Chrysalis

“This… ‘Colony’. I don’t like it, Theraz, but it’s new, and new can be either good or bad for business. What I need to know, as soon as possible, is which it’s going to be.”

“Well, the first thing I can tell you is we aren’t going to be able to dislodge them easily.”

“Really? That mountain has changed hands so many times recently I was starting to think it was impossible to hold. First that tree had her roots all over it, then the ka’armodo seized it for whatever reason and now these ants are setting up shop! I don’t like it when others set up shops next to mine, Theraz.”

The Satrap didn’t get as disgustingly wealthy as he had by tolerating competition, after all.

“We are directing as many of the lake monsters as we can toward their fortifications, and so far they haven’t made a dent. Worse than that, since they’re monsters, all we’re really doing is flooding them with Biomass, experience and cores.”

“Are you suggesting we cease the siren song?” Umizen muttered, leaning his cheek against one of his hands. “Your father had the same thought.”

My father is a lot smarter when it comes to fighting.

It wouldn’t do to say so out loud, of course.

“Any and all matters regarding the Divine Guardian Beast are for you and you alone to decide on,” Theraz replied smoothly. “I am merely reporting the progress, or lack thereof, being made.”

“Fine,” the Satrap grumbled to himself. “After everything I’ve spent on her, you’d think she could deal with squishing a few ants.”

“She isn’t fighting,” Theraz reminded him, “she’s just using her song.”

“Should I send her up? Make a direct assault?”

Anything expensive was an asset, and the Siren was incredibly expensive. His uncle wouldn’t risk her unless he had

to put this…. I’ve seen a very powerful ant monster, a Mythic one, tier seven or eight

He shook his head.

evolved and highly mutated. If there are more

cousin and uncle had leaned

Piris gasped. “Could you

valuable?” the Satrap breathed. “Could you capture

its core. Secondly, no. I could not beat it, certainly not alone, and capturing it would be even less likely, since that’s the only time it has come out of the mountain. Fighting through a fortress guarded

Piris and her father

Theraz shook his head.

thought from your mind. They aren’t ‘just’ anything. If a group of monsters conquered a mountain and turned it into an impregnable fortress in a few weeks, you’d have a good deal of fear and respect for them, right? I implore the Satrap to not be blinded by what they are, but focus on what they’ve done. This

brathian leaned his scaled cheek on one of

“We’ve confirmed that those monsters are tier five, some tier six, and they all have a core. Every single one of them, and there’s hundreds of thousands of them, maybe more,

felt a chill run down his

be alive, to enjoy the privileges of

sat back

your

he agrees with

brother’, and ‘what’s the point of taking a risk like that,’ and ‘how many brathian are you willing

are all

someone else taking it and

in the Lake,” Theraz assured him. “If it comes down to it, my father and I will give our lives to protect our people, and the

long moments before he clapped