Chrysalis

Granin stirred as the wave washed over him.

"W-was that?" Corun asked breathlessly.

"It was," the triad leader stated.

Torrina sucked in a breath, letting the shock register on her face instead of her usual stoic expression.

"This is a lot sooner than we expected," she said after calming herself. "Are you sure?"

Her teacher shot her a slightly annoyed look and she looked down. Granin snorted.

"You're too smart to ask a question like that," he scolded her, "we just got punched in the face by a wall of mana. Of course I'm sure."

"I know. I suppose I just didn't want it to happen now. I don't think I'm ready."

"Nobody is ready for what's coming. They might have spent three thousand years preparing themselves, but they still aren't ready."

At least we won't be the ones to pit ourselves against the overwhelming strength of the Ancients. I'm happy to leave that to those with far more hubris than I.

Corun warred with the sense of excitement and trepidation. World shaking events would take place, and soon. A wave the likes of which the world hadn't seen since the Time of Rending was building. It was possible the events of the past would repeat themselves, with the Ancients causing devastation on a global scale. Naturally, he was nervous.

you think?" he asked Granin and the old Shaper

getting close. If I were

He shrugged.

a year is my guess. If we don't have a solution by that time, then they'll take matters into

Ancients took matters into their own hands. Cataclysm, catastrophe,

in time,"

person?" he said, and she thought for a moment

a happy occasion for some religions, but amongst the cults, it meant coming well within eating range of an all-powerful monster. Granin imagined it may be a very moving experience, to see Yarrum with his own eyes. A creature of legend and unfathomable might, capable of smashing all the golgari had built to nothing if

be awed, he thought, not for long, but I'd be

was perhaps the second most ravenous of the Ancients. There

might still be worth

only chance of staving off disaster is to present a new Ancient. That was the task laid on the

Corun fretted,

perhaps the first tier seven ant in the history of Pangera, and a mythic monster at that. Considering where he'd started, it was a remarkable journey. In fact, recalling he hadn't even been born amongst his Colony, but in the tunnels by himself, it was beyond a miracle he'd survived to this point. She understood what

we've ever seen

high in the fortress nest below Roklu, the three had a huge range of view over the plains below. Torrina and Corun leaned forward to see what he was

landscape as demons rampaged endlessly. As they watched, it didn't die down, it only grew worse, and worse, and worse. Larger demons

of ash and smoke, thickened, to the point where the golgari felt their lungs burn when they breathed. Not from the smoke, but from

create filters in order