IMPERIUM INSECTUM

<YOU KILLED AND ATE WHAT!>

Penn's voice screamed like a violin.

<You don’t need to scream, my ears are just as good or even better than yours…>

<This isn't the time for jokes, Diva!> Penn yelled whilst Sally nodded. I let out a sigh.

<Fine, I'll be serious. What's the big deal with killing the dragon? Which, by the way, he didn’t really give me any other option for escaping that soul prison he had me in.>

Penn glared at me before letting out a disappointed sigh.

<I guess it can't be helped. Why this is a big deal is that dragons themselves are rare, incredibly so>

<And why is that? i>

<Because of the church of eupharn! Listen, the church are people you don’t want to draw the attention of.>

<And why is that? Also, by killing this dragon, amn't I technically doing them a favour?>

<Trust me. They won't see it that way. The culling of dragons is strictly an activity belonging to the church. The church has a long history with dragons. I'll give you a brief summary. Also, I must say everything I say from here on is based on rumours and hearsay. But the ancient texts of that godforsaken religion described large-scale beasts with formidable powers that fought against Eupharn himself.>

I listened intently to what she said. It sounds ridiculous on the surface, but from the little information I have from the dragon and Cindi, this might not be as crazy as it sounds.

<Do those texts. Explain why they were fighting?> I asked. Penns shook her head.

<Only speculation, but it's believed that Eupharn was defending the world from those beasts and their creator. When the battle was over, and eupharn ascended, some of those beasts still remained. The church decided that exterminating those creatures would be a great way to demonstrate their loyalty to him.>

<sounds hard to believe, Penn. The dragon I met was strong. Stronger than anything I've fought. No way a bunch of humans could kill a dragon, even if that dragon had half his strength>

<but they somehow managed to do it, and do it well enough to drive them to near extinction. Damn, I hate this. Treating an unproven hypothesis as fact drives me insane to no end. I'm sorry I can't bring more concrete proof; that is the general consensus among us academic types. Somehow, the church killed them all. How so is a mystery, and it's one they will take to the grave>

I looked at Penn, and she hated this answer as much as I did, but if that's all the available information, then it can't be helped. Another thing to my ever-growing to-do list. Find out what happened with the dragons. That may be the key to understanding how Cindy ended up as she did.

<Thank you for your input, Penn.>

She nodded and sat down on the edge of my bed.

<We may not know where the dragons went, but the least we can do is find out why it turned me into that thing.>

<I have some theories> Penn cut in. <But to confirm them, I'll need a sample from the dragon you killed>

I nodded <go wait outside. I'll see what forces I can allocate to help secure the area. After what you told me, the last thing I want is for word to get out that there was a dragon on my doorstep and someone killed it. That’s too much attention for us to handle yet. >

<What are you gonna do with it, mother> Sally asked. I could hear the concern in her voice. It is understandable.

< I'm not gonna eat it again if that’s what you're wondering. We are just gonna move it here and lock it up. Oh, that reminds me.>

I quickly tapped into the weave and found azuura. He got a quick rundown of the situation and what I needed him to do.

< I've relayed to azuura what needs to be done. He's starting right now as we speak. It will delay repairs to the hive, but this is the top priority.>

<I understand> she said as she jumped off her seat. I couldn’t help but notice the smile on her face. Someone is excited to examine the dragon.

<Sall, go with her as security. I'll assign some warriors, but having you there will help things go smoothly.>

<Of course, mother> she said as she bounced off the bed, gave me a quick hug and bolted after Penn.

<Now that leaves me.> I've been away from the hive for a few days, and in that time, all the eggs from my earlier clutch have hatched. Meaning we have some defence. Maybe even an offence. However, to mount an offence, I need to find her first. Luckily for me, the spiders may have left me with just the perfect tool to find them.

****

“You're free to go”

The mole man looked up to me. His eyes looked beaten, and his body more so. Killing him would be a mercy, but unfortunately for him. I'm not that merciful.

“I’m free to go? Really.”

“on one condition. The silkwrith queen, where is she…”

The mole man's eyes darted away. “I don’t know”

“You poor fool. You shouldn’t have told me that” I slowly brought my clawed hand to his chest. His body squirmed as his eyes watched me like a hawk.

“Wait- Please. You don’t have to-AUUUUUGHHHHHA” He screamed as I sank one clawed finger into his chest flesh.

“Do you want to rethink your answer?” The mole's body shook as he writhed in delicious agony. I slowly dragged my finger across his flesh. A thick red line of crimson blood followed my finger, accompanied by his agonised screams.

“AUUUGHHAAAA STOP! STOP!” he begged. I glared at him and gave him a polite smile.

“Only when you tell me something useful. You told me when she captured you. It was on the surface. Where was that?” his screams increased again as the crimson line moved past his nipples. He writhed against the wall as he tried to brute force past the wax bindings.

“Waighahaaaaaaaa!! Wait!” he yelled. The mole mana clenched his jaw hard to the point that blood dripped from his mouth onto the small pool that was forming on the ground.

“Last chance. Where did they capture you? If you don’t talk, then my ring finger is going straight into your heart.” He looked up towards me, a mix of hatred, fear, anger, and shame was plastered over his

“It was east. Near a large boulder covered in green moss.”

“I'm gonna need more details than that. A boulder covered in moss isn't good enough.”

“I couldn’t possibly-“

“Shh!” I said, putting my blood-covered finger on his lip. “Choose your next words carefully. They may be your last.”

He glared at me as a million thoughts ran through his mind as he tried to find the correct words to keep himself. But eventually, he opened his mouth.

“I couldn’t possibly tell you, BUT I could show you.”

I glared at the mole man for a few moments before backing away. I looked at a nearby warrior and nurse.

<Patch his wounds and get him ready. I'll be sending him out>

I turned around and left as I headed back towards my room. The information he gave isn’t ideal, but it’s a start. I let out a deep sigh. That statement seems to be the flavour of everything recently; Even if we find nothing, I'll turn this forest over until I find that bitch.

Some time later…

I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling, waiting for the moleman to get ready. I've decided to stay here, as annoying as it is, reluctantly. I can't be putting myself out there on the front line. The dragon was way too close to a call. So instead, I'm sending a few combat-capable units with him; however, until they are ready, I can't exactly do much except stare at the ceiling.

< I dont like this. Sitting around and letting people do things for me>

I used to be very hands-on as a detective, finding evidence, examining crime scenes, and doing my own forensics, much to the annoyance of the forensic teams. But I always felt like I had to do it myself. A habit that even now I struggle to shake off. Honestly, if it wasn't the fact that I am mana exhausted, I would probably be out there. I shook my head, NO DIVA, we are not doing that anymore. Dammit, I need a distraction.

I closed my eyes. I wonder how the hive is doing. My mind tapped into the weave instantly; my mind was filled with hundreds of tiny connections that all joined to me. Some are bigger than others, and some are a lot closer than others. My mind cycled through all of them, landing on one very close to me. It was a nurse who was in the hatchery.

<Is it possible for me to just observe? It feels like that is something I should do. Maybe if I?>

I pushed my mind close to the subject, not enough to disturb him, but just enough for me to get a feel for him. Small images popped into my mind. A room filled with other members of my hive. Gahh, the details are so hazy. Maybe if I push a little closer, my consciousness presses closer to theirs. The images got clearer. He was working hard tending to one of the bullwarks I made, and trust me, they live up to their namesake.

The nurse casually approached the family's car-sized bullwark. It had eyes that glowed a malicious orange and a maw the size of a beachball filled with rows and rows of brutal, sharp and blunt teeth. All of this was encompassed by dark green, thick plates that made up its face, and to top it all off, just above its face was a big, thick, nearly black horn

<all the better to gouge you with. >

I turned my attention to its legs. It had 6 heavily armoured and pointed legs that were connected to the base of its body. The front 2 were especially heavily armoured, made out of the thickest chitin I've seen, but unlike the smooth plates I had, they were rough and jagged. Its main body sported the same theme, except that this time the armour formed these weird, sharp peaks across its top carapace. Thankfully, depending on whom you ask, the rear of the creature wasn’t as well armoured, the rear armour plates curved downwards and didn't have any of the armour peaks.

<Note to self. Front towards enemy>

I watched the nurse eagerly as they fed the bullwark mushrooms; thanks to his body, he couldn’t do much alone. How cute. I wonder how the rest of the hive is doing. My mind pulled away from the nurse and picked another consciousness at random. This time, I found myself looking through a worker's eyes. This one was repairing the walls of the main tunnel, even after 5 days or so. The workers are still at it. Removing rubble and patching the holes.

I pulled away again. As I did, I looked over the weave. During my battle with the spiders, my biggest struggle was coordinating the fight because I could only see through one set of eyes at a time. Making my orders sloppy. I can give general orders to the hive fine. Like go kill that thing or build this thing, but if I want to thrive, I need more finite control. If I had to describe it, I would need to be a conductor in control of multiple different instruments. But how?

The weave as I know it doesn’t allow me to……. Hold on, now that I think about it. What do I actually know about the weave? My current understanding is that it’s a web that connects me to all my children, enabling better communication among us. It’s a communication tool. So, as the main tool, I feel like I should be able to at least see through multiple eyes. But I can't. Unless there is something I'm doing wrong. When I connect to my children, I do it by blending my consciousness with theirs fully.

<Fully…… could it really have been that simple? Let's try.>

I focused on 3 workers. My consciousness started spreading across the weaves. The one thing I learnt whilst with that dragon was visualisation. The better you visualise something, the more effective it is. I'm applying that same logic here. I imagined my consciousness as a large ball, and from that ball, several long hands stretched out towards the workers, as they got closer; images streamed into my mind. The images were Hazy and difficult to make out. Maybe I need to get the hands closer. I moved them closer to the workers, and the fidelity increased almost immediately. I could see a worker building, one transporting and the other resting.

The images came at me all at once, but strangely, I wasn’t overwhelmed. It felt… normal. Natural even. It's like there was a part in my head that was meant to be able to do this. I wonder..

The hands stopped just before the workers' consciousness. I took a moment to compose myself before finally plunging my hands in as a circuit breaker that’s just been flipped on, my mind exploded with a torrent of information from the 3 of them. My mind felt like I was in 3 places at once, seeing and feeling multiple different sensations. It was again Normal… Suddenly, I felt something stir from my children. They all suddenly stopped what they were doing.

<Mother> they all said in unison. A smile crept across my face. Let's see what else I can do.

Penn pov:

<Fascinating> I held in my pincers a piece of flesh from a squirrel we found. The squirrel wasn't what was fascinating; it was my pincers. The way they moved with so much precision was like having another set of hands. Dissection and autopsies using these will be a breeze. I wonder if diva would-

<PENN!>

My head snapped towards Sally, who was waiting for me.

<We still have a bit of walking to do. So, can we please keep moving?> I let out a sigh and dropped the squirrel and ran up to her.

<It’s just so…. Incredible!>

<What is>

<Everything. The world has so much colour and depth to it now. I can see a spectrum I couldn't even see before. Who knew ultraviolet was so nice.>

<Riveting>, she said dryly. I ignored her tone and continued to play

<Don’t be like that, Sally. I'm sure it was like this for you when you transformed.>

<It wasn’t.> Her face went colder than ice. I dropped my pincers and went a little bit closer to her.

<What happened? If you don’t mind me asking?> Sally glanced at me for a moment as if deciding whether she wanted to tell me or not.

<I guess if you're gonna be with us, you should know. When I woke. The house was under attack. Several assassins came for Apollinairs, and Mother was away. I fought and killed a few of them, but even with the transformation, I was still weak.>

Her hands curled into a ball.

<Mother had to save me and put her life at risk to save us. I'm not proud of it. As her maid and daughter, I should have->

She shut her mouth and shook her head. It's in the past now. Mother doesn’t seem

<I see. Sorry, I didn’t.>

<It doesn't matter. We can only move forward by focusing on the present. Have you familiarised yourself with the system yet?>

I nodded. “Status”

I haven't had the time to comb through everything as diva immediately sent us out, but I think I can figure out what some of this stuff is.

<It’s a lot, isn't it> Sally said. I nodded.

< It's unconventional, but I can see the benefits of it. However, I think with a bit of studying, I can wrap my head around it.>

<Speak to diva if you want more info. She’s had more experience with this than anyone else.> Sally said as we moved. I looked behind to see the escort diva provided: 2 warriors, 2 skirmishers, and 2 spitters. The composition is simple but effective.

However, every time I look at our group, there is something about it that bugs me. It wasn’t the actual team composition, but it was the units themselves, especially those warriors. Whatever it is, I just can't put my finger on it.

<Were here>

I snapped back to reality in time to see a large, nearly pitch black foot in front of me.

<Is this it> I asked. Sally nodded, her face filled with disdain. I couldn’t understand why, as we have found one of the rarest creatures in the world.

<Get your sample and let's secure the area. Once that is done, we can work on moving this back to the hive.>

<You don’t have to tell me twice!>

I sprang into action and started examining the creature. Thankfully, the creature hasn’t decayed too much, so I can get some information out of it. I dragged my hand across its scales. To get a feel for the creature. Its scales and muscles were tough. Tougher than any rock or mineral I can think of. And this colour… to develop such a deep black. Incrredible

I kept on moving until I found an opening in the creature's rib cage. I placed my hand near the bones, and as I did, I felt a weird energy waft off the bones. I quickly pulled my hands away. Let's not have what happened to Diva happen to me. I quickly stepped through the ribcage and walked inwards.

<It was there.> I snapped around to see Sally suddenly behind me.

<Anyone ever told you that your movements are way too silent…>

<Just get the sample…. I wanna know what happened to mom> Her face briefly softened before hardening again.

<I understand. I'll get to work…>

I walked up to the area she pointed out. I put my hand near it, and once again I felt a weird tingling sensation. What is this I'm feeling…..

My pincers shot out, and I got to work first, using what I'm calling the disector. An agile pincer where the tip is a sharp circular blade around the size of an apple. I spun the blade and brought it close at the same time I used my other pincer. This one I call a grasper. When relaxed, the tip was as sharp as a point, but when I started using it, it split into 4 segments that could be moved and articulated freely, allowing me to grasp and manipulate tissue with ease. Using these 2, I quickly cut out 8 samples of dragon flesh for testing.

<Got a tissue sample. I'll need some bone, scale and brain sample if possible>

Sally nodded as we headed away from the dragon's carcass. I looked upwards and noticed the 2 spitters hovering above us, staring in one place. Suddenly, I felt something prod and feed its way into my mind.

< Suspicious activity ahead. Potential enemy> I pulled away from the sudden voice and looked up. Was it him?

<Did you get that penn>

I nodded. <Feels like someone was sharing my brain, but yeah, I got it…>

I followed Sally out of the carcass of the dragon, where our 2 skirmishers and warriors were waiting. Even now, that nagging feeling I have about them won't escape me. What is it about them that irks me so much…

Sally took point, standing at the front of the pack, and the skirmishers went to the sides as the big, bulky warriors stood to the side of Sally. Everyone stared into the dense forest. Suddenly, the leaves rustled in the air, and the air among us changed as everyone focused on the bush line. A deep guttural gargle erupted from the bushes. Suddenly, an array of golden eyes illuminated the forest. The growling increased as these inky black creatures slinked towards us.

<Dammit not again…> sally muttered.

The creatures moved on all fours. Their bodies leaked a black sticky gun, and they had yellow, sickly teeth and long, pointed tails.

<Penn. Any chance it isn't what I think it is? do you recognise it?>

I shook my head.<Looks like nothing I've seen or studied about. Whatever it is. Its new>

Sally let out an annoyed sigh <Of course. How many are we dealing with?>

<20> The voice rang in my head again. This time, it was one of the warriors

<Alright, everyone, get ready. We are in for a fight….>