CHAPTER 24: CHAPTER 23: THE WAR HAS DOUBLED

The storm above the Queen’s head pulled tighter until the ichor shaped itself into a single spear of gold. It spun slow at first, then faster, until the air shimmered with its heat. Every eye on the battlefield turned toward it. Every claw froze. Every wing stilled.

Buzz felt the weight of it before it fell. His legs shook beneath him, his shell cracked under pressure that hadn’t even touched him yet. Zza’s silk tightened across his body, her hands trembling as she bound herself to him.

"She’s going to end us with that," she whispered.

Buzz stared at the weapon, throat raw, lungs burning. "Then she’s afraid we’ll live long enough to cut her again."

The Queen raised her claw, guiding the spear down toward them. The glow grew brighter, so bright it painted the dirt in fire and washed every shadow from the clearing. The drones pulled back, as if even they feared being too close when it struck.

Buzz forced himself to stand tall beside Zza. His claws lifted though they felt too heavy to move. His voice was a rasp, but steady. "If this is it, we face her together."

Zza’s eyes shone wet, her jaw clenched. She leaned into him, pressing her forehead to his, silk still binding them as one. "Together."

The Queen’s claw fell.

The spear ripped downward, heat roaring like a second sun, tearing straight for them.

Scarabs leapt before it. Drums raised high, shells cracking as they formed a wall. The spear hit and blew through them, scattering their bodies like shattered stone, drums splintering into dust.

Centipedes surged next, coiling around Buzz and Zza in thick layers, their bodies charring black as the spear burned through coil after coil. Screams echoed as segments split apart, smoke rising from their sacrifice.

Glowbeetles dove from above, wings blazing as they slammed themselves into the golden light. Their bodies burst in flashes of fire, slowing the spear for a breath, a heartbeat, just enough.

Buzz’s knees buckled. Zza held him upright with threads fraying against his wounds. He watched allies burn in front of him, their shapes fading into ash, and the weight of it almost crushed him more than the spear itself.

The light tore through the last of them and still came on. The Scarabs were gone. The Centipedes lay broken. The Glowbeetles dimmed into silence. And the spear still aimed for his chest.

Zza screamed and wrapped every last thread she had around the two of them. Silk glowed white, straining against the fire. She pulled Buzz close, her claws digging into his shell. "If this kills us, we die together."

Buzz’s claws rose one final time. His voice cracked, blood spilling down his mandibles, but he forced the words out anyway. "Then she dies knowing we never bowed."

The spear struck.

Heat consumed them, silk burned away, the ground cracked beneath their feet. Pain swallowed Buzz’s body whole, a fire that cut through bone and shell. He thought he had nothing left to give, but still his claws drove upward, pushing against the light. Zza’s threads bound his arms tighter, forcing them higher, bracing him with her own trembling body.

The light cracked.

The golden spear split apart, shards spraying into the air. The Queen screamed, not with patience, not with control, but with fury so raw it shook the battlefield. The ichor that formed the weapon recoiled, spilling back into the wound on her side.

Buzz and Zza collapsed together, burned, bloodied, half buried in the soil. They could barely breathe, barely see, but they were still there. Still moving. Still alive.

And above them, the Queen staggered. Her chest heaved, her wound wider than before, gold spilling faster.

For the first time since the war began, she looked less like a god and more like something that could fall.

The Queen’s scream still shook the clearing, her ichor spilling thicker now, dripping down her shell in rivers of gold. The coalition rallied again, broken bodies pushing forward on will alone. Scarabs pounded what was left of their drums with claws that bled. Centipedes slithered into fractured coils, every segment trembling but holding. Glowbeetles blinked faint signals, light stuttering but alive.

Buzz lay half-buried in dirt, his shell blackened, blood sticky down his side. Zza crouched over him, her silk burned to threads, her hands shaking as she bound what wounds she could.

"She’s faltering," Zza whispered, eyes locked on the Queen’s wound. "If we push, she falls."

Buzz dragged himself upright on her arm, coughing blood, his claws shaking. "Then we push until she can’t rise again."

The Queen staggered, her wings beating uneven, her steps heavy. The ichor dripping from her body didn’t vanish this time. It spread, soaking into the soil, running into the cracks the Scarabs had pounded open. The ground drank it like thirsty roots.

Then the soil moved.

Buzz froze. His antennae twitched. The others fell silent, even the drums. The dirt rippled as if something lived beneath it, something old and waiting.

Zza grabbed his arm, her face pale. "That’s not her. That’s something else."

The ichor pooled in the center of the clearing, glowing brighter, bubbling as though it boiled. Shapes began to rise—limbs made of gold, claws dripping fire, wings jagged and raw. At first it looked like the Queen herself was splitting apart. Then it took full form.

Another Queen.

Younger. Smaller. But alive.

The battlefield fell still, every creature staring at the copy rising from the ichor. Its shell gleamed brighter than hers, its wings sharper, its eyes blank but burning.

The Queen herself stared, chest heaving, her mandibles trembling in something that almost looked like fear.

Buzz whispered, voice hoarse, "She made another one."

Zza shook her head. Her claws dug into his shell, her voice breaking. "She didn’t. Her blood did."

The new Queen lifted her head and screamed. The sound ripped through the clearing, louder than drums, louder than fire. Drones stopped mid-charge. Scarabs clutched their heads. Glowbeetles fell from the air. Even the Elder’s silk twisted and snapped in the air.

The Queen—the original—snarled and stepped forward, ichor dripping from her wound. For the first time she looked unsteady, like she hadn’t meant for this to happen.

Buzz gritted his teeth, forcing his broken body upright. His claws pointed between the two golden figures. "Now we’re fighting her... and the thing she birthed from her own blood."

Zza’s silk shook in her hands, her voice a whisper. "No. Worse."

Buzz turned to her.

Zza’s eyes never left the newborn Queen. "They’ll fight each other first."

The battlefield pulsed with silence as mother and spawn faced each other.

Then both turned their golden eyes toward the army.

The war had doubled.