Chrysalis

The surrounding crowds, pressed together in the square, recoil with horror as Crinis makes her presence known. The fact that she snatched up the mysterious ants rather than start munching on the helpless crowd isn't enough to completely mollify their fears. Screams and indignant cries rise as they push to create distance from me, while the kid who threw the stupid ball looks on with wide eyes before being dragged away by who I presume is his mother.

Whelp, time for me to get out of here.

"Let's get the heck out of here!" I shout to my siblings before speaking to Beyn over the mental link. [We need to leave this area. Let things calm down a bit before we come back.]

The priest readily agrees, and our convoy makes directly for the nearest wall as the crowd scrambles to make room for us to pass by. A few guards brandish their spears at us, but the ants ignore them, climbing straight up the wall and using their bodies to shove the guards to one side to create space for those behind to head straight over. Each of the ant-robed humans is picked up by a large soldier and carried over whilst clutched in mandibles. You'd think they'd be a little afraid at being gripped in the crushing jaws of powerful monsters, but instead they look almost radiantly happy. These people are just as far gone as the damned priest. There's no hope for them anymore.

I maintain my grip on the still struggling ant as Crinis holds aloft the other nineteen. It makes crawling up the wall rather difficult, the individual ants are relatively small, but holding twenty of them is no joke in terms of weight! Up and over and once more in the clear as the uproar behind us continues. Being surrounded by my fellow insects rather than the panicked citizens of this city is such a relief. Back amongst my own kind!

Those ants who'd taken apart the gates were already on their way out of the city, wasting no time in their quest to return the precious artifacts back to the nest. If we can unlock the secrets of this magic, the future of the Colony will truly know no limits! A solid contingent of soldiers and scouts go with them, guarding the precious cargo. For the rest of the ants present, the work is clear. We may have seized the gates inside the square, but there are no guarantees that there aren't more besides those that we were told of.

"Do you think all of the gates will have that distinctive mana gathering array?" Coolant asks from nearby.

Struggling to contain my wiggling captives, I take a moment to reply.

"I'm not sure," I admit, "since there's no Dungeon veins in here, the mana is much thinner than it is out in the tunnels, so it would make sense they'd need such arrays to power the gates. But we don't know enough to assume that would be the case."

The mage nods her head.

"We'll just have to manually search then."

"Wouldn't hurt to send out the mages to test the mana density around the place anyway. Never know what they might turn up."

enough to cause me problems. Only by using my external mana manipulation to

walled square where order is gradually being restored, judging by the diminishing level of noise coming over the parapet. As

in my mandibles, "I presume you're

wait a moment to

you not going

it appears as though this is their strategy to avoid my interrogation. Foolish! Do they really believe that giving me the silent treatment is going to

that after I was captured by the golgari and

to do. Laughable! I trained them from the time

or something along those lines. Only they immediately realise that I would say no. I do not need or want a group of guards following me around, I would more likely have to protect them as opposed to them protecting

mandibles grip the still limp

doesn't want to be protected, but at the same time needs to be protected, why not guard them in secret!? We'll make

of the twenty figures exudes a sense of martyrdom now,

put into a motion a plan, probably with a stupid name like Operation

Twitch.

Holy moly. So, Operation Silent Shield commences, they recruit twenty promising young hatchlings, ones who are dedicated to a fault, willing to serve in any

Twitch.

last evolution, you all chose some sort of advanced gland that masks your presence, from all sources. Or does it work on perception? Perhaps the Vestibule was working correctly the whole time and I filtered it out without realising? Maybe my Will stat was too high… Well? Which is

she stubbornly

Even if you hadn't leapt out when you did, I

surprised that the council would pull a move like this. I can't even be mad, not really. These twenty young ants represent the council worrying about me, attempting to look after my safety without letting me know. They basically used up a second council worth of

them go

you sure, Master?] she

irritated that these ants were