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?

at the wall to clear some space and get a good

I’m not even sure what it is that they did. It’s not condensed rock, that’d ping my gravity sense due to how much heavier it is. They’ve done something else entirely… this is 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 why Crinis can’t see beyond this point. The enchantments they’ve used may even be plugged into this

me, my three friends are desperately trying to stave off a ravenous horde of termites and are bound to succumb if I take too long. The sound of skittering legs and gnashing mandibles is almost deafening in the

thought, I pump earth mana into my mandibles, vastly increasing their cutting

CRUNCH!

rip two long grooves out of the mysterious stuff, but I haven't been able to rip through it

VOID CHOMP COMBO!

almost nothing. In fact, by the time the last bite slams shut, my vision nearly blanks out for a long moment. Thankfully I have a half million ants close by and

are you

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

the opening I created and feel my pets following along close behind.

us I can see a weird sort of observation chamber shielded behind a shimmering pane of glass.

queens is the right

insane egg production. The queens are massive, their 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

know that?

clutch and let me tell you, those lines are moving fast. Forget about one every three seconds, this is more like

into this nest! Just how many

has to be a lot to maintain

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 annihilating the

[Master!]

[Oh, shoot!]