Chapter 32: Honoured Guests

As I flew across the desolate landscape I noticed the sand slowly started to turn to a reddish hue. I switched my vision to see if I could spot anything and sure enough I saw some trails in the sand. The trail was faint but it was enough for me to follow. I soon saw something odd on the horizon as I followed the trail.

It was an oasis, glittering in the desolate sands. I could see something red sparkling inside the oasis. I also spotted structures near the oasis, the strange thing was that the structures looked well constructed. When I heard there was a cult worshipping some hive mind type group of creatures, I expected a bunch of shacks filled with rabid crazy people.

As I got closer I saw… well I didn’t see any rabid crazy people…

I saw what looked to be some kind of small town. This oasis was surprisingly large, with an azure pool of water and green verdant trees. I couldn’t tell from a distance considering it was surrounded by empty desert so I had no way to get a sense of scale. As I circled over the town I saw the buildings were made of some kind of sand coloured stone. Most of the buildings were three stories tall and they looked very well maintained.

The people below were mostly Lizard Kin but I spotted a few humans and dwarves as well. The books were right, their bodies looked… mutated. I could spot purple armoured plates growing from their flesh. The skin tore where the plates emerged and it honestly looked quite painful.

There were a few that were quite far into the transformation, their backs were hunched and their arms were elongated. Their bodies were almost completely covered in armoured plates and their heads looked quite different. Their heads were now longer with a long armoured snout and I could see they now had four eyes on the sides of their head. Their irises looked different as well, almost reptilian with yellow slit-like pupils. On their backs also grew what looked to be strange red crystals, the crystals covered their back like masses of red barnacles. They walked like apes, using their arms to move forward, shambling along the streets of the oasis town. Surprisingly they still looked quite intelligent, I could see one having a civil conversation with a Lizard Kin. I tried focusing my senses on the conversation and I started to pick up their conversation.

The Eternal Mother said we have a powerful visitor coming soon.

Really? Who is this honourable visitor?

I don’t know, but the Eternal Mother said to allow it entry.

It? So it is a beast?

I assume so.

I see, I will spread the word…

Huh… was that a coincidence? Is there something else that was supposed to be visit? Or were they talking about me? I doubt they were talking about me, I haven’t revealed myself and how would knowledge of my existence spread all the way to here? It’s not like Averlon had any contact with the people here? Or did the Syndicate have something to do with it?

Well I sure as hell am not going to just swoop down and just declare myself. What if they were expecting something else? Something powerful…

I suppose I could just maintain my flight and circle the oasis. Maybe if I continue to eavesdrop on them I’ll learn more...

As I silently observed the town from above I noticed occasionally some strange creatures appeared. These must be the Armazaftund I’ve been hearing so much about. They were strange creatures, they had long centipedes like bottom half and a humanoid like torso with two large muscular arms. Their hands were tipped with long thick claws, their hands looked very good for digging and slashing. I wonder if those claws could improve my blades…

Their whole bodies were covered with the same purple armoured plates and a similar elongated head with four eyes. On the back of each shoulder blade protruded a large red crystal. I wonder what those crystals are for? From what I can tell these are Ether Crystals, similar to the ones that were powering the barrier that imprisoned Cecilia. The crystals would pulse with energy for a few moments before dimming again. I couldn’t tell why they were doing that, but I guess I’ll find out when I get their genome. These creatures seemed powerful, they were above gold rank, as to which rank they were at I’m not sure considering I haven’t seen a Platinum or Mithril rank before.

So I waited, quietly circling the town and then I spotted a small group approaching the oasis. They were riding those weird camels with three humps. It looked like there were about a dozen riders. Were they the mystery visitor?

As I flew over to the approaching party, I sensed some of them were indeed powerful. The six of them were at least Gold Rank. Was it me or could I sense killing intent among these six? Well something told me these guys weren’t here for a friendly visit…

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.♚.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

Tissa was a Lizard Kin, she had blue scales and small fins on the sides of her head. An extremely plain appearance as far as Lizard Kin were concerned. She calmly rode her mount as she eyed the oasis. She tried to keep her heartbeat under control. They were finally here, with any luck after this the whole team can retire in luxury. Varakrima has a long-standing bounty on Armazaftund Queens, 100 Platinum Coins to be exact. This was honestly an absurd price, considering most nation treasuries only had a few thousand Platinum Coins. The reason for this price was simple, not many groups have actually succeeded. This bounty has been claimed three times in three hundred years. Those have all been claimed by Mithril Rank adventurers, the Hero Ranked teams don’t bother with this bounty. They are already so rich the money doesn’t interest them, as their name suggests they were usually focused on dealing with the real threats.

The Armazaftund are not big threats to the people unless some poor fool wanders too deep into the desert. This bounty was only there because of national pride. The Lizard Kin kingdoms wanted to recapture the “Glory of the Ancients”. So reconquering the central desert was part of this plan. The problem with this whole bounty thing was that even if a Queen was killed, the other hives soon moved in to occupy the territory and assimilate the members of the now leaderless hive.

So no, even if they succeeded here today, Varakrima could not simply march back here and claim the territory. Their colonists would get butchered by the Armazaftund before they finished laying the street cobblestones. This bounty may have once been part of a plan to recapture the central territories but now it was just a glorified badge of honour. A way for a cash in and promotion to the upper ranks of the Varakrima Adventurer Guild.

Well Tissa and her group of Platinum Ranked adventurers were here just for the payout. A normal Platinum Ranked team has no chance of carving their way through the legions of Armazaftund that defend the Queen. But they had a unique advantage on their side. Their mage Nihashir was a rather peculiar male lizard that developed an interesting magical artefact. To put it simply it was a lantern that could stun the Armazaftund with flashes of magical light.

The Armazaftund communicated through the crystals that grew from their backs. The Queen sent out commands and those crystals received those instructions. The lantern was simply a tool to jam those signals and send in a large amount of garbage information to confuse the Armazaftund. They had tested it over the past year on various Armazaftund foragers and soldiers. It seemed to work quite well, the only concern was if it would work on the more powerful members of the hive.

The Armazaftund had numerous castes within their hive structure, the lowest were the workers and foragers also known as Slaves. The next tier above them were the soldiers, which are called the Legionnaires. Above them were the Centurions who coordinated large groups of Legionnaires, and finally above them were the Praetorians who guarded the Queen and acted as coordinators for the Centurions.

The Armazaftund lived and died on their hierarchy, if you kill a Centurion everything under the Centurions falls into disarray. So the plan was simple: stun the weaker ones and kill the higher ranked Armazaftund. With the head gone the body loses all sense of organisation and becomes easy prey. Even if the lantern didn’t work on the stronger ones, as long as they managed to kill the commanders while the lesser castes were stunned they would have victory. The Armazaftund’s strength lay in their numbers. Although each hive had tens of thousands of members. There just weren’t that many higher caste individuals as far as they knew.

As Tissa looked at the cultists that walked forward to greet them she smiled. Their plan looked to be going well. They had spent the past two months trying to pose as people who wanted to join the cult. As far as anyone knows, new members are infected with that parasite by the Queen when they are accepted into the fold. So they would attack when they are before the Queen, with the Queen dead the rest of the Hive should collapse in short order. They will turn feral until a new Queen claims the members of this Hive, by then they’ll be long gone with the head of the dead Queen in tow.

“Greetings friends!” a particularly grotesque creature said cheerily as it approached.

Tissa could just barely tell this one used to be a Lizard Kin. The only indicator she had was its long tail that all Lizard Kin had.

“Hello, it is good to finally be in the Holy Land.” the lead Lizard Kin in the caravan said.

“Yes my friend, I am sure it was an arduous journey. Come friends, for you must be weary.” the lead grotesque creature said as it beckoned them to follow.

“Though our lives are very humble. We have water here to revive you, we have bread to make you strong and beds to rest till morning.” The creature said it opened its mouth in some attempt to smile.

Tissa and her compatriots just needed to get into the Queen’s chamber. Just a little more… the conversion is usually immediate…

As Tissa and the rest were led to a central square filled with sand, oddly there was no stone below their feet unlike the rest of the town. Then the group was halted and made to stand in a line. Tissa looked further forward and saw a cavern leading down into the sands. They were so close…

Tissa and her group decided to line up together at one side, with the other six “honest” hopefuls all on the other side of the line. Tissa could sense her party were tense, they were so close but this sand filled square made them feel uneasy. The Armazaftund were burrowers afterall.

“We will now take you to the ascension chamber. The path is narrow so we will take you half at a time…” the grotesque creature said cheerily as it gestured for the other six to step forward.

Tissa watched silently as the six were led towards the cavern, something felt wrong…

“Now then…” the grotesque creature said as he turned to face Tissa and her party once the first six had disappeared down the path.

“You shall make a fine gift for our honoured guest…” the grotesque creature said with a mad cackle.

Instantly the sand around Tissa’s party erupted, from below ground emerged several large Armazaftund, they were the size of a small wagon, towering two metres tall on all fours. Then two particularly large ones also emerged, these one had massive crystals on their backs that pulsed with arcane energy. The ones they had fought so far were the size of cows, not wagons. The two big ones were the size of a royal carriage towering three metres tall. These must be the Praetorians, the Queen’s guards.

Tissa instantly drew her weapon along with the rest of her party. Her blood ran cold as she realised this whole thing was a trap. How the hell did they know?

Then there was a flash of light from Nihashir’s lantern and the smaller Armazaftund were all stunned with shrieks of agony. As Tissa got ready to attack she saw the largest ones were unaffected.

“HAHAHAHA DO YOU TRULY THINK SUCH PETTY TRICKS WOULD WORK ON THE QUEEN’S GUARD?” the creature howled in zealous ecstacy.

“NAIVE NAIVE NAIVE NAIVE NAIVEEE!!!!!!!” the creature screamed into the air.

Then Praetorian’s let out a pulse of energy instantly calming the swarm around them and they pounced...

In an instant Tissa found herself slammed face first into the sand. She struggled and writhed but as she looked up she saw the snarling maw of an Armazaftund growling in her face. Tissa stiffened as she realised this was as far as her journey was going to go…

They had miscalculated, they didn’t expect the higher castes to be able to override the interference from the lantern…

Their whole strategy banked on stunning the weaker ones and killing the stronger ones…

Then the creature looked up at the sky as if looking for some invisible flying creature. Then it shouted up to the heavens as loud as it could manage. Tissa could hear its voice crack and tear as it screamed with zealous fervour.

HONOURED GUEST!

WE HUMBLY PRESENT THIS GIFT TO YOU!

YOUR KIN SENSES YOU!

YOU KIN OF THE ETERNAL MOTHER!

At first nothing happened but then Tissa then felt a rush of wind and the Armazaftund in front of her stepped aside revealing a golden feathered beast. It was huge, towering five metres tall, with wicked long blades and a serpent's tail.

“My Kin you say?” the beast said calmly in a deep rumbling voice as it turned to face the creature.

“YES HONOURED ONE!” The creature said it fell to its knees and lowered its head into the sand.

“Do you even know what I am?” the beast asked as it approached the creature.

“You are kin to the Eternal Mother, Kin to the Queen of Queens. All her children have awaited your arrival. You are the great reminder of the truth that this world has forgotten. But please if you would, the Eternal Mother can answer all questions.

For now would you partake in a meal we have prepared for your august self?” the creature said.

“Well if I’m expected…” the beast said as it turned to face Tissa and she felt a chill go up her spine as she saw it lick its lips.

I wouldn’t want to be rude to my hosts...