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 need to stay

they didn't seem to want to stop. I think they're

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

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

[Crinis! Are you alright?!]

Master. I'm

Crinis. We need to end this

right crumbles as a huge pair of mandibles break

"LEEEEEEROOOOOOY!!!!"

HUGE soldier bursts through the wall and dives headfirst into combat. The Golgari are dumbfounded for

but since my pheromone gland is covered, they don't

to fix this! NOW!]

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

Dammit.

Eldest has

"West tunnel, clear!"

"East tunnel, clear!"

move! Don't stop those claws! Scouts every hundred metres for

tunnels! Earth mages

the council

"They're on the way!"

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

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

Crinis, Invidia. We need

[Yes, Master!]

[Harrrr.]

[Yesssss.]

own way and gather around me as I

my friend Jim went?" I ask

hundred metres down the tunnel. Take a left at the branch," a

"Thanks."

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