Hera had been dragging an unconscious form through the night streets. Most of everyone was still in bed sleeping or if they around were uncaring, after all the person that was being drug looked poor and without a home, whatever happened to them was chalked up to the local ruffians collecting the debt of some pour soul. Stuff like this was common and often never stopped, the Baron of the city as it got rid of people who would leech off the economic system, nothing was ever at loss from the disappearance of a few vagrants.

When she went through the doors of the church, the entirety of the inside looked entirely different. The first thing that a person would notice when entering a church would be the pews or rather the lack of them. They were devoured, spit back out and used as building material for the hive-ish structures. The wood was reconstructed into the same black goop that came from the larvae. It still had the same properties as the previous iteration they just been discolored and fused with magic.

All of the survivors were hung to the wall, their arms were raised well above their heads. thin tube-like structures were forced into them from their abdomens, the appendage had been siphoning out the magic-infused blood into one of the newborns. It only took a few hours for it to grow. This one, in particular, had been the most effective at consuming magic during its infancy. Evolutionary theory dictated that it grew specialized equipment that made it extract and process more efficiently.

This one was also the localized feeder of the tiny swarm. The others dwarfed this hatchling. It would take a certain portion of blood from its captured hosts using barbed tentacles that protruded from its back, store the magic-blood mixture in a gastor and begin the process of separating the two. if need be it would also perform blood transfusions to prolong the life of the hosts.

The main priority was filling the pit in the center of the building that the other workers dug, with the pure, raw magic it contained. The raw magic mixed with the blood of a human and a few cells from their species would eventually react creating larvae. It’s juvenile appearance of being sleek and snake-ish was changed to being a more human beast-like. It gained the appendages of basic arms ending with three fingers, a mandible and at least four beady pale eyes, its vision was just as strong as Hera’s. The chitin was more prevalent on it then it was over the girls, it even hunched itself over the neck. The pincers still remained around as the primary source of movement.

The current wall infrastructures helped Hera immensely since she could see the interior of the building, everywhere that the magic based regurgitation touched provided enough detail for her to ‘see’ the layout. When she was presumed to be a more of a defensive type, the guess had been spot on; this was her area of expertise.

She continued until she came to Rinae, surrounded by the other two newborns, they had grown similar to the feeder however they were much smaller than it was and looked much more human, as they lacked the gastor and an additional pair of eyes. The hybridization of the two species was clearly apparent. Hera threw the body off to the side somewhere. The two hatchlings hissed and swarmed to the body, they were quite feral in the quest for food. Luckily the person had not been awake for this, otherwise, they’d have been screaming for their life as they were investigated by the creatures. The hatchlings knew they belonged to a hive and would need to share for the whole but if they decided that the prey wasn’t worth being drained they would eliminate the waste of space post haste. Unlucky for the beggar they had no use to the hive,

Rinae stood from the altar, she looked up at Hera, the two of their heights were almost uncomparable, Rinae’s natural heels gave her an enhancement but it wasn’t close to being the same as Hera’s.

Without moving a single muscle, both of the newborns were at her side. Hera could ‘feel’ the demand for something to be at Rinae’s side, but it was far too weak to actually make her do something. She put a clawed hand overtop the exoskeleton of the newborn. It made a hard clinking noise as both materials struck each other. “Take them, and bring better hosts.”

“Sister.” she said, “This place is dry! The most I could see was barely worth the energy!”

Rinae didn’t look too bothered by it, in fact, it was almost as if she was already planning something. “Head to the East side.”

At first, Hera was confused by this, but she realized, the east side of the city was the manufacturing districts. There was bound to be some kind of mass magical assistance over there. And she left into the night.

~^~

Amalia, Her squire and a menagerie of armored men approached the west entrance of Holden, the entire town was silent and felt unnaturally cold… death lingered in overwhelming numbers.

“Spread out, look for information!” She commanded her squad, being a holy knight was akin to being a general making her absolute.

Lady Amalia kicked the corpse its front of her, she was entirely used to the sight. However, the mage knights weren’t. The reactions garnered from them were a mixed bag, Most were horrified, the veterans of the field weren't so afflicted. The squire abandoned the squad’s incessant questions of disbelief.

“My lady, this is a bigger problem than we thought.”

Amalia was looking at the still smoldering craters and buildings. “A lot of these men were simply killed.”

The squire stepped to the side as she turned around to face the mage squad. But she kept her voice low enough to keep her conversation private. “Is it possible for something to see magic?”

The squire thought for a moment. “It isn’t unheard of, but with enough training it’s possible.”

“Lady Amalia!” One mage called out, “I found something!”

She wasn’t wasting any time, something that wipes out every sort of settlement that it passes was something that shouldn’t be something waited on, every second counted. When she approached, it looked like it was an overexposed carcass left in the sun for too long.

“Looks like magic burns.” He said.

She looked around from the area; She was looking for the corpses of the magic wielders. She commanded the man. “Get the others; we’re on a search.”

He put a fist to his chest and nodded before running off.

The squire asked her a question. “We should inform the church about this! This is well above our heads!”

“No.” She responded. “The church doesn’t hear anything about this.”

“But why? Five battle mages, a squire and a single holy knight sound powerless against something that can kill everything in a town!”

“The. Church. Stays. Out.“ She got into the face of the squire, when she got like this her stubbornness out ruled anything, he could ever say. But he as her underling acknowledged her strength.

The five mages lined up behind her, each clean shaven and wearing the royal colors of Prathe. The soldiers she chose were hand-picked for their loyalty to the crown. The last thing she could ever want would be to babysit a bunch of cowards.

They stood as still as statues. Each one was at least an adept in their elements. The mage she had sent off spoke. “All assembled Lady Amalia!”

“Good. speak if you found news.”

One of the mages stepped forward. “The enemy had entered from the East entrance!” Another mage picked up where he had left off. “The guards there were killed facing the forest.”

“That’s all I wanted to hear.” The men opened up their formation for her to walk past. “Fall in.” She commanded.

The mages all followed, the squire cut to the front of the pack to walk next to her. “There is no way I can get you to call for reinforcements?”

“No, It’d waste too much time.”

The squire sighed. As they headed into the forest. It wasn’t exactly hard trying to find the path the mages as mentioned earlier. The fire mage wasn’t the best at being the most subtle in his approach to things. He left broken branches, singed vines, and overall just a messy path.

The group slowed to a stop as they all approached the cave entrance. The evidence was clear. The two fought here and failed to survive, Kenth. The mage whose body was mutilated beyond all recognition was left at the entrance.

A female mage in the group was the first to notice detail. “This didn’t look like the usual kill.” She paused getting close enough she could smell the decomposing flesh. “Most of them had been precisely killed, A singular stab or a fatal slice this, however, was more like a bear-hog going wild.”

“Two of you stand guard.” Lady Amalia wasn’t given the order to anyone specific, and everyone knew what that meant, whenever an order is open like that it's a volunteer vote to exclude from a possible suicide mission. The female and one other mage stayed beyond to ‘guard’.

They would have gotten lost in the cave if they didn’t have the apparent drag trails leading them. The further they got the worse they felt, everything felt suspicious the anticipation to find what was at the end of the rainbow was maddening.

Until they reached the chamber and saw the horror. A man with his throat sliced and hanging over a red pit and a child so bloated it looked like it was about to explode. His eyes were most likely the worse part, they looked as though they were gouged out and leaked a black liquid.

The smell wasn’t nearly as bad as that; everyone was just about used to the aroma of death.

The squire looked over to the pool of red liquid; He saw the liquid form a tiny wave. “Lady Amalia, what do you think of this?”

As she peered over, multiple waves began to form everything began to surface all in attraction to her. The larvae often breached revealing their bodies. She looked in disgust extending her arm, Yellow and blue lights began to arch from the gauntlet. In seconds the room flashed multiple times the liquid became a conductor for the electricity being injected. The larvae surfaced one by one, dead.

She turned to the one fire mage of the squad, “Destroy this place.”

“Destroy it?” He was confused; this place could launch an investigation necessary to figure out what was going on.

“Yes, Burn everything to the ground.”

“Yes, My lady.” He knew it was pointless to argue with a holy knight.

“Come, squire.” She turned her back to the pit and went the way they came in.

At the entrance, the two guards approached. The female spoke. “Lady Amalia, we’ve found another lead.”

“What is it, Elizabeth.”

She stepped to the side and pointed at the ground, there were black puddles that lead away from the cave, each space was at least five feet from each other, but they were consistent enough to be a trail. “I think I found where our targets have gone.”

Behind Amalia was several mages running clear followed by an explosion significant enough to cause the tunnels to cave in on itself. “Squire, what is in that direction?”

He pulled a map from his clothing. His finger trailed from the town of Holden to somewhere in the forest then to the direction of the black puddles. He hesitated to make sure he was correct. “...Beka”