Year 11, Day 28

Beneath the Sand, Angry, Despairing, and Dying.

The desire of death and destruction was all she could think of. The desire to save her child was overwhelming, and as much as she crawled, the longer she crawled the longer she despaired. "Mother, we are getting close." She knew that, she could feel that! As she angrily pushed herself, she looked upwards and began to force her way out- in an explosion of sand, she could feel the heat of the big ball of light in the sky above, and she looked forward. 'THERE!' She looked forward and saw the large green thing, she lifted her hand and pointed forward and- She blasted her Demonic Qi, all her children moved out of the sand, moving with rage as she also raged. TO SAVE HER CHILD. She is going to do everything, anything, fucking anything to save her child.

"Attack!"

Amidst a battlefield, in sand and trees.

Leaf looked at his siblings who stood by his side, his own siblings who were ready to kill and destroy these fucking ants! "Children." Their Father's voice inside their mind, filling them with confidence: "Concentrate." With a small soft whisper, they all closed their eyes- Soon, Nature Qi flowed out from behind them in a rush, pushing outward in an invisible wind, as their Father said: "Ahteus." Their large brother grinned as he flexed his control over a force many of them only knew to exist, but their brother could actually control it with his own effort! He gathered his Qi and slammed his hands down, in an instant it was like the ground in a 1000 feet by 500 feet rectangular shape was simply flattened, crushing so many ants. This was, once again, thanks to Father and his Nature Qi that aided him! "Freeze, Frost-" Without having to be asked or told what to do, Freeze and Froze held each other's hands and entered a state of Resonance! Their Qi got together and almost like it was a dance, they spun around and pushed outward. The Nature Qi seemed to almost concentrate around the Ice Qi, helping it expand and fueling it, which was their Father's way to help them even more.

In a simple flash, there was this enormous mountain of sharp ice that froze an entire half hundred thousand or so ants, taking a portion of the ants. "See?" Panting a little due to the sheer effort they had to put into this technique (A technique they're still developing, but it's coming along well!) At that exact moment, the large Ant Queen pushed herself out of the sand and even more ants appeared to take over the dead ones, but that was when their father softly called out to their sister and brother: "Fiero, Namis." Together, they sent this wave of their own Water Qi and Fire Qi, making the small gunpowder like shards of fine crystal react to their Qi… Now, you who are reading this, you must know what a firework explosion looks like, right? Now, imagine that the crystal powder is the gunpowder, and the Nature Qi spread out by Root is this very explosive "gas" that reacts to the energy and heat of the explosions, amplifying them.

It was safe to say that their guerrilla tactics were more than effective- they were deadly!

"Good." Their father said, his voice sounding relieved; "Stay close to the trees, that is an order my children." They did not dare to disobey him, after all, they were not fools! They would never give up their advantageous position to pursue enemies in a lesser favorable environment, that would be stupid and suicidal. They first decided to observe their enemies, and seeing their numbers being severely reduced, Lily and Zylph acted together under the guidance of their Father: "Sing and play this one, dears." It was a song that they couldn't help but wish to play and sing- This was a defensive battle, so their siblings just positioned themselves as Lily pulled her violin and a hauntingly beautiful melody began.

"Lacrimosa…" A single whisper from Zylph's mouth, and it was like Lily's Death Qi carried further. As the pale ghostly floating lady played, this dark blob fell from her fingertips, staining her beautiful pale skin and violin. "Dies Illa…" Soon, these skeletal hands shot out of the gunk as Zylph kept singing, and it was almost like all the skeleton and lost souls joined her in her song, because it was like there were more voices than just her own: "Qua Resurget Ex Favilla, Judicandus Formica Reus-" Lily's black qi spread out, like this greasy ink that crawled on the ground before here, more and more skeletons started to crawl out of them and march to meet the army of ants that was left. As her Death Qi was carried by Zylph's Wind Qi "Lacrimosa Dies illa-" and with the rise of her voice, so did the dead ants, as if new twisted life was forced into their bodies. "Qua Resurget Ex Favilla!" Spreading out her arms, Zylph commanded the Qi, and alongside her sister, entered a state of Resonance as their objective was the same and their Qis cooperated.

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This was when Fiero joined in. Unlike Lily's Death Qi whose objective and intent was to "corrupt, destroy, create", his own Qi's intent was simply "destroy". That was why Zylph's Qi was so important, her Qi intent was "guide, enchante, and mitigate", which were really empowering and helping Qi's intentions. They had to concentrate, because even the slightest bit of discord between their Qi, and the thin balance of triple Resonance would break down, and so would their technique!

"Judicandus Formica Reus-" As Zylpha sang on that part, the Fire Qi from their fiery brother flared, as it began to spin around and create these beautiful flame tornados! "-Itaque ardeant Deus!" The flames increased in size and heat as Nature Qi fueled them, as their Father entered in a state of synchronization and Resonance with all three of them easily and at the same time. "Crudelis Dominus Satanas~" There were these soft lines of silver as the wind gathered aggressively, the bones from the creatures Lily summoned and the now walking and fighting carcasses easily could take down the rest of the army of the ants, seeing as time passed, their ant army was getting smaller while their undead army was increasing in size. "Dona Eis-" A powerful flare of Demonic Qi pushed away a large portion of the undead army, the Ant Queen using her Qi to spread out the enemies and give her children room to breathe while they still could.

…do ants breathe? Wait, never mind, they do.

'Focus Root.' He softly sighed to himself as he aided Zylph, as she opened her mouth and this beautiful "Inprecatio~" Her eyes were closed, her beautiful silver hair flowed with her wind as she whispered these words that entered every single ear and hearing canal. Because ants don't have ears! I think… "Da Eis Ignem Aeternum…" Wait, do ants even hear things- Oh shit, here comes the big girl boss! 'Not on my watch!' There weren't many powerful ants, these ants strategies were more focused on quantity above quality because their numbers was everything they had, which was why Root could only notice a few noteworthy little ants. This one was in the Foundation Formation realm, this one was in the Core Formation realm, and there was even one close to the next realm! The Queen clearly had the highest cultivation amongst all ants, but only was she severely hurt, but also severely weak as her Qi reserves were almost empty.

"Amen." This was not even sung, only said.

At their final performance, Lily and Zylph sighed softly. The only reason they were in Resonance was to fight the numbers of the ants, and they were pretty much done for, considering the fact that all these Demonic ants of the Qi Gathering realm were devouring their other fellow ants, and in the process turned them also into undead ants, and the process repeated itself endlessly as Lily's own skeletons joined into the party.

"Ah…" Root softly sighed to himself as Lumin was finally allowed to engage from afar. It was rather… boring is not the right word. Root was expecting more? Yeah, like, he prepared for the worst case scenario, and although he doesn't not wish to raise flags or to boost his own ego till it becomes arrogance and arrogance becomes hubris that thus becomes his downfall like a certain flying boy with wings of wax- BUT doesn't this fight seem a little… easy? 'Am I being a bitch?' Root thought to himself as this bright yellow and red sphere of Light Qi and Fire Qi exploded against the Ant Queen's face. Root had told Lumin to attack the big ant bitch, to focus his attacks on her as much as he wanted, as long as he stood above his canopy and did not leave! 'Maybe I should have another child and name them Icarus…' While Root was having another intrusive thought for a split moment (one that every single one of his children could hear at the moment, because… they were connected) Lumin kept blasting the ant bitch.

And that got her angry!

"GIVE ME BACK MY CHILD!" She screamed, which sounded a lot like this thrilling chittering screech noise for everyone there except for Lilith and Root, who both understood her words. Root, who remembered that his children yoinked an egg from this dusty bitch, couldn't help but 'huh' to himself as he thought for a moment… He really did just surprise adopted another child, huh? He'll deal with that later, right now he has a pissed off mom to take care of! "Your child…" He whispered, his words being carried by the wind easily as he willed them to, making the Ant Queen stop as she angrily turned to look at him: "Your child will grow up to be my child instead, for you, who provoked and attacked me and mine, will die by my hands."

"...dad, you don't have hands." Chaos grinned as they pointed out, making Root sigh and say: "Chaos, I'm trying to sound cool, please child."

"...I'm not sorry."

Poor Ant Queen, she did not even truly understand what they were talking about. She only understood that the big tree bastard had her child! "You-" She pulled every ounce of her Demonic Qi into her guts and up to her throat, as it went, these "gills" started to glow a bright scarlet red as the Qi reached the mouth. Like their mother, the smaller Ants also kept fighting. They were either using Earth Qi or Demonic Qi attacks, throwing these rock spears or these red blasts of energy, neither of which were very effective as Namis could easily block them while Zylph and Leaf could just as easily redirect and cut these attacks. They were about to stop the large ant queen when she finished her attack- This large beam of powerful Demonic Qi, Death Qi, and Gold Qi shot out of her mouth in a big scarlet beam that traveled through the air at blinding speeds, going straight for their Father wood form.

They all panicked for a moment, but their Father did not, they all heard a "She's a damn Kaiju!?" as his own Qi flared. The entire forest glowed with green light as he pulled the Nature Qi from the trees, ground, air, and other smaller and lesser spirits as he erected this thick barrier of various layers and layers of thick Nature Qi. The attack was pretty powerful, but consider this: the Queen was dying and had no fucking Qi left!

So he blocked it.

Sure, it broke through various layers of shield, but hey!

They won their first war. That was… easy?