Esca placed a hand on her heart. "It truly saddens me to say this, but I have just made the difficult and painfully tough decision to NOT go to Insectla."

Illume all of a sudden stood up, lifting his storm blade and charging it up with a small amount of lightning. "There is no need to be concerned, Esca! We may still go to Insectla despite your disapproval of the location. You see, Jecc, Sligg and I need to consume a great deal of food in order to sustain our powerful bodies. Therefore, I intended to do a little bit of hunting once reaching the surface world. You're welcome to join us for our meal if you'd like, to avoid consuming this insect food we're hearing so much about. I can even grab you your own entire beast to have all to yourself! Simply let me know what to capture and I can make it happen with ease."

"I do appreciate your kind offer Illume, but I want to be able to enjoy myself wherever we go. I cannot rest or do anything at all in such a place."

Suddenly placing a hand onto Esca's shoulder, Verlena looked into her eyes with a serious gaze. "I'm sorry, Esca, but we do not have the luxury to spend days on end finding the town that's right for you. This one is close by, and while going there may be an uncomfortable experience for you, we must do so anyway so that we can be sure to get everything done before the prosthetic being next appears, or begin seeking out the terrorist group ourselves if he does not appear, as soon as possible. With every moment that passes, another location is at risk of destruction at the hands of those sick people. So again, I am sorry Esca, but we are not going to change course simply because you're disgusted with all of the insects."

"Hm. I see Verlena." Esca said. "Well all of your points are incredibly valid. I suppose I put my own personal enjoyment in front of even the potential lives of others. After all, I think that the key and purpose to life is your own happiness. And... quite frankly, I'm scared of what lies ahead. This could be the final time we're able to stop and recover in a town. With what we've got ourselves involved in, we could die at any moment. So... if this does happen to be the last town I'm able to visit, I wanted it to be a lovely time. A nice last hurrah, you could call it. Just in case we don't make it. But even if we do survive, we still likely won't get another moment like this for some time."

Verlena was caught off guard briefly before she replied, "Oh.. well yes, our lives are on the line more than usual. The threat we face is much greater than our previous undertakings. I did not consider that you felt such fears regarding our future. That is my mistake." She then clenched her fist tightly and shouted, "But despite it, we must continue forward anyway! Face our fears head on!! Do what we must to save as many lives as we can!! It is not only part of our job, but it's what I want to do whether it is for a contract or not!!"

Biting her lip, Esca remained silent for a moment. But unable to contain herself, she soon yelled, "Well Verlena, I am personally in it for the financial gain and that's it!! The only reason I'd risk my life for someone else is if I care about them, or if it's for the purpose of fulfilling a contract! I could care less if some strangers I don't even know get killed if it means I'll be okay!!" She panted briefly, then closed her eyes, taking a moment before opening them again to continue. "You don't know... how many people I've lost, just to try and protect those I've never met. People I've loved. Those I cherished and held close to my heart. All dead so that others could live. But... it wasn't worth it. All it's done is leave me alone, until I connect with someone else, and then have the cycle repeat itself. Yes, those people we protected have their own friends and family. But so do I!! It isn't wrong to lookout for yourself!!"

Nobody else said a word, everyone present listening to her intently.

"I don't enjoy doing these missions and never wanted this to be my career." Said Esca. "I only do so because this ability I've gained makes it easy to get rich by getting involved with contracts and such. But it always spirals beyond what my partners and friends can handle. Even so, I have my own reasons for continuing to get back into it again and again. I just wish someone would understand that we don't always need to risk our own lives to save everyone else. We're people too."

Jecc placed his bolt back in his mouth before speaking. "I get that you're sick of everyone you care about going and getting themselves killed in the exact same way. Seeing everyone else have those close to them rescued, at the cost of your comrades lives. But you've got to think about what those comrades of yours want too. Verlena clearly has a burning desire within herself to protect people she's never even met. And even if that desire of hers is going to put her at risk, it's part of who she is whether you like it or not. So you'll have to accept it, or leave her be. People can change, but some ideals are deeply ingrained in their very cores."

Esca clenched her fist, not replying.

Abruptly, Teres slumped his arm around Esca from behind, grabbing her chin with one hand, and directing her gaze toward where his other was pointing. "With how much you've been against goin' to Insectla as our pitstop, you did a great job of flying us straight to the place!! It'd be better to say straight into it, though. Pay the hell attention and lift the damn ship now!! Otherwise we're gonna find ourselves in some real deep shit!!"

During the conflict, Esca had unintentionally flown the ship directly to Insectla. It was en route to collide with an enormous structure shaped like a scorpion. The rounded stinger had several windows where residents of Insectla could be seen enjoying a meal inside.

"Oh- shit!! I kind of may have completely forgotten that I had a vehicle to monitor in the heat of the moment!! Uh-.. worry not though, I shall fix it... I-... think...??" Esca blurted.

Esca flooded every last bit of her mist into the ship's sensors. The receptors harnessed the mist, forcefully blasting it outward towards the scorpion structure in a desperate attempt to bring the ship to a halt. However, with how quickly the ship was already moving combined with how close it was to the scorpion restaurant itself, she was unable to avoid a collision with the structure.

Once realizing that it wouldn't be possible to avoid crashing into the restaurant, Esca instead focused her mist on protecting her comrades. Verlena and Teres were both enveloped in a protective cocoon of mist that shaped itself around their bodies. Esca did the same to herself, taking a gamble that the lightning Surge would be able to survive the impact on their own so she could focus as much strength as possible toward defending herself, Verlena, and Teres.

Her gamble paid off, as bolts of lightning erupted where the lightning Surge stood just before impact, teleporting the three out of harms way.

The ship then collided with the scorpion restaurant, destroying a majority of the structure. Esca had been able to lower the ship just enough however to avoid the stinger where it seemed most of the pedestrians resided.

With the rest of the restaurant demolished, the scorpion's stinger shot out wildly. Just before it could strike anything and endanger both those nearby and within it, a burst of honey exploded onto the stinger, sticking it to a nearby building. The honey quickly crystallized, securing the stinger firmly in place.

A figure, their entire head obscured by a mask crafted from the upper half of a centipede, lowered a unique firearm and removed their other hand from their belt.

He had thrown a grenade filled with rapidly crystallizing honey towards the scorpion's stinger, then perfectly timed his shot with the firearm to detonate it.

Shortly thereafter, the individual lifted a glowing communication device crafted from beetle shells, with two antenna-like protrusions made from grasshopper legs. He spoke into it. "Colossal S... it's been blasted to bits. We'll need a grouping of maggots brought over to absorb the honey I used to save the customers still inside it. They'll be needed for any necessary medical attention too, thanks." Putting the device away, he glanced toward where Verlena and Teres's ship resided. The collision had severely damaged their vessel. Although its overall structure was still recognizable, whether or not the ship would still function was doubtful. It stood upright near the ruins of the scorpion restaurant, having been lifted into position by Esca.

"Well Esca... don't have much of a choice anymore but to get your rest in alongside us in Insectla. If we're even gonna be able to rest, not sure how much they'll appreciate what we've done with Colossal S. It was a popular eatery, had some real nice stuff." Teres said, Esca's mist encasing drifting off his body.

"I say it's destruction was well deserved, considering it's not even an insect! A scorpion is an arachnid! Are the people of Insectla so unknowledgeable??" Esca exclaimed.

"No... that isn't it. Not including arachnids or other bug like creatures would limit us too much. It has nothing to do with our intelligence. We figured as long as the life form's close enough, we'd use it to create our home and develop our society." said the man with the centipede mask, approaching the ship. "But, enough about that topic. Right now, I need to know... who... are all of you?"