Mage sensed something, a soul falling to the underworld. After dodging the plaguebringer’s charge, she landed on the ground, seeing she at least had a second or two before she was attacked again by the smaller bees, then concentrated, channeling her crazed glee to draw power from deep within the earth...

She fell through a pit, the red and black walls moving past her in a blur. Mage wasn’t sure where she was, having tapped into a power she was unfamiliar with, so she observed the area, propelling herself down, hoping to find what called to her deep within. As if she were in the depths of Tartarus, the tunnel seemed endless and dark. She saw a faint light not too far down, then outsped it before matching its speed as she approached to observe the light. It was nothing more than a falling white light, with stains of darkness floating within it. She instinctively snatched the light up then brought it back up with her, soaring out of the metaphysical pit.

Mage reawakened just quick enough to fly out of the two smaller bee’s ways, then dodge the plaguebringer’s charge. She focused on the soul she’d snatched, trying to latch onto some emotion she could connect to, then caught it: satisfaction.

“BWVAAH! What’s going on? Mage?! Why am I you?” The soul thought.

Mage thought to the soul, “Hey, Ethir! Didn’t expect to drag you from the pits of hell!” Mage had begun to perfect her dance against the bees, so she mindlessly evaded their attacks, and annihilated their stingers as she communicated with the dead. “Did you die?”

“You could say that, but I’m more confused-watch out!” Mage dodged the explosion of a missile, then resumed her flight. “Why am I alive?!”

“I just said I dragged you from the depths of hell. Besides, you’re still dead.”

“I noticed.”

“Well, you just asked why you’re alive, so I’m not so sure.”

“Whatever. Anyway, how’s the fight going?”

“It could be better, but I’ve got the edge. I think I might’ve let one of the small buggers-Hey get back here!” she shot a bolt at one of the smaller bees as it tried to run away, then dodged two attacks. “...run after you all.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s probably why I’m dead.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to kill you.”

“Lunatic.”

“How mean!” Mage thought, clearly not offended in the least.

“But really, why did you bother dragging me up?”

“Can you fly for me? I’d really like the help.”

“Fly-how do I fly.” Mage incinerated a stinger, then swept out of the two small bee’s attacks.

“Just feel happy or something, then if you want to go up, and we will go up and stuff. I’m pretty unskilled, so I can’t fly, dodge, and attack at the same time. Is that order possible for you?”

“I can try, I guess.”

Mage prepared a medium blast, not focusing on dodging, then as bee changed her, she heard Ethir scream in her mind, “Damnit! JUST FLY UP!” They jerked upwards, avoiding the attack.

Mage continued to focus wholly on charging her attack while Ethir jerked her body around with his anger.

“DAMN THESE DAMN BEES, DAMN YOUR HAPPY-ASS SMILE, DAMN THE GODDAMNED TYRANT, DAMN THIS STUPID WORLD! WHY THE FUCK DO I NEED TO BE DEAD?!”

The bees desperately attacked her over and over again, attempting to halt her channeling, but Ethir’s anger bolted the conglomerate of souls up and down and out of the way, keeping them safe as Mage poured the happiness she’d gotten from nailing the technique of revivification into her next spell.

“IS THAT A DAMNED ENOUGH DODGING?!

Mage had noticed that Ethir’s ‘anger’(whatever that was) made her fly far faster than she ordinarily could. So that was why Draedon called her a failure! She couldn’t even feel those stronger emotions! “Yes, yes! Hold onto your britches, because you stalled long enough for me to damn these bees once and for all! Send me up, Ethir!”

“THIS BETTER GET ME REST!” Ethir screamed into her mind, launching them high into the air. The bees tried to follow, but couldn’t catch up, so they instead shot their stingers at her from below.

“Laaaarge attack, incoming!” Mage pointed down, then unleashed her attack...nothing happened.

“...Where’s the atta-”

Scratched into the earth with paranormal power, a circle of brimfire with two interlocking triangles inside it burned bright, then flashed, covering the waste in blood-red light as Mage unleashed her most deadly attack.

A pillar of flame erupted from it, engulfing their vision a mere moment after it was unleashed. From the bottom up, everything within a half-mile radius was annihilated, burning to nothing but atoms under the deathly brilliance of the brimfire. Her catastrophic attack rattled the earth below from its core, leaving nothing unharmed but the caster, reducing it all to flame.

Despite the death of their comrade, Jakal and Kyrad wasted no time running down the hive’s hall.

“Do you know what the queen will be like?” Kyrad asked as they approached the hive’s center.

“She’s big and probably poisoned, but I don’t know much else.”

“Big, poisoned...ok.”

“We must be getting close to the core of the nest. Don’t let your guard down, bud.”

“I won’t.” Kyrad bared Crystalline, his knife.

They saw the end of the tunnel, and after a few seconds, stopped at the exit, observing the hive’s sanctum for dangers.

The room was a large, lopsided dome, built entirely out of honeycomb, where countless eggs were jammed. A swarm of ordinary and plague bees buzzed about the room, disturbed by the fall of their hive.

On the ground below them was the ‘queen’ bee. It was a giant bee about half the size of the plaguebringer and covered in plague bees, grueling on the floor in a pool of green liquid and honey. A hornlike spike of metal was jammed inside of its head.

Jakal pointed to the spike, “We may not need to kill the queen, just hit that antenna off her, and that might turn this whole hive into disarray. At least, I hope...”

Kyrad poured another flask of bee repellent on the ground. Their infernal water was likely to run out soon, so it helped to be careful. “Got it, sir.” He pointed Crystalline at the bee then-

“Get down!”

Jakal tackled Kyrad, sending him sprawling onto the ground. He watched as Jakal parried the sting of a massive yellow bee with his gun, then shot at it, penetrating its exoskeleton and sending it writhing on the ground as its body quickly began to burn. Kyrad, seeing an opportunity, threw a Rot Blade at the bee as it fell, lodging it deep into its cartilage.

Two more giant bees, soaked in green liquid, suddenly entered from the room, causing the hunters to stumble back in a panic. One lounged at Jakal but was met by the man’s practiced movements just like the last one. He parried the attack, kicked the bee back, then shot it with his gun twice, killing it.

Kyrad, on the other hand, was still prone. The other one jabbed at him, which be barely avoided by leaping to the side, onto his back. It took his immobility as an invitation to impale him with its soaking stinger, and jabbed towards him in a lethal attack.

The bee Kyrad had finished off with his shuriken pinned the other one to the wall, drooling a horrid purple liquid from its mandibles, then began to rip its brethren apart savagely, stinging it over and over again as it ate the giant insect alive.

Kyrad quickly got on his feet, then looked around nervously, unsure if there was any other enemies. The effect of his infernal water slowly burned the giant bees to nothing but ash around them, but its potency had obviously been lost over time.

“We can’t waste any more time. We gotta blow that thing’s horn off,” Jakal said, moving a few rustly levers on his gun, then flicking it up and down until it made a short click, confirming it had been swapped to its automatic fire mode.

Kyrad stood up and adjusted his Crystalline in his hand while he got a good look at the queen’s position, mentally preparing to attack it and end the strife the nest had caused him and everyone he knew.

Jakal lined his sights then pressed down the flarestorm cannon’s trigger before Kyrad even knew what was happening.

True to its name, the cannon rained fire on the bee’s queen. Though the flares it shot were aimed towards her stinger, it was all Kyrad’s aging body could do to keep the gun pointed vaguely downward, the recoil from its suboptimal engineering rattling his body.

The queen bee screeched in pain as flares lodged into its body and writhed in the green and yellow puddle it was grounded in, flapping its weak wings as hard as it could to fight against the storm.

All the bees began to swarm the two hunters but backed off once they got too close as if blown away by a strong breeze, the bee repelling doing its job rightfully. Kyrad, seeing his partner seemed to have the task at hand handled, kept watch, unsure what he needed to do.

Then, he heard a click.

“Shit.”

Kyrad turned his head back to Jakal to see the man had run out of flare bullets.

“Well,” the older man said. “I said they were fuckin’ expensive. Looks like yer’ gonna...oh fuckin’ hell!”

The bee had begun to fly.

Fires burned the queen’s body, melting its exoskeleton away, but it retained enough vitality to stand up to the intruders, slowly flying towards them, a stinger prepared.

Kyrad put a hand in front of his mentor. “I’ll handle this, Jakal. That cannon is all you’ve got.”

“Regrettably. Are you sure you can really fight a queen, though, Kyrad?”

He scowled at the bee as hard as he could but couldn’t get rid of the curve at the side of his mouth. A smile readied in anticipation for the kill. “Oh yeah, I’m ready to rip her to shreds.”

Jakal patted his back, smirking. “Then don’t mind if I watch your back. See you in the overworld, buddy.”

Kyrad clicked his tongue as Jakal ran away, down the exit. “See you too, you ol’ geezer.”