Chrysalis

[DAMMIT CRINIS! I can't see!]

[It's fine!]

[How is it fine?!]

[IT JUST IS!]

[No! How the heck can I fight if I can't see the enemy?! What is even happening?!]

[I'll fight for you! You don't need to do anything!]

[Are you kidding me?! There's no way you can take them all on by yourself!]

[Watch me!]

[I CAN'T!]

I'm currently entombed in a shell of Crinis after all. Not only is she covering my eyes, she's covering all of me! How is she even doing this? She sent her entire body through my shadow in a flash! So much faster than she was able to use the Shadows before. This can only mean one thing…

[You've evolved!]

[Of course, Master! Did you think I would rest before coming back to your side?]

[Well… no. I didn't.]

My Vestibule tingles with energy, causing panic to spark inside me.

[Wait, Crinis! What's the Colony doing?!]

[Oh, they're coming! They'll be here any minute.]

Through the liquid shadow flesh of Crinis' body I can sense the ongoing battle. Thuds and impacts ripple through her form as she takes damage that had been directed at me.

are they coming?! They

to want to stop. I

Crinis! At least let me see what's happening! That's

my back like a pillar, three separate mouths gaping and gnashing at the air as she sends her limbs twisting through the air toward the Golgari. For their part, the Warriors and Shapers are firing a literal barrage of strikes her way, the savage light from

[Crinis! Are you alright?!]

Master. I'm here to keep you

to get off me, Crinis. We need to end this fight before

right crumbles as a

"LEEEEEEROOOOOOY!!!!"

bursts through the wall and dives headfirst into combat. The Golgari are dumbfounded for the smallest of windows before

scream, but since my pheromone gland

off, Crinis! I need to fix

late. Maybe it was too late the moment I was captured. Once Leeroy has made her entrance, a dozen similar holes open up from all angles of the tunnel and hundreds of ants swarm out of them. The Golgari are overwhelmed in seconds, buried under an avalanche of insects. Only a few have the intelligence to flee the second an ant is seen, the rest fall victim to the relentless crush of the Colony. Before I can count to ten, the tunnel is awash with ants crawling over every surface

Dammit.

has

"West tunnel, clear!"

"East tunnel, clear!"

move, move! Don't stop those claws! Scouts every hundred metres for a kilometre in all tunnel

emergency tunnels! Earth mages at

the council

"They're on the way!"

are they coming here?! As the tidal wave of pheromone conversations wash over my antennae, finally freed from Crinis' death grip, I feel the welcome buzz of my family wrap around me once more. The Vestibule is completely alive now, whispering to me the needs and desires of every ant within range. It's overwhelming at first, but when I hear the council members are coming this way,

a little after I yelled at her, but she's still clinging to my abdomen, stuck to me like

Invidia. We

[Yes, Master!]

[Harrrr.]

[Yesssss.]

own way and gather around me as I

friend Jim went?" I ask the

metres down the tunnel. Take a left at

"Thanks."

least I think that was a scout. Judging by the long antennae and sleek carapace design, it would be weird if they were a soldier. As time passes and I move further away from the site of the battle, the number of ants congregating actually increases. More and more of them are flooding out of the nearby tunnels and climbing out of small emergency tunnels that they've dug every second until I feel as if I'm inside the nest, rather than some tunnel goodness