The chamber reeked of blood. Heavy and metallic, it clung to the air and coated every breath like rust in the lungs. Crimson streaks stained the stone walls, soaking into cracks in the floor where the liquid had pooled too many times before. The room was lined with shelves of ancient manuscripts and relics, strange symbols etched across parchment and bone alike, whispering secrets hidden behind a tongue that vanished too long ago.
At the center, the Beetle Queen hummed a childish tune. Sweet and soft, some would say it was grotesquely out of place. Her claw carved deep grooves into the stone as she completed a vast circle, smaller ones branching out around it like the petals of some profane flower. Within each, she etched symbols from the scrolls, complex and simple shapes alike.
The faint gasps of the dying beetle lying on its back filled the silence between her humming. Each ragged breath dragged his soul closer to death, his mandibles trembling.
"P-please… please… let… me… go…"
She didn't even glance at him. She simply hummed louder, engraving the final mark with an almost joyous hand.
From the shelves, she lifted a charm. A pendant of strange element engraved with a crest that was eerily out of this world. An image of a woman's face, a horn protruded from her forehead, streaked with tears of blood, her empty gaze following any who dared to look. The Queen cradled it against her chest with reverence.
"Don't worry. It will be over soon." Her grin split wide. "Hehe."
She giggled as she enthusiastically darted for a red crystal from the shelf, where other ornaments lay. Her face enveloped with a wide grin as she raised the crystal above his chest, gleaming with the anticipation of the satisfaction yet to come. She could almost taste the fear in his eyes as it spread in the atmosphere. The thrill enveloped and consumed her entirely. Raising her weapon into the air swiftly she struck. Yet, before her crystal blade could pierce the beetle, an irritating voice killed the atmosphere.
"Isn't the evening just beautiful today? Wouldn't you agree, your majesty?"
The Queen froze, fury immediately shattering her smile. Her grin twisted into a snarl as she spun.
The door, which should have been locked, now stood open. In its frame, Varas leaned slightly, offering a bow with a smile playing on his mandibles.
"ARGHHH!" The Queen shrieked, voice breaking into a screech as she swings the crystal maniacally in frustration. "Can't you read the room? And would it kill you to knock?! How did you even get in anyway?"
Varas didn't flinch. He merely tilted his head and ignored the question with practiced ease. "Well, you summoned me, your majesty. How may I be of service?"
"Hmph!" The Queen's chest heaved. She almost let her rage spill, a groan echoed the chamber, but it was true, she was the one who "ordered" the guards to bring Varas at that very instant otherwise she'll have their heads on display in the market. "Yet those damned idiots took too long!" She thought to herself. "How dare they.... I swear I'll sacrifice them too!" She almost let those words slip from her tongue. She regained her composure, something that doesn't happen too often, actually it doesn't happen at all, still today was a great occasion to celebrate and she wasn't going to let them ruin her happiness.
"I have a task for you," she said, lifting her chin. "As you should know, tonight is the thirty-third moon." Her grin widened, sharp and dazzling in its malice. "I shall finally cross another milestone."
Her eyes gleamed with hunger.
Varas tilted his head slightly. His false smile remained.
"But," she went on, pacing a slow circle around the dying beetle, "But it's not enough, as I dove further into the scrolls, it seems I would need something stronger, something with more mana in it." The tortured beetle still groaned on the ground, but the Queen continued to ignore it.
She clasped her hands together and tilted her head, giggling almost girlishly. "That's why I need you to visit the underground for me. Be a gentleman, won't you? Bring me something… stronger. Something brimming with mana. By the end of the week."
Her smile hardened, her tone cutting like a blade. "Do not disappoint me."
Varas's smile thinned. He could feel the weight of her gaze, the threat beneath her words. "In a week… That seems rather difficult, don't you think?"
Her eyes narrowed, and for a moment the room chilled despite the stench of blood. Varas bowed immediately. "As you please, your majesty. I shall see to it."
"Good!" she chirped, her tone snapping back into sing-song sweetness. "Now, hurry along, shoo shoo!"
He bowed low and withdrew, vanishing through the cursed doorway.
The Queen turned back to her work, her hum resuming as if nothing had happened. She crouched low, crystal poised once more.
"Now…" she whispered, mandibles quivering with delight. "Let's continue where we left off."
The beetle tried to scream, but only a pitiful rasp escaped. The Queen raised the crystal high, and in one swift, joyous motion, she drove it down.
The shard pierced his heart. Blood exploded in a crimson spray, splattering her face, her arms, the engraved floor. The crystal drank it in, glowing brighter as red veins of light spread from it into the amulet she wore.
The Queen shuddered as the energy coursed through her body, a wave of calm, of pleasure, of hunger satisfied only to grow deeper. Her skin glistened, her carapace shining as the youth returned to her cheeks. She spread her arms wide as the energy rushed into the ritual circle.
One by one, the symbols lit, glowing blood-red.
The chamber shook. A wall of fire burst upward from the central circle, licking at the stone ceiling. The flames roared, then bent inward, collapsing upon themselves.
And when they receded, something… otherworldly stood where the flames had been.