly began glowing with an unnatural dead-red light, Clayne felt a chill run down his spine.