BEEEEP—

“Strange…” Looking at the monitor, Chief couldn't lift his frown. The monitor was loudly beeping, and red dots were appearing all around the map of the world.

“It says that thousands of anomalies have appeared at once… but that's impossible,” Chief clenched his fists. He picked up a communicator device and spoke, his voice sounding as cool as ice.

“Agent Alex, contact the rest of the Eclipse and gather in the headquarters. I want them here in an hour!”

Chief waited, and he received an affirmative from Alex. Humming in approval, Chief watched the monitor closely.

“The anomalies are disappearing again…” Chief clicked his tongue, watching all the red dots fading away. A moment later, he predicts that they will appear yet again.

Beep. Bee—BEEEEEEEP!

“Something is wrong,” Chief turned away, confirming that his prediction was correct. After patiently waiting for an hour, the door to the main office was opened and seven people walked in.

One of them was Alex, and the rest were wearing the same uniform as him. They also had white hair mixed with blue like Alex.

“A calamity is looming above our heads,” Chief spoke, gazing into the eyes of his agents. Today, he wasn't wearing a cloak, showcasing his mechanical armor in full.

“Have any of you noticed anything strange lately?” Chief asked, his eyes glowing dimmer than usual. Even the armor had stopped emitting a faint blue light, but none of the seven pointed it out.

“None, sir,” Alex was the first to respond, followed by the others. They all had the same answer.

“I see,” Chief hummed, before walking toward the open door. “Follow me,” Chief said and the Eclipse agents followed.

Upon exiting the room, they were met with a long hallway with an array of doors. These doors lead to several laboratories, offices, and even bedrooms.

At the end of the hallway, the group entered an elevator and descended to the underground floors.

When they exited again, a spacious room greeted their eyes.

“Alex, how many Anomalies have died?” Chief asked, walking toward a reinforced door on the right side of the room. There was a plaque next to the door handle with the text “H-109.”

“Sir, 78 anomalies were killed this month due to being too unstable. 310 Anomalies remain within captivity, with seven being colony types,” Alex answered, holding back a sigh as Chief opened the door to H-109, Lion Statue’s containment chamber.

“310 is too much. If all of them escape, Earth will face its end. Today,” Chief looked toward the majestic stone statue of a lion sitting in the middle of the room.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The room was completely empty apart from the statue, but the floor, walls and ceiling all had scratches and scorch marks. There was even leftover blood staining one side of the room.

“We will select potential candidates to help humanity against the incoming apocalypse,” Chief said.

“The anomalies that aren't picked will be either killed or destroyed.”

“What about the colony types, sir?” Alex asked, while the other six nodded. All seven of them couldn't care less about the anomalies, but they were afraid of the colony-types anomalies.

Not long ago, they all fought C-101, Bee King, and they were almost killed on multiple occasions!

“We keep all of them. However, the seventh colony type anomaly is still under observation. Currently, it is in the same vivarium as C-106,” Chief grabbed the worn-out pistol from its holster.

“Alex, see if C-107 is controllable. If not, go and exterminate it.”

When he finished speaking, Alex and the rest of Eclipse moved back, giving Chief the room he needed.

“Blue Pistol, obey me.”

SHAAAAAAA!

A wail resounded from the pistol, which was louder than usual. The wail awoke the statue, prompting it to open its eyes.

Crumble… Crack—

Bits of stones fell off from the statue as it opened its eyes, revealing crimson red eyes. However, its eyes were covered by a thick layer of stone a moment later.

“Tch,” Chief frowned, his brows furrowing as a headache invaded his head. The pistol was still screeching, refusing to obey him!

+++-+++-+++

‘Okay… okay, calm the fuck down… it's stable, it's stable,’ with a racing mind, Helzar watched as the Nest lay silent on the floor. When the Nest would spasm, Helzar feared a heart attack.

‘Phew, that was scary,’ Helzar placed his imaginary heart back on his body. He can live without the Nest, but without the Nest, producing Spawns, Eaters, or any other type of creature is impossible. It was the same as death.

After calming down, Helzar looked at the larva in front of him.

The larva was an egg a moment ago, but like all the other creatures the Nest produced, it was quickly maturing.

‘However, it's still a larva even after a couple of minutes…’

Hatching from the Nest, a Spawn egg would turn into an adult Spawn in mere seconds, while an Eater would take one minute to turn into an adult.

‘I tried replicating the Nest, I wonder if I succeeded.’

An hour passed quickly. During this time, Helzar noticed that the Spawns had blocked the nest entrance with dirt. He ordered the Spawns to unblock it.

Afterward, he had half of his Spawns hunt small prey insects nearby, while the other half was tasked with protecting the nest as always.

‘Now, it's time to see if my efforts bore fruit!’

Helzar watched the six legged bug in front of him. It resembled him in some ways. However, this insect was more “complete” in a sense. Unlike Helzar, whose body was literally just a head with a mouth, mandibles, four legs, and a detachable “abdomen,” the creature before him had a head, a thorax, and a bloated gaster. Strangely, it has no mandibles just like the Eaters.

It was similar to a termite queen, only that its entire body is obsidian black with blue rings on its gaster. Its length was two centimeters, which was a first.

Helzar, the Spawns, and the Eaters were all one centimeter long.

‘Does this mean I can finally grow?’ Helzar couldn't help getting excited. He tried upgrading his body before, but his efforts failed every time.

With the new creature exceeding his own body size, Helzar felt a bit of hope in his non-existent heart.

‘That can wait, I need to test out this insect first and then give it a name. Will “Queen” suffice? That sounds wrong though…’

Helzar would be the “King” of the Swarm, and if he gives the insect the name “Queen,” then that was implying something. Something which he didn't like.

‘The name will have to wait until I make sure it's functional.’

Shaking off unnecessary thoughts, Helzar ordered one of the Eaters to explode.

‘I wonder if I can have the Eaters puke out the worms rather than exploding?’

Nevertheless, Helzar waited for the Eater to eat its own leg. Unlike last time, he was prepared and had the Eater explode in an isolated, spacious chamber.

POP!

Blue goo oozed out of the tunnel entrance, and translucent worms bloated with blue blood wiggled their way out of the tunnel, spasming in pain as their sensitive skin rubbed against the soil.

‘Go, drink their blood!’

Helzar telepathically linked with the new creature, and it didn't waste time crawling toward the worms.

Unlike the three-legged Spawns, the six-legged bug was slow. The Eater with one leg can barely even move.

Shhr…

After biting the skin of the worm, blood started flowing into its mouth, which it didn't hesitate to gulp down. Not even a drop was wasted, and its bloated gaster became even more bloated, its length reaching a total of five centimeters when it finished eating all the worms!

‘I hope its skin is tough, it looks like it's about to burst at any moment,’ Helzar crawled back, distancing himself from the bloated insect to avoid any accidents.

‘Okay, lay eggs!’ Helzar commanded, and the insect had already laid an egg.

‘As suspected,’ seeing the freshly laid egg, Helzar sighed. He ordered his Spawns to carefully pick up the egg and store it elsewhere.

‘They are “normal” eggs and will take time to hatch. I just hope it doesn't take too long,’ Helzar sighed. ‘On the other hand, it has great potential as an egg-laying machine.’

When he was done thinking, more than thirty seconds had passed, and the insect had already laid more than twenty eggs! Not only that, it wasn't stopping yet!

‘Its body is shirking, now it's only less than three centimeters long. This is good. While it has its cons, it also has its pros.’

If Helzar had any complaints, it would be that after creating it, the Nest nearly collapsed on itself. Not only that, the insect can only lay Spawn eggs for now.