When Ninmah had said she was taking him somewhere he’d not seen before, he didn’t think he’d find himself back inside the Barrows, standing before the twenty-metre-long chasm that separated the human world from the worm world.

  It was supposed to be dinnertime already with the moon already fully up and shining outside, but fifty children were crowded around him trying to see what was going on, held back only by the elders shouting at everyone not to get too close to him. For his part, Sparrow wasn’t even doing anything special; he was simply carrying the bleeding Silver Ant Scout in his arms while Ninmah was the one standing with one foot off the edge, staring across the chasm as the giant worms on the other side stared back at them.

  Their empty, eyeless gaze seemed to question what they were all doing here at this time of night, and in response, Ninmah clapped her hands once—silencing the children around them and making the worms tense up on the other side.

  she said, her warping voice trilling the updrafts of wind and booming across the cavern.

  

  And the voice that boomed back from the other side of the chasm came from all around, vibrating low, hard, and layered—the children winced and their eardrums were broken, most of them losing their footing in an instant. Ninmah and Sparrow were the only ones who didn’t falter, who didn’t so much as wobble a step off the precipice. The village chief merely spread her arms and puffed her chest, her expression unabashedly stubborn and adamant to get what she wanted.

  From , Sparrow didn’t know.

  He was all too focused on trying not to drop the scout and reach for his rifle.

  Ninmah said, narrowing her eyes.

  

  A different sound reverberated across. It was like a clicking tongue, but not quite. It was more like a thousand teeth grinding against each other through a hollow metal tube, a coarse and rough echo upon the icy walls that made the twenty or so worms on the other side wriggle forward, interlocking and intertwining into a bridge over the chasm that met them halfway—the other ten metres, they’d have to figure out how to cross themselves.

  With wormholes, that was an easy enough distance to cross, but Ninmah didn’t try to open one. Instead, she took a few steps back before charging, leaping off the precipice to land right on the tip of the worm bridge.

  But when she angled her head to look back at him, nodding at him to follow—

  

  He ran into an invisible wall the moment he tried to jump after her, but managed to stay on his feet as he skidded back, feeling a stabbing pain in his forehead. When Ninmah whirled to glare at the invisible voice on the other side, furious, more invisible weights crushed down upon his shoulders, making his knees buckle. He dropped to the ground with the scout in his arms, teeth chattering, an uncanny cold washing over his body. It felt like a cold mist had settled over his inorganic parts, making everything feel more… distant.

  Even with his rigid annuli, he felt if he tried to stand, he’d shatter every bone in his body.

  Ninmah shouted.

  

  

  she snapped, jabbing a finger at the flower ornament above his ear. ”

  Silence.

  Dreadful pain and weight.

  Just as he felt his shoulders could bear no more and he was about to be flattened into paste, the invisible weights lifted and he gasped for air, sweat dripping down his brows. The elders immediately warped forward with worried hands grabbing him all over, trying to get him to his feet. He nudged all of them away and cracked his neck, working his jaw to dispel some of the built-up tension.

  Scowling, he took a running start and leaped off the precipice, landing right behind Ninmah on the worm bridge. He almost slipped and fell backwards, but Ninmah pulled him in with a small wormhole on her palm, her lips slightly trembling as she patted him up and down.

  she asked, worry tightening her voice.

  He tried to give her a thumbs-up, but since he had no free hands, he settled for a firm nod instead.

  Ninmah immediately stopped fidgeting, relief plain on her face as she clapped his shoulders with a small smile, and then she immediately beckoned him to follow.

  He was only slightly aware they were running on a bridge made out of twisted giant worms, because once they stepped off the chitin plates and started running through the fields of tall crystal weeds, it was just like running on damp soil in the war-torn plains of the surface world. He wasn’t wearing any shoes, either—he’d stopped wearing them a month ago at Ninmah’s counsel—so he was even more keenly aware that gravity was weaker on this side of the chasm. His strides were longer with less force, he felt he could jump and easily hit his head on the ceiling of the cavern.

  Soon, though, they reached the very end of the cavern—the very end of the Barrows—and they pushed through the fields of crystal weeds, stepping foot onto cold biometal instead of damp soil. The temperature was bone-chilling here. The ground, the ceiling, and the walls on either side of the once gargantuan cavern all spiralled inwards into a single point in front of him, and his eyes naturally wandered forward, following the mesmerising curvature until he spotted the colossal worm curled up in front of him.

  Sparrow froze.

  Instead of normal chitin plates like the giant worms by the chasm, the colossal worm had biometal plates for chitin and silvery veins running under it. If that wasn’t telling enough about how unnatural it was, it was also at least fifty metres long with a crown of wicked silver teeth made—far, far, unlike any worm he’d seen thus far.

  ‘Powerful’ was the only word to describe it.

  Ninmah was already standing right before it, waving him over, and he managed to swallow a nervous gulp. As he stepped forward, the colossal worm suddenly craned its head over, and a cone of white light shone out its mouth like a giant spotlight, blinding him, scanning him from head to toe.

  He barely managed to squeeze his eyes shut before the worm turned off the light, just as quickly, and began sucking in a deep breath.

  At this point, it didn’t matter how much strength he had. One inhale from the colossal worm was enough to yank the scout out of his arms and into its mouth, at which point it immediately swallowed her and closed its jagged crown of teeth.

  For a second, his eyes widened and he worried it’d just devoured the scout, but then the colossal worm’s biometal chitin became half-transparent, and he saw the scout floating inside some sort of silver blood inside its body. Just as abruptly, he felt vibrations and movements behind him; he whirled just in time to see a dozen giant worms wriggling through the fields of crystal wields, heading towards the colossal worm.

  Stolen story; please report.

  

  Ninmah said, scowling directly up at the colossal worm.

  As the scout continued floating towards the centre of the colossal worm, it craned its head and opened its mouth, shining a bright column of light down at her.

  To that, Ninmah warped over to Sparrow and rubbed his head hard, smirking from ear to ear.

  she said confidently.

  He didn’t really need Ninmah’s help with nodding, but she made him bob his head up and down anyways.

  A moment of tense silence passed before the scout reached the very centre of the colossal worm, and the worm replied with a voice dripping with scepticism.

  

  With that, Ninmah kicked the back of his knees gently and made both of them plop down cross-legged. Inside the colossal worm, all became clear—Sparrow flinched when he saw the half of the dozen giant worms swimming around the scout’s body, biting, nibbling on the girl’s flesh and spewing liquid biometal into her open wounds. At the same time, the colossal worm itself pulsed, contorted, shifting the girl around as the giant worms repaired damaged clothing and knitted torn skin together. It was like the colossal worm itself provided a sterile environment with its glowing silver blood, while the giant worms were each the individual surgeons, breaking sections of her necrotic flesh apart and replacing them with cold biometal.

  It’d be a disservice to call the worms mere ‘surgeons’, though.

  He watched, in utter awe, as the worms fought to bring the dead back to life—fixing wounds no surgeon in the empire would even attempt to fix.

  Ninmah whispered, intentionally suppressing her voice so as not to disturb the worms.

  He furrowed his brows as he refused to take his eyes off the scout, but he really want to look at Ninmah and reply; he just wanted to stare at the surgery process above all else.

  she said, shuffling closer to him despite his awed silence.

  He blinked.

  he said.

  She didn't miss a beat.

  she explained.

  "

  He didn’t break eye contact with the scout, but he managed to get his thoughts in order—enough to muster up a single question.

  he muttered,

  Ninmah said plainly.

  He didn’t press her on the topic.

  Besides, the giant worms had already finished replacing half of the girl’s body with inorganic biometal parts, and were in the process of putting on the finishing touches.

  he said, his narrowed eyes drifting across the surface of the Elder Worm over and over again.

  Ninmah’s eyes were focused far away, staring at the scout floating back up towards the mouth of the Elder Worm.

  she said, shaking her head as she rose to her feet quietly, looking at him to do the same.

  He glared at the Elder Worm, standing reluctantly.

  She trudged forward at the Elder Worm, beckoning him to do the same as she winked back at him“

  He looked at her for a long time, his mouth grim.

  It wasn’t a satisfactory answer, but… she right, after all.

  Right now, as the Elder Worm regurgitated and spat the healed Silver Ant Scout into his arms, there was only one thing they needed to do—make sure she wouldn’t freak out and go on a rampage once she figured out her old Ant Class had been replaced by the Whiteworm Class.

  But the scout was

  The Elder Worm had done it again.

  Another person had successfully survived the inorganic operation after thirty-seven years of consecutive failure.

  

  Sparrow twitched an eye, but Ninmah hurried past him, kicking his shins and whispering at him to go.

  If the Elder Worm had eyes, he felt he’d certainly be glared out—so he didn’t give it the satisfaction of doing so and whirled, turning to follow Ninmah back into the fields of crystal weeds with the scout in his arms.

  As the two of them pushed through the weeds, he wondered if maybe he should’ve just ignored the scout and went after the last Boreus instead.

  Maybe he’d regret it if he did, but either way, one thing was for sure: the winds were picking up speed in Hagi’Shar. The other Silver Ant Scouts he’d kicked down the slope were most certainly going to return to the General, and if any one of them could make a report before they inevitably died of frostbite, Immanu’s existence would be revealed to the Attini Empire.

  Things were going to change.

  And he’d have to get much, stronger if he wanted to pull everyone through the storm.

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