Nic climbed higher and higher, feeling the air thin out and become bitterly cold around him. As the sun set below the horizon small pockets of water trapped in the creases and crags of the tree bark were fast turning to slick pools of ice.

Even with the delay to speak to the spiders he was making good time against his past self. The small, incremental boosts to his strength did wonders for this kind of long-form endurance; he only paused once, pulling his small body into a crevice of the tree to watch in wonder as the sun went down over the forest.

For a moment, all the leaves were turned to gold by the radiant colors emanating out from the horizon. A sea of living wealth rippling and flowing in the wind, beneath violet-pink clouds and deep purple mist. The sight was enough to stir the dragon-greed in his soul.

Soon.

Soon he’d own a piece of this world, and call it his own.

A Spatial Pillar Credit could instantly open up a Residence, which Nic understood to be a kind of small, portable house-world that was designed to fit the needs of the owner. The requirements to begin a Settlement were more stringent.

He needed to have allied creatures control three adjacent Dominus Nodes, forming a triangular territory. That territory would expand by taking more Dominus Nodes under its control, each forming another triangular swathe of land with two already-conquered nodes. This was, according to Sofia, called the Grand Plan. A game of expansion- and when territories began to collide, conquest.

The three Dominus Nodes he’d discovered - the giant sword guarded by the primordial slime, the statue beneath the river defended by the giant serpent, and the one high up in this tree - all formed a triangle. If the slime proved impossible to defeat, he was confident of being able to take another appropriate node, likely the one in the giant lake with the drowned town beneath its crystal clear waters.

After that-

Nic was going to try and draw the elves and the spiders into joining with him. He’d already set himself up well with both groups, and if the human factions splintered over the cursed puppets being discovered, Nic would gladly take in the more sensible Natives as well.

As soft as they could be, they had potential. To them cultivation was magic, pure possibility, and some of them would be able to uncover abilities that growing up with the System hid from those born to Integrated worlds.

That was how Sofia saw them, at least.

Having drunk his fill of the sunset, Nic resumed climbing. It wasn’t long before he reached the former nest of the spiders, a huge crack in the tree, and as soon as he approached huge red-bodied ants began to crawl free of the breach.

They were huge- easily bigger than a full-grown man. Their enormous trapjaw pincers clicked and snapped as they advanced down towards Nic.

He pulled the Sandrider Blade from his pack and slammed it into the tree, attaching it with adhesive and making a foothold. Climbing up he drew his bow and began to fire, sinking arrow after arrow into the slow-moving ants. One by one the first wave toppled from the tree, but the main mass was far from even wounded.

More poured from the break, the shadows seething with chitin-covered bodies.

Nic fired until his arrows were exhausted and drew out his axe again, waiting for more to come. As they raced down the tree he dropped away, sliding across the bark to land on a lower branch where he’d have more room to maneuver. He’d left a special talisman pinned to the bark-

And as the army marched over he detonated it in a flash of ear-piercing sound and blinding light. Again, dozens of bodies tumbled from the tree, stunned and unable to hang on with the hooks on the backs of their legs.

Nic hoped he was getting credits for the ones that died of gravity.

The swarm poured down and he brought the axe to bear, ripping open the skull of the first ant and cleaving through the jaws of the next with the backstroke. Again and again, their clumsy, slow movement pressed more bodies forward, biting at the air as they tried to surround him.

Each time he cut a body apart, foul-smelling yellow ichor would spray out and coat his hands. It was mildly toxic but his regeneration absorbed it without issue. More importantly, it seemed to serve as a signal to attack- the more coated him the more they grew aggressive, the mob changing from odd, unsure movement into headlong rushes trying to overwhelm him.

Nic’s axe crushed and broke. He opened his mouth and poison spewed out, forming a fog that shielded him for a time. As they shoved through the toxic waves of fog their bodies were already crumbling apart, and Nic only had to break them apart. Even the back of his axe was enough to club through their softened shells.

All of a sudden there was a bitter note in the air, and the ants fell back. From above dropped a figure made of red chitin.

It was tall, with vestigial jaws of red extending above its head like horns. Its actual face was a mask of black, jutting forward into an angular, beak-like helm. It cracked open a hiss poured out. The creature’s body was humanoid, roughly, like the armor of a knight. Thorns extended from its shoulders and six glowing holes along its helm served as eyes.

A cape fell around its shoulders, made of see-through gossamer.

Solenopsis Myrmidon. F-Class // Sapient. Born from the sacrifice of thousands of lesser specimens to form a nutrient rich primordial birth pool, this warrior was born to defend the hive, unable to cultivate but absorbing its lesser kin for strength.

“Are you the… big ant..?” He paused. He swear he knew more abouts ants than this. “The queen? Inkspur ask if she’s the queen.”

“I AM…”

Nic waited expectantly.

“YOUR DEATH!”

He sighed, and dropped low as the ant-beast charged him. In its hands it wielded a long spear made of chitin, and it stabbed forward with a brutal strength that surprised Nic. He rotated his cultivation through his arms as he deflected the blow along his bracer, rooting his feet in adhesive to prevent from being forced back. His axe flicked out and tore across the beast’s chest, opening a flow of yellow blood.

But it barely seemed to faze the Myrmidon.

Even as it moved the wound was healing, and Nic felt streams of Essence flowing from the surrounding ants as they formed a circle around the dueling pair. The cut began to stitch itself closed.

And his enemy was learning.

It no longer committed to huge, powerful strikes, having learned Nic was able to deflect them and counter. Instead it fed its strength into a thrusting volley that used its superior reach to push Nic onto the back foot and keep him there, dodging among a shower of forward strikes that left blurs of speed in the air.

It was going well for the beast until Nic simply stepped aside and dropped from the branch.

His scarf snatched at the side, coated in adhesive, and Nic swung upwards to slip around its spear-strikes. As he came up his scarf let go and shot out again, grasping hold of the enemy’s face and wrapping around its eyes. Nic’s foot hit the branch just long enough to kick up and replenish his momentum as he turned the downwards arc of his fall into a full swinging circle around the enemy, axe sweeping down in a brutal overhand.

The ant-knight swung around, spear shifting to one hand as its dominant arm reached up to catch the axe just under the blade.

Impact pushed its feet down, cracks forming beneath-

And Nic’s foot shot out to kick the beast’s head with enough force to send cracks spiraling through its exoskeleton as its neck twisted back at a brutal angle. It turned, mouth cracking open to exhale a breath of fury, and Nic let go of the axe to seize its open jaw in both hands.

With a roar of effort Nic pried its mouth open and poured a lance of poison smoke down its throat. It began to seize up, knees buckling, and Nic caught his axe as it dropped from the still-raised hand. He planted both legs against the armored chest and kicked off, toppling his dying enemy to the ground.

It lay there shivering and shaking in the throes of a violent seizure, poison eating everything from within. The streams of Essence coming from the ants nearby intensified until they were golden veins running to the knight, but still, the poison continued to do its work. One by one the ants curled up and died, drained of all they had. The remainder were trying to retreat, but body after body fell from the tree, tethered to their dying warlord.

Nic walked forward and slammed his axe down into the knight’s skull. The golden tethers snapped as the deed was done. He pried out the sole Shard, a white diamond set in the corner of its armor like a brooch holding up the ‘cape’ of the beast’s vestigial wings.

But he was disappointed. It didn’t hold the secret of the knight’s ability to draw Esssence from others. It was only a telepathy Shard, which Nic could have really used before he met Inkspur.

Tucking it away he bellowed to the retreating ants. “And don’t let me catch you here again! This is spider territory! Ants not welcome!”

Inkspur repeated his kind warning, only with more TEARING YOU LIMB FROM LIMB and MAKING THE HEAVENS TURN AWAY IN HORROR.

Nic resumed his climb, hiking up the last of the tree as the sun faded into the horizon line. A mantis-folk guard watched him as he ascended, perched in motionless, alert meditation atop a branch. More and more followed him up the tree as he reached the heights and stepped into the crux of the tree’s branches, where the ancient temple was nestled.

“Inkspur, no additions. Say what I say, as I say it. These people are no fun.” He whispered-

Before looking up at the guards surrounding him with a smile.

“Hey, recognize me? Little pink blob that fell out of the sky? Walked right past you last time?” Nic waved nervously. He sure hoped they remembered him. “This time, figured I might try the front door.”

“We remember you.” The leader of the guard had a shaved head and saffron colored robes banded by a red sash. He also had a seriously sour attitude, which Nic was glad to see was utterly inflamed by the very fact Nic was alive and breathing.

“Well, I’ve come back to see the Lady Nylea.” He said, reaching into his bag. The guards subtly shifted towards the long, curved swords on their belts.

He brought out the glittering teardrop he’d won from the Valley of Memories. A concentrated and crystallized form of the fountain’s ability to purge curses.

“I brought her something to help with her curse, see? Friendly-like.” He gave a big axolotl grin.

“Last time you couldn’t talk. I liked you better that way.” The chief guard’s face withered into the most terrible scowl, but he waved a hand. “Fine. You may see the Lady, if only because she has taken an inexplicable liking to you. I doubt it will last long, now that you’ve found your impertinent voice.”

And with a few too many guards surrounding him for his liking, Nic was allowed to set foot in the temple a second time.

The Saturnalia - the tiny world - was no larger than an extremely wide dining table. It was shaped like a burning brazier, a low, wide cauldron filled to its lips with sea-water. Clouds drifting above the enormous central mountain, and a small sun and moon rotated around the edges.

The Lady Nylea was leaning over the edge, her elegantly beautiful face fixed on the world below with such immense attention that the captain of the guard had to cough to alert her there was somebody there,

She turned and her face immediately lit up at the sight of Nic.

“Oh! The little Newt has returned!” She clapped her hands together. “And you’ve brought back the wyvern, I see. Is it just me or have both you grown?”

“We have.” Inkspur said, not waiting for Nic. “We are most grown, and spectacularly stronger than when you last saw us! I personally have made GROWN MEN TREMBLE, and the pink one has SLAUGHTERED DOZENS in your name! May I be rewarded with scratches under the chin please?”

She laughed and held out her unharmed left hand - the right was covered in the same grey plague that crawled up most of her body, making her skin crack apart bloodlessly like drought-stricken earth.

“Inkspur…” Nic shot a glare at the little traitor. “Tell her I’ve brought a cure for her curse, and would like to use the Dominus Node for three days in exchange.” He held up the sparkling jewel.

She immediately reached out with a happy gasp- but the guard captain stepped in the way, hand shooting out to grab her wrist. “Absolutely not. The Saturnalia is a sacred artifact of our clan, and we will-”

“WE-” Nylea snapped. “Are not in charge. ONE of us holds that privilege, and it is NOT you. Unhand me, Cegan.”

His fingers left her wrist, and she glared at ‘Cegan’ as she took the jewel.

“As for the Saturnalia…” She turned and ran her slim fingers around the complicated runework written on the golden cauldron’s rim. “It is a D-Class artifact. It’s not as if he could lift it, much less run away with it. Why not allow him to make some use of it?”

Nic’s eyes went wide at the words ‘D-Class’.

“Oh yes. We have a storied history, my clan. Thanks to you-” She held up the brilliant teardrop. “Perhaps that story will be a little less sad.”