“Why do the soldiers cover their ears before sleeping?” Those were the exact last words of my assistant, killed by an acheronian bug. It dug its way through his ear to the brain during slumber. When he awoke screaming, it was too late, it quickly tore its way inside, killing him in excruciating five minutes, and there was nothing we could do to help him.
The bugs called rust beetles are thought to be part of a great life cycle of mythical ascension to greater life forms. They have deep blue and orange patterns that resemble rusting cubes, with razor sharp antennae that can get you tetanus if you are not careful with it. It lives a precarious life preying on corpses and waste in the Styx’s mud, it grows and travels to the Prime, by means unknown and there forms a chrysalis from where another being emerges: a rust monster. No one knows why they travel to the Prime and back.
Few know of the rust beetle at all, but veteran soldiers. During the months of Decadre and Mortis they are searching for food for the migration and metamorphosis, thus it’s dangerous to sleep in tents, lest the beetle carves your brain.
