Chrysalis

With her incredibly enhanced vision, it wasn't too hard for Wills to make out the details of the demon city far, far below. Any ant who wasn't a highly evolved scout would find it impossible to see what she could, but for her, it was simple. The advantages of evolving to tier five. Being able to see clearly at long distances generally wasn't something that scouts needed in the regular course of their duties, but with knowledge of the third stratum, she'd known that it would be a necessary trait for some of her caste to have. Unwilling to leave the experimentation to the new generation, she had been the first to develop her eyes in this way and it was paying dividends already.

"What in the world is the Eldest doing down there?" she wondered.

Smoke was rising from the city in several places, forming a long trail around the outer edge of one side. She could see several buildings had collapsed completely and tiny figures swarmed over them like… ants. The ants would be swarming over there soon enough.

"What do you think?" Advant asked, her scent tense with worry.

Wills chuckled.

"Looks like the Eldest has kicked up quite the fuss already. A good section of the city is on fire already and no I have absolutely no idea why. It's a mess down there, not going to lie."

"Is the Eldest trying to soften their defences before we make an assault? We aren't ready yet!"

"Considering we haven't consulted with them in any way on this plan, how could they possibly be aware what we're going to do, let alone when we plan to do it?"

"That’s… a good point."

"Personally, I think the Eldest is just doing what they always do. Making a mess of wherever they happen to be at any given time."

… bold way to state your opinion

bad thing," Wills smirked. "Wherever they go, there is always something interesting happening, something that pushes the Colony forward. It's impossible for us to be stagnant

mutations were dedicated to better track motion

wasn't long before they encountered more of their kind, a lot more. Carvers swarmed over the area alongside soldiers and scouts as the ants restructured the area around the top of the pillar to better suit their needs. If this was the connection point between the third and second strata, then the Colony would see it

"Tungstant! How goes preparations?"

she was advising several work crews to see her fellow council members approach. Judging by the slant of her antennae and the irritable clacking of her mandibles, she wasn't

going, I suppose.

Wills asked, a

to head off the tirade before it started, but she

seems to be the issue?!" Tungstant ranted. "How dare you say that to me! If there were ten of me and Cobalt, there still wouldn't be enough to get all the work done! You want us to design and build new nests, you want us to fortify a massive section of Dungeon, you want to construct new farm zones, upgrade the main nest, plan further expansion sites and THEN you want us to come all the way down here to build a fortified position and staging ground the size

truly believed what she said. What

hate all of it! The gates are bad work, not enough time used in the tempering, not enough time used for the enchanting! The stone in the walls isn't fully

about the work as it was being done and what she'd learned is that it was a lot harder than it looked.

soldiers are doing all the heavy lifting, the generals are

carvers, among the weakest of the castes, far away from the nests to investigate distant sites for proposed nests, or to begin the preliminary digging work in totally unfortified areas. Instead, several teams of scouts had side specialised in basic construction skills, allowing them to make basic assessments and plans, as well as commence simple building practices, like flattening out areas, laying foundations, digging

Colony was already looking to establish new nest sites a wide distance from the main nest,

grumbled, "we're just

Advant laughed. "You