[ System Notification ]

Two Rank B Azure Cores has given 96 Energy

Two Rank A Azure Cores has given 112 Energy

40 Energy converted to 400 Mana

Respiratory System: 200/200

“Against my better judgment, I hope there are more of these guys. I can easily finish all the second ranks off their cores.”

I selected the next Rank 1 System down the list and was delighted to see it almost completed.

[ Muscular System: 156/200 ]

“I doubt there can be many more. Even with the ambient mana supporting their size, I can’t see how they could be fed.”

“Huh. I hadn’t thought of that. Is it possible they could feed themselves with the mana? My Digestive system had the bonus of sustaining myself on just ambient Mana. Could they develop something like that?”

“I hope not. That could become catastrophic for the entire world. Drones! Where are you? Get us to your queen!”

The four drones came from behind a rock in the distance and moved towards us. Reaching us, they turned and began to march towards the back of the cavern in a straight line.

“They seem to understand how to walk in a straight line. Why can’t they dig tunnels in one?”

“Ask the queen. I haven’t the faintest idea.”

The drones lead us into a larger tunnel, one we could walk in and still have headroom. We followed the drones for a while when we turned a corner, and a wall of much larger queen’s guards stood. I was about to construct a blue Fireball when an eerie voice filled the tunnel.

“It took you many brood cycles, but finally, you’ve come.”

“Hello?”

“Come forward. I await you.”

The wall of guards parted, and the drones seemed to skip forward past them. Lastaf followed behind with his massive Warhammer at the ready. I came in behind and studied the guardians up close as we walked. They stood as still as statues. The last one startled me as it snapped its head around to regard me, its multifaceted eyes unblinking.

A massive tunnel was connected with an even more enormous cavern past the guards. We followed the four drones into the cavern and walked for a minute before coming up to a wall or prison made of pure black lines that didn’t reflect any light from floor to ceiling. Getting closer, I could see they had a thickness to them and looked to be round.

There was enough space for the drones to pass between these bars of blackness. I watched them as they began walking up a small ramp, and when my eyes adjusted with the Nightvision, I stumbled back with a yelp of surprise. Lastaf whirled around to regard me and my surroundings.

“What’s wrong?”

I was still shocked. I couldn’t form the words and kept stuttering. In front of me was something that shouldn’t exist. Parents told their children about the Ka’reen to scare them into sleep. The Elefvian had Nulled them into extinction long before my time.

The Ka’reen were the first sentient race we encountered among the stars. They were a bipedal insect race that ravaged whole worlds before moving the entire hive to the next planet. They didn’t rely on technology like our race. No, the Ka’reen had a massive member of their species who could somehow negate gravity fields and propel itself off-planet and travel to new systems. Inside, their brethren went into a slumber till they reached another world to ravage.

Our first contact with the Ka’reen began the century-long extermination where we hunted them down. We pushed out into the stars faster than planned, Nulling every Ka’reen vessel we discovered. If they hadn’t been so slow to travel, they could have wiped out our world before we even had the chance to leave it. In our rush, we were able to save the second sentient race we came across. We Nulled the swarm of Ka’reen vessels in the Valthurn’s system. Only one such vessel landed on their planet.

The Valthrun were thankful for the assistance, and our races became fast friends, sharing culture and technologies with each other. When we believed we had found the homeworld of the Ka’reen, it was decided among each of the great forest nations to Null their planet and remove the threat from the galaxy.

I constructed a brighter light orb and tossed it to the ceiling. Lastaf stepped back in shock when he saw behind the black bars. The queen was a massive creature taking up the entire span of the wall. At its center, connected to the pulsating and undulating wall of flesh, was a humanoid-shaped Gnit. A Ka’reen, to be exact. She looked every bit as the textbook pictures in our history class.

“You know of us? Your fear and disgust fills this chamber. You are like the Darkness. You know of where we’ve come.”

“You’re Ka’reen,” I croaked out.

“Yes, he said this word as well. It means nothing to me.”

“Where I’m from, our race hunted yours across the galaxy. Your species traveled the stars finding worlds and devouring each before leaving the ravaged planet and seeking the next. Your race’s homeworld was vaporized. How are you here?”

“I’d assume the same way you are. I have no memories of how I ended up here. We had been living in harmony with the surface dwellers for countless cycles. Until the Darkness came and offered me more, I declined. Instead he took what he wanted and changed parts of my brood, removing them from my influence.”

“Where is this Darkness you’ve spoken about? You said it was a he?” asked Lastaf.

“Yes. He is the dark reflection of this one,” the queen said, pointing to me.

“Dark reflection of me? What do you mean by that?”

“The Darkness, he looks to be from the same brood as you, but darker. His skin and eyes were black as the cage he built around me. The skin of his body was like the night sky of distant memory so long ago. Your antenna, the same.”

“My antenna?” I raised my hand and felt at my ears, which had grown far longer when I arrived.

“He’s a Drow?!”

“I have not heard this word spoken.”

“What’s a Drow?” asked Lastaf.

“They were a race that was remarkably like ours. We rescued most of their homeworld. The same planet with the anomaly at its center, the Massive Mana Well.”

“Where is he now? The Darkness.”

“Far below. The extermination of the western part of the hive forced him deeper into the earth. There he does something to my brood, and they are born changed, broken.”

My mind was reeling. The Drow were on this planet, the ones we left behind to their fate. My race’s old enemy here as well in this new universe. This Queen however was nothing like the locusts of their race’s history. What was this Drow doing below? What was his goal? His endgame?

My thoughts were interrupted by a sickening slurping sound. I looked over to see a bright white sack, no, an egg being expelled through some type of orifice at the base of the wall of flesh. Then a larger drone came out of a side tunnel and picked up the egg, quickly returning down the same tunnel. Those larger drones had the same inky blackness as the massive spider who had tried to kill me before my fusion spell went off.

“They take all my children now, never to return. My hive’s members dwindle. My only solace is in the fact I may starve soon and be released from this torment.”

“What happens if a new queen is laid?” asked Lastaf.

“Only, I can lay a new queen,” she said as she placed a hand over her abdomen.

“You can’t move or detach yourself from what’s behind you?” I asked.

“I could, but it’s possible he could allow my egg layer to live still, even if I were to die. The abominations I’ve seen him create out of our lost ones have been terrifying. My hope is that my release will also affect my eggs, stopping the cycle.”

“Hive queens can remove themselves from their egg layer, as you said. What happens when you do?” asked Lastaf.

“ It will continue to produce my brood until a new queen attaches herself to the ovipositor. The drones maintain and provide for both of us. If I did not remain away for too long, my essence would vanish, and the new brood would no longer be under my control. The hive would then attack and destroy the new eggs and eventually my ovipositor.”

“Couldn’t you do that? Leave, and allow this hive to perish?” asked Lastaf.

“I could, but I fear the Darkness will know and come remove what remains under my control and take my ovipositor for himself.”

“We will confront this Darkness and grant you the release if you still wish it. My only request is you allow me to record as much knowledge as you are willing to give me about your race and history. Not much is known about your kind, and the other hives have slowly been exterminated. You are, or were in control of one of the largest remaining hives known in this territory.” said Lastaf.

“I’m at the end of my cycle. I’ve pushed my life as far as I could to keep my ovipositor from falling to the Darkness. I have birthed no future queens. What I can tell you would allow us to live on in memory.”

“Gratitude,” Lastaf said as he bowed to the queen.

“Follow the little ones. They will lead you around this cage that confines me and down to where the darkness dwells.”

The four drones from earlier slipped through the colorless bars and back out into the large tunnel. I gave the queen one final look before following behind the blue-clad Axoli. The drones led us to a side tunnel that began to descend. Lastaf cast his cooling rune as soon as the temperatures began to rise.

An hour later, I pulled up my magic map and mentally raised the surface portion well above my head. The green dot showed we were deep, very deep now. Willing the map away, I watched the drones begin to show erratic behavior before they turned around and rushed back the way we came. I turned back to Lastaf and could see his antenna darting about.

“What is it?”

“I’m unsure. I can only describe it as interference or noise coming from everywhere. I can’t detect the queen’s will down here.” The Axoli’s eyes went wider a moment later. “I can’t feel the Mana Well any longer. It’s as if all Mana is being siphoned from the area.”

“Is that possible? What can pull all the Mana from the surroundings?”

“Many things can pull in Mana: Mana Batteries, Barrier spells, and gateways, to name a few. The issue is I can’t sense mana anywhere down here. It’s as if we’ve entered a complete void. I’ve never encountered or read about such a thing on this scale, Zeal. You best save your mana until you need it. Time for you to show me your skills with your magical hammer.”

I wasn’t sure if he was telling me that to protect me or just wanted to see what my hammer could do. I didn’t think about it long and unlooped it from my belt. Lastaf nodded and began to descend the tunnels again slowly. As we walked deeper, my eye caught the movement of shadows flickering on the walls, but no shadows were being cast from the light orb in my hand when I looked.

“Lastaf, I think I’m seeing things out of the corner of my eyes.”

“I’ve noticed it as well. Something is playing with our minds, I believe, but I’ve detected nothing but the static.”

We kept walking down the narrow tunnel, turning back and forth as we went ever deeper. Suddenly Lastaf’s rune vanished, the heat it had been blocking hit me like a punch to the gut. A moment later, another rune popped into the air above our heads.

“Sorry, the mana of the spell was siphoned off. We need to deal with this quickly, or we’ll get cooked. I’ve read the temperatures get incredibly high the further down you go.”

The narrow tunnel finally ended not long after in a massive underground cavern. Above more of the multicolor Glitter Stones spread as far as the eye could see. These crystals seemed to be a magnitude duller than those far above us.

“It can’t be!” Lastaf gasped.

The Axoli pointed to the center of the massive cavern where a black sphere of light, with hundreds of shades of grey, swirled around it. The sphere looked like a negative version of the Mana Well and sat atop an odd-shaped cylinder. My mind screamed at the sight of the cylinder, but I couldn’t remember why.

Around the sphere stood at least twelve of the massive spiders we fought in the first Glitter Stone cavern. All unmoving, like eerie statues.

“What is that, Lastaf?”

“That, Zeal, is an Annihilate Engine. This Darkness controlling the queen is a part of the Eldritch Circle. Destroying that engine is now our priority. Start creating a new spell for your mushroom. We cannot allow that to continue to siphon mana from the well above.”

Lastaf’s armor glowed briefly before being replaced with a sky blue version of the armor. His antenna, now covered by massive spikes. The rest of his armor sported more details and bulked across almost every inch. He summoned a blood-red crimson greatsword, the same greatsword I had created down in the Kobold’s warren.