Side Story 18.1 - The Firstborn

    Back in one of the hives in the Flower Meadow, a monster bee queen watched as her workers processed the new honey. She was the Firstborn of the Second Dynasty of the First Spawner, the first of her line. The first guardian of the gate to the Beyond. Her children finished their work, leaving a cell full of glistening honey. Honey that occasionally shimmered with a subtle glow, a golden light lost in the yellow colors of the wax and the bees all around it.

    The queen felt the warmth of mana stir within the cell, resonating with the mana inside of her. She felt a heat grow within her torso.

    It was time.

    She and her siblings from her spawner were the only ones to bear the title of the Second Dynasty. But every bee of the dungeon knew the reason why. Back when she was born, she thought she was the first of the King’s defenders...but she was quickly dissuaded of that notion. She felt the bond with her King moments after her birth. Her King was a being beyond mere bees, with depths of emotion and existence she couldn’t yet fully comprehend. She was nearly overwhelmed by the sensations of that moment. But there were two things she could understand.

    Loss. And a desire to protect.

    The Conduit had later explained to them what had happened. An entire dynasty of queens had lived before them. They spread across the King’s fields and formed their civilization upon his generosity. They grew their colonies in grand constructions formed by the King’s own hands. They were the first to offer their tribute to the King.

    And then, the invader came.

    And the armies of the First Dynasty rose to meet it, led by the Conduit herself.

    But...they failed.

    The armies of the First Dynasty had fallen in droves. They gave their lives in the multitudes as was their duty, but it was not enough. The invader had torn through them all the same, and laid waste to their civilization. The mighty structures the King had forged, the pillars upon which the hives were built were crushed in the jaws of the enemy. The queens themselves had fallen, leading the last of their armies in a final, desperate stand.

    It was not enough.

    Only the King and the Conduit had survived, and the Conduit only by her bond to the dungeon and the King. And in the aftermath, the King had changed. No longer did he build the hives by his own hand. No longer did he use his wisdom for prosperity and shelter. No longer did he leave the defense to the queens.

    She thought they had found a shining treasure, a worthy tribute to offer to the King. But once again, he had demonstrated his power and his charity. He did not take the sweetest of flowers for his own but spread them across his lands. And he offered them to her, freely.

    His generosity knew no bounds, but she could not help but feel disappointed. Once again, she had failed to be of use to her King, who continued to sacrifice for the sake of those who should protect him.

    But now...that was about to change.

    She dunked her head into the cell before her and drank deeply. The warmth of mana filled her body and set it ablaze. For the first time since her birth, she had more mana than could be spent on the laying of her brood. Monster bees required mana to birth and even more mana to grow; the small amounts of mana they received from mundane honey and their own bodies were barely enough to sustain the colony’s growth. But now, thanks to the King’s generosity, they had more than enough. That mana began to fill her body, and push against her chitin. She buzzed as she began to glow with light.

    A few minutes later the light died down and a new queen stepped forward, several times the size she was before. She drank more of the mana honey to fill her reserves, and then strode over to a new section of the hive. One with cells far larger than before.

    The King had not rejected them entirely. The Firstborn had felt as his power stirred within them, changing them. She saw visions of mighty warriors, giants bred for battle who stood tall and strong among all of bee-kind. Soldiers with lances long and sharp, clad in armor so thick even the deadly hornet could not pierce it.

    Warriors of the kind who could face much larger enemies directly. Who could defeat the invader without sacrificing their entire civilization in the process. Who would not require the protection of the very King they were born to defend.

    She knew then that her King still believed in them. That he had seen beyond their present weakness. She understood now his generosity, for it would take far more mana to birth these children than the Firstborn had ever possessed. With the mundane flowers, she would have had to cut an entire generation of workers to store up the power for even one of these giants. Even her hive, the most developed and numerous of all, could not accept such an interruption in its present state. It would have taken a long time before she was established enough to do so.

    But now that her King had granted them access to nectar overflowing with mana, she had power in abundance. She herself had advanced to a new stage and grown beyond the limits of her mundane ancestors. Her body produced ten times as much mana as before and she would scarcely require external nutrients to expand the ranks of her children. She could lay dozens of worker eggs at a time and still devote all of the honey they produced to grow and sustain them.

    And most importantly, a giant egg packed with mana would be no great burden to her now.

    She came to a large cell even as the workers lined the sides with mana honey. And then she began to lay her army. The first true army amongst any dynasty of her King’s dungeon. And with them, her hive would prove its might to the King. They would take up their role as the dungeon’s defenders. They would defend the King and all that belonged to him. They would be weak and helpless no longer.