"Are you all in hiding, Miss Rabbit?"Killian stood there after the whisper, checking the ground for movement and expecting an answer.

Crickets.

The silence stretched long enough for him to feel stupid for speaking to the ground. He sighed, and brushed the sand from his hand against his trousers.

"I will leave then—" he turned, but paused when he noticed Evelyn and Juda standing a distance away.

They both watched him curiously, because they just watched him talk to dirt. Evelyn looked a little worried.

Killian cleared his throat and turned back to the ground. He strolled away from the other two out of sight, and leaned on a boulder. He looked down at the ground again.

"I can help you leave this place if you want, all I need in return is for you to tell me what caused all this."

There was still no response, and Killian sighed softly. Maybe I am losing my mind. He turned away. "I have no reason to help you so you have no reason to trust me."

"So why do you help?"

The voice was small and muffled.

Killian stopped, looking down at his feet. He bent low, and his expression relaxed. "Well, I want to help because I’m curious. If you want honesty, you have to give it back."

The silence returned for a second before the voice came again, a little clearer this time. "You are like the rest, so why help us at all?"

Killian suppressed a sigh. He never really cared about being different from the rest. After all, being like the crowd helped him not be the center of attention, and stay hidden.

"It wasn’t my people who did this, or they wouldn’t send me and my friends to clean it up, and I know this wasn’t just Direwolves either. I want to know what actually happened."

There was a pause, and Killian hoped it wouldn’t stretch to another awkward silence. Her voice came again. "Why did the... angel come here? Someone, someone sent them."

Killian’s resolve faltered when he heard her voice crack. More of her family must’ve been killed again.

Having nearly lost Juda to a similar incident, it made him a little more aware of these things.

But they are still monsters. Monster Population control is a backbone of the Warden’s Organisation.

There must be a reason for that.

He answered her. "I don’t know about that, but I am certain the organisation didn’t send him here."

He already guessed that the angel targeted the realm for a reason, since he had possessed Juda while in here.

"So he did all this?" He crouched down again, resting his arm on his knee as he looked at the ground. "Will you come with me?"

There was a hesitation before the answer came. "Just me?"

"That’s fine," Killian said simply. "The rest can stay, they won’t die to Direwolves if they remain underground."

"They are not a threat," she replied quietly. "They are just a decoy."

Killian let out a small breath that almost sounded like a laugh. "You handle them easily, don’t you? That’s because you’re an anomaly to your own kind."

The ground shifted.

A small figure appeared in front of him. Her white dress was torn and dusty, her white hair drooping slightly at the sides as she looked up at him with wary eyes.

She asked, her voice still small. "You won’t kill me after this, will you?" Her voice deepened. "Or I will curse you."

Killian smirked faintly. "Status."

Before she could react, he reached and picked her up. She let out a small yelp as her body flickered and disappeared into the spatial storage.

[Life Detected In Spatial Storage.]

[Generate Oxygen Transfer?]

[Cost: Mana Burn.] [YES? OR NO?]

Killian tapped ’yes’ without hesitation, even if he initially planned for her to just hold her breath. That wasn’t feasible.

The amount of mana taken would be negligible since it was a small storage for a small creature. He stood up as if nothing happened and turned back to the others.

Evelyn crossed her arms, looking him over. "Did you dig or something? You have sand on you."

Killian said nothing as he pushed Evelyn and Juda forward towards the entrance. My work here is done.

When they returned, they found George standing exactly where they left him— like a mannequin in a high-end fashion boutique, and he had the looks to match.

George’s eyes shifted to them, and dropped specifically on Killian when he got closer. Killian met his gaze, his hands back in his pockets.

"Did you start digging for the surviving rabbits?" George asked, looking at his clothes then at the rest.

Killian frowned faintly. "Why would I do that? And look at this place, how do you even know there are survivors?"

Evelyn and Juda turned to him, and then to the desolate land as if trying to find proof that life once stayed there.

"Do you think they would all be killed?" George asked.

Killian just watched him for a second, wondering why he felt uneasy with that question. It didn’t sit right because it implied that there was a reason e-rank rabbits would survive such an attack.

As if there was something strong enough to handle what caused this. Killian tilted his head, humming.

"First of all, I would suspend belief and agree that the Direwolves did this. If they did, why do you think, in your own words, the natural predators of this realm would leave anyone alive?"

George said nothing but smiled. That confirmed to Killian that he was deliberately hiding the reason, which should be obvious already.

They left the realm. Killian trailed at the back, while thinking about his next course of action concerning the human-rabbit.

The angel underestimated the anomaly.

He scorched the earth, consuming all he could see but didn’t think that rabbits burrow and could easily hide under the ground.

Killian shook his head.

He failed twice in a row to kill an anomaly. That yapper truly deserved his demotion.

And that was the main reason Killian wanted to see how it ended. The human-rabbit and him were similar. She was a small monster determined to fight, and he had the strength to survive.

Under a subclass of the monster organisation, monsters that can understand human speech and articulate can be given special rights to life, and determine their population.

It didn’t include evolved monsters, and only mostly monsters like high-level goblins, were-creatures, elves and other monsters who built civilisations for themselves.

But the human-rabbit could have a chance.

And he’d want to hope she does, because that would mean that an anomaly like him could be accepted too.

If that doesn’t work out... then we’ll curse everyone.

[A/N: Thanks for sticking with the story so far. If you’ve reached this point, a comment or power stone would mean a lot.

I’ll be uploading one Chapter tomorrow.]