The Colony is in a frenzy of preparations, still. There are over a million of us within range of the Vestibule now, and honestly, it's a little more difficult than I'm comfortable admitting to hold onto myself in the face of this vast, endless torrent of Will. Impressions and thoughts pour into me like a river dropping into a bucket.
I can't possibly contain it all, yet still it comes, and if I dip my toe in the stream, I risk being swept away in an instant. Were that to happen, who knows how long until I'd be able to find my way out again? The Vestibule grants many profound and powerful blessings, but it isn't without its drawbacks. Evolution has strengthened my mind, which helps me hold out against the influence of the Colony, but it's starting to feel like a race between my tier and the sheer number of siblings I have. I'm struggling in the face of a million, what would a billion do to me?
Better not to think about it.
Well, at least I feel incredibly refreshed and ready for action, which I expect is going to be coming my way very shortly. The wave is on the verge of breaking and the final preparations are playing out all around me. Thousands upon thousands of ants are working on construction projects, walls, defensive formations, training, farms and everything else I can think of. Somewhere within the nest, there's an enormous foundry pumping out armour and enchantments, forging equipment for our soldiers and preparing replacement parts for the inevitable damage that will come. I can feel them through the Vestibule, a thousand hammers striking the glowing hot metal in unison. Emergency hospital facilities are being created everywhere the Colony expects to be fighting, which is everywhere. Healers rush around in a frenzy, trying to prepare as best they can for the inevitable flood of wounded that will come their way.
Mana continues to fill the Dungeon until it feels like a balloon on the verge of bursting. Every surface tingles with contained pressure. My gravity sense is tingling all the time, reading the minute vibrations in the floor and walls. The level of energy flowing through the veins has reached the point where every single one of them has enough power to act as a sp.a.w.n point.
Demon larvae are going absolutely nuts on the floor of the third stratum, a feeding frenzy the likes of which I hope never to see again. They sp.a.w.n so fast they've created a layer of teeth and claws a metre deep on the bottom of the stratum. It's more than a little inconvenient since the density of larvae has made it impossible for them to move out of the way as they normally would. To traverse any distance, I need to wade through the ma.s.s of fangs who latch onto my legs the second I put them down. It's not so bad for me, my legs are thin and I can hold my body above the fray fairly easily. For Tiny, it's much worse, the poor ape gets his legs shredded every time he takes a step. Invidia has to apply a constant flow of healing magic to the big ape, who doesn't seem to mind that much, but I suspect that's because he's thick.
[Do you sense anything, Master?] Crinis asks.
She's latched onto my carapace, as usual, clinging to my diamond exo-skeleton with her fluidic shadow flesh. Actually… considering she has some immaterial limbs….
[Crinis… you aren't extending yourself inside my carapace, are you?]
Silence….
[I think I see something!] she cries.
[Crinis!]
[No, really! Look!]
To get above the fray, we positioned ourselves up on an outcropping of rock that thrusts upward from the stratum floor, giving us a good view of our objective, the path between this layer and the one below. Anything from below that's going to threaten the main ant nest at Roklu is most likely to come through that tunnel, so here we are, ready for a horde and tier eights to stick their noses out. At Crinis' insistence, I turn my attention from her literal invasion of my person and down to the opening below.
Much as I hate to admit it… there might be something. No monster or horde, I don't think I would have missed that, but something a little more subtle: the light. Normally a flickering, deep red from the many lava flows in the tunnels, the hue emanating from the entrance has grown thicker, more intense.
Then the vibration comes. So faint at first I can barely sense it, even with my incredibly delicate antennae, but I soon pick it up. Is it coming from below? No, not quite. In fact, it's hard to get an exact sense of where it's coming from. I spin my feelers in a wide, slow circle, basically the ant equivalent of rubbing your eyes and peering around. After a few seconds, I confirm my suspicion.
It's coming from everywhere.
[Get ready,] I tell the others tersely. [It's coming.]
As the vibration continues to build, I add, [And grab onto something.]
I may as well have told Tiny that Santa had dropped down the chimney and offered to wrestle. His grin is huge, splitting his face wide as his eyes burn with red light. He can't resist thumping his palms into his chest a few times, the impacts reverberating through the air, demonstrating his incredible strength. Bedecked in a new set of armour and enchanted rings that clip around his biceps, my ape friend is an intimidating sight, doubly so when he starts radiating battle energy like he is now.
Invidia rests on his shoulder, eye blazing with green energy. I'm not exactly sure what it is that he wants right now, but if it isn't a metric b.u.t.t-ton of monsters to fight, then he's fresh out of luck.
From something only I could sense, the vibration continues to build until everyone can feel it, then keeps growing until the rock beneath our feet is shaking.
CRACK! CRACK!
Stone shatters and I panic, thinking our perch is about to come crashing down, but no, it's far worse. The shaking grows more and more intense until the roof, kilometres above our heads, fractures. Hundreds of tons of rock break loose and rain down, whistling through the air with a horrifying shriek before slamming into the ground, sending a spray of larvae and lava hundreds of metres into the air. I feel a chill, if that had happened overhead….
CRACK!
Aw heck! I snap my focus up and sigh with relief, it wasn't from there, but it was close… where did that come from?
The ground in front of us explodes. I mean… straight up explodes. A fountain of lava blasts into the air, carrying yet more stone high into the air with it, before raining down in a fiery h.e.l.lstorm.
[Shields!] I snap to Invidia.
I work with him to snap together a defensive barrier to protect us from being cooked alive. Similar things are happening at every entrance to the caverns that I can see, plumes of molten rock jetting up into the air.
Holy… moly….
Then it comes.
Originating from far below, it rolls up and past us like the shockwave from an atomic bomb. A wall of mana, so thick that it's almost physical, sweeps up and vanishes into the distance in under a second, rising to the surface of the planet. With it comes the delighted howls of uncountable monsters, freed from the depths at last.
Come and get it.