"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."

― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Come on Speaker, we’ve got work to do!”

Lyra dragged her friend toward a newly retrofitted district of Avalon. The place Mara and Ven had decided to house the drones. Lyra devoted herself to helping others, and now billions of beings were in need.

“What is your intention again…” Speaker resisted, but his cultivation was far too low. The ants had developed an artificial means of creating an inner world, but it took far more time and huge sums of energy to overcome each tier.

“Ven told Mara about something called ‘therapy,’ so I’m going to become the new therapist for the drones!” She leapt over a crowded thoroughfare and into a smaller side road. “You’re going to help me, no one knows more about them than you do!”

“The number of drones…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Lyra glared at the ant. “We’ll get it done, one at a time if we have to!”

She dragged Speaker onward, his protests ignored. This was something that had to be done. The machines were needed, without them, nothing functioned. Food supplies were dangerously thin, and the crops lay unharvested in the fields.

“That would take millions of years…” Speaker struggled to move his legs in time with Lyra’s pace. “I suggest we interface with the central processor, we can speak to all of them at once.”

“Sounds good,” The wolf-kin put on a burst of speed. “We’ll be there soon!”

“The processor is back in the depths of the Colony… that’s what I was trying to tell you,”

Speaker collapsed as Lyra ground to a halt. Her ears twitched as she adjusted her direction, muscles swelled in a mighty leap. She carried a tattered Speaker through the air, targeted on the mighty pyramid at the centre of the Colonies territory.

“Why didn’t you say so!”

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“This is super weird…”

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A cluster of planetoids flowed past, a jumbled knot of material that offended the eye. Ven backstroked next to Cain and shoved him with his foot.

“What is this place?”

“Hey!” Cain cartwheeled through the foul, yet delicious soup. He righted himself and eyed the unusual worlds. “I’m not sure yet, but I have a stupid idea… I’ll let you know once I’ve seen a bit more.”

“Well, whatever it is, it has more energy in it than anything I’ve ever seen,” Ven opened his mouth wide and drew in another gulp. “But… it’s a bit heavy, filled with impurities.”

“It tastes like death,” Cain smiled as he washed the stuff around his mouth. “The reek of a corpse with just the right amount of bloat.”

“You’re so gleeful it’s disgusting,” Ven blanched. “At least I feel a drop of shame for enjoying this filth…”

“HA!” Cain barked. “You have no shame, and we both know it, now shut up and let me focus!”

Dagger held before him, Cain reached out his aura toward the clustered worlds. A thin band of red that stretched until Cain’s face beaded with sweat.

“How far away are they…” Ven squinted. Cain’s bloody line travelled fast enough to orbit Earth in a single second, yet it had almost been a minute.

“Very, very far…” Cain muttered as he dispelled his aura. “It looks like we’ll need those drone ships up and running, unless you want to fly the whole way with just the two of us.”

“Pass…” Ven drifted away from Cain. “We’ve had enough true alone time for this life.”

“My thoughts exactly! So hopefully Mara can work things out, or we’ll be flying blind for a while.”

The pair of them floated, several metres apart, as the planets drifted from sight. Ven sighed. There was something off about the shape of these worlds. Not really round, more a wide disc that had been pinched by a gargantuan thumb. Ven squinted.

“What is that…”

Far ahead, a planet pulsed and warped, a vile green ocean on its surface. The waves twisted and spun, without logic or rhythm. They melted the surface and slipped below, until the world appeared broken, but silent.

“Something worth fighting!” Cain’s hands twitched on his dagger. He squinted as a black goo vomited itself free of the planet. “That looks familiar…”

‘Tiny’ blobs of black, tentacles extended, flailed in the liquid expanse. They shrivelled, disappeared like melted ice, until nothing remained. Ven scratched his chin.

“They look just like the things that the minders hunt, but they were green before they went in.”

Black rushed from a thousand geysers, up and into the sky. The planet in question loomed to the side of them, closer to Cain’s realm than any so far. The spray misted the horizon with countless creatures, until a tremble rippled the waters. Violent and abrupt, it formed a solid wall of pressurised liquid as the planetoid exploded.

“Oh shit…”

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“How long until it arrives?” Mara held her head, thumbs pressed to her temples. The bad news had been a blow to her.

“That’s the only good part,” Ven squinted into the sky. “It will probably take a month or more to cross the distance, but it’s moving so fast… if it hits the realm, Cain thinks we’re all dead.”

“A month…” Mara squatted down, head between her knees. “What can we do to stop it?”

“I’m not sure…” Ven shrugged. “If it’s just the force from the liquid, my aura should be able to absorb it.”

“So… we’ll be fine then?” Mara looked up, a flicker of hope on her face. “If you can…”

“The problem is, it’s not just the liquid,” Ven shook his head and helped Mara to her feet. “Whatever destroyed that planet is being carried on the wave.”

The green mass, tainted black by its missadventure, chilled Ven’s heart. An indescribable dread pushed at the back of his throat with the memory of the thing. It wasn't something they could fight. Even Cain had agreed, though the madman still wanted to try.

“Then what…” Mara deflated once more. “We just wait to die?”

“Nope, we reach out to our neighbours for help,” Dan grinned as he waved his hand. A gate appeared behind him, rimmed in black fire and purple light. “It’s time to see if the Wanderer wants to do another trade!”