Chrysalis

The pain was beyond bone deep. Inside the communal bond, where once his servant, Issi, had been, was now a wound that tore into his very soul. Rassan'tep clamped his fangs together and forced himself to rise, despite the protests of his body. The air was still filled with dust, visibility was poor, but he began to move toward the echoes that rang through the bond. Powerful legs scratched at the rubble, and soon he began to unearth his attendants. The surviving ones.

What had happened? What was that?

No. He wouldn't allow himself to become distracted. The setsulah required his aid and the bond demanded that he give it, he could not do less, as their master. The mountain face above them must have collapsed, judging by the rubble, burying them all in tons of stone. He had survived thanks to his own shield, if not for that… it didn't bear thinking about.

After twenty minutes he had managed to excavate most of them, using only his legs. Even now the mental strain pounded in his brain, every touch of mana like a twinge on an exposed nerve. By the sands, he was tired.

"Mas… ter," Ammon'sil groaned as he was uncovered.

[Be silent,] the kaarmodo commanded, [you have numerous broken bones and I have not a speck of magic left in me. We will need to carry you inside the mountain.]

The leader of his servants closed his eyes and nodded wearily, his once pristine scales covered in dust, even torn away in places. His wife, Rapsep'sil crooned softly as she knelt by her husband and brushed her hand over his crest. Rassan'tep looked aside, it wasn't for him to observe such a private moment.

[What a disaster,] a mind touched against his own, filled with disgust and fatigue.

You have also survived?]

answer to the

mind and sank his emotions

way have I failed, Irion?] he said

though his rage practically vibrated over the mental link until

lost two of my attendants in this disaster, directly as a result of your

to our termites had we not been interrupted. Are you really blaming me

that yes, he should have predicted the existence of a super-ant with command over an unknown mana, Irion'tep could only fall silent as he

continue to retrieve those that can be saved,] Rassan'tep suggested, [these discussions can wait for

allies and their servants amidst the rock. As they worked the dust continued to settle and the scale of the devastation gradually became known. It was absurd. In the face of the mountain, an enormous sphere had been carved that encompassed most of what had previously been the main entrance. That spell, whatever it had been, had ripped up the rock as if it were plain soil, tearing it from the mountain with ease. The trees in the distance, which had not long ago been coated in a layer of fungus, were now clear, but had been flattened, many uprooted and dragged across the ground, leaving

shield eating up so much of the spell's energy, or their efforts to break the spell down, the scale of devastation would have been far greater. How could one creature produce such an effect against

very

a cultist was a difficult one, they endured thousands of failures in their mission to create the final ancient, yet each toiled through the centuries knowing that they only had to succeed once. For the first time in a long while Rassan'tep felt his heart quicken at the

any right to be, also possessed this strange power. With another evolution, possibly two, they would have a clearer picture, but any monster able to do something like this at tier six was more than a worthy candidate. He would have to