We'll need a lot of mana to test the new mutation's effects,' they realized.
Taking a few deep breaths, they gathered the colourful motes in the cavern closer, the particles taking on a grey hue as they transformed into dancing flames, long ribbons and a violent snowstorm. The elements seeped in and out of their pores, filling their channels with mana and their muscles with strength.
Soon, it became clear that they could still access the original forms of their boosting arts – the Carnival and the Symbel of the Savage Gods – even without going all out. In fact, it appeared that they had a lot more flexibility right now than before their fusion!
The human and the crow had each cleared and tempered sets of pure, soul, ice, water and air channels. The first could only contain variants of pure mana, so the best resource to fill them up with was naturally phantom mana. The last three networks could contain soul-freezing ice, while the soul channels could handle either of the fused affinities.
In the past, Percy and Micky had only been able to convert ambient mana to the types they had the correct cores for, but it now seemed like they could create whatever resources they needed on either end of their existence, without having to constantly pass their mana back and forth.
'Well, it's not perfect…'
Sadly, the crow body was the only one with beast channels, as the affinity couldn't exist anywhere outside its circulatory system. On top of that, the human body still had a lower resistance to cold than the bird, though it had certainly climbed by another step after the fusion. Finally, the exact ratio of mana that each body could wield was further capped by the cores they possessed, allowing the human to circulate more phantom mana and the crow to fill up on soul-freezing ice.
Still, they would certainly have a lot more options during a fight.
Satisfied with their findings, they moved on to other tasks. The human body poured phantom mana into the self-repair enchantments on his robes. The ice mana had distorted the construct greatly earlier, leaving "Percy" almost naked.
The tattered rags drank the grey flames greedily, soon expanding to cover the rest of the body. The once-chaotic weave grew orderly again, the clothes turning tidier as the faded enchantments suddenly became readable.
At the same time, they used some of the mana to mend their injured soul. The frostbitten patches refused to thaw at first, making them realize that the backlash of their new spell wasn't so easy to reverse.
They should be able to carve out the smaller wounds entirely, regrowing those parts of their soul from scratch. However, they'd have to slowly thaw and heal the larger of the stiff regions properly, which would inevitably take a few days.
'Better get on it then. The sooner we're no longer a complete mess, the sooner we'll be able to place Nephthys inside an egg…'
While the human body was busy pouring phantom mana into their Cloak and soul, the crow took control of the soul-freezing ice, trying to activate the new mutation. Luckily, it didn't seem to require much effort, the crystalline flesh responding almost immediately to their wishes.
The tiny bird absorbed the grey blizzard like a sponge, growing rapidly. Within seconds, it was as tall as a human, its talons turning into feet, its wings into hands, and its beak into an exact replica of Percy's face!
The two bodies looked at each other, feeling like they were staring inside a three-dimensional mirror – albeit one that had replaced tanned skin with ice, dark hair with glossy strands, and even regrown their missing limb. Lifting its artificial hands, the not-really-a-crow body clenched and unclenched its fists, realizing they felt no different from a human's!
But they didn't stop there.
Drawing even more mana, they transformed again. They grew a few centimetres taller, a new beak forming on their head as their torso turned slightly bulkier, a second pair of arms sprouting right beneath the first. This was the original Micky's appearance!
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Punching empty space a few times, they listened to the booming shockwaves their fists released, taking a moment to appreciate the feeling of the air splitting against their skin, leaving no question as to the sheer power their icy muscles now packed.
'Okay… we look like the original Micky, but this is definitely a much stronger body…'
While Micky had spent a lot of time fighting in the coliseum, he had still ultimately been a Yellow sapient, while the new body was technically a beast with a Green and a Yellow core, even if it didn't currently look the part.
Absorbing more mana, they shapeshifted one final time, ditching their hands for wings again, turning back into a crow. Only, this time they were as large as an elephant – much like Micky had been right before their fusion. They did try to grow further still, but that destabilized their body, the ice falling apart to reveal a regular-sized crow.
'That's probably the largest body those two cores can support by themselves. We'll likely need both bodies working together to form a construct as big as the one we used against Deimos,' they realized.
Over the next few minutes, they performed some additional tests, playing around with their different forms while exploring their limits. Switching between them was relatively quick and painless, though they struggled to transform into anything outside the four shapes they were familiar with.
It should be possible, but it would probably take a lot of practice before they got used to anything else. A project for the future, but not a priority, since the choices they had available already covered most of their needs.
The small crow was the least conspicuous form, as well as the one that would consume the least stamina. Of course, all four shapes could be maintained indefinitely, but the most efficient one would allow a greater ratio of their meals to be directed into the beast core's advancement, probably shrinking the time to Blue greatly. At the very least, they fully expected the ice body to spend most of its time in that shape moving forward.
The giant bird was the fastest and strongest – physically at least. However, the sapient forms could borrow and wield the same tools as the human body, using the Cloak and Harvesters to reproduce most of the Carnival's Parades. In many ways, they should be even stronger than the human, though the reduced phantom mana would limit the maximum number of constructs they could wield, and the lack of the Sovereign's Eye would prevent them from predicting their opponents' moves.
More importantly, those two forms should be capable of performing the finer arts like alchemy or runecrafting, and even interacting with others like regular people! Unfortunately, their icy texture would make them stand out, so blending in a crowd wouldn't be easy, but the crow body's endless flexibility was bound to serve them greatly down the line.
'Well, it's probably more accurate to call it the "elemental body" now…'
Shaking the pointless thoughts out of their heads, they then moved to the other sections. The alchemic principles had remained entirely untouched, and so had the Decrees.
Funnily enough, the Moirais' Decree now affected them twice, even though its entry mentioned nothing of the sort. Most people in the universe would likely lose their minds if they knew that somebody had found a way to not only steal, but completely abuse, one of the most powerful Decrees in existence.
There was no longer any question as to whether Phoebe's or Obatala's Decrees affected the human or the elemental, since they only had a single Status shared between them. Iapetus's Decree only worked on "Percy", however, as did the mutation part of Ea's Gift.
The biggest question mark in the entire section was Metatron's Decree. They imagined that both bodies should have access to it – because Micky had been able to use it before, with the clone's help – but that wasn't what bothered them.
'What the hell happened back there? Why didn't it activate when we needed it to?'
Strictly speaking, it was probably a good thing that they'd failed to escape to the Vault. While their current situation had its downsides, there was plenty to be happy about. Falling into the titan's hands would have certainly been a lot worse.
However, that was irrelevant.
The problem was that whoever had prevented them from opening the portal couldn't have possibly predicted their fusion. They'd clearly been willing to let at least Micky – and probably Percy too – to die.
As for who it was?
Well, it had to have been one of Remior's gods. Probably Phoebe herself, as they couldn't imagine anyone else interfering with a Decree like that. They'd long suspected that the titaness had set her eyes on them, of course, though they still had no idea what she wanted.
They had obviously brought lots of valuable techniques and treasures to Remior, so it wasn't that strange that the Order had decided not to directly join the Root's manhunt, but that didn't explain why they had even allowed their subordinates to continue chasing them, or why Phoebe had suddenly been willing to let them die.
'Well, we can't really blame her for not wanting us to open a portal to the Vault… Still, she could have intervened in a way that didn't completely screw us over!'
Alas, the gods' whims were sadly not something they could do anything about right now. Shrugging, they decided to move on to the thing they'd deliberately left for last. Opening their Status, they read the spell section once more, their eyes landing on what was arguably the most important of the new entries – as well as the cause of everything else that had happened to them:
The new spell.
Chapter 497 – Extreme
Spells:
[Wild Art: Alchemist's Intuition – Crude]
[Spectral Art: Parasitic Connection – Refined]
[Spectral Art: Cauldron of a Thousand Whispers – Masterful]
[Spectral Art: Instantaneous Formation – Masterful]
[Hybrid Art: Core Bestowal – Masterful]
[Ultimate Art: Symphony of a Dead Winter – Extreme]
___
'Ultimate Art… well, that sure answers what happens when a spell requires both a bloodline, a mutation, and a spectral trait to work,' they thought, the human body scratching the back of its head. 'The name is a bit tacky though.'
Regardless, they finally knew what the tier above Masterful was called, yet that only created more questions.
Had this so-called "Extreme" tier always existed, or was it something their Status had come up with on the spot? Normally, Masterful spells were meant for Violets and Whites, so who were Extreme spells even meant for? Just demigods? Or perhaps, none but the most talented mortals? If not them, surely a god would be capable of casting something similar, right?
Either way, one thing was for certain.
If it hadn't been for the pretty unique circumstances of the previous battle, they would have probably never merged their spells like this – not even after training for a thousand years. And they weren't just being modest or pessimistic either.
While Percy and Micky had done a great job developing so many Masterful spells with such low grades and at such a young age, it was painfully apparent that their new technique was on a whole other level from any of its components.
It was the result of five Masterful spells fusing – four of Percy's and one of Micky's – each of which had been an extremely intricate piece of magic in and of itself. Many of them had involved several moving parts of their own, with three having been close to the very top of the tier in the first place.
It wasn't that strange that their fusion warranted a new classification, but getting all the components to fit together seamlessly would have been an impossible challenge for a regular person. They'd only succeeded because they'd somehow managed to get three minds to collaborate perfectly on the task. In fact, they wouldn't be surprised if they'd consumed a lot of Wiseman's Murmurs in the process too.
'Hmmm… too much was going on for us to notice but, come to think of it, hasn't the influx of ideas grown a bit quieter now? We haven't bled the pyramid dry, have we?'
The plan had always been to leave some of the resource for the wasp familiar, to give Nephthys a helping hand as she began her new life. It was the least the goddess deserved, considering that the Murmurs had come from her in the first place.
Hopefully, it was just their imagination, and the only reason the substance wasn't making its presence known at the moment was because they weren't practicing their magic. Not that they were planning to do that anytime soon, though.
They'd already fused half of their spells into the Symphony of a Dead Winter – closer to a hundred percent of their arsenal, actually, if they excluded all the auxiliary spells that had little to do with combat. Consequently, they had no idea how to continue raising their strength.
'We could aim for some incremental improvements, but we'll probably experience diminishing returns moving forward,' they realized.
They should be able to hone their magiscript further the next time they visited the Vault, and they might also be able to come up with a more efficient form of affinity fusion that involved ice, soul and pure mana. They could also try using Green trollsfury tattoos, or even working other variants of potions into their kit. Finally, learning to wield their domain better might help, among other things.
However, all of those projects were relatively minor – at least compared to everything they'd already incorporated into the spell. It would take several time-consuming improvements for too little gain.
Not that killing a powerful Violet with only a bunch of Yellow and Green cores was anything to scoff at, but the Lone Wanderer suddenly found himself with fewer promising projects to work on than usual.
This was perhaps the perfect time to shift their attention to more peaceful ventures. Growing any stronger in their current grades was a tall order, so their best bet would be to sprint toward their next promotions – be they natural or artificial. Of course, their clones were bound to find more interesting things to bring back at some point, opening new doors for them, but that wasn't something they could plan for.
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'We should try to settle down anyway. Right now, the priority is giving Nephthys a body, followed by figuring out the situation in the Guild and the rest of Remior.'
Weirdly enough, they had already grown stronger than most of the Violets leading the noble Houses. If they excluded the Green-borns in the Divine Order, there might be fewer than a hundred mortals in the world capable of beating them in single combat.
'Well… "single" if they don't call us out for cheating…'
With Deimos out of the picture and their enemies having learned some tough lessons recently, they might not encounter too much resistance if they tried to free Baldy and Orin.
Then, they could look for some remote corner to hide in for the next few centuries, focusing on the new familiar's growth, alchemy, magiscript, cleansing their cores, and exploring the universe.
'Sounds like a plan. All this fighting has gotten pretty cumbersome anyway…'
Heaving out a tired breath, they closed their Status, having finished going over everything. Their transformation had changed a lot, but they felt that they now had a decent grasp on their new reality.
Over the next couple of hours, they poured their efforts into mending as much of the soul damage as possible. They weren't going to recover completely in such a short time, but they wanted to at least be able to carve out a chunk of their soul without fainting, to fashion the familiar out of – assuming that they managed to get an egg from the Starry Queen.
On top of that, they hoped that they would be able to activate their new spell in a pinch. They still had no idea what the ruler of the magical hive wanted from them, but there was always a chance that things would devolve to violence. Activating the Symphony before they fully recovered wouldn't be pleasant, but they would need its power to break out of the underground prison if the worst came to pass.
As they worked on thawing out their soul, they took some time to consider a different issue.
'How are we going to interact with other people, moving forward?'
Ideally, they should make an effort to think of themselves as "Percy" and "Micky" whenever possible, and to try and behave as two separate individuals – if not inside their heads, then at least when interacting with others.
Keeping the façade up wouldn't be easy, as they clearly defaulted to referring to themselves as "they". Pretending to talk to one another would be the equivalent of a regular person developing a split personality on purpose, making the whole thing as silly as it was impractical.
Still, as annoying as it sounded, they knew they had to do something to put their friends and family at ease. Conforming to basic social norms and expectations would likely serve them better in the long run. And who knew? Maybe they'd find a way to separate their minds and stuff them back into their respective bodies one day – if only whenever it was more convenient than being fused.
'It's settled then. I'll be Percy again, and you'll be Micky,' the human body said, getting a nod back. It already felt weird, if not downright cringeworthy, but they'd have to get used to it.
As soon as they were ready, they finally stepped out of the cavern and into the only tunnel leading to the next one. The elemental body – no. Micky – had shifted back to Percy's form, ready to fight if necessary. This was the best form to use right now, for several reasons.
For one, he wouldn't be able to fly in such a cramped space, so neither the large nor the small birds would be any useful here. The four-armed shape might be a little stronger than the human one, but there was another problem with it.
Walking ahead, Percy tore a strip from his Cloak, tossing it to his "companion". The latter poured some phantom mana to regenerate it, soon donning an identical copy. Unfortunately, his other form was too burly for it and had a couple of arms too many. If necessary, he could wear a slightly distorted version, but it was better to use one that fit him properly for now and worry about weaving a new set of clothes later.
As they passed through the wide tunnel, they couldn't help but gawk over the colourful minerals lining the walls and ceiling. Among them, they even spotted a material they recognized – a dark vein with hundreds of tiny dots glittering over its glossy surface.
'Obsidian marble!'
It could be used to craft long-lasting spatial amulets, though they didn't really need any more of those at the moment. Even so, they were tempted to snatch a few crystals and ores of each type to experiment on later.
In the past, Percy might have thought twice about disturbing the environment inside the precious hive – if not out of fear of breaking the law, then out of respect for its importance in Remior's survival. That ship had largely sailed, of course, considering how much he'd disturbed this place already. Besides, grabbing a few rocks wouldn't really make a difference.
'Not right now,' he thought, shaking his head.
Robbing the place when they were about to meet its ruler might not be a great idea.
Approaching the end of the corridor, they felt the ground rumble beneath their feet, a constant buzzing sound growing louder by the second. Swallowing hard, they pressed on, knowing that there was no avoiding what was to come.
Reaching the exit, they found themselves inside a room several times larger than the last one. The deposits scattered across the stone surfaces shone even more brightly than those in the tunnel. Countless exits led out of the cavern, each wide enough for at least a Blue bug to easily crawl through, with many being even bigger than that.
The air was thick with dancing motes, though the particles were constantly disturbed by the thousands of insects of all shapes and sizes crawling out of one tunnel and into another. The Red-cored Starry Drones were as big as a man's fist, while the Orange-cored Starry Workers and the Yellow-cored Starry Soldiers were as large as foxes or humans, respectively.
There were plenty of Green-cored Starry Knights too, each the size of an elephant – reminding Percy and Micky of the monstrosity that had nearly claimed their life the last time they'd found themselves inside the hive. They didn't see any of the Blue beasts around, however. There probably weren't that many of them in the colony to begin with, or they simply didn't have a reason to regularly wander through its tunnels.
Either way, Percy and Micky weren't paying the scenery or the smaller creatures any attention. How could they, when they struggled to peel their eyes from the behemoth standing smack in the middle of the room, staring right back at them?
One thing was for certain: after today, Percy would never look at a bug the same way again.
The creature standing before him towered over the largest buildings he'd seen on Remior, save perhaps for Phoebe's temple at the foot of the Oracle Mountain, or the headquarters of the noble Houses. The gargantuan insect was nearly thirty metres tall, and over twice as long from antennae to stinger. Her membranous wings were folded neatly behind her back, though Percy wouldn't be surprised if they could stretch even wider than her body.
Overall, her appearance was rather similar to that of the smaller bugs: a black, glossy carapace sprinkled with colourful dots that resembled stars – the very reason for the name of their species. However, there were a few differences that set the Queen apart from her offspring, outside of her size.
A golden watermark pattern covered her entire exoskeleton, rippling through and around the stars, making the creature's chitinous exterior resemble a galactic nebula. Percy guessed that the Queen owed her strange markings to either her royal lineage or her Violet grade. Or, perhaps, the two things were one and the same, but he knew even less about the hive's innerworkings to tell with certainty.
Another feature – which the smaller bugs might actually share with their mother, but which Percy hadn't noticed in the past – was a series of jagged ends lining the sides of the wasp's limbs. Each was sharp enough to slice a person in half for the crime of merely walking into it by accident. Not that the Queen needed the dagger-like protrusions to kill someone – her limbs were already wide enough to flatten a grown human with a single stomp.
Of course, Percy's eyes captured a few more details than his "companion's". He could clearly follow the bright Violet lines spreading through the Queen's circulatory system, her soul burning beneath her flesh like a silver inferno as an ocean of ink-coloured willpower rolled and tussled violently within her frame, barely contained.
'I have to give her credit for suppressing her domain, at least. She's more polite than most humans I've met,' he noted.
Curiously, Percy didn't feel very tense under the creature's scrutinizing gaze. Perhaps he should have been more wary of the monster, considering how much larger and stronger it was than the Starry Knight that had nearly claimed his life a few years prior. Then again, his confidence wasn't unfounded either, given how much stronger he and Micky had grown since their frantic escape from the Guild.
Even so, the elemental body stepped closer to the human, ready to meld into his Cloak at a moment's notice. If the colossal insect was weaker than Deimos, they might be able to take it down without going all out, but fighting their way out of the hive was bound to be even harder.
"Greetings, Your Majesty," Percy said, bowing his head slightly. He had no idea whether the creature could even understand him, let alone appreciate the gesture, but he genuinely felt like reciprocating the Queen's excellent manners. "I must thank you for your hospitality, and for giving us the time and space to recover before our meeting."
No response.
The wasp didn't so much as twitch. She was still looking at them unflinchingly, their figures reflected countless times across her compound eyes. The other bugs stopped moving at once, however, halting their incessant buzzing and plunging the chamber into silence so deep that one could hear a pin drop.
Yet, one of the creatures did move, a shape slowly approaching by the corner of Micky's vision. It was an elephant-sized bug – a Starry Knight – its rhythmic steps echoing through the vast chamber. Walking in front of Percy, it stopped right between him and its mother.
Percy had no idea what the insects were up to, so he just watched with curiosity as the Queen raised her forelimb a few metres above the crystalline floor of the cavern. Without the slightest warning or hesitation, she slammed the colossal limb down at her subject, sending a tremor through the hive as she crushed the entire lower half of the bug's body into goo.
The gruesome sight cause Percy's eyes to widen with shock. On one hand, the Queen's blatant disregard for the life of her own descendant wasn't necessarily a bad thing – it likely meant that she didn't care as much about all the other insects he and Micky had slain in the past.
On the other hand, it was a clear indication that she wouldn't give a damn about a human's life either. The only reason they were still alive was because she wanted something from them, so they had to make sure the negotiations reached an amicable conclusion if they wanted to leave this place peacefully.
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'What did she do that for, though?' Percy wondered, a frown forming on his face as the Starry Queen made no further move. It wasn't until a few seconds later, when she slowly pushed the still-twitching body of the dying Starry Knight toward him that he realized what she wanted. 'Don't tell me… does she expect me to put a clone in this thing?'
As cruel of a move as it was, he had to admit that it was chillingly practical. Violet beasts were certainly intelligent enough to communicate with sapients, but it didn't look like the Queen possessed any serviceable vocal cords, nor did the mental field that she used to convey her commands to her subjects seem to extend to anyone else.
In other words, the simplest way to speak to Percy would be to have him enter one of the insects' bodies, tapping into their network. And… judging by how thoroughly she'd injured the creature, she'd clearly figured out the basics of how Percy's bloodline worked too.
Swallowing hard – mostly due to the Queen's callousness than genuine fear – Percy ignored her offer entirely, walking around the Knight. Not only did he have no intention of sharing the wasp's agony just to chat with its abusive mother, he also had a much better way available.
Approaching the Violet beast, he cautiously lifted his arm, placing his palm against the pillar-like forelimb gently, so as to not startle its owner. The chitinous exoskeleton was still covered in green mucus – which was rather unsettling. Percy had to put genuine effort to avoid gagging, unwilling to offend the Queen so soon.
Pushing his soul to the very surface of his skin, he used a sliver of grey mana to attach it to the Queen's. Percy had already upgraded his Soul-to-soul spell to Refined, but he could obviously still access the original, less intrusive version of his Spectral Art. The giant wasp shuddered for the briefest of instants as their souls connected, though she didn't pull back.
'You don't have to sacrifice your subjects just to talk to me,' Percy said, as Micky tossed the spasming remains another glance.
'A small loss,' a feminine voice responded, cold as ice. 'I agree that your method is more convenient though,' she added.
'May I know why you've gone to so much trouble to bring us here alive?' Percy asked, cutting to the chase.
A faint chuckle echoed in his soul before the creature responded. 'Bold of you to ask me that, after breaking into my home without permission, slaughtering thousands of my subjects, and then even having the gall to return. Maybe I just wanted to gut you two personally and take my time savouring your innards.'
Percy shrugged, not intimidated by the creature's empty threats in the slightest. The Queen had to know how risky it would be to attack him. Besides, he doubted that she'd gone through such lengths just to threaten them. Still, he opted to reply a little more diplomatically than that, to hopefully ease the tension in the room.
'I do apologize for our transgressions. It was never our intention to stir such a mess last time. We merely wanted to pass through the tunnels to escape from the Guild. We would have left peacefully had your children allowed us.'
The Queen clicked her mandibles in annoyance, though it sounded more like a couple of boulders grinding against one another.
'And what about today's mess? Or did you forget about that chasm you've carved into my hive? My children are still trying to fill up the hole as we speak, but that strange ice of yours isn't making their job easy…'
Percy flashed the Violet beast a sheepish grin, scratching his head as he recalled doing something of the sort during his battle with Deimos. Too much had been going on in his mind at the time to worry about that.
'Well, I'm sorry about the hole too. As you can imagine, killing Violets is messy work,' he replied pointedly, his meaning clear. That said, he didn't want to provoke the bug too much, so he rushed to change the topic. 'Anyway, I'm sure you didn't bring us here just to chastise us. I suppose it's safe to assume you want something?'
Percy doubted that wasps could exhale, but he was also rather certain that what he felt surging through the Queen's soul was as close to a sigh as it could get.
'It's not merely a question of what I want. It's just as much about what you want. Or what you should want, at any rate.'
'I'm not sure I follow,' Percy replied.
It was admittedly just speculation on his part, but he'd been operating under the assumption that she wanted him to teach her Circulation. Of all the things he'd revealed during his previous visit, he thought that it was the one most likely to have piqued her interest.
That was especially the case, if the Queen had realized that the boosting art could be used in reverse to preserve or even restore a beast's stamina. Of course, she hadn't seen Micky use Hibernation or Regulation – since the crow hadn't even invented those spells yet. On top of that, she would probably find it difficult to replenish her beast mana without a second affinity to draw from. Even so, Percy wouldn't be surprised if the centuries-old creature had recognized the spell's potential at a glance, beast or not.
During today's meeting, Percy's hope was to exchange Circulation – and maybe even the Moirais' Decree, if necessary – for an egg to place Nephthys in. Or at least, that had been his goal before listening to the Queen. Suffice to say, her following words shook both his hopes and assumptions to the core.
'Then I'll make it clear for you. Unless you find a way to help me, not only is my hive doomed to die out, but with it, so is your entire world…'
Percy had no idea what the Queen meant by those words, though he didn't rush her for an explanation. Luckily, the colossal bug didn't keep him waiting for too long.
'One of your people broke the ancient pact between my kind and yours, placing both sides at great risk.'
'Pact?'
The Queen nodded mentally. 'Well, it's more of an unspoken deal than an explicit contract, but your ancestors understood a long time ago that they need our help to produce new gods. Meanwhile, my predecessors also realized that we need your gods to defend our world from outsiders, since producing our own deities ranges from impractical to downright impossible.'
Percy couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the revelation. All of this made sense, of course, but he hadn't known that humans and wasps had been operating under a mutual agreement all this time. Then again, it would have been stranger if the two sides had failed to reach some kind of consensus after coexisting for so long.
'If that's the case, why do my people hunt down your children? Couldn't you just offer us the nectar we need for our advancement, skipping the unnecessary bloodshed entirely?' he asked.
'There are many reasons for this arrangement. Rest assured that I'll explain everything about my hive's inner workings in excruciating detail. There's simply no way around that – not if you are to do what I need you to do. However, you should first understand what the problem is before we discuss anything else.'
Nodding, Percy gestured for her to continue.
'Long story short, we were supposed to limit our expansion to within the Fungal Spire's range. It's not like we ever wanted to move elsewhere anyway, since this is the only place on Remior with enough mana to support our needs. In exchange, your people were supposed to never step foot in our tunnels, and to only collect the nectar they need by hunting the tiny fraction of our kind we send outside. For as long as we can remember, both sides have honoured this arrangement religiously…'
'…until we didn't,' Percy said, completing her sentence for her.
'Indeed. A powerful mage broke into my chambers some time ago, stealing something that we cannot survive without. And I doubt I need to explain the consequences of our impending extinction.'
Percy frowned. He'd come here seeking a body for Nephthys – the last thing he'd expected to hear was that Remior's survival was at stake. Just who would have done something so despicable?
Well, okay… that part wasn't so difficult to guess. There simply weren't that many people capable of doing this in the first place. After all, they'd have to break into a hive teeming with Green and Blue wasps, stealing something of immeasurable importance from their Violet ruler.
Besides, Percy already harboured some guesses as to the culprit's identity, due to the things he'd learned while helping Nesha snoop around Twilight City, trying to figure out the reason for her family's destruction.
'Was it a man with a White core by any chance? When exactly did this happen?'
'He was,' the creature confirmed. 'I'm not familiar with how your kind keeps track of time, but to me it still feels rather recent…' she added. 'Let's see… it happened enough time ago for two Red wasps to have evolved all the way to Green, one after the other.'
Falling silent, Percy took a few seconds to run some calculations in his head. Micky had spent a couple of decades to reach Green, which would translate the wasp's example to roughly forty years.
However, the bugs probably advanced faster than the crow had been able to, considering that they spent most of their lives in such a mana-rich environment, stuffing their faces with nectar every single day. How much faster, Percy didn't know, but if they were about twice as fast as the bird, the timeline would match the reports of Machaon's brief tenure in the Alchemists' Guild.
'I think I may know who it was. But what exactly did he take?' Percy asked again, struggling to imagine what could be so valuable to the Queen.
'An egg,' she replied, causing him to swallow hard. Wasn't that exactly what Percy himself had also come here looking for? Though he doubted that the Violet beast was talking about the egg of a regular wasp – they likely had millions of those, so it wouldn't make sense that losing one would be such a big deal.
Sure enough, the Queen confirmed his assumption. 'This was my heir's egg. Each Starry Queen can only ever lay a single egg that carries the royal lineage. Without my daughter to succeed me, our hive will die out as soon as I do. And I cannot give birth to another princess – only my daughter can.'
Percy frowned, finding this whole thing completely impractical – if not downright ridiculous. How could the wasps' biology have evolved in such an inconvenient way that the future of their entire species would hinge on the survival of a single member?!
Then again, it made sense if he thought about it. Magical beasts didn't have to worry about diseases or miscarriages – or whatever the word was for inert wasp eggs. For creatures like these, every single egg was all but guaranteed to hatch into a healthy specimen.
Since the bugs had no predators or external threats either, the descendants of the Starry Queen were normally as safe as one could be – hidden in the deepest part of the hive and guarded by countless powerful beasts.
Leaving aside the extremely unlikely scenario of a rogue White foolishly ruining everything – which was admittedly a blind-spot in the creatures' evolution – the only thing the hive had to worry about was infighting. Had the Queens been capable of producing multiple successors, the princesses might tear each other – as well as their entire hive – apart. Viewed from that angle, their inability to give birth to a second heir might serve an integral purpose.
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'Fine. That answers what the problem is, but it doesn't explain why that bastard would do something so vile,' Percy said.
The Queen shook her head, however. 'Actually, his motive is the one thing we don't have to wonder about. Wasps with the royal lineage produce a denser, purer variant of the nectar that you've no doubt collected from my other descendants. It's called the royal jelly, and it's twice as effective for cleansing one's core.'
Both of Percy's hearts skipped a beat upon hearing that, a trace of greed worming its way to his eyes.
'How can this be?!' he asked, finding the notion difficult to accept.
A resource twice as effective as the nectar would translate to halving the time to each advancement – provided that it could be brewed into an elixir, of course. If that was the case, didn't that mean that Remior had technically possessed a path to godhood for Yellow-borns all along?! Shouldn't their world have already been a greater spring?!
'I know what you're thinking, but it's not as simple as it sounds,' the Queen said, dousing his excitement. 'Royal jelly is twice as effective as regular nectar, but extremely inefficient to produce. Excreting it consumes over a dozen times as much ambient mana as the same amount of nectar. Our hive wouldn't be able to sustain itself if every ordinary member generated the jelly. That's why it's exclusive to the royal wasps. It's a scarce resource that we strategically invest in our own development, and to accelerate the growth of certain other members of the hive when necessary.'
Okay. That made more sense. So there just wasn't enough royal jelly to go around. If the Divine Order really wanted a Yellow-born to reach the Clear grade, maybe they could forcefully extract enough for a single person, but that would come at the detriment of the hive's development. All things considered, no individual was worth compromising Remior's only source of nectar, no matter how talented they were.
'Somebody should try telling Machaon that,' Percy thought, his frown deepening.
Evidently, the leader of House Asclepius didn't give a shit. He'd abused the power and trust that everyone had given him, selfishly putting the whole world at stake just to reach his own goals. In a disturbing way, Machaon's ambition reminded Percy of his own. Didn't he also dream of attaining divinity? And wasn't he willing to go to great lengths to achieve that?
'No. I'm nothing like him,' Percy reassured himself.
There were certain lines that he simply refused to cross. This was why he hadn't dared to steal his family's tree to awaken his second core all those years ago. Instead, he'd opted to search for an alternative source of life mana to repair the Moirais' Decree.
And, while he'd also been planning to steal an egg from the hive, Percy hadn't even known about the royal lineage or the jelly. It probably wasn't an accident that Remior's upper echelons kept that sensitive information under wraps, but Percy wouldn't have considered pulling the rug from under everyone's feet even if it had been common knowledge. And this was despite him being a Red-born – not a Yellow-born – thus needing every single advantage that he could get to reach the end of the Colour realm.
He'd only ever wanted to grab a regular egg – one out of millions. His goal hadn't been to accelerate his advancement, but merely to establish his personal source of nectar, so that he wouldn't have to constantly search for more.
Clearly, some people didn't have the same moral scruples as him.
'Now what? Can't we get your daughter back? Asshole or not, he has to have kept her alive, right? He'll need her to produce royal jelly for thousands of years before he becomes a demigod,' Percy reasoned.
'Honestly, I don't know,' the Queen replied. 'Naturally, it's in his best interest not to hurt her, but that doesn't mean he's been able to keep her healthy. Royal wasps are born at Orange, not Red, and require a lot more mana than regular wasps to survive. And that's without somebody stealing their jelly. Even if she hasn't died yet, I wouldn't be surprised if her growth has been severely stinted. I doubt she'll be able to survive long enough to reach the higher grades outside the hive's special environment. Even I struggle to sustain myself at Violet. This is the main reason none of us ever attempts to reach White, despite having a long enough lifespan for it.'
'There's still a chance though!' Percy protested. 'Raise a fuss! Try to get the gods' attention! If they realize what he did, they'll get your daughter back in a day!'
The Queen mentally sighed again. 'Perhaps. Your gods are notoriously difficult to reach, however, and our kind cannot communicate with your people as easily. Whenever I tried to reach out to the Guild's elders, your hunters just slaughtered my children as usual. If the situation persists, I am inevitably going to take more drastic measures, but I was hoping to find another solution. Especially since I don't know if my heir will be healthy enough to lead the hive even if we do retrieve her.'
'What solution did you have in mind?'
'Well, my first idea was to forcefully lay more royal eggs and hope that one would be lucky enough to survive. So far, it hasn't worked. I've only managed to drain my strength and cut my lifespan short.'
Percy swallowed hard upon listening to the desperation in the creature's voice. If the wasp in Machaon's possession was indeed dead or irreversibly damaged… and if the current Queen also died… humanity would be screwed!
Their existing gods wouldn't be affected, and a few of the Order's demigods might attain divinity too, but that would be it. With every god that died, Remior would forever have one less, until they were back in the same primitive state as Sol's people, struggling to protect themselves from demi-humans and beasts!
And that might actually be the best-case scenario. Percy had no idea how Remior's relationship with other worlds looked, but if they had any enemies that knew of the planet's location, they would surely pounce the moment they sensed weakness, enslaving them like Micky's people!
'Any better ideas?' he asked, his heart now racing with worry.
'I could make a push to White. For a long time, I've been balancing my consumption to sustain my core without cleansing it as much, but I bet I can get there if I really try. No Starry Queen in history has ever dared to evolve into an Empress, yet I think that the promotion might replenish my strength and reset my ability to give birth to a new successor. Of course, I'll definitely starve to death not long after my advancement. It's either that or starving out the rest of the hive, which is unacceptable. But there's no guarantee this will work, so I've been saving it as a last resort.'
That… sounded even scarier than just laying eggs by the dozens and hoping for one to hatch. If the Queen attempted this, there would be no going back. But the Violet beast wasn't done.
'I was torn between launching an all-out attack against your people to catch your gods' attention, or ignoring your kind entirely and gambling with my evolution. And there was also the option of doing both – reaching White would improve my ability to make noise, and eating hordes of humans would buy me some time before I ran out of food.'
Percy's eyes widened with horror as he realized how dangerous an all-out invasion would have been. An endless army of powerful wasps led by a White-cored Starry Empress… no matter the outcome, this would have been catastrophic for Remior.
By the time the gods stepped in to stabilize the situation, the damage might have been irreversible. Even if they managed to restore the hive to a functional state, how many people would have lost their lives in the conflict?
'What stopped you?' he asked.
'You did,' the Queen replied. 'Watching you, I realized that there might be another way out of this mess.'
Percy didn't need the Queen to complete her explanation to know what she had in mind – her meaning was already clear. As luck would have it, the two had actually wanted the same thing all along! If only she'd told him the last time he was here – instead of trying to have her children kidnap him – they could have avoided so much trouble!
'You seem to have figured it out already,' she said, before pointing at Micky with her other foreleg. 'Indeed, I want you to do the same thing you did for that creature, to help me produce a new heir.'
Percy didn't bother correcting her. Obviously, the wasp only wanted him to turn one of the inert eggs into a regular familiar – she likely had no idea that Micky had already fused with him and turned into an aspect. Still, there were a couple of things he didn't understand.
'How did you even learn about him? I'm sure you've observed us through your subjects' eyes, but you never witnessed Micky's creation.'
'Correct. In fact, I didn't see you possess the wasps either. There are too many wasps in the hive for me to control at once, and the weaker ones have rather undeveloped minds too, which makes sharing their senses difficult – if not downright unpleasant. Most of the time, I just send them vague commands en masse. Things like "harvest mana outside" or "attack the intruder".'
'Then how?'
The giant bug sent Percy the mental equivalent of a shrug. 'I did notice that something strange had been interfering with my control over the Starry Soldier for months, though I couldn't have imagined that it was somebody deliberately getting in my way. I'd simply assumed that it had been a defective wasp. I only realized that it was you after I took control of that Starry Knight. Sadly, the Soldier had already been destroyed at that point, otherwise I could have taken advantage of our mutual connection to reach out to you.'
'So, you did the next best thing and tried to capture us alive,' Percy replied.
'Yes. Looking back into the signals I'd received from the Soldier, I was able to infer how you'd injured and possessed it. And I could tell how the bird differed from the others at a glance. The wasps had merely been your minions – temporary shells you had to constantly coerce to do your bidding. But not the bird. It's a permanent creation with its own personality and better growth potential. I admit that I have no idea what happened to it in this most recent battle, but it has confirmed my guess that you can even bring creatures back from the verge of death.'
Okay. The Queen had clearly noticed that a few things had been off with "Micky's" behaviour since she brought them here. Perhaps they should be more cautious while negotiating with the Violet beast. She was far sharper and wiser than they'd given her credit for. Either way, their condition didn't really affect the situation much.
'Whatever the case, I hope you can do something similar, to breathe life into one of the inert eggs. If I'm not mistaken, turning one of my offspring into a permanent subordinate has been your goal too, right? It's why you infiltrated my hive the last time, and also why you returned to this place now.'
'It is,' Percy admitted, still finding the Queen's willingness to cooperate difficult to believe. 'Aren't you worried about placing your hive's future in the hands of a complete stranger though?'
'My hive's future is already bleak. I would be a fool to worry about my unborn daughter's allegiance when I cannot even grant her a life without your help. Besides, I very much hope that our arrangement will be temporary. You'll foster my successor for a single generation, until she can pass the hive to a child of her own. After that, you and your kind will leave us be and never disturb our home again.'
Percy sighed.
Under these circumstances, he had no reason to decline the Queen's generous offer. If anything, this was quite the opportunity for him too, in more ways than one. Not only was the Violet beast willing to give him exactly what he needed, but the princess would make for an even better familiar than he could have hoped for.
With a single move, he'd be helping Nephthys and the Amenthei, saving Remior from certain destruction, as well as gaining leverage to prevent the other Houses and possibly even the gods from bullying his loved ones. Finally, he'd obtain his personal source of not just nectar, but royal jelly – assuming that he could find a way to take advantage of it without compromising the hive's survival.
'I'm more than willing to try, but I can't promise results. I've only ever made a single familiar before, and it was completely by accident. At the very least, your eggs need to have some life in them for this to work,' he said, before scratching his head. 'Also, I have to fuse a different soul into your daughter's body. I already have someone in mind, but I need you to understand that your hive's future will ultimately belong to her. I've already explained how important the Starry Wasps are to her, but she only ever agreed to be placed in the body of a regular wasp.'
'If she was willing to be reborn as a lowly Drone, finding herself inside the body of a Princess sounds to me like a bargain,' the Queen insisted, some irritation flaring through their connection.
'I can't deny that, and you can rest assured that I'll let her know how much is depending on her. Still, I can't guarantee that she'll be willing to give you a granddaughter, and I'm not going to force her,' Percy replied, standing his ground.
He knew it wasn't ideal, but he couldn't help it. He'd have to hear the goddess's opinion before committing to anything else.
'I understand,' the Queen spat a few seconds later, not sounding very pleased.
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Percy continued, however. 'Even if we fail, it doesn't mean that there's nothing we can do. I would ask you to give me a regular egg to put my friend in. In exchange, I swear I'll do everything in my power to reach out to the Divine Order in your stead, to get your other daughter back. I don't know what state she's in, but anything is better than nothing.'
The Queen remained silent, but Percy could tell that she was in agreement. Pulling her leg back, she severed their connection, slowly turning around. Each thunderous stomp of her colossal limbs sent a tremor through the cavern as she entered one of the wider tunnels, motioning for him to follow with her antennae.
As they walked through the long corridor, Percy had Micky examine the pyramid again. Unlike the previous time they'd checked, there was now a giant crack that had nearly split the structure in half, revealing Nephthys's wisp.
The radiant soul that had once struggled to fit within the shrunken pyramid now only occupied a fraction of its volume, several thin tendrils stretching to every corner to keep the object from falling apart, and to shield her subjects from harm. Their own souls were barely perceptible – mere dots glinting faintly within the goddess's wisp. And if that hadn't been enough, Nephthys's soul appeared to be evaporating even faster without the pyramid's protection.
"Please hang in there just a little longer. We're almost there," Percy whispered, fully aware that the goddess probably couldn't hear him.
The Queen brought them to another chamber, this one even wider than the last. There were fewer exits – though still dozens of them – and fewer wasps too. But there was something else here.
Two colossal pits had been dug into the floor; each filled to the brim with green goo. And Percy noticed piles upon piles of spherical objects faintly visible beneath the surface. Each was about the size of an apple, though their glossy shells were pitch black, with countless colourful dots adorning them – much like the wasps' carapaces.
The eggs in one pit appeared slightly different, however. Golden watermarks rippled around their surfaces, giving them a pattern resembling the one on the Queen's own exoskeleton.
Stopping at the centre of the room, the Violet beast waited for Percy to reestablish their mental link – something that he didn't hesitate to do. Only then did she explain what they were seeing.
'Our kind can be separated into three main types. The first are the royal wasps like me and my kidnapped daughter. Only one can be born per generation, but you can clearly see all my failed attempts at producing a second,' she said, pointing at the piles of eggs with the golden markings. 'Wasps with a royal lineage are only considered mature after reaching the Violet grade, at which point they are known as Starry Queens. Like I mentioned earlier, they are born at Orange instead of Red, and are called Starry Princesses up to and including the Blue grade.'
Percy nodded. 'I guess the second type includes all the other wasps I've seen until now?'
'Indeed. Those make up the overwhelming majority of our ranks. From Red to Blue, they are the Starry Drones, Workers, Soldiers, Knights and Commanders. But what you might not know, is that non-royal wasps are incapable of evolving past Blue.'
Percy frowned upon hearing that. This was something that he hadn't heard before. Until today, he hadn't even known that the Queen came from a different caste of bugs than the rest.
The reason for their inability to grow past a certain point wasn't difficult to guess – it was probably the same one that restricted the Queen from producing multiple Princesses. Less competition for her heir. If every wasp had the potential to reach Violet, some might fall outside her control, challenging her rule.
Whatever the reason, it was his lucky break that the Queen had offered him a superior egg to fashion his familiar out of, otherwise he might have ended up stuffing Nephthys's soul into a defective body stuck at the lower grades.
'I take it the Drones hatch from this other pile of eggs, then?' he asked.
'Not quite,' the Queen said, shaking her head. She remained motionless for a few seconds, probably relaying a command to her subjects.
A few of the smaller wasps in the room crawled into the second pit, placing a few of the eggs without the golden markings onto their backs before carrying them out of the chamber and through some of the other tunnels. Only once they were alone did the Queen resume her explanation.
'There are tens of millions of wasps in the hive, and only a single Queen. Naturally, it would be impossible for me to lay all the eggs by myself. That's where the third type of wasps come in – they act as the intermediary between me and the rest.'
The Violet beast remained perfectly still, clearly waiting for something. The cavern shook again, another massive creature slowly approaching. Percy watched curiously as a second behemoth crawled out of a corridor about a minute later, a Blue star thrumming rhythmically inside its thorax.
At first, he thought this was a Starry Commander – the first of its kind that he'd ever laid eyes upon. But he soon realized that this wasn't quite right. This wasp had a very different body structure from the others he had seen, including the Queen. It clearly wasn't designed for combat or even moving around much.
First, the creature had no wings or eyes! Its frame was far bulkier than the rest, its thorax and abdomen almost fused into a single, bulbous cylinder that its six stubby limbs struggled to support. On closer examination, the wasp appeared too large for a Blue beast – it was still smaller than the Queen, but not by much. At the very least, it was far bigger than the creatures Percy had seen on Thess'kala. Finally, it didn't have a stinger either, but rather countless small holes spiralling all the way from where the stinger should have been, to about two-thirds of the way around its abdomen.
As if to demonstrate their purpose, the creature's body convulsed a coupled of times, squelching sounds emanating from the holes as they vomited countless small eggs. They were coated in a similar type of green goo to the ones in the pits, but these were smaller than the others, barely the width of two fingers. The creature didn't stop until two tall mounds had formed by its sides.
'These will hatch into Drones,' the Queen explained. 'As for the ones in the pit, they will hatch into the Orange versions of the Starry Breeders – much like my wingless daughter there.'
Percy nodded in understanding.
Each Queen could only directly give birth to a single Princess and countless immature Breeders, while the Breeders themselves would be the ones tasked with populating the rest of the hive after reaching Blue. In essence, all the wasps Percy and Micky had seen in the past – as well as all the bugs that the Guild's hunters harvested nectar from on a daily basis – weren't actually the Queen's children, but her grandchildren.
However, the Violet beast hadn't brought them here just to give them a tour of the hive. Turning her head toward the pile with the marked eggs, she spoke again.
'Well? What do you think? Is any of them salvageable?'
Micky walked up to the Queen, placing his hand on one of her legs to establish a new mental link with her, freeing Percy up to examine the eggs. Reaching the edge of the pit, he leaned slightly over the viscous fluid to scan the objects.
He took an awfully long amount of time too, checking the entire pile carefully from tip to base, making full use of his mutated eyes as he searched for any traces of life that he could capitalize upon.
By the time he announced his verdict, his heart had sunk.
'Every single one of them is dead.'
The elemental body conveyed the human's findings to the Queen, her giant frame sagging slightly with disappointment as a result.
'Is there nothing you can do?' the creature asked in a tired, shaky voice.
'Not with these eggs,' Micky shook his head. 'How long has it been since you laid them?'
'A while,' the Queen admitted after thinking for a couple of seconds. 'Do you think a fresh egg might stand a better chance?'
'Maybe. There needs to be at least a trace of a soul there to accept my own, otherwise I have no way to possess them. I've no idea what state they were in the moment you created them, but souls tend to dissipate fast in a dying body.'
'I can try again,' the Violet beast offered.
'Sure. But we can't afford too many attempts. I don't want you to exhaust yourself to death over nothing, and my friend is almost out of time. If the first few eggs come out like this, I'm going to place her soul in a different body.'
The Queen nodded, accepting his terms.
Over the next hour or so, countless smaller wasps swarmed into the chamber, hastily preparing the place for the upcoming operation. They drank the viscous goo from both pits, the sight of them gulping down the green liquid looking quite disturbing.
Even worse was the imagery of them crushing the inert royal eggs between their mandibles, consuming them. The objects appeared a lot softer and squishier than Percy had initially thought, their membranous shells bending and tearing with ease. Regardless, he tried not to let this scene bother him too much, even though he was essentially planning to permanently shove his soul into one of these things.
'Well… if this is anything like the last time, my mind won't be present in the familiar anyway. If Nephthys is okay with the idea of being reborn as a bug, who am I to judge?' he thought with a shrug.
Beyond that, the creatures also carried the live Starry Breeder eggs out of the room, to make space for other things. As soon as the pits were both empty, they took turns vomiting nectar into one of them, filling it up for their grandmother to feast on. By her own admission, she'd been starving herself for a while, for the sake of her hive. Starry Queens had to only consume as much mana as they needed to survive and tend to their responsibilities.
They couldn't afford to go overboard, or they risked their beast cores progressing toward the next grade – which even the rich environment beneath the Fungal Spire was unable to support. Sadly, their voluntary fasting left them in a perpetual state of weakness.
The good news was that indulging every once in a while shouldn't be enough for the Queen to reach White, and she was going to need all the strength she could recover if she wanted to fight against her own body – to overcome the very limits of her species. The nectar her subjects fed her paled in comparison to the royal jelly, but it didn't seem like she had the time to generate her own meal.
'She does look a little better,' Percy noted at some point.
He hadn't realized this earlier because he wasn't that familiar with the bugs, but the Queen had been rather lethargic throughout their meeting. This was probably why she'd constantly sounded tired and hadn't moved around much.
Thankfully, her hearty meal had made her a lot more energetic already, the golden watermarks and the colourful dots on her carapace shining a little brighter, as even the silver silhouette beneath her exoskeleton surged with renewed vigour.
Evidently, the creature had been putting on a brave front the whole time. In hindsight, it didn't seem like Percy and Micky had been in any danger. The Queen wouldn't have been able to take them both on, even if they fought her without pushing the Symphony to its limits.
'Good for her… We should focus on our own preparations though,' Percy thought, returning to the task at hand.
Percy hadn't twiddled his thumbs as he waited for the Queen to recover. Gathering some soul mana inside the human body's head, he'd wrapped it carefully around Nephthys's wisp, trying to slow down the leakage. Unfortunately, Soul Stitching wasn't applicable in this situation, as there wasn't much of the goddess's soul left. Worse still, it didn't have any open wounds for him to close, nor anything else to stitch it to.
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However, he hoped that the soul mana's natural tendency to flood wounds by itself might help a little. He didn't know how much time this would buy him, but he needed every second he could get.
On top of that, he'd also resumed mending his own injuries, the stiff, frost-bitten sections on his soul having shrunk further. He still wasn't in great shape, and he doubted he would recover completely anytime soon, yet he wanted to do everything in his power to avoid any unpleasant surprises during the familiar's creation.
Finally, he'd taken out his Cauldron, working together with the second body to brew a few healing potions.
'It would be so much faster if we could split up and brew separately,' Percy thought with a heavy sigh.
Now that they shared their thoughts and memories – including their knowledge of alchemy – and since Micky's body could theoretically shapeshift freely into a humanoid, they would have loved to split the tool into two identical copies, to brew twice as many potions.
Sadly, there were a few issues with that.
The elemental body didn't have the Sovereign's Eye, so it couldn't use the scaling principle or the oversized cauldron by itself. It should still be able to brew with a regular cauldron, but its output would inevitably be reduced to a mere tenth of the human body's, rendering the whole idea impractical.
And that was without taking into account the decreased yield – since the lack of the Atlantean mutation would cost more than just the ability to scale the quantity. If that wasn't bad enough, the human body was still missing an arm, so it needed help to manipulate the countless enchantments on the cauldron.
At least, the two bodies were able to coordinate flawlessly, one contributing its eyes as the other lent its limbs. This was completely different from their clunky attempts to cooperate in the past. Once again, it was clear that their recent fusion had turned them into something closer to a single entity than a pair of deeply connected individuals.
As for what they needed the healing potions for?
Well, even if they compressed them twice into Green, they wouldn't do much for the Queen. Not to mention that they didn't even have that many gravity herbs left. However, the Starry Princess would be born at Orange, so the standard potions would still be effective on her.
Of course, Percy's current goal was to get his hands on a serviceable egg, and it wasn't like the egg itself could drink potions. That said, life mana had the same natural tendency as soul mana to flow to open wounds – only, it applied to flesh injuries rather than spectral ones – so Percy hoped that placing the egg in a healing bath might preserve it a little better.
While he worked on alchemy, the Queen's subjects filled up the second pit too, though they only dumped dirt in this one. They left just a tiny crater open, barely wide enough to fit a watermelon. This was the spot where the Violet beast was going to lay the new eggs.
As soon as he was ready, Percy walked up to the hole, emptying enough of his recent brews to fill it up with another type of green liquid – this one shining brighter than the Queen's goo.
Having prepared herself too, the colossal bug stepped carefully over the hole, lowering her abdomen close to the opening. Percy had to duck, to avoid getting accidentally impaled by her enormous stinger. The base of the darn thing was as thick as a tree's trunk, though it led to a narrow tip sharp enough for a person to easily prick their finger on.
Admittedly, her control over her venom glands was commendable. Percy hadn't forgotten about the Starry Knight's stinger dripping with acid during his previous visit, yet not a single drop seemed to leak out of the Queen's stinger without her explicit wishes.
Either way, none of that mattered right now.
'I'm ready if you are,' the creature told Micky as soon as he reestablished their connection.
'Give me a few seconds. I need to prepare my bloodline too,' he replied.
Coating his fingertips in mana, Percy grabbed his soul with his one good hand, pulling out a portion of the grey silhouette sitting inside his head. With it, a broken pyramid emerged, the crimson structure having almost snapped into two pieces by now, its once-glossy faces now dim and riddled with cracks.
Ignoring the tapestry of colours hovering right above his eyes, Percy used his family's technique, sending waves of soul mana rippling through his body. The grey substance bounced countless times along the fluctuating surfaces of his soul before flowing into his head. The mana accumulated flawlessly inside the blob, causing it to expand greatly with each forceful throb.
Suffice to say, Percy had grown quite proficient at this over the years. His efforts already resembled Baldy's, though his version of the bloodline thankfully required less time to activate. That was only to be expected, since he only had to fill up a tiny piece of his soul with mana – rather than slowly generating an exact replica of his whole body.
Of course, the soul variant of the bloodline had its own share of drawbacks, but Percy's limited clone capacity and the strain the ability put on him didn't affect the current situation much.
He only stopped once the wisp in his palm had reached the size of a grapefruit, at which point he estimated that it couldn't stretch much further without damaging the pyramid more than was acceptable.
'Do it,' he told the Queen, watching with bated breath as she began the process.