Chrysalis

It took two days to clear the battlefield. Two whole days of the entire colony working around the clock, hauling, cutting, storing and generally stuffing their faces at every possible moment. Even with so many ants eating so much, the nest was still stuffed to the brim with Biomass that needed to get consumed yesterday. The Queen had consumed the most, from the moment she had recovered until she's been forced to rest by concerned members of the twenty. Well, the nineteen now, I suppose.

Grant's core had been recovered, but nobody suggested we reconstitute her. Having a member of the family, a sibling, start following one of us around as a pet was too weird for any ant to consider. This did mean there was an opening on the council, which I suppose would need to be filled at some point. I have no idea how they plan on going about that, try and find the next oldest soldier? Raise up a new council from scratch? I don't want to be involved, whatever they decide.

I mean, believe me, I've got my own problems. Tiny, Crinis and I had started consuming the Biomass that had once been Garralosh and it didn't take us long to realise a few things. One, it did feel a bit strange to be consuming the monstrous remains that had once housed a human being. Two, as expected of the old monster, she was Biomass rich. And three, there was no way we were going to be able to get through all of it before it dissolved to nothing. Garralosh was one chunky croc. She must have weighed around twenty tons! Even after a good chunk was lost to the Gravity Bomb, we couldn't handle it at all. Not to mention the core we dug out of her. I don't even want to think about that massive thing.

And since this food was the most rich of all, I decided it would make the most sense if it was consumed first. After we had filled ourselves to the brim, and all of my stomachs were packed, I told the surrounding ants to dig in, eat some for themselves, take some to the Queen, take some to Victoriant and her sister as well.

Spread the love, you know?

The next thing I realised was that I couldn't stay up on the surface for nearly as long as I could before. The mana in my core flooded out at a truly disturbing rate. By the time I finished eating, I was practically running on fumes and had to roll my swollen abdomen back into the nest. It was a lot harder to manoeuvre in there since my evolution, quite a few tunnels were too small for me to even consider entering. I was able to make my way down to my old resting chamber and rested there.

two days the ever ongoing cycle of eating and resting had repeated themselves until the surface was somewhat back to normal, the carpet of Biomass had been consumed, and the colony was able to return to business as usual. Brood production went back into overdrive, the Queen now producing three hundred eggs per day. Not satisfied with this rate of growth, the colony sought to take advantage of

begin their lives as egg producing Queens of the colony. There was quite a lot of energy amongst the nest at that, I have to say. A great deal of excitement

to take stock. I'm super happy that the wave is receding, obviously. Far less danger, the ease of exploration is opening up again. There's a ton of stuff I want to do in the Dungeon after all. I've been hoping to check in on the Sophos for ages, for example. I know they can't be too far away, beneath Liria somewhere, for sure. I really want to go deeper and see how things work down there, forge a path for the colony and all that. But more to the point, as the mana levels are falling, my little hidey hole, so close to the surface, isn't providing me with enough juice! I have to

Stupid Dungeon.

expanse. With spawn rates returning to normal levels, we are easily able to handle such a

Garralosh, as I expected from a battle with a creature so far above me. I'll have to deal with that sooner

feel as if I just slip into torpor and

and teaching, mage ants and core shapers are experimenting, carvers are building and studying. Even the soldiers and

once the surface clean-up was complete, I fell in a heap whilst the rest of the colony just kept on going. The guilt is overpowering! Or perhaps that guilt is just the constant niggle of whispers and tugs that

I may as well pay the humans a visit before I wander off, just to make sure they aren't doing anything too stupid. With Crinis riding on my now much more spacious back and Tiny following behind, I make my way out of the nest only

are you guys… oh my

be standing watch over the entrance to the colony, my steely eyes and noble antennae are matched by my fierce mandibles and