The ant colony's depths were exactly what a nightmare painting should look like.

Tunnels carved through earth with organic efficiency, walls lined with secreted resin that hardened into structural support, chambers sized for creatures that operated on alien spatial logic.

The queen's chamber was vast—thirty meters across, ceiling high enough to accommodate her fifteen-foot bulk, floors sticky with organic residue that marked territory and communicated pheromone commands.

And there—center of the chamber, surrounded by her remaining soldier ants—the queen herself.

Massive. Powerful. Wounded from her fight with Rowan and Tertius but still dangerous.

Her compound eyes tracked the three Adepts entering her domain, her mandibles clicking commands that sent her soldiers into a defensive formation.

"Standard tactics," Atheon assessed. "The Queen stays back while her soldiers engage. We need to break through the defensive line to—"

The soldiers attacked.

It was not a coordinated swarm or formation.

Just… charge. Simple, direct, operating on their hive-mind directives that prioritized the queen's protection.

Goba's Electric Hand discharged—an area effect lightning that cooked a dozen soldier ants instantly, their chitin conducting electricity directly into vulnerable organs.

Atheon's enhanced fists—the techniques that had earned him "Fist of Men" title—pulverized three more ants simultaneously, his strength-focused cores making him a mobile siege weapon.

Vaelith's techniques were more subtle—frequency manipulation that disrupted the ants' nervous systems, made their coordination fail, turned their organized defense into confused stumbling.

The soldiers died in seconds. Thirty of them. All dead before they could meaningfully engage.

That was… easy, all three Adepts recognized simultaneously.

Too easy. The queen should have had better defenses. Should have coordinated more effectively. Should have—

Then they understood.

The queen wasn't coordinating the soldiers' defense.

The queen was fleeing.

Her massive bulk was already moving toward secondary tunnel at the chamber's rear, her limited intelligence and survival instincts overriding her hive-mind imperatives to protect territory.

She's abandoning the colony, Atheon realized. Prioritizing her own survival over her soldier ants. That's not normal hive behavior.

"Stop her!" Vaelith called, already moving to intercept.

But the queen was fast—faster than her bulk suggested, her multiple legs carrying her toward escape with desperate efficiency.

Goba's Engine roared, burning through stored power to enhance his speed beyond normal capability. He closed the distance faster than the queen could process, his massive form becoming a blur of motion.

His Electric Hand grabbed the queen's thorax—direct contact, electricity flooding through her exoskeleton, targeting the ganglia that controlled her motor functions.

The queen screamed—a sound like metal tearing, like reality protesting the injury.

But she didn't stop. Her legs continued churning, trying to drag herself toward escape even as her nervous system overloaded.

Atheon arrived from a different angle, his fist driving into the queen's head with enough force to crack chitin plating, to pulverize the complex brain structure that made her more than simple insect.

The queen thrashed, her mandibles snapping wildly, her stinger lashing out in desperate defense.

Vaelith's frequency attack intensified, disrupting the queen's internal coordination, making her own body betray her as muscle groups fired out of sync.

This isn't the three Adepts versus one queen situation I was expecting, Goba realized with dark humor. This is three Adepts competing to claim the kill. This is… fuck, did I just get into an ego contest.

Because none of them were actually putting up their best. They were each trying to land the killing blow, to demonstrate their capability, to establish a dominance hierarchy even while supposedly cooperating.

Atheon wanted to prove his "Fist of Men" title meant something. Wanted to show that despite Grim Hollow's fall, despite the night's chaos, he was still effective.

Vaelith wanted to demonstrate Crownhold superiority. Wanted to remind everyone that his political maneuvering didn't mean combat incompetence.

And Goba… Goba just wanted this shit over with so he could file reports and get back to Kiliman where things made sense.

His fist—enhanced by his Tank core's stored power, crackling with Electric Hand's energy—smashed into the queen's skull with finality.

The chitin shattered. The skull collapsed. The brain matter—such as it was—pulverized into organic soup.

The queen's body spasmed, her nervous system misfiring in final death throes, electricity still arcing through her tissue, making her legs twitch and mandibles snap reflexively.

Then stillness.

The queen was dead. The colony's coordinating intelligence eliminated. The threat neutralized.

"Acceptable," Goba assessed, breathing hard despite his Engine talent's endurance. "Colony's decapitated. Worker ants will revert to basic hunting behavior. Easily managed by your standard patrols."

"That was…" Atheon paused, searching for words. "…anticlimactic. I expected more resistance."

"She was wounded from Rowan's fight," Vaelith observed. "Already compromised. We just finished what he started."

"Still counts as a kill," Goba said. "Reports will say we eliminated the threat. Everyone gets credit. Everyone looks competent. Politics are satisfied."

He didn't mention that it had actually been an unconscious bigger dick contest. Didn't point out that they'd nearly interfered with each other's attacks. Didn't acknowledge that if the queen had been at full capability, their lack of real coordination might have been a problem.

But she wasn't at full capability, Goba thought. And we did kill her. So technically, mission accomplished.

"We should return to the surface," Atheon said. "Set up final cleanup operations. Begin casualty assessment."

"And address… other issues," Vaelith added carefully, his tone suggesting something he wasn't voicing openly.

"Later," Goba said firmly. "Right now, we have to establish a defensive perimeter, seal the colony breaches, restore the lamp infrastructure. Everything else waits until the immediate crisis is fully stabilized."

They ascended from the colony depths—three Adepts who'd just killed a queen through what was technically cooperation but felt more like parallel solo efforts that happened to achieve the same objective.

This is why multi-Adept operations are complicated, Goba thought. Too many egos. Too much competition. Too much politics.

Give me simple Crawler elimination any day. At least monsters don't have agendas beyond feeding.

-----

The Academy candidates had found relatively secure position in the medical bay's interior rooms—areas that medical staff had fortified when the crisis began, that provided defensive advantages and limited access points.

Bright sat against a wall, his spatial foresight still active but less intense now that the immediate threats had passed. Duncan leaned beside him, his Bone Guard partially dissolved, the defensive core finally getting the rest it desperately needed.

Mara cleaned her blades with mechanical precision, the routine calming even if her hands shook slightly from exhaustion and trauma.

Silas existed in shadows, barely perceived even by allies, his Sense Fade making him comfortable in absence.

And Bessia—Bessia knelt beside Estovia Armand's unconscious form, maintaining pressure on wounds that were stable but still required monitoring.

"We can't stay here," Bessia said quietly, breaking the exhausted silence. "The medical bay's compromised. Infrastructure damaged. No proper facilities for an extended recovery."

"Where do we go?" Duncan asked. "The outpost's still under partial crisis. Most districts are unsafe."

"The convoy compound," Bessia replied. "House Aurin's defensive position. They have proper medical facilities for our transport. They have an Adept maintaining security. They're—"

"They're mercenaries," Mara interrupted. "House Aurin cares about contracts, not righteousness. They won't protect us out of duty. They'll calculate whether we're worth the resources."

"But we are worth resources," Bright said, understanding Bessia's logic. "We're Academy candidates. Selected assets that the Republic invested in. House Aurin's contract is transporting us to Central. Protecting us serves their contractual obligations."

"And the lieutenant ?" Duncan asked. "She's no. She's a wounded officer with politically dangerous evidence. House Aurin won't want that complication."

"Then we present her as our responsibility," Bessia said firmly. "As a wounded requiring medical attention that we're obligated to provide. We don't mention the evidence. We don't mention the politics. We just say she's an injured officer who needs facilities until formal evacuation can be arranged."

It was pragmatic. Slightly dishonest by omission. But also… logical.

"What about the others?" Mara asked. "Ellarine's group. Any other surviving candidates. Do we coordinate with them?"

"If they're already at the compound, yes. If they're still scattered…" Bright's spatial foresight couldn't extend far enough to locate other candidates throughout Vester. "…then they'll have to reach safety on their own capability. We can't search for them without risking our own survival."

"Cold," Duncan observed.

"Practical," Bright corrected. " Same assessment any Adept would make. We protect who we can reach. Everyone else survives or doesn't based on their own choices."

"I hate that I'm agreeing with this," Mara said. "Hate that it makes sense."

"Then hate it," Silas said from shadows. "But do it anyway. Because the alternative is dying alongside people who made worse tactical choices. And that doesn't help anyone."

"Can we move Estovia safely?" Duncan asked Bessia, redirecting before the philosophical discussion spiraled.

"With support, yes," Bessia confirmed. "Her wounds are stabilized. She's unconscious but stable. We'd need to carry her, which means dedicating at least two people to transport, but it's manageable."

"Then we do it," Bright decided. "We head to the convoy compound. We present ourselves as Academy candidates requiring transport and medical facilities. We get Estovia to safety. We wait for dawn and formal evacuation."

"And if House Aurin refuses?" Duncan asked.

"Then we negotiate," Bright said. "Offer merit points. Leverage our future Academy connections. Promise favorable considerations once we're Adepts ourselves. House Aurin understands transactions. We just need to make protecting us worth more than the complications we represent."

"You're learning," Silas observed. "Learning to think like a merchant rather than soldier."

"Learning to survive," Bright corrected. "Which is what this night has been teaching. Survival requires calculation, negotiation, willingness to compromise principles when the alternative is death."

"Just don't lose the principles entirely," Duncan said.

"I won't," Bright promised.

"Good," Duncan said. "Because the world has enough Adepts like vaelith. Needs more like… well, like whoever we're going to become."

They gathered themselves—exhausted, injured, carrying the unconscious officer and political evidence, heading toward a sanctuary that might refuse them.

But moving. Surviving. Choosing action over paralysis.

Outside, dawn was finally breaking—artificial sun rising over Vester's ruins, revealing the cost of Clear Light's Eve in stark, unforgiving light.

Hundreds dead. Infrastructure damaged. Political complications that would take months to untangle.

But the Academy candidates were alive. Were functional. Were making choices that prioritized survival while trying to maintain principles.

That's something, Bright thought. Not enough. Never enough. But something.

They walked toward the convoy compound, toward House Aurin's mercenary sanctuary, toward whatever came next.

Survivors, technically.

Changed, definitely.

But still carrying forward. Still trying. Still refusing to let survival cost everything that made survival worthwhile.

The holiday was ending.

And they'd made it through.

Barely.

But enough.

For now.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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