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.

They

close, they didn't seem to want to stop.

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

mass of flesh and tentacles rises from 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

[Crinis! Are you alright?!]

fine! Don't worry about me, Master. I'm

We need to end this fight before

right crumbles as a huge pair of mandibles break through

"LEEEEEEROOOOOOY!!!!"

totally covered by Crinis, the war cry of the dumbest ant in the history of the species floods the tunnel as a HUGE soldier bursts through the wall and dives headfirst into

the heck are you doing?!" I scream, but since my pheromone gland is covered, they don't smell a thing I'm

fix

and hundreds of ants swarm out of them. The Golgari are overwhelmed in seconds, buried under an avalanche

Dammit.

Eldest has

"West tunnel, clear!"

"East tunnel, clear!"

every

emergency tunnels! Earth mages at

the council been

"They're on the way!"

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,

she's still clinging to my abdomen,

Crinis, Invidia. We need

[Yes, Master!]

[Harrrr.]

[Yesssss.]

and gather around me as I

me where my friend Jim went?" I ask the

worm? You should find him a few hundred metres down the tunnel. Take a left

"Thanks."

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