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!]

It’s not exactly reasonable to expect them to be quiet as they protect me from an

up there and I’ll try and get this

[Okay!]

to start scissoring away at it. Even the workers are capable of nibbling at the stone and tearing it down piece by piece. Since neither

suppose the little demon could divert his attention to whipping up some stone, but personally

spell is such a freakin’

at a constant rate, each seized by my mind constructs and condensed before they are added to the intricate weave that is this spell.

next to when it goes off, but

Exciting!

more of them

all

but they managed

see. The termites flood around the tunnel corner like literal water, a densely

out to the wider nest that the queens were under threat. Naturally they drop everything, no matter what is happening, to come and defend the queen. In fact, the ka’armodo

few lizards with

I can do about it!] I tell them. [Unleash

[I-I’ve got it, Master.]

hasssss it! Givesss it

out, his eye crackling with power as he unleashes his devastating eye beam. In fact, he appears to have supercharged it this time, the green light

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

it, Invidia,] I tell him. [We’re

be,] he replies with supreme

as I want to 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

thing is taking me

mana,

cry out in