Chrysalis

Time to get back to business. The wave is ongoing, the fortress needs defending and all of a sudden, the Colony is more interconnected than ever before.

The gates are working! I can take a few steps and be in the second stratum! Or the third! I mean, going to the second would be deeply unpleasant, but the third might not be so bad. I could say hi to Al, and all the other demons who ended up feeding me energy through the Vestibule.

A number which has been increasing, by the way. I’m not at all comfortable with it. Ants, I understand. Humans, those are a bit iffy. Demons? They’re weird. At the current moment in time, I have implemented a standard policy to avoid inspecting what they’re thinking about as much as possible.

Actually, maybe I should avoid the third….

Which is fine! I have plenty to be about right here on the fourth. Need to fight the wave, practise my Skills, mutate and most importantly of all, I need to help guide the evolutions of my dear pets! All three of them are still out there fighting, and although there isn’t much experience to be had from the freshly spawned monsters of the wave, if they defeat enough of them, it’s going to add up. Hopefully, by the time this current wave comes to an end, they’ll have reached the required level and be ready to join me in the seventh tier.

Considering I have three mythic cores ready for them to absorb, courtesy of the Demon God, they should turn out super powerful as well. I can’t wait!

Which means it’s time to get in touch with my old friend. Fortunately, I can talk to him through the Nave. Actually, on second thought, I might just send a message. Speaking to people through the Nave tends to weird them out.

Since we have the gates, might as well put them to the test. I snag a scout and ask them to get in touch with Granin, see if he can make his presence known down here so I can ask a few questions, then I scuttle off to see how my student is getting on.

I find Solant doing pretty much what I expected, snapping out orders and managing her little battlefield like a conductor leading an orchestra. She’s continued to drill her little army and they’re getting more and more coordinated, allowing her to sneak in additional complexity. Normally, I find a battlefield between monsters and the Colony to look like organised chaos, the ants forming lines, advancing and retreating. This just looks… organised. No ant moves alone, always together, always as a group. When everyone retreats, they do it in a rippling wave. When everyone advances, they surge two, three, four times, overlapping charges that eat up space and drive back the monsters.

of the wave still have that spark of animalistic intelligence in them. Solant manipulates them, dangling

rest of her shift, taking it all in. When the little general finally retreats and is replaced at the coal face, I rush up and give her a

The moves, the fancy feet!

looks a

don’t have feet.

“Fancy claws, then.”

describe them

take the compliment. I’m impressed

didn’t understand what you meant. Yes,

doesn’t seem at

“Not satisfied?” I ask.

and many more

very well. The troops are

will be able to help out, and the more we drill, the better we get at responding to unexpected situations. There’s still a lot of work

the wave won’t be over any time soon. You’ve got twelve hours of solid fighting every day