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, lowering their bodies down to

the Colony once more got to work extending the bridge. Earth magic churned once again as thousands of minds linked together to work the

terminating on the shore. The ants looked out over the unbroken fields of white fungus, but there was no sign of their

meant it was

ecstatic, almost rapturous Propellant

burn! Burn it all! ALL OF IT

blue flame were lobbed further up the mountain, starting spot

Immortals braced themselves, waiting for any response from the termites,

raged as she launched more and more flaming missiles

the ashes burning so hot they started new fires wherever they landed. When the fuel had burned itself out, all that remained was charred ground that still sizzled with remembered heat. In the distance, the smoke still billowed up into the sky, the

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 of ants

Leeroy stepped forward.

“Let’s go,” she said.

would return. The Reliquary of Eternal Rest marched with them, the

troops in the lead, the rest of the army followed behind, flowing over the landscape like a natural disaster. The formation continued to be a tight column, the troops

conceal a tunnel or cavern filled with termites. Mages extended their senses as far as they could, even going so far as

the termites did not

leash. They would hold their monstrous army at bay until the ants had been drawn as far forward

destroyed here today, regardless of

and alert, the army marched all the way to the mouth of the termite nest itself. Although repairs had been made, signs of the damage caused by the Eldest could still be seen, the horrific