Barid smiled. "So that is what has been troubling you," he said. "I understand your concern, but you don't, yet, see the big picture. It is not that creature's death that will destroy us, but its continued existence. Has it ever told you what it really is? Why it exists? Hell, do you even know why the Beyonders hate us? I doubt yours even knows; it was little more than an attack dog, young and naive."