Chrysalis

"Whooooooooo!" Vibrant cheered as she raced across the Plains of Leng, delighting in watching the larval demons leap from her path just in time to miss her flashing legs.

The air was boiling hot and seared against her carapace as it drove her antennae back. The smell of ash and molten rock smothered her senses as the terrain flashed by but Vibrant cared little for any of it. The rush of pure speed was what she craved and these wide open plains gave her an opportunity to run as she had never had a chance to before.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" she hollered, her legs flickering so quickly they couldn't be seen, her brain flashing just as quickly as she processed the barrage of visual information that flooded her eyes each second.

Far behind, though not as far as one might think, her followers were working hard to keep up as best they could. Their job was made far more difficult by the fact that they'd long since fallen out of range of the aura that boosted their own speed, since their leader had raced so far ahead. Still, they too yearned for speed, just as their leader did, and their hearts were thumping with joy as they raced across the plains as a unit, desperate to keep up.

When they eventually did so, they found Vibrant standing rock still, staring up the target of their current mission. Emilia the general was among the first to arrive and boldly approached their uncharacteristically still leader.

"Vibrant? Is everything alright?" she asked.

The large yet sleek soldier twitched her antennae as she recognised the scent.

"Have a look up there, it’s a

and looked up at the demon city of Orpule far above. Just like Roklu, it was situated on a

much larger, isn't

had conquered, there was more than one plate! The second, which hung beneath the first, in its shadow so to speak, was much smaller than that above it, as if it had only begun to form recently. Which raised the question, how did a demon city expand? Or was this a sign of a more powerful and ambitious leader driving her population

remind her glorious leader. "There

the city of resources, keep an eye on things and make a general nuisance of ourselves in the meantime! Which

generally going well. They might be hectic, or even dangerous, but usually

sure we keep our distance! Let's also make sure that we go super-fast! Do your best to keep up with me everyone, I don't want anyone falling behind! We can regroup here after we get a couple of laps in,

her usual breakneck pace, a combination of similar mutations among her followers and familiarity with this speed of communication meant that they perfectly understood what Vibrant had to say. As one mind, the group set off, speeding across the plains and

came across any demon more evolved than tier three, the group set upon it, devouring their hapless victims in a matter of seconds, before setting off once again. The experience and biomass were welcome, of course, but more than that any evolved demon was a potential recruit

and a sortie was sent forth, powerful demons that included