Chapter 942

Chapter 942

As far as being forced to do something went, Crossed Antennae didnt find her situation that bad. Several days had passed during which she hadnt been able to do anything useful, and shed been forced to speed up the time with some rest cycles.

She had thought that these four ants that were supposed to be her loyal subordinates would have capitulated by now, but her aquatic assaults had done nothing to deter their actions. Indeed, they had launched undignified counterattacks instead of being properly chastised.

And now here she was, having wasted an incredible amount of time just sitting on an island and eating when she could have been doing something productive. Honestly, if the Great Queen had subordinates who were so rebellious she would have done something. Probably. No, the Great Queen wouldnt have any rebellious subordinates, right? But since Crossed Antennae was having these troubles, did that mean this was her fault?

Ugh, nothing made any sense. She didnt want to think about any of that, she wanted to get back to work. She expressed her continuing displeasure by forming a small ball of mud and tossing it at Snips. The ball of mud cut apart into two small piles, landing on either side of the small ant.

Something about her actions reminded Crossed Antennae of her memories, specifically ones of before. The memories carried with them a now unfamiliar emotion. What was it? Something about Fearsome Mandibles. Annoyance? No, something else. Perhaps fun?

But nothing made sense about that, and those memories didnt matter anyway. Crossed Antennae had spent more time without her sister than with her now, and she didnt need her. Right?

Right. She was totally fine as she was. She just needed to return to work here. It had been too long. She needed to keep going or they would never finish anything.

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You fiends! Crossed Antennae aggressively addressed the two known as Bullet and Fire. When are you going to give up on your foul deeds keeping me here? she signed wildly and directed angry pheromones towards them.

Bullet answered swiftly. My queen, the numbing agent has worn off some time ago. But you seemed as if you still needed the break. The last word was one of those words meant for interacting with humans, not something the void ants tended to use natively.

Crossed Antenna tentatively flicked her wings, finding that they responded to her. How could she have not noticed? How long had it been?

How much did she need rest? Sure, shed focused on her duties and sometimes missed a couple rest cycles throughout the day. Rarely more than half of them. Almost never more than eighty percent of them, if you counted the half rest cycles she sometimes picked up.

Crossed Antennae took stock of her internal condition. She was constantly in the process of making the next queen but if they were to run colonies, didnt she need them to be the best they could be instead of simply the next one? She hoped that she hadnt done too much damage in her haste.Folloow current novÊls on nov/3lb((in).(co/m)

Perhaps her subordinates had a point, doing this. But still, they deserved punishment. She tested her wings. A duration of inactivity didnt seem to have hindered them too much.

She leaned forward, scooping up as much water as she could, then launched herself into the air. Just because it was for her own benefit didnt mean that there would be no consequences. She launched the huge glob of water downward once she reached a sufficient height, watching it splash over Fire, her chosen target.

Ah, that was fun. Maybe she should do things like that more often. It wasnt like it took long.

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Since they had to spend some time for the engineers to make calculations regarding the ships barriers, Devon sent a message back to ask for advice. It wasnt as if the system was suddenly going to go away if he didnt go back immediately, and the one thing he was quite certain cultivators could not do was take back past mistakes.

With that, he left her behind. It wasnt that he was truly uninterested in the response, but she also wasnt that important compared to the others. He found his way to the closest module, which contained no fewer than fifty restrained individuals. They seemed to be in a daze, but as he approached their eyes vaguely focused on him.

Devon approached carefully, aware of the catastrophic consequences of failure. Ships did not explode so completely by accident, but who were these people afraid of getting their hands on things? Outsiders like himself or the very people they were using?

Can you speak? Devon asked, addressing a random individual.

A few moments of silence. Who are you?

A rescuer, most likely. Devon saw the restraints in front of him, and could barely hold himself back from ripping them all apart. Why are you here? It was not a fair question to ask to someone held so inhumanely, but necessary nonetheless.

Not strong enough, the prisoner answered listlessly.

Devon nodded. He could feel the sincerity within that response. It might not be a complete response, but he could hardly expect much difference from someone barely in control of their faculties.

Do the rest of you speak? Devon asked generally. He got a few murmurings at most. He asked the question directly to another.

Yes. A simple response, lacking in initiative but he could understand why they would be hesitant. Most likely, stronger cultivators had particular desires regarding how they were treated.

Can I safely get you out of these restraints?

Please, the voice was desperate, but Devon sensed something. Do it.

Youll die, Devon declared.

Like all of those on the other ship. Why wont you? Dont torment us.

Wouldnt you rather live and be free? Devon asked.

There was no response to that, as if they couldnt even comprehend it.

Well, that made things easier. Though before he went too hard interrogating the captain, he needed to determine who was ultimately responsible. She could be just another pawn. Then again, interrogations of any sort werent his specialty, so it would be easier to get the ship somewhere convenient first. Though he didnt know if it had some form of subspace capabilities.

Devon sighed deeply. Hed made a mistake with the first ship, but it seemed that perhaps its inhabitants were still better off. Hed still have preferred proper freedom for them, however.

Time to drag this ship out of the system before any trouble showed up. He contacted the team with him and had them go ahead. In the worst case scenario, he could always escape alone- he wasnt going to assume that he was invincible, even as an Enrichment cultivator. The power displayed here already was hard to quantify and he would find it difficult to properly counterattack knowing what he did now.