Chrysalis

“We aim to advance in ten minutes. Make sure your squads are ready.”

They had spent a week preparing for this expedition, training, theorising, testing. Bella and Ellie had worked overtime, stretching their knowledge of monster anatomy to the very limits, studying the cores of fifth stratum monsters with intense focus.

Solant’s broodmates acknowledged her instructions and rushed off to carry out her word, only Leonidant remaining behind.

“How confident are you?” the scout asked.

“That’s an unusually direct question.”

“These are unusual times.”

“Very true words.”

Solant reflected for a moment.

“We really have come a long way, haven’t we?” she said, cleaning her antennae carefully. “It wasn’t that long ago the only thing we had to worry about was Tunnel Ball and completing our training exercises.”

“The Eldest certainly changed that in a hurry.”

The giant ant had thrown Solant and her broodmates into the thick of the conflict at the earliest possible opportunity. It had been a brutal learning curve, for all of them, but they had grown so fast as a result of the change, it was difficult to view it as a bad thing.

“I believe the Eldest was wise to place us here,” Solant decided. “It’s been an excellent opportunity to develop ourselves and be of use to the family.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. How confident are you?”

Solant considered the question for a moment.

“About half,” she said finally. “It’s lower than I would like, but we need to start testing our ideas sooner rather than later. More certainty will be hard to come by without taking a few risks now.”

trust you,” the scout reassured her general. “I’m sure we’re going to

course,” Solant nodded, “we can’t

fussing over the minor details before they set out. No matter how much she wanted to. The more

capabilities,

are

Council members, approaching from

in the work that you and your caste members have completed to this point. Without proper assessment, we won’t

“I thought we were working on solutions for the toxic mana and miasma for the

focusing down the tunnel, but somehow looking

in the column and Solant turned

depart. I’ll give you a

Bella said. “I hope the

“I’m sure they will.”

her place amongst the column as it slowly began to move, picking up the pace as the thousands of ants slotted into line. A constant stream of scouts ran forward and back, alerting Solant and the other generals as to the situation further

was grim,

moving out and down, closer to the fifth, but as reports rolled in, it seemed they would hardly need to travel at all to

way into their journey, the column ground to a

things go according to plan, we won’t be here long,” Solant instructed, and

keen eye along the troops as she passed.

even worse than we predicted,” Sumant said, indicating forward with one

went on. Now, barely a single kilometre from where they’d started, Solant was confronted with the full scope of what they were up

which way, forming a spider web of goop. It dripped from the ceiling, slid down the

density, the toxic mana of the fifth was basically self-sustaining; the slime produced more of itself, spreading, pooling, growing thicker and more noxious by the hour. If nothing was done, it would creep all the way to the nest and then up through the fortress until it spilled out into the waters that surrounded the mountain. At that point, it would become someone else’s problem, the brathian most likely, who would be forced to clean up

wouldn’t come to that, of

“Any monster sightings?”

“None, thankfully.”

“Then we can deploy.”