The old, dirt-speckled man crouched down next to the ant beside him and then knelt beside the monster in reverence. His voice came through, muffled by the sleeve of his rags. "Our saviors brought us into their kingdom before the cataclysm that turned our world into nothing but sand, death, and mourning."

  "They're not your captors, then?" Nymh asked.

  "No, woman! The hive is all that remains. Without them, we would be no more. Please, just leave and return to whatever world you have invaded us from."

  Nymh took a step closer. "But we are on a quest to end the Queen's reign. That must be to facilitate your rescue!"

  Oioi's head jerked up and back, and he turned to face the humans from Earth, eyes wide with what looked like terror. "Blasphemy! Our queen mother is all that stands between us and certain doom!"

  "W-what?" Nymh blurted out, taking a step back, shying away from the forcefulness of the old man's words. "I don't..."

  Two of the other humans launched themselves at Nymh, growling like animals gone mad. Their fists found their mark, and the back of Nymh's head cracked against the stone ground.

  "For the colony!" Oioi shouted, joining the fight as the ant monsters surged forward.

  The glow of Milla's healing surrounded Nymh even before their party leader was able to push the attackers off and get to her feet. As the rest of the Integrated from Earth joined the battle, Luke kept back. Weaver's Perception showed him just how Milla's healing worked. It was similar to what he'd experimented with, and healing mana streamed to the meta-heart before being distributed through the entirety of Nymh's body, not just the head. Not a very effective method, but the rise in health points was undeniable, as were the healing effects, knitting the head wound back together and easing the pressure in the skull. The most interesting part of his sister's healing was how she was able to perform it without being in contact with her target at all. That, above all else, was something Luke envied. While his range had improved a lot, being able to stand way back and toss out healing spells like it wasn't some damn miracle was a great point in favor of other healing classes. Still, though, he wouldn't have switched if given the opportunity. Most other healers were just too squishy. Unprotected, they couldn't fend for themselves.

  This point was proven when an ant threw itself at Milla, and all his sister could do was cry out for help. Mateo drove the tip of his spear into the segmented body of the monster, pushed it to the ground, and then stomped down, bursting its head.

  "Don't kill the humans!" Nymh shouted, still trying to get the two attacking her under control.

  Shadows rose from the ground and wrapped themselves around Oioi and his companions' arms. Soon, they were all on the ground, wriggling and trying to get out of their shadowy restraints.

  The remaining ants didn't stand a chance.

  Once the battle was over, Penny walked over and handed something to Nymh. "Now what?" she asked.

  "Fuck," Nymh muttered. "I'll get so much shit for that."

  Luke walked up to them and saw it was the Translation Device. It was broken. Someone must've stepped on it in the fight. Oioi kept shouting, but now it sounded like gibberish.

  "We should continue and complete the quest," Nymh said after a moment of consideration.

  "I'm not sure if that's such a good idea," Luke said. "That would mean a lot of humans dying as a result. Oioi just said they can't survive without them."

  "They're slaves. Just look at them," Milla said.

  "Brainwashed," Penny agreed. "Like they're in a cult."

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  "We'll take them with us," Nymh said. "Take them to Earth. The system wants the Queen's reign to end."

  "We're not slaves to the system," Luke argued.

  Mateo came up to stand beside Luke, his head held high. "I must add my voice to Luke's."

  When he didn't say anything else for a long while, Milla nodded. "...OK. Thank you, Mateo. What about the portal? It won't close if we don't finish the quest."

  Nymh gave her a sharp look. "We cannot allow a colony of giant ants to invade Earth."

  "Isn't there any other way to close a portal?" Luke asked. "I mean, we've failed a quest before, and the portal still closed."

  "How would we fail this one? There's no timer," Hannah said, joining the conversation after making sure the humans couldn't free themselves.

  The rest of the DIA members stood back while the conversation continued. In the end, they decided to keep going. Nymh was right about one thing: having a dungeon break with thousands, or even millions, of giant ants spilling into Chicago was not an option. The gate couldn't stay open. Either they found some way of failing the quest without trapping themselves in there, or the Queen needed to go down.

  "It's decided then. We keep going," Luke said.

  Milla pointed at Oioi. "What about them?"

  "Can't take them with us. They'll be in the way," Hannah said.

  Nymh conferred with the rest of her party and returned with a solution. "I can send two of my people back with the prisoners. They'll take them through the portal and then return to let us know if the humans down here are able to cross over to Earth."

  "It's a risk," Milla said.

  Luke shrugged. "We know intelligent monsters can go through without issues. These people are, well, human, like us. I don't see why it wouldn't work."

  "They will find a new home in Chicago," Mateo said. "Perhaps I would be able to help with employment."

  Nymh gave him a nonplussed look. "Employment?"

  Mateo nodded sagely. "They must be excellent diggers after their toiling down here. I'm sure they would be excellent landscapers."

  "Perhaps that is a discussion for later, and for something for someone else to decide," Nym said.

  With the discussion done, they got moving again while two of Nymh's people, Torban and Emir, took the unwilling humans back to the portal to see if rescuing them was even possible. A little gruesome, human trials like that, but there was no way around it.

  As the group descended deeper into the tunnel system, Luke found himself getting bored. Plenty of ants appeared, but the others dealt with them just fine without his help. Any healing needing to be done, Milla performed during the fights themselves, and from a safe distance.

  Mateo looked like he was having the time of his life, fighting alongside Nymh, Hannah, Penny, and Luna, who wasn't doing much of anything, as far as Luke could tell. Luna stood on the sidelines and produced spellweaves that had no effect on the ants.

  He nudged Milla, who stood right next to him. "That Luna, what does she do?"

  "She was working on her Master's in Education when integration happened. If I remember correctly, she wanted to become a middle school teacher."

  "Oh, middle school? That's rough," Luke said. "But I meant her class. Celestial Seer? Her spells aren't doing anything."

  "You need to look harder, little brother," Milla said.

  Luke gave the young woman another once-over, trying to decipher her strange, glowing-white spellweaves. The spells formed but produced no projectiles or any effect whatsoever. He shook his head. "I don't get it."

  "Look at Mateo and Nymh."

  "What about them?"

  Milla pointed to Mateo just as he slid away from the snapping mandibles of another Behemoth, piercing its side without missing a beat. "He's better, don't you think?"

  He narrowed his eyes, tracking the Lancer's movements as he fought. "Is he?"

  "Maybe the effects aren't great yet, but that's what she does," Milla said, casting a heal without even looking. The warm sheen from her spell spread from Nymh to Penny, who both sustained minor scrapes. "The effects are more noticeable on Nymh, I think, since she's practiced with it."

  "But what does it do?"

  Milla sighed and raised her hands as if to say she didn't know. "Something about stars and seeing the future. She tested it on me once, but I just got dizzy. You sort of see what's going to happen."

  "She can see the future?"

  "It sounds better than it is, but yeah, in a nutshell. For now, it's brief, like not even a second, but it helps when fighting. Luna said she picked it because it fit with her name."

  "Cool," Luke said, staring at Luna. "I want to see the future."

  "Be happy with what you've got, little brother," Milla said. "Being able to heal anything, anywhere, isn't too shabby either."

  Luke was about to reply when the ground beneath their feet shook with enough force to make them stumble. No, not just the ground, the entire tunnel. Large blocks of stone crashed down from the ceiling, followed by showers of sand and debris.

  "Earthquake?" Milla shouted over the roar.

  Coughing, Luke got to his feet, holding his arm over his nose and mouth to ward off the dust. Through the blue glowing sand, lit by the veins of illumination in the ceiling, walls, and floor, he saw the dim shape of someone on the floor, a huge boulder covering most of their legs.

  Before he even got to running, a loud hiss sounded from above, and ants poured out from a hole, emerging to climb along the ceiling and down the walls. Beyond those, a pair of huge eyes shone yellow.

  Hiveling Queen. Level 24.