“Do you have any specific questions?” the Queen asked.

“…”

“No? Well then, guess I will start with my own story. It will be easier to show you, so excuse my intrusion into your minds… It all happened many years ago. The Hive Fortress was under siege…”

******

And so, the Queen began her story.

A movie-like scene played out in the minds of Hercules and the Emperor.

It showed a great mountain fortress, built into the mountain, and with an extension protected by a large stone wall. All kinds of pulsing and squirming biological matter covered the fortress. From looking at it from a distance, it would be hard to tell if the biological matter helped or hurt the stone, but anyone that tried to siege the fortress would give a clear answer: this biological matter must have crawled straight out of hell!

It did not just protect the stone with its soft body, it could also re-connect fallen stones back into place, using its own body as glue. To make things worse, swords could barely cut it, and arrows got absorbed and spat back! When infantry got close, it would suddenly come alive and wreak havoc. It did not like fire, though.

Two tall round towers sat in the courtyard, at a perfect range for the archers that once occupied them to shoot over the wall and down at the invaders. Now though, something completely different lived in those towers…

In one of those towers, a young Princess sat alone in her room, looking out through the window, watching the besieging army prepare for yet another assault. Their last attempt failed miserably when the ground suddenly burst open and dozens of tentacles tore through their ranks. Now the attackers believed the defenders had ran out of tricks and pushed forward once more. However, the Princess was not worried – they were the Swarm! How could they possibly lose? Sure, they lost a few times...quite a lot of times...but this time was different!

The door opened, cutting her thoughts short, and the last surviving King of the Swarm entered. Every step he took caused a small tremor in the room. A huge monster, walking on two legs, ending with big hooves. His two lower arms were folded over his large chest, ending with four finger-claws, and the two upper arms only consisted of a single big scything talon, that could strike at both the back and front. A chitinous shell covered the entire body, making it hard to injure him even when waving swords at point-blank range. He had an internal skeleton, but also an external skeleton, which reinforced his already strong shell at the weaker points.

Overall, he looked terrifying, and most of the other races would faint if they faced him in combat. He was especially fearsome when charging the frontlines, roaring at an ear bursting volume, shrugging off any and all arrows, shattering swords and shields like dry wood. Not to mention, he never entered battle alone – behind him would follow hundreds or thousands of the more normal grunts that made up the bulk of the Swarm’s army.

“My child, you must leave quickly. The next assault will be our last. Me and your mothers talked, and decided that you will be the one making sure the Swarm survives.”

“Father…what are you saying?! We are the Swarm! Are you telling me...we lost?”

“No. We are merely using a tactic our enemies used many times before: live to fight another day!”

“I don’t want to leave! I can still help! Maybe if I join the others, we can turn the tide?”

the Princess was clearly upset and rightly so. Running away was after all not something the Swarm usually did – no, they never did!

Shaking his head, the King said solemnly: “No, you are the only one that has the ability to restore the Swarm after the war. You need to hide and find a safe place to start all over again. Unlike your older sisters, you still have yet to enter the egg laying phase, and therefore can still move. Even if you did join, the dozen or so you could produce, would mean nothing against the hundreds of thousands we face.”

“But, who will go with me? I can’t do this alone, right?” the Princess was not entirely sure how the breeding worked, but she knew enough to know that it needed more than one.

“Normally, that would be the case, however, since the situation demands it, you will undergo an ancient ritual. It has been forbidden for thousands of years, for good reasons, but that matters little now.”

“Forbidden ritual? What does it do? Haha, makes me super strong, right? You want me to fight my way out and-”

The King quickly interrupted her wild dreams.

“No, the opposite. If it had made us stronger, do you think we would have banned it? We seek strength, no matter the cost. No, this one makes you…weaker. It will revert you to a more primal stage of the Swarm’s development. It is not an instant transformation, in fact, it might even take you months to fully complete. It will, however, give you an enormous amount of energy during the transformation phase which will help you when escaping.”

“W-w-weaker! Father, why?! I don’t understand! Please, explain better…” the Princess blinked her four eyes, as a tear of acid fell down, sizzling on the floor. Her lifelong dream had always been to grow strong enough to join the battles and help with destroying the enemies of the Swarm.

However, she was after all a Princess – someone soon to be Queen. The life of a Queen was safe, but dull and repetitive. Stuck in the same room, unable to move, and doing little else but creating new members of the Swarm. An important job, if not the most important, but not a very exciting one.

“Hmm, yes. Guess I can explain it a bit better. To put it bluntly: you will shrink – A LOT. This will allow you to hide from the Alliance. There will also be no need to find a mate. You can create life by just consuming your own energy reserve. You can also create life without entering the egg laying phase, though it will be greatly slowed down, so after you find a place to settle down, I recommend not using that anymore. However, it will be extremely valuable during your travels.

“The reason you gain an almost infinite amount of energy during the transformation is because you are literally consuming your body at a rapid pace. Bones, skin, organs – everything will be affected and changed in a major way. By the way, that might hurt... a bit.

“But the worst part is that you will lose the majority of the genetic blueprints that we use to create new members of the Swarm. Thousands of years of progress will be lost. So, from now on, you will have to experiment your way forward.”

The Princess processed his words in silence – a lot to take in at once.

The King laughed at the sight, “No need to overthink it. We have already decided. For now, go to the Hive Queen – she will prepare the ritual. Your mothers will go into Overdrive mode to buy you some time.”

“Overdrive mode… What’s that?” the Princess asked.

“Hm, simply put, it is the act of putting your body in overdrive mode, hence the name. While extremely taxing on the body, it allows you to produce at a much higher speed than normal, but using it for long periods means death. Only the ones that actually produce something, like poison, eggs, larva, bone spitters and so on, can use it.

“Pure melee fighters, like myself, have something different that allows us to ignore our body limits for a period of time. It usually ends up killing, or at least, seriously crippling the user though,” the King explained.

The Princess nodded, but the sudden news about her fate had yet to sink in, so she barely paid attention to the explanation. She looked out the window again, and saw large siege towers rolling towards the walls. She still felt some hesitation to leave both her father and mothers alone – not to mention everyone else.

Seeing her reaction, the King could guess the reason. “No need to worry. I will stay with them to make sure they will not be taken alive, incase the enemy manages to breach our defenses faster than anticipated.”

The Princess smiled at those reassuring words and gave the King’s leg a hug. Kinda awkward to hug each other, since the King was over four meters tall, while the Princess was only a little more than one meter. The King picked her up, holding her in his arms, and together they looked out the window.

“Hey, do you know the story about this fortress?” the King asked.

“Eh, it’s really old… and…” the Princess thought for a bit, but could not come up with anything special.

“Indeed, it is several thousands of years old. Around four thousand, to be more precise. But we did not actually build it ourselves, we just maintain it at peak performance. It was a human fortress back in the day. It was supposed to protect their borders from the unknown dangers in the Wild – that is where we came from, by the way. We used to be a nomadic race, wandering around and consuming things in our path. We were a lot smaller back then too – even smaller than you – so the battle for this fortress was one of the hardest in our history.

“Anyway, it used to be called Hieve Fortress, named after some great human hero or something. Since we were...less evolved back then, such a name was too hard to pronounce, so we modified it a bit to Hive Fortress. That is where the word Hive comes from, and as you know, we like to use it in many things as a way to honor this fortress, even away from home.

“It was our first permanent home, and where the Swarm really started, and now it will be where we will meet our end. Well, as long as you are alive, we will live on in your memory,” the King smiled, revealing over a hundred sharp teeth in his mouth, and put the Princess down on the ground again. “Time to go now. Do not keep the Hive Queen waiting.”

The little Princess quickly ran out of the room, filled with a patriotic feeling, proud over how her race went from insignificant to the largest force in the world. Though their glory days were over now, she would do her best to revive them – making her father proud in whatever afterlife he went to. Glory to the Swarm!

The movie-like scene followed her like a camera.

She walked through the barren hallways. All decorations that the humans had left here were long gone – slowly getting eaten by hungry creatures over the years. She passed by a number of terrifying creatures, who nodded or waved at her in return. Spikes, carapace armor, claws, hooves, scything talons, horns, wings, multiple limbs, snakelike, big and small – the variations were endless. A single glance at the thousands of creatures that had gathered in the courtyard, and on the walls, showed just how hard the Swarm had worked for thousands of years, trying to create the ultimate warriors.

She continued to walk deeper into the fortress, until she reached a new part that was clearly different. It was dug directly from the mountain, and the surface was odd and uneven – almost like the walls had melted!

She reached a gigantic circular membrane door, at least ten meters in size, and she placed her clawed hand against it. The reddish, half-transparent door glowed where she touched it, and it opened just enough to let her small body pass. Taking just a single step inside, the environment clearly changed. No longer did she walk on stone, with some biological matters here and there. Now it was more like entering inside a living creature. The walls and floor pulsated, with not a stone in sight. Weird flesh-vines dangled from the ceiling, moving in a creepy way. The temperature increased to hot and humid, like a tropical jungle. The smell...well, she did not mind the smell, but it was a low odds bet that many others would.

After walking a bit, each step making a squishing sound, she finally reached the place where the Hive Queen lived. The Hive Queen was currently in Overdrive mode, creating her personal favorite creature – the Grim. All Queens had their own favorite, but the Hive Queen had something special.

A fairly small creature, reaching up to the knees of an average human. The Grim walked on four hooved feet, allowing for fast running speed. Two arms came out from the back, pointed forward, consisting of only a single large scything talon. If not for the fact they could be moved up and down, most would probably think they were odd horns, or perhaps even wings. The mouth contained numerous and densely packed small, but sharp teeth, with a jaw strong enough to break bone. A spiked tail, half a meter long, stuck out at the end, protecting the rear. A durable carapace armor protected the back and head, while the underside and legs instead had thick hide and fur – a way to cut down on the cost, since they almost never got attacked from below anyway. The Grim was completely black, eyes and teeth included, and its main purpose was to raid the enemies in the night. They were sometimes seen jumping around like goat kids, but a lot more scary looking.

However, the truly special thing about them only revealed itself when the Hive Queen produced them. She could make them about fifteen times faster than any other Queen! With the Overdrive mode on, she made them fifty times faster! Why? Well, because she designed them herself – three thousand years ago – and ever since then, these creatures were the only thing she created. Non-stop production of the single type had improved her technique and she could now design a new Grim egg embryo in her sleep.

When the Hive Queen saw the Princess enter the room, she stopped using Overdrive mode, breathing out a poisonous mist in relief. Overdrive mode was excruciatingly painful – every organ and blood in her body churned and wiggled from the stress. After a few minutes, she collected herself enough to begin speaking with the Princess.

“You finally arrived. I trust that youngling told you about our plans?” the Hive Queen asked with a booming voice.

“Eh? Oh, if you mean father, then yes. The ancient ritual, right?” the Princess replied, slightly confused. Her father was, after all, around one thousand years old already. But in the eyes of the Hive Queen, everyone was a youngling.

“Good, now come closer. Do you have any questions before we start?”

“Hm...” the Princess thought for a while. “Um,” she hesitated a bit, maybe this question was a bit rude? But she ignored those thoughts – this was her last and only chance to know! “Why is your name Hive Queen?”

“Hmph, such a simple question! Very well. Simply because I am the oldest, largest and most beautiful Queen alive! Have lived my entire life inside this Hive Fortress. With the recent deaths, I am now the leader of the Queens!” the Hive Queen said proudly.

Of course, the actual reason was slightly different. She was indeed the oldest Queen alive, and the largest with her almost two hundred meters in length, including the greatly distended abdomen which contained all the eggs. What about the most beautiful? Well, her poisonous attributes made her unusually repulsive to the eyes, even for the Swarm, which had a greatly different sense of beauty compared to most races. As a result, no King wanted to breed with her for thousands of years, preventing her from picking a new design. This obviously upset her, so to calm her down, she was given a special title – Hive Queen! This title also gave the Kings an additional reason to refuse – they were simply not ‘worthy’ to mate with the Hive Queen!

The answer made the Princess suspicious, but she thankfully kept her mouth shut and did not question it.

“Now, enough talking. We only have little time for this. Come even closer.”

The Princess did as told and ended up right in front of the Hive Queen’s massive face.

“Good...” the Hive Queen deeply exhaled, releasing a green gas.

The Princess took one breath and fell to the ground.

The movie-like scene went black for the Emperor and Hercules. Being a replay of the Queen’s memories, she obviously had no way to know what actually happened at this point.

The Princess woke up, her eyes opening one by one, and the images came back. She clearly felt something was different inside her body, but if asked for specifics, she could only shake her head in reply.

“Ah, the sleeping beauty awakens. Sorry about that, but I doubt you wanted to stay conscious during that part. Now, you must hurry – the Alliance’s assault have begun, and we already lost the walls. We are currently doing everything we can to buy you time. Escape – do not look back!”

The dizzy Princess turned her head towards the voice. The hideous, boiled filled face of the Hive Queen startled her. For a moment, she forgot where she was.

“What happened? What did you do? I don’t feel anything special…” the Princess said, inspecting her body.

“Oh, but you will in time. It comes in waves. Now, stop bothering me and head towards the mountain tunnels. A servant waits outside to guide you. I must prepare myself…” The Hive Queen’s voice died off, and she closed her fourteen eyes. Her life flashed by her eyes – the lack of variety saddening her somewhat – and she steeled her hearts for an extended period of Overdrive mode usage – until the welcoming arms of death would embrace her.

The Princess did not want to disturb the Hive Queen’s last stand, so she left the chamber. The guide waiting outside was one of those special units made by the Hive Queen. Unlike the normal version, this one had a thin yellow ring in the eyes and was slightly bigger.

“Greetings! Grim Grim be your guide!” the creature said with some difficulty. After all, the Grim’s mouth was not made for speech, but to bite.

The voice surprised the Princess. The lower class – the throw-away units – were usually fairly mindless, but this one...

“You can talk? Oh, you got a name too?”

“Yes! Hive Queen care greatly for Grim Grim! Hive Queen use extra effort. Big brain! Now, follow.”

*BOOOM!*

A huge explosion came from the outside, shaking the entire fortress. The fleshy sections around them trembled from the impact.

After exchanging a quick glance, the duo rushed down the hallway, heading deeper into the mountain. After all, their survival – the future of the Swarm – rested on their shoulders. If they got caught up in the raging battle on the outside, their fates would be sealed.

These deep hallways used to be filled with life, but now they were completely empty – not a soul in sight – thanks to everyone rushing to the walls. They made it to the escape tunnel, about two meters high. It was dug out in a hurry, and only had some basic wooden beams to prevent a total ceiling collapse. A guard stood at every wooden beam, saluting the duo as they passed.

“Why are they standing here? Shouldn’t they join the fight?”

“Simple. They smash and bite wooden beam. Crush everything after we out.”

“But, if we got an escape tunnel, why are they destroying it? Why can’t we just evacuate and regroup?” the Princess asked, thinking she had discovered a great flaw in the plan.

“If Alliance finds tunnel…they will follow. Find us. If leaders flee – Alliance will know. Will hunt down. All leaders dead – no Swarm! Victory! They leave! We hide – no trace! Swarm comes back!”

“But still, why can’t we just evacuate and keep fighting?”

“Swarm strong… Alliance stronger. Too many! All world against Swarm. Swarm lose... We wait – Alliance shatter. They fight each other! Swarm strike back from shadows!”

“Hm. So, if we got no leaders, they will fall back, thinking we’re all dead. By collapsing the tunnel, they won’t even know anyone left. With time and no common enemy, they will return to their usual conflicts, and then we strike back? Guess that sounds reasonable…”

With that cleared up, the two walked in silence. The occasional rumbling came from the guards knocking down the wooden beams, bringing that section down – ending the guard’s life as well. A few hours later, the two saw a light at the end of the tunnel and sped up to a run.

Before they exited, the Princess asked: “You know where to go from here, little one?”

“Grim Grim knows! Grim Grim knows!” the little creature jumped up and down in excitement. “Hive Queen give map over all the lands! Follow me!”

A rumbling sound came from behind them, and a dust cloud rushed towards them. The last section of the tunnel started to collapse.

“Well, let’s go then…”

The bright light blinded them as they exited and...

The movie-like scene suddenly distorted and faded into darkness.

******

“And that is all I am going to show you for now. My other adventures is a whole other story,” the Queen said, bringing the Emperor’s and Hercules’s minds back from memory lane and back to the present.