Andres and the First Lighthouse Imperator pushed to the front of the formation, their massive frames braced against the swirling currents. Around and behind them, the Imperators and Guards backed off, getting into a defensive formation. Overhead, the voices of the Lighthouse Five Imperators who’d been monitoring and relaying information between the surface, the artillery teams, and the vanguards crackled through the suspended diving bells, their tone sharp with disbelief.

  A dozen voices were shouting at once, but Marisol—and most everyone else—only heard one cutting through the water louder than the rest.

  “This is impossible!” she shouted. “We’ve been monitoring Kalakos’ signal this entire time! Her aura signal reading is still... it’s still in Depth Seven!” Her voice trailed off, confusion giving way to a stunned silence. “That giant remipede charging at all of you… that’s… that’s not—”

  “But she Kalakos.”

  Marisol barely had time to process the words before a chilling sound reached her ears. Laughter. Low, guttural, and mocking. She whirled back around to see Rhizocapala and Eurypteria hopping onto the head of the charging giant remipede, and, two hundred metres away, she couldn’t fathom just how unimaginably colossal Kalakos was.

  The Remipede God had to be fifty metres wide, fifty metres tall, and a thousand metres long, with even more length continuing to wriggle through the mist lingering around the edge of Depth Five. The water trembled violently, churning with her sheer presence. A shockwave rippled outward with every undulation of her segmented body, buffeting the front lines and knocking weaker Guards off balance. Some barely managed to anchor themselves by stabbing their weapons into the brittle seafloor.

  Marisol had been under the impression that all Mutant-Classes and above resembled humans, but… maybe they could decide whether they wanted to be human-like?

  Because Kalakos was a giant remipede, pure and simple, and she was barrelling straight at them with Rhizocapala and Eurypteria riding on top.

  “It’s adorable how you people think you’ve got everything figured out,” Eurypteria said, her voice dripping with scorn.

  Rhizocapala spread his arms theatrically. “The mist! The siege! For months, we’ve been buyin’ time for our dearest sister to moult, and she couldn’t have done that if everythin’ was ‘business as usual’, so we had to keep you distracted somehow, hm?” Then a hundred shells across his barnacle-encrusted form opened, a hundred eyes gleaming as he looked directly up at their diving bells. “We held Depths Four and Five hostage! We muddied your visibility with the mist! We did just enough to keep you guessin’, and all the while, ye were trackin’ Kalakos’ moulted skin— Kalakos herself!”

  Marisol’s stomach churned as Rhizocapala turned to her, winking.

  “Ain’t that clever, water strider?”

  “... Fall back!” Andres roared, his voice cutting through the tension. His massive frame turned toward the group, his eye blazing with urgency. “Everyone to the diving bells! We’re retreating to Depth Four now—”

  “No ye don’t!” Rhizocapala roared back, snapping his fingers. “Get up, ye sons of bitches! It’s time to eat!”

  The ground shuddered ominously, cracks spider-webbing outward from unseen depths. For a brief, horrible moment, the entire formation hesitated. Uncertain whether the very seabed might collapse.

  Then, with a deafening rumble, the brittle ground erupted.

  Marisol didn’t feel it. The Archive didn’t detect it. Nobody—not even Victor—said a thing about it, so when of Giant-Class bugs and dozens of Mutant-Classes exploded out from underground geysers with murderous glints in their eyes, nobody was ready.

  Violence descended upon them, and their formation instantly dissolved into chaos. Screams and the clash of weapons echoed through the thick, sulfurous water as the backline was overrun.

  The first wave hit like a battering ram, Giant-Class bugs tearing through shields and bodies alike with terrifying efficiency. Blood clouded the water, reducing visibility to mere metres. Marisol glimpsed an Imperator, barely recognizable, impaled by the serrated leg of a shrimp-like monstrosity before being flung aside like a broken doll. Another was torn to shreds by two giant crabs, and another had his head shot off by a line of snapping pistol shrimps.

  Death was all around.

  the Archive muttered.

  … But the situation was spiraling out of control. Marisol couldn’t afford to just stand there. Before any of the Lighthouse Imperators could whirl and respond to the ambush, she moved. Her body was a blur as she skated through the water, her Charge Glaives crackling with deadly energy. She dashed toward a Giant-Class bug, its mandibles snapping viciously, and drove both glaives into its carapace. Lightning arced through its body, leaving it twitching as she pulled her blades free and darted to the next target.

  The water became a storm of flashing limbs, deadly strikes, and the constant boom of artillery from the suspended diving bells. The heavy artillery in the back couldn’t fire unless they wanted to kill entire teams of humans as well, so Marisol tightened her movements. Focused her mind. Her movements had to be precise and deadly, because she was liable to ram into a fellow human if she weren’t controlling herself with a hundred and ten percent of her power.

  But even as she and the Lighthouse Imperators cut through bug after bug, more continued to crawl up from the cracks in the ground. The sheer number of enemies pressed in on them like a tidal wave, and behind it all, Kalakos continued her relentless charge.

  Andres and the First braced themselves—they were the only ones not helping the Imperators fend off the ambush—and both of them stood stalwart, ready to hold off the Insect Gods.

  “Brace yourselves!” Andres roared.

  The giant remipede surged forward, a blur of motion and unstoppable force, but just as it seemed poised to crash into them—Kalakos veered upward. The massive bug swept past Andres and the First with a bone-shaking rush of water and barreled toward the diving bells overhead.

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  Then, Kalakos slammed into the clumped-up diving bells with devastating force. More than thirty of them crumpled like paper, their hulls ripped to shreds, their chains torn asunder. One by one, they shot every which way and began sinking forward, metal fragments shooting through the water in a chaotic rain of metal and glass. The precise artillery fire ceased, replaced by the heavy groan of the collapsing structures.

  Marisol’s heart sank as she saw the destruction. Only one bell managed to veer out of the way and dodge Kalakos, and that was the one Victor was in. He’d jumped out the latch at the last moment to jerk the diving bell off to the side, and now it was dangling overhead, just barely avoiding getting scraped by Kalakos’ giant segmented chitin.

  For her part Kalakos didn’t stop. The massive remipede continued its charge, heading straight for the surface, and Rhizocapala and Eurypteria each held one of her giant antennae like the reins of a caravan beast, their figures diminishing as they ascended quickly.

  Rhizocapala turned back one last time, his grin sharper than ever. “Good fight, lads, but this is the end of yer precious city!”

  And then the three Insect Gods cackled, soaring straight up to the surface.

  Panic rippled through the water like an electric current. Half of the Giant-Classes and Mutant-Classes erupted around them, leaping onto Kalako and gripping onto her segmented body as she continued to surge upwards—and then the three Lesser Insect Gods cackled, soaring straight up to the surface.

  A thousand meters of glistening, armored segments, carrying an army of leviathans to the city. The pressure wasn’t just physical—it was , clawing at Marisol’s chest as her heart raced.

  Victor’s voice rang out, sharp and commanding, cutting through the cacophony. “One diving bell left! Only one team can get back to the surface, and you know who you are!”

  Of the hundred or so Imperators scattered across Depth Five and fighting for their lives, only three had no hesitation whirling around and leaping onto the last diving bell. They were Hugo, Claudia, Andres. All Lighthouse Imperators with important positions to fill on the surface. The rest didn’t even pretend to acknowledge Victor’s command. They continued fighting, pushing back the ambush, and… without warning, Marisol and Reina were jerked up to the diving bell by Hugo’s spider threads.

  It happened quickly. Marisol had just slowed down momentarily to pop a new skyball coral into her mouth, but within two seconds, she went from being on the ground to being grabbed by Hugo’s spider arms, thrown into the diving bell. Reina was thrown in half a second later. To their credit, though, they recovered and charged back out towards the latch—only for Hugo to lash out with two fistfuls of threads, wrapping around their torsos like cocoons.

  Marisol jerked against the bindings, fury sparking in her chest.

  “What… are you doing?” she hissed, her glaives still crackling with lightning. “There are people down there! Guards! Imperators!”

  Reina was just as defiant, her tail writhing and struggling as she fought the cocoon. “Hugo! We cannot just abandon everyone down here! We must—”

  “The bell can’t carry everyone!” Victor snapped, spinning toward them, expression hard as steel. “The cannons, barricades, and outposts along Depths One to Four will slow them down, but they’re still too numerous! If we don’t get to the surface now, the city is done for! This ain’t up for debate!”

  Marisol’s stomach twisted as she glanced back down at the battlefield. The First was the only Lighthouse Imperator who stood his ground, a lone figure leading the underequipped Imperators and Guards against the tide of monstrosities. His steel blade swung with brutal precision, cutting down one Giant-Class after another, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t even to being enough.

  But when the old hunchback turned and looked up at them for just the briefest of moments, blood streaked his face as he offered them a grim, fleeting smile. “I will hold them back,” he called out, his voice steady despite the chaos. “All of you go. Protect the city.”

  Marisol’s breath hitched. “I—”

  “We’re leaving!” Victor said firmly, cutting her off. His gaze was unyielding as he nodded at Andres. “Pull the lever.”

  “No!” Marisol and Reina surged forward at the exact same time, lightning and tail flaring, but Hugo’s threads tightened, dragging them back.

  “I’m sorry,” Hugo muttered. “I don’t want to—”

  “Sorry?” Marisol spat, her voice trembling with fury. “You think gonna cut it?” Sparks crackled across her skin as she tried to rip through the silk, her muscles burning with effort, but then Victor stepped in front of her, his expression dark.

  “They knew what they signed up for,” he said, his voice low and quiet. “They’ll delay the Swarm in Depth Five.”

  “Victor!” she snarled. “Don’t you dare—”

  “Listen to me, Archive of Marisol ‘Storm Strider’ Vellamira,” he said plainly. "You let her go, you'll kill her. There is a zero percent chance we can take the fight outside. What, exactly, is your mission according to the Hasharana Code?"

  Marisol froze.

  “No,” she whispered, her voice filled with disbelief. “You wouldn’t—”

  The shock hit her like a bolt of lightning, and it wasn’t like electrocuting herself with her Charge Glaives. Far from it. Pain lanced through her body, her muscles seizing as she crumpled to the floor of the bell. While Claudia and Hugo also pressed the shouting Reina to the floor, she gasped, her vision blurring, but the worst pain wasn’t physical—it was the betrayal.

  The Archive didn’t respond.

  Victor slammed the latch shut, anguished but determined, and without another word, Andres yanked the lever. Water drained out of the bell through grates on the floor. As it did, the bell shot upward, rocketing toward the surface.

  Everyone else was left behind in Depth Five to cruel, crushing deaths, but they still managed to give Andres one last salute, arms and weapons crossing their chests.

  Marisol lay motionless on the cold metal floor, her body twitching from the remnants of the shock. Her breaths came in ragged gasps, but the fire inside her didn’t dim. It roared, hotter and fiercer with every second. She tried her best to glare at Victor the entire way up to the surface, but her anger wasn’t just for him.

  The faces of the Imperators and Guards left behind burned into her memory—the way they all raised their weapons in that final salute. It was seared too deep. Too vivid to ever forget. Their sacrifice may have been a choice, and it may have been a duty they embraced without hesitation, but it was, nevertheless, a sacrifice that twisted her insides.

  And the Archive.

  Archive.

  How could it betray her like that?

  But it was a long, shaky, and tumultuous ascent, and Marisol couldn’t think anymore. Couldn’t feel anger anymore. All that was replaced by dread, despair, and horrid thoughts. Kalakos and her army of giants had already sped past them outside the window, and they weren’t ascending nearly as fast.

  They were slow.

  They were caught completely off-guard.

  By the time the bell eventually broke through the surface, the hiss of escaping air was drowned out by the muted sounds of chaos outside. None of the Lighthouse Imperators bothered opening the latch normally. They wait any longer. Andres punched it off its hinges and then threw everyone outside, all the way to the docks of Lighthouse Seven, and Marisol felt her body coming back to her mid-air. She regained control. She flipped forward, landed on her glaives, and ripped off all the threads pressing her arms against her sides.

  The wintry winds bit into her skin, but she barely felt the cold as screams tore into the air all around them.

  Her body—and everyone else’s bodies—moved on instinct.

  They dashed through the docks. No Imperator was standing guard there. They dashed through the back of the lighthouse. The receptionists weren't there, the guards weren't there. They raced out the front of the lighthouse, screeched to a halt at the top of the city, and their eyes widened as they took in the gruesome scene below them.

  The air was thick with the screams of the dying, the clash of steel, and the mournful wail of alarms. Hundreds of Giant-Classes and Mutant-Classes swarmed through the streets, all sorts of crabs, lobsters, beetles, and crayfish tearing through Guards and civilians alike. Kalakos’ massive form writhed and twisted as she tore through the upper city streets. Buildings crumbled beneath her weight, entire districts flattened in an instant. Eurypteria and Rhizocapala had already hopped off and were wreaking havoc. The Water Scorpion God’s tail sliced through buildings like paper, sending debris raining down onto the panicked crowds. Rhizocapala leaped from rooftop to rooftop, spreading his blood around like a plague, sprouting barnacles and grotesque growths wherever it landed.

  The white snow falling from the sky was stained with blood and as Kalakos reared her head to let out a guttural, earth-shaking roar, Marisol only knew one thing for certain.

  The Swarm had breached the whirlpool.

  The volcano island was under siege.

  And this was the dawn of war.

  this story in particular. Obviously, I'm aware it has made reading through Volume Two quite bothersome, but I do believe most of the changes I've made are for the betterment of not just this story, but for the entire series as a whole. Even now, I'm still learning and figuring out this whole series as I go. Improvement is an ever-changing process (especially now as I'm working with a professional editor), and sadly, Volume Two suffered because of the constant changes and retcons.

  very action-packed, and it end Marisol's story in a way that gets me kicking my feet. I can only hope it'll do the same for you.

  should already be completed and fully published on RoyalRoad, so it'll be right on time! Secondly: going forward, T3 Patrons will have twenty advanced chapters to Storm Strider, meaning if you're currently a T3 Patron, you'll be getting an extra twelve advanced chapters for this story! You'll be able to read up to the halfway point of Volume Three right now! will apply for the next spinoff that'll come out mid-April, which is... not telling you (though my Discord already knows)! For that story, T3 Patrons will have access to at least thirty advanced chapters on launch!

  here with over five hundred members, where you can get notifications for chapter updates, check out my writing progress, and read daily facts about this insect-based world!