RinoZ
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Chapter 1693 - Time to Pay
🕑 Added 2025-10-09 01:00:04 +0000 UTCI remember the entrance from the fourth to the fifth. I’ve seen it lots of times, after all. In fact, I was the first ant to head through it.
I do not remember it looking like this!
For starters, it’s like, ten times the size it was, and rather than a nightmare tunnel into the depths of heck, it’s an industrial port which wouldn’t look out of place next to Heathrow! What the heck is going on here?
Lowered down from above is such a volume of… stuff, that I can barely keep track of it all. It never ends! No sooner has an empty platform been winched up out of sight than three more come down to take its place. The area beneath the entrance is an absolute hive of activity. A logistical marvel in action, ants crawl all over the place, stacking, sorting, shifting, moving, loading and carting. No sooner has something touched the ground than a crew of ants are all over it, unhooking ropes and moving the cargo into a complex network of rails. Within minutes, they’ve got it onto the correct line and rattling off to another distribution site, like the shaft I was trying to climb up before.
Yeesh. When the Council said everything the Colony produced was being poured into the fifth, I thought they might have been exaggerating. They probably were, but not by much!
If it wasn’t clear before, it was obvious now, war in the fifth has been pushing the Colony right to its limits. More successful than anyone in history, my family has achieved incredible things, but that doesn’t mean fighting down there was suddenly easy. We’re keeping up for now, but that doesn’t mean we can continue to do this forever.
I’ll have to think about a few things. But first, I have business up above.
There’s a tiny area dedicated to stuff going up the tunnel, and my pets manage to get in there and start climbing. Well, Tiny and I start climbing, Crinis catches a ride with me and Invidia sits on Tiny’s shoulder, as usual.
Holy moly, climbing up vertical surfaces when I weigh this much is hard. In fact, my Grip Skill levels when I’m about halfway up, which is nice. I think I’m going to need all the levels I can get in that department.
The pain from the Call steadily increases with every step I take, but it’s when I reach the top and step into the fourth proper that it really ratchets up a notch. It’s nothing I haven’t felt before, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy it.
Rather the opposite, in fact.
I know for a fact if I stay here too long, it’s going to eventually force me back down into the fifth. Lousy Ancients. A part of me is looking forward to giving them a piece of my mind. And my mandibles, if I’m honest.
“Eldest, welcome back.”
Oh, a welcome committee! How nice. Sloan and Victor, along with Brendant and Burke, are here to greet me as I climb out of the tunnel. Tiny jumps up behind a few moments later, landing in a classic hero pose with a serious look on his face. He holds it for a bit too long.
[You did a great job, Tiny. Well done,] I tell him.
The big ape nods, then shoots me a quick thumbs up, pleased to have his hard work acknowledged. Is he feeling needy since I’ve been asleep for so long? He wouldn’t usually demand this much attention.
“Anyway… nice to see you again so soon. I assume you’re in charge of the mess up here?”
“Yep,” Burke says. “Not that there’s much to do right now. We’ve retreated and fortified our position, giving up huge swathes of territory in the process. The delvers keep probing, though, so it hasn’t deterred them any.”
“We were worried it wouldn’t,” Sloan mutters. “I think they’ve started setting up forward supply points and warded campsites closer to the nest. They’re staying in the field longer and staying closer to our defensive line than before. If they eventually give up on this angle, I think they’ll just try somewhere else.”
If the Colony is forced to pull back into the nests whenever the Church and their delvers show up, our development will slow to a complete crawl. Not to mention we give them the chance to trap our territory and catch us that way. No way. A message needs to be sent.
“I’m here now,” I tell the gathered Council members. “Tell me where they are, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Sloan and Victor both hesitate at that, and I can tell they’re still worried.
“Are you… sure you know how you’re going to approach this situation, Eldest? It’s… delicate.”
“I can be delicate,” I assure them. “I absolutely know how to be delicate. Trust me, my touch can be so light, you won’t even know it’s happened. I’m like a feather’s dream of a feather.”
“You have no intention of being delicate, do you?”
“No, no I do not.”
Comments
andwhyisit
No. He isn't directly attacking Green Mountain, he is just going to put the fear of god into them. An uninhabited neighbouring mountain will probably get gumballed instead.
Collector of Stories
Thanks for the chapter! Excited for the next couple of chapters. Hope we get a church POV reaction to a T8 and several T7s invading their staging grounds
Silent Consent
I can’t wait! I hope he does something like smoosh their puny mountain into a gum ball sized lump so dense it rockets strait to the center of the planet and takes out an ancient.
Huy Ngo
I love these chapter but a feel like some of these should combine and become just 1 chapter 😭. No way should I be cliff hanger 3 time just for them to be him walking up to the entrance 🫠
andwhyisit
It's a bit early for that. At the most Anthony will scare Green Mountain's Mercenary Union out of accepting any work that involves hunting ants. The members of the Path who ordered the work will likely continue to exist, but they won't be able to use Green Mountain as a means to achieve it.
Roombot
I doubt it mightily, excluding the magic chicken that can only live there with assistance
Roombot
I CAN be delicate I won’t though.
Shaitan
His pets working with him are going to be so op on the 4th lol
Runaway_Cactuar
Yeah, I think the title is a bit clickbaity in that regard~
andwhyisit
I suspect that Solant meant that this was probably the last evolutionary tier where Anthony can go to the fourth. The sack of the Silver City, if it were to involve Anthony, would have to happen before he reaches tier 9. That said... I don't think that the war is going to be triggered by Anthony's intervention at Green Mountain. RinoZ wouldn't have started the invasion of the fifth storyline if it was going to completely fall apart due to a war in the fourth. I predict that the series of events will be: 1. Green Mountain get the fright of their life and the Mercenary Union stop accepting work from the Path as a result. 2. Anthony fights in the 5th, realises that his purification powers are OP, and then begins purifying hearts by the hundreds. 3. The Path captures one or more ants through alternate means. 4. The sack of the Silver City. 5. War.
Brenda Mendoza
Rip church
alt31415
Good. You can't be delicate with people who don't consider you a person, who want to murder you and your family.
Anthony Romanov
No that would be too simple! Just reverse the gravity in the city and watch them fly.
blucube 14
Thanks for the chapter! I wonder what would happen if Anthony threw a gravity bomb at the city with everything he had now, just how it would hold up. Here's hoping we get to see.
Pockman
It’s setup bud: the rise of the rollercoaster The higher the rise, the greater the fall :)
Pockman
Love Anthony
Pockman
“I can totally be delicate” “do you plan to?” “Nope, not a bit.”
Desmond Cheong
Solant hinted that this could be Anthony last time on the fourth. I guess Anthony will trigger a war against the church, green mountain, silver city at one go.
Moonspike
It was in fact not time to pay. Payment was deferred to a later chapter.
Tsunami
I think we've moved from world building and are firmly entrenched in the filler category. I keep telling myself "maybe tomorrow." If Anthony isn't unleashed next chapter, you may have an insurrection on your hands.
Ruwa
Sir delver camps have been disappearing at a rapid rate. We have no idea whats going on out there anymore!
Draynar
At this point can anyone that can live on the fourth even remotely stand up to Anthony? Be funny to watch them try and just see unscratched shiny carapace.
Michael Williams
I agree, I can definately see a more diplomatic solution after Anthony has smacked them around a little to show off his new upgrades.
Kewi397
MOAR I need to see that most delicate of touches!
Chimurry Al
It's highly probably the fifth development would take years, even with the Colony behind, and if a war or tensions are on the fourth, other Nations would coerce territories on the fifth in exchange for diplomatic actions (ie being neutral) from the Colony. Iirc ie war in Europe in 1700's, among the "profits" English or British after 1707 took was the maritime slave trade rights from Spain.
Buck
Here we go!!
Cylar
Whoo! Yeah baby, this is what I’ve been waiting for!
No_Creative_Name
No delicacy needed nor intended.
MrMarauder
Love it
MrMarauder
No, no i do not.
