Chrysalis

"ROOOOAAARRRRR!"

A leg shaking bellow rocks the ground, followed a moment later by a giant, winged ape leaping high into the sky before crashing back down on the road beside the building I'm on, crumbling a few walls in the process. I'm beyond caring about the property damage at this point, all that matters is securing Brilliant, the rest we can deal with later.

Hopefully.

"GET BACK HERE, HATCHLING!" I rocket my pheromones forward, blanketing the area with my order.

"No!" my antennae pick up her much fainter reply. "I'm going to see it for myself! You can't stop me anymore!"

"WANNA BET?!"

Her path zigs and zags, crossing between buildings, between demon legs and underneath foundations. I can see her now, everywhere she goes her head ducks this way and that, her eyes taking in everything they see with a feverish, almost vacant stare. Likewise, her antennae are going crazy, whipping this way and that so fast it almost appears as if they'll lift her into the air like the blades of a helicopter.

Like a dog with its head out the window of a moving car, she's going crazy from the stimulation of so much new information rushing into her brain at once. I should have known bringing an ant so curious that she would conduct her own tour of the Colony as a grub to an entirely new stratum would be way too much for her to handle. For some reason I thought that after evolving and becoming more intelligent she'd have a better grip on it. Turns out that I was more than a little wrong, I think it actually made it worse.

But I'm gaining ground. With her Skills as low as they are, even if she trained Dash as hard as she did, there's no way she can match my speed. No matter how slippery she is, there's no escape for her now! The nearer she draws, the more I tunnel in until there's nothing I can see but the little ant speeding through the crowded traffic beneath me, no matter the destruction and chaos that is being sown behind.

Closer, closer, CLOSER!

She's practically below me now, her little legs a flurry of movement as she ducks and weaves as only an ant can, flickering from one point to the next. But I see her!

[Crinis! GO!]

she descends to the ground level, proppeling herself forward until she's right on the heels of Brilliant, her tentacles reaching forward to snatch the little thing into the air. From above I have an almost perfect view of the limbs stretching through the air, seeking, homing in and

and rockets up the side of the large

[Tiny! Invidia! Go!]

Tiny uses it to propel himself to even greater heights, homing in on Brilliant like

Just. Another. Second!

CRASH!

is lucky since he weighs a heck of a lot more now than he used to. After gliding for a few moments, he slams into the side of the building, raining rubble down on me as the wall

to think 'well…. Nards' before I'm falling through the air, Brilliant in the air just above me before we

at the air for a few moments before I manage to right myself after a little rocking back

Did you

tightly wound frame unwinds bit by bit until a hand emerges with a thumb proudly extended into the air. A moment later, he stands tall to reveal Brilliant clutched tightly against his chest. The little ant struggles valiantly against his iron grip, but to

me go! I want to see! I

are things in this world that you’ve never dreamed off, little one. If needed I'll weave a prison for you out of the fundamental forces of this universe! You really

[Masssster.]

I haven't finished

issss danger here… open your

wake. Several fires already rage between the piles of rubble where fallen buildings

problem…] I mutter to the

[Not that. Turnsssss.]

Wait, what?

powerful aura is surging. When I switch on my mana sense, it becomes clear that a tier seven core is