A thunderous voice shattered his thoughts.
"Where is your captain?" the giant asked.
It wasn't a question.
It was lightning.
A massive red bug stepped forward. Larger than any he'd seen before, armored and marked as nobility.
He tried to speak, but his voice trembled.
"W-We are part of the Red Swarm, Great One... Our fleet is stationed in the Bug System... We are several systems away from the Demon Core..."
He bowed deeply. "We exist to serve—"
"Silence."
The voice came from the giantess this time. Cold. Sharp.
"Tell us your proximity to the Suzako System."
The captain froze.
Jackob blinked.
Suzako?
He'd never heard that name before... but it was burned into his mind now.
And something told him:
This... is where everything changes.
The colossus didn't raise his voice.
He didn't need to.
"Give me a map," the giant male said, voice echoing like thunder in their skulls, "...and one of your kin to read it."
There was an awkward silence.
The Red Bug captain's face twitched slightly. His eyes glanced at the datapad in his claw — far too small to be readable for a being hundreds of times his size.
"Y-Your liege!" he yelled up, scrambling for words. "Of course!"
Then he snapped his head around and bellowed:
"GOLO! My right hand — you'll go and guide our... guest!"
Jackob's stomach twisted.
Golo.
The terrifying Red Bug from before. The one who had spoken to him after the massacre at the mines. The one who had looked like a demon in carapace.
That Golo?
Now?
He looked like a chicken.
A twitchy, nervous, featherless chicken.
But before Golo could even take a step forward, another voice cut the air like a blade.
Smooth. Cold. Feminine.
"Actually..." the giantess — the goddess with red hair — finally spoke,
"Make it five."
The entire crowd froze.
Even the other giant turned slightly to look at her.
The captain didn't argue.
"GOLO! Pick four more of our best. Make our guest happy."
There was no pride in Golo's step as he obeyed.
He ran. Actually ran. Like prey.
And to Jackob's horror...
He was chosen.
Him.
Out of hundreds of soldiers... him.
Maybe it was because of what he'd done in the mines. Maybe Golo remembered how he killed the Yellow overseer and the axe-bearing Red bug. Maybe it was all a coincidence.
But Jackob cursed under his breath.
"Damn it... I knew leaving an impression would backfire."
The five bugs stood in a row. Kneeling. Waiting.
The goddess stepped forward.
She only spoke one word:
"Follow."
Then she turned.
Each step she took covered two kilometers of land.
The five bugs ran. Legs burning. Chitin gleaming with sweat.
Then, in a flash, she vanished.
Not from sight.
From space.
Like she'd folded reality and stepped through.
Jackob and the others stopped for a second — just a second — staring in shock.
Then panic hit. They ran.
Full sprint. No formation. Just survival.
Far behind them, the male giant watched the tiny scene play out. Like children chasing their mother.
He chuckled quietly — only audible to himself.
"Lizz... You never fail to entertain yourself."
He sighed, eyes softening.
"I wanted only one. But what can I do? It's my good fortune she's not my wife, or I'd be miserable."
He smirked.
"She's insane."
If Jackob had heard that, his obsession would've only deepened.
The tale of the mad goddess and the impossible love had only just begun.