The Conqueror spent the next few days hunting, seeking to consume a species that could manage to mend its broken connection with the Hivemother. Fueled with desperation, it combed through the forests surrounding the spring with precision.

It did not like to devour lifeforms without intelligence – it felt like it was letting low-lives enter the Hivemother's knowledge base too easily, but it had no choice. Without connection to the Hivemother, it could not report on this planet. It could not fulfill its duty, and that was what it was born for – its sole purpose.

The hunts were unfruitful. Today, too, nothing of value digested in its stomach, and there were fewer and fewer creatures. It's presence had sent the nature around it on alert, causing a mass migration of fauna whether they be prey or predator, for all of them valued the most primal instinct of all: survival.

That is, until the Conquerer found another one of this planet's intelligent species. A human at the end of the forest, many miles from the spring it slew the other human. Over here, the trees ended abruptly, revealing paved roads that snaked up and down hilly terrain.

The human stood in the middle of the road, staring it down with a fierce scowl.

"When I heard there was a monster taking out every single breathing thing in the Azerleafs, I knew it'd be a demon," she said. She bent a little to unsheathe another one of those metal sticks from her back. It was different from the others, much larger, as tall and wide as she was. "You'll fall to my greatsword today, demon."

"Great...sword?" growled the Conqueror. "The other human called those sticks Nightblades."

"Eh?" said the human. "Nightblade? As in, Valerion's Nightblade? The Nightblade that cut a millennial dragon apart?"

The Conqueror cocked its head. "So Valerion was that human's name. I did not consume him, so I did not know. Perhaps you are his kin to know of him?"

"No, nothing like that." The human gulped audibly and lowered her weapon a little. "Say, when you talk about consuming him and all that, did you beat him? By yourself?"

"Of course."

The human dropped her sword. "Haha, we started off on the wrong foot. It's a good thing you're an intelligent monster, though, since surely we can talk this out, right?"

"Talk?" The Conqueror snorted. "I do not have the time. I must recover the connection to my Hivemother, and it will be easier for me to gain the relevant knowledge by consuming you."

"Woah, woah!" The woman put up her hands and stepped back, her greaves clanking. "I'm much more useful to you alive. I..I can read a little, taught myself some history, and have an idea about magic. Surely I can help you with your, uh, Hivemother."

"Magic?"

"Yes, yes," the woman stammered. Her trembling hand plucked a lengthy strand of black hair from her head. "I know some divination. A witch told me, old one too, so you know I got taught right. I can find things for you by using my hair as a catalyst!"

The Conqueror did not understand. It could not search its memories with its severed connection, but it had an instinctive idea that it would not find the word 'magic' in its database. It felt curious.

"Find my connection," it said.

"Of course." The woman took the stand of hair and wound it around her finger. She whispered to herself, an incoherent babble that the Conqueror could not understand. It was a language foreign to the warrior it had consumed on the battlefield.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The woman grimaced. "Uhm…"

"Where is it?"

"Looks like I can't find it."

"Then it will be easier for me to devour you," said the Conqueror with a matter-of-fact tone.

"No, it won't!" the woman squeaked as she took another hurried step back, this time tripping and falling on her butt. "You need mana to use magic. I don't sense any from you, so even if you eat my brains, you won't be able to cast anything."

"Then where can I obtain this mana you speak of?"

"You, well, how do I say this. It's not something you can have. You're either born with it or you aren't."

"Ah, like genetic traits? Very good, then, for I can assimilate those by consuming as well."

The Conqueror opened its jaws and bared its claws.

"No, nothing like that!" The woman had no idea what a genetic trait was, but she had to say something to keep herself alive. At this point, she decided to just lie. "People like me that are born with mana can't have it stolen. It's not a…genetic trait or anything. The most important thing is that I need to stay alive to help you, OK?"

"But you could not help me just now with what you call magic."

"If you give me a second chance, I can do much better!" She raised herself up and plucked out another hair. "Divination's gets better the more details I have and the more I know what kind of being you are. Trust me, I can do this."

The Conqueror let out a low growl reminiscent of a purr. "Very well."

"Okay," the woman said. She wound the hair around her finger again. "Can you tell me what you are?"

"I am a Conqueror. The highest in the hive hierarchy."

The woman stared at her finger blankly. She had no idea what a Conqueror was. "Uh, can you tell me where your species lives?"

"In Skraa. A mesoplanet many light years away. Exactly how many, I do not know, for I was asleep throughout my journey here."

"Skraa? Is that another country?"

"No, another planet."

"Planet?"

"I sense that the term 'world' would be more familiar for you."

"Another world? There are other worlds?"

The Conqueror stirred. "Is that not common knowledge?" It raised its claws up to the sky, pointing at a faint orange dot. "That is a gas giant – another world."

"Eh?" The woman blinked, trying to dredge up what little knowledge she held on magical tomes. Finally, she remembered 'The Gods and their Sky Signs', and felt like she sort of understood what was going on. "Oh, you mean the gods? We call those gods. That orange one there represents Dhaka, the god of war."

"Ah, so that is what that man…his name was Valerion? That was what he meant by gods. He meant other planets."

"I don't understand, but if Valerion talked about gods, then he mentioned the Greatfather, yes?"

The Conqueror clicked its mandibles. "Indeed he did."

"That's his god," said the woman. "The Greatfather, king of the heavens. Patron of all paladins. Male counterpart to magic, which is feminine. Oh!"

"Hm?" The Conqueror's ears, slits in its head, vibrated, listening.

"I get it now! You wanted to find a connection, and you'd recently fought Valerion, who champions a god that despises magic. He must have cut your connections off!

"But how?" The Conqueror closed its eyes again, seeing only darkness instead of the familiar voice of its Hivemother. "No species has been capable of such a feat. The Hivemother's mind-matter connection has withstood all manner of disruption whether it be electromagnetic or radioactive."

Mind and matter? Electromagnetic? Radioactive? The woman felt half the words the monster said go into one ear and out the other, but she tried to sound like she knew something all the same. "F-from what I can tell, the Hivemother is your goddess, and Valerion evoked the Greatfather to cut your connection with her."

The Conqueror could not understand. "The Hivemother is my goddess? She is a planet? Well, I suppose that is true in a sense. But then your human, this Valerion, he evoked a planet to disrupt my connection?"

"I feel like there's a huge misunderstanding going on," said the woman. If only she knew where exactly the misunderstandings sprouted from, but she didn't, so she started from the ground up, hoping something she said would satisfy the monster. "The gods are higher beings that grant us guidance. The spots in the sky you pointed out are their sky signs. I don't know if they're 'planets' or whatnot, but they live here, and not up there."

"Ah, I am starting to understand," said the Conqueror. The woman sighed in relief. "So these 'gods' are a more intelligent species that has enslaved your kind. And it is one of them that has dared to tear my connection away. Tell me, where do these 'gods' live, so that I may beat them with their spines?"

The woman bit her lip, the mental wear and tear of trying to appease this monster's curiosity really getting to her. She figured she was in for a very long talk.