The 100,000 Army Ignites a Hornet's Nest (3)
Worker hornet number 421 woke up to the feeling of rainwater slapping her face.
Rain? Is there a leak?
In this place, rain sometimes fell—presumably caused by magic.
At times it would pour for twenty full days and nights.
Considering the countless plants that lived here, such heavy rainfall was probably necessary for their survival.
But for 421, whose job was to maintain the nest, that kind of downpour was nothing but an infuriating nuisance.
She got up and woke 420 and 423.
[Rain. Leaking. Propolis. Repair work. Begin. Pass to the side.]
[…….]
[…….]
420 and 423 looked displeased, but they had no choice but to open their eyes.
If the ceiling repair failed and rainwater leaked into the larvae chamber, they would be exiled without mercy.
The two immediately relayed the message to the next room, then began chewing while drawing enzymes into their saliva. The giant hornet propolis they produced this way made an extremely effective adhesive for repairing the nest.
However, while 420, 423, and the gradually waking sisters began the repair work, 421 tilted her head. She felt something was wrong.
Roof. Repaired. Checked yesterday. Yet. Already?
421 decided to go outside the nest.
Night flights were strictly forbidden, but duties related to roof maintenance allowed some discretion.
Sure enough, the moment she stepped outside, she spotted a suspicious light-green object.
What is that?
It looked like the empty shell of a fruit after it had burst and spilled its contents.
421 approached and sniffed it.
A damp, completely unfamiliar scent wafted from the object.
It was an indescribably foul stench.
She grabbed the fruit shell and pulled.
The shell was incredibly elastic. It stretched easily and snapped back to its original shape when released—an astonishing thing.
Pop—
Suddenly, another fruit shell fell not far from 421.
Pop—
Before she could even be surprised, yet another one burst open, pouring foul-smelling liquid all over the roof of their home.
421 looked up at the sky.
The question that had been bothering her since earlier was finally answered.
Even though it was the middle of the night, everything was strangely visible.
And astonishingly, far in the distance, she could see a small, glowing spherical object floating there.
That… no way. The moon?
The moon!
421, who had been born here and had never once seen the moon, only knew of its existence from the old stories the elders told.
The elders had said that before they were brought to this place, they had lived in vast open fields under a moon and stars.
For some reason, 421 felt happy.
Something. A sign. Of good luck?
Pop—
Pop—
Then, under the faint moonlight, 421 saw it.
Dozens… no, hundreds of fruit shells were falling at the same time.
Thud.
Fortunately the shells weren’t hard, so their falling speed alone wasn’t enough to damage the nest’s roof.
But if this sticky liquid kept pouring down, it would clearly cause problems.
Sisters. Must tell them.
421 hurriedly tried to fly back inside.
That was when she saw it.
A glowing being spinning furiously in a figure-eight pattern right above her head.
At first, 421 was terrified.
That. What? Emitting. Light?
But no matter how she looked at it, the figure-eight dance was identical to the one bees performed when they discovered flowers.
And that strange, alien pheromone scent was…
A bee? A bee. At night. Here?
It was unbelievable.
Still… 421 decided to muster her courage and check.
If a bee really had come here, then something suspicious was definitely happening.
When she had flown up a few meters, she felt a massive vibration transmitted through her wings.
Hundreds… thousands… no, tens of thousands?
It was certain.
Though she couldn’t see them clearly, it looked like tens of thousands of bees were flying high in the sky above.
Pop— pop— pop pop— pop—
Pop— pop pop— pop—
And they kept dropping those unidentified fruits.
Must. Catch them.
421 shot upward at high speed.
Her plan was simple.
She would capture the bee doing the figure-eight dance and ask what the hell this whole scheme was about.
Keeeee~
Just then, a bizarre sound reached 421’s ears.
The cry of a natural enemy.
It was the cry of a bee hawk-moth.
421 was frightened, but she climbed a little higher.
If a bee hawk-moth had truly reached their nest at night, she had to wake everyone and prepare for battle.
At that moment, the shadow of a hawk flashed past under the moonlight.
And the tens of thousands of retinas that made up 421’s compound eyes all lit up at once with the image of a single object.
Something glowing was falling downward.
It looked like the hawk had snatched it and thrown it while passing by.
A stick-like shape.
And at its tip…
Oh no!
Flames were blazing.
Thud—
The flaming stick landed on a nearby roof.
Fortunately, the roof didn’t catch fire immediately.
421 instinctively flew toward it. She grabbed the stick with all six legs and hurled it far away.
Then the hawk’s shadow flashed by again, and two or three more flaming sticks fell.
This time, it was different.
The moment one of the burning sticks landed on the roof—
Whoosh—
…The roof burst into flames.
421’s wings and legs tangled in extreme panic.
Should she go inside and evacuate the others?
Whoosh— whoooosh—
But in just two or three seconds, the flames had grown twenty to thirty times larger.
When she finally came to her senses and looked around, the entire area had become a sea of fire.
And she instinctively realized this situation had escalated far beyond what their reporting system could handle.
Quickly. Must inform. Her Majesty.
421 generated a warning sound with her wingbeats and flew straight toward the divine palace where the Empress resided.
Pop~ pop~
Boom~
But the entire area was already a sea of flames, thick black smoke rising everywhere. Visibility was zero. Since it had been night to begin with, 421 could no longer even tell where she was.
Only then did the sisters begin to emerge from their homes one by one. They had finally realized something was wrong.
But their fate was tragic. The moment they came outside, their wings burned away in the fierce flames. They flailed helplessly before all of them plummeted to the ground.
This. Can’t be. At this rate. We’ll be. Annihilated!
421 looked up at the sky.
Green.
Blue.
Yellow.
Red.
Sky blue.
Purple.
Thanks to the flames that now lit the area like broad daylight, she could clearly see hundreds… thousands… no, tens of thousands of fruit shells raining down.
And the instant they fell into the fire—
Boom~ boom~
Boom~
—they triggered a chain of small explosions.
421 climbed higher to take in a wider view.
The glowing bee that had been dancing in a figure-eight was now doing so in a different part of the sky.
A concentrated barrage of fruit shells immediately began falling on that spot.
Soon the hawk’s flaming sticks were thrown there as well, and the giant homes of the great tribe were all set ablaze.
Pop~ pop~
Boom~
421 felt as if her chest would collapse.
The heartbreaking sight of everything she and her comrades had built being miserably destroyed!
And even with her countless compound eyes, she couldn’t capture all the thousands of sisters losing their wings and falling to their deaths.
It was only natural.
The number of sisters who had died from the intense heat without even managing to escape the nest would be dozens of times greater.
Then 421 saw it.
A colossal monarch rising through the exploding flames.
The Megahornet!
And the royal guard escorting her.
Her Majesty. Alive! Thank goodness. Truly a relief.
421 immediately flew toward the Empress.
Normally she would only show respect from afar, never daring to approach.
But now was not the time for such formalities.
421 flew directly into the Empress’s path. The royal guards immediately blocked her.
[What is it.]
[Important. Information.]
At that moment the Empress expressed her will with absolute authority.
[Make it short.]
421 danced while looking upward.
[Shining. Bee first. Must kill.]
The Megahornet looked up and saw the bee dancing in a figure-eight far away. And as if to taunt them, concentrated fire was pouring down right beneath it.
Now the glowing bee was moving rapidly, guiding the bombardment. As the shining insect circled over the long stretches of the hornet nest, flames spread wherever it passed, turning everything into a blazing inferno.
The Empress flew straight toward the glowing bee with a furious expression. Her royal guards immediately followed.
Then 421 saw something terrifying.
An incredibly fast flying object was closing in behind their giant hornet Empress.
Keeeee~
Bzzzzzzzzz~
[Careful. Hawk-moth!]
But the Megahornet had already reacted before 421 could finish her warning. She spun around, ready to engage the hawk-moth.
And so, above the vast plain now bright as day from the massive wildfire, the giant hornet and the hawk-moth began a fierce chase.
Normally in a pursuit between these two species, the hornet would be fleeing while the hawk-moth chased.
But the chase 421 witnessed now was the complete opposite.
The enraged Megahornet was the pursuer.
On the contrary, the hawk-moth—which was only one-fifth the Empress’s size—was the one running away.
Once caught, the hawk-moth would meet a miserable end. That had been an ironclad rule on the 4th basement level with no exceptions.
Moreover, despite her enormous size, the giant hornet Empress was moving at a terrifyingly fast speed.
But this hawk-moth was no ordinary one. For some mysterious reason, it possessed far greater speed and maneuverability than normal individuals. At this rate, it seemed the Megahornet would never be able to catch it.
[Disperse. Encircle.]
Upon the order, the Empress’s royal guard spread out widely and began forming an encirclement.
The hawk-moth immediately began spewing fire as if it had been waiting for this.
421 doubted her own eyes.
Could hawk-moths breathe fire?
But when she got closer and looked carefully, the flames were not coming from the hawk-moth’s mouth.
They were being fired from the hand of some creature riding on the hawk-moth’s back.
The flames targeted only the isolated royal guards with ruthless precision.
Every time a burst of fire shot out, one of the brave royal guard sisters would flail with burning wings and plummet.
To begin with, only a few dozen of the royal guard had managed to take off successfully.
But that number dropped to twenty… fifteen… ten……
Now only a handful remained.
Then the hawk-moth performed a mocking figure-eight flight before abandoning the burning battlefield and fleeing into the darkness.
At that moment, 421 felt a powerful wave.
It was the signal from the giant hornet Empress’s mighty wingbeats, calling them.
421 flew up with all her strength and moved to the Megahornet’s side.
The number that entered her eyes was devastating.
The giant hornet imperial army that had once boasted a peak strength of thirty thousand now numbered only a few hundred.
There were probably more survivors than this, but the ones still capable of proper flight were now only this many.
The Empress trembled with rage and issued a new command.
[I. Will pursue! The hawk-moth! Eliminate!]
She would chase the hawk-moth—the mastermind behind all this—to the very end and kill it.
[421! Gather. Surviving. Giant hornets. Hunt. The shining bee.]
And the greatest mission of 421’s life was handed down.
She was to gather every surviving giant hornet and eliminate the aerial bombardment spotter in the sky.
Thick pheromones from the Megahornet were sprayed onto 421. She felt dizzy from the sheer honor.
[You. Are now. Supreme Commander. You must. Hunt. The shining bee!]
[By your command!]
[Any soldier. Who succeeds. In the hunt. Will become. The next Empress!]
With those words, the Megahornet began her pursuit flight in the direction the hawk-moth had disappeared.
This time, her speed was on a completely different level from before.
!
She was using the ultimate flight technique that gradually consumed her own venom and pheromones to dramatically increase her cruising speed.
421 fell into thought.
If I succeed in the hunt… I become Empress?
Empress!
It was entirely possible.
This was the spawning season.
The queen bees, exhausted from laying eggs, had all been sleeping inside the nest when the bombardment hit.
Once this crisis passed, the empire would clearly face a severe shortage of queens.
For the first time in her life, 421 felt an excitement that engulfed her entire body.
It was a mixture of rage at losing most of her kin and the burning ambition of possibly becoming a queen herself.
She gave a stern order to the sisters who had gathered around her.
[Hunt. The shining bee! Stake. Your lives.]
As 421 rose first, every surviving giant hornet followed the one emitting thick pheromones and powerfully took to the sky.