The Great Badger froze entirely mid-bite. The towering yellow phantom outline surrounding its massive body instantly shattered into a million dissipating sparks. Its one remaining glowing eye rolled completely backward into its skull.
The colossal mammal statued. It held its terrifying, blood-soaked posture for one long, suspended second, before crashing heavily onto its side in the mud. Completely, utterly dead.
Sol, sprinting through the brush a hundred yards away, felt a sudden, profound, terrifying emptiness hollow out his chest.
The heavy, sprawling silver tether in his mind… the psychic connection that had linked his soul to thousands of ants…. abruptly, violently snapped.
The mental backlash hit him like a physical Stone‑club, dropping him hard to his knees in the dirt with a violent nosebleed. Sol's connection with the Ant Queen was broken, meaning she had died too.
