Chrysalis

The Colony is in a frenzy of preparations, still. There are over a million of us within range of the Vestibule now, and honestly, it's a little more difficult than I'm comfortable admitting to hold onto myself in the face of this vast, endless torrent of Will. Impressions and thoughts pour into me like a river dropping into a bucket.

I can't possibly contain it all, yet still it comes, and if I dip my toe in the stream, I risk being swept away in an instant. Were that to happen, who knows how long until I'd be able to find my way out again? The Vestibule grants many profound and powerful blessings, but it isn't without its drawbacks. Evolution has strengthened my mind, which helps me hold out against the influence of the Colony, but it's starting to feel like a race between my tier and the sheer number of siblings I have. I'm struggling in the face of a million, what would a billion do to me?

Better not to think about it.

Well, at least I feel incredibly refreshed and ready for action, which I expect is going to be coming my way very shortly. The wave is on the verge of breaking and the final preparations are playing out all around me. Thousands upon thousands of ants are working on construction projects, walls, defensive formations, training, farms and everything else I can think of. Somewhere within the nest, there's an enormous foundry pumping out armour and enchantments, forging equipment for our soldiers and preparing replacement parts for the inevitable damage that will come. I can feel them through the Vestibule, a thousand hammers striking the glowing hot metal in unison. Emergency hospital facilities are being created everywhere the Colony expects to be fighting, which is everywhere. Healers rush around in a frenzy, trying to prepare as best they can for the inevitable flood of wounded that will come their way.

Mana continues to fill the Dungeon until it feels like a balloon on the verge of bursting. Every surface tingles with contained pressure. My gravity sense is tingling all the time, reading the minute vibrations in the floor and walls. The level of energy flowing through the veins has reached the point where every single one of them has enough power to act as a spawn point.

Demon larvae are going absolutely nuts on the floor of the third stratum, a feeding frenzy the likes of which I hope never to see again. They spawn so fast they've created a layer of teeth and claws a metre deep on the bottom of the stratum. It's more than a little inconvenient since the density of larvae has made it impossible for them to move out of the way as they normally would. To traverse any distance, I need to wade through the mass of fangs who latch onto my legs the second I put them down. It's not so bad for me, my legs are thin and I can hold my body above the fray fairly easily. For Tiny, it's much worse, the poor ape gets his legs shredded every time he takes a step. Invidia has to apply a constant flow of healing magic to the big ape, who doesn't seem to mind that much, but I suspect that's because he's thick.

[Do you sense anything, Master?] Crinis asks.

She's latched onto my carapace, as usual, clinging to my diamond exo-skeleton with her fluidic shadow flesh. Actually… considering she has some immaterial limbs….

[Crinis… you aren't extending yourself inside my carapace, are you?]

Silence….

see something!]

[Crinis!]

[No, really! Look!]

of our objective, the path between this layer and the one below. Anything from below that's going to threaten the main ant nest at Roklu is most likely to come through that tunnel, so here we are, ready

there might be something. No monster or horde, I don't think I would have missed that, but something a little more subtle: the light. Normally a flickering, deep red from the many lava flows in the tunnels,

fact, it's hard to get an exact sense of where it's

It's coming from everywhere.

the

build, I add, [And grab

down the chimney and offered to wrestle. His grin is huge, splitting his face wide as his eyes burn with red light. He can't resist thumping his palms into his chest a few times, the impacts reverberating through the air, demonstrating his incredible strength. Bedecked in a new set of

he wants right now, but if it isn't a metric butt-ton

could sense, the vibration continues to build until everyone can feel

CRACK! CRACK!

shatters and I panic, thinking our perch is about to come crashing down, but no, it's far worse. The shaking grows more and more intense until the roof, kilometres above our heads, fractures. Hundreds of tons of rock break loose and rain down, whistling through

CRACK!