Chrysalis

To be honest, I'm both overwhelmed, and a little sad about my new stats. It's an incredible improvement over my last evolution, the gains to each of my stats is more than double, a feat which required the immense bonuses provided by the Mature Paragon evolution as well as a massive chunk of my evolutionary energy. It was necessary though. My stats had been lagging behind where they needed to be as I invested a lot of energy over the last few evolutions in expensive organs. Even though the gain is massive, I still lag behind Tiny in raw physical power and behind Invidia in mental might. It's true that the two of them are more of a streamlined, specific type of monster, but I need to work harder to make up for my lack of raw power by using my versatility to its finest.

Comparing my Cunning stat to Invidia's, the differential is made even worse by the fact that my own mental stats are split across four separate brains, whereas his are devoted entirely to one. Using the mental construct magic, he's able to replicate the ability to think about multiple things at once without having to physically divide his brains, as I have. Although I've made a huge stride forward with this evolution, I still have a long way to go before I can become a truly intimidating magical force. Having made all of my brains mutable is going to be interesting to explore as well. I'm sure there are plenty of options that'll help me take my spell casting game to a whole new level. So many more strides forward waiting in the future!

Having said that, I still have a level of juice in the tank that I've never come close to having before, and it's finally time to put it to the test! Eager to get started, I rally my pets and we start to move toward the line of battling ants in front of us. As we walk, I order my sub-brains to kick into gear and marvel as they stir the mana in my core, drawing it out and weaving it into the omni-elemental construct. It's still hard, obviously, but it isn't close to the near impossible task that it was before. Each of the brains works in harmony, guided by the coordination cortex as they cooperate to weave and fold the intricate, many layered structure. This is incredible! My main mind doesn't need to get involved at all!

[Are you ready?] I ask my pets.

They each reply to the affirmative and we start to run forward. A wall of insects covers the tunnel in front of us, members of the Colony hanging from the walls and ceiling to block off every possible avenue for the wave to pierce through their numbers. On the other side, a screaming mass of monsters pushes forward, fighting each other just as hard as they do the ants that bar their way.

roar, blasting my pheromones forward and my siblings respond instantly, the centre

Tiny's fist and sent flying back to where they came. In less than a second, we barrel through the opening and find ourselves surrounded on all sides, the wall of insects closing behind us. Enemies surround us on all sides, swathes of claws, fangs and worse reaching to rend us limb from limb from every conceivable angle. Tiny has never been happier. With a whooping bellow of rage and joy, his fists blaze with light as his hands start to flicker faster than the eye can see, sending straight punches in all directions that blow monsters back, stunning and damaging in equal measure. With the

and having to face up

want to speed things up I could darn well get involved and help, which I refuse. Nevertheless, in only a few more seconds the construct slams into place and I task the main sub-brain with maintaining it as the other two begin to operate it, feeding in raw mana and extracting the desired type. The whole process is so much more flawless than it was before, my main mind not even required at this stage in the process. In

a 'whoosh', the air ignites as a sphere of pure blue fire expands around me, searing any foe who dares to step within ten metres of my noble frame. I turn the maintenance of the domain back over to the sub-brain and I almost weep as it manages to maintain the spell as well as operate the construct in order to keep feeding it with mana. Meanwhile, my other sub-brain has been hard at work pumping out lava mana, the combined essence of earth and fire. In a true test, I force the sub-brain to

is the dream! I'm casting multiple spells at the same time whilst maintaining a truly devilish construct and my main mind isn't involved at all! Muahahahaha! How far I've come! And if the main mind isn't involved, then I can get busy doing other things! Move aside Tiny! Time for this beefy ant to head to the front

charge forward, shouldering the ape aside in the process and unleash

CRUNCH!

before, manifest beside my head and slam forward, tearing into the hordes of monsters in front of me and clearing space instantly. A flood of messages stream in from

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