The True Scale

’... You want to investigate it, right?’ Aubrey asked when she saw Xander looking in that direction, and he nodded slightly.

’We just need enough proof. Well, i suppose everything we’ve discovered so far is already enough to push our case significantly. But we really need something to drive home the point. Whatever is in that space will do just that.’ Then he glanced at her.

’Are you up for it, though?’ At that, Aubrey wiped her mouth and took several calming breaths.

’I knew what I was signing up for when I agreed... Okay more like I guessed. Anyway, we’re here now. Turning back would be pretty regretful.’ She forced a smile, and Xander knew she was just putting up a strong front, but he still smiled and patted her shoulder.

’Alright, then. We’ll keep going. Mary,’ He turned to his maid who hadn’t said a word. ’We’re moving.’

’Yes, milord.’ Like that, the group proceeded once more.

Considering that Aubrey said the closest opening was a few dozen miles away, Xander realized that their current pace was far to slow, a sentiment Mary agreed with.

As such, she snapped her fingers, and suddenly all of them were floating within the sphere of wind she created to obscure their presence. As soon as this happened, their travel speed spiked, and the two humans flailed a bit, which wasn’t surprising. After all, riding a flying creature and straight up flying were two different things, so it took them a moment to get acclimated.

They did acclimate, though.

’Huh, thinking about it, I’ve never really thought much about air-based combat. Seems like something that would be good to learn...’ Even with the recent rounds of terrifying discoveries, Xander was still thinking about more ways to train.

They flew close to the cave ceiling to avoid bumping into anything, and as they flew, they noticed the number of worker and soldier ants increasing. It went from a few every couple of miles to a constant stream of them, which was more or less what Xander had expected when he first came here, but seeing it in person was... a lot.

Now, after going down a single tunnel, he roughly guessed there were a few hundred ants, belonging both to workers and soldiers, and the numbers only climbed the further they went.

He glanced at Aubrey whose brows were furrowed with worry and fear, then at Keir who looked concerned. Only Mary seemed calm, and even then, she didn’t seem very fond of the situation.

’... Thinking about it now, where do they get their food from.’ He frowned. A colony of this size most likely required an utterly absurd amount of food to sustain themselves. Otherwise, they’d starve.

’So many things don’t make sense...’ He was about to rub his temples when Aubrey spoke through the link.

’We’ll be arriving shortly.’ Hearing this, Xander looked head, and indeed, the tunnel they were in currently had the largest concentration of ants they’d seen till now, and at the end was an opening.

But even with all of this, Xander simply could not be prepared for what he saw. He tried, he truly did. And yet... yet...

’Wh-What... the actual hell?!’ His pupils constricted sharply as the cavern was reflected in his eyes.

The cavern wasn’t just large, it looked like a geographical impossibility. When Aubrey had said ’larger than Landor’, he’d expected... something. But it wasn’t just big. One could place Landor dead center and there’d still be space all around for who knows how long? He almost couldn’t see the other side of the cavern!

The ceiling was so high that it generated its own internal weather, a humid, sickening mist that smelled of zone and rot.

Every square-inch of the colossal chamber was alive with hundreds of thousands... no, Millions of them. Their number was so high that his brain simply failed to process the sheer scale of it. They moved across the floor and walls with incessant motion, resembling a writhing ocean of purple shells and antennae that constantly hummed.

In the air, the chilling sight of countless soldiers flying around could be seen, moving around from one tunnel opening to another, almost creating a bizarre air traffic that made one want to puke. Their massive bodies were just so... agile in the air, and the constant buzzing from all the wings was a strain on one’s senses.

His gaze shifted, though, and that’s when he saw it.

Deep within the heart of the cavern sat the ruler of this nightmare. Even with how high they were, his eyes still struggled to grasp the sheer enormity of her size. She made the massive soldier ants look like pebbles. Her abdomen was a glowing, pulsating, translucent mountain of pale purple flesh which shifted with the rhythmic, agonizing contractions of egg production.

Surrounding her was a nursery of absurd proportions. Millions of standard, oblong eggs listened under the dim light, some smaller and some larger. They were constantly being tended to by a frantic army of workers, and periodically, some would split open disgustingly as larvae crawled out.

However, near the queen’s immediate flanks, nestled deep in a pit, Xander saw a cluster of eggs that made his heart sink.

They didn’t look like the other eggs. They were larger, covered in angry black tendrils, and their shells were dangerously thin, just enough for Xander to see vague shapes sifting inside. Things that didn’t adhere to the six-legged or twelve-legged anatomy he’d already seen. They seemed far more chaotic, unfinished. Worse.

And then he got his answer for how they sustained themselves.

The far side of the chamber was a colossal, mountain-like mound of raw meat. It looked like the part of... maybe a limb? Of some ancient creature that had been buried deep in the earth. The flesh was a deep crimson, and it seemed almost alive. Throbbing and expanding before contracting visibly. He watched as thousands of workers and soldiers swarmed it like fleas, their mandibles ripping away chunks of the meat while others harvests the dark blood from its wounds. And miraculously, whenever they did, it seemed to knit itself back together, which explained how it had persisted for so long.

But despite this, Xander couldn’t quite explain it, but it seemed almost... tired. Like the regenerative ability of the flesh had worn down after years of abuse.

’... That flesh belongs to the corpse of a dead behemoth.’ Mary’s words jolted Xander out of his thoughts, his head snapping towards her, whose expression looked uncharacteristically grim.

Behemoths were mythological creatures often believed to be on the same level of dragons and phoenixes, known for their absurdly durable bodies and absurd regeneration. It was no wonder the colony had been able to sustain itself for so long, they had access to such a thing, of course Landor wouldn’t have fallen into their sights, and of course they would have grown so much.

’If... If that’s just a piece, then where’s the rest of it?’ Aubrey, who had fallen silent as soon as they entered the cavern, asked with a trembling voice, but they all already knew the answer.

She stated that there were dozens of caverns like this one. So chances are that it was split among all of them. The thought was daunting.

Xander glanced at Keir who was staring at the flesh, his eyes filled with desire, but even he understood that there was absolutely no way he’d be able to get close to it, let alone take a bite.

’... This is just one cavern.’ Aubrey spoke again, her voice sounding strained. ’Just one! How... how do we fight against this?! It’s not... we can’t...’ She turned to Xander, her eyes frantic.

’What do we do...?’ The sheer pleading and despair in her gaze made his heart sink. But he understood. Before, they had been operating based on guesses and speculation. So everything could still be looked at with a level of detachment along with the vague hope that their guesses were wrong.

But now, they had SEEN it, the sheer horror of it all that could nearly break down one’s mind. And this was just ONE cavern! What of the rest? What of the larger ones? The deeper ones that most certainly held different sorts of ants?

In fact, it was probably worse for Aubrey because even if her magic left out details and failed to map out everything, she still, to a degree, comprehended the scope of the colony far more than Xander.

So for all intents and purposes, she was handling it far better than he imagined.

Then there was her question...

’What can we do?’ Xander slowly glanced at Mary who held the recording device, still doing her task dutifully. She held his gaze, then slowly shook her head.

’I apologize, milord. Even if I were to go all out, I’d at best be able to destroy a few nests like this and be out of commission indefinitely. It’s beyond my ability to deal with it all alone.’ That was certainly not a great answer, but he also got it.

Actually, Mary had explained to him that, among elemental spirits, she was quite young. So her abilities hadn’t fully matured, not completely. So expecting her to handle this matter was a bit much.

’... Have you recorded everything?’ Xander asked as he reached forward and grabbed the trembling Aubrey, pulling her into him and pressing her head into his shoulder, obscuring her vision.

’Correct. Should we return?’ Mary asked.

’Yes. Please.’ Xander gave a solemn nod and glanced back at the cavern one last time, his eyes narrowing at the seemingly hopeless congregation of creatures just waiting for their primary food source to run out.

And without further ado, Mary took them back.

However, just when they were about to return through the tunnel, the head of the queen perked up in their direction, just barely missing them.