This is their secret plot? They want to drop a freaking mountain on my head?! Why waste all that time with subterfuge and the like when this was the plan all along?

I guess they wanted the brathians out of the way—the important ones, anyway. With Eran and her family gone, they figured they could go ahead and try to squash nearly ten thousand ants in one fell swoop.

I’m not about to kid myself, though. It’s me they want. Same as the Legion, who seem to be gearing up for something in the distance. Opportunists.

With the big bad mythic, tier seven ant out of the way, the rest of the Colony aren’t nearly so dangerous to deal with. It makes sense, in a coldhearted sort of way. I mean, what did we ever do to the golgari? Nothing!

Well… nothing that bad.

Smaller chunks of stone, each the size of a house, are already tumbling down the side of Greystone as the enormous hunk they’ve carved away is still breaking free. Slowly, it pulls further and further out, reaching hundreds of metres from the side of the mountain already.

The sound is awful, like the mountain itself is screaming.

Ahhh, this is a bit of a tight spot, isn’t it? Something that big falling from a height like that… I don’t even want to try and calculate how much force that’s going to generate.

Goes to show, even in a world filled with all sorts of ridiculous magic, dropping a big ol’ rock on someone is still pretty damn effective. Not that I could describe this as a ‘rock’. You can easily fit a demon city or two on a plate that size.

It’s at times like this that I truly appreciate the wonderful capabilities that having multiple brains, each running multiple mind-constructs, can afford a monster. It might seem like I’m considering this situation in a rather relaxed manner, but I promise that’s not the case. My main mind is fairly relaxed about it all, but only because dozens and dozens of other minds are completely wigging out.

“Eldest! You need to flee!” Protectant materialises out of nowhere to yell at me.

In fact, the entire squad appears for possibly the first time ever. Judging by the look of them, they’re getting ready to force me to abandon ship using some method they’ve cooked up. In fact, I know that’s what they want to do, because I can sense it through the Vestibule.

“Relax,” I tell them easily. “I can take care of this. Don’t do anything weird. Actually, could you do me a favour and get ready to defend me from the Legion? I’ve got no doubt they want to get in on this action.”

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“You could protect yourself from that danger by leaving, Eldest!” Protectant insists.

I glare down at the much smaller ant.

“That’s not how we operate in this family, Protectant. Grant put herself in harm’s way to keep me alive, and she died for it. Don’t think, not for a single second, that I wouldn’t do the same for any of you. This is the Colony. I’m not more important than any of my sisters, and I’ll be damned before I run away and leave ten thousand of my siblings to die in my place.

“Now get out of my way and rally the troops from the other ships. It’s going to get dangerous here in a second.”

They don’t like it, I can see they don’t like it. What I’m saying goes directly against their own orders, which is to put me first, no matter what. On the other mandible, they know I’m right.

“Are you even doing anything, Eldest?” Protectant tries one more time. “I can’t sense you doing anything to defend yourself.”

Overhead, the mountain continues to rumble as an unthinkable mass of rock tears itself loose, then begins to fall.

“Of course I’m doing something! Don’t be daft! Just wait… another… sec.”

Whumph!

At that moment, all the mana I had reached out to draw towards me arrives in a torrent. My greedy minds seize upon it and begin shoving that vast flow into the ready and waiting gravity construct I have prepared.

I’m going to need a heck of a lot of gravity mana for this situation.

“See? Now go!”

My guards scatter to rouse the rest of the ants aboard the ships to action. I tune them out and turn my attention to churning out all the mana I possibly can and stuffing it into the spell I need.

I’m ripping in so much mana I feel like I’m in the eye of a hurricane. Energy is flowing at a ridiculous rate, flooding into my core, then straight out again and into the construct. Even the construct is straining to the point of bursting, there’s so much power being forced through it.

Out the other end comes sweet, sweet gravity mana.

With my main mind, I seize hold of it and condense it, squashing it down, compressing it further before finally holding it tight as a ball of densely packed gravity mana. Which grows more dense. Then more dense. Then more.

Overhead… I try not to think about what’s overhead. The size of the rock is… comical… horrific… absurd. An enormous plate of stone has now sheared off the side of the mountain and flattened out, falling toward the fleet at tremendous speed, though it appears to drop in slow motion.

It won’t be long until I can’t see anything overhead except for this hunk of stone, and it’ll still be twenty seconds before it lands on my head. It literally feels like the sky is falling.

I have to say, this is spiteful stuff from the golgari. I’m guessing they’ve done it this way so they can claim that it was a mistake? They lost control of the magic holding the mountain together. There was a mistake made by the Shapers performing maintenance on Greystone. Whatever.

Since they want to do it that way, they can’t really complain if I happen to damage their precious mountain while defending myself.

Right?