108 The Swarm Expands

Telling the two dwarves my life's story took almost an hour. I skimmed or simplified some sections of the events of the past week and a half but by the time I was done talking my companions knew more about me than most of my mortal worshipers did.

The two silently mulled over the tales I told them. They considered the world-changing implications of some of what I said, including the undead horde I possessed, and my ant swarm. I had been honest with the pair about my powers and the resources at my disposal.

While the pair mulled over what I told them I was in the process of actively expanding my followers. And I was doing so in what was arguably the most distinctly Althonian way possible.

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The part of my mind that was focused inward was doing a number of things. First and foremost it was actively making use of my powers over dreams. I was engaging with a number of humanoids at once, including a Htrean human, nobles on Torus, and another world's dark-elves. None of them were particularly special, but I liked engaging with dreamers and my abilities to do so were ones I frequently used.

That said that was little more than a distraction. The part of my mind that mattered right now was utilizing one of my newest abilities to its maximum potential: "Stellar awareness". This fantastic power expanded my map and my ability to detect things to an incredible degree.

I was now actively aware of goings-on in multiple worlds. My entire solar-system was within range of my detection and information-gathering powers and I was ready to act on that.

I willed my not-so-minimap to appear in my mind's eye. On it, I saw a total of seven worlds, counting Torus, and a number of moons and other celestial objects decorate the map. All of the worlds were teeming with life, and even a few of the moons had life on them as well.

I explored the planets and learned the names of kingdoms, people, and communities. I then began to mess around with the filters until I could only actively identify insects and anthropods that I could awaken and evolve. The number of creatures I could still identify numbered in the hundreds of quintillions.

The part of me that was focused inward began to smile when I saw that. The number was gigantic, an exponentially larger number than I could wrap my mind around and between my current undead horde and the swarm as it existed right now that was a number that was in the multiple billions.

This moment also served as a handy reminder of something important: I was far from done exploring Torus. Over a quadrillion ants existed on Torus. And ants weren't the only creatures that were currently selected. Ants, bees, wasps, and even a few types of distinctly alien creatures that were both similar to them and related to them were all currently selected.

I waited a moment just to be sure that this was what I wanted. When I was sure, which didn't take me long at all, I began to think about what I actually wanted to do with the unimaginable number of beings I was about to add to my followers.

"Do I want my empire to begin right now? Because I can in all likelihood conquer entire worlds with the horde I'm about to create." I asked myself. I was genuinely unsure.

"I should use this moment to gain the second tier of influence over the Hymenoptera subdomain. And that'll likely require that my forces take a town..." I realized, well aware that the Hymenoptera subdomain was like the necromancy subdomain in that it was an aggressive, destroyer type subdomain. That was when the system chimed in.

[That's absolutely correct! When you cause enough bees or wasps to evolve, which you will by the time you're done here, you'll be tasked with using the swarm to conquer a town. And by 'conquering' I do mean destroy.] The voice revealed, speaking proudly. It sounded delighted at the prospect of such violence.

I wasn't as excited as it was. I wouldn't hesitate to make the order but I wasn't eager to do so. I knew that this was necessary and that in doing this I would gain greater powers, but none of that changed the fact that I wasn't enthused to do this.

"I want to create, not destroy." I muttered, annoyed at the destruction I was about to have to inflict on some community. That said, I recognized that it was a sacrifice I was going to have to make to become a god of everything.

I was quiet for a moment before muttering something else. An idea. I turned my eyes towards the two branches of the swarm that currently existed.

One branch of the swarm, a less diverse one, existed underneath Puerto-Rico's surface. And another branch existed on the coast of Iredale. The second branch had members of the three Hymenoptera creatures that existed in Puerto Rico: ants, wasps, and bees. As soon as both groups turned themselves towards me I gave them a mental order.

At that moment I was grateful that my expanding powers kept expanding when I ordered my minions to colonize the coast of Iredale. Because that granted me handy new powers.

"Build a chamber underground. It will be the seat of worship dedicated to me, and also house portals to allow for travel between the worlds." I told the creatures, making use of another of my new Hymenoptera abilities: the power to command them fully.

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The Hymenoptera subdomain was an empire-building subdomain. It gave me powers that not only strengthened my Hymenopteric followers and worshipers, but also made them more intelligent and gave me greater control over them. Since I was already interested in building an empire, I might as well embrace it.

The first part of building an empire was connecting it. Fortunately for me, connecting things was easy. I possessed far more than the power to teleport myself from area to area, but the power to build permanent portals connecting even distant parts of the universe together. Until now I hadn't really used that power. That was about to change.

I sensed my followers in both places scrambling to distinct, existing caverns and beginning to get to work. I felt their energy, passion, and the violence with which they expanded the chambers they had selected as the locations of my newest temples. The members of both branches moved with equal, inhuman passion, zealously working to fulfill the order they had been given.

I pictured the temples they were going to build as simple, functional places. I didn't care to order my followers to build me ornate temples. The temples I handbuild were somewhat ornate structures, but those temples were for humanoids who were impressed with such things. Insects were simpler, more efficient.

I wanted the temples the swarm built to me to be places that mattered to their communities from a needs-based point of view. For now, building my temple and the sort of future-highway that would come to exist when the swarm's territory expanded in the same place made sense.

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By doing the mental equivalent of flexing I activated my power that dominated members of the Hymenoptera order. And in doing so I instantly gained minions and worshipers throughout the solar system of my birth. I felt the number of worshipers I possessed swell to unheard-of proportions.

I physically fell to my knees, surprising the pair of dwarves I was with. It took me a moment to reassure them that I was fine but it wasn't hard. I merely explained that when I gained new worshipers powerful emotions surged into me, and I had just gained a handful of new worshipers at once. They accepted that without much protest, opting to believe me since I was a god.

All seven of the planets that revolved around the sun of my solar-system now teemed with Althonians. And those Althonians were about to get much stronger. I focused on the unimaginably large swarm I now commanded and gave the unevolved members an order.

"Evolve." My mental voice reached across the solar system and every single new member of my swarm heard it at once.

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When the young god was focused he was capable of incredible, world-changing acts. And his latest action was a great example of that.

All over the solar-system ants, bees, wasps, and their alien equivalents on other worlds gained a single master at the exact same time. The first thing their master did was order them to evolve. Which they did. Ants became myrmekes and other bigger ants, wasps became dire wasps and giant wasps, and bees became thriaes or other larger bees.

The creatures evolved at the same time, stunning the few humanoids who studied them. In each of the seven worlds that orbited Torus' sun, there were humanoids who were fascinated by Hymenopterans. And they were the first victims of the swarm.

The evolution of the swarm's membership took only a few moments. The creatures who made up the swarm expanded in size over the course of three seconds each and their minds expanded equally quickly. And when they were done evolving, they lashed out at anyone who had "owned" them.

This universally led to the deaths of the entomologists who felt that they could "own" insects. And in some cases other deaths as well. This wasn't something Althos planned, but he was momentarily distracted. He had just gotten a new quest. One he immediately acted upon.

[Alert: In evolving billions of bees you've gained the ability to acquire the second tier of influence over the Hymenoptera subdomain. To do so, have your Hymenopteric minions conquer an existing settlement.]

The deity, having access to stores of information, moved to complete this quest more efficiently than any mortal or even extraplanar could. He found the smallest possible town he was aware of, a community with less than fifty people in it, and targeted that community. That community was actually near the colony the swarm had built on Iredale's coast.

Mere moments after gaining the quest and after the mass evolution was completed a portal appeared beside a hive of bees. The portal connected the small community with the hive of gigantic and newly evolved bees. They received a new order of their own, supplied to them by their god.

"Kill." The order commanded. It was a simple order and one that the gigantic bees and thriaes immediately set about fulfilling. In less than a minute over two hundred of Althos' newest minions dashed through the portal and invaded the town on the other side of it.

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Calling the "town" a town was a bit of a stretch. It was a collection of a few dozen buildings built around a mine. And it was usually a quiet place, but that morning that changed forever as enormous insect wings carried gigantic Hymenoptric invaders into the small community.

A swarm of massive insects descended upon the town en-masse and moved with inhuman efficiency. The insects silently moved to enact their orders. They split off into groups with a single thriae as a leader and over a dozen massive, dog-sized bees as reinforcement and muscle.

Some of them were frightening looking creatures that fused the features of humans with insects, having the faces and basic bodily structures of humans but having extra arms, compound eyes, wings, and stingers. Others were simply bees of horrifying size.

Althos wasn't inactive during this time either. The distant god carefully selected the thraies in the town and bestowed upon them a new class: necromancer.

He then gave them an additional order. "Reanimate." He commanded. He was trying to maximize his efficiency and doing so in this case meant maximizing the resources he acquired as a result of this raid.

The insects were basically extensions of their god's will. They surged over the town in moments and had invaded every home, shop, and building, less than ten minutes after their arrival.

Within a matter of minutes, his minions were enacting a brutal wave of violence on the residents of the town. And since there were only forty-five residents of the town, it only took minutes for the violence to come to an end and for the final member of the town to be reanimated.

Perhaps their only relative redeeming quality was that they weren't deliberately cruel. Each time one of them killed a human they did it in less than three attacks. In the cases of the thraies, they did it in less than two. All in all the invasion took less than a half an hour to complete from start to finish.

The sovereign of the swarm was pleased when he gained a new notification, one alerting him to the success of his minions

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[Alert: Your minions have successfully conquered the settlement named Florida. This means that they and you have completed the quest needed for you to acquire the second tier of influence over the Hymenoptera subdomain.

New Hymenoptera passive powers:

Hive creation: At will you can create hives of any size less than a quarter of a kilometer wide.

Honey creation: You can create honey at will and manipulate it freely. This is synergistic with the liquid subdomain and the agricultural subdomain.

Self-size manipulation: You can shrink or grow at will. You could already do that, so this is a redundant power.

Undead swarm creation: Members of the swarm who perish automatically rise up as the strongest possible undead beings they can become.

Bee and ant creation: You can create bees and ants at will. This power fuses the powers of the life domain, the soul domain, and the Hymenoptera subdomain. It allows you to spontaneously create true lifeforms that can evolve and everything. This power is a shortcut.

Swarm expansion: Spiders can now be considered part of the swarm. This is an expansion of your "Sovereign of the swarm" power, not so much an expansion of the Hymenoptera subdomain powers.

New Hymenoptera subdomain active powers:

Bee-sting: Once per hour you can target someone and cause them to endure no less than five bee-stings at once. This power synergizes bee-based abilities and the subdomains of pain and poison. This power can kill someone who is allergic to bees.

Death of a swarm: You can target members of the swarm and cause them to die. Moments later they rise up as undead under your control.]

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"Althos... What you've told has world-changing implications. Between your swarm and your horde, and the fact that there are demons who are not only idly eying the planet but actively preparing for an invasion... That's serious stuff." Amaris told me, minutes after I finished telling her and Rachel my story. I nodded at her, in agreement. And then I responded to her.

"It's all serious stuff. The fact that there are angels and their children in this world, the fact that I exist at all, the fact that Rachel is a virgin and pregnant... That's all serious stuff." I explained, agreeing earnestly with the dwarven handmaiden.

Rachel looked at me, grateful for my honesty. She was silent longer than Amaris was, but after hearing my response she spoke.

"Could we possibly tell my father about this? He's far from perfect but if nothing else he'll be able to connect us to other nobility and royalty who can do more than we can. Atlantis is not a powerful kingdom." Rachel asked, and then explained.

I looked at her and considered her words. She was serious about this and had a look of innocent determination on her face. After a few moments, I nodded at her. She smiled at me and got up.

"Well, in that case, we ought to get going. This is definitely a priority." She said, a more eager look on her face now. I could tell she was excited.

Rachel, Amaris and I would spend the next hour telling her father about me. But that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was the swarm. And they were bigger and busier than ever.