Chapter 33: Chapter 33: THE END OR BEGINNING?
The clearing lay in ruin. Ash smoldered where Scarabs had fallen, the coils of the Centipedes still smoking, the husks of Glowbeetles scattered like burned stars. Even the Elder’s web was gone, reduced to black threads drifting through the air.
Only Buzz and Zza stood, their claws sunk into the fused Queen’s chest wound, their silk binding them both to her. Blood ran steady down their shells, dripping hot onto the cracked soil. Their breaths came ragged, shallow, but in rhythm together.
The Queen bent low, her mandibles dripping rivers of ichor. Her eyes burned, glow flaring in pulses like a heartbeat.
"You cannot win," she hissed. "You are already mine."
Buzz spat blood at her feet. His grin split wide, cracked and wild. "If I’m yours, why do I still bleed against you?"
Zza pulled her claws tight around his, her voice sharp through the tears streaking her face. "If we were hers, we’d have bowed already. We don’t bow. We break."
The Queen roared and swung her claw. Buzz caught it, his shell cracking deeper, blood streaming down his arms. Zza’s silk shot across the strike, binding it to the ground for a single breath. Together, they shoved it back.
Her wing swept wide. The blast tore the dirt apart. Buzz wrapped himself around Zza, taking the brunt of it across his back. His scream ripped raw, but when the ash cleared, he was still standing.
"Still here," he rasped. His claws shook, but they lifted again.
The Queen shrieked, glow swelling, her chest wound sealing, then splitting again with fire. Her whole body shook with the force. She lunged forward, her mandibles opening wide.
This time, instead of striking, Buzz and Zza leapt. They climbed her chest, claws ripping into her cracked shell, silk burning across the wound. They pulled themselves up higher, her roars echoing through their bodies.
"Buzz!" Zza screamed over the sound. "Her head! That’s where we end it!"
He grinned through the blood, his mandibles clenched. "Then let’s rip the crown off her."
They climbed higher, claws slipping in ichor, silk straining under their weight. The Queen bucked, wings thrashing, glow flaring hot enough to burn their eyes, but they clung tighter, every breath a scream.
At the top, Buzz dug both claws into her skull. Zza wrapped her silk across her eyes, blinding her in bursts of burning light. The Queen shrieked, her scream tearing the forest wide, her glow collapsing inward.
And then—everything froze.
Buzz blinked. The battlefield vanished.
They were inside her mind again.
This time, it wasn’t chains. It was a throne.
A vast black hall stretched out, lined with gold veins that pulsed steady. At the center sat the Queen—no longer fused, no longer monstrous. She was herself, whole, regal, untouched. And beside her sat the newborn, silent, its golden eyes blank.
"You think you fight me," the Queen said, her voice calm, steady. "But you fight yourselves. Every breath you bleed makes me stronger. Every strike you land feeds me."
Zza clutched Buzz’s claw, her eyes darting across the hall. "Buzz... she’s showing us what she wants us to believe."
The Queen tilted her head, her mandibles curling into something like a smile. "Not belief. Truth. You are not my end. You are my vessel."
Buzz snarled, dragging Zza closer to him. "I don’t carry you. I kill you."
Her voice deepened, echoing through the hall. "You already carry me."
Zza gasped, her claws snapping to Buzz’s side. Her threads trembled. "Buzz—your blood—it’s glowing."
He looked down. His wounds leaked gold, not red.
The Queen’s mandibles clicked, her voice soft. "You are mine, even when you fight me."
Buzz’s chest heaved, his claws shaking. For the first time, doubt flickered across his face.
Zza’s claws grabbed his, her silk burning hot. She pressed her forehead to his. "Listen to me. You’re not hers. You’ve never been hers. She can bleed into you, she can brand you, but she can’t own you unless you let her."
Buzz’s mandibles clenched, his eyes locking onto hers. His grin cracked wider. "Then I guess she picked the wrong vessel."
He roared, his claws tearing into the throne itself. Gold veins split, spraying light across the hall. Zza lashed her silk across the newborn’s blank eyes, ripping them shut. The Queen shrieked, her body fracturing, her throne crumbling.
The hall collapsed.
They were back on the battlefield, still on her skull, their claws sunk deep, her body jerking wild. Her glow stuttered, ichor bursting from her chest wound, spilling rivers.
Buzz screamed, his claws tearing deeper. "We end her now!"
Zza’s silk burned through her hands as she bound her eyes tighter. Her voice split raw. "Fall! *Fall!*"
The Queen’s scream split the forest, her glow collapsing inward, her body convulsing. Gold burst in every direction, rivers of fire raining down.
And when the light cleared, she staggered on her knees.
The crown was cracked.
The fused Queen crashed to her knees. Her wings hung shredded, her mandibles dripping rivers of gold that smoked as they hit the dirt. The glow in her chest sputtered, collapsing inward, flashing and fading like a dying star.
Buzz and Zza clung to her skull, their bodies shaking, silk in tatters, blood running steady down their shells. Buzz’s claws were sunk deep in bone. Zza’s threads blinded her eyes in burning ropes.
"She’s breaking," Zza gasped, her breath sharp, tears cutting through ash on her face. "Buzz—she’s really breaking."
His mandibles clenched, his grin wide through the blood. "Then we tear her until there’s nothing left."
He ripped his claws downward. Zza yanked her silk tighter. The Queen shrieked, her body convulsing, the wound in her chest ripping wide.
The battlefield lit in gold. Her shell cracked. Segments split with sharp cracks. Her glow flooded out, brighter and brighter until the forest drowned in it.
And then silence.
The Queen collapsed forward, her body smashing the soil, ichor spraying in rivers that hissed into smoke. She lay still, her wings broken, her glow dimmed.
Buzz staggered off her skull, dragging Zza with him. They tumbled into the dirt, their bodies trembling, their chests heaving. For the first time, the air felt lighter. For the first time, the forest did not bend.
"It’s done," Zza whispered, her claws trembling as she pressed them against Buzz’s chest. "She’s gone."
Buzz coughed blood, his eyes burning red, his body shaking. He stared at the corpse before them. "She’s not gone until the forest sings without her shadow."
Then the ground moved.
The Queen’s chest split wide. Her shell tore open, ichor flooding out in torrents. From inside the cracked crown, something shifted—small at first, then growing. A shape crawled forward through the ruin of her body, slick with gold, its wings folded tight.
Zza’s eyes widened, her claws snapping to Buzz’s arm. "Tell me that isn’t—"
Buzz’s voice rasped, sharp, low. "She left something behind."
The shape crawled free. Its body was lean, its wings raw and wet, its eyes burning gold but brighter than hers had ever been. It stood on shaking legs, then straightened, taller than any drone, smaller than the Queen but burning hotter.
The newborn.
But not the same.
Its gaze swept over the battlefield. Not hunger. Not rage. Something colder. It locked eyes on Buzz and Zza, tilting its head the way the Queen once had.
The corpse behind it sagged, wings crumbling, shell collapsing inward. The crown was gone.
But in its place stood something worse.
The newborn opened its mandibles and spoke in a voice sharp, steady, too calm.
"She was the vessel. I am the heir."
Buzz staggered forward, claws rising even as his body burned. His voice tore raw, defiant. "Then we break the heir too."
Zza lashed silk across his arms, pulling herself to his side. Her whisper was fierce despite the blood on her lips. "Together."
The newborn’s glow swelled, brighter than the Queen’s had ever been. The forest shook under it.
The duel was not the end. It was the beginning.