Chrysalis

Ants flooded through the tunnels, called to action stations by urgent pheromone messages distributed by the still under development “automated noiseless announcement system.”

If Sloan had any hair, she would be pulling it out of her carapace right now. Instead, she had to settle for tugging insistently on her antennae with her mandibles as her brain tried to spin the logistics needed for the required movements.

“It’s fine,” she said to the other council members, who stared at her, doubt plain in their eyes. “No, really. All we have to do is mount a campaign to secure this location, protect the Eldest and develop our defences, whilst simultaneously attacking into the teeth of a ravenous horde of demons on the third stratum to rescue the Queen. Simple.”

“How is any part of that simple?” Propellant scoffed. “This problem doesn’t go away or shrink into insignificance just because you pretend it’s easy. We need you in reality, Sloan.”

“Reality isn’t my friend right now.”

“Nobody is disagreeing with that. There has to be a way to turn this around. We need explosive action!”

“We need a calm, measured response,” Coolant rebutted. “If we rush we might make a critical error.”

“If we don’t rush we’re going to be too late! We don’t have time to think.”

“Both of you be quiet,” Advant said with authority, causing the two mages to subside. “Sloan has already described what we need to do, and it is simple. There has to be a defensive force left here to protect the Eldest until they complete their evolution. There also has to be an extensive force assembled and launched into the third stratum to protect the Queen and prepare for a possible demon invasion.”

began to comprehend the scale of the task, and

said. “If something is turning the demons rabid, then we have

demons within their

think of that,” Propellant said, looking shocked. “If that happens, this could escalate

stratum, so we need to divide ourselves between the two locations. I suggest

Leeroy,”

armour-clad Immortal burst

Eldest while they rest, then it’s likely to be far more dangerous than just

I suppose

the rest of the council gave her thankful nods. Without the chaos of

luck, everyone,” Sloan said. “I’ll

a huge procession marched through the gate provided by the Mother Tree. Hundreds of thousands of the most battle hardened and highly evolved members of the Colony returned to the blazing heat

sounded. Reinforcements from the upper layers of the Dungeon rushed to descend in columns kilometres long, covering the vertical roads they had built

who wouldn’t answer the call. Despite their fervour, at all levels, the Colony kept in mind the wisdom of

third stratum. Demons gazing down from the occupied cities were confused at times, wondering if the Colony outnumbered the larvae on the plains. The great pillars on

traffic in the emergency command post established above the tunnel the Queen had taken down into the deeper