Through the radiance of his compound eyes, Helzar glazed over the black and white world. His azure blood was heating his vision, making his mandibles clatter, itching to cut.

In the end, a dissonant laughter escaped his mouth, which was curtained by his fearsome mandibles.

‘A Spawn has evolved!’ Helzar flapped his wings harder, flowing through the air like a fish being chased underwater. ‘After a year of stagnation, a Spawn has evolved!’

Crack—!

Helzar's exoskeleton cracked, dark blue mist leaking out of the gaps. The Devouring Mist slowly spread, covering the billions of Spawns and Motherbugs behind him. The Eaters had been all devoured, they were too slow and bulky to carry in battle.

FOOOSH…

Once the mist devoured Helzar and the entire Swarm, it burst in a brilliant dark blue, casting a gloomy shadow like a solar eclipse!

And just as quickly as it shone in brilliance, the light disappeared and the Swarm blurred, fading into the horizon. Far away, Helzar was like lightning roaring through the skies, thundering toward the edge of his territory.

‘We’ll reach that place in about five minutes. Too slow!’

In desperation, Helzar called upon thousands of Spawns. They all flew next to Helzar while advancing, and Helzar's eyes burned bright.

CRACK! CRACK—SZZZ…

The Spawns melted like candles, before their remains flowed toward Helzar's mouth. Full of energy, Helzar disconnected with his eyes and focused on his mental link with Line. At the same time, he called more Spawns to gather before him, continuing the perpetual cycle.

‘I can avoid using soul energy with this,’ Helzar thought, his heart heavy. During the war, he'd inevitably use soul energy, and spending millions of Spawns to lighten the expense was Helzar's best option.

Through their mental link, Helzar saw Line's troubles. The latter's body had become bloated like an Eater, but his appearance was like a Motherbug rather than an Eater.

‘He’s going to die at this rate,’ Helzar itched to teleport toward the battlefield, oh if only he could. Restless, Helzar kept watching while flapping his wings as fast as he could when observed an anomaly.

‘Does Line have a passive ability?’ Helzar focused. Seeing an aura forming around Line, an idea hatched in Helzar's head.

Grabbing a handful of energy within his soul, Helzar gently smeared it into Line’s passive ability, forcing a tyrannic aura field to protect Line from further harm.

Helzar mumbled.

Outside, his body glowed like a shooting star, thin tentacles dancing around him. Flying for more than four minutes, Helzar felt innumerable life sources before him, all gathered on the ground. Helzar reconnected with his vision, and he was met with giant bees carpeting the open field near the outskirts of a rotting forest.

BOOOM!

In a heartbeat, Helzar's aura bursted like a surging storm!

BZZZ!

Startled, the beed took flight, rising into the skies like a tsunami incoming. However, Helzar felt that his gaze was wasted on the bees and kept on charging, heading at center of the encirclement of the bees.

Helzar's aura prevented the bees from even nearing him, and those that dared fell like rain, dead.

The Motherbugs in the army rejoiced at this sight, feasting on the fallen. Eggs infested the dead bodies, which soon turned to Swarmlings that devoured the corpses.

Helzar voice echoed out, carrying his cold wrath. The bees twitched, spasming from the sound. Those that were engaged in battle with the Spawns stumbled, before being killed by the Spawns.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The Devouring Mist retracted into Helzar's body, revealing the billions of Spawns that he brought, before bursting once more from Helzar and covering the entire open field, and parts of the forest too. Thick tentacles like a kraken pierced through the soil, slithering high in the air and slamming the giant bees around, squashing them like flies.

In the end, Helzar's arrival drove the bee army back, but they didn't flee. They gathered their troops and left Line alone.

Their bodies trembled, before their stingers extended out dripping with thick venom. Their mandibles grew bigger and sharper, and their fuzzy manes turned spiky like an armor of needles. Their legs straightened into miniature swords, and its sharpness doubled too.

A chill in the air lingered, and a deep voice rang in the sky. It was crisp and mellow, pleasant to listen to but also deceiving, making your head spin.

the voice declared, prompting the bees to all surround Helzar. From the forest, more bees flew out, and more than five hundred million bees gathered.

On the other hand, Helzar's body glowed a dark blue as his blood grew hotter, his mind growing muddled too.

Helzar spat.

the voice laughed, making Helzar glow brighter.

The billions of Spawns behind him charged toward the bees, and the bees didn't fall short either. Their king had already spoken, they must serve Helzar on a silver platter to their king!

Helzar scoffed, charging forward on his own before any of his army could reach the bees. In an instant, thousands of bees died just from being near Helzar, and when Helzar moved his tentacles, thousands more would die.

However, useless as they may be to Helzar, the bees in their unique state were a nightmare for the Spawns. They massacred the Spawns they get near to, and it would take more than a dozen Spawns to kill just one enraged bee.

the voice taunted.

Alas, Helzar's fuze ran out and an explosion of energy erupted from Helzar, decimating not only the bees but also a portion of his army.

Helzar breathed out. Both armies slowed to a halt, giving Helzar the stage.

Helzar laughed, his voice jumping over the rainbows.

Helzar shone brighter, his uncontrolled energy thrashing about before receding into his body without a word. Even the tentacles returned to his body.

The Devouring Mist covering the battlefield became lighter, its toll on the Spawns and the giant bees becoming nigh negligible.

Helzar chuckled, his body becoming dim as Helzar masked his emotions.

<...How unsightly, a clown presenting as a king> the foreign voice mocked.

Helzar beamed, but the malice in the air kept spreading. Inside the fog, the bees were suffocating, unable to take flight. Helzar absorbed their energy, and soon the bees stopped moving, merely dropping toward the ground.

Helzar taunted, but the voice didn't reply. In the end, he let out a chuckle and bathed in the silent battleground.

Helzar sighed. His soul ended up losing a tenth of its original energy. Shaking his head, Helzar looked around and soon his gaze landed on Line.

Helzar hummed as he flew toward Line, who was kneeling toward him.

His plan for the ongoing war wasn't simply to conquer more land.

‘The Swarm has zero uses for more land,’ Helzar silently thought.

Helzar didn't prioritize exterminating the bees during the war. No, his goal is to create mutations like Line and use the war to stimulate growth within the Swarm!

Line spoke, his voice reflecting his sorrow and regret, without wishing for forgiveness .These were his genuine feelings. It was impossible to lie in front of his king, Helzar.

Helzar asked, observing Line with amused eyes.

Seeing Line blame himself, Helzar could barely hold back his laughter.

Helzar’s body glows a dark blue, his soul energy leaking and mixing with Line. The latter squirmed, his body feeling the pain of a thousand cuts as though he was being surgically modified once again.

Line groaned, holding his mandibles together in fear of screaming. His lord was before him, to scream would be tantamount to spitting in his lord's face!

Helzar shook his head.

Soon, Helzar felt his soul energy being cut in half. However, through his soul energy, he could see that his sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

Line's abdomen began to crack, nearly splitting in half! Blood spilled out before solidifying and covering the wound. Line rapidly healed, and his abdomen slightly enlarged, before another slit opened in his abdomen.

The cycle continued for hours, with Line feeling as though his organs were being crushed over and over again, before being stitched together with foreign organs.

A few hours was quick to tick, and as a dry leaf blew and floated past Helzar, the moon was already rising.

Line's body had grown over twice as big as Helzar, before stabilizing at a whopping two meters!

Line's consciousness had blurred, and he said as now as silent as a mute. When his abdomen pulsed in waves, however, Line let out a long, winded hiss.

Helzar cackled, seeing as eggs overflowed from the opening at the end of Line's abdomen. The creature that was once Line had metamorphosed into a breeding machine. His abdomen had bloated up to become his current size, while his main body remained at its original four inches length.

Waiting a few seconds, the eggs pooled behind Line , and a few minutes later, all the eggs hatched into Spawns.

These Spawns were no ordinary Spawns either, they were all eight inches big. Helzar noticed two blue stripes on their abdomens, and their wings were especially stronger and bigger.

Helar crawled over to Line, gently tapping the latter's body to soothe him.

+++-+++-+++

Far away from Helzar, a three feet ant rushed through the air before spewing out a splash of boiling, red venom.

La'Queen gave one glance at the bunch of bees melting from her venom, before scanning her surroundings. Her colony originally lived inside a forest next to Zharan’s colony, and when the giant bees invaded, her colony was quickly trapped inside.

La'Queen hissed in dissatisfaction. Her ally hadn't even sent a single Spawn to talk about their enemies, making her drown in bitterness.

La'Queen climbed a tall tree, overlooking her colony.

she nodded, pushing aside any other thoughts. Doubting each other was useless in times of turmoil, La'Queen believed so.

The Lava Ants were equally matched with the bees, but they had far inferior numbers.

im her wrath, scalding venom dripped from La'Queen’s body, making her shine like honey. La'Queen growled, flying straight forward to where Helzar's lair was. She let out a cry, calling her entire colony to gather before her.

Suddenly, La'Queen felt a tyrannic presence cascade on her body, putting a mountain atop her mind.

Millions of bees charging toward La'Queen, their bodies having morphed into something more ferocious, something deadlier.