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.

coming?! They need to stay

seem to want to

At least let me see

have gone through a few changes whilst I was gone. A writhing 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 are firing a literal barrage of strikes her way, the savage light from their weapons cutting into her flesh

[Crinis! Are you alright?!]

me, Master. I'm here to

Crinis. We need to end this fight before the

wall to my right crumbles as a huge pair of

"LEEEEEEROOOOOOY!!!!"

the wall and dives headfirst into combat. The Golgari are dumbfounded for the smallest of windows before they move to respond. That's Leeroy?!

my pheromone gland is covered, they don't smell a thing I'm

need to fix this! NOW!]

overwhelmed in seconds, buried under an avalanche of insects. Only

Dammit.

has

"West tunnel, clear!"

"East tunnel, clear!"

stop those claws! Scouts every hundred metres for a kilometre

emergency tunnels! Earth mages at

council been

"They're on the way!"

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, I lever

pulled back a little after I yelled at her, but she's still clinging

Invidia. We need to get

[Yes, Master!]

[Harrrr.]

[Yesssss.]

respond in their own way and gather around

where my friend Jim went?" I

few hundred metres down the tunnel.

"Thanks."

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 knows how far