Chrysalis

“MORE POWER, DAMMIT!”

“We don’t have any more! We don’t have the power!”

“It’s so close. So close! Empty the tanks, we need every drop!”

“But… but that’s madness!”

“It’s not madness… it’s BRILLIANT!”

Electricity crackled, lightning flashed and sparks fell like rain from overhead as the ants scurried to follow the orders of their leader. Atop her observation spire, Brilliant cackled, her mandibles snapping together in a staccato rhythm as the flashes and explosions lit her from below, projecting her demented shadow onto the wall.

“Th-th-the b-backup m-m-matrix is collapsing!” Assistant whimpered.

“It’s fine, we have three backups!”

“This IS the third backup!” Experimant roared.

“Not to worry, I installed a secret fourth backup matrix and didn’t tell you!”

“That’s just a lie, isn’t it?!”

Another explosion rocked the chamber and Brilliant teetered on the edge of her spire, a hair's breadth from losing her grip and falling into the swirling maelstrom of light below. The many-faceted eyes of the mage were filled with an unearthly glow, and for a long moment, Experimant was convinced she’d finally lost her mind.

“Dump the tanks and then hit the cages!” she shouted and hundreds of lab ants rushed to follow her orders.

“Th-th-th-th-th-this will overflow the matrix for sure!” Assistant said.

Experimant replied as she snatched up the smaller ant,

w-w-w-will save the

think she’s

flowing through the underground pipelines and into the gate matrix. As predicted, the matrix blew almost instantly, rocking the chamber once more and

CAN SEE EVERYTHING!” Brilliant roared. “I CAN

dimension mage was hanging upside down from her spire, so close to the unstable mass of power she could reach out and touch it. Within her heart, Experimant said a quick farewell to the disturbed genius as Assistant cried out from

“L-l-leader! Be c-c-careful!”

“BAH! CALL ME BRILLI-”

then expanded rapidly, enveloping the entire room in a second. Brilliant never got a chance to complete

chamber had been built to withstand magic detonations, but that last one had been

took five minutes before the room stopped shaking

we get a quick

Brilliant said,

course you are…” Experimant

want to know how

“Not really-”

leg. “And that was the best experiment we’ve run

“Y-y-you're alive?” Assistant mumbled.

of the

sensor arrays melted?” Experimant grumbled as she

I got

then realised she said it out loud, went

Come on! We are on

exclaiming all the while. Assistant hesitantly made her way from

legs as an array embedded

When that refused to work, she savaged it with a bite before running to the next. In short order, she’d either repaired or fatally damaged all ten of the outer detectors and started poring over the printed scent-pages of information along

The kick of power we got by infusing the liquid mana was just what