Antvance into the Unknown

118. What Goes on Above

With her incredibly enhanced vision, it wasn’t too hard for Wills to make out the details of the demon city far, far below. Any ant who wasn’t a highly evolved scout would find it impossible to see what she could, but for her, it was simple. The advantages of evolving to tier five. Being able to see clearly at long distances generally wasn’t something scouts needed in the regular course of their duties, but with knowledge of the third stratum, she’d known it would be a necessary trait for some of her caste to have. Unwilling to leave the experimentation to the new generation, she’d been the first to develop her eyes in this way, and already it was paying dividends.

“What in the world is the Eldest doing down there?” she wondered.

Smoke rose from the city in several places, forming a long trail across the outer edge of one side. Several buildings had collapsed completely, and tiny figures swarmed over them like… ants. The ants would be swarming over there soon enough.

“What do you think?” Advant asked, her scent tense with worry.

Wills chuckled.

“Looks like the Eldest has kicked up quite the fuss already. A good section of the city is on fire and I have absolutely no idea why. It’s a mess down there, not going to lie.”

“Is the Eldest trying to soften their defences before we make an assault? We aren’t ready yet!”

“Considering we haven’t consulted with them in any way on this plan, how could they possibly be aware of what we’re going to do, let alone when we plan to do it?”

“That’s… a good point.”

“Personally, I think the Eldest is just doing what they always do. Making a mess of wherever they happen to be at any given time.”

“That’s a… bold way to state your opinion of the Eldest…”

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing,” Wills smirked. “Wherever they go, there is always something interesting happening, something that pushes the Colony forward. It’s impossible for us to be stagnant whilst the Eldest is around.”

“That’s the truth,” Advant agreed, attempting to make out what was happening so far below. She was forced to give up, though. Her eye mutations were dedicated to better track motion in the thick of battle, peering over the edge of the bridge did nothing for her. “Let’s head back to the rally point. I don’t think there is more to see here.”

The two ants began the climb into the second stratum alongside their escort. It wasn’t long before they encountered more of their kind, a lot more. Carvers swarmed over the area alongside soldiers and scouts, reconstructing the area around the top of the pillar to better suit their needs.

If this was the connection point between the third and second stratum, then the Colony would see it defended and fortified to the greatest extent.

“Tungstant! How goes preparations?”

The much smaller carver turned from where she was advising several work crews. Judging by the slant of her antennae and the irritable clacking of her mandibles, she wasn’t in much of a good mood.

“How are they going? They’re going, I suppose. What else can you expect?”

“Why? What seems to be the issue?” Wills asked, a humorous tilt to her head.

“Wait—” Advant tried to head off the tirade before it started, but she was far too late.

“What seems to be the issue?” Tungstant ranted. “How dare you say that to me! If there were ten of me and Cobalt, there still wouldn’t be enough to get all the work done! You want us to design and build new nests, you want us to fortify a massive section of Dungeon, you want to construct new farm zones, upgrade the main nest, plan further expansion sites, and THEN you want us to come all the way down here to build a fortified position and staging ground the size of the main nest again!

“Are you outside of your minds? The work is sloppy, rushed! It’s a disgrace! You think we can be happy with this?” She gestured with one foreleg toward the massive walls that were rising to block off the tunnels, gates already being levered into position.

“I think it looks like you’ve done incredible work,” Advant tried to soothe her sister. She truly believed what she said. What the carvers and building crews had achieved in such a short amount of time was nothing short of incredible.

“It’s FILTH! I hate it! I hate all of it! The gates are bad work, not enough time used in the tempering, not enough time used for the enchanting! The stone in the walls isn’t fully compressed, nor has it been satisfactorily reinforced with the metal framing!”

That had been an eye-opener, seeing how the carvers designed a system for reinforcing their compressed stone walls by installing a wire framework of their hardest Mana infused steel. First the stone had been stripped away, then the frame installed, and the stone literally shaped around it by earth mages.

Advant had been curious enough to enquire about the work as it was being done—it was a lot harder to accomplish than it looked. The frame itself had to be designed and built to specification to start with, then had to include tolerance for the stone being compressed around it. This meant the framework had to be designed to squeeze and shrink without breaking while the ants did their best to condense the stone as hard as possible. The calculations alone had been dizzying to the soldier.

“Aren’t all the other castes doing their best to help out?” Wills reasoned, now trying to calm the storm she’d willingly unleashed. “The soldiers are doing all the heavy lifting, the generals are helping coordinate crews, the advance build teams the scouts have put together are working well, aren’t they?”

In the press to ever expand the territory, the Colony realised it just wasn’t practical to send carvers, among the weakest of the castes, far away from the nests to investigate distant sites for proposed nests, or to begin the preliminary digging work in totally unfortified areas. Instead, several teams of scouts were side-specialised in basic construction Skills, allowing them to make initial assessments and plans, as well as commence simple building practices, like flattening out areas, laying foundations, digging sound tunnels, and establishing temporary walls. With this initial work done, the site could be made much safer for the proper build crews to begin work.

Considering the Colony was already looking to establish new nest sites a wide distance from the main nest, these crews had already proven invaluable.

“I suppose they are,” Tungstant grumbled. “We’re just really busy is all.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Advant laughed. “You don’t want to be busy?”

Tungstant glared at the much larger soldier and snapped a claw out, pointing down at her own shadow. Curious, Advant looked down before she leapt back with a curse. The shadow was pitch-black, deeper even than the darkness of the second stratum would dictate. Rather than a shadow, it looked like a portal into hell.

As she stared, a ghostly figure of an ant rose from inside the shadow as if appearing from deep underwater. The figure slowly raised one leg in front of her ethereal mandibles.

“Shhhhhhh,” came the scent, as if from an impossible distance before fading to nothing.

In a blink, the ant was gone, and the shadow returned to normal, leaving Advant trembling in fear.

“A-a-are t-they…?”

“Always,” Tungstant confirmed, clacking her mandibles in satisfaction. “I’ve lost six crews in the last four hours alone. In two more hours, they’ll take me as well if I don’t stop working.”

“Maybe you should take a break?” Wills suggested, trying to maintain her cool.

Tungstant just laughed grimly and flicked her antennae in the direction of the tunnel leading down to their position. Advant and Wills spotted columns of ants appearing in the distance, soldiers, generals, mages, core shapers, and scouts, marching together in ranks toward this new front line.

“You think I have time for that?” the carver pointed out.

“Let’s help out,” Advant sighed.

Torpor would take them all soon enough. Might as well get to work in the meantime.