Chrysalis

“Hold, dammit!” Brilliant roared.

“I’m not sure it can take it,” Assistant cried out. “It’s going to overflow!”

“It needs more power! Give it everything you’ve got!”

“We can’t do any more, the matrix will collapse!”

“A little further,” Brilliant urged as the mana surged and frothed. Dimensional boundaries were cascading around them and she could peer into them all, flashing images of twisting reality that bent and warped themselves around her.

They were so close!

“It’s gone! Run!” Assistant shrieked, and Brilliant was vaguely aware of her followers ducking for cover or diving into the blast cages. She herself didn’t move, of course, transfixed as she was by the beauty she beheld in front of her.

“So beautiful,” she whispered.

A moment later, she was spear tackled and knocked from her observation platform.

“Experimant! What are you doing?!” she yelled.

again,” the ant replied, flicking her antennae with irritation. “It’s a little difficult to make use of your insights if you die in the process of getting

the Eldest had been at pains to make, numerous

hope to find me,” she boasted, “I see it coming a

to stand up only for Experimant to yank her back to the ground. Then the explosion finally happened, the haywire mana discharging as purple lightning that arced over the walls, searing jagged patterns into

right,” Brilliant muttered. “Forgot about

that made up her merry band began to emerge from the reinforced concrete bunkers someone had decided to install in their research chamber. She strongly suspected Assistant was the one

tap with an antenna. “Fantastic experiment, another rousing success!

hugging the floor as the last few sparks danced

her mandibles to emphasise her pheromones and mimic the human sound. “How many times do I have to teach you? Only a truly successful test will end with a multiple manifold-collapse. We were able to

thick layers of hardened ice and embedded within a holding structure of living stone, the array was a sophisticated piece of enchanting, the only one of its kind within the Colony. Smithant

Our spatial pathway

means any ant who travelled through it would be liquified. Not quite the result we are aiming

are making great strides. Great strides. You don’t discover the secrets of teleportation magic without exploding

my brain could handle

only want to travel through regular space, why is it necessary to map such a

on her helper, contempt evident in every line of her carapace,

dimension. Everything i-is a dimension. If you

instruments attached to the matrix. “It’s almost as if we aren’t looking to find a destination in three dimensional space, but rather find our way back to it. Right now, all we are doing is shooting bright light into the dimensional weave, illuminating the darkness so we can better understand it. Once we have a