In the Queen's Hall of the Hive Complex rests a purple cocoon. Inside, something begins to stir and the first cracks form in the wall of the cocoon. The Hive Queen awakens and with her awakening strong magical energies stir. She opens her eyes and discharges the accumulating energies in the form of a kinetic blast wave. The cocoon bursts as it is explosively pushed away on all sides from within. Sylvia emerges, in all her new splendor. Her consciousness reconnected with the swarm, she gathers information about her current situation. The transformation took three days this time. The swarm has since grown in size exactly as planned. Six new Elite Hunters have hatched, which still need to grow, and there are 16 more in production.

The transformation has brought with it big changes. Sylvia has grown another 28cm, her claws are longer, her muscles stronger. She is now able to lay up to four eggs a day and is able to perform minor self-improvements from now on. She can incorporate up to four Strains into her genetic profile, thereby modifying herself. This limit will probably be increased with her next growth phase. She can change the Strains she assigns to herself, but this takes some time. The last change concerns her magical abilities. The rate at which she obtains mana, as well as the maximum amount she can hold has increased dramatically, allowing her to cast even stronger spells with it, provided she has the required knowledge. There are also two new chantless spells she can use instinctively.

Sylvia barely has time to survey her changes and process the new knowledge that comes with it, when the swarm encounters an anomaly that takes up all of her attention. She sees, out of the eyes of one of her Hunters, a human being, which is chased by a large lizard, moving roughly toward her tunnel. She recognizes the lizard, from which she has already escaped once in the past. The Hunter is too small to hunt such large animals, but there is an opportunity, as the lizard already has a badly bleeding wound. Besides, Sylvia wants to help the human, as she has only had good experiences with humans so far and she can learn a lot from them.

The Hive Queen sets off for the surface and calls all the Hunters back to her at the same time. She needs the full strength from her young swarm in order to kill the beast that is chasing the human. Most of the Hunters are in close proximity to the Hive Complex as it has just gotten dark enough to start hunting again, any moment now the sun will set completely and it gets even darker. As Sylvia reaches the surface, the last rays of the sun are disappearing and there are 10 of the 12 Hunters on standby, the last two not far away. The Hunters are not fully grown yet, but they are Elite Hunters with extensive enhancements from their Strains.

Sylvia grasps the situation in front of her with lightning speed and calls the human, whom she now recognizes as a woman, over to her. The woman reacts without hesitation and sprints straight for the tunnel. The Hive Queen holds the Hunters back for a moment and focuses on one of her new abilities. Using her telekinetic chantless spell, she moves the webs that the worker drones have spun around the tunnel out of the woman's path and makes them join behind her tighter than before. A task, which can only be accomplished with the help of the swarm consciousness for now and which consumes a large amount of Sylvia's mana within seconds. It is a complete success and the bleeding lizard becomes more and more entangled in the nets, its ability to move more and more restricted.

Just before the unknown woman reaches the tunnel, Sylvia disappears into it, exhausted from her efforts and gives instructions to the now fully assembled Elite Hunters to attack the nearly immobilized lizard from behind. Without fear, the Hunters, tiny in comparison, charge at the writhing giant lizard and begin to attack it. Via swarm awareness, the Elite Hunters are perfectly coordinated and complement each other. With their claws and mouths, they add more wounds to the lizard, but it does not submit to its fate and strikes back with its own claws.

While fighting on the surface, the Hive Queen takes care of her new guest. She doesn't know if the unknown woman can cast magic just like Elise and wants to make sure she doesn't feel threatened inside the Hive Complex. Sylvia knows that the inside of her Hive Complex is very disturbing to people and wants to prevent a panic reaction of her guest, which could cause great damage here near the core structures of her Hive Complex.

In the meantime, the lizard is slowly but surely losing the battle. At the beginning, the lizard was able to kill one Hunter with its counterattacks and injure three others, some of them severely, but the wounds keep piling up and the lizard’s movements have become too slow to hit the remaining Hunters. A short time later, the lizard’s movements stop completely and the Hunters, with the help of Worker Drones, begin transporting the huge prey down to the Digestion Pool of the Hive complex. In preparation for this, Sylvia takes her guest to a deeper area of her Hive Complex, an area she can isolate from the rest if necessary, an area where she can stay with her guest undisturbed. Her Worker Drones have cleaned up there in the meantime.

(POV Karina)

I lie completely exhausted on the floor and listen to the voice that assures me that I am safe. The tone is a bit high and if I remember correctly, the outline of the figure I saw is not particularly large. Probably it is a youth, from the voice it is a girl. How does a girl get here in the middle of the forest and why does she live in a hole in the ground?

Oh, she started dragging me along the ground, deeper into the cave. I guess lying here in the entrance is not very good, I hope she has something soft to lie on. All my muscles hurt, I'm completely spent. If I need to move I can do so if necessary, but I prefer to avoid it if possible. I doubt very much that I could walk on my own at the moment. The girl is careful to move me through another corridor. Our progress is slow, but that's not a problem. What bothers me, however, is that it is so dark here that I can hardly see anything.

A few minutes later my eyes have adjusted to the dark lighting conditions and I have arrived with my companion in a new cave. Along the walls there are four niches with magic stones, which emit a weak diffuse light. Through this light I am finally able to see something. A kind of transparent coating along the walls stabilizes the underground chamber. Opposite the only entrance is a trough with some water and a second trough with a yellow mush. I look around at the girl who helped me get here and freeze. I immediately notice the insectoid features, the large black eyes and the two antennae on her head.

(POV Sylvia)

I finally got my guest into the Queen's Hall of the Hive Complex. The remains of my cocoon have already been removed and there is nothing in the room that should frighten the woman. I am just considering how best to start a conversation with her when she looks back at me and freezes, with her eyes wide open. I can smell with my keen sense of smell that she is showing the same symptoms of stress as before. I wonder what the problem is as the woman lets out a sharp scream and starts crawling away from me toward the only exit. I think things will get much worse when she returns to the larger chamber with the Digestion Pool and Spawning Grounds, so I give a mental command in order to close the door to my chamber.

(POV Karina)

Another monster, it just lured me down here to eat me! I must leave here immediately! I have almost reached the exit when it closes in front of me. An organic looking armored door closes the exit, destroying my hopes of trying to escape. I have lost my weapon and am far too exhausted. I'll never get through that door like this. With a fearful look, I turn around and stare at the humanoid monster. It speaks to me again, I didn't notice it a moment ago in my panic, but it's a calm tone of voice ...

(POV Sylvia)

I get the feeling that the unknown woman might be afraid of me, so I stop right where I am and try to reassure her in a soothing voice that she is safe here and nothing will happen to her. After she calms down a bit, she asks me in a slightly shaky voice, "What are you?"

I answer, "I am a Sylv Queen and my name is Sylvia. What is your name?" and end up pointing one of my claws in her direction. I could use my second gift I received at this point, but decide against it. After a few seconds I get a response from the woman in front of me, "I'm Karina. Y-you're not going to attack me?"

I slowly sit down on the floor and repeat what I said earlier, "I'm not going to attack you. No one is going to attack you here. You are welcome to stay here until you recover."