Chapter 43: Chapter 43

Belissar took a deep breath and forced down his feelings. He forced himself to smile as he turned around to look up at the soldier bee army hovering in the air.

“Great work. Thanks everyone.”

The air buzzed as the soldier bees all danced a salute, while Belissar shook his head. Truth be told, this was an excellent outcome. The purification had been completed, the shades had been defeated, and they had only lost a single squad of soldier bees. He had feared the worst when the shades managed to escape the Pit Trap, so to take them down with fewer losses than even the initial minor purification was a great victory.

Belissar, though, couldn’t help the pain in his chest as he thought of the soldier bee looking up at him. After all, it was he who decided to conduct this purification now, instead of waiting for the corruption to recede over time, and he who decided a stronger purification would be manageable. He was tempted to blame himself for the losses.

But he did not. He forced himself not to.

And the reason for that was the same memory of that soldier bee looking up at him. The loss...the sacrifice...that was a choice that she had made, that they all had made. They had sacrificed themselves to keep the shades down and achieve this victory. Belissar felt that he should celebrate what they had achieved more than he should mourn their loss. And, therefore, he could not permit himself to wallow in guilt.

Instead, he would honor their sacrifice, and make use of the rewards of their victory. And just like that, the words of said reward appeared before his eyes.

Unprompted, for he did not plan to consider it until after the funeral...

Minor+ Purification completed! Please select a reward:

“Thank you, for your courage and for defending our home.”

They danced their salute and then Belissar turned to the monument, bowing his head.

“And thank you, for your sacrifice.”

Numbers and symbols began to carve themselves into the monument as he spoke, signifying each of the bees that had died that day. The beehouse began to glow with soft, golden light...and the Shrine of Bees next to it began to light up as well. Niobee lead the bees in the slow song from the first funeral, the bees all danced and buzzed slowly in the light.

A tear dropped from Belissar’s eye, but his chest felt lighter. The bees were going to die. If he embarked upon this plan to grow as quickly as possible, they would even die specifically at his command. But now, he knew they would not be forgotten.

And so, he would do all in his power to ensure their sacrifices did not go to waste.

Now that the core was no longer corrupted, Belissar checked if he could initiate a purification...

Please wait 24 hours between purifications.

Remaining cooldown: 21 hours and 49 minutes...

He nodded. So, it wasn’t as if he could face continuous purifications. Maybe one a day at most. But that suited Belissar just fine. He wasn’t in the mood for another purification just yet in any case.

He sat back in a chair in the farmhouse as the sun set, with Niobee drinking from a honeycomb he placed on the table. He reviewed the results of the day.

Multiple shades had caught him off-guard. To be fair, while every purification before now had been one shade, it wasn’t like there was a rule that they had to come alone. But the fact was Belissar simply hadn’t thought about the possibility. And, equally as concerning if not more, the shades had proven they could escape from the Pit Traps. All in all, it had been a miracle and a testament to the soldier bees that this purification had ended with only the loss of a single squad.

So, Belissar thought about what he could do...

Multiple shades and the ability to escape from Pit Traps could be dealt with by the bees. Belissar imagined they would begin training for multiple opponents from now on. If the bees could deal with one of the shades, or even just separate them from each other, then it wouldn’t be a problem. The question is...what would they do about three? Or four? Or ten? Or a hundred?

The other, and perhaps larger, problem, was that Belissar couldn’t pull off his fire pit idea under these circumstances. If there were multiple shades, the ones that didn’t fall into a Pit Trap could hang around its edges and prevent him from approaching. Likewise, if the shades could escape, then it was dangerous for Belissar to approach even if all the shades had fallen into one. He would need to think of alternative methods to light up the pits if he wanted to keep relying on this method.

And...he felt that he should consider the case where he couldn’t rely on that method. If, for one reason or another, he just couldn’t kill a shade with the fire pit, then they would have to be defeated directly by the bees. A method that, as of now, would likely require sacrifice on the bees’ part. Which would likely be inevitable if the shades got stronger or more numerous, but Belissar did want to put as many of the odds in their favor as he could.

So...how could he make the Pit Traps more reliable? And what could he do to ensure the bees would have the best chance?

In the end, it came back to growing stronger, and getting more options to work with. Which he had...