Over a year ago

  Percy was sitting cross-legged on the uneven floor of a vast cavern, its walls and ceiling shimmering with crystals and minerals of all shapes and sizes as a flock of colourful motes danced wildly around him.

  This had been his not-so-humble abode for a while now – a private room that his familiar and her mother had carved out for him in the depths of their sprawling kingdom, so that he wouldn’t have to travel to and from the settlement all the time. Of course, he hadn’t really had much of a chance to relax until recently, as he’d been busy giving new cores to the Blue creatures.

  He was currently studying the ethereal cords linking him to his clones, noting that they had been unusually calm for the past couple of days.

  ‘Hmmm… I suppose that they’ve all made it to the Vault by now. Finally…’ Percy heaved out a relieved sigh.

  The clone tasked with possessing a Yellow host had never returned to Remior, indicating that he had successfully traced the mark to the artificial world on his first attempt. It was great news, as it had proven that Ludwick’s Compass could indeed be used for more than what the deceased Saint had envisioned.

  Sadly, the Orange and Red clones hadn’t been nearly as lucky as their sibling. Finding the illusionary pyre suspended in the middle of nowhere, they had deduced that they’d arrived too late, narrowly missing Metatron’s oversized cube as it sped through the infinite darkness. After receiving reports of their failures, Percy had realized that the mindset wasn’t without its blind spots when it came to interstellar navigation.

  He could have still used the existing cord linking him to the Yellow clone to guide the others or sent more critters to plant new marks before using those to return to the artificial world, but Percy hadn’t been overly attached to the idea of possessing natives. The main reason he had bothered the first time around had been to test his mindset – something that was no longer necessary.

  In the end, he’d simply decided to send random hosts to the Vault the good old way. It had taken the clones several attempts to find fitting candidates, though it appeared that they had both eventually succeeded.

  ‘It’ll be a while before I have news from them. I should find something else to keep myself busy…’ he decided.

  The elemental body and Archibald had almost reached the Camelot province by now. They could have made it there much faster if they’d flown, but they were bogged down by the army of life clones following Percy’s grandfather.

  Archibald had slowly replenished their ranks during his stay in the hive, regaining his peak fighting strength in the process. Unfortunately, his mindless minions didn’t possess mana or domains, so they couldn’t fly on their own. Additionally, there was no way that Archibald or Micky could have carried over a hundred grown men by themselves.

  Consequently, they’d been forced to travel on foot. Thankfully, the landbound entourage moved quite fast, even their walking pace far exceeding that of a galloping horse.

  Regardless, Percy didn’t bother with them, leaving everything regarding his family and friends to his counterpart. It was best to have this side of his mind focus on more productive projects.

  Getting up, he left his colourful chamber through the nearest exit, walking through a tunnel that he estimated to be wide enough for the Blue wasps, but not their Queen. Even after all the time he had spent in the underground kingdom, he couldn’t help but marvel at how different it was from all the other places he’d been to.

  Percy considered himself a well-travelled man by now, having visited technologically advanced worlds, primitive villages, as well as lesser and greater springs. Hell, he’d even been to a town at the bottom of the ocean, stood atop a spire tall enough to pierce the clouds, and nearly fallen asleep inside the internal world of a slumbering goddess.

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  Even so, the colossal complex resting beneath the Fungal Spire was one of his most unique destinations to date.

  Leaving its mind-boggling size aside, its roughly-dug tunnels looked nothing like the neat corridors that the hands of sapient beings could have constructed. Its chaotic layout resembled a natural, three-dimensional labyrinth more than any other structure that came to mind. During his first few weeks in the hive, Percy had gotten lost multiple times, though he had thankfully grown better at navigating the place since.

  His steps echoed through the empty tunnels, crisp ‘tings’ alternating with dull ‘thuds’ – depending on where his feet landed – reminding him of how much the depths of the Fungal Spire had changed over the past year. The hive used to be full of buzzing insects of all grades, though its population had greatly shrunk – mostly because of his own actions.

  Tens of millions of the weaker bugs had been sacrificed by their monarch just to produce enough green mushrooms to grant new cores to their stronger kin. The rest of the smaller creatures were currently busy picking up the slack of their deceased siblings, having been sent to the farther reaches of their kingdom to harvest the ambient mana threatening to leak out of its boundaries.

  Obviously, there weren’t enough of them left to collect every single mote, but that was fine. As long as they prevented the excess from escaping, they could just let the mana density in the middle of the hive slowly build up for later. This was one of the reasons the air around Percy appeared especially bright and colourful today.

  Every now and then, he still encountered a lone Drone, Worker or Soldier traveling through the tunnels. On even rarer occasions, one of the creatures proved dumb enough to attack.

  The royal wasps couldn’t monitor every single one of their subjects, and the weaker ones lacked the intelligence to recognize their honoured guest. Even so, their rude actions barely registered as a nuisance, as Percy didn’t have much trouble scaring the poor creatures off with the faintest ripple of his powerful domain.

  The Green and Blue wasps hadn’t participated in the recent slaughter – at least not in the same way – so there were still plenty in the hive, though Percy didn’t encounter any of those either. He’d only passed the Moirais’ Decree to the Starry Commanders and Breeders, but he’d taught Hibernation to the Knights too – with the Queen’s help – so the creatures were currently busy trying to cut their stamina consumption and increase their nectar output.

  Every single day, the humans living in the settlement a few kilometres above his head delivered vast amounts of cyan paste to the underground kingdom, helping the Blue bugs accelerate the advancements of their second cores.

  The wasps had yet to reciprocate the favour, as they needed to repopulate their home before sparing any excess nectar for Percy’s people. However, it shouldn’t be long now.

  Percy wasn’t in a rush to return to the Alchemists’ Guild either, trusting the six elders – Orin had been promoted recently because of him – to take care of everything for now. The senior alchemists had been tasked with expanding the settlement, procuring more secondary ingredients, constructing more labs and living spaces and recruiting new members.

  Percy was going to help them improve their brewing yields eventually, but he was more than happy to wait until the elders were done laying the groundwork, so that he could use his own time more efficiently.

  Right now, there were more urgent things begging for his attention.

  Several tunnels later, he finally entered one of the largest caverns in the hive, finding a colossal wasp standing in the middle. Its glossy carapace was adorned with golden watermarks, looking far healthier than when he had first met her.

  A much smaller wasp was standing by her side, this one no larger than a human. Her appearance was strikingly similar to her mother’s, except for a deep crimson gem firmly embedded in her carapace, in a spot right above and between her eyes.

  The Queen and the Princess both looked rather tired, the beast mana in their bodies flowing far more slowly than usual, though this wasn’t a bad thing. They owed their apparent weakness to Hibernation – the spell that they were currently using to conserve their stamina and build up some royal jelly.

  Walking up to the Violet creature, Percy placed his hand on one of her pillar-like limbs, using a trickle of phantom mana to connect his soul with hers.

  ‘Shall we get started?’ A lethargic voice rang through their connection.

  The corners of his lips curved into a faint smile.

  ‘After you, Your Majesty.’

  The Queen was going to help him with something that he’d been itching to attempt ever since their first meeting. Sadly, their circumstances hadn’t allowed them to embark on this promising quest earlier, but it was better late than never.

  Today, Percy was going to incorporate the royal jelly into the Aurora Dew!

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