Chrysalis

Big ‘ol chunk of mass, surrounded by many more, smaller chunks of mass. Huge amounts of toing and froing. It has to be the queen’s chamber. There’s no way the termites would allow egg production to cease, not even during a crisis. Especially during a crisis.

How is a social insect supposed to overcome its challenges? With overwhelming numbers! I didn’t come here with a half of a million of my own siblings because I love their company!

Although I do…

[Can you sense it Crinis?]

[I can’t… this whole area is shielded.]

My shadowy companion of death and darkness sounds frustrated, unusual for her, but I can understand it. For someone who started off completely blind, Crinis has evolved to the point where she’s possibly the most visually acute of us all. She can’t see light, but she can see mana, and shadows, and use both to ‘see’ through walls and deep into solid rock. Not being able to look at something right in front of her face must be a weird sensation.

[It’s fine,] I assure her, [this is it. We just need to dig our way through. You three keep them off of me and I’ll take care of the rest.]

Zen of digging, activate!

Not that I want to actually relax here, that would be profoundly unwise, but I do need to get my dig on in a serious way. I aim myself in the direction I need to dig and begin to pump my mandibles with furious energy, ripping into the stone. Haha! Making good progress here. At this point in my journey, I can cut through regular stone like it's butter. I’m just too strong and too heavily mutated to be resisted when it comes to digging!

THUNK!

Ouch! That is to say… unless you go ahead and heavily reinforce the rock. That one chomp has set my entire face to wobbling. What the heck did they do to this stone?

clear some space and get a good view before I set my antennae to tapping and my mana

a different type of rock from the stuff surrounding it. It’s chock full of mana, I can tell that much. In fact, it’s likely to be a big part of

horde of termites and are bound to succumb if I take too long. The sound of skittering legs and gnashing mandibles is almost

mandibles, vastly increasing their cutting power, lock my

CRUNCH!

rip through it like I would have liked. I could get through it like this, but I don’t have the time to waste. I

VOID CHOMP COMBO!

time the last bite slams shut, my vision nearly blanks out for a long moment. Thankfully I have a half million ants close

are you all

just a little winded,] I tell her. [I’ve cleared the way, let’s

jump through the opening I created and feel my pets following along close behind. What I see spread out before me is a scene

a hundred metres across and completely lined with that strange stone. Opposite from us I can see a weird sort of observation chamber shielded behind

queens is

abdomens swollen to over twenty metres in length. A constant stream of termites rush into the chamber, delivering ton after ton of precious Biomass farmed in the caverns below to the royal majesties who are spamming out

can I know that? I can

the next clutch and let me tell you, those lines are moving fast. Forget about

this nest! Just how many

to be a lot to maintain the kind

ka’armodo must really have lost their minds. Imagine if this had gotten out of their control, which it most likely would have. This colony of termites would have been a plague on the fourth stratum. With the start the lizards had given them, along with the power they would have gained from

[Master!]

[Oh, shoot!]