Chapter 844 – Remior’s golden century – Artificial hive (Patreon)

Percy shot through the sky faster than any meteor, carving a path through the clouds as he propelled and shielded his body with his willpower. A vast, bumpy sheet of glistening seawater rolled far beneath him at a dizzying pace as he flew halfway around the world in mere hours. Eventually, a small island appeared on the horizon, growing larger in his eyes as he descended towards it.

Nephthys had asked him to grant new cores to a batch of wasps, so he had to travel to the artificial hive with his own body. He could have used the teleportation platform to skip the journey, but a couple of devices had been deactivated for maintenance, and the teleportation grid was busier than usual, so he’d decided to do everyone a favour and just fly to his destination while enjoying the trip.

‘As beautiful as always,’ he nodded with appreciation as he landed on the island.

It had only existed for a few decades, and there was nothing but sea for thousands of kilometres around it, yet it was covered in tall trees and lush greenery like an isolated paradise. A second-generation sapling had been planted in the centre of the island to raise the density of ambient mana, while the last of the magical trees had been placed right next to the Fungal Spire for the same reason.

‘Almost worth the tens of thousands of lives we lost in that stupid war.’

The Great Houses had used a long, metallic shaft engraved with various mana-gathering and mana-channelling enchantments to funnel ambient mana to a platform on the surface. The structure had been functional, and might have sufficed for the needs of a smaller hive if the war had been allowed to progress for a century or two, though Percy wasn’t one to settle for half-measures.

After taking over the project, he had worked with Nesha and House Etna for several years to turn the artificial facility into something more natural and effective. They’d replaced the enchanted shaft with a hollow cylinder that was two kilometres wide and nearly five times as tall. They’d drained the seawater inside it and poured enormous quantities of magical minerals harvested from across the continent both around and within the colossal tube, creating an underwater mountain tall enough to reach the surface.

The outer layer of dirt and stone shielded the island from water and tremors, while the upgraded enchantments on the metallic cylinder reinforced the entire structure. They also helped the hive draw ambient mana from the underground currents and retain it more efficiently. The interior of the mountain was more than spacious enough for the new hive to expand into, and the chemical composition of the minerals had been modelled after the Fungal Spire’s as closely as possible.

The mana density of the artificial hive was still slightly lower than that of the natural wonder, but Percy estimated that it should be able to support around eighty percent of the original hive’s population once saturated. Between the mana-gathering arrays, second-generation saplings, superior breed of wasps, and Remior’s improved ability to process nectar, the day when every single person on the planet would have access to Aurora Dew was rapidly drawing nearer.

‘Percy? Are you here yet?’ Nephthys asked through their connection.

She could have just as easily peered into his senses and figured out his location by herself, though the reincarnated deity had always respected their mental boundaries even more than Percy and Micky did.

‘Just landed. I’m heading over now,’ he replied while jumping into an enormous hole.

The problem with the new hive was that it was taller but much narrower than the other one, so Nephthys had more trouble navigating through her kingdom. After she’d reached White, her body had grown over two-hundred metres long from crown to stinger, making her almost as large as Micky, despite lacking the Giant Body mutation.

The tunnels had to be at least eighty metres wide for her to crawl through, while her living spaces had to be much larger than that, and she wasn’t even the only White creature living in the underground complex. Her size was still barely manageable, but she might have to move to the surface and oversee the hive from above after her next evolution. Otherwise, the network of Nephthys-sized cavities would start affecting the structural integrity of the mountain.

The hive’s tunnels were covered in glowing crystals and illuminated further by a swarm of colourful motes. The artificial hive hadn’t looked like that at the beginning, but decades of drawing ambient mana from below and being constantly reshaped by the magical bugs had turned the environment into an exact replica of the Fungal Spire’s. The only thing missing were the giant mushrooms growing along the mountainside, but Percy doubted that the fungi would flourish underwater. Perhaps a series of colossal corals or other marine flora would eventually appear, though it hadn’t happened yet.

Percy met a lot of wasps of various sizes as he approached his fellow aspect’s cavern. The strongest and most intelligent among them recognized and ignored him, while a few of the weaker ones foolishly tried to attack. He could have asked Nephthys to rein the creatures in, but he no longer had to rely on his fellow aspect’s mutation for such a simple matter.

‘Piss off,’ he commanded while unfolding his Merciful Spring domain, and the unruly wasps obeyed upon recognizing their ruler’s authority within Percy’s willpower.

The smaller bugs all sported colourful carapaces seemingly crafted out of gemstones, not unlike Nephthys’ own, though they were less vibrant and missing a couple of hues. The mutated wasps possessed a maximum of four crystallized antennae on their heads, more reminiscent of horns than crowns, though most of them only had a single pair.

The Green and Blue creatures inside the artificial hive still possessed their original dark exoskeletons glittering with starlight, or shells that had been manually reinforced with ruby powder, since the new breed had yet to reach maturity.

After rescuing the original Starry Princess and explaining everything that he and Nephthys had done to the hive over the years, Percy had given the Blue royal a second core and ownership of the Fungal Spire. He’d only asked her to lend them a few Starry Breeders to temporarily populate the artificial hive, so that it would start producing nectar sooner.

It had taken decades for Nephthys’ mutated Breeders to mature and lay eggs of their own, but the first batch of mutated Drones had already evolved to Workers and were close to becoming Soldiers. The idea was to eventually return the borrowed bugs to the Fungal Spire and only keep the new breed in the artificial hive, since they were far better at generating nectar.

In theory, it would be more efficient to replace the insects in both hives with Nephthys’ descendants, but Percy wanted to keep at least one hive pure, in case they discovered any issues with his fellow aspect’s mutations in the future. The original hive wasn’t entirely untouched, because he’d given second cores and ruby powder to many of the bugs, but the changes were far less drastic than the ones the new wasps enjoyed.

Percy and Nephthys had spent a lot of time experimenting with the latter’s mutations after the war, and had made many interesting discoveries.

The reincarnated goddess could obviously produce Breeders and Princesses like any of her predecessors, though she hadn’t been limited to a single heir even before her evolution to White. At least, that was their assumption based on how her body felt, though she hadn’t actually tried to produce a second Princess.

Nephthys’ authority as a Merciful Spring Empress seemed to supersede her sister’s even after the latter had also reached White, so she should be able to control both of Remior’s hives, as well as any others she and Percy might create on other planets. They’d have to figure out how to get the wasp out of Remior and find suitable locations to install new Princesses, but each new hive would allow them to use their Extreme spell in an additional location.

Nephthys’ spawn inherited weaker versions of her mutation, called Minor Spring Monarch for the royal wasps and Minor Spring Servant for the rest. The new Breeders and Empress – the latter of which was technically the official owner and active manager of the artificial hive on Nephthys’ behalf – could pass the mutation to their own spawn, thus perpetuating the new breed.

The mutations didn’t provide their owners with any form of divine inspiration or the ability to interact with souls, but carried many of the other properties of Merciful Spring Monarch.

Mutated wasps could convert their internal resources more efficiently than regular bugs, though Nephthys’ heirs were the only ones who could produce royal jelly. The creatures all inherited mutated ruby and venom glands that were closely connected to their nectar or jelly glands, though the organs started off somewhat small and undeveloped.

The ruby glands of the royal wasps grew with every evolution and could secrete powder that could be ingested by other organisms. The ruby glands of non-royal wasps remained atrophied throughout their lives and didn’t produce any spare powder. However, the creatures automatically reinforced their own exoskeletons without requiring external assistance, and their ruby glands appeared to play a small role in their faster nectar generation.

The venom glands, crystallized antennae, and thinner haemolymph glands of both royal and non-royal wasps remained atrophied until the creatures obtained their second cores – a process that still required Percy to manually possess each bug.

The mutated wasps appeared to be even more strongly predisposed towards the acid affinity, as almost all of them acquired it. They didn’t even need their beast cores to evolve again to develop new mutations, since their nascent bodily features simply developed rapidly as soon as they were fed with the missing mana types.

Percy’s feelings on the matter had initially been mixed, as the bugs’ more efficient bodies had come at the cost of the possibility of acquiring other affinities and mutations. The mutation they had inherited from Nephthys was arguably better for the hive’s strength and nectar output, yet Percy had appreciated being able to produce as many sacrifices for the Void Decree as he might need, or experimenting with mutations of other affinities.

The Lone Wanderer’s aspects had only been missing four rare elements after the war, and they had ruled out space and karma for the wasp’s third core, as they had felt that neither would be a good match for her abilities. After taking Percy’s plans for the life affinity into account, the choice had practically been set in stone.

They’d decided to give Nephthys a time affinity.

Still, they had agreed to delay the activation of the Void Decree for a few months to let the first two-cored Starry Knights evolve into Starry Commanders and obtain their mutations. The Green bugs had already been close, and comparing their mutations had helped Percy and Nephthys confirm their decision.