BD - Chapter 433 - Paranormal Activi-Bee (Patreon)

But then one particularly loud buzz cut through it all. The bees stopped swarming and turned to face the source. The Firstborn flew over and hovered in between them and Tarwantrad.

“Stop, queens not hurt now, don’t need attack. Flower one not hurting queens, flower one warning of danger.”

The bees stopped swarming and the buzzing quieted. The queens realized they had started losing control of their hives with their joint attack pheromones and reigned in their workers. From there, they all watched the Firstborn, waiting to see what the first defender of the hive of hives would say in response to the potential threat.

The Firstborn held her stinger, though, turning to Belissar instead.

“Queen of All Bees wants?”

Belissar had to nod, if reluctantly.

“Yes, she does, though I am not sure why.”

He turned to Velebee. His mouth twisted…but he had to ask.

“God of Bees…I trust you and I know you must have your reasons. Please, help us understand. Why do you want us to raise such bees?”

Velebee’s antennae glowed, but the oracle of bees buzzed her wings.

“Really? Queen of All Bees sure? But, are evil! Dangerous! Don’t like!”

The glowing grew brighter and Velebee went silent for a moment.

“…ok, fine, will tell, even if hate.”

Velebee finally turned to Belissar and told him the God of Bees’ answer.

“Queen of All Bees says is queen of ALL bees. Says many bees cuckoo bees, says need have for Tower of Bees to have all bees. But says trusts Hive-Builder Belissar find good way use. Don’t like, though, so please don’t let kill and replace.”

Belissar immediately nodded.

“Of course not. If we do pick these, I promise I won’t let them hurt you. Any of you.”

The Firstborn danced a salute.

“King turned bear-King things that break hives and spider-King things that catch workers into allies of hive of hives. Know King will do same with new bees.”

The queens all began dancing amongst themselves at that. Belissar nearly gulped, the bees once again thought quite a bit more highly of him than he did of himself. But they were trusting in him, so it was his job to find a way. He gave the Firstborn another nod and did his best to hold himself confidently. As the Firstborn said, he had managed to befriend beastkin and spiderkin, perhaps he could do the same here? And the God of Bees did say they were bees too, maybe they wouldn’t be as bad as he feared?

It was at that moment that the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter’s mana touched on the hive of hives, drawing their attention. She had remained silent up to this point, not joining in the buzzing or attack pheromones but seemingly lost in her own thoughts as her antennae twitched about. They had finally stopped twitching now, as the monster bee empress began to dance.

“Think…might not be so bad. Was remembering…when moved to Orchard, hive had no honey and couldn’t make enough. Fourth of Seventh helped, gave honey, fed hive, took care of. Was like cuckoo bees, just took from Fourth of Seventh and had take care of…but didn’t hurt her. Made joint hive, tried help once able.”

The Fourth of the Seventh happily zipped around the First Daughter.

“First Daughter helps lots! Takes care of hive now, so can go scout!”

The First Daughter started a happy dance before stopping and resume her previous one.

“Fourth of Seventh best…right. So…maybe new bees like making joint hives? Or maybe hive of hives can give new bees hives, send workers take care of. Then new bees don’t need kill queen, steal hive, because will already have.”

Beero crawled forward along the ground. As a former soldier bee, she had been more affected by the call to attack than the queens, but she had somehow kept herself in check by staying grounded. She now joined the dance.

“Is like hive of fallen! Can’t lay eggs, can’t make workers, need hive of hives take care of!”

The First of the Second, however, buzzed her wings.

“Not like hive of fallen! Beero and hive of fallen fight for hive of hives, always help however can. Worth giving workers. New bees just take?”

The First Daughter danced the negative.

“Won’t, because will be King’s bees. King will hatch, like all spawner queens. Will fight for King’s realm, so will fight for hive of hives too.”

Belissar himself paused at that. The First Daughter raised a lot of good points, the last one sticking out most to Belissar. If he spawned cuckoo bees as monsters…well, they’d inherently want to protect the Tower, right? Now, just because they came from a spawner didn’t mean they’d get along with the rest of the Tower, the light dragon hatchling came to mind on that count. But…they’d be defenders of the Tower and they’d listen to him, just like the light dragon had. So, it wasn’t as if he’d be unleashing unconstrained parasites upon his bees. He’d have a chance to talk with them, to convince them not to hurt the other bees…or in the worst case, to simply order them not to.

That, of course, assumed that they didn’t need to hurt bees to survive themselves…but the First Daughter raised good points on that as well. If the hive of hives could donate a hive’s worth of workers to take care of a cuckoo bee, then why would she need to conquer an existing queen? Perhaps…perhaps this could work out. Perhaps he could find a place for even these bees in his Tower.

And perhaps that was what the God of Bees wanted, for him to find a place for each and every kind of bee that existed. He turned in the direction of the nearest Shrine of Bees and bowed his head.

“Thank you, God of Bees. I think I understand now…”  

The Firstborn took off and started zipping around.

“Knew King would know! King is best king!”

Belissar smiled. He sure didn’t feel like he knew as much as the bees expected…but it didn’t feel bad at the times he could fulfill their trust in him.

“Well then, should we take these then? Or should we compare with the sky-splitters? We could always take those now and look for other cuckoo bee options later…”

Belissar then felt a tap on his shoulder. He glanced over to see Finnakynne landing there.

“Ah, Beely, you remember you still have a third option to read, right? I’m kind of curious about those…”

Belissar’s eyes widened.

“Ah…right. Yes, let’s check out the last option, first.”

Finnakynne giggled. Belissar shook his head to refocus before bringing up the reward options again.

After all, there was another cuckoo bee option to consider.

Phantom Cuckoo Bee

Vitality: Minimal

Strength: Minimal

Speed: Average

Magic: Excellent

Defense: Minimal (For effective attacks only)

Resistance: Average

Special: Above Average

Notable Skills: Possession Sting, Ethereal Stinger, Hive Possession, Empowering Possession, Brood Mother, Command Offspring, Ethereal, Mana Body, Mana Eater, Telekinesis, Dread Buzzing, Magic Affinity

Spawner Upkeep: 80 (40 with Blessing of Bees)

Evolves from: Mana-Eater Cuckoo Bee

Description: A cuckoo bee that has nearly evolved past the need for a physical body, embracing an existence as a mana-based organism. Phantom cuckoo bees no longer prey upon their targets in a physical manner, but instead feed upon the hive mana of eusocial bee monsters. They merge with the mana of the members of the hive, hiding themselves by possessing bees as they feed, controlling their host from within for their own advantage.

Possession by phantom cuckoo bees is not strictly negative, at least at first. A phantom cuckoo bee’s power fills the body of whichever bee it possesses, improving their physical abilities. The phantom cuckoo bee is also incentivized to help the hive grow and gather more mana-rich food stores, so it often uses its abilities seemingly for the good of the hive, pushing workers to work more effectively, defender castes to sting harder, and queens to lay more eggs. While individual possessed bees may wear down more quickly, the hive as a whole benefits, and so phantom cuckoo bee possessions are often not of serious concern to a hive, at first. This relationship, however, only lasts until the hive has gathered enough mana for the phantom cuckoo bee to evolve further, at which point it will consume all the gathered mana…regardless of the consequences for the host hive.

Another reason phantom cuckoo bees often are left alone by the host hive is that they will defend their hosts when threatened. In addition to empowering individual possessed defenders, phantom cuckoo bees layer their ethereal stingers over those of their hosts, or even extend their stingers out from unexpected places. Their stings are purely magical, bypassing physical defenses to attack a target’s mana directly. Should phantom cuckoo bees accumulate enough of their magical venom in a target, they can then possess it. While their ability to control non-bee hosts is limited, they can prevent the possessed target from acting further, leaving them helpless before the host hive. When layering their stinger over a host’s bee, they can make the bee’s own venom carry this effect, as well as empowering it to enact its own effects upon the target’s mana. Their wings, meanwhile, carry hints of Mind mana that are inherently disturbing to intelligent, possess-able beings, so they will buzz along with their host in an attempt to drive off attackers.

Additionally, their ability to consume mana grants their hosts additional resilience against hostile magic. As partly physical, partly mana-based beings, phantom beings can become mostly ethereal, letting them pass through solid objects and evade physical attacks. If they are hit, they can use their mana as a shield, avoiding any physical damage until their mana is spent. In a pinch, they can lend part of these abilities to host bees…so long as they find it worthwhile to lend said host their strength. The phantom cuckoo bee itself can jump from bee to bee so long as it remains connected the host hive mana, so one need not perish with any individual host.

As beings that are evolving into mana-based organisms, phantom cuckoo bees also learn to interact with the world through magic rather than physical bodies. The simplest form of this is telekinesis, as the bee learns to move objects through magic. Learning to wield mana in this way grants them an innate aptitude for learning spellcasting, often developing instinctive spells over time.

Note that phantom cuckoo bees grow significantly weaker as they spend their mana and are extremely vulnerable if forced to take physical form outside of a host. They will prefer to flee rather than fight in such circumstances. They are also mostly limited to possessing eusocial bee monster species as most solitary bees lack the necessary mana to sustain them, and those that don’t are often resistant to possession.

This one is a queen, capable of possessing entire hives at once and manipulating all the bees within, including host queens. She will then create a hive of phantom cuckoo bees to possess many members of the hive, creating a hive of physical puppets and spirit masters…or even several such hive, as she is fully capable of forcing different hives or even species to work together once possessed. A combined hive of many puppets, all serving one ethereal master. She is also capable of manipulating the hosts’ hive mana directly, using it for her own abilities and spells. Anything attacking her possessed hive will soon find themselves under assault both physical and magical as swarms of both phantom cuckoo bees and the host bees attack their minds, bodies, and mana all at once, all while the phantom cuckoo queen prepares powerful hive mana spells to finish them off.

At first, Belissar was more than a little freaked out about possession by ghost bees…but he then remembered that all the stories he had heard about that came from the Tower Lords, who probably lied to keep him away from anything magical, so he tried to keep an open mind. When he focused on the actual details…the phantom cuckoo bees didn’t sound that bad? They didn’t physically hurt their hosts or even force them to raise their own children, they even helped and protected their hosts! That sounded good, even.

Yes, there was that part about taking control of the host bees and then that other part about eating all of the mana at some point, but Belissar could just tell them not to do any of that and then it would be all beneficial for his bees…hopefully.

He turned to the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter.

“The hive of hives will have to support either of those bees, so please discuss which is better. Also, it sounds like both those cuckoo bees can evolve from earlier options, so we might be able to get them from less rare choices. If you think the sonic blue-banded sky-splitters would be better, we can take those now and look for cuckoo options later.”

The First Daughter danced a salute and started a joint mana dance with all the hive of hives. Belissar observed as he was able.

The Firstborn started it off.

“Phantom cuckoo bees make bees stronger? Don’t hurt bees, don’t kill queens, don’t even need give workers? All good?”

The First of the Second refuted her, though.

“Eat hive mana, though. Make harder coordinate, make harder for communers, drones, dancers, and ministers. Will make harder raise immortals, hive of hives already need more hive mana than have…”

The First of the Fifth buzzed her wings.

“Will make honey quality worse, steal mana from!”

The First of the Second joined the First of the Fifth’s buzzing.

“If honey worse, harder support bee army, evolve new bees!”

The First Daughter intervened before the buzzing took over the dance.

“So, would need make sure phantom cuckoo bees don’t weaken hive mana. Would probably need give own hive so won’t eat hive of hives’ mana. Need give both bees new hive, then, so need decide which more helpful. Also, can pick new solitary bee if want, only need give honey like carpenters.”

The First of the Fourth began a happy dance.

“Sky-Splitters amazing, incredible! Sound really strong!”

The First of the Second’s antennae twitched about.

“Attack by…buzzing very loud? Bumblebees also buzz loud, think can evolve?”

All dancing stopped at that. After a few moments of stillness, the First Daughter answered for the group.

“Don’t know, can ask bumblebees try? But, know can’t evolve cuckoo bees because don’t have, so pick one? Queen of All Bees wants too.”

The group fell back into stillness as they considered that…and as they considered which parasite they wanted to introduce to their hives.

Author’s Note:

…so we have to try to teach honey-eating parasites who don’t work about the hive of hives, huh? Well, I guess the hive of hives did find a use for drones, so maybe it can be done! Maybe that’s the reason Queen of All Bees is doing this, all bees need to be amazing and incredible and if anyone can help the parasites become so, it’s best dungeon master and the hive of hives!

Hopefully. Or, you know, we could pick the nice and deadly blue-banded bees…though, I did base that evolution on the idea of buzz pollination turned up to epic magical levels and fuzzy, friendly bumblebees also do buzz pollination…

On a meta note, I actually didn’t intend to end on a cliffhanger for this one, but I find myself legitimately torn on which of these two options the hive of hives would pick. Phantoms seem the more directly beneficial for the hive of hives, they empower existing bees and can even protect bees from harm, which would make King less sad! They also appear a bit more symbiotic, at least at first, compared to the overt parasiting chimerics do. But, on the other hand, phantoms are more expensive in terms of hive mana, a resource the hive of hives is already finding restrictive. They might end up pushing immortals even further down the line, not to mention their potential impact on hive communications and honey production…

But would the hive of hives find chimeric useful enough to justify picking over the benefits phantoms can offer? A new hive of beenomorphs that can mix and match existing bees, the hive of hives can probably see some of the appeal but also probably won’t find it as exciting as we do. So, would they actually think that’s a good idea, or is it just a cost-saving measure in their mind, compared to the more direct benefits phantoms seem to offer?

Well, Imma sit on it for a day or two, so let me know what you all think in the meantime! Keep in mind that ultimately I’ll go not with what is most meta but with what the hive of hives would think is best, because obviously bee decision best decision. Bee meta best meta!

Anyways!

What parasite will the hive of hives choose to introduce? Can bumbles buzz loud enough to evolve? Can best dungeon master bring the hive of hives even to parasites? Tune in next time, to find out!