Chapter 161: Chapter 161
The bee came to a world of complete darkness, and cold. At first, she wondered if she had made it. Last she remembered, she had been surrounded by blazing heat, so hot her chitin had burned. But now, it was cool, so cool she nearly shivered.
But shivering simply told her that her body was still alive and capable of motion, so move she did. She found a wall blocking her way and started to pick at it. As she did, mandibles pierced through from the other side and the light began to stream in. Her loyal children removed the cap over her cell and she was free to leave.
And so the Third of the Sixth emerged from her cell, her formerly yellow color now including reds and oranges. She shivered in the cool air of her original hive, even as her mana attempted to heat up her surroundings. But the cold didn’t stop her from breaking out into a happy dance.
She had done it. She had survived. She had evolved. She had fulfilled the King and the hive of hives’ request.
She had become a burning monster bee queen.
She flared her mana as she danced, and a red glow appeared around her body for a second. The workers tending to her backed away at the sudden surge of heat, save for the burning workers who instead drew closer and flared their mana as well.
It felt pleasantly warm.
Belissar was just getting started for the day when a much awaited message appeared.
The Third of the Sixth stopped her zipping just long enough to perform a salute dance before resuming. Belissar chuckled as he climbed down towards her new hive. Sweat began to drip down his brow as the temperature rose substantially…but just when it was about to cross the line from uncomfortable to painful it suddenly stopped. Belissar tilted his head. He was somehow aware that temperature was still rising even though his body didn’t feel any hotter. But he shrugged and figured it was just a Tower thing before pressing on.
He got to the new beehive, which had a glowing slot in the stone block covering the entrance. Belissar tapped it and, as he hoped, a tray of honeycomb slid right out. He was very much glad for the magic of the beehouse features, as moving the entire stone door to retrieve honey might have been…difficult.
Instead, he could pick the tray right up. A very thin layer of stone lined the bright red honeycomb. It was hot to the touch but not painfully so, and just slightly heavier than the normal trays. Belissar could only thank the Tower mana and the gods for that.
After picking up the tray, Belissar made his way down to the second floor’s Flower Meadow, and found Chief Rohsuak already at the new shrine, bowing to the brazier and the God of Fire’s banner. She smiled as she saw him approach.
“You’ve had recent dealings with my patron, I assume?”
“After you defeated that turtle-shade, he gave me a mission. It was just completed today thanks to the bees.”
Chief Rohsuak smiled, a flicker of flames appearing to dance within her eyes.
“In that case, I must thank you and them. It has been a long time since I’ve been to a shrine of the God of Fire. It was…surprising.”
She held up her hand and a flame appeared, rolling across her fingers. She chuckled.
“There might even be an ember or two left for the Blazing Berserker after all.”
She then backed away so Belissar could come before the Shrine. He took two trays of honey, the burning mana honey tray, and a regular mana honey one since he only had one of the burning trays, and split each in half. He put one half of each into the wax chest and bowed to the God of Bees’ statue.
“Thank you again, for everything.”
Then he turned to the God of Fire’s banner…and frowned a bit. There was no chest, so Belissar wondered how he could offer anything to the God of Fire. Maybe everything went through the God of Bees’ chest?
He then heard Chief Rohsuak clear her throat.
“Forgive me if I’m interrupting but…are you perhaps wondering how to make an offering to the God of Fire?”
She chuckled slightly.
“I did too, my first time around.”
She then pointed to the brazier.
“He likes to do everything through fire, you see.”
Belissar’s eyes widened as he nodded, and then dropped the two trays into the brazier.
“Thank you for your blessing. I’ll, um, do my best with it?”
The fire surged up for a moment, bathing Belissar in a wave of heat. Then it died down, and both the trays had vanished.
The God of Bees’ statue then shone with light for a moment as the brazier’s fire grew once again. Belissar stood still for a moment before bowing his head.
When he was finished, he turned to find Chief Rohsuak waiting for him. She saluted to him as he approached.