Chrysalis

"Get back here!" I grumble at Brilliant, "if you don't behave yourself, you're going back in the mouth!"

She freezes in the process of dashing off into the city and turns back towards us.

"Do I even fit in there anymore…?" she asks doubtfully.

[Invidia, show her the mouth.]

He does.

"I see that I would indeed still fit…" she says, the scent faint.

"Yes, yes you would. When it comes to mouths, Invidia is ranked second in our group behind Crinis in terms of size and believe me, you don't want to spend any time in there."

"Why is that?" she asks, her curiosity overwhelming her good sense… as usual.

"Because everything that goes in there is slowly annihilated, disintegrating into tiny molecules that are then digested. She doesn't even need teeth to shred her food."

"That's… horrific."

"I think that's the point. Anyway, before we run off into a strange city full of demons that we don't know anything about, how about we stick together as a group and agree on some simple ground rules?"

"Ground rules like what?"

are a snack. Try not to get eaten. Second,

"Crystal!" she nods enthusiastically.

at her clear and energetic eyes, alight with the promise of new knowledge, I just know that this is going to

I sigh,

carefully. I get the feeling she'll try to run off

in his eyes. I hope it'll be enough. There's a slight gap between the wall that encircles Grokus' compound, and therefore the base of the pillar, and any

roads, because why would there be, or any sort of planning having gone into the layout of the city that I can see so far, which correlates to the obscene tangle that I witnessed from above. It looks as if the demons just build wherever they please and knock down any building that gets in the way.

all expectations. As we move deeper amongst the buildings, more faces poke out to watch as we walk past, each and every one a different shape or size than the one before. The demons come in a seemingly endless variety of types and even if some are similar to each other, there are almost always some differences that can't be put down to mutations alone. Compared to the uniform appearance of my own family members, besides the obvious differences between the castes, this is almost a ridiculous level of diversity. I keep an eye

be a lot more

[I do not know.]

suppose it doesn't

"ROAR!"

BOOM!

heck

air and I plant my feet firmly, antennae swaying through the air rapidly. To the side, I see that Tiny has leapt forward and snagged Brilliant

go check

tension unwind a little, I nonetheless keep my guard up as we thread our way through the buildings toward the source of the noise. A few minutes later we find what we're looking for in the form of a large, brutal looking demon dragging away what appears to be whatever is left of the demon he had a disagreement with. The ground is heavily cracked, and a few nearby walls are clearly damaged, but again, nobody

very peak of tier six, judging by his core. Clearly a physical build, he was

can’t go

relaxing from the impressive pose he'd pulled in order to