Ah, the sea. Lake. Sea-Lake. I hate it. Once again, I find myself aboard a large tub, surrounded by ships, basically trapped and unable to shift myself, lest the boat tip over. It’s unpleasant, obviously, and it feels a bit vulnerable. Well, it felt a bit vulnerable, before I had a fleet of anti-monster soldiers bearing down on me at all times.

Now it’s downright unnerving.

The Legion remain close by, relatively speaking. Their fleet maintains a reasonable distance from our own, given that fleets of ships take up a fair amount of space and need room to manoeuvre and all that. Abyssal Legion ships, as bulky and intimidating as the troops, keep pace, a couple of kilometres away from the brathian fleet.

[There’s no need to worry,] Marzban tries to assure me, despite looking extremely worried. [If they were to make a move against this fleet, it would be construed as an act of war by the Island Conglomerate and the Folk. Possibly by the Mother Tree as well. They wouldn’t dare go that far.]

[Don’t they hate all of you guys anyway?]

He hesitates.

[That’s… somewhat true. Even so, I don’t think the Legion is interested in stirring up that kind of trouble right now. With the repeated waves, they’re stretched thin and have much bigger fish to fry than some ants on a trade mission.]

He certainly hopes so.

[Where are we heading to this time?] I extend the bridge over to Eran, who is leaning against the railing, glaring at the distant ships. [Because I doubt we can expect a friendly welcome in any of the places left on our list.]

She turns to me with a sigh.

[Perhaps, perhaps not. We intend to travel to Desert Basin, the most prominent mountain occupied by the Sand Empire, followed by Greystone, then the Wandering Isle, and finally the Silver City. All of these are major trading hubs, but you are correct, they are all, at least to some degree, hostile to outsiders, and especially to monsters. The Old races tend to be more… set in their thinking.]

[I can’t say I really blame them. If an Ancient arriving can turn every single ant in the Colony into a wild killing machine, then it’s going to cause a few problems, don’t you think?]

I’m a little curious as to why the brathians seem so unconcerned with that possibility. Even the Mother Tree seems to have discounted it, letting us move in right next door to her, or perhaps she has some other plan? Come to think of it, how is she going to avoid turning on her own children?

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The thought of being turned into some mindless soldier of a bigger, badder monster isn’t sitting very well with me, I have to say. The more time passes and the more I think about it, the greater my irritation becomes. If Arconidem thinks he can just show up at Anthome and have the whole Colony fall in line, he’s got another think coming!

… I hope.

Eran appears thoughtful as she considers me. Eventually, she shrugs.

[There are many things that need to happen which we don’t even know are possible before that will become a problem. We are experiencing unusual wave activity, that is definite, but will there be a second Rending? It’s impossible to say with certainty. If mana levels return to what they were during that Cataclysm, is that even enough to support the Ancients in their current forms? Perhaps, perhaps not. If mana levels rise that high, and if the Ancients are able to climb, will the Colony be susceptible to their influence? This is another unknown.]

[Well… why wouldn’t we be? We aren’t like the bruan’chii, we are genuine monsters, cores and all.]

From what I was told, a large enough gap in power should make it possible for the Colony to be dominated. Which sucks.

[There are some monsters who are much less vulnerable to the influence of other monsters. Demons are almost totally immune, for example, untameable. Otherwise, the various empires would have raised powerful monsters to help subdue the third stratum and impose some level of order on that wild place. Similarly, the Krath are known to be extremely resistant to monster domination. We don’t know why, but it is true nonetheless. Perhaps your Colony will prove to be similar?]

There’s something about the way she says it which sends a shiver running over my carapace. They already know. Somehow, someway, the brathians are confident the Colony will be able to resist, at least to some extent, the influence of other monsters.

When did they test us? How did they test us?

But those thoughts aren’t what chills me. The demons are resistant because they are, each and every one of them, connected to Arconidem already. The Demon God can dominate them whenever he wants, can drive them to act against their instincts even while locked in the depths of the Dungeon. The Krath may be similar.

Which would mean…

I sense the influx of Will from the ants around me, a constant and steady flow of impressions and desires.

Am I doing the same to them? Or am I capable of it? The thought sends a wave of revulsion running through me. I would much rather be a servant of this family than the master of it. I desperately hope my choices haven’t put me on a path that gives me a control I don’t want to possess.

If the Vestibule and the other attached organs can keep them safe, can keep them free, then that’s great. I just hope it stops there.

It takes a few days of extremely quick sailing, but mountain after mountain slides past, and floating islands that rain endless streams of water pass overhead, until we come to a place that doesn’t look anything like what we’ve seen before. In the fourth, a place of endless and vibrant mana of life and light, pretty much everywhere you look is a verdant paradise, except this mountain.

It’s a rocky desert. Absolutely dry as a bone.

Home of the ka’armodo.