Chapter 108: Queen’s Decree
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A new dawn bled across the Dune Flats, revealing a battlefield unrecognisable from the day before. Where once one million disciplined soldiers had stood, scarcely half that number remained and those survivors wore exhaustion like cracked lacquer on their carapaces.
Four hundred thousand ants soldiers had died. Over a hundred thousand ants were very badly injured. Losing a leg or arm or fatal injury. Rest of them are exhausted from the battle. The underling’s of the desert ruler had retreat far far away, when the desert ruler fell in battle.
Shattered drake shells littered the sand. Wounded hornet mounts lay tethered in orderly rows, medics siphoning venom and saliva. But amid the battle ruin, jubilation thrummed: banners snapped, buglers thrilled a concise eighth-note flourish, and the Queen of the Ant-Kingdom descended from the air. Dust devils died under her eight-star aura, as though forbidden to whirl in her presence. Beside her stood other eight star ants.
Kai stood among the workers brigades near the rear, Miryam the egg snug in his satchel and throbbing softly with grief. He craned for a glimpse of the monarch’s face, still hidden by a shimmering black veil, only her eyes were visible. To either side floated her daughters: Princess Thea in argent armour that sparkled with fresh polish, and Princess Mia, every edge of her new seven-star aura meticulously banked so as not to embarrass her elder sister but impossible to hide. They just joined her a few seconds ago.
The desert was silent as the Queen spoke, not with clarion oration, but with a voice as calm and total as moonlight on dead dunes.
"Children of the Ant Empire," the veil rustled but no features emerged, "A’zhorath has fallen. The war is over. Victory is ours. Her core is mine, it will be our kingdom’s jewel of glory."
She raised her hands. The generals, Oryx and Caldera, produced a crystal reliquary holding the Desert Ruler’s Star core, the thing pulsing like a second sun. The sight made Miryam the egg shiver so fiercely Kai felt it through the leather.
"Our casualties are grave, yet our victory is absolute. All honour to those who sleep beneath the sand. Their names shall be carved onto the Pillar of Resplendent Sacrifice."