The side tunnel was cramped and dark, amplifying the skittering, chittering sounds of the Creeper swarm ahead. Alice moved with liquid grace, her form a ripple of contained void energy. Lilith clung to her back, a serene white passenger.

«We must be cautious,» Lilith projected, her voice a calm stream in the mental noise. «Their coordination is instinctive but effective. They will attempt to flank.»

«I know that!» Alice snapped back, her focus razor-sharp on the mass of chitinous bodies ahead. She didn't need a spider to tell her about ambush tactics. She took a deep breath, gathered void energy in her maw, and unleashed a Void Bolt not at the Creepers, but at the cavern wall above them.

The silent, annihilating sphere struck the ceiling. Rocks and dust showered down on the swarm, not causing major damage, but creating instant, chaotic confusion. The Creepers shrieked in unison, a piercing SHREEEEEK! that grated on the mind. Hundreds of faceted eyes snapped towards the source of the attack, locking onto the void panther and her unusual rider.

«That got their attention,» Alice thought with grim satisfaction. She let out a challenging roar, infused with a ripple of void energy that made the very air distort. «COME ON, YOU MINDLESS WORMS! FOLLOW ME IF YOU DARE!»

She turned and bolted back down the tunnel, moving with blinding speed. The swarm, enraged and single-minded, surged after her in a tidal wave of clicking legs and dripping acid.

«Fufu, you are quite provocative, Alice,» Lilith remarked, sounding genuinely amused as she held on. «It is an effective method.»

«What part of this is a joke to you?!» Alice growled, vaulting over a fallen stalagmite. She could hear the swarm closing in, but also a new sound—the rapid shh-shh-shh of digging from beneath their feet.

«The burrowers,» Lilith noted, her tone shifting to clinical observation. «They are attempting to cut us off. Their speed underground is remarkable.»

Just as she spoke, the ground ahead of them erupted. Three large Creepers burst from the earth, mandibles snapping, blocking their path. Alice didn't hesitate. She activated Void Step, disappearing from in front of them and reappearing a few meters past, but the maneuver cost her momentum. The main swarm from behind was gaining fast.

One of the emerging Creepers spat a glob of corrosive acid. Alice twisted, but the arc was wide. Lilith moved. A strand of Pale Silk shot out from her spinnerets, not at the Creeper, but at the acid glob mid-air. The silk wrapped around it and, with a deft flick, Lilith whipped it back into the faces of the pursuing swarm, causing a sizzling, screeching commotion.

«Do not underestimate us,» Lilith said softly, a cold pleasure in her voice.

«Tch. Thanks,» Alice muttered, unwillingly grateful. She poured on more speed, her muscles burning. The planned collapse point was just ahead, a narrower section of the tunnel with a cracked, unstable-looking ceiling.

But the swarm was everywhere now. They weren't just behind, they were scrabbling along the walls and ceiling above, dropping down. One landed on Alice's flank, its mandibles scraping against her void-touched fur before she shook it off violently. Another lunged for Lilith, who met its charge with a pinpoint Mind Spike. The Creeper convulsed and fell, its simple mind shattered.

They were fighting a running battle, and the tunnel was becoming a death trap. The exit, where they were supposed to trap the swarm, was now also being flooded with Creepers coming from the other side. They were being squeezed from both ends, the distance between them and the relentless tide of chitin closing rapidly.

«The parameters have changed,» Lilith observed, her calmness infuriating and steadying all at once. «We are approaching the convergence point too quickly. We must clear the forward group to reach the choke point.»

«I KNOW!» Alice roared, unleashing a wider, less concentrated Void Bolt into the mass ahead, vaporizing several Creepers but not clearing the path. They were being pushed into a tighter and tighter space, the skittering, acid-dripping walls of the swarm closing in from front and rear.

The plan was working, the Queen was being stripped of her guards but the cost was becoming terrifyingly real.The tunnel was now a nightmare of skittering limbs and dripping acid. Alice and Lilith were caught in a pincer movement, the swarm flooding in from both the direction of the Queen and the exit they needed to reach.

«We are being compressed,» Lilith observed, her telepathic voice still disturbingly calm, as if commenting on a mildly interesting web pattern. «Conventional evasion is no longer viable.»

«NO KIDDING!» Alice snarled, swiping a void-infused paw through two Creepers that got too close, their bodies dissolving into black mist. But for every one she dispelled, three more took its place. Acid splattered against her side, and she hissed as it sizzled against her void-touched fur. Her Hide counterpart wasn't perfect against this corrosive brew.

Lilith, however, was studying the tunnel geometry with her many eyes. «The ceiling at the convergence point is fractured. The Queen's earlier tremors weakened it. A sufficient impact in the correct location will cause a localized collapse.»

«I can't get a clear shot! They're everywhere!» Alice snapped, dodging another lunging pair of mandibles.

«You do not need to,» Lilith replied. A plan formed in her mind and she shared it with Alice in a flash of psychic imagery. «Carry me to that protruding rock ledge, there. I will handle the impact. You must prepare to move the instant it begins. Your Void Step will be essential.»

It was a desperate, precise gamble. Alice didn't argue. She gathered her strength and lunged, not towards the exit, but upwards, using her powerful legs to scale the wall, her claws finding purchase in the stone. Creepers rained down around her, but her agility was supreme. She reached the ledge Lilith indicated, a small outcrop just below the cracked ceiling.

Lilith skittered from her back and immediately began to spin. But she wasn't making a web. She was creating a thick, dense cord of Pale Silk, weaving it with frantic speed into a single, taut, vibrating line anchored to the ledge and pointing directly at the critical fault in the ceiling.

«What are you doing?» Alice asked, batting away a Creeper that had clambered up after them.

«Creating a trigger,» Lilith said, her focus absolute. «A sonic resonance. When I sever the cord, the recoil will produce a shockwave of precise frequency and direction.» She finished her work. The cord hummed with tension. «Now, Alice. Your strongest, most concentrated Void Bolt. Strike the anchor point here on my mark.»

Alice understood. She didn't have the finesse for such a precise seismic attack, but she had destructive power. She gathered void energy, a sphere of absolute darkness forming before her maw, compressing it to a terrifying density.

Lilith reared back, and with a sharp, elegant motion, she severed her own silk cord with a blade-like leg.

TWANG!

The cord snapped. The recoil didn't just vibrate; it released a sharp, concussive crack that shot up towards the ceiling.

"NOW!"

Alice fired. Her Void Bolt lanced out, not at the ceiling, but at the exact point on the ledge where the cord had been anchored. The void energy interacted violently with the lingering sonic resonance.

For a split second, nothing happened. Then, with a deep, groaning roar, the section of the ceiling Lilith had targeted shattered. Not just fell—imploded. A massive cascade of rock and dust collapsed directly into the tunnel below, crushing dozens of Creepers instantly and creating a formidable, though likely temporary, barricade between them and the swarm coming from the Queen's end.

The path to the exit was now clear of immediate pursuit, but the collapse had also shaken the entire tunnel. More debris was starting to fall around their perch.

«Go!» Lilith commanded, leaping onto Alice's back.

Alice didn't need telling twice. She Void Stepped from the crumbling ledge, appearing further down the tunnel, then poured on pure speed, a streak of darkness fleeing the chaotic ruin of rock and angry chittering behind them. They burst out into a connecting cavern, leaving the sealed and furious swarm behind.

They were both panting, Alice from exertion, Lilith from the intense mental and physical focus. Alice had a few new burns from acid, and Lilith had lost the tip of one slender leg to a lucky Creeper bite.

«...That worked,» Alice admitted grudgingly, looking back at the dust cloud billowing from the tunnel mouth.

«Of course it did,» Lilith replied, gently cleaning her injured leg. Her psychic voice was soft, but held a ribbon of dark, satisfied pride. «Chaos is simply a pattern one has not yet learned to weave. Now, the Queen is isolated. It is Adam's turn.»

Back in the main cavern, the cacophonous shrieking of the trapped swarm echoed faintly. The defensive ring around the Cavern Creeper Queen was gone, stripped away. The colossal, wounded matriarch lay exposed, her many eyes now wide with a new, primal understanding of her vulnerability.

Adam saw the collapse from the main entrance, felt the tremor through his scales. The distant, furious sounds of the trapped swarm were music to his ears. He turned to Ignis, a savage grin spreading across his serpentine features.

"The guard dogs are locked away," he rumbled, his voice thick with predatory intent. "Now, we hunt the master."

He launched himself into the air, Ignis soaring beside him with a battle-ready cry. The final, direct assault on the wounded Queen had begun.

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