Location: City of Tears

It was a normal day for the nobility in their section of the city. They were talking amongst themselves, exchanging gossip, drinking expensive beverages, the normal stuff. A few nobles were talking about the incident at the nearby King's Station, it seemed some nobles were open to the idea of hiring some of those tall beings as their own bodyguards. What savage wouldn't jump at the chance for such a position given by a noble.

"I wonder when my nephew Quila will return," said one of the nobles to another. "She was rather excited about her assignment to clear out Hallownest Crown. Why those savages feel the need to squat there is beyond me" At that there was a laugh amongst the nobility involved in the conversation.

"If only one of those tall savages could be hired, they would make excellent body guards" one of the nobles said. "Or pack glimback" another noble commented, which elicited another laugh.

Suddenly a crash could be heard, as well as screaming. This caused some of the nobles to fall out of their chairs. The sound of breaking metal, and cracking shells could be heard throughout the building. Suddenly another crash was felt, and out the window, the nobles saw who was responsible for the racket.

A massive figure wielding a nail befitting of it's size, none of the nobles had ever seen a bug that big before. It was running down the city pathway, cleaving through any bug that got in its way. A few of the nobles puked at the sight of the carnage.

PoV: Lurian

WHAT IN THE KING'S NAME IS THAT. A metal giant was running through various city paths, it cut down whole groups of sentries with a single swing of its blade. Nails raised to block it were shattered like they were nothing, and in some cases it just ran straight through sentries, leaving them nothing but gore on the giant's armor. Soul twisters from the Soul Sanctum had moved into assist, launching balls of soul at the giant.

At this, the giant took something it had on its side, and all of a sudden, the soul twisters were torn to shreds, as well as anything unfortunate enough to be behind them. Sections of buildings were leveled as their support structure was destroyed. The giant even began breaking through steel walls to get to whatever its destination was faster. Lurian's poor city was being wrecked, all he could do was mobilize his watcher knights for its defense, but considering how fast this thing was going, they likely won't be able to catch it, but it is the only thing he could do.

Lurian turned away from his telescope towards his servant.

"Send word to the Watcher Knights immediately!" Lurian half yelled at his servant.

His servant nodded, and ran towards the elevator, while Lurian looked back into his telescope, to see the giant's bloody progress.

Location: Crystal Peak

"Is everyone all right?" David asked, the moths that were torn from their shock of what just happened quickly nodded. David sighed "good, good, Seer, I believe we have more we need to discuss"

Seer looked up at him and nodded, and they both moved back towards the circle of benches where they were seated before. Chris and Matthew just stared at him, still processing what their comrade just did.

"What the actual fuck" Chris murmered, they just execute a prisoner, what fuck.

Matthew just stared, and then turned to Chris.

"I think I might know why he reacted like that…?

Chris turned to him "Really? What"

"He served in Siberia," Matthew said. "The front was known to be brutal, it was also the place where a great deal of war crimes were committed. In the absence of formal tribunals, it was up to different units on how to punish war criminals, in many, it was a quick look at the evidence, and then if you were found guilty, you got a bullet to the head. This could be some of David's old instincts kicking in, not that I agree with it"

Chris just shuddered, well he did suppose it made sense, the bug colonial did admit to trying to commit genocide, but torture?

"Why torture her though? Isn't that a war crime?" Chris asked

Matthew sighed "From what I heard, people who were assigned to those slap dash tribunals were drilled to stop viewing those who were being judged as people, until they were proven innocent. This very well could be David viewing this as just another slap dash tribunal, with another one to be judged, heck, the only thing stopping him from killing that poor bastard out right was probably because he knew Vilmire would want information.

Remember, if you stop viewing someone as a person, all of a sudden things like torture don't seem too… unreasonable. Still, we better curb this behaviour, I doubt the director will be happy with us just killing prisoners"

Chris nodded, when he looked back over to where David was sitting, he saw him patting Silkwing on the head. It seemed hard to believe that was the same person from just a minute ago.

"Do you have any maps we could use?" David asked Seer, "I would like to have and idea where we are going."

"Yes, yes we do, Thistlewind could you get our friend a map?" At Seers words, Thistlewind got to his feet, and started walking towards a corner on the other side of the mountain top.

Silkwing was once again sitting on the bench listening to the conversation, other kids had joined them.

"Also, I would like to ask if you have any more of those translation crystals, it would make our jobs much easier if we could actually communicate with other bugs, it could help avoid another massacre, like the one you just saw." David said

"Unfortunately no, this is the only one" said Seer

David sighed, that would be too easy wouldn't it.

"However, I could come with you, and act as the translator, however I would need protection"

David thought about it for a moment, did he really want to bring an old lady into a kingdom that wants her and her kind dead? He supposed that it would be better than having to shoot their way through every problem, David made up his mind.

"Very well Seer, that arrangement sounds acceptable"

Thistlewind came back with a map in hand, and handed it to David, after looking at it for a few minutes, David spoke up.

"Dirtmouth looks like a good place to head next, it is close by as well" Any new information could only help them and the Bunker, and their scouting mission wasn't over yet. David just hoped that it wouldn't end in the blood bath like the one he was just responsible for.