King Berry
My head was resting on my hand, as I pondered the orb in front of me. I had a castle domain, somewhat modeled after what I had seen in the innermost walls. My magic was nowhere near as potent as our goddess, the Queen. This mindscape of mine couldn't handle an entire world as she could. A wave of my hand and I was able to change what the orb was showing me.
The Hive had grown much in these past months, now it was primed to grow on a scale I hadn't been able to contemplate. We had hit a sort of barrier with our tier two bugs as the goddess called them. Now, we were on the next stage, the next level of growth. Bugs the size of harpers, comparable to young adults with the potential to grow their magic to strength rivaling Kobe's champions.
Those new unnamed minds, those pure personalities that have begun calling themselves the choir. An apt name, taken from the singers venerating their gods. What else besides a god could have created them? Our Queen has yet to realize it, but she very much is a goddess, or at the very least on the cusp of such.
Faith is a tool, one that becomes a source of power. Power can be observed, I see its tendrils moving and grasping. A cult has formed, not for Bo'Chi, but for our Queen. They have found purchase in our Hive, these prayers are what have fueled the choir's sudden appearance, allowing them to create more of themselves despite the absence of our goddess.
I was all too happy to order the proper tribute, hundreds of thousands of larvae given for this miracle. Those numbers were meaningless compared to the millions that would be saved, the knowledge bestowed upon us. We had been given the information to run our own experiments, to mold and shape the bodies of the choir. We were asked to name these new bugs, a subtle nod to do with them as we pleased.
Argus has dived deeply into the possibilities of the Cyclops. One of three variants the giants could become. Their shape was more malleable than any other. They could be made into shields, spears, swords, and more. The only limit on their shape was the size of a grown human male's torso or a limb. They were still capable of magic, slightly better than the giants even. Argus had her sights set on making golems out of these weapon variants.
The second variant belongs to the magic cyclops. A sleeker shell, harder armor, and the pinnacle of magic in our Hive. Three of them are able to contend with one of Argus' phalanx. Enough of them might be able to rival the goddess herself, yet we know the choir would never go against their creator. Just as no personality in the Hive would truly seek to harm our goddess. They appear just as the giants do, with the single large compound eye that watches all. The shape of it can be molded, but it must be one singular eye.
The third variant crosses with the warrior variant. The paladins, named in honor of our fallen brother, Beru. The easiest way to tell them apart would be the singular eye compared to the two eyes. The difference between the abilities the two would have is arbitrary. It is just a leftover from being a giant, yet both are on par magic-wise with any of the other giants.
Brick's blue workers had completed the algae reservoir, turning the waste of Eclipse into food for my entire kingdom. Workers that were twice as big as any other from the previous tier. All of them were marked by blue stripes on their stingers and pale ones on their wings. Something amazing was happening, as Brick realized he could get the blue workers to manipulate prismoid spores, something that was sadly discovered after the goddess left. A resource the could grow more of itself and function as a defensive structure. Mold wax that grows and gathers nutrients from the environment itself.
Resources themselves were much easier to move now that double mouths were here. Bugs the same size as any giant when completely full, unable to move, but capable of making displacer fluid. They could teleport with one leathery sack filled, the other used to hold the displacer fluid to allow such. They were given the maws of leeches, and the bodies of large termites to be able to hold it all. What could have been dread stingers lined the top of the smaller sack similar to a corded spine. The smaller sack was inside the bigger sack, with muscles that allowed it to do a sort of pumping motion. They were as elegant as they were disturbing.
The tier three bombers, now called explosives, followed the same idea, just on a smaller scale. One that allowed them to move and fly, albeit slowly. Their explosives were powerful enough to break solid stone into more manageable chunks and crack bedrock itself. More often used on the stone no other bugs could dig into, than as a defense. According to Brick's reports, as he expands into the Underneath, the noise and force of the blast have likely scared most predators away.
Not that predators were a concern with the newly named wraiths. Tier three ghosts were given this name, by Silver themself. As with the explosives, and double mouths. They had eight long thin legs to distribute their weight. Their wings were transparent, with six of them to fly silently and as quickly as the second-tier scouts. They had three dread stingers, each filled with poison that came directly from our goddess. The soft sleep, the paralysis, and the eternal death. Their mouths were elongated needles that allowed them to quietly draw blood and memorize everything about their targets. These tasting proboscis were so fine-tuned they could tell individual bugs apart.
Very few wraiths would be made, as they were the hardest to keep fed and alive. They were perfect for whenever we wanted something dead without arousing suspicion, while also being the smallest of the tier three bugs made by our goddess. They were fragile, with bodies molded after mosquito hawks. Something the inhabitants of the Underground know to be harmless, so no one will make such a connection.
It cannot be understated how many problems our goddess solved with her new bugs. One of the biggest issues we had was our reliance on entomancers to convey our thoughts. Scix surprised everyone when he stole the name of the third-tier screamers. They were now called speakers, with a set of five hollow stingers that air could pass through. Their mouths were larger, with a sack in their abdomen to force air through those stingers. This allowed them to create a wide range of sound, and even 'speak' the language of the people races. They could not move, but they could sacrifice themselves with a scream on par with an eldest Banshee.
Scix himself was struggling with the elves under his command. He had gathered a tribe of fifty to offset his losses dealt from Kobe and the Raven. He was growing his forces once more while tending to the elves he had rescued. As he put it, they were a strange bunch. He didn't understand their intricacies, and most of them were from different tribes. This led to friction, which led to fights, which led to him spending time on resolving internal issues. He would struggle less as he made the more powerful bugs. It also reminded me that I had nothing on Argus beyond the bug golem.
I shook the thoughts from my head, recounting the next bug gifted to us by our goddess. The silk singers were making their rounds with Clarice. Third-tier trappers that looked exactly like smaller Harpers. They had multiple spinneret stingers, that coiled together to give them spider butts. They were excellent spies, and their webbing was better than our Goddess could currently manage. They were on par with even Pandora's webs, despite the little one keeping it to herself.
A knowing grin came to me as I watched the two through my orb. It was one of the few times where things were calm. We were aware of the army a week away, but they weren't here for us. All the other berries were busy carrying out my orders. The books had given me an idea, and now the silk singers were weaving webs with knots in them. Strings that held information, a tapestry that could be plucked and freed up space within the Hive. The information would never change, and the goddess adored the idea.
She adored it so much that it was spread throughout the Hive, with a unique code for each personality. I was promised a special reward for my contributions. All that was needed was for me to figure out what I desired. I was a king, there was nothing I truly sought for now. It was agreed to visit the topic at a later date. The main reason I sat on my throne, pondering my orbs. What did I desire that we did not have already?
Two variants of tier three warriors were made. My vault dwellers could not fly but had their acid-filled stomachs and poison. They were overgrown grasshoppers with spines and stingers. Thick sharp mandibles for carving flesh with ease, and armor stronger than a giant's. They could perform magic but were largely bound to the Hive. A deadly surprise for anything that decided to open up any of our hives.
The other variant was touched one as it crossed with the third of the giants. Beru's Paladins, named in honor of his heroic sacrifice against the dragon that stole Cynthia away. We were much younger back then, losing a personality, a friend accepted into the Hive, and our goddess' second daughter. All of them in the same day, as our Queen had her head severed. Ember could be recovered, our goddess could see her monthly. Lady Cynthia was out there, but so long as she was alive, we could retrieve her.
Beru was the only one that couldn't come back, we fully expected him to die on the journey. To be discovered and slain. I wondered how much our growth would have changed with him here. He was so fixated on the valor of knights, their creed, and the idealized mannerisms on display during the plays. Silly little things that had come into play later, as entertainment gave a topic to discuss with the people of Eclipse and the Underground.
Paladins were modeled after Beru's elite form. Large bugs capable of flight, spines covering their legs. They had proud horns, sharp enough to cut through leather and flesh. Their wings were Beru's favorite colors, a mix of blues, grays, and golds. These paladins were smarter than Beru, they were capable of magic. Things he likely would have picked up on had he the time to mature.
We would not allow another to be taken as he had. The Hive has grown since then, our power escalating, or understanding burning with the desire to learn more. The final tier-three our Queen made would alert us to any and all dangers coming our way. Rose's aptly named, humming wasps.
Bugs the size of small songbirds, with four powerful wings. None were faster than them. Wyvern eyes that could see for kilometers, none could see further. Long fanning antenna that fell gracefully behind their backs, none could taste or smell better. They were elegant and likely to be the last evolution of the scouts for a long while. Those three stingers were still there, coiling beautifully over each other to make a single blade. A blade that would bloom to inject painful venom into those foolish enough to anger the Hive.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
I understood, why our goddess wanted to know the answers we came up with. Our creator wanted to see how far we'd go, what issues we ran into with the bugs we had. As the scope of our Hive expanded, so did the scale of all the niches we needed to fulfill. Our Queen could handle it all, but her time was precious. It needed to be spent elsewhere to prepare for anything that might threaten our survival. We were her children as much as Pandora or Ember. We are loved.
My eyes closed for a second, letting the thoughts run their course. There was so much in this world to learn, to comprehend. Shallow concepts were becoming deeper, they held more meaning. I saw that my reverence for our Queen wasn't shared by the others. Argus and my views were the closest, but even those differed when we chatted. Scix's understanding was cruel, yet it made sense. Rose's was playful and whimsical.
It made me wonder just what my devotion was. My bugs were spread throughout the four corners of the Underground. My hive grew like cancer, not starting any fights. Earls were gathered along the frontiers, lesser nobles guided their earls to distribute resources. It all worked its way upwards until it finally reached a remote warehouse with millions of us. The rooms were covered in wax and shells, giants resting under the skulls of the predators that once called this place their home.
They were chupacabra, large cats similar to the Fukuma. They had bony spines running down their backs, spotted pelts, and hollow teeth for drinking the blood of others. These predators had been twice the size of any human. Not that it mattered anymore, these creatures had fallen to my little war with them. Their territory was the capital of my hive.
A hive that stretched from every habitable corner of the Underground to the Underneath, and even inside every wall of Eclipse. The genocide of those massive bloodsuckers was fuel needed to get started. Brick's algae farm allowed for my continued growth. I had no qualms from feeding my kin the refuse and discarded food that no one else sought to eat. The Underground was cleaner, all while allowing the Hive as a whole to have eyes and ears on mostly everything.
My kingdom was hungry for the farmlands above, our growth stifled by a few lesser nobles that Raul struggled to make an agreement with. The cold clutches of Winter weren't helping. Many termite farms had found their way into the homes of those that opposed our goddess, those helped. If we included the termites as a part of our Hive, we'd be in the billions instead of the millions. We were selectively breeding the termites we captured, aiming to make those that could be more useful than eating wood or sacrificing themselves to seal wounds on my bugs.
I heard a polite cough to my side, "My liege, I have brought updates from the province connected to Rose's Garden."
My eyes opened at that, as I took in my advisor. It always struck me as something strange, how the other perceived me differently. I discreetly took the scroll, idly going over the report. Pandora saw me as a bunch of bugs stuck together, Argus saw me as an elf in fancy robes, Scix just saw me as one giant bug. There was variation, but it cemented the idea I had been resting on for some time. I was no longer able to use the bodies of other berries.
I had become an entity that could only exist so long as the other berries perceived me to exist. The one true Berry that ruled above all others. The bearer of the talent that marked my existence as true. One built upon the existence of the others beneath me. Without the peasants, the earls would fall. With the earls falling, we all would drop in power. A solid foundation was needed to sustain all this, but with the new tier three bugs, the addition of the choir, such an event was unlikely. In fact, I might be the most powerful personality tomorrow. None of the others could rival my control, the sheer numbers, all coupled with the incredible potential the choir offered.
The report mainly covered the information I had received earlier. The fire kingdom's army was moving, a small group had broken off for unknown reasons. Their speed was impressive, making it likely they will arrive tomorrow. There was something strange about the group itself, a signal was coming from them. It was faint, but the goddess lacked the time to react after she picked up on it. The request was made by an eager noble wishing to prove himself.
I placed my thumb on the paper, burning a seal onto it. If the goddess took notice of something this small, then it was worth a look. Another advisor appeared, he knelt holding out his scroll. "Glorious news, my liege!" His hands were shaking I gave the scroll back to the first advisor to give to the noble. My attention was on the new advisor barely holding in their excitement. I gave the nod so they might speak. "Lice have been discovered on a few of the women trailing the army!"
A tilt of my head as I took the scroll. Lice? How would that warrant this response? I opened the scroll and fell back onto my throne, hand over my mouth. They found Lice! Not just any lice, they were the Hive's lice! All of them broadcasting a very faint location we had never been! Lady Cynthia wouldn't have been able to convince any bugs left on their journey to make lice. It was Beru saying that he was alive, letting us know where to find him!
More advisors started to pour into my throne room. All of them asking orders to give to the dukes and everyone else down the line. Everyone needed to know! I held up my hand, pausing as I realized something. Beru may have been alive when he sent that message, but there was no guarantee that he was alive right now. There was also the possibility that an entomancer dragon could have manipulated him. "Has there been word from the Queen? Has she spread this news?"
The advisors looked at each other as the first dukes came quietly into my throne room. One duke read the room, "My liege, there have been no reports from our Queen informing the other personalities. I have informed her of the information." He bowed with a hand over his chest.
I gave an approving nod, the answer coming immediately. Our Queen was aware and said it was our choice to tell the others or not. I asked the goddess why she didn't want to tell the others herself. Her answer was the same terrible thoughts I just had. Beru could be compromised, he could be dead long before the message came to us. All that we knew was that he survived the initial trip, and gave us the location we could start our search. Something that would be done when she was confident she could take on a dragon and win.
My heart felt cold as I lowered my head. Telling the others would drive them to get stronger, it would make them take risks. We were blessed that Rose was in the farms, unable to pick up on the signals the lice were giving off. I looked at the duke from earlier, "Gather everyone that is about to discover the truth, we need time to decide what is to be done."
Murmurs spread as the duke immediately left to kick his high nobles into motion. We didn't know what dragons were capable of, only what Bral had shown us. We knew they could use one magic as everyone else could, but Oswald's journal told us they had bloodlines. Dogmas as the dragons themselves called it. A piece of their ancestors' soul always with them, always granting them some power. It was how Bral was able to dominate in a similar fashion to vampires. It was why he was able to polymorph into human form.
I grit my teeth, |"The group that broke off, I believe them to be polymorphed dragons, my Queen."|
|"I suspected as much myself."| I didn't dare call her a goddess to her face, she hated others calling her that. |"There is a stronger signal on one of them. Likely bugs, perhaps even what is left of Beru. It may be a trap, there is much we do not know about these dragons."|
|"If it isn't, then we're wasting our one chance to get a message back to Beru. What are your orders?"| I jumped off my throne, pacing. I silenced the murmurs by raising a hand, pointing to my temple so they knew I was talking directly to our goddess.
|"Observe, see if the bugs will naturally leave the dragons. Wait until they are occupied by the walls or whatever the King of Eclipse has planned. Then act. Charles likely knew of this and has made plans. This is only a suggestion, as I cannot order you. It is what I would do in your situation, the choice is yours."| She was being cautious due to the pact, but it was more than enough for me.
I looked at the other berries in my throne room. Lesser nobles that had never been here, that never knew they would step inside this room. Dukes that would try to replace me, if I were to somehow fall. I took a bow, "The goddess has given us a suggestion, and we are not going to tell the others for fear that this may be a trap. I want a complete disconnect from the rest of the Hive, under the guise of an update and experimenting on the new tier three bugs."
Every berry in the room erupted with their thoughts, most of them demanding answers. Some were openly against my judgment, not wanting to risk themselves. Disconnecting from the Hive wouldn't make the few errant revolts go away. I expected at least a few of the weakest berries to make their move. If this had happened after we made certain everything was secure after all the larvae were replaced. I felt their panic, the discontent, rising.
A wave of mental pressure pulsed from me, forcing those unable to endure my power to kneel. Only the dukes remained standing, though they were haggard and struggling. I had hand-picked them from the others, elevating them to the status they now enjoyed. The best berries that were willing to die for the Hive. The brightest of us, the most clever. My voice came out, laced with power. "You will do as I decree, or another shall replace you. I will strip you of your title, and place you below even the peasants. Now go, all of you, except the dukes. Inform the other personalities of the lie, and we shall step into this trap for glory, or hear a thought from one we thought lost to us!"
The second I released that pressure, they were gone. Each duke eyed me carefully. Each one of them wanted my position but was unable to take it from me. There was nothing they could do to cause me fear, beyond instigating a revolt that cost lives to be lost. So many lives had been lost due to internal power struggles. I had to tolerate it just to use the experience gained for future conflicts with creatures equal to our bugs. There was no doubt in my mind that we were the only Hivemind to grace Xentos with our existence. The bloodworms confirmed it by their existence and how they worked as a colony.
Silence lingered in the air, as I collected myself. I gazed at each duke, "When we disconnect, I want to make certain that all those that wish to revolt are sent out to join the others. They will act under the choir's orders and be spared. If this is a trap, we may all die. I will not fault you for leaving, but there will be no glory from cowardice. Beru himself may be held hostage by an unknown enemy, whose power we may not completely comprehend."
One of the dukes coughed politely, "From our Queen's battle with Bral in Cynthia's mind, we can understand that dragons are more powerful than she was at the time."
Another duke chimed in, "We suspect ourselves to be on par, yet the Queen did not win through brute strength. She used cunning and guile to create a loop in Cynthia's subconscious to cleanse her mind of foreign influence after a set time. A cancer, as we often compare our hive to."
I nodded, "Each of you may have been as powerful as her back then, thanks to those under us providing mental strength. We are no match for the power she wields now, but it may be enough to confuse a dragon and land a fatal strike on their mind." I lowered my head, remembering my brashness in asking Carter to carve sigils and runes for us. Bindings were made under the guise of forming a prison for revolting berries. One that turned traitors into power to bind a powerful mind. A trump card that I had prepared in case the goddess herself needed aid to trap some rogue mind.
The dukes watched my every move, as I waved them closer. "I hope to never use this, but if it is against a dragon I see no better alternative. Here is the plan if one should invade our minds and start causing havoc." It was a cold plan, one that used the sacrifice of those berries likely to die if this was a trap. If we were so overwhelmed and forced to use it, then it was the final gamble. With the dukes gone, I began working on one final project. The creation of a prince to take over should all else fail. The perfect Berry.