Maxwell sat there, a skull in his kingdom of smog and grass, wondering if there might come a day he could find the rest of his skeletal limbs. Though he wondered if he did find them, what he could even do with them considering his current status as an undead construct, which effectively made him a building. "Perhaps use the additional body parts to expand myself?" Maxwell said to himself.
Then he became distracted by Horter's wings as he was guiding his undead butterflies through complex formations that made full use of their hypnotic wings effect. Which was rather impressive considering Horter was a young and recent addition to his realm. Though the thought of recent additions got him thinking of the most recent addition, Wormer.
Maxwell wasn't quite sure what to make of Wormer joining his realm; well, he had been forced into it as a form of punishment. The fact it had given him access to the creation of dark fey was a bit of a surprise. As he had expected, to get the mercenary to stop helping the grass pixies attacking him and maybe help build up the infrastructure of his underground realm.
What had actually happened was far beyond his expectations. Though how he was to use the dark fey magic he now had access to, or even create the only true dark fey he had access to, he wasn't sure. Though as he thought about it, he felt a strange sensation that told him to look into a certain place in the underground.
So having nothing better to go on than this new feeling granted to him by this new dark fey magic he had gotten, he turned his undead sight to the underground. He looked around for a moment. "This is a mess." Maxwell stated to himself, looking at his underground realm, as the earlier raid by Wormer, as well as the random digging of the smog root, with the final nail being the random chambers being formed, causing a maze of random tunnels.
That Maxwell honestly admits probably had no business existing and should have already collapsed under its own weight. But the smog roots were a determined sort and had caused their random maze to hold together through the roots unrelenting grip. Hopefully Wormer could use whatever knowledge he had of underground architecture to make his underground network more functional.
Maxwell took one last glance at the mess of a maze before going back to looking for the place his strange new sense was telling him was important to making Wormer's new assistants. Eventually he found a seemingly random small chamber with a small pit with a well already made inside. Maxwell looked around wondering how this had been here before he remembered some lore from his old video game Age of Legends.
The dark fey typically corrupt nearby places to suit their own needs, such as turning a beautiful lake into a poisonous swamp. If he went with that logic, then his new dark fey magic has simply formed this chamber so that he could get his new dark fey minions. Though how the empty pit and empty well were supposed to make Wormer his new assistants, he had no idea.
Then he remembered some other lore when it comes to creation, though it was on the lighter, fairer side. It was once said that certain fairies were born by a combination of pixie dust and a child's belief. So if we go by that logic, Maxwell thought then either the pit or the well is supposed to hold the pixie dust while the other holds the second component needed for the creation of Wormer's new assistants.
Though where the hell he was supposed to get pixie dust, he had no idea. That's when the feeling came back, though this time instead of directing his gaze back to the chamber, it was directing him somewhere else in the underground. So Maxwell followed the feeling through the maze of nonsensical tunnels until he finally reached his destination, where his gaze found one of the root operation rooms in which the smog roots worked to make their root worm marionettes.
He looked around the room trying to find the pixie dust he figured must be here but couldn't find it. So he asked the roots smog roots operating in the room who were eager to answer any questions and get him anything he desired. The smog roots in the chamber quickly directed him towards a pile of discarded worm corpses.
The smog roots, using their rootworm marionettes, pointed out the strange pale dust that had been formed from the bodies, that little of it there was. That's when Maxwell came to the realization that pixie dust was supposed to be a magical thing that came from nature. It would appear that the pixie dust that Maxwell's lands now produced was from the corpses of worms used in necromancy.
Maxwell was pretty sure that something about his realm was unflattering; honestly, he wasn't sure. Though he turned his kind away from where he got his worm pixie dust and began to have his smog roots order their root worm marionettes to collect all the worm pixie dust to be found in the small operating chambers scattered across his underground.
Once he had every single speck of worm pixie dust put into the well, as he figured he would probably need worms as a second ingredient, and those would fit in the well. So what exactly did he need to put into the pit to have all the ingredients to begin Wormer's assistants? Once again his new sense directed him, and so he followed it to where he needed to go.
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He looked through the tunnels and eventually came upon a strange place at the very bottom of the maze, which was a giant pit with walls made out of pitch-black stone. In it we're about hundreds of siege worms, with dozens of different types, all squirming together. Though from what he could tell, they were the most basic type of siege worm. The feeling told him there was a specific type of siege worm in this squirming pile that he was looking for.
So after much looking through it, it eventually found a worm with a strange head that kept gripping and letting go of its fellows. This was the one it was looking for; it found five more of the same type. Maxwell ordered all six to leave the pit of siege worms and head towards the place where the chamber that would create Wormer's kin awaited.
Before Maxwell turned his attention away, he focused back on the pit of worms, looking far deeper than before, and he saw it was very strange. As the pit was far less a dark hole and more an ever-shifting and expanding sea. "Great! I've probably had this dark fey magic for something of a day and a half, which was apparently all it took for it to create dark, foreboding evil pits of infinite worms." Maxwell said with exasperation, though he felt it would be a while before the strange siege worm pit coughed up more worms required for making more of Wormer's kin.
He felt it was time for him to begin the creation of Wormer's assistants, then felt Wormer was required and so had the smog roots pass along the message to go to the chamber where he could create his assistants. Though with that being dealt with, he turned his attention back towards the surface only to find Bunet and Horter were having a standoff.
Well, it would appear I should intervene. Maxwell said to himself in his own mind, then spoke aloud. "Now what exactly is going on here?" Maxwell asked the two sternly, causing both to turn towards him startled. Bunet turned into a fidgeting mess while Horter gained a very cocky aura about him.
"Well, sire, bzzz." Bunet said with hesitation, clearly not eager to tell Maxwell whatever she was going to but knowing she had to all the same. "The enemy pixies bzzz have released bzzz some kind of bzzz creature upon us, bzzz sire." Bunet eventually got out.
"Well, it looks like your undead hornets aren't up to the task, Bunet." Horter said with a mocking tone, causing Bunet to turn around and begin closing in on him menacingly with her two sets of mandibles crunching loudly. Horter didn't back down, raising both his wings in response, getting ready to unleash a dazzling light show sure to leave Bunet blind.
"Bunet, what did this creature look like?" Maxwell stated clearly, causing both his zombie commander to turn back to him and calm down, realizing they were showing themselves to be unworthy of their rank.
"It was bzzz like a worm bzzz but with scales bzzz and sharp green bzzz eyes." Bunet said with a clear tone, trying to give her description with as much professionalism as she could muster to make up for her earlier angry outburst. She was glad her connection to her undead hornets allowed her to share their vision, which had given her glimpses of the creature as it destroyed them; otherwise, she would have had no answers for the creator after giving an embarrassing outburst.
" Hmm, sounds like some kind of serpent." Maxwell said, Allowed thinking on it, well, it was good to have some idea of what they were facing; the problem was they didn't have an idea for numbers. "Do you know if it was just one?" Maxwell asked to be sure, to which Bunet gave a shake of the head.
Well, that's not good. Maxwell thought it could just be one or could be a dozen, and if it's pushed back, Bunet's invasion, I need to take it seriously. Maxwell thought a moment before he gave his orders. "Bunet, you are no longer invading alone; Hotter will accompany you." Maxwell stated simply, to which Bunet was about to protest.
But Maxwell stopped her with what he said next. " No, Bunet, we could be looking at a big counteroffensive, which we need to stop in its tracks, so I am sending everything. You will gather every undead hornet you can find and press the attack. While Horter will get his undead butterflies to hypnotize all the will insects and get them to charge at these serpents for us." Maxwell said simply, then turned to a few dozen grass catapults that hadn't been turned into either variant.
He then turned them into a rage grass tank with a quick intake of necrotic rage smog and then reached out with his necrotic rage smog, gathering the materials to make right more, giving him twenty rage grass catapults. "Now, Bunet, gather your forces, and once you have a swarm of hornet bees at full strength, both you and Shorter will go out and stop the pixie threat. Is that understood?" Maxwell said with a firm tone.
To which both gave firm nods and began to gather their forces and prepare to assault the grasslands once more. While the rage catapults began to form into a column up in front of the southern breach at the solid fog wall, they were getting ready to roll south at a moment's notice. Maxwell watched it all and wondered if this would be the force that finally ended the back and forth between him and the grass pixies to the south.