With the mana infusion, his maggots had swelled to greater heights. A single lesser maggot could stand toe to toe with a worker ant, and three greater maggots could hold out against the soldiers. His seething army pushed forwards, beating back both the workers and soldiers. Once his forces had once again regained control of the room entrance, he ordered them to halt their advance. Damien laid out his army in a line, and then dug out a trench an inch deep in front of them, with gradually sloping sides. With his mighty maggots fortified atop the trench, they could hold out on the high ground. With his constant losses diminished, and the line firmly held, he tried to assess the carnage around him. Half of his maggots lay dead. Nearly five thousand had fallen in defense of his lair, and many hundreds of ants lay amongst the fallen. It was a harsh blow to his breeding program, but as he relaxed, he realized that it was not bad in the slightest.

The ants were no different than the spider, even though they killed his minions all of that expended life force filled his mana pool. In addition to this, those expended maggot lives also gained him more mana than if he had culled them himself as they killed their attackers in return. He had also learned a valuable tool. He could pour mana into his minions to make them stronger. As he examined his warriors, he saw that they had grown larger, as if feeding off of the mana. And now that the crisis was averted, he watched the battle closely. Both of the creatures fought and died as the battle pitched back and forth, although it now generally favored the maggots. But he was able to measure the benefits of a phenomena he observed with his spider.

With each kill, the creatures absorbed a small amount of their enemies' life force. But as he watched and carefully examined the flows of mana, he saw that the maggots were stronger for it. Just as when he infused them himself, they grew more and more powerful with each kill. Unfortunately, this went for the ants as well. In particular, one scarred soldier had killed nearly a hundred of his shock troops, and had nearly doubled in size. He had to personally siphon it's soul to weaken it so his minions could swarm over it and finish it off. And this brought forth another new revelation. The stronger the creature was, the harder it was for him to suck out it's soul. This creature was a mere ant, and was able to resist being killed outright. He reaped the full reward when it was finally brought down, but it was still disturbing. Even though it was an immense ant, and dwarfed all of his own minions, it was still only an inch long. To be powerless against it without help reaffirmed his fears, and his need to grow stronger.

As Damien continued to watch the battle unfold, the tide of ants finally slowed. It seemed the colony was running out of ants to send on the offensive. On the other hand, maggots continued to hatch and march to war, as yesterday's eggs became today's warriors. As the final ants were finally defeated, he dispersed his conscripted forces and they returned to their normal selves. After the battle there was no shortage of food for his warriors. The largest maggots, what remained of his glorious shock troops retreated to the corners of his den, and finally began the process of forming their pupa stage, the last stop before they reached adulthood.

Long after the battle ended, Damien stared out into the world beyond his lair. He had watched the ants retreat into their holes, and he vowed that he would make them his subjects. Their prowess in combat combat outclassed his current minions by leaps and bounds, and if he bolstered them in the same way he had his army today they would be unstoppable.

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Three more days passed. Mild skirmishes with the neighboring ants had continued, much to Damien's delight. The ants continued to send small raids a few times each day. He wasn't sure but he believed it was likely that at least one other nest had found his lair. Although he couldn't see far outside his home, they seemed to come from a different direction than the first army. His troops had grown in strength and their numbers had been fully replenished as he no longer had a need to harvest them himself. The flies continued to plant their eggs, and nearly a thousand had survived long enough to form into pupae. He was stronger than ever and the last few days had seen some wonderful developments in his rapidly growing empire.

The first beetles had arrived, strange black beetles with yellow crest like coloring around their head. They were just over an inch in length, by far the largest creatures to enter into his domain. And Damien happily welcomed them into his home. They killed many maggots, but they bred far faster than the beetles could eat. Despite his losses, Damien was beside himself with glee. He knew that it would take time, but the beetles would inevitably come under his sway. He would have new warriors with an armored carapace, something strong enough to fend off even the mightiest of soldier ants with ease.

And then there was the spider. She had finally begun to submit to his will. Fattened as she was with her endless supply of victims and growing stronger every day, he had feared she would continue to resist him. He could feel the connection slowly forming, and could give basic instructions which allowed him to bring another addition into his collection. A second spider had shown up at his door, seeking to capitalize on the swarm of flies that continued to grow as the stench of rotten corpses grew ever stronger. His pet, whom he had named Sheila, was preparing to strike before the intruder could gain a foothold and steal her food. Damien intervened and sent Sheila deeper into the tunnel, almost to the room in which he and his army resided. He would not allow a precious predator to be wasted so soon.

All of this was truly wonderful, he was growing faster than ever before! But all of it paled in comparison to his latest discovery. He had finally found an ant colony. For the last three days, he had been digging small holes, probing out under the surface to find the ant's homes. One tendril that went out 10 feet past the tunnel had located their nest. At that distance, and through such a narrow tunnel his influence was weak, but he forced himself through and absorbed the territory all the same. The only danger was that they might swarm down the tunnel before the subjugation was complete, so he closed it off again once he had finished his work. However the moment he did, his connection to the colony was severed completely.

He tried it again, by simply removing the cap he had placed on the tunnel, and he was able to flow through it just as he had before. And then when he went to close it, it all disappeared. Without a continuous tunnel connecting him to the area, he couldn't expand his domain. It was surprising, but all he had to do was station guards at the end of the tunnel. If they came, he would be ready. For now, all he could do is force his mana into the colony as densely as the thin access tunnel would allow and wait for the infants to be corrupted. But he took the time to examine the fine details of the colony. The thousands of ants swarming to and fro, a well oiled harvesting machine. And then there was the fine architecture of the structure. There were dozens of rooms in the structure, hatcheries were mostly near the bottom closest to the queen, but also spread out throughout the structure. As he watched the armies moving to and fro, he realized how truly safe the queen was. Hiding beneath a maze of rooms all filled with soldiers, she was beyond the reach of any predator he could imagine. Except himself of course.

As he examined the anthill, he knew what he wanted for his own lair. He directed his focus into the room he had spent the last week in, and finally tapped into his mana reserves he had been hoarding since the beginning of the ant war. First, he expanded the main room. He widened it to an eight by eight, and then He dug small one foot wide tunnels three feet deep into the earth scattered around the left and right sides of the room, and each tunnel ended in a small rounded den, about four times as big around as the entry tunnel. Then he carefully moved a handful of the egg and larvae infested worm corpses in each alcove. He wanted his breeding grounds spread out as much as possible. This way if something went wrong, it would be extremely unlikely for him to lose all of them.

Next he started to carve a hallway into the rear wall of his entry room. He only made it a few feet in before he had to stop, as his mana reserves had been drained by the ordeal. Still, as he looked at the expanded lair, he was once again bathed in a wave of pleasure. He knew he was going in the right direction. He had subjugated two species, and had two more within his domain. It was only a matter of time.

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On the eighth day, his crop finally bore fruit. The first fly eggs planted a week before had fully transformed into flies. It would take more time before they were mature enough to breed, but it was still an important milestone. Because more fly eggs were laid by the wild flies every day, he would have a constant stream of flies maturing from now on. As the first flies emerged from their pupae, and flapped their wings, he felt the joy of a farmer who had raised his crop to maturation, and was merely waiting to pluck the fruit. He watched them fly around, and join the maggots in their feeding. And then one landed next to something new that had snuck inside his perimeter without him ever noticing. It was a patch of moss growing on the floor of his lair.

He hadn't noticed because it was a different form of life than he was used to, but once he knew it was there he could feel it. It's simple existence had been fully indoctrinated by the ambient energy flowing through his lair, so he tried to control it. It was even simpler, but he found he could control the direction of his growth just as he could direct the maggots. Only it was far slower, being a plant. After toying with the colorful addition to his collection, he turned back to the tunnel he had started yesterday.

He plowed out another two feet, using up the entirety of the days energy collection in the process. As he stared at the now five foot deep tunnel burrowing deeper into the hillside, he groaned inwardly. This was going to take a long time.

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Over the next few days, he finished the tunnel he was carving. Ending it eight feet in from the first room. From there he had started to carve out a new second room. His power had grown enormously from when he was desperately digging for worms, although he still hunted them for his minions, but at the end of the day all he had were insects. Their meager souls simply weren't enough to fuel his excavations. There was still hope for growth however, his first flies had finally laid eggs! With this final stage of their life cycle completed, he could rest easily knowing the population would finally sustain itself even if he were somehow cut off from the outside world. He could only hope they continued to multiply so he could dig deeper into the wall.

Days continued to pass quietly as he continued to dig deeper and deeper into his lair. And on the 14th day, he saw his first reptile. A lizard stood at the doorway to his domain, and Damien quivered with anticipation.