Vol. 2, Ch. 114: The Radiant King
Neska never broke her gaze from the Instance core. Its presence weighed down on her, made her thoughts muddled, the same way that Marikand had projected the Voice on the night Risha died.
She had a name for Risha's killer, at long last. It was one small step toward bringing justice for the fallen witch. This fact alone gave her resolve to stand firm.
The aberrant eye, growing out of the back of the queen like a cancer, narrowed its gaze on her. [Perceptive. But irrelevant. This vespid has been a continuous pestilence of unreliability. How did she do it? How did she work against me and give you that name?]
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Neska hissed. She had a theory to the contrary, however. Only now was she putting the pieces together, the hints she had noticed about how the Varadur were connected.
It had to be the Interface link. The deaths of hundreds of insects in such a short order had likely overwhelmed their coordination and control mechanisms.
The queen kept using the collective ‘we,’ not ‘I,’ as a pronoun. It implied that her voice wasn't just her own, but the thousands of wasps of her colony, and beyond. A distributed consciousness. It aligned with theories of queens of ants and bee colonies controlling the bulk of activities through pheromones, with programmed responses to external stimuli and other chemical alterations of the pheromones. It meant trying to control one would require trying to control all of them at once.
Or her second theory: the trauma response. Each death hurt a little of the consciousness, putting a burden on the survivors and decreasing their computational output. A loss of hundreds hurt a lot. Perhaps the queen–or more likely, the Instance core–had been overwhelmed by the sheer damage they had inflicted by setting half the hive alight with a fiery metal bath dumped into its depths.
Even now, smoke drifted, and the goblins' shrieks of panic echoed through the warrens of the hive.
Neska addressed the Instance core, willing herself to remain calm, calculating. Emotional responses and hasty decisions now could cost her everyone here, an unacceptable outcome. “Who are you, really, though? You’re no divine,” she spat accusingly, an undercurrent of a hiss to her words. “You are a usurper who has stolen something that didn’t belong to them. Did you kill the divines? Especially considering I think by this point the pending destruction of humanity would have spurred them to action.”
[The Divines answer to ME.]
Another lie. If the physical representation of this instance core matched the metaphysical, it was a chain wrapped around the Varadur, a choker, directed by a malicious mind. No divine would have destroyed the world out of sheer spite. Ouroboros might be capable of eating the world and restarting it, but she was pretty sure that part was still a myth.
“Do they? Or do they answer to the crack of the whip, or the yank of the collar around their neck?” She demanded, continuing to stall for time. She spotted Syrona holding the bag of genesis seeds in her mouth and scattering a few with her tail, the seeds falling into the crevices of the honeycomb material. Neska subtly sent a low pulse of [Verdant Weave] to them, forming tiny taproots into the nest.
One such seed sprouted tiny vines, twisting and stretching, searching for crannies to expand. It confirmed her plan ‘B’ could still work.
She continued, pointing accusingly at the Instance core. “Now you've made your presence known to me again. That's a lot of focus on one seemingly irrelevant snake, Your Radiance. You’re afraid of me, aren’t you? Afraid of what I can do. The power I represent.”
[You are a tiny snake, incapable of understanding your power, and have squandered any goodwill I had. You are no longer worth pursuing except for retrieving your corpse for study.]
[And your reward for your defiant courage, Neska Aksen? I will make you watch as I kill every single member of the fortress you call home. Family, friends, everyone who ever crossed your path, I will make them curse your name from bleeding lips and rattling gasps.]
[THAT will be Risha's final legacy. The harbinger of your destruction.]
That was a decidedly different and ominous response. Had she managed to frustrate this King, driving this heated, emotional response? The events unfolding within the hive played a factor here; the clues were there.
But there wasn’t time. The entire chamber shuddered, and bits of dust drifted down from the arching ceiling of the cavern. Neska knew more than ever this Instance core needed to die. “Really, then, Radiant King? It almost sounded like I was a threat to you. You speak as if I were insignificant, yet you speak threats in the same sentence. So which is it?”
[It is irrelevant. What matters is that you, and everyone else who dared to follow you into my domain, are going to die, here and now. Even if you were to survive, know this: the Collective of the Varadur is growing. We will soon descend upon your last frontiers and bastions of hope like a sweeping cloud of locusts, devouring all in our path.]
One thing was for sure: he liked to be dramatic. "And what is it that humanity did that warrants our destruction?"
[As if ants could understand the boot that crushes them from above. Your Divines invited this devastation. Your cries for help fall upon those who are responsible for your suffering.]
[Veelah, traitorous insect, do as you have been ordered by your greater, and consume them all. Save the snake's corpse for study.]
The tendrils connecting to the queen thrashed and turned blood red. The queen screeched and clutched its head with its forearms, as if in pain. “W-we…we will consume. They shall not b-be left alive.”
Neska got the feeling this queen was far from a willing participant based on the way the Radiant King treated her as little more than a shock trooper. The more times she’d seen the Varadur with their commanding monsters, the more she realized how fragile their command and coordination structure was. There was only one thing keeping them threaded together, and it was this usurper king who’d found a way to control the divines.
Controlling Divines. Assuming she lived past this, this information changed everything. Perhaps Lachmir had found a way to create a Divine, but he hadn’t figured out–or his creation hadn’t– how to kill one, just yet. It was one small but relevant detail that threaded into her mental notes.
She drew her bow, nocking a venom arrow, as Kasfew and Noricatu took off. They shouted warnings into their relays as the hum of wings grew into an angry buzzing, devouring all other sound.
Despite the danger, Neska smiled. “Glad to know that I’ve warranted your undivided attention. Now you have a front row seat as I bring down the wrath of Risha on your forces, starting with this hive. Because I am, indeed, the one who is going to end you, usurper king.”
[We’ll see about that.]
Everyone sprang into motion–the wasps, Kasfew, Noricatu, and the hive queen.
Several things happened at once.
First, her arrow shot forward, hitting one of the tendrils connecting the Instance to the queen. It inflicted superficial damage, but damage was still present, nonetheless.
Second, she triggered all of the growing roots to surge to full length on the second level, where Syrona had been placing them, creating a woven canopy that trapped all the bugs on the second floor, just as Syrona dove back into the main chamber.
Next, Kasfew cast out the alchemical charges she’d handed him, the ones set to burn, at the two entryways on the first floor. The white-hot flames stopped the swarm of wasps attempting to surge out of them and overwhelm the team. Those that did were engulfed in flames, and those that survived, he blasted away to keep Neska’s back covered.
Noricatu did the same on the other side with a flutter of wings, then cast out an aura of freezing particles that slowed the skirmisher wasps. It did not affect the queen, too large for such an attack to slow her, but that wasn’t the goal.
Neska tapped her relay. "Move in! Keep the remaining swarm from reinforcing the queen; we got her boxed in!"
Right, damn it, the relays were still jammed. She hoped someone heard her in the chaos.
They needed to clear out the immediate hostilities, then focus on the queen. Neska had an idea of how to handle this thing, and it involved separating that damn monstrosity entrenched in her back like a mutated tick. The weaknesses must be the attachments threaded into her carapace, the ominous fleshy tendrils. An idea sprang from what she’d done in the goblin forge to spill the contents of the smelter assembly.
She opened up with a [Witch Cackle], stunning the nearby insects and causing many to stagger in mid-air, or fall to the ground outright.
She fired off a rapid barrage of [Venom Bolts] at the closest wasp, overwhelming it, then coiling forward and landing a body blow with [Coiled Strike] that also deflected the swiping talons of the wasp queen. Her split-second scale hardening barely deflected the sweeping strike.
The queen staggered back. Despite her size, she was surprisingly light. She bounded backward using [Spring Scales] to bounce off the creature's forehead, just avoiding it's slashing mandibles.
After landing in a skid of scales, she fired her bow again at the second skirmisher wasp. Unable to evade, an incendiary arrow struck it dead-center, igniting it in a burst of flame that left it zooming around erratically. The wasp crashed into the hive structure at the bottom of the chamber, igniting the resin.
Noricatu drew the attention of the queen with blasts of icy shards. The creature shot forth quicker than her bulk would suggest, swiping its talons and missing the icy bird by mere inches.
Neska shot another skirmisher as it raked its talons at her, the arrow glancing off from a shallow angle of impact. She deflected the slashing talons with her bow, then shot a fully charged [Venom Bolt] from her tail.
Before the wasp fell, she nocked another arrow, shooting at the previously damaged tendril of the currently occupied wasp queen. The existing wound had already turned green and necrotic from her venom, and shot it again.
The entire hive shook as the tendril withered and blackened, the acidic venom chewing through it. The Instance core let out a muffled shriek from an inflating sac on one side. The eye housed within the thick shielding membrane grew bright, like a ray of light from the sun
Uh Oh. Something tells me that’s going to be very bad! She swerved to the right, then bounded up and over the queen wasp with her [Spring Scales] and avoided a jet of fire that ignited everything it hit. That included the hive, one of the skirmisher wasps that had somehow managed to survive the opening area of effect attacks, and the beam struck the rock with such intense heat it began to glow a molten red.
“Cassia, they’re breaking through from above!” Kasfew called out, pointing at straggling wasps breaching through the grasping roots, determined to protect their queen.
“Go, take care of them! I've got the big one; you stop the little ones and keep them off my back!” Neska shouted out, dodging another jet of fire before the intensity of the light faded from the eye of the instance core.
Kasfew wasted no time, lobbing bombs that showered incendiary particles down with each detonation. Against the wasps, it was devastating, catching many in bursts of molten orange glow.
Neska focused back on her target; the tendrils she’d shot with venom were slowly healing and snapping back to position, the necrotic green coloration fading. That meant this thing likely had some measure of venom resistance, and she had no counter to that–not yet.
It did not, however, affect her ability to set it on fire. She was down to a handful of incendiary arrows and shot one at the throbbing mass of tendrils, igniting it. The shriek was unmistakable, and the queen thrashed, trying to roll and put out the flames.
The tendrils stayed blackened and did not move–she’d gotten one of the four sets connecting it to the queen, and the tendril crisped from the heat.
Three to go.
If she were right, the only way to destroy the Instance core was to kill it directly. Right now, that likely meant the queen would die immediately thereafter. That left one other choice: separating the two.
It was risky, but necessary. She didn’t want to kill the queen. Not just yet. There were still things she had left unfinished: questions to ask, and theories to confirm. What she'd learned so far could be the precursor to understanding the Varadur and expose a glaring weak point; what more could Veelah tell them if she could free her?
She had to cut all four of those tendrils, and hopefully the core would fall off.
Syrona screeched in alarm, and Neska ducked as one of the skirmisher wasps tried to impale her with its forward taloned legs, missing and receiving a courtesy [Coiled Strike] that stunned it, leaving it floundering on the ground. The coatyl hit it with one of her [Mana Bolts], which was rather cute, but still quite underpowered. Neska had to finish it with one more [Venom Bolt] of her own; then she switched focus to the queen.
The queen surged forward with a buzz of wings, flying at her as the eye tried to hit her again with the fiery beam. Both missed, and the queen slipped to the hive floor, and the beam of fire cut a trench through the honeycomb and resin material. Neska leaped onto it when she saw the opportunity with a [Coiled Strike] and slammed down on one of the tendrils.
Black ichor spilled out, and the creature spun its eye around, trying to shoot her again. She slammed the membrane with her tail, following up with a mana bolt to the core's eye, forcing it to squint and close its eye out of reflex.
She took the opportunity to stuff her last remaining alchemical charge into a fold on the intact tendril, then leaped off as she triggered it with an [Ember Hex] burst. The device detonated in a fiery roar, setting the queen on fire again and leaving the connecting tendril blackened and inert.
[Focus on the task ahead, Veelah. You will earn my forgiveness if you succeed in crushing this snake.]
Neska heard the entire hive come alive all at once, a droning, buzzing sound that seemed to emanate from everywhere. Through the noise, she heard her lapel chime loudly. Finally, the signal was back!
Judging by Jurik's tensed voice, it was chaos upstairs. “Cassia, the entire hive is waking up all at once! Soldier wasps are coming out, and the barbed wasps are firing in force! Whatever you’re doing, you’ve got to kill this thing fast, because it’s coordinating all of them at once!”
"Jurik, keep the firewall going! I'll give us cover with earthen spikes!" Juni shouted over the relay. Distantly, Neska heard the sound of shifting earth and the whoosh of flame igniting. "Syra, mudbath attack!"
If she weren't busy fighting for her life, Neska would commend how well the trio worked together.
“Going as fast as I can, Jurik! Hold firm!” Neska still had two tendrils to destroy, one of which had already received minor injuries from shrapnel. She dodged the flailing queen's talons, leaping over one scythe-like leg, then sliding under another, pushing her body to the limits as she twirled and dodged away from the queen.
One good hit, and she was dead. Not even her runic barrier would survive a blow like that. She activated her hat’s other ability to sense conditions of targets, taking note of the strange debuff auras on the creature. Her intelligence and perception were high enough that she could make out that the creature appeared to be under a control aura, likely due to the Instance core.
It was a parasite, after all. Whether it was unique to this core, or this queen in particular, she could only speculate. Its movements were sluggish from the icy particles, but not slow enough for her liking. Even wounded, it was moving too fast for her to get a clean shot.
“Nori! Area denial, cast your [Freeze Field] in the center!" Neska focused her [Ember Hex] on the air around her body, in an effort she’d only tested maybe once or twice, and certainly not for what was about to happen next. She swerved and rolled under one talon strike, taking a slicing blow that left her reeling.
She downed the health potion on her belt by instinct, powering through the pain of the cut and the inflammatory response. If this was what 99% resistance felt like, she pitied anyone who got the full treatment from this venom.
Noricatu banked around after having crowd-controlled several of the barbed wasps by turning them into frozen ornaments, then dove with her beak open in an ear-splitting screech. A beam of ice shot forth from her beak, casting a large area of hoar frost to erupt on every surface it came into contact with. The entire room chilled from the effort, and Neska bit her snout against the cold, hoping the ember hex would be enough to keep her from freezing to a dead stop.
The queen’s wings stalled, and it stumbled to the ground, just long enough for Neska to shoot one of her germination seeds into the open wound on the third tendril; this time she was able to get the seed into the wound, and she used her [Blood Root Hex] to try and draw out ichor, driving tendrils deep.
[Where have you learned these techniques, little snake? Where did the witch find these secrets?]
The queen flipped one of its taloned legs and cut at the tendril, severing it and the roots still attached, and they collapsed to the ground in a ball of ichor and green shoots still attempting to grow.
Neska had to applaud the creature: it was pretty daring to damage itself. It only proved the worth of her powerful ability, which required quite a bit of setup to use efficiently.
Three down. One to go.
[Enough of this. Falter. Obey your one true king.]
Neska felt her mind recoil, and she was left reeling and disoriented by something that left her head snapping backward. She heard screams through the relay. She felt the urge to kill rising, that bloodlust she’d felt once before, when Felix had attempted to corrupt her.
She would not fall to this trick again and steadied her aim, firing her arrows at the remaining tendril. Except the queen was now blocking them with her carapace, keeping Neska aligned away from her target as if it knew what she was doing now.
Kasfew was on his knees, screaming. Noricatu was staggered but still managing to fight the wasps, biting down on her own wing with her beak as if to take her mind off the pain.
“My head…it’s a corruption burst! Everyone, stand firm and fight it!” Juni called out. “Shield the Awakened! It’s going all in on trying to corrupt us!”
Neska could do nothing but deal with the core right now. She’d have to do something desperate, and she waited for the windup charge of the core using its fiery ray.
Now!
[Sudden Molt] triggered, and she flew through space toward the remaining tendril.
Well, I’m completely naked, dodging a giant doom beam, and about to take down a giant monster possessed by a would-be Divine. Let’s not disappoint, Vivi.
You’ve got this. Let’s show this monster who’s got the bigger fangs!