Valeria launches herself over the rim. Her armored feet strike the steep, packed-dirt wall of the crater and skid down the slope with a harsh, grating scrape. She hits the floor of the basin with a heavy thud.
She straightens and brushes the fine dust from her shoulder plates.
Above her, the Butterfly Guardians tilt their wings, catching the air as they descend in a smooth glide.
The ant soldiers launch themselves from the rim behind them. As they descend, they draw their mandibles and drive the sharpened edges deep into the packed-dirt walls.
They slow their fall before dropping the final few feet, landing in a crouch behind Valeria.
Valeria stares into the depths of the burrow. Beyond the rim, jagged shafts of sunlight pierce through cracks in the earth, illuminating uneven patches of the wide tunnel floors and the vast openings ahead.
She advances, her armored feet pressing into the damp soil.
A sharp whistle cuts through the stagnant air.
A quill tears out of the shadows.
Valeria's eyes widen slightly, but she reacts immediately, pivoting her torso with a sudden, sharp twist.
The projectile streaks past her neck. The wind from its passage brushes against her antennae and hair before the quill drives into the earth beside her with a dull thud. Its hooked tip, made of bone and hardened chitin, buries deep into the soil.
She looks up.
So they were expecting us...
The shadows shift.
Hundreds of Moths descend from the high, irregular ceiling. The air grows thick and turbulent as their large black wings beat in unison.
Valeria grips the hilts at her waist and draws her mandibles in a single, fluid arc. The blades glint in the scattered sunlight.
"Assume the defensive stagger-wedge formation!"
The formation fractures.
The soldiers flow into staggered wedges, each column narrowing toward the front and widening toward the rear, offset just enough to keep the points from lining up.
The forward ranks lower their centers of gravity. Their armored feet dig into the soil as they turn their shoulders inward.
Their mandibles rise at sharp diagonals.
The Butterfly Guardians sweep their wings and take to the air, rising just above the staggered formation of ant soldiers.
Luminara remains grounded behind the shifting wall of ants. Her two guardians take position on either side of her, their hands hovering near their weapons.
Thousands of quills rain down.
Valeria stands at the point of the wedge, her mandibles moving in rapid arcs. She slashes upward, then follows with a downward diagonal strike, knocking the projectiles out of the air.
Metallic clangs ring through the burrow as her mandibles strike the hardened chitin of the quills. Sparks burst from each impact, scattering across the darkness.
Behind her, the soldiers follow suit. Their blades rise and fall in quick succession, intercepting the incoming quills before they can reach the formation.
The sheer volume of the barrage overwhelms the formation.
Thwack!
A quill punches through an ant soldier's stomach.
Thunk!
Another tears through a shoulder plate and buries itself beneath the exoskeleton.
A third catches a soldier's arm, pinning it against his side.
"AAAGH!"
"Gah!"
"MY ARM!"
Screams erupt from the ranks as more quills slam into the soldiers. Blood runs from in their exoskeleton, staining the packed soil beneath their feet.
The soldiers grit their teeth and push through the pain. Some stagger. Others plant their feet and raise their mandibles again.
Ignatia snaps her wings.
She shoots into the turbulent air above the crater.
The twenty Butterfly Guardians follow her.
In one synchronized motion, they unsheathed their Barb Whips.
Ignatia surges toward the Moths, her indigo wings beating hard behind her.
The Moths pivot toward her.
A concentrated barrage of quills tears through the air.
Ignatia drops beneath the first volley.
A quill passes inches from her antennae.
She ducked beneath another, banks sharply, and spirals between two more before pulling into a steep climb.
More quills streak past her.
She twists sideways.
Another passes beneath her.
She dives again, then pulls up hard.
The Moths struggle to track her.
Ignatia closes the distance.
One Moth pulls away, it wings beating frantically.
"No... way."
Ignatia raises her whip.
She drives forward, putting her full momentum behind the swing. The barbs cut through the air and tears across the Moths in a single sweeping strike. More than a dozen Moths jerk in midair. Dark blood sprays across their wings.
Their wingbeats falter.
One drops.
Then another.
The rest tumble after them, their bodies spinning as they disappear into the darkness below.
Ignatia pulls her whip back and turns toward the remaining swarm.
"There are so many of them..."
Ignatia tightens her grip.
It doesn't matter. I have to put an end to Magnus or die trying.
"That's the War Monarch, Ignatia! Kill her now!"
A second group of Moths breaks away from the swarm.
Their hind wings snap forward.
A barrage of quills tears through the air.
Ignatia twists in midair, the black projectiles slicing past her hair.
She steadies herself and glares at the swarm.
"They're really starting to tick me off."
A long whip suddenly cuts through the air.
It catches four Moths across the neck.
In one brutal sweep, their heads separate from their bodies.
The severed bodies drop from the air and hit the ground below with heavy thuds.
Ignatia freezes.
"Huh?"
She pivots in midair and follows the weapon's path.
The whip snaps backward.
It retracts at startling speed, the long length of the weapon folding back into itself until it becomes a compact hilt in the hand of a male Butterfly.
He stands alone on a high, rocky ledge jutting from the tunnel wall. One hand rests loosely at his side, the compact hilt hanging from his fingers.
He looks down at the battlefield.
Then his eyes settle on Ignatia.
For a moment, neither of them moves.
Ignatia narrows her eyes.
So Seraphina sent her guardian...
Alastair.
"Apologies for the delay, Monarch Ignatia," Alastair said. "My Lady Seraphina insisted that if I were going to assist you, I should at least wait until you were a damsel in distress."
A faint smirk tugged at the corner of Alastair's mouth.
"You haven't changed a bit, Alastair," Ignatia said. "My sister's arrogance still seems to dictate your tongue."
A quill whistles past Ignatia's face.
She tilts her head, her antennae flattening against her chin as she shoots upward.
"Seems we'll have to catch up later," Alastair said. He turns toward the swarm. "Try to stay alive until then."
He launches from the ledge.
His whip snaps outward as he flies straight into the horde of Moths.
Several Moths jerk backward as the weapon tears through them. Their screams echo through the cavern as their bodies tumble from the air.
Ignatia watches him disappear into the swarm.
A smirk crosses her face.
"I should say the same to you."
she draws in a deep breath.
Her crimson eyes ignite, their pupils glowing bright red.
"Velvet Rush!"
Crimson light flares around her, spilling across the plates of her exoskeleton and the membranes of her wings.
The glow intensifies.
Then she vanishes.
For a brief moment, nothing moves.
Ignatia reappears behind a cluster of Moths.
They hang motionless in the air.
Then their bodies come apart.
Their matte-black chitin splits along clean, jagged lines. Wings separate from bodies. Severed sections tumble through the air.
Ignatia remains suspended behind them, her crimson eyes still glowing.
The Moths flare their wings.
A fine black dust shakes loose from their forewings and drifts downward, spreading through the crater in a thick, rolling mist.
"Don't breathe it in!" Ignatia shouted down at the soldiers. "Their dust causes hallucinations. It can plunge you into complete darkness!"
The soldiers and Butterflies press their palms over their noses and mouths.
It isn't enough.
The black mist keeps falling.
It fills the crater, slipping between the soldiers. The shafts of sunlight disappear one by one until there is nothing left to see.
Then—
Darkness.
Complete darkness.
A quill tears through the air.
A soldier screams.
Another impact follows. Then another.
Quills punch through flesh and crack against exoskeletons. Soldiers stumble blindly as projectiles strike from every direction.
"Where are they?!"
A soldier reaches out into the darkness, his breathing ragged.
"I-I can't see!"
He takes a step.
Valeria's antennae twitch and she turns toward the voices.
We were warned about the black mist.
Her grip tightens around her mandibles.
But we have no way to avoid it.
Another scream cuts through the darkness.
At this rate...
We're all going to be slaughtered.
"Can all of you hear me?"
A clear voice cuts through the darkness.
Ignatia's eyes widen.
Luminara?
"Cover your eyes!" Luminara shouted. "All of you. Do not open them. Do it now!"
The soldiers and Butterflies immediately press their hands over their faces.
Luminara draws a slow breath.
"In this sightless void, where the beacon is lost and the end draws near... I call upon the Sun's wrath."
Her white wings snap open.
"Solar Flare!"
A searing white light bursts from her body, pouring through the seams of her exoskeleton.
The darkness disappears.
Light floods the burrow, reaching every corner of the crater.
"Now!"
Hands fall from faces.
The soldiers open their eyes.
The black mist is already thinning.
Moths lie scattered across the crater floor. Their limbs twitch against the soil as their hands claw at their eyes. Foam gathers at the corners of their mouths.
"Charge!"
Valeria's command rings across the crater.
The soldiers surge forward.
One by one, they reach the fallen Moths. Their mandibles flash in the sudden light as they strike.
Above them, Mirage hovers unsteadily.
One hand covers his face.
Blood-red fluid slips between his fingers.
His eyes widen.
"No way..."
He stares at Luminara.
"She shouldn't be this powerful."
"Lord Magnus blinded her..."