Why is she not attacking us? The soldier asked.

She’s breaking ties so she won’t feel bad about killing me.

OH…

It was the truth, but I probably should have packaged it nicely in a great beetle's shining shell and served it with the tangy zest of a silkworm. That would have allowed the mood to simmer instead of growing cold as it did.

The knocks continued as we rushed down the tunnel. It was still cold, but the silence was haunting. The fungus from the cavern covered the whole tunnel, and the humidity from it had lowered the temperature even further. The temperature was just shy of sending an ant into hibernation; the snail pace of my companions can testify to that.

My heart thrummed as I blasted through a wall of wet green fungus and into the cavern ahead. The humidity made me dizzy and itchy. I think I dazed through the last half of the tunnel. But the warmth of the cave was an instant improvement.

Thankfully, the crystal roof glowed unobstructed. The crystals were the only source of light and warmth in the cave, and what kept it from turning into a freezing tomb. The fungus which had grown everywhere had left it untouched. However, the vegetation was irrefutably going bonkers inside the city, and it was not a good sign..

There was light, there was the humidity, and then there was warmth. The chamber had become a boiling hotspot for infection.

My eye searched for the princess all over the place and heart skipped a beat when I finally found her. She was standing near the wall where the aged warrior used to sit with her protégé.

It was her, but she was no longer a princess. She was a queen. Her abdomen stretched behind her, three times her length. Queen-mother had mentioned that she needed all the help she could get, but I didn’t expect her to do this to Princess. However, that wasn’t the end of my surprise.

Her body was changing. The change was slow but it was happening to her, too. Her shell was becoming thicker and thinner like that of an infected. But there was no way she was infected. That was just not possible.

Her head was dropped and she was lost in limbo. She was a dying flower with only a few more petals remaining.

There was a secondary queen in the colony? The aged warrior commented.

I shook my head. No, there wasn’t. Not until last week.

Is she your— She decided against it? Well, now what? We are stuck and that thing, that —A shiver shook her body. She let it pass before continuing— monster is going to be in here any minute. You really didn’t think about returning, did you?

The old warrior dropped to his haunches when she realized that Princess was also infected. She didn’t want to take a risk. I wanted to tell her there was no need. If Princess was also infected… she would have fought the change and lost her mind. But she didn’t react to our presence, which was a good thing, right? She didn’t react to anything, however.

I stopped in front of her face and touched her head. She was burning up, but there was no response. Her antennae were scentless. It was like she was dead. Memories filled my thoughts. Our days together passed through my mind.

I was starting to lose myself to my thoughts, but an unusually excited and urgent call by the soldier interrupted them.

He stood on the other side of the chamber. I had no idea what he was doing there, but his excitement was over the roof.

The old warrior looked at me. Go. I told her and she left and returned in a hurry not even ten seconds later. Her antennae gave an account of her state. She had a spring to her steps as if she had finally found hope where there was none before.

There is a tunnel! She scented.

Really; is that true? I couldn’t believe it. I had only made a guess believing the aged warrior would have needed a way to get in and out of the 41st floor without being watched, but to think it was true.

It’s true! You were right! It leads outside. We can leave. We can survive!

Suddenly, I felt my connection with Princess grow strong again. She felt hopeless. Her body stirred, while I shook from a force of emotions that erupted inside me. Her head rose. A light grew in her eyes. She noticed me. A storm of emotions erupted inside her and traveled through our link into me.

Let’s go before the… The old warrior’s scent grew distant.

You returned. Princess barely scented before she was taken away from me again. Her head fell, but I held it between my antennae. I called to her, but our connection grew distinct and vague, thin. It was like she had been holding out to see me and because she had, she was finally letting go.

The infection started taking over her, right after. Her body started changing. Her antennae started growing thicker. Her abdomen started swelling larger, and tentacles started growing from her back.

No. You can’t leave me! Not like this. She heard me, but it was not her. Not after everything. Not after I’m here!

Let’s go! The old warrior pulled me. I rejected her. She tried again and I pushed her back.

She’s gone, you hear me? You have to come with me.

The soldier screamed from the way back. A fifth scent entered the cavern. The old warrior drew away from me in shock. Fear leaked from her. The soldier called her back. She pleaded me to go with her, but I didn’t listen. I told her to go, leave, to getaway.

I’m staying.

I’m coming!

The aged warrior and I scented at the same time, which echoed in the cavern, howling at each other. The old warrior escaped. She was remorseful when she retreated. I was thankful for her decision. As for me, I was Princess Tinbuji’s royal guard. I was nothing without her. It was my duty to stay with her until the end. And that’s what I did.

What I was doing, what I had decided, it wasn’t much different from what the Giant had decided. I hadn’t gotten to live my life on my terms; at least I could decide to end it my way.

I held her antennae as my sense screamed danger in my mind. The ember urged me to leave, but it knew better than anyone what she meant to me. Our journey had started with the mingling of our antennae, and I decided it would be better off ending the same way.

The countless hair on my body stood up straight as the aged warrior whipped her countless bladed tentacles at me. I ignored her, ignored her threat, and ignored the death that had crept up behind me.

It was nice meeting you. I caressed Princess's face and scented as our antennae wrapped around each other. The connection formed. I felt the cold edged of the blade at the end of the whip touch my back, but my conscious left my body before it could pierce through me before it could end my life.

I was pulled into Princess's mind like the time I had formed a connection with the termite. But unlike that time, her mind wasn’t breaking apart because she wasn’t dying. Time flowed slowly in the conscious.

In the space of her mind, the shoot of her consciousness grew bright. It was the only source of light in the darkness but had the space warm and radiant.

The shoot didn’t have many branches yet, but countless memory roots and tendrils spread underneath it and kept it nourished and fed.

I touched a memory root that glowed brighter and was larger than the others. It belonged to the time we had spent atop the tower on our last day together.

I watched a few more, but then suddenly a giant grey root pierced into the space of her mind and attached itself to the shoot and started sucking away her consciousness. I tried to protect her, but the suction it produced was stronger than anything I had ever felt, and I was sucked away with everything else.

The same had happened once before. That time with the termite, his mind had already been devastated by something. The root had also been there; I simply hadn’t recognized it.

I was pulled away at an unprecedented speed toward a gigantic tree. It was so tall it seemed to be supporting the whole sky. Its branches so many they were uncountable and leaves so numbered, they would have been enough to cover the whole world thrice.

I traveled through a system of tree roots, up the unimaginably long trunk that had been eaten through by the termites. They lived and prospered inside the cavities they had dug. Some they had left empty and others had been taken over by a force that was not much different from them, just highly aggressive and bloodthirsty. They were infected. And if this was real, then the war that the elder had told us about was occurring in front of me.

None of them noticed me as I was pulled past them. I was pushed into a branch the size of a normal tree trunk, maybe even wider than that. From there to smaller branches, to bronchioles, and then finally, I was inside a leaf, and there I stayed. The leaf, I don’t know why, but it felt familiar and important. A leaf that made me warm inside. A leaf I should have done everything to protect, but had failed to.

I saw her shape in the blue glow. Then she noticed me and more light-filled her form, giving her depth.

A system notification appeared in front of me, but I pushed it away. The connection between me and Princess that had fizzled into a bleak dried up existence glowed with power.

It was her. She lived inside the leaf; she was the leaf! It was—

Am I dreaming again? She thought to herself and I heard her. Even though there were no scents around, and we were not of physical nature, yet we could communicate. Our connection blazed with such intensity that we need not say anything, only think and we could talk to each other.

No, princess, I’m real. And you are?

I’m real, too. She giggled, and I heard it. It was such a beautiful sound.

What are you doing here? She asked.

My antenna passed through her face when I tried to touch her. It saddened me.

I’ve come to take you back. I said, but my heart fell because it seemed so impossible. It was her feelings crashing into me.

But I can’t leave here. I’ve tried. It hurts every time I go back. How about you stay with me instead? We can be together.

No princess—

I’m a queen now.

And you are beautiful. Her antennae happily whirled above her head at the compliment.

But we have to go, my royal highness. She was amused. The world awaits you. It has turned bleak without your presence. It direly needs you. I need you.

But how will you take me from here?

The system notification that I had pushed away appeared in front of me once again, and it refused to budge.

My heart skipped a beat.

There is a way princess.

Really?

Yes. But you’ll have to promise me to always act selfless, unless there was no other way, and always try to help others before yourself —that you will never be Greedy. Will you promise me that?

Can I still try to have my own colony, trade honey with bees, and fertilizer with the beetles?

Absolutely! I nodded. I had her agreement. I hope that you do exactly that. She wasn’t one to break promises.

Then —She nodded— I agree.

Yes.

Yes?

Yes. I agreed to make her Greed’s vessel.

The system reacted to my command. The tree shook and with it the world. The leaves danced as if a storm was near and it had angered the winds. An undulation of pain erupted from the tree. Everyone felt it.

The termites looked scared. The infected raised their heads and screamed, then fell unconscious to the floor. The termites at war retreated instead of attacking their unconscious fellows. They must have gone mad because that was absurdly stupid of them; and it was coming from me, someone who also had no knowledge related to warfare.

At the end of the shaking and the undulations, the leaf that was princess broke away from the branch. Soon after which the tree fell silent again, at peace. The leaf floated away into the air and exploded into blue shimmering motes. I was thrown out into the world. I feared for Princess, but the particles assimilated in front of my eye and after a flash of blue light she appeared in front of me, glowing effervescently under the sunlight and hovering in the air like me.

I can see you. She said, but we were not given time to make up. We were pulled back into the tree branch we had just separated from. This time the tree pushed us away. The princess was treated the same way. The tree shuddered in anger and pain as our consciousness retraced the path I had taken to arrive at the leaf. We moved down its cellular arteries, down the trunk, into the roots and back onto the root way that had opened between Princess and the tree.

The ethereal path disintegrated behind us. I worried the destruction would catch up to us, but it never did. We always stayed ahead of it.

At the end of the root-way, lay the dark starry canvas of Princess’s mind. Her consciousness assimilated with the darkness and turned into a world full of light. But I didn’t stop there. The force of rejection drove me out of her mind and back into my own.

It was a force so potent I even felt it in the real world. Our antennae untwined as I was thrown back. I struck something hard, but it was not the floor I greeted. It was the aged warrior, but she was unconscious and unmoving —still very much a beast, mind me say it, and most likely unkillable by normal methods.

She didn’t concern me in her state; Princess was all I cared about for the time being. And she was struggling. It was not something I could help with. Her change was reverting back, so it was a good thing. However, it was no doubt a painful process for she released the pheromones of pain by the bucket loads. I believed the system would help her cope with the experience, by giving her skills like pain resistance and toughness, but I seemed to have guessed wrong. At one point she even lost consciousness while her limbs continued twitching and throbbing, trawling for support.

She came into consciousness when something came out of her throat. It was long, almost thrice the size of her body, and black. It wriggled out of her and fell to the floor. The disgusting thing was a worm, a parasite. NO. It was a root hair and it moved. It was something impossible, but so were the messages and things I had been seeing and doing.

The root hair squirmed as if on its last legs, and then stopped moving. Did it die? Was it even alive in the first place? Anyways, there was only one thing left to do.

The lack of vibrations, either natural or artificial told me that whatever I had done to rescue the Princess had affected the tree, and in return all the infected since they were connected. However, they weren’t down for good. The Aged warrior groaned behind me, a sonic undulation that I could hear thanks to her training. Just like her, the infected were coming back and there was no much time.

Between escaping with Princess, and risking everything by trying to kill the aged beast, which wouldn’t have changed anything —I chose the former.

Princess, I called and she stirred, her antennae moved. We need to move.

Can’t I sleep for another minute, mother? She was not being serious.

No., you need to get up now. I scented, but deep down I knew everything would be alright now. I had her. I had saved her. And everything would be alright.

YOU! She was surprised to see me, but the aged warrior was right behind me and she was a sight far more interesting than a scarred, battered worker. A shivering fit took her, but I pulled her away before she could scar mentally.

Let’s talk later, shall we?

She nodded.

She was not a princess anymore, but a Queen. Though not as large as queen-mother, Princess was still not able to move on her own. At least her feet still touched the ground. I went under her abdomen and carried it over my back. She was heavy, but I could easily do this much. I felt her thrumming heartbeats from my back and the shivers that some time went through her body. They made me feel alive once again.

There is a tunnel where the fungus grows. She told me. Talking was good; it meant she was fine. However, there was something urgent we needed to talk about.

About what you promised me, princess—

Does it have something to do with this… how should I explain this, this thing I’m seeing?

She had connected to the system. I didn’t know whether to be happy or worried. There was no point grieving over it now; it was done.

It’s the system, princess. And it will help you grow strong. You might even get your wings if you are lucky. Though, I suppose, you don’t need them any longer.

What does it do?

I told her everything she needed to know.

Soon we were at the wall from where the fungus grew. I could only be thankful to the two who had gone before me. They had opened a large enough path in the thick growth of fungus for Princess to pass through. The fungus had completely taken over the tunnel. They saved me the hassle of digging through it myself.

A few steps into the tunnel there was a pit, and I almost fell into it since it was covered by a shallow growth of fungus, which came apart from our combined weight. It reeked of death through and through.

What in the shade is this? I was cursing, but Princess knew what it was and she told me.

That’s where they threw the corpses of the slaves that died on the 41st floor.

Do you mean to say the fungus that the slaves ate grew on the corpses of their own family?

Her heart grew somber.

No wonder the aged warrior went crazy.

She didn’t disagree.

I pushed past the pit, in a hurry to leave the death and the past behind. However, past isn’t something so easy to get rid of. I’m talking about the aged warrior; she had woken up. We learned that when she slammed hard enough into the tunnel entrance, sending debris flying at us, at least twenty ant lengths away. Such was the power she generated. However, the same strength was also what saved us from her anger.

She raged and cursed from the cavern, but no matter how she struck the tunnel she could not chase us. She had grown too bloody large to fit into the tunnel.

It was all her doing. Princess scented. I was wrong about the termites. I guess I was so fixated on proving that the termites were up to something that I couldn’t differentiate between the scent of fungus and wood. She told me everything and even asked me to join her. I refused, but she—

It’s fine, princess. We’ll be safe now. You don’t have to worry. But I worried, because the closer we got to the surface the harder it became for me to ignore the commotion happening outside.

Soon, I could see the light coming from the exit. I had hoped that the tunnel would open into some secluded area, far away from the colony, but such was not to be. It opened in the middle of the infected force that was rushing toward the advanced post.

Sun was down and the night was fast approaching. The world had grown cold, but the tunnel was warm still. My only reprise was that there was still light outside. I could not have taken Princess outside in her state.

Her scent, the ravishing scent of a queen was too inviting. The infected around the exit forgot about following the rest to the advanced post and rushed into the tunnel following the scent.

Princess screamed behind me as I pulled away from her and charged into the swarm of infected. She was horrified to see me act alone against the uncountable number of opponents. I couldn’t assure her. She hadn’t seen me fight, yet. And she turned silent when she saw me fight and kill and kill and kill, more and more and many, as many as they came.

Bella’s scent helped a lot. It didn’t stop the infected, but it kept them from flooding us. It kept them vigilant. I killed as they came, but there were too many of them. I kept shoving the dead to the back of the tunnel because I didn’t want to end up with the aged warrior again. The tunnel got blocked as the result and we had to keep moving up. It wasn’t long before the tunnel was filled with corpses and I stood guard at the entrance, exhausted, injured, and tired beyond belief.

The infected had grown vigilant of me and had decided to find easier prey, but I was completely spent, on my last legs. Princess kept pulling me back inside. She wanted us to wait there, buried inside the tunnel with the corpses until the infected left. It was impossible. MY condition reminded me of the Giant again. He had gone through the same thing; and I had decided the same thing. I could no longer move a muscle and blocked the infected that showed interest with my body.

They weren’t strong enough to destroy me, but every blow brought me a little closer to death.

Then I saw Barry flying through the last of winged infected, enjoying himself. He had been a big help the effort and no one knew. A spark of hope grew inside my heart, but I hadn’t the appropriate amount of pheromones left to overwhelm him. However, luck was on my side. He saw me, most likely attracted by Bella’s scent, and buzzed toward me straight.

He crashed into the infected like a boulder, uncaring and indestructible, clearing a path amongst them. I was happy to see him.

Let’s go! He tugged at my back, but I resisted. Princess blasted pheromones in horror behind me, and I had not the energy to stop her. She didn’t know he was a friend. There were so many things she didn’t know. I had so many stories to tell her, and it pained me that I wouldn’t be able to.

She got Barry’s attention and he was surprised to see her behind me.

Is this her? Is she your—

I clung to his face, tightly holding him down, and stared into his eyes.

Listen to me. He tried to pull away.

Listen! He stopped.

Take her.

His face fell. I knew what was on his mind and I knew it was impossible.

You can’t take us both. You have to take her. I insisted. Princess disagreed behind me. I’m not leaving you, she scented. Well, she didn’t have a say in this. I ignored her.

Barry, He turned his antennae away. Please, I requested and he still didn’t listen.

What would you do if it was Bella?

Don’t do this to me. He warned, but I wasn’t going to let him get away now. He was her only chance. I had promised to save her.

Save her, he showed no interest.

I’m not coming. I told him and he grew panicked. Save her for me. Take her away from here. Take her far away. Please, Barry, take her home. Do it for me.

He grieved but finally listened. Home was the word that made him concede. He did as was told. Princess tried to resist him, but the tunnel was blocked behind her and Barry was a hornet. She was powerless against him.

NO. NO! Not again! Let me down! Let me down! She resisted as he hugged her tightly from the chest and pulled her out of the tunnel. She fought back, but her mandible inflicted him no damage.

I’m coming back. He buzzed, powerfully, emotionally. Stay right here. I’m coming right back for you!

Alright, I scented, but the infected were interested in me once again. We had caused too much commotion. Well, it was a fitting end for a worker, wasn’t it? I had achieved everything I had gone out to achieve. My only grievance was that even after everything I had gone through, I wasn’t able to tell her how I felt about her.

My sight grew hazy as the scent of the infected grew concentrated around me. They were coming back for me. I was ready: there as just one thing left to do.

The system had one last message for me. It shone golden to my eyes, dazzling and important, but I could not read it. All I knew was that it was asking for my permission for something that had to do with levels and ranks.

I accepted the systems last whims and the horde of infected swallowed me. And I was lost among them.