Chrysalis

Sloan looked out over the seemingly endless open space of the third stratum with trepidation in her heart. Everything that could be done had been done. The city had been rebuilt from the ground up, its defences strengthened, over ten thousand valiant ants were in position to act as the garrison and fend off any assault, an assault that they knew would be coming. She just hoped it would prove to be enough. The Colony was still untested against the demons, one surprise attack was not enough to determine how well they matched up, and without the humans along to boost them there was every chance things would go much worse for her and her siblings in this battle than the last one.

The tier sevens were also a great concern. Despite all of their efforts, the Colony still had far too few tier six members. The power gap only continued to grow the further up the tiers a monster went which meant that this deficiency would be hard to overcome in the short term. If one came to this city, then they would most likely be able to hold. If two came… things might get difficult. Measures were in place and she could only hope that they proved sufficient.

Scouts bristled all over the city, up and down the column as well as a good distance away on the plains, hiding amongst the boundless throng of demon larvae. A relay of mages, able to pass messages between each other at the speed of thought would likely be the way the Colony first received word of the impending attack. Until that moment came, she could do nothing but wait. When time ticked over and the seventh day arrived a soundless disc of pure magic glided out from its hiding place amongst the mountainous outcroppings of rock several kilometres from the city. Then another, and another rose to join it, each of them bristling with demons.

Word raced through the messenger network before a minute had passed and just like that the defenders of Roklu shifted to an active footing, with ants settling into their prepared positions and readying themselves for the battle to come.

Seemingly without effort the demons glided through the air, rising until each of their discs had reached equal height with the plate of the city before they halted, waiting for each of them to be in position. There were five discs in all, each of the hunting parties that the Eldest had failed to find appeared here, an unknown number of tier seven demons among them. Brixin was not content to merely defend her own territory, she sought to control and dominate and that could not be achieved from a purely defensive position. Her aim was the same as the Colony's, to win it all, to take new territory whilst protecting that which she already owned.

One way or another, one of them would get what they wanted.

Once all of the discs were in place, they began to glide forward in unison, approaching the city at an accelerating pace. Thousands of eyes watched them approach. Hidden behind crenelations and concealed within folds of stone on the pillar the ants watched and prepared. The demons clearly knew what was coming, well before they were within range a host of shields and barriers began to form around each of the discs, protection enough to stop a mighty barrage indeed.

But perhaps not enough to stop ten thousand ants hell bent on protecting what is theirs.

"RELEASE!" came the call from the pheromone glands of hundreds of generals all around the city.

In one unified moment, from thousands of individuals, came a deluge of acid and magic that no demon could possibly have foreseen. The plate and pillar blossomed like a flower as the trails of fireballs, ice, lava and every other element homed in on the discs. The demons didn't attempt to dodge, they just accelerated, putting all their effort into shields to protect them. It was never going to be enough.

The Colony's barrage didn't stop, instead it only grew more intense the closer the discs came to the plate. Demons dropped from every disc, on every side of the city, but still they came on. When they finally made contact with the city, it wasn't the graceful and controlled landing they had probably imagined, instead, they crashed, ramming into the stone ramparts around the outside of Roklu like battering rams, the demons of Orpule were thrown from their perches and rolled in the rubble before they leapt to their feet and began the assault.

Sloan was everywhere, rushing through the command centre like a mad thing, listening to every report, communicating with every scout.

"Where are they…" she muttered to herself as the fighting heated up all around the city. "How many did they send?"

The moment the demons set foot on the plate they were assaulted on all sides by coordinated teams of ants who subjected them to a constant run of attacks. The Colony didn't seek to destroy their opponents immediately, wary of biting off more than they could chew, instead they opted to wear their opponents down, and in so doing, force the tier seven demons to reveal themselves.

It was a lone mage, hidden in a fold of stone on the ground who detected it first. At tier five, she'd done all she could to improve her ability to sense and manipulate mana outside of her body, hoping to specialise in defensive magic and protect her sisters, just like the little winged guardian protected the Eldest. Straining with every fibre of her mind she reached out and tried to pierce the veil that the demons maintained even now, warping and twisting the mana that emitted from their cores.

Then, she broke through, for just a fleeting instant, but what she sensed was enough to send a ripple running through every segment of her carapace.

[Tier seven!] she hollered to the general behind her over a mind bridge. [TWO OF THEM!]

The moment Sloan received word she turned to the waiting scout by the entrance of the command hill.

"Two of them on the west side. Deploy countermeasures."

In a flash the scout was gone, her message delivered in a speed that Vibrant would approve of. Moments later, a deep rumbling began to be felt through the feet of every ant in Roklu, as if the plate itself was shaking. The vibrations only grew in intensity as the moments passed, until every member of the Colony, even on the pillar, could feel it. It had taken a huge amount of effort to raise this force to the sixth tier, now they could only hope it would be worth it.

"Please don't mess this up you idiot," Sloan begged of the empty air.

"WE SEEK!"