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.

course, it wasn’t possible. The bridge hadn’t

surprising discipline and the Immortals sat, lowering their bodies down to rest, though, sadly for

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

on the shore. The ants

meant it was

mages, an ecstatic, almost rapturous Propellant

mages! Prepare to burn! Burn it all! ALL OF IT TO

pure blue flame were lobbed further up

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

she

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, all that remained was charred ground that still sizzled with remembered heat.

The Colony had expected 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.

With luck, none of them would return. The Reliquary of Eternal

shock 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 on high alert. This was not friendly territory; the

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

the termites did not

held their charges on a tight leash. They would hold their monstrous army at bay until the ants had been drawn as far

see the enemy destroyed here today, regardless of 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 power that they had unleashed had scarred the mountain