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

course,” Solant nodded, “we

bigger picture, not spend her time fussing over the minor details before they set out. No matter how much she wanted to. The more she tried to look over their thorax and check their work, the more her

little general completely believed in their capabilities, but it was hard to

are

approaching from the nest. Each looked visibly worried, antennae twitching

know sooner rather than later if we are on the right track,” Solant said. “I believe in the work that you and your caste members have completed to this point. Without proper assessment, we won’t be

asked. “I thought we were working on solutions for the toxic mana

the tunnel, but somehow looking far beyond. “For now,

from her place in the column

have to excuse myself, it’s time to depart. I’ll give you a full report

hard!” Bella said. “I hope the pets will

“I’m sure they will.”

saying, the little general left the two behind and took 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

grim,

the fifth, but as reports rolled in, it seemed they would hardly need to travel at all to find what they were looking

of the way into their journey, the column ground

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

of the long line of ants, running a keen eye along the troops as she passed. Was it a trick of

than we predicted,” Sumant said, indicating forward with

shorter and shorter as the wave went on. Now, barely a single kilometre

everywhere. Thick pools of mucous covered the floor of the tunnel, fibrous strands stretched every which way, forming a spider web of goop. It dripped from the ceiling, slid down the walls. Even the air was contaminated, dense with poisonous, acidic gases that made

the way to the nest and then up through the fortress until it spilled

to

“Any monster sightings?”

“None, thankfully.”

“Then we can deploy.”