Chrysalis

We warred for survival. That was our driving motivation for so long that when we eventually reached the point that survival wasn’t threatened, we almost didn’t know how to act. We had established enough power, enough allies, that the forces who sought to exterminate us were unwilling to pay the cost, and thus secured our ongoing existence.

Some theorise that it is only when one doesn’t have to struggle day to day that their true personality can shine through. In that case, this period would reveal who the Colony was, what our priorities were, and who we saw ourselves being in the future.

Even the Eldest, so often the driving force behind our development and direction, stepped into the background. Left to our own devices, the Colony had to search deep within itself to find a new direction, a new channel in which to place its bottomless energy.

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• Excerpt from the private notes of Historiant

Turns out, it takes a lot of mana to create a volcanic eruption.

[Stay away from the master you trash! Die!]

[GRAAAAAH!]

[Ssssurrender your livesss to me!]

BOOM! BOOM!

And it requires an extreme level of concentration and focus.

[Succumb to fear! Retreat from the shadows!]

[Ahhh. The experience isss mine!]

[HRAAAAAAAAA!]

[Can you keep it down, dammit! I’m trying to focus!]

[Sorry, Master!]

exactly reasonable to expect them to be

your best up there and I’ll try

[Okay!]

start scissoring away at it. Even the workers are capable of nibbling at

could divert his attention to whipping up some stone, but personally I’d rather have him

spell is such a freakin’ pain

each seized by my mind constructs and condensed before they are added to the

next to when it goes off, but I don’t

Exciting!

more of

the name of all that is ant can there be

don’t know, but they

corner like literal water, a densely packed wave that sloshes and froths as individuals are sent tumbling or flying by the sheer weight of mass

Naturally they drop everything, no matter what is happening, to come and defend the queen. In fact, the ka’armodo might have found their mental control breaking if they tried to deny the termites

wager there’s a few lizards with

I can do about it!] I tell

[I-I’ve got it, Master.]

it! Givesss it

light shredding through everything it touches.

ichor dripping onto the tunnel floor beneath his hovering form. That is less

I tell

he replies

worry about him, I can’t. Instead, I turn and pour all of my attention into the spell, weaving threads with all the delicacy and speed I can muster. Within, the omni-elemental construct spins and whirls as raw mana is

managing the damn thing

mana, just…

I cry out in triumph.