Chrysalis

“WE ARE BATHED IN HER BENEVOLENT LIGHT!”

“WE SEEK!”

“WHERE SHE HAS LED, WE SHALL FOLLOW!”

“WE SEEK!”

“ETERNAL REST! ETERNAL GLORY! IT IS NOW HERS! SOON, IT WILL BE OURS!”

“WE SEEK!”

The column of Immortals continued to march through the ranks of ants who had parted for them. Towards the front of their formation, the Reliquary of Eternal Rest was borne upon their backs, its sacred smokes infused with pheromonal messages of hope and comfort.

“Death is near! Glory to the Colony! The end has come! Death is near!”

The waves of pheromones rolled over the ants to either side, who rolled their antennae and clacked their mandibles, unimpressed.

Leeroy continued to exhort her followers all the way to the head of the column. By the time they reached the end of the bridge, the Immortals had been whipped into a frenzy, their hearts surging with devotion to the Colony and eyes ablaze with a desperate need to lay down their lives.

The Reliquary had a multiplicative effect on the eagerness of the Immortals. They were so eager to fly into battle their armour rattled on their backs.

it wasn’t possible. The bridge

clad column came to a halt with surprising discipline and the Immortals sat,

magic churned once again as thousands of minds linked together to work the energy that suffused the air. The bombardment continued as they worked, but it

journey, connecting to the termite mountain and terminating on the shore. The ants looked out over the unbroken fields of white fungus, but there was no

it

an ecstatic, almost rapturous Propellant

all! ALL OF IT TO THE GROUND!

up the mountain, starting spot fires that rapidly spread. In a matter of moments a raging inferno blazed across the

themselves, waiting for any response from the termites, but none

IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL!” she raged as she launched more and more flaming

speed. Pillars of flame roared dozens of metres into the air, the ashes burning so hot they started new fires wherever they landed. When the fuel had burned itself out,

to see the enemy boiling out of their tunnels to fight, filled with rage and ready to defend their precious garden. Instead, the mighty column

Leeroy stepped forward.

“Let’s go,” she said.

none of them would return. The Reliquary of Eternal Rest marched

flowing over the landscape like a natural disaster. The formation continued to be

smouldering tree could conceal a tunnel or cavern filled with termites. Mages extended their senses as far

the termites did not

their monstrous army at bay until the ants had been drawn as far forward

not waver. They would see the enemy destroyed here today, regardless of the tricks and stratagems. When the battle was

the mouth of the termite nest itself. Although repairs had been made, signs of the damage caused by the Eldest could