Chapter 50:

Despite Alice's worries, Titus returned relatively quickly. She had been preparing to mount a rescue mission if she couldn't find him and Tony. But Alice shouldn't have doubted him, despite the seeming inevitability that he would get lost after they split the party. She had to remind herself that this wasn't some horror movie.

He returned with several ants bound up tight, and Tony zipped around at his heels, fending off monsters. Alice couldn't see Tony's level, so she assumed it borrowed strength from Titus. The speed and ferocity of the little black and orange menace as it chased away an unholy abomination of a cat and a lizard surprised her. There was no noise or roar from it other than the patter of its feet on the asphalt and the clacking of its mandibles as it bit down, severing the lizard's tail as it ran away.

Alice just shook her head at Titus, who gave her a broad smile. "Miss me much?" he said.

Alice let out a small laugh. "You were taking so long, I thought I would have to come out and get you."

"Oh, I missed you too," he said as he set down the captured ants next to where she was standing and gave her a tight hug.

Alice was surprised but returned the embrace with enthusiasm, squeezing a little tighter than he did. She hadn't realized how much the worry had been eating away at her.

Titus grunted. "Oof! That power is certainly adding up."

Alice smiled as she stepped away. "Glad you're okay."

"Yeah. We might have roughed them up a bit, though, so I'm not sure that diving in right away is the best idea."

Alice gave him a slight glare. "Let's do some testing first, and then we can see."

Titus held his hands up in defeat. "Yeah, yeah, we've stalled enough as it is."

"I don't know if I would call it stalling," Alice said.

"If we tried to go in as we were, I doubt either of us would have made it to the supercomputer center, let alone into a place where we could actually plug something in," Titus argued calmly.

Alice grimaced. "Probably. I still don't like having to wait an extra day."

"It shouldn't make that much of a difference. We've been over this."

"Yeah, I know, Titus. But let's get on with it. Come on, we got to do some testing."

"How are we going to do this?" Titus asked, reaching down with his knife and cutting the bonds of one ant, putting it on a leash which he held at arm's length. The ant attempted to come at him, but the short leash wasn't enough to let it get too close. With his other hand, he pulled out a vial from his inventory and uncorked it with his teeth, spitting the cork to the side. He poured the contents on his wrist. The ant switched targets and started pulling at the leash towards Alice.

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Titus tossed her a bottle of pheromones, and Alice examined it. The identification simply came back as ant pheromones, but she copied Titus, putting some on like perfume. The ant calmed down and then began meandering in a circle.

"I don't know if it's really working the way we want it to. It seems to be confusing the ant."

"Yeah, but it's not attacking," Titus said.

"Okay, but let's try it with some more."

One by one, Titus released the ants, and they simply milled about as if looking for something. As Titus and Alice started walking away from the guild hall they were standing in front of, the ants didn't exactly follow but just spread out as if tracking a trail.

"Alright. Seems to be working well enough. Let's go," Titus said, looking at her.

"Shouldn't we see how long it lasts? Who knows, maybe it only lasts for five minutes, and we'll get in, having used all our bottles and being unable to get out."

"We'll find out on the way. If they keep following us and don't start attacking us, we'll know it lasts longer. Besides, you still have lots of bottles. We shouldn't run out."

Titus grumbled. "Sure, sure," he said, producing his spear, which he used as a walking staff as they headed in the direction of the ant colony.

"Should we take a car?" Alice asked.

Titus shook his head. "No, I don't think even pheromones would let them ignore a car driving in their midst. Honestly, I don't know how well these will work around an entire colony either. Still, hopefully, they won't attack us on sight, so try not to appear threatening."

Alice looked at his spear meaningfully. He raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't begrudge an old man his walking staff, would you?" Titus asked but still made the spear disappear.

"Yeah, well, I figured out the mana thing, I think," Alice said, handing him a copy of the amulet she was wearing. "It won't protect you against spells or prevent you from casting spells, but just the tides of background mana should wash over you. So if there's something sucking up mana from the area in the anthill, think of it as a tide going out."

Titus shrugged. "It sounds like it'll just help them understand me."

"Yeah, in a sense. If there's a lot of mana around, it will prevent it from hitting you too hard as well. But I don't really know what the effects of that would be."

"Well, guess we won't have to find out," Titus said, and Alice smiled.

"Sure, I suppose we won't."

When the two of them approached the ants again, they did so cautiously, with Titus several hundred feet ahead and Tony at his heels. The ants investigated Titus but moved past, not in the urgent way they had when they first met Tony during that car chase disaster. It was some time ago, but Alice had spent time thinking about it and reading up on ant behavior.

It made sense that the workers had gone and gotten soldiers and reinforcements before attempting to fight. They laid a pheromone trail that danger was coming. Or invaders or food or whatever the ants saw them as. And the ants came in a swarm then.

But that first communication was critical. If they killed an ant that hadn't been laying the right trail, no other ants would follow it. But no, of course, it wasn't that simple. This time, the ants tapped him on the knees or thighs with their antennae and then continued on the same path they were already following. Titus just fell into step with them, and they ignored him. Tony even picked up some of the food or dirt, or whatever it was the ants were carrying and joined in, though the orange-striped ant never got very far.

The commotion that Titus had caused by the ant-napping of several colony members was nowhere to be found. After observing for a bit longer, Alice jogged up and joined them as they began the long march toward the anthill.

It was with a complicated feeling that Alice ran. After all this time, it was hard to believe that it was finally coming to an end.