The balloon of flesh pumped out eggs as if breathing them out, its skin pulsating in tiny waves. In one second, the Nursery laid hundreds of eggs, continuing the cycle for a whole minute before halting.

Helzar scrutinized while his body smoldered like a bonfire at night.

Helzar spat out a helpless breath. The once flood of corpses around them was now running scarce.

‘The Nursery eats a lot to lay eggs,’ Helzar thought it was fair trade, a simple give and take. However, when looking at the mutated insects beside the Nursery, Helzar frowned in malaise.

‘These “Seeds” eat like pigs, but even pigs have their use!’

The “Seeds” looked similar to Line before he transformed into a Nursery. Their abdomens were bloated to twice its original size and their body was constantly glowing a dim blue.

‘After sacrificing all of the Motherbugs, I managed to produce sixteen Seeds. If they mature into Nurseries, the sacrifice would be negligible,’ Helzar clenched his imaginary heart. Optimism was like the distant clouds, he couldn't reach it.

‘Did I bet on the wrong cards?’ Helzar paused in his thoughts, recounting the decisions he could've made. For some reason, a strange emotion bubbled up inside his mind.

He felt oddly light as though he was being lifted by a thorned-rope, while his chest was being stuffed with gasoline and gunpowder.

‘I could've tried creating one Seed at a time,’ but greed came to grip his heart, leaving him breathless.

‘I could've ignored creating Seeds altogether,’ but his ambitions blindfolded him, leaving him crawling in the dark.

Helzar turned his gaze toward the darkening sky, a soundless sigh escaping his mouth.

‘Why do I make stupid gambles? What do I gain from recklessness?’ Helzar's mind rang in a long moment of silence.

The setting sun gave him a fleeting glimpse, before it hid beneath the horizon. When Helzar saw a white dot on the sky, some blood finally reached his brain.

‘Sometimes, I wonder if… if I'm just a mindless bug trying to be smart,’ Helzar tried to smile, knowing full well he can't. Putting his body to the ground, he put down the weight on his back for a moment.

‘I was once almighty, thunder roared at my calling and lightning struck with a mere thought. None dared to utter a word before me, lest an ocean of blood befall the fallen.’

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As the stars sparked in the dark blue skies, Helzar saw a phantom of himself. He looked so far in the cosmos, so beyond his grasp.

‘After death, I clung to my old glory,’ Helzar chuckled, but only a long, deep hiss escaped his throat.

‘I…’

Gazing into the stars, Helzar saw a pair of eyes. They glowed gold with power and radiated with dominance, burning as they looked at him, mocking his lowly self.

Helzar felt his eyes stinging, his mouth crying in thirst, and his soul throbbing like a sore muscle. But there was no dust nor wind, no desire for water, and no muscle in a soul.

‘The past is in the past.’

Alas, Helzar looked down to gaze at his trembling legs. They felt so weak, thin, and fragile. The journey he trekked until now was seemingly tiny and without direction. Helzar laughed although riddled with hiccups.

Helzar murmured, his voice trembling like a sprout before growing into a sturdy sapling.

When the sapling grew into a thick tree that poked the lofty clouds, Helzar stood up, his legs no longer like strings. His body glowed fiercely like a blue fire making the Swarm freeze, their blood gushing in a rush of excitement!

The Swarm gathered before Helzar in a few hours, with the Seeds and the Nursery standing at the very front.

Helzar announced, but it sounded like his audience was himself.

Helzar chuckled. ‘In the end, I'm a big hypocrite. I want to regain my power… no, I NEED to get my former glory!’

Helzar glared at the image he drew in the night sky, before turning his focus back on the Swarm.

Helzar took flight, while at the same time counting what remains of the Swarm. The Swarm flew after him, following their king whilst protecting him.

‘The Swarm has decreased to a mere billion,’ Helzar’s mind shook, but he held firm on his newfound goal.

‘A year of progress is gone in just a few days. This war has just begun, but I'm already losing… horrendously.’

Helzar’s face couldn't be more twisted despite his efforts. ‘The worst part is that I only acknowledge it now…’

With another sigh, Helzar kept his gaze straight, unwilling to look behind him. His heart was already sinking, and he had just managed to keep it high!

‘Numbers, they're just mere numbers. They're meaningless,’ Helzar breathed out, spitting out the heavy stone pressing on his throat.

‘Numbers aren't the only thing that grows, quality blooms too.’

In exchange for his Motherbugs and 80% of his Spawns, he forged a new path after meeting a dead end.

The Nursery and the Seeds. With them, the Spawns jumped in quality!

Helzar rid himself of the weeds infesting his tree.

‘The Swarm is me,’ Helzar chanted as if hypnotizing himself. ‘Just because I don't grow stronger doesn't mean I remain weak. When the Swarm grows, I also grow.’

Helzar threw out a random command. Currently, there are a few hundreds of thousands of eight inch Spawns birthed by the Nursery, and there were even more Swarmlings that had yet to mature due to the lack of food.

‘Should I feed the old Spawns to the Swarmlings?’ Helzar pondered, shaking his head in a few minutes. ‘That will weaken the Swarm too much, it's better to die bathing in fire.’

Helzar nearly sang in his musing.

‘We need a plan.’

Sharpening his mind, Helzar busied himself by formulating strategies.

‘LaQueen’s Lava Ants are superior to the Spawns in terms of combat. Not only are the Lava Ants equal in size with the bees, they have corrosive venom,’ Helzar nodded, everything becoming blank as his mind tunneled into calculations.

‘Zharan’s Intrusion is useless in combat, but her reproductive capabilities are far beyond the Swarm. The Intrusion can even keep growing without food,’ Helzar recalled when Zharan showcased the Intrusion’s ability.

‘That puts the Swarm in the middle, a balance between quality and quantity. The Lava Ants are far too few, but the Intrusion has zero power despite being possibly thrice as numerous as the Swarm.’

When he reached that point, Helzar suddenly halted. For a moment, he wondered if he even needed the help of his allies but he swiftly broke that line of thought.

‘In war, every resource must be used efficiently. The Swarm can't win on its own,’ Helzar reminded himself and as his mind toiled away, he had unknowingly reached the edge of La'Queen's territory.

The sky had already brightened with the sun reaching its peak height, and Helzar failed to find words at the stealthy passing of time

Helzar called out, spreading thin waves of his mental energy over a wide area. Normally, La'Queen would have answered in a few moments.

receiving no response, Helzar deployed his Devouring Mist.

Very quickly, vines of doubt wrapped around the imposing tree in Helzar's mind.