Chrysalis

The battle yet raged, a full hearted defence of the Colony demanded the attention and resources of every caste and every council member worked (almost) around the clock to ensure the family would ride through the trouble, greater and stronger than ever before. In many ways, the current Colony was like an egg, a hard shell on the outside, protecting what lay within from the storm as they grew and developed.

Although the war was waged against the Dungeon in a constant battle of attrition, inside the territory claimed by the ants, a different narrative was playing out. Unprecedented growth. The wave brought challenges, obviously, but it also brought more food, more cores, more experience and an opportunity. With the castes bringing in previously unheard of levels of resources every day, all of it was being funnelled into an absurd population explosion. Much like a chicken nestled within the borders of its shell, the Colony was getting ready to hatch.

In fact, Cobalt mused, that this might well be the second largest transformation to take place within the family since the Eldest had changed their species and put them onto their current path. Not only would the population of the Colony more than doubled by the time the wave was complete, the number of higher tier ants would also have seen a similar increase. Against all odds, the brood tenders had gone above and beyond, finding ways to budget the required cores and succeeded in realising the Eldest's ambition of having each hatchling graduate the academy at tier four. A monumental achievement that would change the fate of every ant. To manage to do this at a time when egg production had skyrocketed was mind boggling to the carver and she could only dip her antennae in awe to the efforts of Theresant and Florence.

The strength of the Colony as a whole had risen to an entirely new dimension, and it would only continue to rise from this point forward. Cobalt herself was currently under extreme pressure to finalise the designs and preparation work for four new satellite nests that were due to begin construction the very second the wave receded. Teams had already been assigned, the workers prepared to drop their current tasks and rush to assemble when the word came through. Resources were being stockpiled, Queens being raised and guard detachments organised. As a matter of fact, last she'd heard from Antionette, the eight new Queens had already evolved to the fifth tier, the same as every other Queen in the Colony. The decision to put a massive priority on the tier of the Queens had already paid dividends, bringing their egg-laying capacity higher and allowing them to further develop the mutations which increased the stats of their offspring and allowed them to produce eggs more efficiently.

Cobalt raced around the model of the nest she was currently working on, her eyes pouring over every detail as she considered every angle. This was the final draft of the third nest and she wanted to ensure it was perfect before she moved onto the final design. Immaculately carved and shaped in hardened stone, the massive model weighed over a ton and was an exact scale representation of the new nest and the surrounding Dungeon, down to the finest details. Spotting an error, she clacked her mandibles in irritation before bringing one antennae forward, charging it with earth mana as she smoothed down one section of tunnel by a millimetre.

"Surely it's ready by now?" huffed Sloan from behind her. "I need to brief my generals and I've already been waiting here for ten minutes!"

"I don't rush your work," Cobalt chided her sister as she reached into the network of tunnels connecting the chambers in the model before her and shaved off another tiny fraction of stone. "Would you have the new Queens take residence in a less than perfect nest?"

have on her conscience at all, they were the future

your carvers even able to notice

her assistants turned to look at the general with genuine

examine the model, but their mana sense. The stone is infused with earth mana which they can detect with minute precision. Once this master design is complete, eight copies will be constructed by

the model

"There, finally done."

as they raced to complete their own models. These would be

here helping out

Cobalt sighed.

have been pushed back. The amount of frontline repair work that's been required has more than doubled over the last week, so we decided one of us should move closer

her mind turning to her own experiences at the checkpoints, "not

complete. "Alright then, bring your generals in, you can brief them while the carvers work,