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Chapter 1170 - Treachery and the Price That Must Be Paid
🕑 Added 2023-05-26 11:01:45 +0000 UTCMy hope gleams in the darkness, a diamond shining in the night.
My hope is a builder, a shifter of earth and stone.
My hope is a seer, who glimpses that which is yet to come.
My hope is a speaker, their words know no boundaries.
My hope defends, protects and shields, a barrier between the light and the dark.
My hope bears the weight of the world upon their carapace, and controls that weight.
My hope sleeps, but will rise again in glory.
- Excerpt from ‘Prayers of the Faithful.’
That cake, seriously delicious. I’m pleasantly surprised by how nice it tasted, to be honest. I don’t know what I expected, whether my monstrous body would just reject tasty things, or if I lacked the ability to taste sweet. There’s been a distinct lack of it in my food thus far, I have to say!
It truly is shocking just how quickly you adjust to things. When I started out, the idea of eating Biomass was almost unbearably disgusting. Monster remains are not pleasant to eat, or look at, or smell, or generally be around in any capacity. After a while though, it’s just what you eat, so you get used to it and move on.
Now though, I’ve learned that apparently the Colony has a thriving baking industry! Not to mention this delicious tea!
All around the stadium there are humans enjoying a cup and munching happily on a bikkie. Even more shocking, the ants above me on the dome are also enjoying a tea break. It’s a little more difficult to manage, since they’re upside down, but somehow they’ve managed it, deploying some sort of pulley system to manoeuvre the beverages and snacks across the roof.
Holy moly. To supply this entire stadium with baked goods and tea, just how many ants are dedicating themselves to the production of tea leaves and sugary treats?!
Should I be surprised though… even on Earth, ants love sugar. In fact, there’s really only two things you need to feed an ant colony: protein, for the grubs and the queens, and sugar water, for hydration and energy. When I could afford it, I’d give my own pet nest a treat and let them have honey.
I haven’t thought of that colony in a long time…. I hope they’re doing alright.
Right now, I have another colony to take care of. Even better, I’m in it! When is this game going to start again?
And when are the Endless going to dig into their cake? Right now they appear to be standing around it awkwardly.
Are they lactose intolerant? I hope not, I sent them that half as a gesture of goodwill, but I may have offended them by neglecting their dietary requirements!
Claws crossed that isn’t the case…. In fact, even if they can’t eat it, they may feel forced to since it was me that sent it over! That would be a disaster! I’d better check what’s going on over there, that way I can gracefully head over and take the cake back, sparing them from an embarrassing public episode.
Let me see….
Hmmmm. Ah. Oh. Hmmmmm.
Interesting, to say the least. A devious stratagem, an underhanded method. I’ve been compromised, poisoned, and bamboozled. They tricked me with a tainted cake! I would never have expected a member of my family to break the rules looking for a way to win! I wouldn’t say that the Colony is honourable, per se, it’s more like they don’t think in such roundabout ways. Their path to a solution is almost always straight forward and open, whereas this….
The layers of deception create yet another, metaphorical cake of betrayal, in all its chocolatey treacherousness.
I don’t actually feel any different though, so either this poison hasn’t taken effect yet or I’m simply too huge for it to do anything. Regardless, the kid gloves are certainly off. If they want to break the rules, then I’m more than happy to oblige.
Time for the Eldest to teach a lesson….
~~~
“The Eldest knows now,” Solant stated.
“Are you sure?” Leonidant asked.
The general stared at the giant standing across the pitch from them. She could almost feel the seething energy boiling off that frame.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
~~~
“And we are back, ready for the second half to start!”
[The Stadium is absolutely buzzing with anticipation and I simply can’t wait. We had such a dramatic finish to the first half and although I can’t quite bring myself to believe it, we may be about to see the Endless lose for the first time ever.]
“That’s the story, but I really don’t think many people will blame them, considering who they’re up against. It almost seems impossible that the Eldest would lose from this point, but if there is one team that I expect to surprise me, then it’s this one.”
[So true. The Eldest is on offence again and I can’t wait to see what they do.]
CRACK!
“I… I don’t believe it, they shattered the ball again!”
CLACK. CLACK. CLACK. CLACK.
[The Eldest is slamming their mandibles together with such power the noise is reverberating through the entire stadium! Come at me! The Eldest is demanding the Endless come and fight it out!]
Comments
ManguKing
Jum..... if we got am ant already willing to poison the eldest for a small win its only a matter of time till we get ants that don't care about the colony in the slightest. Any devious tactics are welcome in the face of war, but against your own colony? I dunno about this one. Is not always about winning
Yanni
Then Solant is going to have to learn a painful lesson as to why you don’t betray your allies to get a better solution. Because despite the fact that this is a simulation of war it is in the end just practice. I just had a thought, maybe the ants should supply a weak poison to each team and they have to find a way to administer it to the other team without them noticing.
RyanTM
Gotta disagree. The ants are all kinds of deceptive when it comes to war, hiding acid traps and anything else they need to do to win. The games are just that, preparation for war. I'd say at most the new guy is going to learn a lesson about defeat, or at the very least not winning.
Yanni
Maybe I’m overthinking this but one of the reasons that people trust the colony so much is their straightforwardness and lack of deception when it comes to everything. If it got out to the humans that Solant poisoned the Eldest over something as silly as to be undefeated in a sports game, then that could damage the overall way that people look at the colony as a whole.
alt31415
I'm not sure it's that serious. At most, it's underhanded, but by your logic they already tried to bite the Eldest's legs off, tried to shove the Eldest in a hole, etc. We just have human sensibilities that make us think 'Oh no, poison icky'
Yanni
I’m hoping this has major consequences because despite the fact that the poison doesn’t seem to be doing anything. The fact of the matter is that Solant POISONED The Eldest, the most revered ant in the colony just to win a sports game. To an ant, family is the most important and to betray that family is proof that you no longer deserve to be apart of it.
alt31415
Covered in layers of creamy treachery!
Anthony Romanov
Cake of Chocolaty Betrayal!
Ulbert
Exactly what I hoped for. Great!
Holly Webster
I'm so happy for all the chapters in a row! The colony gives me life! Destroy them Eldest!
TheRaptorOfHermes
The cake is a LIE!
KingGoomba
I hope Anthony does something ridiculous and rule breaking. Like crushing them with the gravity well and slowly walking past them
Khajar
I think they just gave Anthony a sugar rush. He probably won't be able to steady his mandibles. Good thing he scored a point before the cake.
Guilherme Silva
Or they are purposely making him angry so he score less.
Dan K
Honestly. Did they think any simple poison could bring down a tier 7? It would take something that would dissolve them into goop to tickle Anthony.
alt31415
B B Busted!
Cindermoth
Dark Anthony rises again!
Joseph Dizdar
Solant dun goofed
Drew Lim
I hope Anthony shows no mercy now
