CHAPTER 35

Daelyn’s vision returned to him several moments after he had lost it. However, instead of seeing the blue sky he saw a sky of black and red, mixing together in a large storm which seemed to swallow the heavens. A storm that seemed to swallow everything it touched, leaving only waste and ruin in its wake.

Daelyn was captivated by the storm for several minutes, until he shook his head and got to his feet. Well, he didn’t really do those things, as he didn’t have a body in the soul space, which was quite weird. He had heard that most beings naturally took on their own form inside the soul space, but Daelyn hadn’t been able to get anything despite his efforts.

He had spent hours on end trying to transform his disembodied soul into another form, but he had failed every time. He had tried the most simple things, like changing into a cube instead of the circular outcropping object he was now, yet he had failed even such a simple task, causing him to become more and more agitated until he finally gave up, as he realized that there wasn’t any way to continue down that path.

He stood up in his disembodied form, and directed his gaze towards the forest surrounding the barren plain he had woken up in. There was a stark contrast between the green and lush forest in the background, and the plain of waste and ruin with Daelyn at its epicentre.

He was struck with the beauty of the forest, as the eerie silence accented the calmness and beauty that radiated from the trees.

Moving towards the forest in a light stroll, or float, he admired the natural beauty the large yet stunted trees held. They all seemed to grow to a certain height before the branches sporadically grew out from the top, creating a dense layer of branches topped off with a large amount of leaves. It made for quite a scene, as the entrance to the forest was quite dark, giving it a sense of mystery and prickling Daelyn’s curiosity.

He traversed the last few metres of wasteland before he entered the trees with a feelings of wariness. The atmosphere turned quite gloomy as he entered through the natural archway the trees had created. Where they had once seemed beautiful and calm, now they loomed over him like slumbering yet dangerous giants.

They cast a shadow over the forest floor, creating an atmosphere that would send a tingle down anyone’s spine. The trees seemed to blot out the sun with their tangled mess of branches of leaves, and create a certain tension which put Daelyn on guard.

Yet despite the tension in the air and the forbidding in the atmosphere, he pushed on.

Daelyn had thrown caution to the air the moment he walked under the wooden archways, the only thing that remained was his desire to sate his curiosity. Yet despite his foolishness, he wasn’t inept.

He noticed how the natural beauty and surreal silence were quickly replaced by an unnatural tranquillity and a darkness that seemed to ooze out from under the tree bark. The forest floor became darker and darker as Daelyn came closer to the centre of the forest. The only beams of light that touched the ground where from rough patches in the trees, and the archway that became more and more distant.

The forest became darker and darker, as even the trees seemed to turn a coal like blackness. Daelyn felt like he was in a room without windows, as almost everything around him seemed to turn more and more dark the closer he got to the centre, and when the forest had become a tunnel without light, there was an end.

The dark and baleful forest floor reached an end, as it opened up into a small glade with a large tree in the middle.

Daelyn looked in shock at the large tree for a second, before something in his mind clicked.

The large tree in front of him seemed to be almost completely made from coal, as most of it had been turned to the same dark charcoal that seemed to permeate the forest. Only the occasional green leave its barren branches betrayed that it hadn’t died, yet it was clear that the withering wouldn’t take much longer. The trees around him where all coated in a layer of darkness that seemed to permeate every part of them, turning both their surroundings and themselves into something devoid of life. The grass was dead, the berries and other greens were rotten, the flowers were withered, and the corpses of the small wildlife were strewn about across the glade.

It seemed like death itself had passed through, and it hadn’t shown any mercy to any of the flora and fauna in the forest.

As Daelyn took in the scene, he realised what this forest might be, he realised where he might be.

He had seen the blackened trees, he had seen their stunted growth, he felt the dark energy course through the air, and he couldn’t help but recognise the eerie silence that permeated every the woods.

He realised it was Farnum. He knew he could be wrong, but everything pointed towards it. The black trees, their stunted growth, the unnatural silence, the absence of any life in the forest, it must be Farnum.

With this realisation that it was Farnum he was looking at, he took pity. He pitied the poor tree that he had to go through such a trauma.

It was clear that the dark energies that permeated the withering tree had corrupted close to every part of it. The corruption had turned its once thick bark into a brittle and crumbling crust, the corruption had left it to starve. Farnum had been stripped of his leaves, and his roots had been infected with the darkness, causing them to lose their ability to absorb minerals.

Famine inhabited the forest, and it took everything down with it. It destroyed the small plant life, it withered the leaves of the taller trees, it corrupted their roots, and it left the wildlife to starve under a shortage of food.

Yet, despite the horror scene dead forest in front of him, Daelyn wasn’t fazed in the slightest. He had thrown away all caution the moment he had entered the forest, and when he felt the dark mana permeating the air in the small glade, he hadn’t been frightened by it.

He hadn’t been frightened by the dark energy oozing from the trees, as he had felt a feeling of familiarity from it instead of dread. Dark mana inhabited both his body and his soul, there was no way he could be scared of such ambient dark energy.

With that feeling of familiarity, he made the last few steps towards the large tree, and placed his hand on it.

He felt the jagged and brittle texture of the tree bark as he spread his sense outwards. Sure enough, he felt the dark mana flowing through it like an ocean.

He felt the energy flowing towards the top, as it was trying to corrupt the remains of the once great forest. The dark mana flowed through the tree trunk like a tide. Daelyn felt it abate and then feverishly advance, only to retreat once again, creating a never ending cycle of attacking and retreating.

Daelyn wasn’t sure what the tide was bashing against, but he felt the desire to know swell up in him once again, and he began gathering his own energy. Curiosity had been the reason why he had entered this forest, and he wasn’t going to leave until he was satisfied.

He felt that it was a slow gathering process, much slower than normal, but as he looked up, he understood why. The storm had started morphing and it was making a path towards his position, leaving only a barren plain in its wake. The energy that ravaged Daelyn’s soulspace infiltrated Farnum, and reigned havoc over the corrupted and weakened forest.

It coalesced above Daelyn, granting him access to his power. He felt the energy of both blood and dark mana flow through his being, and he used it. He directed it towards the brittle tree bark, and he carved a way through the endless tide of dark mana washing up against whatever was at the top of the tree.

Tethers from the storm attached itself to Daelyn, and through his being, they were directed at the tree. He was used as both a conduit and a direction. With his being becoming stationary, he focused his efforts on carving his way through the ocean of dark mana that inhabited the tree, and as the first tiny piece of the brittle tree bark caved in under the pressure, he smirked.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

There was much work to be done, but that first piece was the beginning. A journey of a thousand kilometres starts with a single step, and that small piece of tree bark only reinforced this notion in Daelyn’s mind.

While Daelyn had his mind preoccupied with curiosity, another being close by had its mind focused solely on survival.

It had witnessed the slaughter of its own people, yet it hadn’t been moved by it. It had lost all sympathy for its brothers and sisters the moment they cast her out on the orders of that damned matriarch.

Yet it hadn’t left the slaughter, as it knew that it didn’t have any resources. It would take anything that the creatures would leave, but to its surprise, they left the battlefield intact. The only thing they took seemed to be the body of a creature with light skin and dark hair.

It gazed on as the large lions with snakes for manes wandered off, the dozens upon dozens of roots simply disappeared back into the ground, and the three figures walked back towards the construction of wood and stone in the back of the glade.

It looked on in curiosity as the large beasts obediently followed the three figures, before they suddenly sank into the ground as a portal opened up underneath the centre figure. They were sucked in and with their disappearance, the glade regained its lost peace, returning to its former state of silence and tranquillity.  

It was completely taken aback by the calmness and serenity of the glade, before it snapped out of its stupor, and set off.

The queen, her personal guards, and a large part of the army had been destroyed. The only thing that remained were their corpses, and the young ant queen would be damned if she didn’t make use of all the resources she had.

She hurried back towards the colony from which she was banished only a few days ago. She had only one goal in mind, to gain control of the meagre numbers that remained, and lead them to greatness under her rule. She knew that they wouldn’t readily accept her, but she could only hope that they would put their survival above their deceased queen.

Despite her hurry, it took close to two hours before the young ant matriarch reached her destination. She wasn’t built like the former ant queen, instead of a strong body with a limited birthing capacity, she had a weak body with a large birthing capacity, culminating in her comically large behind, large enough to hold a full soldier ant.

When she finally arrived, she saw that the remaining ants had a similar condition to those that had joined the queen in her hunt. They had gone berserk the moment they felt the absence of the warrior ant queen’s overpowering presence, causing the ants to kill everything in sight.

The only difference between the colony and the queen’s hunt was that the colony’s slaughter hadn’t ended yet.

She once again witnessed how her people were cut down in front of her, yet this time she did feel fear, as they had noticed her despite their berserk state.

She had tried to peek out from the tree she had been hiding behind, but because of her clunky movement, she had been discovered. Her complexion grew pale as one of the smaller soldier ants in the brawl shrieked in her direction, drawing the attention of the others to her.

The young queen looked on in horror as a group of soldier ants split off from the brawl and bounded towards her.

The young queen quickly took off in the opposite direction, but she could hear her pursuers come closer and closer with the second, as her enormous lower body severely impaired her movement. They quickly bridged the distance between them, and as they reached the queen, she screamed.

She felt one of the soldier ants latch on to her lower body, slowing her even more as it was nothing more than deadweight at this point. The soldier’s pincers latched on to her behind, and ripped a piece of flesh from it. She shrieked out in anguish, as she felt tendons of muscle and meat being ripped apart, only to have another soldier latch on and feast.

She grinded to a halt under the added weight of the soldier ants, but she did not give up. She used every muscle in her body to try and continue. She ignored the enormous amount of pain that was straining her mind and she focused on one thing, survival. She had survived the first few days away from the colony, she had outlived that glorified dictator, and she wasn’t going to give up now.

She felt the tendons connection her body to her behind slowly cave as she pulled harder and harder at them. She felt even more excruciating pain from tearing her own tendons, yet she remained steadfast. She would die if she didn’t do this and with one last great push, she succeeded.

A sound of string being ripped apart accompanied with the *squish*  of blood and gore resounded through the forest and with it, the queen sped off. She ran at top speed, as she knew that if her pursuers caught her now, she would be dead.

She sped off across the forest floor, passing the trees that had taken her earlier more than a dozen and a half minutes to pass, now only taking less than a minute to leave them behind. Blood gushed from the wound on her backside, yet she continued on despite the screaming pain that enveloped her mind.

She trudged on, hoping that her pursuers were more interested in her beefy severed body part. After several minutes of running at full speed, she looked behind her, and found that she was alone. Her pursuers were nowhere to be seen, nor any other signs of life.

The area around her seemed abandoned, as the young queen could hear the sounds of battle in the distance behind her, but in front of her, it was completely silent.

The ant queen hesitated for a second, as her instincts told her that danger was up ahead, but she knew that she couldn’t go back. She knew she wouldn’t survive very long in the wild, as she had been able to leech off security from the colony provided by hiding close by, but with the disappearance of the warrior queen, that wasn’t an option any more.

Gathering her will, she continued traversing the forest floor. She didn’t know where she was, as she had been disoriented by the assault and the screaming pain that remained in her mind.

Her scrambled thoughts only became dimmer with the second as she felt her consciousness slip away from her.

Her pace slowed as her consciousness began to leave her, yet valiantly held on. She knew that falling into unconsciousness now would only spell death for her, so she scanned her blurry environment, trying to find some kind of shelter.

Yet despite her desperate attempts, the forest didn’t give in, as there seemed to be no holes in the trees, no cavities in the ground, no shaft under a tree dug out by a boar looking for food, there was nowhere to hide.

Desperate, the queen trotted on. It had been several minutes since she had entered the silent part of the forest, and now she couldn’t hear anything coming from her surroundings. The sounds of battle in the distance had died off, and now only the foreboding silence remained.

However, as she entered deeper into the unnatural tranquillity of the forest, she felt a faint energy course through the air.

She followed it in her half-conscious state, and quickly came upon a shallow cavity under a tree at the edge of a small glade. Focusing only on the hole, she failed to notice her surroundings, and she failed to notice the glade next to her.

The smell of death permeated the air, yet it went unnoticed. Her mind was completely focused on the energy that coursed through the air, and the shelter that it had let her to.

She felt the air thicken with that same energy as she stood in front of the entrance to the hole. With one last show of strength, she forced her legs over the edge, only to roll down the rabbit hole. It took several nauseating moments for her to arrive at the end of the small cavern. She grinded to a halt as she smashed into a massive curved wall with a loud *thud*.

It took only several moments for her to lose consciousness. Her last sight being something dark, darker than the darkness that surrounded her, something that seemed to emanate the energy that had led her here, and as her head touched the ground, she lost consciousness.

Her vision faded, only to open again several moments later.

She was back in the colony, back in the nursery where she was born. She looked up to see her caretaker and noticed something. She gazed upon the ant that had raised her with a stunned mind, as she could only watch in horror as the normal worker ant towered over her. She had become a larva once again.

 She was in the centre of a large earthen room under the tall tree she knew her people called home. She was right next to a pile of food and a reservoir of water, yet there was something different. Yet before she could mind the details, one of the caretakers picked up something from the pile of food, and put it in front of her.

She had remembered her youth to be bliss, as she didn’t have to do anything besides eat and grow, everything had been taken care of for her, they had even cleaned up her excrement. She had been living the life of a princess with fresh food, clear water, and servants that followed her every order.

She dug into the mountain of food at her disposal with a phantom smile, as she had forgotten the joy she had felt in her youth before she was cast out under the tyranny of the old queen. She dug a hole into the pile, and she was slowly expanding it. She dug a path through the mountain of food with fervour. Her smile grew with every piece of meat she consumed, and when almost half of the pile was gone, she slowly crawled out from under the mountain of food.

Having had her fill, she returned to her bed made from leaves and soft dirt, only to have her body slump the moment it hit the leaves.

She felt like the day had gone by in pure bliss, as she had truly enjoyed reliving her youth. She had enjoyed having caretakers and she had greatly enjoyed tunnelling through the mountain of food at her disposal. All of this bliss culminated in one last phantom smile on the queen’s face, as she felt that this day had been too perfect.

She let out one last sigh of bliss, before she fell asleep. With her vision leaving her once again, she did noticed one thing before her consciousness left her. A weirdly strong smell invaded her nose, a very strong and sulphuric smell permeated her mind, causing the maggot queen to writhe in disgust.

She was greatly angered by the smell that had invaded her nostrils, yet with a tilt of her head, her anger vaporised. It was replaced by disgust, horror, and disbelief.