‘Little rock?’ the Queen tried again, as the amount of Mana pushed out became evermore. The tidal wave of energies felt was massive, filled with the [Intent] to Stop, Help, and feel just about every emotion there was to feel. The sheer power of it all was unbearable, making the Queen step outside of the Domain to shield herself. She tried to order her children to do the same but it was to no avail.

What was happening to the Core? She had never seen such a thing before, certainly not in somebody so… young? It seemed like a mental breakdown at first glance but with a botched Mana-Transformation mixed in. The Queen had no other way to describe it other than that it was utterly impossible. Or, it should have been utterly impossible, the current power-level of the Core never having allowed for the sight she was currently seeing. While the effect outside of the Domain had lessened significantly, she could still feel the Energies as clear as day. And so could everything else close by, she realized.

Which wasn’t a good thing at all. When not in the centre of that storm, the energy even seemed slightly pleasant. The focus was not on her, after all, making it possible to feel the potential of all that Mana. It was quite the lucrative deal to just step inside and try to absorb as much as possible of it. The Queen was sure that other, less intelligent creatures would think the same. And as she began to sense the presence of others, she was not amused.

‘Little rock, if you do not snap out of whatever is going on, I will become very annoyed,’ the Queen sent out into the Entity’s Domain, knowing full well that it likely couldn’t hear her. Back in the day when watching over the many Demons, she had learned that nothing could get through to them while they were [Transforming]. The mental pressure of such an act, willing or unwilling, was so massive that most simply broke after the act. Yet even during it, as it all came into them like a massive mass, everything else became muted and distant. While she had heard of some more experienced users being able to keep their sanity throughout it, such things were left for those who reached the sixties. And that was certainly a dream left for the young, so few ever getting so close to the top.

The [Wild] was starting to awaken around her. Out of the rivers came smaller, furred creatures. If she had kept her [Analysis] skill, she might have been able to tell what they were, yet her lack of such things only allowed her to see the power level. They were weak, nearly as weak as her children, yet their number was still decently large. It seemed like they usually only walked around in groups, yet their shared goal of the Energy behind her had made them ally with all. And in the background, even more, creatures could be heard stomping along. There were many. Just a mere couple of days ago, the [Queen of Hollows] could have simply scoffed at such a sight, looking down on such weaklings. Yet… here she stood, weary of the fact that she might not be able to beat them all. She had been forced into a weaker role, made to walk around with a power base a fraction of what she had controlled for the last decade. And even then it had been a down-grade.

Down-grades upon down-grades. The new [Dungeon-Boss] surely couldn’t find more things to complain about, right? There was something close to a chuckle there, the Queen having learned it from being around humanoids so long ago. It was the perfect descriptor for the situation at hand. The smartest thing would be to flee into the cave, build up her power through years of lonely training again, and try to hit the surface like never before.

Yet she couldn’t do that anymore. Her mind, soul, and body were not her own. She was simply allowed to survive through the generosity of a [Magical Rock]. A [Magical Rock] that needed to be left alone at the current moment, if it was going to have any chance of surviving. While Mother Carapace wasn’t sure what the young one was going through, she knew that it was not good. Being disturbed would only worsen it as well.

As the Queen started to prepare herself, she felt no fear. She felt nothing negative at all. The simple fact of needing to protect a young being kept her invigorated, her mind focused, and the Darker Tendrils sprouting on her back left no chance of anything getting by. With a swift dive, two of the enclosing creatures were beheaded before they were dragged over to her side, forced to stand again instantly through the power of [Dark Mana] and [Necromancy].

There was some distaste in her mouth after witnessing the sub-optimal performance of the Energy, there being flesh left on the bones. It was not perfect and would hamper them when fighting, yet it was as good as it would get. So, she accepted it and moved on.

The creatures were stopped by the clear potential of death shown. If anything, they were more aggressive because of it, raising their backs slightly to indicate while also barring their teeth. Even with the Queen’s lacklustre eyes, she could see that they weren’t something to get close to. While the previous skeletal structure would have suffered little damage from such a thing, she once again had flesh and tissues to worry about. If something was to be damaged… the Core wouldn’t be of help. And since her connection to the Black Realm had vanished long ago, it would mean certain death for her.

Protect and don’t die. As her newly transformed creatures barreled into the still alive ones, she found that a hard task to bear. Even with those two on her side, she was forced to look at her Mana-Reserves and balk at what she found. Through the years, growing used to near-infinite supplies had weakened her ability to budget it. Two more creatures could be created in the same fashion as before yet that would lead her to run dry near-completely. The Core was meant to constantly supply her but that wasn’t happening in the next time.

Which was why she had to do something like it herself. Even with her lacking ability to gain Mana in larger amounts, she would still be able to [Drain] something from her enemies. Sending another Dark Mana-Tendril out, she dug through the skull of one of the creatures before hooking them back to her immediate location. While not actually having the skill for it, a higher ability in the manners of Mana allowed her to take bits and pieces. It was a lacking efficiency yet it allowed fifty of two hundred Mana to enter her Mana-Current once again. More than enough to work with, though the previous action tired her mind.

Not that she cared. Throwing away the now-useless body, she watched one of the turned creatures being broken into pieces, the structure having been weakened by scratches and bites. While another had gone down in the meanwhile, there were too many to look at is as special.

But the Queen did not care, starting to do it ergonomically. First, she honed in those tendrils she called her own, thinning them as much as she could. While it wasn’t enough to be cutting, it was enough to both save energy and work perfectly as a medium-distance weapon. When not too far away from her actual body, it was also a perfectly replenishable tool.

Charging in without a word, the process of cutting heads began. They tried to bite and tear at her skin, yet few ever got far enough for it to matter. The Queen was perhaps not at her strongest but her skill had not wavered. She could dance through a battlefield while in a world of other thoughts. Not that she at that moment, rather determined to not lose one of her legs to the creatures. They were smaller than her, yes, but their bodies proved quite the powerful tools. Their momentum, even when dead, was still enough to get quite close.

More heads rolled with time, blood smearing the ground red. They kept coming and the Queen kept killing. Their lacking instincts made the beasts easier to kill than one would think, that insatiable need for Mana stopping them from the idea of self-preservation. The [Necromancer] in question who was fighting the things was rather about such a thing, knowing full well that she couldn’t have protected the entrance if not for the creatures being focused on her.

And then it happened. The creatures got a bit too high in number, the need to split her attention becoming too much. One from the left side distracted her enough to make her forget the one to the right. It bit into her stomach and began to throw its head around to tear a chunk right out. It died very quickly after, of course, but the damage had already been done. The Queen had been hit and it was not looking good, the pain more distracting than it had any right to be.

Checking if she could check her status outside of the Core’s Domain, she was pleased to see that it was a trivial task.

Character Screen

Name:

Mother Carapace

Gender:

Female

Level:

9

Class:

Necromancer

Race:

Giant-Ant

Title:

Dungeon-Boss

Health:

113/180

H-Regen:

0.12/sec

Mana:

69/170

M-Regen:

0.13/sec

Stamina:

102/150

S-Regen:

0.14/sec

Cost:

XX MP

Basic Stats

Strength:

22

Wisdom:

16

Vitality:

17

Intelligence:

13

Dex:

14

Willpower:

10

The resistances were still missing, there was an apparent cost of her that she had never about before, and everything was that much worse since the last time she had glanced upon it. Yet the Queen could still see herself in those names and she wore them as proudly as always. Putting her mind back into the game, twenty Mana was expended at once, giving her just a slight breathing room. Tendrils grew from her back rapidly, spinning in a circle just above her head in rapid motion. Every beast was close enough to feel the wind was torn to bits, their minds not able to handle the pressure and their bodies pummeled tens of times in a single second. It was slightly wasteful but it killed more than the Queen had done in a minute.

And that certainly made the creatures get some sense into their heads. As if a switch had turned inside their very heads, they looked upon the Queen’s majestic form, slightly trembling in their movements. Yes, they might have done so at the start as well, but the lack of major movements besides that made it much more obvious to the ant. The beasts sniffed into the air around them as their fur slowly settled back into their previous forms.

The Queen expected some form of surprise attack not long after that, yet nothing of the sort came. Slowly but surely, the creatures just… stopped their signs of wanting to gain access to the Core, instead of going back to the river bed and into the water. Like a massive group, they just floated down the stream as nothing had happened before. The [Necromancer] watched their every step, making sure none remained. And… not a single one did. Their vote had been unanimous and nothing was stopping that from being realised.

There were no enemies, nothing that could kill the [Necromacer]. Said user of Dark Mana felt relief at that moment, before looking towards the wound she had gained. It dripped with liquid, that within not being able to heal right. It was likely on its way to getting infected as well, clearly needing magical or herbal assistance lest it would fester. That meant going back inside the little rock’s Domain. Yet, the Queen thought it best to wait for a few more minutes before it would try and venture inside again.

In the meanwhile, there were many bodies present on the ground. While she had not kept count, Mother Caparace was estimated to have killed something close to seventy of the things. Just how large a part had that been of the local population? The Queen couldn’t help but worry that she had just ruined a good part of the wildlife structure. That was the last thing she needed, it gave away the chance of a-

Powerful presence. On the other side of the river, under fifteen meters away, the Queen could feel a presence more powerful than her own. It was like ice on her back as she came within that sphere of influence. That it even had a skill that allowed for such a thing warned her to not be too forthcoming with the new enemy. She could neither see nor feel it, yet that massive presence of Mana was not something that could be ignored. It seemed hungry, searching for the source that made it come there in the first place.

… Yet it found nothing and left just like that, making the Queen sigh for the second time in those minutes. Just what that had been was not something she was able to answer? From the rumbling in the earth, it was likely fifteen meters high. Matching that together with the colder feeling by the [Aura], the Queen was assuming one of the [Ice-Giants], yet that made no sense at all. The environment wasn’t exactly tropical but it was warmer than anything such a creature would be able to survive in. Just what had it been?

Knowing that she wouldn’t get an answer without first beginning a pursuit, the Ant made the intelligent decision of leaving it alone for now and instead of going back to her previous observations. On the floor around her, countless bodies riddled the floor. Most missed their heads but some had multiple limbs cut off instead. A few of the more unlucky ones just had their stomachs and chests mashed into nothing, every inside flattened or spewed out from the sides. A horrible way to die to be sure but even more horrible for the Queen because of one single fact.

Most of the creatures present would be utterly useless for [Undead]. Their structure had been so damaged that the costs of upkeep and initial creation would be too high to help in the least. The Queen at least understood why so much Mana had been taken out at the start of the fight. It hadn’t been due to her being without reasonable spending habits but because of the creatures not having a great aptitude for [Black Mana]. That trait was a usual thing for living creatures in general yet these had it more strongly than others. Perhaps it was a larger attunement to nature instead? With the fur, the Queen supposed she could see the creatures as [Elementalists] further down the line.

But there was only one way to be sure about that. Grabbing all the creatures in one large bundle of Dark Mana, intelligently having all the most damaged creatures on the outside to make them take the brunt of the leakage, all were transported inside of the little rock’s Domain. While the Queen wouldn’t be able to use them herself, the Core would likely be more than happy with the new bodies. And while neither likely understood what point of damage the creatures needed to be in before they couldn’t be copied, the Ant hoped that the larger amount of bodies would allow a lot to qualify. Or, the Queen supposed only one was truly needed to qualify, but she didn’t want to put that much pressure on them all.

Just how was it going for the Core? Now that the Queen thought about it while standing right outside of the Domain, she had not felt a single burst of Harmful Mana. There was no vainly disguised burst of damage, no malformed orders, and certainly no hints at the little rock being forced into [Transformation]. If anything, it looked as well as it normally did, save for how quiet it was being.

‘Are you back in the realm of the living, little rock?’ the Queen asked. Yet… there was no answer.

Expecting to hear nothing for quite a while, the Ant settled into a comfortable position. She had her duties to protect and she would fulfil them until the little rock decided to wake up again.