Chapter 35: The Eternal King

Chapter 35: The Eternal King

As I approached the beating heart I could sense the eyes of all the queens on my back. The Eternal Mother said when I eat her heart I will assume control of the Armazaftund. I will also be able to change them, apparently they are creatures that are based on the one who commands them. So I could change the Armazaftund to fit my designs. She also warned me not to squirm when I finally understood what the Armazaftund truly are, crude and simplistic creations. A creation made by those who have a rudimentary understanding of the art of flesh sculpting.

The Eternal Mother can apparently control what essence she chooses to store in the heart. In the past she has prioritised adaptations that can extend her lifespan but now she is going to expend what little energy she has left to give me the tools that I need. She told me after she does this she will die soon after, she simply doesn’t have enough strength remaining.

“Farewell young one, even in death may I be triumphant.” the Eternal Mother said softly as she shut her eyes.

I opened my maw now wet with saliva as I approached the heart. I bit down hard on the organ and I savoured the explosion of flavour.

Oh my god this tasted good, this must be how crackheads feel...

Essence is a hard drug, no one can convince me otherwise...

When I finished the heart I heard a crackling overhead. I looked up and saw the crystals seemingly short circuit before dimming. Well that’s broke as shit now...

I felt my body heat up and I don’t mean like it’s getting warm here I mean really hot. I felt my body change and shift as I began absorbing this enormous amount of essence. The amount of essence in that heart was probably more than I had in total...

Then I heard the voice ring out in my head...

Acquired New Devourer Strain

[Eternal Mother] Strain Acquired

Warning Strain Incomplete...

Analysing...

[Eternal Mother] strain assimilated

[Gestalt Domination] Acquired

[Mutagenic Parasite] Acquired

[Flesh Sculpting X] Acquired

[Psionic Transcendence VIII] Acquired

[Ether Mastery] Acquired

Core Evolution Achieved Stage: 5

Core Evolution Achieved Stage: 6

[Monomolecular Edge] Acquired

Blade Sharpness greatly improved

Augmenting...

Combining [Chitinous Bone Blades] with [Monomolecular Edge]

[Kaiser Blades] Acquired

[Kaiser Spines] Acquired

[Metabolic Boost] Improved

[Metabolic Frenzy] Acquired

[Movement Speed] Greatly Increased

[Strength] Greatly Increased

[Perception] Greatly Increased

[Advanced Cognition] has evolved to [Ascendant Cognition]

[Memory Assimilation] has evolved to [Greater Memory Assimilation]

[Intelligence] Greatly Increased

[Eternal Mother] Strain augmenting base [Wraith Strain]

[Void Core] Acquired

Adjusting [Void Core] to present adaptations

[Void Enchant] Acquired

[Void Enchant] now available for [Kaiser Blades] and [Kaiser Spines]

[Void Enchant] causes strikes to ignore 30% of [Resistances]

Well we’ll see how it goes I guess, everyone starts from somewhere.

By the end of my changes I made the queens stronger in terms of combat abilities but more importantly I made them smarter and extended their control abilities. They should be able to control more of the lower castes now and also control them better. They should also be able to make better modifications to the lower castes.

The queens now had a crown of gold feathers on their heads just like me. Their bodies now looked much slimmer with the same white armoured skin that I have. I gave them a vaguely feminine torso and the same roughly shaped head I had. I didn’t give them sensor domes, it was expensive and honestly I see little purpose for it so I gave them four eyes instead with their heads covered with armored plates. Their lower bodies were snake-like similar to mine but the snake half was significantly thicker because they needed room for the ovipositor, or egg laying organ in simple terms. They also had four arms, with the top two tipped with blades, again similar to me in design. I will need to make some flyers in the army at some point since I can fly... having a flying creature like myself have an army of burrowers just seems weird.

They shouldn’t have much issues laying more eggs since the eggs grow and mature once laid swelling to the appropriate size. Interestingly they lay the same kind of egg and the egg will grow into the desired caste. So that is certainly useful, it makes it so that the hive can replenish its population extremely quickly. From what I can tell the lowest caste can be fully formed in just a few days. All the queens needed is food, which I can arrange with Cecilia. My plan is to make the Hive help out the humans in farming and construction to make their lives easier, since more food output means more extra food to feed my hive. It should buy me some good will as well. Hopefully that means less people will try to kill me...

As I focused on the hive mind I found the reception to be much better. The voices were clearer, less discordant and much more unified. But there was a problem...

The stronger queens meant their force of will in the hive mind is more pronounced as well. I can tell they are interfering with each other slightly... I could potentially solve this by making an overall controller, a caste above the queens. A prime queen? I guess? I dunno I’ll think of a name later.

Now then the only problem is I need some power to create it and I don’t feel like giving any of my own. Hmm... I could use one of the queens and ascend one of them... but a new addition would be good. I also want to try my hand at actually creating something...

Then I heard a crackle above me. I looked up and saw the large crystals still had a decent amount of juice in them...

Hello my pretty...

Yes, that'll do just fine...

But first I should probably get the queens out doing something, I don’t know how long this will take. They’re all still loyal, I have total control of them, yes they have individuality to an extent. They aren’t mindless drones but their minds are tied to me. Which is good, initiative is important for subordinates.

What is your will, my king?

I heard the queens ask in unison. Well for now the instructions are obvious.

“All of you except you.” I said as I looked at the one queen that still looked the same.

“Prepare for travel. When the preparations are complete, have a look at your children. See how they can be improved. As for you the odd one out, your job is to stay here and maintain our presence here. Make sure the rest of the world thinks nothing has changed. Be more aggressive if you have to, just make sure no one knows what has happened today.” I said.

“Yes my king.” the queen said with a bow.

“We will make preparations at once my king. We will be burrowing towards a new home, yes?” one of the other queens said.

“Yes, we are moving south past the mountains.” I replied.

“If we wish to remain undetected we will first need to burrow deeply. The stunted ones occupy the earth below the mountains. If we are to avoid them, we must seal the tunnels behind us as we move to ensure secrecy. That will take some time.” one of the other queens said.

“Very well, how long will the journey to Averlon take?” I asked.

“A week my king.” the same queen said.

Huh, that's faster than I expected...

“Fine, play it safe, don't rush it. Take whatever detours you need, take whatever measures you need. No one is to know tens of thousands of us are moving through the mountain.” I said.

“By your command, my king.” the queens replied in unison.

“By the way what’s your name?” I asked.

“I am Nafas, I was the one who brought you here.” the queen replied.

Ah so she’s the same one. Honestly, they’re a little hard to tell apart. What's more I just changed all of them dramatically and I didn’t really pay attention to which was which. I should probably give them some markings so I can tell them apart. But that’s something for later I suppose.

“My King, I will struggle to maintain the illusion of our combined presence here with only the children I have in my brood.” the unchanged queen said.

“Your name?” I asked.

“Yagdra my king.” the queen said with a bow.

“Can you all transfer forces between broods?” I asked.

“We can, my king.” the queens replied.

“Take what you need from the other broods, we’ll fill the ranks later.” I said.

“As you wish...” the queens replied with a bow.

“Alright get to it. I have some work to do.” I said as I turned away.

“As our king commands.” the queens said in unison.

I could feel commands being sent out in the hive mind and a hundred thousand affirmations being replied. These soldiers will be useful, for many purposes. One of the pressing issues was that humans fear things that are a lot stronger than them. It doesn’t matter if the thing in question means them no harm, they just want to kill it just in case.

That is something I’m going to have to address. Initially I thought just converting all of them to be my slaves would solve the issue but if I can’t do it to everyone at once. At some point everyone will just be terrified of what I was doing and unite against me. That may still happen regardless but at least if I come across as helpful some may think twice... hopefully...

I mean food and nice sturdy houses is better than facing a sea of gnashing maws and slashing claws. In the long term ideally I’ll create a hive so large to rival any nation, the world is lacking in essence but it has plenty of food, or should I say plenty of fuel...

The Armazaftund or at least what used to be Armazaftund were kind of similar to devourers in concept. They couldn’t change themselves but they could change the castes below them. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem to the rest of the world since the queens can’t grow that much stronger so the power level of the Armazaftund’s power is capped. But now I’m the top of the chain and I can grow infinitely.

Which means now it’s time to make a level above the queens, a right hand to help me command the hive. I looked up at the crystals and I felt a smile grace my lips.

This is going to be good...