CHAPTER 23: CHAPTER 24: THE BATTLEFIELD

The newborn’s body dripped molten light, each step leaving burning prints in the soil. It didn’t walk so much as ripple forward, wings twitching like they had only just learned what flight meant. Its gaze swept the field—blank, bright, hungry.

The original Queen hissed, mandibles flaring wide. Her body leaned low, claws pressing into dirt already scorched. Gold ran down her side, her wound raw and spilling, but her stare locked on the copy in front of her.

Buzz felt the air thicken until breathing hurt. His claws shook where they gripped Zza’s arm. She pulled silk from what was left of her glands, the threads faint, fraying, but still wrapping around his waist to steady him.

He rasped into her shoulder, "Tell me you’re seeing what I’m seeing."

She didn’t answer. Her eyes were fixed on the ground.

Because the ground was moving again.

The ichor that had bled into soil spread wider, bubbling where roots touched it. One by one, roots tore free, blackened, curling like dead veins. Scarabs that had stood near those cracks collapsed, their shells pitted with burns that ate from inside out.

The newborn bent low, mandibles dripping, and lapped the ichor straight from the dirt.

Its body flared brighter. Its shell thickened. Its wings snapped with force that sent scarabs flying backward.

Zza pulled Buzz tighter against her, silk binding their arms as one. Her voice cracked against his ear. "It’s feeding."

The original Queen screamed, her own ichor blazing, her claws striking at the copy. The newborn didn’t dodge—it caught her blow in its claws. For a heartbeat they locked together, golden light sparking between them.

The army fell silent, watching mother and spawn press against each other, two titans shaking the clearing.

Buzz pressed his forehead against Zza’s, voice raw. "Do we cheer for her, or for the thing she made?"

Zza’s claws dug into his shell, tears hot in her eyes. "We pray they kill each other before they remember us."

The newborn shoved back. The original slid in the dirt, wings thrashing, ichor spraying. Scarabs scrambled to avoid the flood. Centipedes shrieked as coils blistered where the gold touched. Glowbeetles lit frantic signals in the sky, but their patterns broke, scattered by fear.

The Elder’s threads drifted from the canopy, but even they hesitated, weaving loose shapes instead of nets.

The two Queens roared again, their voices overlapping into something that made Buzz’s chest ache. He staggered closer to Zza, every nerve screaming, but still unable to look away.

And then both golden heads snapped toward him.

Toward them.

The battlefield froze, caught in that double gaze. Two sets of eyes, one ancient and burning, one newborn and starving, both fixed on the same point.

Zza’s whisper barely reached him. "She doesn’t want us to kill her anymore."

Buzz’s breath rattled in his throat. "She wants us as proof she can’t be replaced."

The newborn lunged first.

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Do you want Chapter 37 to be the newborn Queen tearing into the army to claim dominance, or should she strike directly for Buzz and Zza, forcing the coalition to throw themselves in front again?

**Chapter 37: Mother and Spawn**

The newborn lunged, wings tearing the smoke apart as it slammed into its mother. The ground shuddered from the impact. Golden ichor sprayed, sizzling where it landed, eating through roots and rock.

The Queen staggered but didn’t fall. She answered with her own claws, raking deep lines across the copy’s shell. The sound was bone on stone, sharp enough to slice through the air. The newborn shrieked, its voice raw, untested, but filled with hunger.

Scarabs scattered to the edges of the clearing. Centipedes dragged their battered coils backward, twisting together into walls that shook with each collision. Glowbeetles hovered in broken formation, their lights flickering, too erratic to carry orders. Even the Elder’s threads wavered in the canopy, dropping but catching on nothing, as if uncertain where to fall.

Buzz and Zza held their ground at the center of it. Blood streaked down his mandibles, smoke rising from the cracks in his shell. Her silk frayed with every breath she took, but she kept weaving, binding them closer together, steadying his stance.

"Look at them," Buzz whispered, his voice scraping. "She isn’t a god anymore. She’s just another monster fighting to keep her throne."

Zza’s eyes flicked to his, wet with exhaustion and firelight. "And we’re standing in the throne room."

The newborn clamped its jaws into the Queen’s shoulder and pulled. Flesh tore. Golden ichor sprayed across the battlefield in sheets. The Queen roared, wings flaring, her body shaking the dirt loose in every direction. She slammed her claws into the newborn’s chest, splitting its armor, tearing out a piece that splattered hot into the soil.

The two staggered apart, both burning brighter than before. The newborn’s wounds sealed almost as fast as they opened, ichor stitching its flesh like molten thread. The Queen’s healing lagged, slower, her breath heavy, her wound from Buzz still leaking.

She glared at her spawn with something Buzz had never seen in her eyes. Not fury. Not control. Fear.

The newborn screeched and leapt again, mandibles snapping at her throat.

Buzz caught himself leaning forward, his claws flexing like he’d strike too. Zza grabbed his arm and yanked him back. "Don’t. You can’t join that fight."

He turned to her, blood dripping from his mouth, teeth bared in a broken grin. "I’m not stupid. But if one of them wins, it decides if we live or die."

The Queen twisted under her child’s attack, slamming it into the dirt. Soil split open, roots burst free, flames trailing up as ichor seeped deeper. The newborn writhed, claws flailing, wings slicing open the ground in wide arcs. They tore at each other, unstoppable, unyielding, and the battlefield trembled like it might split apart.

Buzz leaned against Zza, their bodies swaying with the shockwaves. His voice came low, almost to himself. "If she kills it, she’ll be stronger than before. If it kills her..."

Zza finished, her voice tight, "Then the forest gets a Queen that was born hungry."

The newborn screamed again and shoved upward, throwing its mother back a full length. The Queen stumbled, wings thrashing. For the first time, she faltered.

And every eye in the coalition saw it.