By IMERPUS RELUR
--
The ground trembled.
It wasn't an earthquake. Not quite. The tremor had rhythm—like a distant drumbeat echoing beneath the crust of the Lord Plane. It pulsed every few minutes, growing bolder. More deliberate.
One day remained.
---
In the core nest, Lin Shen sat cross-legged before the Hive Core. The crystalline mass shimmered with pulsing veins of green, gold, and faint blue—a sign of advanced synchronization.
> [Lord Sync: 87%]
[Swarm Instinct Integration: Tier 3 Complete]
[Mental Bandwidth: Expanded]
[New Feature Unlocked: Tactical Layer Override]
He opened his eyes. His thoughts felt... thinner, but sharper. Like metal shaved into a blade.
Now, he could issue commands to multiple unit types simultaneously without delay, reroute tunnel pathways in real time, and override the instinctive choices of even the Commander-class ants.
"Tomorrow, no hesitation. We move as one."
---
> [Daily Hive Summary – 24 Hours Before Beast Tide]
• Total Combat Units: 1,770
– Tier 1: 500 (Forager/Worker Ants)
– Tier 2: 480 (Soldiers, Spiked Variants)
– Tier 3: 300 (Venom Fang, Acid Sprayers)
– Tier 4: 120 (Devourers, Bone-Crest types)
– Tier 5: 12 (Ant Generals)
– Tier 6: 2 (New Evolution - Tunnel Tyrants)
• Defense Layers: 12 active strata
• Hive Sync Nodes: 6 active
• Mutation Seeds: 7 (stored)
---
At the center of the nest, the first Tunnel Tyrant stepped into formation.
It was three meters long, with serrated limbs and dense shell ridges that reflected torchlight. Its forelimbs were shield-shaped, covered in bio-crystal, and its mandibles clicked once every few seconds like a countdown.
> [Tunnel Tyrant – Tier 6 – Unique Lineage: Deepblood]
Trait: Tunnel Sovereignty – Auto-enhances underground combat capability of all nearby ants.
Aura: Weight of Earth – Reduces speed of enemy burrowers by 30% in radius.
Lin Shen nodded to it without speaking.
A moment later, the ant bowed—no longer just obeying, but recognizing.
---
[Regional Chat – Region 7 – Public Channel]
[Lord AshThorn]: It's tomorrow.
[Lord ViciousBlade]: Anyone else hearing it? That low pulsing under the soil?
[Lord WhisperWind]: It's not pulsing. It's breathing.
[Lord ShadeFeather]: The Beast Tide doesn't just test you. It watches you first.
[Lord IceSoul]: 1,000,000 Lords. How many will remain by the end of tomorrow?
[Lord LinShen]: Not enough to matter.
---
Deep in Lin Shen's nest, he opened his personal vault—a chamber carved with glyphs passed on from the Hive Core's first evolution.
There lay the obsidian egg.
> [Status: Stable Dormancy – Unnamed Hive-Class Mutation Pending]
Estimated Activation: Unknown – Requires Extreme Battle Stimulus
He stared at it.
"You're waiting, aren't you?"
A whisper of thought came back—not in words, but in hunger.
Tomorrow, it would begin.
The earth would bleed.
And the swarm would feed.