Chapter 899: The Roots

Did anyone ever fight an ancient and live to tell the tale? As with all things that occurred during the Rending, it can be very difficult to find reputable sources. Though the Legion had not yet grown to be the global initiative that is has become today, our predecessors did come into contact with the monsters and attempted to battle them. Amidst our oldest tomes, written in the hand of the founders themselves, there are precious few details of what transpired. We can only assume that more complete documents were created, but either they are lost or are kept from the hands of lower ranked Loremasters such as myself.

From what I’ve been able to piece together, none of these confrontations went particularly well for the Legion forces. Lists of those who fell in battle are extensive. I can only imagine what it must have been like for those brave souls, seeking to bring down the horrific beasts that dwarfed any other threat that had spewed forth from the Dungeon in those years. The ancients caused untold devastation on the surface, millions of souls were lost. To kill even one of them would have been a triumph. Alas, it was not to be. Though thousands were sacrificed, none of the nineteen were defeated. Now, thousands of years later, how much stronger could they have become?

· Excerpt from the notes of Alberton, Loremaster of the Liria chapter.

Hunting has gotten harder out here on the plains as the kaarmodo continue to push forward into our territory. I’m gradually seeing more and more of the lizards, each with their own attendants, roaming over the plains, watching the borders and confronting every ant, although it’s mostly me, who gets anywhere near them.

MY RAGE CONTINUES TO BUILD!

But I’m managing to contain it, for now. To be honest, I’m impressed at myself, I really thought I would have cracked by now. But no! I hold strong in the face of this cold-blooded provocation. Keen to see if we can find any trace of the traitor, I lead my little group in a criss-cross pattern over the plains and down into the tunnels, seeking any sign of the slithering sneak. Sadly, it’s all to no avail. That damn worm is a freakin’ expert when it comes to hiding and sliding out of the way. I was almost ready to give up hope until we had something of a breakthrough.

“I think I sense something,” Brilliant says out of nowhere.

We’re currently snooping about in the tunnels beneath the plains, hoping to avoid the patrolling kaarmodo and get our noses a little deeper into their territory. The heat is as oppressive as always but thanks to our efforts the tunnels are less populated than they were in the past.

“What have you got?” I ask.

“It’s not easy to describe…” she mutters as her antennae swivel through the air and she shifts her body from side to side. “I feel like it keeps trying to slip from my grasp, which is weird, I should be able to see it clearly.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s like a dimensional space, or tunnel, or something. It’s over our heads right now, I think, it keeps shifting. I feel like there’s an area of space that’s been… compressed in some way. What’s odd is that I’m sensing earth mana more strongly than anything else from it.”

“Could it be something that Jim has left behind?” I ask, my hopes rising.

“Maybe,” she replies, still staring at the roof overhead. “I’m going to head up there and dig.”

[Let’s block off this area. Keep an eye out everyone.]

My companions move to watch the angles of approach from all sides as I lift my head to watch as the little ant climbs up the wall and begins poking and prodding at the roof with her mandibles. After a few moments, I sigh and climb up the wall myself. It’s a strain on my legs, but I need to keep practicing my grip skill. If my ability to walk on the walls gets any worse then I may as well retire as an ant.

My legs and claws straining, I climb up alongside Brilliant and start shearing away the stone with my mandibles.

“Somewhere in here?” I ask.

“Yes. A bit to the left. That’s it! Keep going, but not too quick.”

Following the shifting directions, I keep digging away at the stone until finally I notice a change in the response through my mandibles.

“I think this is it,” I say and with one more chomp I feel something shift in the stone before me.

“That cracked it!” Brilliant declares excitedly, and before my eyes, climbs up into the stone.

“How in the heck…”

“Here, poke your head in!”

A little confused, I force my head up into the stone and a strange warping sensation ripples over my eyes and all of a sudden I find myself in a narrow tunnel, barely large enough to fit my head in it. Too small for a monster of my size, the opening in the stone vanishes into the darkness in either direction. Something thin, yet long made this tunnel.

“It’s the worm!” I declare vehemently.

“There’s a strange warping technique at play here,” Brilliant mutters, scratching at the tunnel wall, “it’s like the space is condensed along with the earth. That might explain how he managed to be so quick.”

“Dammit.”

That would explain a lot. I thought it was odd he’d managed to move fast enough to escape us.

“What, what’s that?” the smaller ant asks as she leans in and pokes something with one antenna.

I take a look and then immediately recoil.

“Get away from that!” I tell her.

“What, why?” she asks, confused. “I’m sensing really weird mana from it.”

“Get away from it. Now!” I order.

A little miffed, the smaller ant turns away from the anomaly and crawls out of the worm tunnel but I worry that it’s already too late. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a root like that before. It might be smaller than the last one, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it might belong to a particular grudge bearing mother tree.

Just what we needed.