[NOTICE: The first Invasion Portal has been permanently closed. No new invasions will be permitted until the situation is stabilized]

[Global Quest: Permanently deal with all Invasion Portals and remove the threat of the invaders]

[Quest Status: 1/512]

Lancaster hurried up the stairs and down the hall to Robert Malfrino’s apartment. As he hurried, he realized what had been bothering him the whole time they were at the apartment complex: no one else seemed to be around. It was still early for people working a normal schedule to be home from work, but apartment complexes were rarely completely deserted during the day. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot, but no people were moving around.

He was nearly to the apartment when he smelled the nastiest combination of rotting blood, shit, and urine he could remember. He was sure he hadn’t smelled it before, so he tried to follow it to the source.

His search led him directly to the now-open apartment door. He knocked loudly on the doorframe, then pushed the door into the apartment.

There wasn’t anything obviously wrong with the first room.

“Police!” Lancaster announced himself, then called out as he started into the room, “Is something wrong in there?” He didn’t draw a weapon, but he had one hand on the shortsword he carried on duty; it wasn’t exactly within regulation, but no one looked too closely at UART’s equipment.

It was a tiny apartment for elsewhere, but nowhere near the smallest Lancaster had seen in the City. He catalogued it in his mind as he searched for threats or people in need of assistance. A living room (clear, not the source of the smell) with an opening to the small kitchen (clear), a bathroom (also empty), and a small bedroom.

The bedroom was large enough to hold the bed and three bodies that Lancaster could see from the entrance. Or was that two bodies and part of a body? The body on the bed seemed to be mostly a giant worm, sliced and burned into small segments. Lancaster couldn’t tell what sliced it; it almost looked like a science fiction laser, but he assumed a fire spell of some sort was more likely.

What Lancaster didn’t see was Serenity. He’d expected the man to be in the room; who else would have been able to do that?

So where was he?

One of the other bodies started to wiggle grossly and Lancaster saw a worm crawl out from under it, followed by others. It wasn’t just any worm; it was a Hegemon Worm. Lancaster knew he had to get out of there.

One more quick look to see if there was a clue to Serenity’s location only revealed an oddly clean-looking translucent sword sitting among the remains of the giant Hegemon Worm. It was in reach, so he grabbed it as he ran. It was lighter than he expected; a glance as he ran told him that was because it didn’t have a blade. Even without a blade, it was lighter than that much steel would be.

This was never going to be a proper crime scene. He didn’t need to preserve the evidence; that would all be destroyed by cleaning out the Hegemon Worms, anyway. Even if it wasn’t, the sword was probably what had caused that damage to the dead one and it was either Serenity’s or something that needed to be in the hands of someone who could handle it properly, like UART.

When he reached the hallway, Lancaster called out for Serenity, but he didn’t stop. He continued calling as he hurried back to his car, checking along the route for more worms as he went. When he reached his car, the sword hilt went on the passenger seat; it was more important to call in the presence of worms and get people out here to do worm extermination and evacuate anyone they could find.

It was going to be a mandatory evacuation, and it would take hours. Everyone who’d been in the complex recently (including Lancaster himself) was going to end up checked for worms. Lancaster hoped he’d skip the isolation this time; he might get pushed to the front of the line for testing.

Lancaster wondered where Serenity was, but this was the best he could do; he couldn’t safely stay in the complex, and he had no clue where Serenity might have gone. He’d expected Serenity to either be in the apartment or on the way back to the car.

Maybe there was an answer in the sword hilt?

Improved Identify

Crystal Hilt

This intelligent sword is composed of crystallized magic. While it does not normally have a blade outside of combat, it can project a blade of attuned mana. In the right hands, this blade can be anything from a fine tool to an implement of destruction.

The sword will only function for people it agrees to help, and may even burn the hand of any who try to use it without its permission.

Major Affiliation: Earth Humans

Major Antipathy: None

Why did a sword have an Affiliation? Could it only be used by humans?

Why would Serenity leave such a sword behind? It had to be the weapon that killed the giant worm.

Or was it someone else who left it behind? One of the bodies, maybe?

What if one of the bodies was Serenity? Lancaster hadn’t checked, he’d just run. What if he was unconscious?

Lancaster had already planned to lead the first group back in, once backup arrived; as it was, he was going to call the worm infestation in, then climb into the PPE he had in the trunk. It wasn’t the full PPE that was preferred, but he might not have time to wait. It would have to do.

[Quest Progressed: Path Quest Stage 3]

[Hegemon Worms are no longer a threat to your friends and family]

[Closing the first Invasion Portal on a planet without aid has been Noticed]

[You keep performing the unexpected]

Somehow, the last sentence sounded warm and amused where the others had been cold and impersonal.

I’m sure you expected me to defeat the Hegemon Worm Queen. That wasn’t exactly a fair fight.

[It would have agreed with you, though it thought the fight was tilted in the other direction]

[Your success was not unexpected; your method was]

What did you expect, that I’d Merge with the Worm Queen?

[Yes]

Ew. Did you put it in my path to try to give me extra powers? Why did you give me temporary skills?

Serenity didn’t entirely trust the Voice not to do that after the dhampir incident. This time did seem different, since there was no Quest pushing him around, but he still wondered.

[No. The Hegemon Worms and their Queen were here in the original timeline as well. You stumbled on them impressively quickly; more than two months before their discovery the first time]

[Pushing you into gaining power has proven unwise]

[As for the temporary skills, those are the skills of any Hegemon Worm Queen; you won them as prizes in the Sovereign Combat, along with control of the Hegemon Worm Swarm. Should you cease to have control of the Swarm, you will lose the skills]

Serenity now had a new goal: get rid of the Hegemon Worm Swarm as soon as he could figure out how to do it safely. He could probably release them, but that would leave a bunch of individual collectives in control of humans, and who knew what they would do?

No, he needed to either kill them all or get them to somehow inhabit only non-sapients, the way his original Analyze had shown was possible. Serenity wasn’t sure which solution he preferred. The worms were gross, but they were capable of becoming sapient in large enough numbers, at least when there wasn’t a Queen present.

He would definitely want to avoid the formation of any more Queens.

Serenity turned his attention back to his surroundings and found that they had changed while he wasn’t watching. He was now laying on something soft, but it tilted in a different direction and he didn’t see any of the pieces of the Worm Queen.

Perhaps he shouldn’t quit paying attention to his surroundings while he was a sword hilt. He was relatively sturdy, but he was apparently also small and light enough for someone to pick him up and move him.

Serenity examined what he could with Eyeless Sight and determined he was in a car; probably Lancaster’s cruiser. Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell if anyone else was around; he could only tell that no one else was in the car with him. He didn’t really want to shift if others were around, other than Lancaster.

If he could get outside the car, he’d be able to tell. He’d have to emerge slowly in his Void Sovereign form, only enough to see and hopefully not be seen. He was still worried about the possible effects of too many people seeing that form.

The moment Serenity shifted, he started hearing noise. Apparently Void Sovereigns could hear and swords couldn’t. Serenity wasn’t sure why he was surprised, but somehow he thought he’d expected it to be the other way around, or at least for Void Sovereigns to not be able to hear. What noise was there in the Void, after all?

Serenity couldn’t tell what the noise was, so he went ahead with the plan, only to find out that the car doors were too well sealed. He couldn’t leave that way.

There had to be a way out. Maybe through the air conditioning system?

It took some searching - Serenity had never realized how complicated air conditioning was - but there was a way out through the ductwork. It was not a route he wanted to take again; unlike going through the door, it was confusing and he was not entirely certain he hadn’t left some of himself behind. He didn’t think he actually had, but he knew he’d had parts of himself separated for longer than was comfortable.

Even so, once he regathered he managed to stay under the car’s hood while he listened. It sounded like voices and sirens. Serenity dared to push a tendril out through the front grille and he could tell that people were moving around. It didn’t sound like they were hurrying, but there were far more than he’d expected. It definitely wasn’t the sleepy apartment complex they’d entered.

It wasn’t until he saw a stretcher being wheeled out of one of the apartments that he knew what was going on. He could feel the Hegemon Worms lying atop the stretcher; Lancaster must have called in the apartment while Serenity was dealing with the Voice.

Why were there so many people, though? There had only been three or four bodies in the apartment, even counting Bob’s. That didn’t explain the four box trucks the stretchers were being loaded into.

Serenity reached out and realized he felt a tremendous number of Hegemon Worms nearby. It wasn’t the one apartment; it had to be nearly the entire apartment complex that was compromised. How fast did these things breed?

Serenity had a sinking feeling when he realized he’d just gotten that as a skill. It was time to look at it.

Breed

The Hegemon Queen may breed with any Hegemon Worm, including itself.

If the Hegemon Queen donates the genetic material to a Hegemon Worm, the result will be a single offspring, which will kill the brooding parent when it hatches internally. These offspring will be 60% Brood Drones, 39% Hegemon Worms, and 1% Hegemon Royals.

If the Hegemon Queen …

Why are you giving me all this? It’s not like I’m able to breed with Hegemon Worms, even if I wanted to.

[The skill is part of the minimum package for a Hegemon Worm Queen. All minimum skills are included as the result of a Sovereign Combat to permit the winner full control of the conquered Hive]

Serenity checked the skill and noticed that it was still noted as Disabled. It was the result he’d expected - he wasn’t a Hegemon Worm - but it was still a relief to see it.