Aria

After staring at it for several seconds in a brief stupor, I snap myself out of it to realize that the thing isn’t so much as glancing at me. And neither are the other wasps around its nest. In fact, some of those wasps are actually rushing down to attack some bears that are getting close to the nest.

A sight that confuses me for more reasons than one.

For one, why are there bears down here? Weren’t there just supposed to be bugs?

For two, why are the bears four meters tall and larger than the wasps?

And why are the bears running while screaming their not-so-little hearts out being chased by the wasps?

This… I just don’t know what to say about this sight. So I pull my phone out and take a picture before sending it to Ake. Not calling just in case the call attracts the wasps’ attention here.

Since while I know it can’t kill me, that doesn’t mean it might not be able to capture me or something. And I’d rather not end up like I was in the Ninth Tier.

Then again, getting it to come to me might just be the best idea. But would it bother? Would it not just send its minions after me?

No idea.

I need its poison, which would require me gathering a sample directly from it.

Just a sample of the poisonous mist it’s directly spewing over there would work. I don’t even need to get close to grab it.

Or, rather, don’t need to get close to the obvious Tier 10 wasp. I do need to get close to its poison.

My phone vibrates in my hand, making me glance at it to find a text. One telling me to collect enough to fill a bottle. Then a bottle appears in front of me. One that isn’t all that big.

Can probably fill it just by scooping it through the air closer to the wasp queen.

Then again. Might just be able to anger it into coming over here where it will fill the bottle on its own. Seeing as it doesn’t look like it’s gonna stop spewing that poison everywhere anytime soon.

I begin trying to figure out one plan after another for getting its poison and leaving without it trapping me, but eventually I settle on watching the smaller wasps dealing with the bears. Trying to figure out what exactly their poison is doing to see how I’d be able to handle it.

And the poison… well, that’s kinda frightening.

Necrotic poison.

The bears literally rot in seconds after being stung. Then the wasps each bring a bear back up to their nest before stuffing the rotted corpse inside. And… okay, that’s just gross.

I turn my eyes away from what they’re doing to the rotten bears back onto the queen, who is still spewing out poisonous mist.

If the queen has the same poison in her stinger as the smaller ones have, then that’ll be very unpleasant. Very unpleasant indeed.

After studying the queen for a little while though, I find something… unexpected.

Is… is she intelligent?

I frown as I continue studying the queen. And after a while, the queen turns her pitch black eyes with glowing purple dots in the center straight towards me.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Then my body freezes up and I lose all sensation, falling face first to the ground as I hear some sort of cracking noise.

After a few seconds, I figure out what it is when I see my hand turning to a strange shade of purple stone.

Petrification attached to her eyes.

Great.

My mind goes dark yet not at the same time.

Like I’m trapped inside of my body with an incredibly uncomfortable and itchy feeling all over.

The Center of the Hive

The Hive Queen tilts her head after petrifying the strange being who had been standing at the edge of her hunting ground’s center. She had simply waited for a bit to see if the creature would do anything, but they weren’t doing anything. Just standing with its weird scales or skin made out of what looked like silk.

The Hive Queen doesn’t exactly understand what the creature is as she’s never seen anything like it. But she still orders a few workers from her hive to go pick up the petrified corpse to bring to her.

Then she returns her attention to ordering the lower insects of the outer hive to repair the damages that had recently been caused by some unknown force to the outer hive walls.

Just moments later though, she pauses and returns her attention to the corpse that is being brought over towards the main hive behind her, where her other children are soaking her eggs in the rotted four-legged fur-covered animals’ fluids. As she begins to wonder if this strange being may be responsible for the damages done to the outer hive.

She quickly shakes that suspicion away though after remembering how easy it was to petrify the being. Then she returns her attention to directing the lower insects.

Time passes as she continues making progress fixing the outer hive, only for her attention to snap towards her nest when she senses movement that shouldn’t be occurring there. And what she finds surprises her.

The strange being she petrified into purple stone is beginning to crack with strange crimson energy leaking out of the cracks.

So the Hive Queen tilts her head again and slowly begins to approach, still spewing out her poison in the process to keep the hive defended from any attackers.

But not much happens even when she stops to hover right in front of the strange being. The crimson energy just slowly sparks and crackles, occasionally chipping off tiny bits of the purple stone and revealing that strange silklike skin. And the skin just returns to being petrified again as the queen stares at the strange being.

The longer the queen stares, the more fascinated she becomes. To the point that she moves to land next to it, barely noticing when her poisonous mist is drawn inside of a strange glass thing tightly held in the statue’s grip. But she doesn’t care about it. Simply continues staring at the statue as it continues to crack and repair itself with her petrification. Over. And over. Again.

She stares for entire minutes. Then the minutes turn into hours. Then into days.

Once it reaches five revolutions of the sun high above the hive though, she finally begins to lose interest and flies back into the air and refocuses her attention on the outer hive.

But unbeknownst to her, the cracking on the purple stone statue, which had grown faster and faster over these past days even as the Hive Queen undid the cracks, begins to proceed without being repaired. Then, over the course of two entire weeks with the Hive Queen having completely forgotten about the statue by now, the purple stone finally crumbles to reveal the being who was originally petrified.

With an incredibly hateful look in her eyes.

Aria

Over the course of my entire life, I don’t think I have ever grown to hate anyone. Except for the former Emperor of Albaria.

But now? I can’t help but genuinely hate this damned wasp queen.

For what must’ve been entire fucking weeks, I was left with a nonstop, completely endless itchiness that couldn’t be satiated. All across my body. While I couldn’t move.

That was the most fucking unpleasant thing I’ve ever experienced.

But I don’t let my anger control me. I calmly get up from the hive, trying as hard as possible not to let the wasps spot me. Especially not the queen, because I still haven’t grown fully adapted to her petrification despite how long I was under its effects. Which goes to show just how damned powerful she is.

And there’s also the fact that I haven’t been poisoned by her stinger yet, which could be much worse than her petrification.

So best to not catch her attention.

Not sure how to do that though.

I glance at the bottle before smirking and immediately teleporting it to the others. Just so that I don’t lose it during whatever happens next.

Mission complete at least. Just need to get out of here.

But how do I do that without…

My thoughts trail off when I lift my head to find myself staring straight at some of the wasps of the hive.

“Please don’t,” I mutter rather quietly despite knowing it won’t do shit.

Then one of the wasps literally turns into a blur and stabs me in the chest with its stinger, making pain worse than anything I’d ever felt before fill my body just moments before I feel myself blacking out. No doubt turning into nothing but a rotted corpse.