Click.

‘People are gaining magic.’

“I’ve noticed.”

My mind went silent from the exchange.

‘There’s a girl in my school who was using spirit magic, though subconsciously.’

“One of my monitoring angels found a man in Iraq who could bend sand to his will.”

‘...Seems like mana is everywhere now. I can feel it. It was thin before, only the forest near the school could compare to any place in Piora. But now... I bet its probably caused by the earthquake.’

“Agreed. There’s something else. It seems I didn’t notice monster attack. I’ll need to cover up some things but-“

Click.

God? Hello God? Did we actually just lose connection?

It was only 11:15 in the morning and more things keep piling up on top of me. Alice can use magic, but she doesn’t know why. There’s a guy somewhere in Iraq that can use earth magic. And God didn’t notice a monster spawn. This day is just getting out of hand.

Pulling out my phone, I went to my news feed to find a bunch of articles about a colony of giant ants attacking Florida. From the pictures, I knew from experience that they were caldera fire ants, nasty little creatures that lived of the rich soil around a volcano. Turning my phone off, I channelled my mana into my hands. Big spell time!

I haven’t casted this one in a while, what with God teleporting me to anywhere that was far. This one burns lot of my mana, nearly half so I have to finish this fight quick to have enough to get back. Already knowing how to defeat the ants is a big advantage. Seeing through the small windows on the door, I made sure no one was outside. Closing my eyes, I completely focused on completing the spell. Spatial magic was not my forte. I imagined where the ants were than spat out the command word of the spell.

“Teleport!”

The pull on my mana was strong as I opened my eyes to a battlefield. A large hole was in the middle of the street, boiling fumes coming from the red, hot pit. Sheep-sized ants were crawling out of the hold, molten rock dripping from their from their mouths. The street around the hole was a mess – burning cars with bite marks could be seen up and down the entire thing. It was devoid of people, save for the few policemen unconscious on the sidewalk. Fortunately, the ants weren’t carnivores. They didn’t even eat food; they’re just gatherers who retaliated to attacks.

Walking up to the hole was fairly easy. The worker ants just ignored me and continued to funnel in and out of the hole to scavenge for resources. Heat didn’t really bother me so I jumped into the hole with no problem. My clothes would have a problem so I recently started casting buffs on them to keep them intact. I’m supposed to be saving mana but her I am wasting them on stupid buffs. Still don’t get why regenerating suits are stupid. I dropped into a large chamber, a storage of sorts for the ants. Many were stacking street signs and car parts on a large pile, the workers anyway. The soldier ants, however, were staring at me. Bigger and stronger, they looked like red bulls that spat molten rock.

Five came stampeding at me, mandibles snapping very menacingly. Awakening my sword, I injected a bit of mana into the hilt to let the blade send a wave of energy at the soldiers as I swung it in a wide arc. 4 met it head on, crumpling to the ground as their rocky carapace opened to reveal a stash of metal. The last ignored the deaths, still charging with no restraint. When it got closer, I thrust the sword into its body, impaling the poor insect. With that done, I continued my way to the source of the colony’s power – the queen.

Soldiers ants had continued to try and stop me, but they were greeted with a swift taste of divine steel. The interesting thing about caldera fire ants were that they weren’t actually living creatures. They are constructs made by the very powerful and very intelligent queen ant. Operated with a hive mind, the queen can see and hear everything the ants encounter. That’s why it’s probably throwing everything it has on me. All the soldiers, even the workers came, standing in my way like a wall of living rock. I cleaved my way through easy enough. While their armour could deflect bullets, my sword could shatter them upon impact. Easy.

The tunnels were long and winding, walls filled with holes that more ants kept coming from. They weren’t hard to kill but just annoyingly persistent. Well, not really they. Her, the queen.

Arriving at a large cavern area, a giant red orb floated in the centre. The entire cave was the size of a stadium with the biggest pile of metal I have ever seen in the back of the cave. The temperature around could probably cook a person alive. In the middle was a large red sphere, transparent enough just to see the silhouette of a large insect inside. Its ruby eyes flittered in the dark as it looked at me.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Lightning Lance!”

Like a javelin, the bolt of pure electricity flew into the orb, piercing the shell. The orb started to tremble, the queen inside squirming and screeching. Fractures echoed from the whole that was until the whole thing eventually burst open, revealing the lifeless, winged queen. Time to go I guess.

“This is not... over.”

A scraping voice came from the dead body sending chills up my spine. Um, caldera fire ants were – last time I checked – not supposed to talk.

Purple runes appeared like chains around the queen, circling its body. Loud cracks could be heard as I watched the elephant-sized ant grow and morph into a more malevolent being. Its abdomen grew in length, now the size of a bus several large holes lining the bottom. The thorax ballooned, several spines covering the surface. Great wings lifted the creature, three sets each with the wingspan of two F-16 jets. To top it all off, the mandibles looked like they could easily wrap around 20 people and cut them in half with ease.

“For what you’ve done, you shall pay with blood.”

The queen spoke once more, her anger and pride clearly shown by her words.

She rose from the ground, wings beating at breakneck speeds.

I threw another Lightning Lance at the monster, only to have it deflected and hit the ground near me. The air around her seemed to shimmer, a definite sign that she had put up a magical barrier. Well, magic is the queen ant’s thing. Flying overhead, the holes on her abdomen opened, dropping large deposits of molten metal that went straight for me. Dodging to the side, hot metal splattered on the ground where it landed.

Since magic wasn’t going to cut it, I decided on a more physical approach. With a running start, I jumped up high and crashed into the barrier, sword first. It shattered instantly, allowing me to get on top of her body.

“Get off me, you filthy creature!” She screamed.

Her anger exploded, magic circles materializing over her all pointed at me.

“Oh boy.”

Bolts of lightning, fire balls, and rocks came hurdling towards in a cacophony of spells. I keep moving out of the way of the spells but they just keep coming. Going on the offensive was probably the best option right now. Sword in hand, I ran straight for one of the wings. With one fell swoop, I cut it straight off the queen’s back. Shr shrieked, her spells going haywire as she poured more mana into them. I’ve got to ground this thing.

More of her wings fell to the ground as the fight continued. Stronger, more powerful spells were being cast from her circles and I started to take damage. My clothes were ripped, burnt, then frozen over and over. The buffs didn’t stand a chance. I could take a lot of magic head on but with the amount of spells the stupid ant was casting, I was hurting more than I’d like to admit. The spells were comparable to an archmage’s and let me tell you, I’d rather fight against 50,000 trolls than a single one of those bastards. What was worse, she could take her spells. Each one that hit her body barely leaving a scratch.

When only one wing was left, the queen finally hurtled to the ground, the earth splitting at her weight.

“You puny cockroach! I shall crush you!”

While her flying capabilities were gone for good, her 30-metre long feet weren’t. She forced herself up from the ground, eyes glowing with power and hatred.

The ends of her legs left holes on the ground as she charged at me. She was very big, but her long legs allowed her to gain ground faster than something like her size normally could. When she neared, I ran to the side using my superior speed to gain ground. The queen herself crashed into the wall, causing a large portion to collapse. She pulled her face out of the rocks and looked at me, her eyes filled with grim determination.

“I shall not let you leave this place.”

Her anger cooled, yet now it felt like it was more condensed. I did not like this.

Rushing to the queen, I swung my sword towards the legs. Seeing this, she swiftly put up layers of barriers to protect them. While I managed to break through most, my blade stopped a few short before I had to back away from her retaliation. Hundreds of spells came zooming towards me like a storm of bullets. I knew I couldn’t tank them all so I resorted to my own multi-layered barrier. The following explosion of magic managed to break through all of them, but my body could take the damage that did get through. Dust was everywhere due to the explosion so I used it as cover to get closer to the queen. I step right at the edge of the dust zone before shooting out for the element of surprise. Within a second, I was at the bottom of the head of the queen. She tried to grab hold of me but it was too late. Ramming the sword into her head, I gripped it tightly then ran for the other side of the giant bug. A desperate wail came from the queen as it was split open. Purple liquid oozed from the massive wound. The legs quickly gave in, losing all strength and letting its owner flop onto the ground.

“Phew.”

However, before I could celebrate, the ant gave one last line of defiance.

“I told you... it’s not... over...yet.”

With that, a large pulse of mana erupted from the body. Bracing myself, I waited for the worst... yet nothing came. What a let down.

Exiting the cavern, I was making my way back up to the surface when several explosions shook the ant hill. The entire thing was collapsing!

“Wind’s Vessel!”

I empowered my speed to escape the self-destructing lair. As I passed by the numerous intertwining tunnels, I tried to look for any clues as to what caused the cave in. I had a feeling that the queen’s final move had something to do with it.

I got to the surface and everything looked like hell. The shops and apartment blocks that once stood around the entrance were now piles of rubble, the streets littered with holes from what I assumed to be more explosions. Even the buildings far away had large chunks missing. Worst of all, it was quiet. No police sirens, gun fire, screams – though I wouldn’t want to hear screams. The gun fire though... the ants! They’re all gone! Of course, since the mage controlling them and supplying them with magic is gone, they should have just crumbled.

Yet there wasn’t any distinct piles of red rock on the streets, nothing like that. When I killed a caldera fire ant queen back in Piora, the ants always left remnants of their bodies. They also helped the queen when I fought her. Then again, this ant queen was different. She was a lot more powerful and intelligent. So, why didn’t she have ants helping her? And why can’t I find any of their bodies? Unless, something happened to them...

The explosions.

“Fucking dammit.”