Chapter 2850 - Chry 56

Chapter 566 Attack on Rylleh

The Dungeon city of Rylleh is relatively young, in city terms, barely older than the expansionist kingdoms that took root above it. Formed by a collective of experienced and high level delvers, the city benefited from the protection and knowledge of these individuals, allowing it to prosper relatively quickly. Positioned in a relatively barren section of the Dungeon's first strata, the city doesn't provide much in terms of resources or prime delving ground, but it does offer something much harder to come across, independence. Unbound from any greater authority and capable of standing its ground against the mercenary union, the city-state of Rylleh offers a haven to those who wish to delve without being tied up in string.

Naturally this means trading away richer hunting grounds for the frontier, but to a small yet vocal portion of delvers, the trade-off is more than worth it. So Rylleh has remained quietly prosperous for hundreds of years, administered by a ruling council of inherited seats controlled by the descendants of the founders, the city has relied on its own guard and a deployment of Abyssal Legion to defend itself from the depredations of the Dungeon.

Though really, what could possibly harm such a city in the first strata?

-Excerpt from Barringer's Guide to the Frontier: Adventures in the fringe

Wallace Danton ground his teeth on a fresh wedge of dungeon chew, pausing only to lean over and spit, as he stared at the warning crystal array in front of him. Stood by his side, his deputy rolled her eyes and took a discreet step away from the man. Chew was a common enough vice in Rylleh, useful as a stimulant with slight numbing properties, but by the Path did the stuff stink!

"Captain..." she warned.

"No."

"Regulations..."

"I write the damn regulations, Yas."

"The council will be shocked to hear of it."

"Lieutenant Yasmine, could we perhaps focus on something a little more important than my personal habits? Like our jobs?"

Yasmine just sighed, adjusted her glasses and checked her clipboard once more. The captain had been spooked by the multiple alarms that had been tripped in the last two days and had ordered every guardsmen to be in a heightened state of alert. She didn't think the man had slept in twenty four hours, hence the copious amounts of chew he kept cramming in his maw. Even she felt he was overreacting, monsters approached the outer tunnels all the time, she had to admit that the old man had good instincts. He'd been captain of the Rylleh guard for over twenty years at this point, and a powerful delver before that. If anyone knew the Dungeon like the back of their hand, it was him.

"It just doesn't feel right," Wallace muttered to himself as he stared at the array. "Why would so many trigger, so close together? All shadow monsters..."

Here in the central guard tower, they were situated almost in the centre of the city, next to the council chambers themselves. Ever since the alarms had triggered, Wallace and Yasmine had been ensconced deep in the tower, in constant contact with the crystal array that connected to each and every outpost that guarded the entrances to the Dungeon. By connecting to a similar enchanted detection device in each outpost, the command array before them would light up to show the location of any monster that encroached within the city's detection radius, the instant they did so. On the wall behind them, communication spells powered by monster cores gave them real time communication with every guard on the perimeter and every guard station within the city itself.

It was a massively expensive investment that many had called unnecessary, but the measures had proven invaluable ever since the work had been completed. The ability to instantly respond to any possible incursion was worth so much to the defence of the city.

"Still no word from the delving parties outside the city?" He asked Yasmine without turning around.

"Not since you last asked twenty minutes ago..." she said.

"It's strange."

"No, it isn't," she insisted. "There are only five groups delving right now and all of them planned to delve for at least a month. Two days of no-contact is hardly unusual."

The old man stubbornly shook his head.

"Fool girl," he muttered, not tearing his eyes from the array.

She felt her temper flare.

"If I'm so wrong, why don't you deign to explain why?" She spat.

She immediately regretted her actions and snapped out a salute to her superior officer.

"I'm sorry, captain! I don't know what came over me!"

He didn't bother to look up.

"You're tired and cranky because I made you stay here all night instead of going home and getting rest," he said, "it's only reasonable. Focus and I'll explain."

He pointed to the outer ring of crystals that represented the outermost guard posts.

"We had this post, this, this, and this, all detect monsters within an hour of each other. All of them shadow monsters, second strata dwellers. Right?"

"Right" she nodded slowly.

"So if there's enough second strata beasties out there that they hit each of these points near simultaneously, there must be a huge contingent of them that have risen up to this layer."

She thought for a moment.

"If our delvers had run into anything like that..."

"They'd have reported it immediately," he confirmed, still staring at the crystals. "That's why I don't think it fits."

He spat to one side, then stuffed another wedge of chew into his mouth.

Suddenly, one of the crystals on the array lit up and Wallace stood quickly, his chair clattering over behind him as he leaned in to stare. A tiny ball of red light representing a single monster flared to life as it approached the guard station to the west of the city.

"What do you think it is?" Yasmine asked.

"Shhh," Wallace hissed, his eyes intent.

Flash, flash, flash, flash! In the span of second, four more lights burst to light and Wallace slammed a hand down on the array. Immediately a sphere was projected above the array, a model of Rylleh and its surrounds. In the time it took his eyes to focus on the projection, each and every array crystal was lit. Within the projected sphere red lights began to appear by the dozen as communications began to crackle through the arrays behind him.

"Uhh, captain? Got a lot of contacts within the perimeter."

"Captain?! Something in the tunnels! I can hear them coming!"

"Orders? Monsters on the approach!"

"They're in the walls! They're in the walls!"

Yasmine's eyes widened in horror as she stared, unmoving at what was unfolding before her. This many contacts? So close together? Is this a wave?!

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" Wallace roared. "PREPARE TO FALL BACK TO THE CITY!"

"What!?"

"Confirm?! Captain, confirm!?"

"GET YOUR ARSES BACK TO THE CITY!" Wallace turned to bellow directly to the wall. "AND SOMEBODY CONFIRM A DAMN VISUAL!"

"I don't see anything, captain!"

"Yasmine! Yasmine? Yas?!" The captain turned to his second in command to find her staring in a daze at the projection behind him.

He shoved her roughly in the arm until she turned to look at him, her eyes vacant.

"Focus, idiot!" he hissed. "Get those damn soldiers back to the gates and then lock them! You hear me?! Get to it!"

He turned her around and pushed her toward the audio arrays before he spun back to the projection. There were hundreds of small glowing points of red light now, and more appeared every second in every direction, all moving toward the city.

"What the hell are you?" he muttered, "what could you possibly be?"

The guards manning the outer defences fell back immediately, abandoning their posts and equipment as they sprinted to safety. One by one the guard stations went silent until the monsters approached them. That's when Wallace heard it.

"Click, click, click..."

"Click, click, click, click, click, click, click ... "

"Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK."

From every array the same sound rattled out a thousand times over a few seconds. It wasn't the sound of a foot, or a boot, but something harder and sharper, stabbing against the stone as it gripped. Wallace only had to think for a second to determine what kind of monster it could be.

That's when he knew they were dead.

-x-X-x-

The captain of the Rylleh guard knew, deep in his gut, that he was dead, that everyone around him was dead. He felt as if his blood had slowed to a crawl in his veins as he stared at the projection, more red lights blooming to life each second. There were thousands of them, because of course there were. He knew what was coming. In that moment, he felt as if two divergent paths lay before him. He could surrender to the inevitable death that awaited him and every person living in the city, lay down and give in, or he could fight and take as many of the filthy monsters down with him as he could.

It didn't seem like much of a choice at all to Wallace.

"Yasmine! YAS! Get over here!"

His second in command, a quaver of panic running just beneath the surface, rushed back to his side and he stepped in front of the display before he turned to speak to her.

"What's been happening?" he asked.

He could hear the rumbling and clatter of more guardsmen piling into the headquarters, responding to the emergency summons that was automatically sent out once the alarms were tripped.

"Well," Yasmine steadied herself, "I've done as you asked. All of the outer guardsmen are retreating to the gates, which are being closed and reinforced. The reserves have been summoned and the city has been notified of an attack."

Wallace nodded.

"Right, I want everyone to abandon the gates and fall back to the city centre. Issue an evacuation order to the populace. Everyone into the city centre, collapse the buildings in a hundred metre radius beyond the square. Then I want -"

"Have you gone mad?" Yasmine demanded, aghast. "Are you abandoning the city?! You'll kill us all!"

"They're tunnelling through the rock! The walls are useless, they're just going to go around them. They're tunnelling up from underneath us as we speak!"

"That's impossible! What about the enchantments? The reinforced rock? It's absurdly hard to break through the stone!"

"It would be if they were human," he ground out, "but they bloody well aren't. Now listen close and keep your bloody mouth shut, alright?"

He reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder, his old calloused hand digging painfully into her flesh. She looked at him and noticed for the first time the faint glint of something mad in his eyes, something other.

"Are you alright, captain?" she whispered.

"I will be soon," he chuckled, "now shut up and listen. I'm going to tell you something and it's very important that you don't spread this around. The last thing we want is a panic, alright? Do you understand?"

"I-I think so, captain."

"Good. We are under attack by ants. This is an ant horde."

He muttered the words low, forcing her to lean closer to hear him. He could see the moment she comprehended him as her face drained of blood and she began to shake. He gripped her tighter and tried to give her the strength to hold on.

"There's thousands of them, alright? Thousands. Not a single one below tier three. I know, shut up," he held her eyes as she tried to break in but he refused to allow her to panic. "The gates are going to be useless, they'll tunnel around and come at our people from behind. The only way we have a chance is if we gather in the square and use those walls to hold them off. Alright? Breathe, Yas. Just breathe. We can make it, but we have to act fast! I need you to hold it together and help get the orders out, otherwise we're finished."

Used to dealing with bar scuffles and the rare monster wave, she wasn't equipped to handle this, but she gathered her courage and nodded. She would do her best for the city of her birth. They wouldn't die today!

Seeing the firming determination in her face, Wallace nodded and released her to her duty. He'd had to lie to her, to keep her steady. Even when they gathered in the square, the ants would tunnel under the walls and come at them from beneath, but hopefully they'd be able to swat a few of the filthy bugs as they approached. It was the best they could hope for.

Not even aware of the smile that twisted his face, Wallace rushed out to give his orders.

Not far away.

"They want us to WHAT?!"

"Abandon the gate! Orders came straight from Wallace!"

"Like hell we are!" Ernes yelled back through the communication crystal, "has that old fool turned traitor?!"

The voice on the other side of the enchanted gem grew frustrated at his intransigence.

"If you think the captain has betrayed the city, your're drunk. Get your men to the square and follow orders! This is an attack, not a Sunday dance!"

Ernes Bally slammed his fist onto the expensive array, cracking it right down the middle. He'd be damned if he was going to abandon his post during an invasion, regardless what his orders were! When it was all said and done, he'd be commended for holding his ground whilst Wallace was dragged through the mud for his cowardice.

"What are our orders, Ernes?" one of his men called.

"We hold the line! Whoever is stupid enough to take this city on is going to get a taste of our steel!"

Confidence surging, he rushed out of the guard house attached to the west gate and helped to finish closing and sealing the gate. A massive construction of enchanted metal and stone, the gates had held off hordes of monsters during the recent wave and Ernes doubted there was any chance they would fail now.

"Prepare the firing ports! Mages at the ready, archers behind! Shields up!" he roared.

There were more than fifty guards manning the gate by now and they leapt to their tasks like a well-oiled machine. As their major, his heart swelled with pride as he rushed to join them. A full fifteen metres high, the back of the gate was lined with three tiers of viewing ports accessed by ramps that joined across the centre. At his command, the guards flew up the ladders and took their positions, ready to throw open the hatches built into the gate and annihilate on whatever they saw on the other side.

"Steady, men!" Ernes urged them, "when I give the command, unleash hell fire!"

Heart pounding in his chest, he took a deep breath to calm himself. His reputation would be made by what he did here today. This was going to be the defining moment of his life. He was ready. It was time.

He needed to see what was happening, so he threw open his own hatch and courageously lent over to look, exposing his head to enemy fire. For a brief second, he gained vision of the tunnel approach to the gate before he flicked his head back out of the way and slammed the hatch shut.

"Well, how is it, sir?" the guard next to him asked.

Ernes frowned. He wasn't sure exactly what he'd just seen. He'd expected onrushing soldiers, siege weapons, or something.

"I need another look," he muttered and performed the action again.

Open, peek, slam!

...

Did that person have antennae on his head?

Then a voice called out from beyond the gate.

"Please surrender to the Colony, and you'll be spared! Weapons down, uh, would be very appreciated! There isn't much time, so, I'd do it fast..."

A murmur of confusion arose from the guards on the gate as they tried to unpack exactly what that meant.

"Major? What the heck is that?"

Ernes shook his head, still confused.

"I think it was a person? Asking for our surrender?" Anger built inside him once more. "Mages! Prepare to fire the tunnel on my mark!"

Asking for him to surrender? Idiocy! He refused to bend to Wallace, he wasn't about to lie down for a single invader. They'd roast this fool to send a message. Regardless of what happened at every other gate, the west gate would stand firm!

"Three, two, one, m-"

BOOM!

Before he could say the final word, the stone exploded outward on both sides of the gate. A shower of rock and dust flew into the air but even that couldn't obscure the two gigantic ants that had burst out of the wall.

CLACK! CLACK!

Jagged and barbed mandibles opened and shut with tremendous force, unleashing an ear splitting crack into the air. Ernes could only stare in horror as the two titans turned toward the guardsmen and woman clinging to the back of the gate preparing to fire on the person outside. Before they could even begin to process what was happening, a flood of insects poured through the tunnel openings, climbing up the walls and throwing themselves onto the guards in seconds. Ernes couldn't even scream before an ant was upon him, throwing itself forward and latching its mandibles around his neck.

-x-X-x-

From what I understand, we expected the gates to be abandoned at this point, so I'm more than a little shocked to find this one fully manned. Not that it did them much good, as it turned out. Surely by now the city knows exactly what is attacking them? What did they really expect gates to do? We're ants! Never happier than when we're digging!

I should also say that the generals have got together and created specialised digging teams. Only a colony of ants would have the resources and spare bodies to be able to dedicate individuals to such a niche task as breaking through hardened and magically reinforced stone, but here we are. Turns out that when mages who's sole pursuit is breaking down earth enchantments are paired with huge soldiers that have dedicated every ounce of Biomass and evolutionary energy to ripping through stone with their mandibles, that you can really dig a tunnel. As it happens, you dig the heck out of a tunnel, regardless of what people have done to try and prevent you from doing just that.

So ten of these teams went to work and I was able to burst out of the wall in suitably dramatic fashion with hardly a wait. The Queen was able to come out at just the same time and I have to say, the poor defenders looked as though they fair browned their trousers. In less than ten seconds they were overwhelmed and pinned to the ground, multiple ants gripping them by their limbs and pinching their necks at just the right pressure. At that point they became very still indeed. When Tiny and Invidia leapt out (Crinis is still with me), they became practically statues.

"Well, that went fairly smoothly," I observe to the Queen.

She dips her antennae, but I can tell she's anxious, looking for the next fight.

"We have done well so far, child, but we must advance. If the others reach the city before us..."

She's worried that they'll take the brunt of the return fire when she and I should be absorbing it instead. Good 'ol mother! Always thinking of her children.

"Not to worry, they know to hold back and give us a little time to get ahead of them. Let's get this gate down and then we can move on."

Working together, the two of us approach the massive gate, nearly as impressive as our nest gates, and get to work opening it. Since we're on the inside, there's no need to try and tear the thing down, we just leverage the bar off its mount and bam, gate's open. With that job done we are able to welcome Beyn within the city without much fanfare.

A decision was made that we ants wouldn't communicate with the defenders, since the idea of intelligent ants was more likely to terrify them than the thought of a human invader with a horde of ants under their control. So once he's inside, we task Beyn with trying to sound like he's in charge (not hard for the priest) and getting information out of our captured defenders. I didn't think they'd talk much, but I was genuinely surprised at how much they were willing to cough up in a short amount of time. I suppose having two or three monsters with their mandibles on you is rather persuasive. The humans also seem rather shocked that they aren't dead, which adds another element to their mental distress.

With our tasks done, the Queen and I prepare to run ahead of the rest of the invasion and get closer to the city. At the moment we are still in a well-shaped tunnel, but I can see it opens up roughly a hundred metres ahead. After all the fuss, I'm quite keen to see what this city looks like! Discounting the nest, this will be the first major Dungeon construction I'll have laid my many lensed eyes on! Despite the fact that I'm ostensibly invading the place, I feel quite like a tourist!

"Alright then, Mother. Ready to charge forward recklessly and endanger ourselves?"

THWACK!

"That is not what we are doing," she reprimands me firmly, "we are attempting to focus attention on ourselves as we are in the best position to absorb danger."

I rub my head and refrain from pointing out that it's basically the same thing in the end. Mother has a look in her eye as if she knows what I'm thinking and one of her antenna twitches irritably.

"Right then, off we go! Come on Tiny! Keep up Invidia!" I say and scurry off.

Mother is in a grumpy mood! She must be stressed, what with all of this invasion stuff going on. For now, it's best to avoid giving her opportunities to punish me too extensively.

At the east gate.

"How much longer do you anticipate the Eldest will need before they move into the city itself?" Sloan asked.

"Give them at least another five minutes. I know we estimated ten minutes of 'Eldest delay', but I think we can afford a little more buffer time considering the gate abandonment has gone according to plan," Victor suggested.

"Agreed."

"Do you think the Queen will be alright?"

"Don't start this again, Victor. We've done all that we can on that front..."

"I'm just worried!"

"We're all worried!"

The two generals cleaned their antennae vigorously to calm themselves before deflating. It was true, they'd done all they could to ensure their mother would be safe. The extra measures put in place to protect the Eldest were, so far, working well, though Advant was adamant that they suspected something.

"At least everything is going to plan so far..." Victor said.

"The next part was always going to be the major challenge," Sloan agreed, "overcoming stone and dirt isn't a challenge. Getting what we need from this city without having to destroy the inhabitants and throw our sibling's lives away was the challenging part. That's the sort of thing we rely on the Eldest for."

"Would you two stuffy generals get to doing something useful? I swear, the laziest caste of the lot. All you do is stand around, provide auras and think a lot."

Burke, like most scouts, never hesitated to needle the generals. In truth, though they were the most physically fragile of all the soldier caste evolutions, the generals still put themselves on the front line and fought. Rather than armchair planners, the 'generals' were more like hardened squad leaders in the forces of the Colony.

"We decided to wait an extra five minutes," Sloan informed her sister.

"Ah, Eldest allowance?"

"Indeed."

In the distance, the ants could feel a powerful vibration shake the air as it rattled against the fine hairs of their antennae, followed by the sound of a large crash in their comparatively smaller ears. If they had to hazard a guess, they'd say that a large building or wall had collapsed, possibly as a monster of considerable size had smashed into it. In that moment, they each considered whether the Queen or the Eldest were responsible for this destruction.

-x-X-x-

Yasmine had seen the captain focused on his work. During the more intense moments of the last wave, he'd been relentless in his energy and application, but this time something was different. Gone was the calm, determined figure that she was accustomed to, replaced by a beast with so much nervous energy he almost vibrated in place. He roared and shouted through the communication arrays and at anyone who happened to cross his path. He bullied and intimidated everyone who so much as queried a word that came out of his mouth. She could have accepted that, perhaps, considering the situation they were in, especially knowing what he had told her, but the wild look in his eye coupled with the rictus grin plastered on his face unnerved her to no end. Wanting to escape, she'd offered to act as a liaison and assist the citizens falling back to the square.

There was panic in the streets by the time she arrived, the news of the gates being abandoned had spread like wildfire, causing an uproar that threatened to turn an orderly retreat into a riot. Yasmine was forced to intervene multiple times in her first few minutes outside to prevent altercations between city folks and the guards trying to protect them.

"Get to the square! Take nothing with you but what you can carry! Move with all haste! Volunteers to the armoury!"

The crush in the streets was unbearable, only her superior physical stats due to her Class allowing her to press through the crowds. On every corner, a guardsmen or volunteer hollered out orders at the top of their lungs as teams went door to door. There wasn't enough time to ensure everyone obeyed the command, anyone who chose to stay in their homes would be abandoned. Left to fend for themselves against the ravenous ants.

She shivered as she considered the fate that awaited those who didn't listen. A fate she couldn't even warn them about. It was only a matter of time before the true nature of this invasion was revealed, but every second between now and then allowed them save precious lives. Yasmine had no doubt that the instant the citizens realised they were being invaded by ants, a mad panic would descend.

As she neared the market on Dionys street she found the guard out in force, funnelling people toward the square and the inner wall to be found there. She rushed forward, flashing the insignia on her uniform the moment she arrived.

"Lieutenant Yasmine," Sargent Lyssa saluted hurriedly, "are there new orders?"

She shook her head.

"At the moment we continue to get as many people into the square as we can."

Lyssa nodded grimly before she turned back to the hundreds of terrified people rushing past.

"Does the captain really think all of these people are going to fit? The town hall doesn't have enough room for this, surely? Are they planning to activate the gates?"

"I don't know," Yasmine said softly, "we don't control the gates, the council does. It's possible they're reaching out for aid, or for somewhere to receive us, but we haven't heard from them."

"Useless bastards," the Sargent spat, "If their ancestors could see what their blood has come to."

Yasmine swallowed her agreement. There was little point ragging on their rulers now.

"I'll head upstairs," she indicated Merry's fine potions and wares, an alchemist shop with an upstairs residence, "see if I can get a better view."

"Right you are lieutenant."

Inside the market was mayhem as the merchants tried to load their wares into carts to bring with them or were zealously defending their cash boxes. Yasmine had no time for any of them, ignoring their indignant screams as she rushed into Merry's and kicked down the door blocking the stairs. Good thing the fussy old man wasn't home, otherwise he'd have pitched a fit. She leapt up four stairs at a time and burst onto the westward facing balcony just in time to see something she would never forget.

From the west gate entrance crept an enormous ant, taller than a person and long. It's long mandibles were barbed and cruel, but it's carapace glittered with the most beautiful light. An earthy red colour with a rear segment of pure black, the creature poised at the gateway and gazed down on the city from above like a pitiless conqueror. It stood eerily still and made not a sound for a handful of breaths as Yasmine felt a scream constrict her throat.

What was this creature? Tier four, five?! An ant!? There were thousands more of them out there, she knew that, if there were more like this one, what sort of chance did they have?

CLACK!

Even from hundreds of metres away, she clearly heard the sound. The great monster had opened those horrific jaws wide and slammed them shut with unspeakable force, the piercing sound tore through the din of the city with ease. From where she stood, Yasmine could see the people in the streets turn and look, start pointing as they discovered where the noise was coming from.

A terrified hush descended on Rylleh as that monster gazed down on them, not an ounce of mercy reflected in its frame. When it finally moved, it was slow, one leg a time, it stalked down the ramp that lead to the city itself and from the tunnel behind it emerged an enormous, dark ape that crackled with electricity, another smaller shape on its back. As the creature slowly began to move amongst the buildings, another ant emerged from the tunnel, even larger that the first. This one didn't hesitate, but moved forward immediately, clearing the way for what came next.

From out of the tunnel came an explosion of monstrous ants, dozens of them at once, crawling over every available space of the entrance. They ran up the walls, towards the ceiling, fanning out in all directions as more and more poured out each second. If anything, the flow increased with each heartbeat until the area around the entrance was carpeted in a living wave of giant insects.

As if a spell were broken, a great cry rose from the people of Rylleh. A unified scream of pure terror that emanated from thousands of throats. In an instant, the semi-orderly evacuation was over and the crowd transformed into a frantic mob. Rather than watch her own people shove and crush each other, Yasmine reached up with shaking hands to grip the eave above her head and pull herself onto the roof. Her stomach churned and she struggled to contain her bile as she righted her balance and looked around.

From the east, the north and south, the scene was repeated. The inner sanctuary of the Rylleh had been punctured so easily by these creatures and now they came in a great flood to wash the city away. She fell to her knees, no longer able to stand. For a reason she couldn't explain, she turned back to gaze at the first ant to enter, and found herself staring at something new.

A thousand barbed tentacles rose from the ant's back, attached to a central trunk that housed three separate, gaping maws of pure darkness. As tears began to roll down her face, Yasmine watched as each of those mouths opened impossibly wide, paused, then screamed, a piercing wail that blew through every mortal soul that heard it and rattled their minds like weathervanes.

That sound seeped through their ears, into their brains before it sunk into a deeper place, a primal place of fear and terror that every child knows and adults wish they could forget. For many, the madness that followed was almost a relief.

-x-X-x-

This place is amazing! I mean, wow, ingenuity and all that good stuff is on display in copious amounts right here. The city itself is nestled inside a gigantic egg-shaped cavern, with some sort of humungous crystal light source on the ceiling? What the heck is that thing!? Are they powering it with cores? Holy heck that must suck up a lot of mana. My entrance comes out about halfway up the side of the egg and from that point down the buildings begin to appear, built right into the walls of the cavern itself. All sorts of impressive stone constructions poke out, fort-like citadels and graceful mansions gradually give way to more humble living spaces and markets. I wonder how they find the vertical living here on the side of the cavern? Must be a little awkward getting up and down. I hope for their sake that there was something other than stairs to get up here, that would have been painful.

The most stunning aspect of the city and one that I only noticed after entering the main chamber, is the total lack of Dungeon veins! How the heck have they achieved something like this?! I've not seen such a thing done before, not even by the Sophos! This secret must be unlocked for the Colony! As we expand deeper into the Dungeon, this could make our nests invulnerable fortresses during a wave and ensure the safety of the precious brood! If nothing else comes of this raid, then this technique must be uncovered!

I don't get so distracted by gawping at everything new around me that I neglect to pay attention to the defenders of the city, such as there are. It appears that the citizens are being herded into the city centre, I can see an inner wall there where I assume they hope to make their final stand. There also seems to be a terrific amount of screaming and running going on as my siblings flood into the chamber.

[Hey, Crinis. What was that scream thing all about?]

[I am letting them know what they are dealing with!]

[It looks like you got quite a strong reaction.]

[Naturally I did, Master! I wanted to ensure they ran away... in accordance with your plans, of course!]

...

Suspicious. Not that I have the time to deal with it right now.

[Come on Tiny, let's move up and see if anyone comes to try and deal with us. Stay alert, they may attempt to ambush us from amongst the buildings, so be careful.]

Attempting to follow my own advice, I stick to the middle of the pleasingly wide roads as I rush down the side of the cavern. Judging by the winch and pulley systems I see about the place, these sections aren't really for walking on, but they suit me just fine!

BOOM!

"What the heck, mother?!"

Rather than follow my example, the Queen simply smashes through the first building that gets in her way, sending the stone tumbling down and damaging a few more houses on its way. She looks even larger than usual, I assume she's activated her 'war queen' form.

"What is it, child?" she asks as she continues to barrel forward.

If they were planning on lying in wait within the buildings, I'm going to assume they aren't considering it anymore.

Within a nearby building.

From the third story window, Sylvin was able to see the onrushing horde of monsters, led by two truly colossal insects.

"What do you think, boss? Should we leg it?" a voice asked him nervously.

Sylvin sneered but managed to wipe the expression from his face before he turned back to his nervous compatriots.

"Run?" he said, "why would we run away when a literal fortune is rushing forward to meet us!"

There was nervousness and anxiety in the air inside the Mercenary Union of Rylleh, that was a smell that he knew well, but rising above that fear was a more powerful motivator: greed.

"Jessim, do we have any more union members coming in?" he asked.

"No sir, we got about half the membership in here, the others must've headed to the square."

"More for the rest of us then," Sylvin chuckled and a few others in the room picked up on his energy and laughed along. Glancing around the room, he could see the rising tension in his fellow merc's faces. It was a familiar scene, one didn't make a living hunting monsters in the Dungeon without being familiar with pre-battle jitters. His people just needed a little push.

"What we've got out there," he pointed out the upstairs window to the masses of ants creeping into the city, "is money on legs. A horde of low-tier, low stat monsters with no Biomass. If we stay in our teams and hold the line, we can kill a million of them."

There were rumblings of agreement as people hefted weapons and tightened their fists.

"Over there," Sylvin now pointed to the two enormous ants leading the charge, "is the real payday. Tier five, maybe six. Sounds scary, but remember, these are ants. The tier may be high, but the stats are low. You'll never get a better chance for experience than this. And don't forget the cores. We get our hands on them, and we're set for life."

Grins and eager faces began to appear amongst the gathered men and women of the Union. These people were hardened monster killers and they weren't about to run and hide like the guard at the first sign of Dungeon spawn. After all, this was how they got paid. Sylvin shot an assessing glance around the room. He'd worked out of the Rylleh Merc Union building for years and he recognised many of the faces he saw, but there were still many he did not. At least his regular team was here, he trusted them to watch his back.

"Make sure you've got your gear organised, people. This is going to be bloody work today and don't think otherwise. We've only got a few minutes to prepare before they reach us, the big two need to go down first. Let's get moving."

All around the room, hardened mercenaries began to organise themselves into teams, checking their equipment and a dozen muttered discussions began at once. Sylvin moved to one side and indicated with his head for his team to join him. The troops were all fired up and it was time to work out how to seize the prize when it hit the deck. They were mercenaries after all, sharing just wasn't in their vocabulary.

-x-X-x-

Sylvin gathered his team and as the Mercenaries began to fan out from their building he kept close with the people he trusted. Ogran was a tremendous brute of a fighter who wielded a two-handed hammer in battle, perfect for shattering the carapace defence that these ants relied on. His level wasn't the highest in the group, but his physical strength certainly was. They'd need to rely on him to crack the big ants open. Yann was the scout of the group, deadly with a bow in hand or the rapier she kept at her waist, her stealth had reached a high rank, allowing her to move with almost no sound. With her shadow cloak, made from weaver spider threads farmed in the second strata, she could vanish into the shadows in an instant, a powerful ability for someone with her talents. Sylvin had been pleased when they added the mage Illianus to the group. A highly skilled Golgari merc, she was excellent with healing spells and possessed an impressive offensive repertoire to back it up.

He himself was something of an all-rounder. He'd spent a lot of time grinding away delving in the first and second strata when perhaps he could have challenged the depths. But he wasn't stupid. How many had he seen think that they'd graduated the first two strata and leave Rylleh to find opportunities somewhere deeper? Most of them were dead within the month. The shadow sea was perilous to life, but the demons of the third strata were cunning, vicious and held little love for delvers in their territory. One wrong step would see an entire party annihilated in the blink of an eye should they run across a demon hunting pack.

Dabbling in elemental magic, training his stealth, his movement skills and weapon handling, he'd never bothered to focus on only one area, rather he kept himself interested by branching out. This had earned him a reputation as the best delver in Rylleh, something he acknowledged but hardly valued.

Inhaling through his nose, Sylvin almost scent the terror in the air. He chuckled in wry amusement. Imagine, living in the Dungeon and not bothering to level up enough to feel safe. It was insane that so many of the civilians in this city were so incapable. Sure, they only lived in the first strata, a small pond, but they were so content to be the tiniest fish here.

Not him.

"Yann, get out there and find a spot high enough to give you good line of sight. You've got no chance of dealing damage with that sewing needle you call a sword."

"Get stuffed, Sylvin," she scoffed, but vanished into the gloom in a breath, already making her way higher.

"It'll be you and me on the frontline, Ogran," Sylvin turned to the brawny human, "stay nimble and don't get hit. We'll need your hammer to crack this nut."

"You got it, boss," Ogran rumbled.

A man of few words, he merely hefted his hammer kept his eyes on the surroundings, a professional.

"I suppose you want me to back you up and try and keep you safe whilst you prance around pretending you know what you're doing," Illianus drawled.

Her leader shot her a grin.

"Business as usual, eh Illi?" he said.

"That's not my name," she warned him.

"I know," he smiled, "let's get to work, they'll be here any minute."

The abandoned streets and buildings made for an eerie backdrop as the four mercs moved swiftly to prepare the perfect ambush location. Behind them, more teams were taking defensive positions, getting ready to fend off the swarm that was descending on them. Barricades were being set, obstructions made use of and chokepoints set up by those looking to profit from killing as many ants as possible. A few of the more high level groups doing just as Sylvin and his team were, getting ready to jump the big fish. The experience alone for killing these high tier monsters was almost prize enough for them, the fortune a potential rare core represented to shallow delvers like them was just the icing on the cake.

Even now they could still hear the wailing of the populace as they rioted to safety. The scent of smoke had begun to rise in the air, evidence that somewhere a fire had started. Probably some idiot looting during the chaos. Sylvin pushed it all from his mind, he needed to focus. Along with all the mercenaries around him, he settled his body, crouched behind a corner as he watched the two massive ants pick their way forward, walking over the top of buildings or just smashing through them.

He studied the creatures closely, using all of his years of experience as a delver. Both were heavily mutated, especially the smaller one, which didn't seem to make much sense. Judging by the shape of the mandibles and carapace, the offensive and defensive abilities were sure to be formidable. He felt a flicker of nerves in his heart, but he quickly quieted them. This may be a higher tier of monster than he was used to fighting, but they were just ants. He shared a glance with Ogran, who huddled next to him. The big man was as cool as ice, hands steady on the haft of his weapon. They were going to do this, they would win.

Sylvin never saw the attack coming. All of his concentration was honed to a razor's edge, focused on the two great monster's that approached, but even were he to be more generally aware, he still may not have noticed. The ants seemed to materialise from thin air, they leapt from nearby buildings, charged from the streets around them and erupted from the stones beneath their feet.

When their jaws found him, Sylvin managed to cry "they're here!", before he was pinned to the stone.

Ogran lasted a little longer, able to swing his hammer and knock aside the first attacker, but three more were on him before he could ready another strike. They bore him down, their mandibles shattering his hammer and gripping his limbs. Atop a nearby building, crouched against the slate roof, Yann saw nothing before they found her, too confident in her own Skill. Illianus, at least, knew what was coming, her finely tuned magical senses gave her the slightest glimpse of the monsters closing in, but her mind was assaulted on multiple fronts at once, battering at her mental defences until they crumbled and she fell, unconscious.

Their work complete in less than ten seconds, the twenty ants checked each other and their surrounds, making sure that their efforts had gone unnoticed by those around them. One of the ants moved from group to group with light steps as she checked on her fellows. The situation well in hand, she leant down to look at the face of Sylvin, clamped in the mandibles of her sibling.

"To think that pitiful creatures such as this, would dare to raise their hand against the Eldest," Protectant muttered.

"Do you think they noticed us?" Defendant wondered.

"I don't think so," she replied, "but we must be careful. They've already come so close to us already."

"What do you want us to do with these aggressors?" Defendant asked, her jaws squeezing tighter around the mercenaries head.

"Knock them out, quickly. Then back to the shadows. We'll have much work today, the Eldest is going to be busy," came the reply.

Sylvin heard none of this, since none of it was spoken out loud. All he knew was the fear of death and the pressure around his head, until a blow fell on his skull, and he knew nothing.

-x-X-x-

I swear I sensed something for a moment, those damn flickers that pop up in my Vestibule for a few seconds before they vanish once again. My suspicions are starting to firm on that front, and I'm not happy. There'll be words with the council when this mess is done, but I can't be distracted by these... watchers right now. The Queen and I have been making quite the show of ourselves, mother has knocked down a few more buildings (I didn't imagine she had such a destructive side), but so far nothing has come forward to challenge us as we move deeper into the city. At the pace we're going, the people have managed to stay well ahead of us as they retreat to the walled square in the distance, but I'd expected that someone would come out here and have a crack at us!

WHACK!

Oh! There they are!

From the buildings around us emerge an insultingly small band of warriors and mages, firing arrows that glitter with the light of Skills, waves of sword light and a smattering of elemental spells. All of which peter out against my powerful and attractive diamond carapace.

"Mother! Looks like someone decided to come out and play!"

"This is not a game, child," she huffs, "let eliminate this threat and move on. The sooner we are done with this task, the safer the Colony will be."

"Hard to argue with that."

With my preternatural senses tuned in and my nerves firing, these piffling little blows are nothing to me. I ran along the sides of the buildings and turn my best angles to receive the strikes as I close the distance with a dash. As I loom over my first target, a brawny looking human with a standard looking sword and shield, I almost feel pity for the guy. Still, it's better that he falls by my mandibles than by the Queen's. I've rushed ahead of her but even from here I can hear her jaws gnashing as she charges forward, ready to rend these poor people into more harmless forms. Better that I deal with them before she gets the chance!

My victim-to-be looks up at me with a sneer and brandishes his shield in my face. It explodes with bright light, blinding me completely! With a roar of triumph, another leaps from a nearby roof, mighty hammer aglow with power as he prepares to bring it down on my head. But I... step backwards, causing the powerful blow to land with tremendous force on the cobbled street beneath our feet. Blinding me was a clever move, pitiful humans! But my senses are greater than just my sight! In point of fact, my mana sense and my heat detecting antennae both were able to inform me of the incoming danger in this instance.

I will reward your cleverness by allowing you to sample the finest produce in the entire strata, straight from the source!

POW! POW! POW! POW! POW!

A rapid fire rain of merchandise and justice falls amongst the swarming fighters, causing them to cry out in shock or run for cover. The acid itself burns at their armour and gums up their limbs, restricting their movements even as it burns away at the mage's shields. Gweheheheh. Such a multi-purpose, good for all situations thing my acid is! With my eyes still blinded, I can't work too precisely, so resort to wide sweeps of my mandibles to send my adversaries stumbling as my sub-brains reach out and twist apart the threads of magic that fly my way. Surprisingly, the spells are better crafted than I expected, clearly a few of these chaps and chapettes have worked on their Skills, but after I get my minds on them, what remains of their fireballs, ice spears and wind blades doesn't amount to much.

I should be able to wind this up with minimal injuries if everything keeps going this way!

[HOW DARE YOU ATTACK MY MASTER?!]

Ah.

I'd neglected to take Crinis' feelings into account. Actually, come to think of it, where is Tiny?

"HUUUAAAARRRR!"

BOOM!

There he is. Just as dozens of tentacles explode from my back as Crinis makes her terrifying presence known once more, Tiny and Invidia enter the fray in an explosion of fists and spells. Confronted with such a concentration of high tier monsters, the opponents arrayed before us begin to waver. It's all a little confusing to me, they saw us come in! Didn't they have a plan? Perhaps those flickers have something to do with this situation. At any rate, they don't seem to know what to do in this moment as the four of us run amok amongst them. With Invidia in the fray, his magical prowess almost completely suppresses the local mages and his shields protect Tiny and myself from the worst of the attacks that come our way.

By the time the Queen arrives, we managed to suppress or incapacitate almost all of them. I try to turn my gaze from the fate that awaited those unfortunate saps. The Queen does not appear to be in the mood to delay the conclusion of the day's events. It's pretty ugly. The members of the Colony are almost upon us now and they take it upon themselves to clean up after us, keeping watch on the defeated and ensuring they can't get up to any more mischief.

"Looks like it might be a clear run down to the square, mother," I observe.

"Then perhaps we'll be able to finish this quickly," she replies and begins to crawl forwards with purpose.

"Hold up a second! Don't forget the speakers, we'll need to wait a second."

"Oh, fine."

She's definitely feeling impatient. This was the plan though. Backed into a corner, terrified and desperate, the people of this city are right where we want them, but at the same time, on the edge and dangerous. If we provoke them, who knows what damage they'd do to themselves, to us, to whatever they can get their hands on? We figured it would be wiser to try and send in our human communication specialists to try and open dialogue and bring this campaign to a swift conclusion. Indeed, we only have to wait a minute before a few of the brown robes arrive, joined by my most devoted, one-armed priest.

[Please don't shout at me,] I sigh as I reach out to connect a bridge to the people.

[We are blessed to be in your presence, Great One,] Beyn replies.

His mind is so incredibly focused on containing the 'volume' of his thoughts that the mental contact trembles with suppressed energy. It's almost as distracting as just getting shouted at. Almost being the key word.

[This is going to be a dangerous moment for you lot. Be careful but don't let them stall us. We need to find and shut down any magical gates in here and we need it done yesterday.]

[Fear not, Great One. We will serve with all our hearts, the danger is nothing to us.]

Looking at the fanatical zeal in their eyes, I actually believe it.

-x-X-x-

There had been little to no communication from the council, not that it was a surprise to Captain Wallace. In recent years, the ruling families had become little more than leeches, perpetually sucking at the prosperity that their ancestors had achieved. He could almost imagine their faces, locked in their mansions as they panicked and strove to preserve their possessions. The indecision and paralysis that had likely seized them in this crisis was so easy to picture it was almost comical. A wisp of glee bubbled up in the captain's belly and he nearly giggled out loud before he restrained himself.

The pressure had pushed him right to the edge, he could tell that about himself, now. The despair that he'd thought had fallen away from him he now realised was merely suppressed, forced into the background of his mind where it ate away at his sanity. He was grateful for it. In half an hour he'd been able to move with incredible purpose, and enact decisions with crystal clarity thanks to his own burgeoning insanity, and he had hopefully enabled, not a saving of lives, but a more dignified end for the city which he had served his entire life.

Because it was coming to an end, indeed, it was already over. He could see it so clearly. The insects had penetrated the city's defences with such insulting ease, had presented those tasked with protecting the people with such an impossible task. Defend against insurmountable odds on every conceivable front? It fundamentally could not be done. What choice did he have but to try and pull his people back to a central location? No other option was presented to him.

When that thought struck him, Wallace was led to a conclusion that disturbed him in a way that he found difficult to shake. He had made the correct decisions for his people, his decades of experience assured him of that. If there were better moves to make, he simply didn't know them. Yet he couldn't help but feel that he'd been led to his current position, that he'd been dancing in the palm of his opponent all this time. That each of his decisions, as good as they'd felt at the time, were nothing but a path that had been set in front of his feet by another intelligence.

Could it be possible that the ants themselves were not the orchestrators of this invasion? The way they'd so expertly tested and circumvented the protections around the city, the way they'd so efficiently overwhelmed any opposition. That didn't strike him as anything that he'd ever read of conflict against Dungeon spawned ants. The literature that he'd seen was clear, ants would throw themselves forward in suicidal rushes, crawling over massed piles of their own dead to reach their enemies. Unending hordes of low tier creatures, starved of Biomass and experience attacking single points, following scent trails from their nests, battering against the foe until the prey grew tired, or sloppy, or simply gave up hope. He knew from the scanning array that not a single one of these creatures was below tier three! How could this be any ordinary colony?!

Another giggle threatened to erupt but he managed to stifle it into a cough, although a few guardsmen and women nearby looked at him askance. Someone had tamed an ant Queen, used it as a pet and were now utilising it to assault Rylleh. This was the most plausible explanation! Why didn't he think of it before? Was it simply a crime so rare and unspeakable that he hadn't been willing to consider it? Perhaps.

The square, as it was generally referred to by the people of the city, was relatively large, given the population. It was home to the administrative and ruling arm of Rylleh. The council building, the treasury, the guard offices and the sorts of wide open, well gardened spaces that only the extravagantly wealthy could afford to surround themselves with in a literal underground living space, all surrounded with a largely decorative but still functional wall. Those manicured lawns and elaborate rock gardens were now covered in shivering and crying refugees. The inner sanctum of the elite, perforated by those people they most wanted to keep out.

Upon the wall was every guardsmen, volunteer and mercenary that Wallace could find and give a weapon, along with Wallace himself. He hadn't heard from Yasmine in more than ten minutes, apparently lost somewhere near the market. A shame that, she was a good officer, if a little soft. He stared out into the city, waiting for the attacker's next move. Would they come forward to try and negotiate? In which case, perhaps there was a sliver of a chance that the people might live. Or would they, far more likely, simply overwhelm the defenders from all sides, using the experience and Biomass the citizens would provide to grow their ant force even further?

Regardless of what he thought would happen, he was still shocked when a one-armed man, dressed in an earthy brown robe with what appeared to be antennae sticking out the top, along with another twenty of his kind, stepped slowly down the main road toward them. Behind those figures stood two enormous ants, perhaps Queens of this colony, and behind them the ranks of thousands more gathered on all sides.

"Hee, hee!"

As he looked down on these strange humans, he couldn't help but laugh aloud. They just looked so ridiculous. Clumsily woven antennae drooping down over their faces from the top of their hoods that did little to properly conceal their faces. Were these really the masterminds of this entire invasion? The people in control of this powerful, enormous army of monsters?

Tension was high on the wall as the humans stepped forward, easily within bow range. Wallace himself felt the air thicken around him. If someone lost their cool and took a shot, then every single one of them would die. Judging by the expressions on those around him, this fact was very apparent to everyone, not just to him. The overwhelming show of force in front of them was enough to convince them that resistance was a gesture more than a hope for survival.

Not able to wait any longer, Wallace leaned over the parapet and called out to the strange ant... people, before they got any closer. The figure in the lead, a young man with only one remaining arm, paused his step, which led the entire procession to come to a halt. There was a long moment of silence before the lead ant figure raised his head, drew a powerful breath and began to speak.

"YOU STAND IN THE PRESENCE OF -"

THWACK!

In a mind boggling scene, the smaller of the two large ants brought an antenna down to strike the human on the head, which caused him to lurch forward before he caught his balance. Once he'd righted himself, the human turned toward the ant, bowed deeply (Wallace swore the antenna twitched again) and then turned back to the wall.

"AHEM! WE INVADED YOUR CITY, BUT WE DO NOT SEEK TO END YOUR LIVES! IF YOU ACCEDE TO OUR DEMANDS, THEN ALL OF YOU SHALL BE SPARED!"

There were a few sighs of relief on the wall, but just as many snorts of distrust. After the mass panic and the deaths it had no doubt caused, to appear as a peaceful intruder at this point was far-fetched. But Wallace did not share their reaction, he was neither relieved, nor distrustful. Instead, he was chortling, his shoulders shaking as a grin twisted his lips. Just when he'd decided that the ants were controlled by another agent, that display in front of him now clearly said otherwise! When he thought about it, his entire day had just been insane. He may as well lean into it.

-x-X-x-

Beyn was nervous, yet exultant, but terrified whilst also experiencing a deep sense of unfurling faith. The enormity of the moment wasn't lost on him, far from it, this was the first time the holy ones, the Great One, would be exposed to the wider community of Pangera! And he, Beyn the one-armed, humble priest, was to be the spokesman, the representative that would communicate their glory to the world!

... except that he couldn't. He wasn't allowed to say any of the words that exploded in his heart and soared to the snow-capped peaks of his soul. He felt wracked with a pain that sent shudders through his entire frame as he strove to restrain himself. He had already failed once, in a shameful display that had brought swift retribution from the Great One. Richly deserved punishment that nevertheless sent him into paroxysms of faith induced joy. It was wrong for him to find such delight in the touch of the one he revered so, but he couldn't help it! He wasn't worthy, wretched unbeliever that he had once been, far too lost to receive such contact!

Behind him, the rest of the delegation looked on with eyes bulging from their heads. Even if they knew he was being disciplined, to see Priest Beyn receive the touch of the Great One elevated him to new heights in their esteem. Truly, he was the right person to lead their congregation. Selected by the Great One the moment they breached the surface, this level of closeness only reaffirmed his eminence.

Beyn himself continued to battle within himself, a titanic clash that consumed him as he desperately strove to say only the words he was meant to.

Suddenly, he felt the touch of the Great One upon his mind and tears began to well in his eyes. He wasn't worthy!

[Look, just chill out, alright? You look like you're about to pass out, I swear to goodness you're vibrating in place! Deep breaths. Just breathe.]

Covertly, the priest attempted to follow this advice in the depths of his hood. Inhale. Exhale. He focused and tried to still his frantic thoughts and emotions. It worked, a little, maybe enough.

[Okay now. Just remember what we need you to say and how we need to come across here. We don't want them knowing what they're dealing with, not yet, alright?]

Beyn nodded to himself. Yes, he must maintain this shameful charade for the time being. It would be painful, it would be difficult, but he could do this! He gathered himself and began to speak once more, hoping that his unusual delay had gone largely unnoticed.

"I SAY AGAIN!" he called, "THERE NEED BE NO MORE HARM DONE THIS DAY! SEND OUT A DELEGATION THAT WE MAY NEGOTIATE WITH!"

There was a pause as his words were digested before someone called back.

"I think we'd rather talk from where we are, if it's all the same!"

Refusing to talk with the Great One?! INSOLENCE!

[Just ask them if they'd like us to go in there and talk with them,] the Great One cut in, heading off another off-script explosion.

Beyn wasn't sure exactly what he meant, but he dutifully followed his instructions.

"IF YOU SO CHOOSE, WELL WILL COME OVER THE WALL TO NEGOTIATE WITH YOU!"

"Fine! I'll come out!"

A miracle! Though he had no idea why, the words of the Great One had brought about such a swift resolution! A miracle indeed! Within five minutes an older gentleman emerged from the narrowly opened gate which slammed shut behind him before he began walking over. Beyn took a moment to study this person, as he felt the thousands of ants in view were also doing, their collective attention somehow materialised in the tense atmosphere like a blanket that weighed down on everything. Grizzled, experienced, solid and somehow not entirely predictable was Beyn's read on him. There was something about him that spoke of instability, not that he could be blamed, faced with such glorious inevitability as the Colony, who wouldn't be rattled?

The man certainly didn't lack for courage as he willingly abandoned the safety of his wall to venture out, alone, and walk forward into the face of an army of monsters. Not just any person could do such a thing.

"My name is Captain Wallace Danton," he spoke and bowed toward Beyn, but also somehow toward the Great One, a gesture which raised him in Beyn's esteem immensely. "I head the guard here in Rylleh, the guard you have so roundly defeated this day."

"DO NOT... ahem. Do not blame yourself or your soldiers for such a failing, your defeat was a foregone conclusion, with the army we have at our disposal."

"True," Wallace ceded, his gaze wandering over the ants who covered every surface of every building he could see from where he stood. Each monster was perfectly still, barely a twitch of an antenna to show that they still lived. Despite their eyes not needing to focus, he could almost feel that their attention was on him, not the least the two giant creatures so close to him.

It was enough to drive someone mad...

"I would love to know what it is that has brought about this... invasion. I find it difficult to imagine what a human in charge of such a large colony of monsters would want."

Beyn stared at the man blankly for a moment before he remembered. Oh, right! The fiction! He was supposed to be in control.

"I will not mince words as our mission is time sensitive. We wish to know how many spatial gates exist here in this city, and where they are. We seek to dismantle them as soon as possible. Once that is complete, we will leave your people to their own devices. All we ask is that we are allowed to oversee the city to ensure that no new gates are constructed."

Wallace felt his head spin. They wanted to cut off this area of Dungeon? But why?! There must be more that he doesn't know.

"Such a thing would be difficult," he said, "the people here depend on those gates for many things, without them we'll be isolated, unable to trade with the other cities, unable to contact our families and friends. Many in the city are travellers whose homes lie elsewhere. They'd be abandoned here, cut off from their support networks."

The priest frowned at this less than instant capitulation.

"The gates will come down within the next hour, Captain. There are two ways that can happen. With your people aiding us, or we tear the city apart and destroy them ourselves. What there isn't, is a way those gates stay operating."

There was a strange pause as the priest stared straight ahead, as if listening to another voice.

"We will provide what consolation we can. Nobody will starve and what material goods we can provide we shall strive to do so. It is not the fault of the people of this city that we've come here, you are unfortunately caught in the crossfire. Nevertheless, we must achieve what we have set out to do this day."

Wallace could see no hesitation in the eyes of the surprisingly young man. He spoke of eliminating the city as if it were simply a matter of course. Chilling.

"There are only two places with gates," Wallace sighed, "inside the square is the transport ministry, and... " he gestured to an imposing fort carved into the wall of the city, "the Abyssal Legion fort up there."

-x-X-x-

The moment this Wallace guy revealed the locations of the gates, the Colony sprang into action. I could hear orders being snapped out as ants began to gather in teams, flooding away towards the fort on the outskirts of the city. Even my heart skipped a beat. This could be a major blunder! We'd anticipated the gates would be here, in the centre, and so they were, but we didn't foresee that there'd be more around the edge of the city! Almost all our forces are concentrated here for the final push! If those gates open and those Legion nutters come pouring out...

"One of us should go," I tell Mother, "those Legion soldiers are no joke, as I recall."

Though I was super weak back then. I have no idea what their relative strength would be now, realistically.

"Which of us should it be?" she asks me. "I'm willing to go where I'm most needed."

I hesitate. I need to stay here to help communicate, but I'm worried that the fort will prove to be the more dangerous of the options.

"Go to the fort," I tell her reluctantly, "as soon as I'm done here, I'll head up there as well, just in case. Make sure you take a few members of the council up there with you. If it turns serious, we'd rather have more firepower than we need than not enough."

The Queen's antennae twitch.

"What about you, child? Will you be alright here?"

I suspect she thinks I'm taking on too much here.

"Not to worry," I assure her, "I alone would be enough."

The Queen turns to leave and rushes to join the flow of ants marching into the distance as I focus back onto the idiot priest and the negotiations taking place with the guard captain, Wallace.

[We want to get in and dismantle that gate as soon as possible,] I urge Beyn, [no delays, we get in there, right now.]

The two humans continue to exchange their inefficient, noisy words as I wait, impatient to get moving. If I can smack this thing down fast enough, then maybe I'll be able to make it over to that fort in the event something nasty starts up over there. I think Beyn can sense my impatience as my mental communication becomes more and more curt. After a few more minutes, I run out of patience.

[Tell them we will have access to the gate within the next two minutes or we'll be charging over the wall and bringing it down ourselves, no more stalling.]

[He's worried about sending ants within the wall. The people are unlikely to react well.]

The priest sounds highly offended that our reception would be anything less than celebratory, but I can understand what the captain is worried about. If a riot breaks out inside, where I imagine people are densely packed, then the potential for fatalities will skyrocket. I harden my heart to the possibility.

[Tell him that's not our problem. If his people can't control themselves then they become another obstacle that we'll overcome. Those gates are coming down. Now.]

Injected with my determination, Beyn toughens his stance and delivers our ultimatum. Rather than sweat, flinch, or any of the other behaviours I would expect, he looks as if he's about to laugh before he turns back toward the walls. We give him a single minute to let the people on the other side of the wall know we're coming before we follow.

The waiting is unbearable. The Colony and I stand around, impatient as the seconds tick by.

"Do you really think they'll let us in?" Advant asks.

"They will if they know what's good for them!" Propellant cackles.

She really is getting more and more aggressive the higher her flame magic Skill rises. I wonder if Skills can have an impact on our personalities. Is it more than just knowledge that Gandalf the wise is slipping into our brains? Something to chew over later. Just to be careful, I task my sub-brains with whipping up another construct and preparing some gravity magic. Not the bomb, that might be a little overkill, but the domain will help keep me safe if the crowd turns hostile.

Despite my reservations, Wallace appears on the wall and waves us forward. Somewhat trepidatious, Beyn and ten of his followers lead a contingent of ants towards the gates which open wide to allow us inside. Inside we find masses of people, huddling together amongst truly elaborate buildings, terrified of the monsters that they find in their midst. The ants outside the wall move closer, increasing the pressure on those manning the parapet, pushing the whole situation closer to the brink of disaster. One idiot doing the wrong thing is all it's going to take for this to turn into a bloodbath.

As I stride into the square, the faces of the assembled humans, with a few golgari and possibly others mixed in, are a mixture of hatred, fear and disgust. Thankfully, a great deal of that emotion is deflected toward Beyn and his robed followers. Nice save, crazy people! Taking all the heat for us! I appreciate your sacrifice. Several large buildings loom within the square but the Captain wastes no time (for once) and directs us to the largest. Even though the centre of the city has become packed with people, this single building appears to be completely unoccupied which may have something to do with the thickly swirling magical energies around the building.

When we finally break in, we don't find a horde of enemy soldiers pouring through active gates, but rather three large archways, unpowered and dormant. Enchantments and runes built into the gates appear to be collecting mana and storing it, which leads me to believe that the gates need to be charged before being opened. Handy for us, they appear to have been mid-cycle when we launched our attack. What fortuitous timing!

In a jiffy, the ants move in, study everything they see and break the gates down into segments, shearing the stone with clean bites so it can be reassembled and studied back at the nest. Mission accomplished; we turn to exit the square as quickly as possible. I don't want to expose my family to danger any more than is necessary.

But that's when it happens.

I don't know what motivates the little kid, he could only be six or seven years old. Mature enough to know that us monsters had done something bad, but not enough to realise what provoking us might mean. I could see his face amongst the crowd, screwed up in anger and frustration, much like many of those around him. Unlike those adults, this child had the courage, or lack of understanding, to express that feeling. Winding back his little arm, he gripped hard onto something and threw it with all his might. Right at me.

With my senses, with my reflexes, there's not a chance that it will hit me, and honestly what could it do, even if it did? I understand all this, it's common sense for someone who'd been human, like me, to know that a little child isn't going to have some sort of mega-grenade to hurl at the biggest and baddest monster that he can see.

But there are members of my family who lack my level of understanding, young and foolish creatures that they are.

"IT'S AN ATTACK! GET DOWN!" screams an ant, appearing almost from thin air as she threw herself forward into the path of the projectile.

In an instant, more of them pop into existence, leaping onto my carapace to cover me from harm and forming a defensive wall around me.

"COVER DAMMIT! PROVIDE COVER!"

"CHECK THE ELDEST FOR WOUNDS! MEDIC!"

The first ant continues to glide gracefully through the air, my hyper-reflexes cause the entire scene to unfold in near slow motion as I become almost buried under these mystery ants. The projectile, a harmless toy ball, spins through the air and rebounds from the ant's carapace with a gentle 'tok!'. The ant in question continues her flight, legs a tangled mess, before she thuds into the ground completely unharmed.

Perhaps it's lucky that the humans seem far too shocked to react to this bizarre scene that's unfolded. The rest of the Colony also seems a touch surprised, staring at these newcomers with bewilderment in their eyes. Sadly, for them, I react the fastest.

[Crinis! Get them!]

So close to me, the ants have no chance of escape from the tentacles that sprout from my abdomen and wrap them tight. Crinis lifts each of the creatures into the air as they suddenly scrabble to try and escape her grasp. No chance! Glee builds within as I stalk over to the ant on the ground, using her antennae to check herself for injuries.

Just as I close in, she seems to realise what's happening and tries to scurry away like lightning, but I nab her in my mandibles and lift her up so she has no choice but to look into my eyes.

"Fooooound youuuuuuuu!"

-x-X-x-

The surrounding crowds, pressed together in the square, recoil with horror as Crinis makes her presence known. The fact that she snatched up the mysterious ants rather than start munching on the helpless crowd isn't enough to completely mollify their fears. Screams and indignant cries rise as they push to create distance from me, while the kid who threw the stupid ball looks on with wide eyes before being dragged away by who I presume is his mother.

Whelp, time for me to get out of here.

"Let's get the heck out of here!" I shout to my siblings before speaking to Beyn over the mental link. [We need to leave this area. Let things calm down a bit before we come back.]

The priest readily agrees, and our convoy makes directly for the nearest wall as the crowd scrambles to make room for us to pass by. A few guards brandish their spears at us, but the ants ignore them, climbing straight up the wall and using their bodies to shove the guards to one side to create space for those behind to head straight over. Each of the ant-robed humans is picked up by a large soldier and carried over whilst clutched in mandibles. You'd think they'd be a little afraid at being gripped in the crushing jaws of powerful monsters, but instead they look almost radiantly happy. These people are just as far gone as the damned priest. There's no hope for them anymore.

I maintain my grip on the still struggling ant as Crinis holds aloft the other nineteen. It makes crawling up the wall rather difficult, the individual ants are relatively small, but holding twenty of them is no joke in terms of weight! Up and over and once more in the clear as the uproar behind us continues. Being surrounded by my fellow insects rather than the panicked citizens of this city is such a relief. Back amongst my own kind!

Those ants who'd taken apart the gates were already on their way out of the city, wasting no time in their quest to return the precious artifacts back to the nest. If we can unlock the secrets of this magic, the future of the Colony will truly know no limits! A solid contingent of soldiers and scouts go with them, guarding the precious cargo. For the rest of the ants present, the work is clear. We may have seized the gates inside the square, but there are no guarantees that there aren't more besides those that we were told of.

"Do you think all of the gates will have that distinctive mana gathering array?" Coolant asks from nearby.

Struggling to contain my wiggling captives, I take a moment to reply.

"I'm not sure," I admit, "since there's no Dungeon veins in here, the mana is much thinner than it is out in the tunnels, so it would make sense they'd need such arrays to power the gates. But we don't know enough to assume that would be the case."

The mage nods her head.

"We'll just have to manually search then."

"Wouldn't hurt to send out the mages to test the mana density around the place anyway. Never know what they might turn up."

The low concentration of mana is almost enough to cause me problems. Only by using my external mana manipulation to pull energy toward myself am I able to maintain my core.

Coolant rushes off to facilitate the search as the majority of ants turn and scurry away into the city. I remain with perhaps a thousand others to watch over the walled square where order is gradually being restored, judging by the diminishing level of noise coming over the parapet. As much I want to run to the fort in support of the Queen, the situation here just isn't stable enough that I can be confident the city defenders won't get feisty again. At the very least, this gives me a little time to interrogate my captives. Gweheheheh.

"So," I address the ant gripped in my mandibles, "I presume you're the little flickers I've been sensing lately?"

At detecting my scent, the prisoner goes limp in my grip. I wait a moment to see what will happen, but to my surprise, she doesn't respond at all.

"Hello?" I say, "are you not going to respond to me?"

Nothing. Every single ant that Crinis holds in her grip has similarly gone slack. I can sense that they are still alive, it appears as though this is their strategy to avoid my interrogation. Foolish! Do they really believe that giving me the silent treatment is going to be enough to dissuade me!?

"Let me just take a guess at something and see how you feel about it, alright?" I watch all of the captives closely as I continue my line of questioning, "let's say that after I was captured by the golgari and vanished from the Colony that the council got together and decided that having me running around doing dangerous stuff was a bit of a pain, but not something that they could control."

The very idea of the council trying to tell me what to do. Laughable! I trained them from the time they were grubs!

"So instead, they thought to themselves, 'since we can't prevent the Eldest from doing whatever they want, instead we'll try to make sure they stay safe. Why not provide some guards?' or something along those lines. Only they immediately realise that I would say no. I do not need or want a group of guards following me around, I would more likely have to protect them as opposed to them protecting me. Not to mention the appalling waste of resources that would be."

My mandibles grip the still limp ant a little tighter.

"Instead of dropping the idea there and then, like sensible ants, they thought they'd go a step further. 'If the Eldest doesn't want to be protected, but at the same time needs to be protected, why not guard them in secret!? We'll make special guards to watch over the Eldest without even letting them know!'."

Each of the twenty figures exudes a sense of martyrdom now, as if they know the jig is up.

"So, the council put into a motion a plan, probably with a stupid name like Operation Silent Shield."

Twitch.

"Really? Holy moly. So, Operation Silent Shield commences, they recruit twenty promising young hatchlings, ones who are dedicated to a fault, willing to serve in any way and give them the best training, full core evolutions and full mutations. Maybe even special evolutions?"

Twitch.

"Right. And for your last evolution, you're probably tier four, I would guess? Yes, judging by your mana, tier four. For your last evolution, you all chose some sort of advanced gland that masks your presence, from all sources. Or does it work on perception? Perhaps the Vestibule was working correctly the whole time and I filtered it out without realising? Maybe my Will stat was too high... Well? Which is it?"

I prod my captive, but she stubbornly refuses to say anything.

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter. Even if you hadn't leapt out when you did, I would have tracked you down eventually."

I can't help but sigh. I shouldn't be surprised that the council would pull a move like this. I can't even be mad, not really. These twenty young ants represent the council worrying about me, attempting to look after my safety without letting me know. They basically used up a second council worth of resources, special cores and everything, just to look after me. I wish I could be more confident in saying it was a waste of effort, but I can't deny the run of trouble I've been getting myself into.

[Crinis, let them go please.]

[Are you sure, Master?] she huffs.

She sounds irritated that these ants were attempting to do her job.

[Yes, let them go.]

She uncoils her limbs and each of the nineteen insects she'd captured sprints away into the shadows where they disappear. It's uncanny how fast it happens. Despite not moving, I can tell that the remaining ant in my mandibles is feeling distinctly hopeful. She seems to be hanging in a more optimistic way. I just need one thing before I let her go.

"Name."

...

I give her a shake.

"Name. I'll let you go, once I get your name. They did name you, right?"

A pause.

"... Protectant."

Really?! Not that I can judge I suppose.

"Thanks for looking out for me, Protectant. I'll be having a chat with Advant later, and then with you and your sisters. Right now, we need to get back to work."

With that, I let her drop and she dashes away to join her team out of sight. As satisfying as it is to drag this little group out into the light, I have other things to worry about. As the seconds drag by, I keep thinking about the Legion fort and beyond that, what the future is going to look like for this city. The trick is, we can't leave them alone, not anymore. We know that they can build gates, what's to stop them doing it again?

A consideration for another time... and probably one that I punt to the council, let them work it out. Maybe the humans from the village can help, I don't know. Having to manage some sort of subservient city state under the control of an ant colony feels a little odd. Ah well, maybe I'll let Beyn at them, he seems to be able to sell just about anyone on the concept of ant messiahs.