Chrysalis

You know, I always considered buying wings. Ants have wings, after all. You might be thinking to yourself, “What!? No they don’t!”, but it’s true. Male ants and young queens have wings. You can see them crawling about outside the nest after rain during mating season, or even just generally if you’re lucky. They don’t have a lot to do, these young royals. Eating and sleeping is pretty much all they’re good for.

Until they eventually take flight.

Little ants, flying all over the place, looking for other young royals from other colonies of the same species to mate with. The males then go die in a ditch (rough life) while the queens rip their wings off with their own mandibles and then go start a new colony, because they’re hardcore.

So it’s not like ants fly a great deal, but they can! I’ve thought about it now and again; it’d be quite cool to be airborne, zipping about like a dragonfly. But there are a few problems that have prevented me from making the purchase.

Overall, it’s quite expensive. The wings themselves don’t cost much, but I’m sure you can imagine the difference in musculature between an ant that can fly and one that can’t. Incidentally, young queens liquify their own flying muscles to feed the first batch of workers. That’s dedication.

Adding all that bulk, adjusting the carapace to accommodate the new appendages, tying it all together, it’s an absolute pain in the area zoned for commercial enterprise.

But now….

Heh.

Heheheheheheh.

GWEHEHEHEHEHEH.

I want to soar

get closer

brains, let’s do

main mind and begin to manipulate it.

it, my ever-present mind constructs chipping in to assist with the work. The main brain is dedicated to handling the weave, since

of complexity. I continue to weave the mana in and out of itself in an endless pattern that rolls deeper and deeper within itself. That’s

through the interference of multiple layers of that same energy type is fiddly, putting it mildly. I imagine it’s something akin to keyhole surgery, slipping my control through ever narrowing gaps to

stuff is done, it’s time to pump the thing full

the spellform, the beating heart of the well begins to pound and my antennae begin to burn, sensing the

a certain point. I tie it off once I judge I’ve fed it enough, and the well is complete, hovering in the air, a spherical patch of something that warps

antennae are by far the best detectors, my mutation paying dividends. I can sense the energy with my mana sense, obviously, but that doesn’t give me much of a clue as to how strong the gravitational field is. I can guess based on the density of mana, but with the antennae, I get a

see what this puppy

manipulate it, shifting it into position above my body. As I draw it closer, I can feel my weight begin to lift, my carapace rising slightly and my legs extending as I

moly! I’m doing

You think your piddling mass can hold me down? No chance! This ant was born