The others had gathered together now, and they shifted uneasily as her scent reached them.
“The Eldest commanded us to rest…”
“It is the thing that we are meant to do…”
“Are you certain, leader?”
A flicker of anger was roused inside Leeroy, and she turned to the Immortals.
“Are you afraid of the enforcers?” she demanded. “Even now? I have nothing to live for but life, there is no fear left in me. Besides, we are all tier six! There are hardly any who can match our strength inside the Colony, let alone amongst the enforcers!”
“Is that so?”
“Is that so?”
“Is that so?”
“Is that so?”
A hundred threads of scent reached them at once, brushing against their antennae on all sides before dancing away as if they had never been. The reaction amongst the Immortals was immediate, and they turned nervously to look around themselves. Only Leeroy remained undaunted.
“I have work to do,” she said and began to trudge back toward the quarry.
She’d not taken three steps before the voices returned.
“You have run out of fear…”
“No longer afraid…”
“It is respect that is lacking…”
“Whose command do you ignore…”
“This is not for the Colony…”
“For the Colony…”
Again, a hundred different scents wafted from a hundred directions, a dizzying and disorienting effect that unnerved them all. Even Leeroy now felt a flicker of emotion that she shoved away violently.
“Where are you?” she demanded of the empty air. “Come out and make yourselves known!”
“Demands…”
“From us?”
“We are the loyal…”
“You are the one who has failed…”
“We demand of you…”
“The Eldest commands…”
“You do not obey…”
[Eight hours is owed…]
[Eight for every day…]
[You have missed many…]
The scent seemed to come from everywhere, even from within her own mind. The Immortals were disturbed now, turning this way and that as they tried to identify the source of the words. They could see nothing; they were alone on the plains, the city still resting on its plate high above, and the same workers toiled not far away on the foundations of the hill. Yes, they were alone. And yet…
“Show yourself!” Leeroy demanded.
[Tier six…]
[You think you are above us?]
[Above the commands of the Eldest?]
[Foolish…]
[Foolish…]
[In the extreme…]
[We are here with you…]
[We are always here…]
[We have ALWAYS been here…]
[Look down.]
Each and every one of them looked down to see that their shadows had changed. No longer was there a flickering shade cast by the intermittent light on the ground. Instead, there was an endless void of darkness without end.
And inside the black, there was a face, an ant face, their own face. It stared back at them with maddened glee, their own eyes twisted into merciless, pitiless orbs filled with laughter.
“Get out of my head!” Leeroy grated. “You can’t take me!”
[We already did…]
Then it was gone. The plains. The builders. The foundations. All of it gone. All that remained was the darkness.
[You do not fear…]
[This we can change…]
[But first. Sleep…]
[Rest…]
[We will wake you when your time is due…]
Leeroy felt her mind begin to slip, begin to sink. She fought against it. Struggled to remain awake.
“Who are you?” she said.
[Nameless…]
60. Pushy Lizards
“Nice work, Brilliant! You’re getting a lot quicker with that Shadow Magic.”
“I quite like it, to be honest. Watching Crinis jump through shadows has been an inspiration for me!”
“What’s it like to be able to perceive the shadow dimension?”
The smaller ant thinks for a long moment.
“Weird,” she says.
“Fair enough, I suppose. Trying to explain another dimension to a person who can’t see it would be quite the challenge, I imagine. How do you explain colours to a blind person?”
The little ant has been hard at work over the last week improving her Skills and showing her usual obsessive focus when it comes to getting into places she shouldn’t. After carefully studying Crinis and her method of slipping through shadows, she has taken it upon herself to master the same technique, drilling herself with Shadow Magic until it ranked up to Dark Magic.
According to her, being able to perceive the shadow dimension all around her is quite the benefit, since she can tell where it is strong and where it is weak, thus allowing her to more easily create ‘gates’ from one shadow to another. I’ve had a few discussions with Crinis, and she believes she could benefit from something similar. During her next evolution, I’m sure she will explore the possibilities in great detail.
What it’s allowed the little ant to do is to employ a wide range of tactics that involve, for the most part, keeping herself hidden in a shadow whilst launching sneaky spells by poking her head out of the darkness.
Whilst it’s certainly powerful, there are many drawbacks. The mana cost is prohibitive and difficult to maintain. This goes doubly so since she can’t absorb nearly as much ambient mana whilst hiding in a shadow pocket, so even her impressive mana intake isn’t enough to sustain it for long. Also, since the bulk of her attention is focused on maintaining the shadow portals, her offensive output remains lacking, to say the least. She’s still working on bringing her Mind Magic up to the point where she can use mind constructs, and once she gets there, I’m sure her ability to multi-task all these spells will increase dramatically.
For our purposes, it has proven to be an excellent way for her to engage in our hunts and continue to develop her combat Skills, since she can remain very safe for the duration of a short fight.
All we need now is for the damn ka’armodo to get off our backs.
[Leave! This area is claimed by the people of the sand! Your kind has no place here!]
[Alright already! Sheesh.]
I have a careful look around the area in which our last fight just ended. It’s true that I kind of lost track of where we were headed as we chased a tier four demon around. He was a speedy bugger, but we managed to chase him down eventually. Even so, I didn’t think we ran into lizard land.
[Is it just me or are your borders shifting? I didn’t think this spot was claimed by you…]
[Whatever we say is ours, is ours,] the pugnacious reptile replies. [Now leave!]
Seriously, all the giant lizards I’ve run into down here have a serious attitude. I mean, if I was a giant several-hundred-years-old lizard with a bunch of slaves who waited on my every whim, I might develop a stunted personality too, but it gets grating after a while.