Chrysalis

The word 'termites' rattles around in my head like an out of control, rage inducing pinball. If I had a lip it would be curled! If I could hiss, I would hiss! Which is weird, since I don't really have anything against termites per se, yet I feel an overwhelming need to rend flooding me. Look! My mandibles are actively gnashing the air without me having any input! It's as if my entire ant body is filled with the urge to destroy having merely heard the word of the ancient enemy!

In the interests of science I decide to speak to the ants around me. As the rest of them are going about their business I release a short and sharp burst of pheromones.

"Termites."

Holy smokes!

The reaction is instant! Every ant within range stops on the spot and starts quivering, their mandibles writhing in the air as if yearning to clamp around the necks of they who should not be named. This is bizarre! I know for a fact that the ants of my family have no idea what a termite is! They've never encountered them in their lifetime, never even heard the term. Is the hatred for the termite woven into our cores? Did I accidently drop that in when I modified the Queen's core? I'm pretty sure I'd remember deliberately placing a hatred of wood eating bugs into my siblings…

Regardless of the reason, the hunger for conquest is clearly there. How can the Colony live knowing that a giant monster termite nest exists out there in Pangera? We can't! We must destroy it! They cannot be permitted to exist within the same Dungeon!

themselves a termite queen and are using it in a war against the mother tree and the bruan'chii as a whole? Isn't that a

giant wooden

act. The Legion would censure them for this behaviour and their allies would turn their backs, but these are not normal days. The repeated waves have everyone on edge. The Legion is stretched

you're literally made

and mother has decided to ask that you repay

she helped defend the Colony before the last wave, now we need to rush down to the fourth stratum in order to save

you can help us? If not,

too hopeful of that. I suppose the repeated waves are giving everyone pressure, not just the Legion. If the Folk are up against it then they

people don't realise this, but ants and termites aren't closely related at all. Where ants are descendants of wasps, which is where our body shapes, the wings on Queens and males come from. Some species of ant still have the stingers in the business district as well, which just goes to show how close the wasp relationship is. Termites on the other hand, are related to beetles. They have a different body shape and an entirely different social structure. Whereas ants are almost entirely female, termites are a mix of both male and female. The Queens, who grow into pulsating, immobile egg machines are paired with a male, a king, during their nuptial flight, and remain together until one or the other dies. Unlike a female ant Queen, who usually only mates once in her lifetime, the termite royal couple will mate whenever they need to and can rule over their nest for well over a decade. What's more, when the royal pair do finally die out, another pair will rise up within the colony to take their place, whereas most ant species will simply die out at that

not that gender matters. I imagine that the kaarmodo captured and carefully modified the termite queen and now they direct her and her offspring against the tree in every way they can. What would we be up against? The majority of