The Firefly Queen’s Final Decree
Bzzzzzzz~
Bzzzzzzz~
Now the honeybees could understand my words, it seemed. They began reacting fiercely to everything I said.
[Lies.]
[No. Way.]
[Trickery.]
[Spy.]
[Proof?]
One side was pouring out reactions like that.
They all seemed to belong to the pacifist faction, the same as the Waterfall Queen.
But on the side that appeared to be Ganeungi’s tribe, the messages were different.
[Let’s hear it.]
[Ganeungi.]
[Hope.]
They sounded like the warmongers who wanted an all-out war against the hornets.
[Savior. Firefly Empress.]
[Savior. Firefly Empress.]
That strange chant rose from the swarm, so I quietly asked Ganeungi what it meant.
“What’s this ‘Savior. Firefly Empress’ thing?”
Ganeungi answered in her usual clipped way.
[Honeybee. Legend. Firefly Empress. Wasp extinction. Honeybee peace.]
Haha.
First Katanka, now it looked like I was destined to become the “Firefly Empress” too?
While I was thinking that, the emotional clash between the warmongers based in the crevice shrine and the pacifists based at the waterfall grew fiercer by the second.
Finally one bee couldn’t hold back and attacked another.
Instantly brawls broke out all over, and the honeybees started a massive group fight.
Bzzzzzzz~
Bzzzzzzz~
Then I saw a cluster of bees performing a bizarre dance.
The fighting bees stopped as if someone had flipped a switch and split apart.
From the back, dozens of one-meter queen bees poured out in a swarm.
Behind them came a single bee of truly monstrous size, easily three meters long.
It had to be the Honeybee Empress and the queens she had birthed.
The two-meter Devil-Bee Empress had already been horrifying, but…
Seeing a three-meter honeybee empress up close was pure terror.
The line where bees still looked cute apparently ended at about Ganeungi’s size.
Insects only get more repulsive the more you enlarge them.
Look closely at a single leg, a hair, a spine—there isn’t a single part that doesn’t trigger human revulsion.
The giant empress landed in front of me, stared for a long moment, then gracefully moved her wings and asked in a dignified manner.
[Honeybees. Survive. Win. Method?]
I took out one of the rubber balloons I had prepared, injected a little mana oil into it, and tied it off.
Ganeungi grabbed the nozzle in her mouth, flew upward, performed a looping flight, then released it at the designated spot. The balloon fell, burst, and mana oil splattered across the ground.
I lit it on fire to demonstrate.
Whoosh~
“We’ll bomb them with mana oil like this. If all one million honeybees combine their strength, we can burn every last hornet outpost in the blink of an eye.”
I had already learned from Ganeungi that the Honeybee Empress had more than thirty queen bees beneath her.
Each kingdom was estimated to have over thirty thousand worker bees.
So although individual honeybees were weak, together they commanded a million-strong army.
Moreover, the giant hornet nests were concentrated in the eastern part of the region. To defend against frequent bird attacks, they had built enormous hornet hives spanning hundreds of meters around the Megahornet’s divine palace.
That density made bombing possible in return.
The hives were clumped so massively that even without precise coordinates, a rough drop would still hit them.
But the moment my words reached them, chaos erupted among the honeybees again.
The Waterfall Queen and her pacifists grew triumphant, while the warmongers from the crevice side were left speechless and pushed back on every front.
[Nonsense.]
[That animal. Knows nothing. About bee war.]
[Expel him. Now.]
[Spy.]
[Kill that animal!]
It felt like nothing I said was getting through to them at all.
The atmosphere grew so hostile I was starting to worry I might not even make it out alive.
Then the Empress asked me directly. The instant she opened her mouth, every other bee fell silent.
[Giant hornets. Own the skies. Bombing. Impossible.]
I answered.
“The bombing will happen at night.”
Chaos erupted once more.
[Nonsense.]
[That animal. Ignorant.]
[Impossible.]
[Expel him.]
At that point the Empress rose into the air.
She radiated an aura hard to describe. Because of the aftereffects of giving birth so many times she looked old and exhausted, yet at the same time she seemed incredibly gentle and wise.
She quieted everyone, then asked me again.
[Honeybees. Night flight. Impossible.]
I nodded.
“True. It is impossible.”
The 4th Basement Level turned bright as day during daylight hours thanks to the mana lamps, but at night it became perfect darkness without even moonlight.
The Devil-Bees had evolved to see in the dark and could fly at night, but ordinary giant hornets and honeybees followed the rule of staying hidden inside their nests after dark.
One reason the relatively small Devil-Bees could survive here was precisely that ability to move at night.
In any case, I already knew from Ganeungi that most honeybees could not fly at night. Only a handful—including herself, who had grown close to the Devil-Bees since childhood—were capable of it.
I paused for a moment, then pointed at the mana lamp on the ceiling.
“But what if a full moon as bright as that sun rose in the sky?”
All the bees buzzed wildly in reaction.
Some believed me, some didn’t.
“I promise you. Tonight! A full moon will rise and illuminate this entire place!”
[Lies.]
[Since we. Were dragged here. No full moon. No starlight.]
The bees still didn’t fully trust me.
Yet this time it wasn’t pure one-sided condemnation.
Some among the warmongers found the courage to shout.
[Firefly Empress!]
[Firefly Empress!]
[Firefly Empress!]
They seemed to be hoping for the appearance of their legend—the savior, the Firefly Empress.
At that moment Ganeungi whispered softly through her antennae.
[Now. Empress. Time to decide.]
“……”
[Once. Decided. That is final.]
Every bee’s gaze was fixed on the Empress. Once she made a decision, it seemed there would be no turning back.
All the queens and princesses fell silent.
Then it happened.
Bzzzzzz~ Bzzzzzzzz~
The sentry bees from outside flew back, dancing frantically.
I sensed something unexpected was coming.
[Emergency! Emergency! Three giant hornets sighted!]
At once countless honeybees took to the air and began forming a defensive sphere.
They were preparing for a fight to the death.
The Empress spoke.
[Resistance. Forbidden.]
The other bees cried out in distress.
[Grandmother! Larvae. Will die.]
The Empress danced sadly in reply.
[Let them. Eat the larvae.]
The queen bees rose up like a swarm in protest.
[No. Mother!]
[Absolutely. Not. Mother!]
[Larvae. Precious. Let us fight!]
The Empress declared.
[Larvae. Offered. Decision made.]
The moment she drew the line with the word “decision,” everyone quieted.
Bzzzzzz~ Bzzzzzz~
Bzzzzzz~
Three three-meter giant hornets suddenly appeared before us.
The pressure they gave off in front of the honeybees was beyond imagination. It felt like three volleyball players showing up in front of a three-year-old child.
One of the hornets, without a word, snatched a nearby honeybee and bit it in half. The bees were under the Empress’s strict order, so although they seethed with rage, they could only flap their wings helplessly.
The hornet tossed the dead bee aside and began tearing larvae from the hive. The other two hornets casually joined in the slaughter.
Thanks to the shared pheromones, I could feel the honeybees’ heart-wrenching pain. The one suffering most was, of course, the Empress herself.
Yet even as twelve to fourteen larvae were devoured in succession, she never gave the order to attack.
Seeing no one stop them, the giant hornets grew bolder and rampaged across the hive even more viciously.
Bzzzzzz~ Bzzzzzz~
After eating four or five larvae each, the hornets finally seemed satisfied. They turned the last larva into a dumpling, chewed it, and rose into the air, preparing to return to their own nest.
That was the moment.
The Empress suddenly gave orders to the queens, shot upward, and drove her stinger into the back of an off-guard hornet with ferocious force.
But a giant hornet was still a giant hornet. Even badly wounded, it spun in midair, clamped its massive jaws around the Empress, and delivered her death.
At the same time, dozens of queen bees rose up and swarmed the remaining two hornets. Although a single giant hornet was larger and stronger than a queen bee, dozens attacking at once left them visibly shaken and surrounded.
In an instant one hornet was pierced by countless stingers from the surrounding queens and fell dead to the ground.
The second was also on the verge of death, encircled by the queens from the waterfall faction.
Yet they were not the only ones lying on the ground.
[Mother!]
[No! Mother!]
[Grandmother!]
The Empress, who had bravely led the surprise attack! She had taken down her foe but suffered fatal wounds herself and crashed.
Even while dying, she commanded.
[Kill it! The last. One. Giant hornet. Before it spreads. Pheromones.]
The bees looked at the final hornet.
The one the waterfall queens had surrounded was still twitching, not quite dead.
A foul smell suddenly hit my nose. With its last strength the hornet had sprayed its pheromones into the air.
The queens rushed in again and made certain to end its life. But it was already too late.
The waterfall queens seemed too distracted by the fall of their mother, the Empress. They had made a critical mistake they would never normally commit.
Worker bees immediately began trying to erase the hornet’s pheromones. Whether they would succeed was uncertain.
A short while later.
The queen bees gathered around the Empress.
She was in despair.
[Perhaps. Now. Crevice Empire. Location. Exposed.]
She continued.
[Pheromones. Hard to erase. Tomorrow. Massive. Hornet invasion. Expected.]
Since the hornet had essentially planted a GPS before dying, this crevice sanctuary had become a candle flickering in the wind.
From the beginning the Empress had feared exactly this. She had offered the larvae first, then launched a surprise attack on the now-careless hornets, hoping to finish them quickly.
The Waterfall Queen spoke as if she had been waiting for this.
[Mother. Now. Great migration. To waterfall. No other. Way.]
The Empress answered sadly.
[Migration impossible. I. Am dying now.]
Bzzzzz~ Bzzzzz~
The queens beat their wings in grief.
Then the Waterfall Queen looked at her and said.
[Mother. Designate. New empress.]
The Empress turned to me and barely moved her antennae.
[I. Believe. That animal… tonight. Full moon. Will rise.]
The queens were shocked by her words.
She went on.
[Beneath the full moon. The one who fights hardest. That bee. Shall be the new empress…….]
Bee body language was extremely simple, yet it could convey the core meaning perfectly. Her will was essentially: “I believe in that person, so fight hard beneath the full moon. The queen who fights the hardest shall become the new empress.”
[Legend. Firefly Empress. I believe…….]
With those final words, the Empress breathed her last.
Once she died, the bees all beat their wings with sorrowful buzzing, mourning the death of their leader.
Because of the shared pheromones, their collective grief washed over me too. Without realizing it, I felt a powerful wave of pity for them.
[Mother. No! No!]
[Mother!]
[Mother! No!]
There was a brief period of mourning, but the queens soon pulled themselves together.
They didn’t have time to remain sad.
They returned to their own citizens and passed on the Empress’s last will.
[Mother’s will. War! Everyone. Fight!]
[Yes. Let’s fight. The full moon! Will rise!]
Yet among them were queens who completely distorted the Empress’s last words.
And at the center of that distortion was the Waterfall Queen.
[Empress’s will. Abandon the hive. Flee. To the waterfall. New empire. New empress. Fresh start.]
It was a blatant lie.
Ganeungi stepped into the plaza and danced before the bees of countless kingdoms.
[Lies. Grandmother. Believed in full moon. Everyone who fights. Firefly Empress! Let us all fight together!]
But the Waterfall Queen, who had lied, shook her head and said.
[Don’t believe legend. Lies. No salvation. No full moon. No Firefly Empress. Our fate. Lies at the waterfall.]
I stepped forward.
“That Waterfall Queen is lying! The Empress’s last words were to fight beneath the full moon!”
The lying queen’s faction immediately switched from attacking the “message” to attacking the “messenger.” It was a petty tactic no different from power struggles in the human world.
[After that animal came. Giant hornets appeared. Collaborator!]
[Collaborator!]
[Evil spirit!]
[Spy!]
The swarms looked ready to clash again like warring armies.
If a fight broke out now, the only one with the authority to mediate—the Empress—was already dead. Once it started, a great tragedy would unfold, and the honeybees would collapse long before they ever faced the hornets.
Then an elder who seemed to be of the same generation as the late Empress spoke.
[Carry out. Empress’s Gateway. Only solution.]
The Waterfall Queen immediately nodded.
[Agreed. Empress’s Gateway!]
The queens of the waterfall faction followed one after another.
[Agreed. Empress’s Gateway!]
[Agreed.]
[Empress’s Gateway! Agreed!]
Empress’s Gateway
In the ancient forest, the honeybee queens open the Empress’s Gateway to choose a new empress.
Challenge: Pass the Empress’s Gateway trials proposed by the honeybee queens and become the Bee Emperor.
① Pass the Empress’s stinger test.
② Win the flight race against the honeybee queens.
③ Solve the riddle of the ancient beehive.
🎁 Reward: Ancient Bee Gaeggul × ??
[Will you accept the quest?]
<Yes> <No>