Chrysalis

“So how does it feel, Eldest?’

I turn a little to look down at Advant. I’d never really considered before, because I’d never really had to, that the position of my eyes and shape of my head blocks my vision to the ground beneath me. Unlike a human, with a handy dandy neck, I can’t exactly look down.

So when Advant approaches close to my legs and wants to chat, I actually can’t see where she is. I lower my legs on one side to change the angle and I spot her on my left.

“Oh, there you are. What do you mean by that?”

“To be a tier seven? You’re reaching levels of power that most in the Colony can only dream about.”

I feel a little uncomfortable when she puts it that way.

“What do you mean? You’ll reach this point soon enough. Bit of time, Biomass and cores are all you need and bam, you’ll be my size before you know it.”

Or bigger, considering her energy is mostly dedicated to physical growth, whereas I split mine. To my surprise, she shakes her antennae in denial.

“No, I don’t think there will be many who manage to take the leap that you have. The amount of resources required to push one of us to such a high tier is hard to justify. There are over a million members of the Colony now, each and every one of them in need of cores to fuel their evolutions. We must consider the strength of the overall family.”

big burny demon was a good counter to our normal swarm tactics. Having one big shot to take it down fast is the

be hoarding resources and putting myself on the frontline all the time. Vibrant will likely

a monster will accumulate Biomass and experience throughout their life, but cores are a different matter. If the population of the Colony continues to grow

insisted we do everything we could to

hard to describe,” I say, trying to give a better answer. “I’m not used to being this big, for

the tier five soldiers,

In short, I’m huge! The tunnels and caverns I roamed through in

to that period, it feels good to know I could totally stare down a

something that appeared to

you a better answer when a little more time has passed,” I tell Advant. “For now, I’m still not used to a

The soldier nods.

your plans for now,

love to experience less

safe enough for the time being, even though the demons are going crazy. When you need me, send

gate to head back, but I’ll have to rely on Brilliant to bring

can tell, you’re going to have a harder time than I am,” I tell her, “but you’re all way better at organising this sort of defence than I am. Once we get dug in, a million demons won’t

have returned to friendly territory, the short term emergency has been resolved, but the ongoing danger in the demon stratum continues to grow. The Colony needs to get to work

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