WHAT MONSTERS DO

While Asimil and Luce traveled north, the other fragment of the team had been teleported to the Desolate Eastern Borderlands, a region crumbling under the weight of the new age. Here, the effects of the Void were not an explosion of corruption, but a slow, agonizing rot. Chaos manifested itself in food shortages, refugee caravans raided by bandits, and a palpable air of desperation. There were still no confirmed sightings of Generals, but there were rumors, whispers of a "person who did not seem human" lurking in the shadows.

The team of three arrived at a large village, or what was left of it. The houses were ransacked, the palisades broken, but not by an army, but by a chaotic force. The survivors told them the strange truth: the wild beasts and creatures of the nearby forests and dungeons, normally territorial and predictable, had become erratic. Swarms of goblins, packs of wolves, even bears, attacked and plundered villages, not in search of blood, but for food and weapons. They did not attack humans unless cornered, acting with unnatural desperation.
 
— We have to help them!  We can stay and protect the village! Establish a defense! —

— Absurd — Mitsu replied, wiping a speck of dust from his impeccable armor. — Our mission is to find the others and regroup, not to babysit for a bunch of peasants. This is a waste of time. —

Their ideals clashed. Ikel's heroic compassion against Mitsu's cold pragmatism. Before the argument escalated, Lyra intervened, her face as expressionless as ever.— Both have a valid point, and both are wrong — she said in her monotone. — Protecting the village is a temporary solution. Ignoring it is an inefficient cruelty. The logical solution is to go to the source. —

She pointed to a map. — All these creatures come from the same main dungeon: the Goblin Lair. If the problem is there, we eradicate it at the root. We will avoid further problems and we can continue our mission. —

Mitsu reluctantly agreed, reluctantly impressed by the healer's logic. The next day, they went into the dungeon.

At first, they encountered low-level creatures, scary and easy to defeat goblins. But as they descended, the enemies became more dangerous, more organized and, above all, more desperate. Mitsu, ever analytical, took notice. — This is not normal — he muttered. — They are not defending their territory. They're... scared. They're running from something even deeper. —

Just as they were in the center of the dungeon, a cavern filled with stolen treasure and scraps of food, they found him. The Goblin Chief, an obese creature twice the size of a man, sitting on a garbage throne and sporting a dozen magical gadgets and rings.

— Humans! Thieves! — he shrieked, and with one of his rings, he summoned his bodyguard.

The air filled with red smoke, and from it emerged an Oni, a demon with crimson skin, long white hair and a giant mace.

The battle was brutal. The Oni was a beast of pure power. Ikel faced it head on, a clash of titans of fire and muscle. Mitsu moved around him like lightning, searching for openings, while Lyra kept them both alive with her healing spells. They knocked the Oni down once, twice, three times. But each time it fell, the Goblin Chieftain summoned it again with his ring.

— We can't win like this! — Mitsu shouted, — We have to finish off the summoner! —

Devising a plan on the fly, Ikel unleashed his most powerful attack, a pillar of fire that enveloped the Oni, drawing its full attention. It was a distraction. In that instant, Mitsu, with incredible speed, slipped around the flank and pierced the Goblin Chief with his sword.

The plan worked. The Oni melted into red smoke and disappeared. The badly wounded Goblin Chief let out a shriek of pain and crawled, not to attack them, but into a small cave in the wall, no bigger than a box.

They followed him, hoping for one last trick. But what they saw left them silent.The Goblin Chief, dying, used his badly wounded body to defend a nest of tiny baby goblins whimpering in fright in the darkness of the cave.

Ikel lowered his fists. — They're... they're just children. —

— Babies who will grow up — said Mitsu, his voice cold, devoid of all emotion. He raised his sword.

— Wait!  They haven't done anything! We can't...! —

— They haven't done anything yet — Mitsu corrected, without lowering his gun.  — But they will grow up, and they will remember this day. They will remember that we came to their home and killed their father. They will grow up with resentment and hatred, and they will become the same monsters as their parents, or worse. They have already seen our faces. This is not an execution, Ikel. It is eliminating a future threat. —

Ikel looked at him, horrified, unable to accept such brutal logic.  — they are children, Mitsu. They are not monsters. —

— All monsters were once children — replied Mitsu.

They both looked at Lyra, seeking a tie-breaker. But Lyra... only looked away, her expressionless face now a mask concealing a conflict she could not resolve. She said nothing.

Mitsu took her silence as an answer. With a swift and efficient movement, he finished the job. The silence that followed was absolute, broken only by the echo of the last blow.

They left the dungeon without saying a word. Ikel was furious with Mitsu, but also with himself, because part of him, the part that had seen the horrors of war, understood the twisted and terrible logic of what he had just witnessed. Goblins were not exactly good creatures.

They had completed their mission. They had "saved" the village. But as they walked under the corrupt sky, the weight of what they had done in the darkness of that cave felt far heavier than any victory.

In the depths of the dungeon, far below where the nest had been, a figure watched the scene through an orb of smoldering darkness. The unnatural "hunger" he had inflicted on the goblin tribes to create regional chaos had worked to perfection. The heroes had taken the bait, eliminating the pesky local competition for him.

A cruel smile came across the face of the General of the Void. They had served as an excellent catalyst.

And the one with the blue hair... he understood. He understood the logic of purging. The need to cut the root before it grows, to eliminate the threat before it becomes a problem. The General saw in Mitsu's cold resolve a reflection of his own philosophy.

— Interesting — thought the General. — Perhaps, when this world is reborn in the glory of the Void, he will be spared. Or better yet, he will be offered a place at my side —

The orb of darkness vanished, leaving the subway chamber in absolute silence, awaiting the next move in a war far greater than the surface heroes could imagine.