Chrysalis

[How long will the curious one remain imprisoned within the mouth?]

[Until she's learned not to be a massive pain in my commercial zone.]

A wave of heat washes over me from behind.

[What is this… commercial zone?]

[You know what? Never mind.]

The already sweltering temperatures of the third stratum inch up a couple of degrees as Al literally burns with a level of curiosity that, being honest, I just can't be bothered dealing with right now. All I'd wanted to do is hang out in the demon city and see what they got up to in there. Is that too much to ask? Apparently, yes. I'd kind of expected that things would go wrong, I mean, they tend to. Tiny would get into a fight, or Crinis would accidently mind-control somebody, or Invidia would nab something he shouldn't and then all hell would break loose.

I make it sound as if I'd expected my pets to be the cause of any issues, but I can be honest with myself. I fully expected that I'd be responsible for some kind of drama, be it getting into a fight I shouldn't have, pinching stuff I shouldn't or mind controlling someone. What I didn't expect was a damned hatchling to go freaking crazy on me!

Now the only way we're going to get back into Roklu is at the head of an army. Good thing the Colony is probably going to assault the place in fairly short order. In the meantime, we'll just have to hang out down here, I suppose. Not that it isn't exciting!

[I … dislike this place.]

Al has a distinctly displeased tone to his usually flat and unemotional voice which surprises me enough that I turn around to face him.

[What about it makes you so unhappy?] I ask. [Isn't this the place that you were born?]

The floating eye of fire swings around the plains around us in one irritated swoop.

[All demons are born of the plains. From the moment we emerge from the spawn points we know nothing but a desperate battle to survive, surrounded on all sides by foes. We consume each other until we piece together our sentience, bit by bit as we evolve. Even those who try to escape the fighting and climb the pillar are thrown back down. Until we reach tier six, we aren't considered a real demon.]

kind are born within the comfort and safety of the nest, surrounded by family, but I personally was born on my

The demon eye glitters.

their lives, though some hide

certain worm

it isn't common for a demon to

Fair enough I suppose.

themselves. At the moment we are clinging to the pillar a hundred metres above the ground, looking down on the chaos going

lot of them, aren't there?] I say, hesitance clear in my

the spawn rate

wave is over isn't it? This is the normal rate for them

wave.

infant demons beneath us. Each of the little creatures, with their dark coloured demon skin, two claws and strangely bulbous bodies fights maniacally against any of their own kind they can reach.

a frenzy of feeding and fighting that just goes on and on as new demons crawl from between cracks in the ground to

awful lot of Biomass…]

harvest,] Al comments, [not that you or

thinking

was thinking about potentially hundreds of thousands of little hatchlings who would be more than happy to feast on these demons. Looking over the vast plains and the unending supply of small demons, thousands might not be enough to consume all that I can see. We might

I sigh and begin

trying to find a gap I can place my leg without squishing any demons in the process. To my surprise, they almost flow away from me, creating space where I won't crush them

I point out the strange

instinctively shift away from

[Weird…]

eye flares in

that is more powerful than themselves is food for later. Better to occupy