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 hadn’t been finished

Immortals sat, lowering their bodies down to

again as thousands of minds linked together to work the energy that suffused the air. The bombardment continued as they worked, but it had become clear that the ka’armodo lacked the firepower to break the

inevitably completed its journey, connecting to the termite mountain and terminating on the shore. The ants looked

it was fire

an ecstatic, almost rapturous Propellant stepped

Prepare to burn! Burn it all! ALL OF IT

blue flame were lobbed further up the mountain, starting spot fires that rapidly spread. In a matter of moments

response from the termites, but none was

raged as she launched more and more flaming

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

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 looked

Leeroy stepped forward.

“Let’s go,” she said.

luck, none of them would return. The Reliquary of Eternal Rest marched with them,

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

extended their senses as far as they could, even going so far as to harden the

the termites did not

charges on a tight leash. They would hold their monstrous army at bay until the ants

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

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