Today was the fourth day from Damien's new awakening. He had begun to mark time from the moment he last woke, as he had no way to know what the date was. He couldn't even tell how long he had been out after wasting all of the energy he had revived with. He was still bitter about that. He had been dropped in this desolate cave with no warning or training, and somehow he was supposed to survive. Of course he panicked. But by now he was beginning to get used to his new life. The constant hunger, and fear of the world outside kept him focused. These instincts were not something from his life before, they were something new. He knew he needed more energy to survive. He knew he would wither and die, wasting away into nothingness if he didn't feed. And he knew something from outside would be coming to kill him. He didn't know why. He didn't know what it was. But he had to prepare. And he knew that to survive, he had to grow.

As he surveyed his domain, he was very pleased with what he saw. Thousands of maggots writhed around him. His flock had grown at a rapid pace. It was just a matter of waiting until they transformed into flies. Besides this, as their numbers multiplied he realized that they didn't even have to be dying for him to gain some power from them. They released far more when they were dead or dying, but by simply existing within his domain they released a nearly insignificant amount for him to take in. Even with all of the thousands combined it wasn't enough to make a dent in his hunger, but it was still something. Right now he needed to continue harvesting his crop to sustain himself, but he believed there would come a time when he would allow them to live out their lives. When they died was of little consequence, so long as they did it within his domain.

On the other hand the worm harvests were dwindling. He had continued his slaughter unabated, butchering all that came in range. For now he would have to leave them be so they could repopulate, but he had enough corpses piled up to last him for quite some time to come.

And then there was his reserve of energy. He had saved up since dominating the cave, and he wanted to dig deeper, to grow his domain. But after running out once he was hesitant to spend it immediately. He couldn't risk being reduced to nothing again, he needed to get stronger. After long deliberation, he decided to save up today, and then he would start digging out with the new energy he gained afterwards. A day and a half's worth of maggot harvests should be a decent reserve right? But what was this energy?

He had experimented a bit more, and spent more time watching the spider. The energy wasn't blood. Draining the life out of a creature did not leave it a dried out husk, it simply stopped living. And then the spider, which was a completely ordinary spider, was able to absorb the energy as well. At this point, he was forced to accept that he wasn't normal and could do impossible things, but even the smallest creatures could harness this power too? Everything that had happened in the last four days completely defied the laws of nature, and this energy seemed to be the source. It was a supernatural force that gave him power. Magic? Damien laughed, it sounded ridiculous. But the more he thought about it, there was no other way to describe it. It was the best he could do. So the energy was magic power, or mana. It still didn't make sense, but at least he had something to call it.

Damien continued to ponder as he watched his minions wriggle and writhe as they ate and grew. What the hell was happening to this world?

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Midmorning came, and brought with it something to snap him out of his reverie. An ant scout had crossed the threshold of his lair. After his experience with the flies, he didn't immediately lunge at the new prey. As he watched the black hexapedal scavenger, he thought back to his previous life. Ant scouts find food and bring it back to their colony while laying a trail for their brothers. If he allowed this ant to find his invertebrate corpse piles, he would lead many of his brothers back here for Damien to harvest. If Damien still had a face it would be showing a devious, wicked grin as he planned to massacre countless ants to fuel his expansion.

Expansion? Damien paused as the word came into his mind. He knew he had to grow, but expand? It seemed strange, but that word held a deep meaning for him that he couldn't explain. He examined his domain closely, and knew that he was terribly exposed to the outside world. His heart was just sitting on the floor, not ten feet from the surface. As he watched the ant navigate it's way down the entryway tunnel, he pondered how to go about expanding his domain. One word seemed to echo in the back of his mind, and that was "deeper". He wanted to expand out into the world above, but in his heart he knew the way to go was deeper into the hillside. After brooding over how to go about remodeling his abode for awhile longer, the ant reached the end of the tunnel. He decided to wait and see how many ants walked into his lair. If he gathered enough mana to accelerate his plans, he would worry about it then.

Rather than inviting the ant to his maggot breeding grounds, he shuffled a few worms towards the front of the room. The ant nearly walked right past the pile he was building, but he flopped one down right in it's path. The scout tore into the offered worm it had found, and pulled out a sizable chunk larger than itself. The ant then turned about and merrily skittered back the way it had come. Damien could only imagine the pheromone trail it was leaving in it's wake as he watched it return home.

A short while later, another lone ant appeared. He couldn't be sure, but it seemed to be a different ant than before. This ant made a beeline straight down the trail left by his comrade before him. Pulled off another chunk and made to leave. Before he made it out to the entrance, a second ant appeared. And Damien chuckled darkly to himself. All was going according to plan.

Everything went perfectly for the next hour. The lone ants turned into a trickle, and then a tiny stream, and then a flow. At first he picked off one in every four ants, but as the tide increased he snuffed out half, then two thirds, then three quarters. Their lives were a wonderful boost to his mana reserves, but they soon exhausted the pile he had left for them. He tried to replenish it and thin the ant army, but he couldn't move the bodies fast enough, and for every ant he smothered, a dozen more took it's place. And then they finally broke through, rushing forwards. A hungering horde come to massacre his minions, their pincers quivering in anticipation of the battle ahead. He was enraged at these intruders, and began a wild rampage draining as many as he could. He started to lose himself in his fury, he had to protect his cattle. He had to protect his lair.

But he was failing. The vicious ant horde rushed forwards, indifferent to their fallen brothers. He would lose everything. He would be forced to start from scratch. The last four days would be all for nothing. But then a rolling tide of seething white flesh crashed into the black army. The maggots had charged the ant battle line.

He had been so distracted by his battle that he didn't notice their movements, but every maggot in the room was surging forwards to repel the intruders. The very moment he decided the ants were enemies rather than prey, every creature under his influence had rushed to repel them. He quickly took charge of the maggot conscripts, directing their war. They were rushing forwards blindly, but he spread them out to the sides. He had nearly ten thousand maggots at his disposal, and he planned to encircle the intruding forces. He formed up a full regiment of the largest and oldest maggots, and sent them charging into the ant's left flank. As his shock troops wriggled on their marching to glory, he examined the front lines.

Each ant could bring down three maggots before he perished, and so he sent five. His maggots were holding the line, and the ant forces were finally dwindling. And then his shock troops had closed the distance, and began their charge over the last six inches. They wriggled fiercely, closing the distance in 10 seconds. And then they hit. His glorious shock cavalry drove deep into the enemy lines, and closed off the horde from it's reinforcements. Damien cackled with delight as he saw some of the newly arrived ants retreating.

As his shock troops solidified their battle lines, sandwiched in between the main force and the incoming tide, he had his forces complete their encirclement of the main army. Only 200 ants remained there, hundreds had already fallen to his forces. He left one full regiment to finish them off and hold the encirclement. He would give no quarter to these invaders. His remaining two regiments worth of troops rushed to help his cavalry hold the entrance to the room. As he turned to watch the new front, a new terror gripped his heart. Hulking monsters were wading into the fray. The soldier ants had come.

Much larger than their fellows, the soldiers were the guards that defended the worker ants from their enemies. The ants that escaped! Damien groaned. The ones that went to flee weren't running from a hopeless battle, they were leaving a trail of pheromones to alert their colonies defenders to the danger. As the hulking behemoths brushed aside and slaughtered his finest troops by the dozen, Damien was beset by grief. The losses up till now had been bearable, casualties of war. But if he lost his oldest maggots, he would have to wait even longer for their maturation! He wouldn't allow this! He refused! In his desperation, his mana reserves were activated, and some poured into the shock troops on the front line, bolstering their power. And he saw a sight that would reverse the fear in his heart.

Three of his largest elder maggots bolstered with his mana had surrounded a soldier ant, and as one rushed head on only to be crushed in it's formidable maw, the others charged into it's sides. One bit into it's rear leg, pinning it down. The other launched itself forward and buried it's teeth in the top of it's neck, just below it's head. And as he watched, and poured more mana into the maggot, it bit down through the hard carapace and tore a chunk out of it's neck. The soldier reared back in pain, but with his rear leg held captive, he fell backwards onto his back. He quickly struggled to right himself, but the nearby maggots swarmed the downed insect, and tore him apart in a frenzy of seething flesh.

These monsters could be defeated! Damien cheered at the success of his minions, and readied his troops for the counter offensive. Then he poured every last bit of mana he could spare into his mighty maggots, and ordered his troops to charge.