Chrysalis

The massed ranks of my siblings can only watch as the gate bulges and buckles under the immense weight of the pressure the Legion is applying. Exhausted and weary, the last fighting fit ants on this side of the nest stand ready for the final conflict. Once those gates come down, this will be the final stand. If the Legion manages to break through this point, they'll be able to separate into smaller teams in the narrower tunnels where we can't hope to apply the numbers needed to defeat them. They'll destroy the nest one piece at a time until they reach the brood chambers where the golgari are fighting and complete the annihilation of the Queens and young.

Looking around I can see that we've all been pushed to the brink. Almost every ant is carrying wounds but the healers are so tapped out they have to be selective where they apply their ministrations. I'm pretty sure I saw Beyn spitting blood a little while ago, even his legendary vocal endurance unable to go the distance. Tiny's hands have been healed a few times already and I can still see they're raw and broken. Crinis has lost almost all of her reserve flesh and Invidia is suffering the kind of mental exertion migraines I frequently experience after casting too many spells. Even so, we need to front up again. The gate booms and shudders as our enemies batter it down, but each second that passes is a blessed relief. A few moments to recuperate will do wonders for all of us. We're going to need all the energy we can get in a minute.

A strange silence descends amongst the collective ants and humans that remain. We watch the gate as it gradually breaks down, awaiting the foe to come together.

Elsewhere, in the brood chambers.

An Asura Bear was a cursed creature at its core. Truthfully, Sarah couldn't remember even choosing the evolution, so lost in the rage and fear was she at that time that it's possible she hadn't made a choice at all. Yet somehow, the form she had chosen was so devastatingly suited to her that it succeeded in tipping her over a precipice that had taken her a decade to climb back up. She could feel herself teetering on the lip of that cliff now, her psyche balanced on the edge of sanity and that pit of mindless violence in which she had dwelled. The problem was, deep within, it was so hard to care.

Next to her core, in the centre of her massive frame beat the asura heart, the powerful mutation that gave her species its name. It provided incredible strength, but at a cost. The heart fed on her negative emotions, her rage, pain and fear, magnified them, liquified them and send them pumping throughout her body until every inch of her frame was suffused with them. She could feel it now. The pain of betrayal, the anger of broken trust, the fear of losing herself again. She could feel it all echo through every cell of her body until she was drunk with it.

And it made her strong.

She could barely see the golgari in front of her, her vision had long since faded from red to black. There was a chance her wild swipes did just as much damage to the Colony as it did the target of her wrath, but she didn't, couldn't care. Maybe her eyes had been injured, or perhaps she was already so far gone that seeing what she hit just wasn't important to her anymore. Regardless, she could feel the devastation wrought every time she struck out. Flesh was parted, armour split, metal cracked and bones splintered. It was like wine on her tongue. Fresh Biomass between her teeth. She needed more.

There was pain, somewhere. Her entire body ached, but she couldn't tell why. It didn't matter. She could still swing her paws and bite with her muzzle. That was all that mattered.

The Queen watched everything from a distance with worry growing in her heart.

be alright?" she asked the healer by her side

Frances clacked her mandibles.

her to constantly rake her antennae through the elbows of her front legs. "Mother, please retreat. We've not been able to fully

"Cease treating me immediately and go help the others. The bear appears on the verge of collapse, why do you not treat her

reach her, and even if I could, we can't be sure she won't just kill me on the

"Is she not lost to her rage as

Frances was growing exasperated. No matter how she tried, she was unable to persuade her mother to leave this dangerous area and it was making her desperate. "The only one in the Colony who

I am," the Queen stated and pushed herself to

healer watched her mother rise with growing

"Mother, no!" she cried.

then waded into the thick of battle, the

Outside the nest.

retreat?" Titus

not," the Grove Keeper

daughter in the process, or he could fight. He had promised not to take action against the

with many choices," Titus ground out, his anger beginning to kindle in his chest as he weighed the lives of his soldiers

mother will take everything from you that she can.

"Is that so?"

the number of figures who emerged from behind the Grove Keeper continued to rise as more of his people stepped forward. Fortunately, there was only the one Keeper, the tree wouldn't be able

is so," the Keeper