Chapter 1449 – Kicking into Full Gear

It was truly impressive to see what the family was capable of when they really put their minds to it. I’m so used to my siblings’ unified way of thinking, thanks to the Vestibule, that I’ve stopped considering what it actually looks like to others when all the ants work in such a coordinated fashion.

During a break from exploring and fighting territorial monsters, I take a little time to creep back up to the entrance to the fifth, just to check things out.

I have to say, I like what they’ve done with the place.

It hasn’t been that long, all things considered, but the narrow entrance into the tunnel, and indeed the tunnel itself, don’t look anything like what I remember when I first came down here.

In fact, it couldn’t be more different.

The entrance has been widened and the engineers have been busy working on it. A series of lifts are in constant motion, rising and falling as a never ending stream of ants, people, materials and everything else needed to fuel the invasion comes down. I can only imagine the shenanigans going on above in the fourth to maintain this flow. Solant’s logistical mastery at work, no doubt.

The tunnel itself has transformed completely. Cleansed by the blue mana, it’s lost the toxic atmosphere and hazy yellow-green hue I see everywhere else in this place. Instead, the carvers have turned it into a massive hub for receiving and distributing everything coming down from above. There are stockpiles, warehouses, wide paths filled with traffic I guess I could describe as roads.

Unsatisfied with the existing network of tunnels, the Colony has been busy boring their own channels through the rock to make more direct and efficient connections. I can already see the colossal fortress that Solant has envisioned starting to take shape, and this right here is intended to be the beating heart of the operation. We may never be self-sustaining here in the fifth, but as long as we can move things efficiently from the fourth, we should be able to get everything we need to make it through the coming wave.

Just thinking about the wave is enough to dim my spirits a bit. I mean, they’re always terrible, but this next one…

Take any stratum, and during a wave, whatever makes it a pain in the carapace is dialled all the way up to eleven and beyond. I still shudder to think of the never ending hordes of demon larvae on the third clawing and chewing on each other as far as the eye could see. Just what is the fifth going to be like? How much more awful could this place really get?

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I know the answer to that question: a lot. It’s going to get a lot worse. I may not be able to articulate how, but I can feel the slimy doom coming in the tiniest hairs on my antennae. Man, they’re twitching already, that’s how bad it’s going to be.

Actually… that makes no sense, what the heck is going on?