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?”

sigh. Anything expensive was an asset, and the Siren

monster, a Mythic one, tier seven or eight probably, it was hard to tell from the waterline. It came out of the mountain and scared off

He shook his head.

are more

monster, both his cousin and uncle had leaned forward

strong?” Piris

valuable?” the Satrap

thundering in its core. Secondly, no. I could not beat it, certainly not alone, and capturing it would be even

Piris and

Theraz shook his head.

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

scaled cheek on one

entering his tone. “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, according to what I’ve read. When we include monster parts we could salvage, that’s a fortune equal to what I’ve amassed up to this point in my life, and I’m disgustingly wealthy. You understand

man felt a chill run down

to enjoy the privileges

back

your

agrees with

warned me off interfering with this Colony directly. ‘You have enough money, brother’, and ‘what’s the point of taking a risk like that,’ and ‘how many brathian are you willing to sacrifice

are all

fortune, nephew. Those ants represent such an enormous pile of cash that others are bound to come to get it. I worry about someone else taking it and

“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 his