Xanxhin, twin empress of Ker´xaba and mother of the swarm that devours, could not belive the scene that played out before her compound eyes. For 400 years she and her sister, Xoto, had ruled these lands, their once simple hive not even big enough to fit them both was now a ginormours mountain fortress inhabited by millions of their brood, yet somehow here in the middle of the throneroom were only their children, their guests or adversaries in chains were allowed stood "Heroes" and their cadre of warmongers.
Two dozen humanoids consisting of humans, elves, dwarfs and a few beastmen all clad in what hade once been the most prestine of fullbody armor, now defiled by the blood and mucus of her children. The young human in front even dared point his effluvia coverd claymore at the twin insecta reginae.
"Queens of ants and gnats I, Gustav the great, have come to deliver judgement on you and any whom side with the Devil King, surrende-"
The juvinile leader of the "heroes" in his dragon wrought helmet and white cape did not even get to finish his insulting speech before Xoto shot forward, like a crimson javelin the queen flew throught the air, gigantic stinger dwarfing the self imposed judge´s claymore and poised to peirce his heart. But insted of the young human the stinger found purchase in the houndman who jumped infront of him. The stinger dug through both shield and armor, poking out of the dogmans back as if telling Gustav: You are Next.
Xoto had spread her beautifu brightl blue wings, as if weaved from the summer sky itself, and retreated with her blood red carapace to her sisters side in the blink of an eye. The fight had been started and after a second of silence everything happend at once, the queens bodyguards and soldiers, suitors and children, charged the party of "heroes" while the intruders took their stances, getting ready to slaughter the subjects of Ker´xiba,
A wolfman dressed in blue cried in wordless horror and sadness as the corpse of the pierced houndman hit the floor, the leader added his voice to the cry as they both charged into the oncoming wave of chitinous armour and clacking mandibles. Light in all colours enveloped the two "heroes" as the warmongers started casting their spells, the navyblue clad wolfman gather ice around his claws as he unleashed his own and the first of Xanxhins children fell.
She stared in disbelief as her brood turned into shattred frozen pieces of themselvs amd whished for nothing more then to put them backtogether like some morbid puzzle. Yet Xanshin could do nothing as her warriors shed limb and antennae for her. Her huge body would surley be able to crush the intruders underfoot and her purple exoskeleton might save her from a hit or two but with her swollen abbdomen full of eggs she would just be a slow easy target. Xoto had always been the warrior, the fighter and survivor of the two.
Over the centuries Xoto had selfagumented herself to become more waspine while Xanxhin still mostly resembled an ant yet both big elephants, or a smaller one in Xotos case. Their brood however was complied of all kinds of insectoids such as mantis, beetle, fly, and unacountible more. But the "heroes" seemed to kill them all the same with their steel and magicks. Of the two dozen butcherers only three had fallen yet the floor was hardly visible thanks to the corpses of her people.
One of the dwarfs with a long black beard and an axe in each hand having beheded and dearmed a score of weevilmen had taken to insulting the younger queen, calling her a whore of the Devil king yet he was swiftly silenced by a Herculian-Beetleman impaling him on his horn. As the dwarf spat his life blood onto his killers similarly coloured carapace XanXhin could not help but think about the irony of it.
The beetleman in question was infact on of the children that Xoto and the Devilking hade made together, as one of the Devilkings legal wifes it was only natural to have atleast one "clutch", most of the Devilkings children was with him in the cuntry of Mandrake but a few whised to stay in Ker´xaba. Both queens hade a small harem of concubines and suitors, which is a rather prestigious posistion, but Xoto has Xanxhin beat in marrying the Devilking himself and while some in his court of demons and devils thought she was jealous she was infact proud of her sister, so proud of that strenght she was never able to muster.
Xanxhin was pulled from her short daydream back into to the bloody battle as she spied Zvazz´Tazzar, one of her own suitors, stalking towards the backline of the intuders. The completely white mantisman practcally danced across the battlfeid as made his way towards his pray, quikly seperating one of the elven healers head from his body. Xanxhins hearts seemed to work doubletime as Zvazz lost his right raptorial leg to a cheetahbeastwoman, he quikly eluded his pursuer as he danced betwix his stepchildren making his way back to Xanxhin.
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"My queen, mayhaps you should retreat to a safer location just to make sure no strayspell scratch your fine form?" The mantis man suggested, every letter like a note in a song, hardly acknowledgeing his missing limb.
Instead of answering directly Xanxhin used some of her forlimbs, having several arms sized ones, to hug Zvazz close to her body locking his head in place with help of her own mandibles and a hand on his backhead as she forced a stream of "Honey" down his throat. The substance was more akin to vomit yet it looked like liquid gold or a kind of nectar, and from those whom have hade the privilage of tasting it says it was a divine taste . As she let Zvazz down from her abrupt embrace his arm was alredy regenerating, while it would be weaker than his old one it would have to do. Five of the "Heros" have fallen and we are quikly bleeding them of their power, soon enough they will get desperate and panic or....Xanxhin thought to herself....get suicidal.
Zvazz looked up to her, still awating an answer, as she shifted her gaze to the once stain free throneroom seening Xoto, a few crimson carapaced beetles and Belzze, a jade coloured flyman serving as one of her sisters concubines, fighting agains Gustav "the great" and the wolfman using ice magic. She saw wave after wave of her brood, like flood of chitin and bright colours, break against the stalwart defense of the armored "Heroes". She made her desicion.
"Zvazz go to my sister, I shall heed your advise and take my leave, make sure none of the transgressors leave alive" The last part of her order not directed at the mantisman but to all of the ctizens of Ker´xaba, and as Xanxhins sweet notes reached her subjects it was as if they had a newfound purpouse in life. The swarm practicly reinvigorated themself, what hade once been a sea of exoskeltons and sharp mandibles now became a storm, the sheer sound of the zealous insect warriors would have driven driven lesser men mad, the "Heroes" merely got frightened.
Xanxhin raised her massive body, six powerful legs carrying her and her bloated abdomen, head held high with compund eyes drinking in the sight of the insect storm drowning her adversaries but just as she turns to leave, out of the Ectognatha Procella shoots a human sized sun, or in this case elf sized, and like a bird of prey flies stright for her.
In an atempt to stop the burning ball of fire several of her children throw themselves into it yet all it does is produce more ash. In the blink of en eye the miniature sun reaches the queen and Xanxhin can see through the flames spying the she-elf inside, how her face is twisted in a wrathfull grimace, how the elfs skin melts under her own power and how the once metal wearing woman, now clad in fire, stretches her arms out and mouths INFERNO.
Xanxhins world is on fire, the sun itself seems to have come just to lick her exoskeleton from her like som bizzare candy, she tries to curl into a ball yet limbs burned to charchol does not answer her call, her inside is cooking, her abdomen is boiling, having been doomed to hellfire before even getting born her eggsac splits open and spills her unborn children onto blackscorched floor, compund eyes melting and her antenne alredy burned to ash. Xanxhins mind is just a scream.
And yet in some sick twist of fate the sac with contains her healing nectar, the one she used to heal Zvazz, the one she used to feed her babies, the one she used to heal Xoto with when they were young, ruptures and leaks out. It has always been part of her giving her an immense healing factor but now as it pools out on the floor her brood, her children, nephews, neices and lovers start using it as a crude adhesive as they start ripping healty carapace from them self to heal their queen. Carefully breaking of antennae and tearing out eachothers eyes and intsetines to replace what she lost. Some use their bodies as shields against the few remaning heroes, the charred corpse of the she-elf indistinguiable agaisnt the other deformed corpses of her victimies.
An moment passes, or maybe it was years Xanxhin does not now, the broken queen rises again clad in tatters, a mismatched puzzle of uneven carapace and too many limbs, mind now numb to pain and only the primal instinct to flee, to live. Surrounded by equally loyal corpses and dying subjects she resumes her escape. She only manages a few steps before a strange light fills the chamber and every pair of eyes in the room turns to its source, including her own now asymetrical ones.
The source is of the light is no other than Gustav the great himself and together with the wolfman, hands locked, they channel a spell of untold proportion. Their target is, to Xanxhins great horror, Xoto, her divine wings and most of her body incased in a massive ice pillar, Zvazzs two bisected body halves frozen mid fall slightly lower in the pillar. Xanxhin starts to trudge painfully slow towards her sister as the storm of Ker´xabaian citizens are more sucsessfull in reaching the pillar, some start trying to dig out their queen while other fly up to distract the "Heroes" but they are beaten back by the etherial form of the fallen intruders, the dogman with the shield, the dwarf with the foul mouth and all the other butcherers.
As the "Heroes" finish their spell, a gigantic lance of ice, light and the very souls of their comrades, driving it down towards the head of the crimson empress of Ker´xaba, Xanxhin reaches out with all her limbs trying to stop the blow and screeches in panic at her sisters immediate demise. But Xanxhin is impossible far away from the magical lance and her soul scarring cry does nought to stop it and her voice echos painfully as Xotos head and body gets disintigrated by the "Heroes" spell