As it turns out, reinforcing my carapace using the Altar is plenty enough to protect me during a regular Starcrusher. My antennae take a little bit of damage, which is unfortunate since they take quite a bit of time or effort to restore to full performance.
They’re delicate, it can’t be helped.
Still, even just using it normally, my new chomp attack takes a heck of a lot out of me. The drain on my body is immense, but the Will of the Colony pours into me, cleansin...
2025-02-12 05:44:48 +0000 UTC
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“I can’t make a helmet strong enough to resist a blast of those sorts of proportions. Impossible.” Smithant declared.
Well, no arguing with that, I suppose.
“Thanks for taking the time to meet with me, I suppose,” I say, turning away.
“There’s no way,” she continued. “Not even with the most advanced forging techniques and alloys we currently possess. With crushed living stone mixed into the furnace… or perhaps a folded lattice of… no the temperat...
2025-02-11 21:29:29 +0000 UTC
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This is close to the silliest thing I've ever written.
The newborn chal each sported a moustache made of fine, long hairs that drooped down from either side of their faces, just above their mouths. They weren’t particularly thick, just a few whiskers on either side, but Theresant was quick to notice that the specimen before her had several small fibres stuck to its moustache.
This was unacceptable.
She didn’t know anything about grooming molluscs, ...
2025-02-11 05:32:52 +0000 UTC
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The Chal, a mythical race of unique creatures, the first to achieve stability and peace in the era following the Rending. Now, thousands of years after their fall, who can say what they were like, how they lived, their thoughts and philosophies?
What would they make of the world that was created in their absence?
- Excerpt from ‘The Lost People’ by Xinci
“We are grateful you were able to come, Theresant. I know it...
2025-02-10 05:29:13 +0000 UTC
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I hope people are enjoying the start to this new act. The arcs in BoD are two books long, so this is the slow beginning to the final arc of the series. Things will remain relatively calm as we build up to the final confrontation.
Expect some kingdom building, some grand scale warfare, some politics and faith, and of course, many, many corpses.
Within the Ossuary, a demi-lich stood over the altar, channeling dark magick into the meticulously prepared bones before it....
2025-02-10 02:06:50 +0000 UTC
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“You done, Worthy?”
“Aye, I think we’ve finished up on this side. Well, as finished as it can be.”
Trenan nodded and wiped the sweat from his brow as best he could. Despite his physique, enhanced by the Unseen beyond the limits of human physiology, he was still exhausted. A level of fatigue that sank deep into his bones and seemed to take root there. He’d need a few days to recover from all this exertion.
“You look like I feel, lad,” Worthy Steelarm ch...
2025-02-08 10:27:27 +0000 UTC
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Alright, so, lessons have been learned.
“You still haven’t learned your lesson!”
I can tell the healer is attempting to give me a good thwacking, but they’re so small compared to me that I can barely feel the strikes from their antennae. To really cut through the carapace, you need the force of a mother’s love, after all, the thwacks of The Queen are not to be underestimated.
“I have, I swear! This time I’ve really learned my lesson,” I try to assure t...
2025-02-05 07:19:20 +0000 UTC
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Extending outwards from either side of my head, two massive mandibles of darkest light form. They stretch so far to my left and right they cover half the front of the platform.
My stamina drops perilously low, and I start to panic about just how much energy remains in the Altar. There’s millions of ants in the fortress at this time, not to mention all those at the very depths of the fourth, all within range of the Vestibule. With so may providing their will, the Altar ...
2025-02-04 06:41:07 +0000 UTC
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It’s cool, I can do this. I can totally do this!
No I can’t. It’s a stupid idea and all that’s going to happen is breaking my own carapace into a million pieces then incinerated them with the power of a burning star. Why would I do that to myself? Why would anyone do that to themself?
For glory!
No, no way. That is a dangerously Leeroy-ish thought and I won’t tolerate that sort of nonsense inside my head. Get out, neurons who cooked up th...
2025-02-03 06:44:54 +0000 UTC
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I know the strength of the Colony, I know everything we can do individually, or as a well trained and disciplined army. If I am also aware of what the enemy is capable of, then what do I have to fear? A single battle, a dozen, a hundred or a thousand, the outcome of all can be calculated and predicted. Knowledge and preparation are what win wars. That has always been my belief, and every experience has only reinforced it.
- Excerpt from ‘Words of Solant - Colony Ge...
2025-02-03 02:57:26 +0000 UTC
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It was pleasant to exchange words with his students, who had grown into serviceable mages. Having someone to discuss the principles of Necromancy with, even at a surface level, was something he found enjoyable.
The problem he had with these conversations was that the three students were far too willing to accept anything he said as the best solution, or the optimal method, without proper examination. Did he expect them to come up with better solutions than he did? No, obvio...
2025-02-02 22:52:58 +0000 UTC
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It took Tyron a day to tend to the storm rods. Of course, Master Willhem, which is how Tyron still thought of the demi-lich, worked as well, repairing more than half of them. However, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed that his former teacher continued to avoid him, refusing even to communicate through the conduit they shared.
He’d been patient with the Master Arcanist, giving him time and space to adjust to his new existence, but it didn’t seem to be working. He wasn...
2025-01-31 06:53:41 +0000 UTC
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For what reason does the Abyssal Legion have such a fearsome reputation? Why is it that anywhere on Pangera, on the surface or in the Dungeon, people know the name, Legionem Abyssi?
The Legion are not a national army. They do not owe allegiance to any king, court or parliament, but instead operate as an independent force that is somehow allowed to maintain recruitment, training, keeps and castles in over half the lands in this world.
The Legion d...
2025-01-31 02:25:43 +0000 UTC
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Author note: obviously the legion aren't exactly the 'good guys' in this story, they aren't even ants! Totally wrong number of legs. Even so, I've always had a soft spot for them and think they're super cool. Way back when I was first writing and thinking about Chrysalis, I was talking to a friend of mine about the idea of these mana addicted super-soldiers battling in the depths of the Dungeon.
I'm hoping to realise a bit more of that vision with the next few chapters and make t...
2025-01-29 05:46:35 +0000 UTC
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[Where the heck have you been, Morrelia?] Anthony demanded when there’s finally a small break in the fighting.
The effects of the berserker rage still lingered in the form of a trembling in her limbs, but she welcomed the momentary weakness that came with the fading rage. Her mind was once again wholly her own, and Morrelia grinned up at the giant ant.
[I’ve been sitting on my hands doing drills and cleaning gear.]
[Seems like a bit of a waste,] he mentally ...
2025-01-29 04:59:49 +0000 UTC
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Commander Chyron was not enjoying her time. The Legion had tasked her with destroying a potential Ancient, a monster subject to the call, and she had pursued the monster to the best of her ability. Only now she found herself locked in a fortress surrounded by millions of monsters during a wave. Not only could she not attack the target she had been given without ensuring the death of her entire legion, the blasted creature was growing stronger by the day! Every inspection ...
2025-01-27 05:58:55 +0000 UTC
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Brilliant was a busy ant, which was largely how she liked it. After her success with the portals, the Eldest had dumped a number of projects into her mandibles, including the investigation of the Church of the Path. All in all, it had kept her hopping around the Colony, solving mysteries and investigating unknowns.
That was the sort of thing she enjoyed. What she didn’t like, was fussing about with carvers on… engineering… ugh.
“Everything seems to be working as int...
2025-01-27 00:52:47 +0000 UTC
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With each step Elsbeth took, crystal shards crunched underfoot. The ground was littered with them, broken from the larger clusters that burst through the ground, rising as high as a house at their largest. To think that crystallised magick, a precious resource over the mountains, was so absurdly abundant here.
It sickened her.
She cast her gaze across the plains and barely recognised her own world. There were almost no trees, no grass or greenery of any kind. Instead, a bla...
2025-01-25 07:25:02 +0000 UTC
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“I told you I would find it.”
“But you didn’t;, I found it.”
“It’s almost as if you’re suggesting my totem pole provided no value whatsoever.”
“I’m not suggesting it, Dove, I’m outright saying it.”
The skeletal form of the once-living Summoner turned its back in outrage, flicking the crumbling bones of the snake he’d attached around his waist over his shoulder.
“I’m telling you upfront, Ty...
2025-01-23 07:17:00 +0000 UTC
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Morrelia felt like she was going crazy, and it wasn’t just because of her current company.
“Is everything alright?” Isaac asked, stroking his moustache with one hand as he tried to execute a graceful lean on the wall beside her.
She could only roll her eyes at the display. No matter how she tried to communicate that this sort of behavior made her uncomfortable, Isaac didn’t seem to be capable of receiving the message. It wasn’t as if he was being deliberately anno...
2025-01-22 03:44:06 +0000 UTC
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Advant, loyal Soldier of the Colony and member of the Council, stood alongside her sibling, the general Sloan and watched.
“It’s doesn’t quite hit home until you see it for yourself,” she noted.
“I’ve been here for three days, and I still can’t quite believe it,” Sloan replied. “Getting the reports is overwhelming enough, but this… this is beyond my imagination.”
The two stood, clinging to a wall as they looked down over the connection between th...
2025-01-22 00:53:51 +0000 UTC
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“You really are a moron.”
“Eldest… please. Don’t you think I feel bad enough already?”
“About what? LIVING?! Tell me you’re upset that you survived, I dare you.”
Leeroy, wisely for once, kept her scent to herself.
I’m tempted to thwack her anyway.
“Evolving in secret, trying to sneak yourself into a fight you couldn’t survive, giving the healers an absolute conniption, not to mention the resources you could have wasted...
2025-01-20 05:34:13 +0000 UTC
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“I’ll be going, my sisters!” Leeroy declared as she charged forward, gaining momentum and preparing for her grand leap of destiny.
The Immortals turned to watch, lumps in their throats and metaphorical tears in their eyes as they saw the first and most dedicated Immortal initiate her final fight. What a glorious sight. What a noble sacrifice. This was how it was always meant to be, here in the depths of the Dungeon, with the Colony in danger of being overwhelmed, THIS...
2025-01-20 04:38:42 +0000 UTC
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Leeroy had never felt stronger. Power coursed through her immense frame. Her musculature thrummed with energy, her mandibles gleamed with indescribably sharpness. Her carapace… had not been improved at all. Why would she bother spending her precious evolutionary energy on it anyway? The Colony insisted on decking her out with increasingly more powerful armour after all!
Indeed, once Smithant had discovered her newly evolved form, Leeroy had been forced to sit and wait while she...
2025-01-19 09:32:16 +0000 UTC
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The inside of the fortress has become an interesting place since the wave started. After I take my requisite eight hours of rest, satisfying my own standards and getting the three human children off my case, I decide to poke about the inside for a few minutes, just to see what’s going on. To be specific, I want to see what was going on particularly in the upper and outer layers.
The tunnels are packed full of ants and militia, running to reinforce one of the platforms, or on th...
2025-01-18 22:49:57 +0000 UTC
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Wind and sand blasted across the eternal dunes. A robed figure walked alone, one hand holding their hood low over their face, blocking the wind. Clearly this one was not of the dust. It was obvious from the way they walked, but to shield themselves against the sand?
Al’hakash. Forbidden.
Hunkered down in the dunes, invisible and unmoving, Hon’kaal watched and waited for the creature of flesh to draw closer. His grip tightened around the hilt of his shell-blades. S...
2025-01-17 08:26:17 +0000 UTC
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Feolin watched with horrified fascination as the gates caved in, finally tilting back, blasted off their hinges and collapsing with a dull roar. She hadn’t believed it would be possible, not really, to break into the castle. It seemed impenetrable, an unmoving mountain of stone that by all logic should collapse under its own weight. Yet, somehow…
The Slayers gave a blood thirsty cheer. Weapons raised into the air as they roared and screamed, each pushing to be the first throu...
2025-01-16 10:47:30 +0000 UTC
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I knew it was going to get bad, but sheesh, things are getting ridiculous out here.
The platform has been under constant assault since the wave broke, which is fine, that much was expected. What I didn’t expect was just how disgusting the fifth was going to get. The tunnel leading toward the platform I’m defending has turned into a kilometre wide river of sludge and mucus. The walls are literally dripping with snot and slime that seeps together into a slow moving torren...
2025-01-15 07:54:09 +0000 UTC
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schedule is completely annihilated this week. Chaps will come when they come.
“Englebert, you’re our best expert on the chal, can you pull yourself together, man?”
“I’m… I just… I… I think… I am… I… no?”
Rathwyn shot a quick smile toward Coolant and Propellant, then briefly wondered if the ants were even able to read human facial expressions. They didn’t have muscles on the outside of their heads… but then, they did spend a lot of...
2025-01-14 10:30:04 +0000 UTC
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The chal are a lost people, and knowledge of their society, their manner of speech, even their appearance, is long-abandoned knowledge. There is little use in clinging to the past on Pangera. Despite what the affluent people living in bejewelled cities within the fourth stratum may think, they are locked into an endless struggle to survive along with everyone else. There is never peace between the Dungeon and the Sapient races, and the fall of the chal is just one example of the dr...
2025-01-12 06:52:29 +0000 UTC
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