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It’s not like the Bug Empress wanted to give humans so breathing room...
She, above all else, knows just how terrifying humans could be, especially when they’re give ti and resources. Humans don’t cling to the past, they honor it by pressing forward, even if it ans leaving a burning trail behind them.
Alas, as much as she wanted to continue harassing them, she couldn’t. At least, not recently.
Around 20 years after Pelle’s return from his failure, sothing unexpected happened to The Horde.
Cain, the Bug Empress’ youngest, suddenly fell violently ill.
He woke up in pain and agony, he writhed in the bed, crying and calling out for her help.
And as her sweetest, most pitiable, and kindest child she ever had, of course the Bug Empress will do everything to save him.
Cain was the favorite of the family, everybody knows this. And it wasn’t just because he was cute, but because he was innocent.
Because of the Bug Empress’ act of ressurecting them, a curse had been inflicted on her children and husband. Anuman - her husband, was cursed with silence. Pelle and Maricel was cursed with infertility...
And Cain, with perpetual youth.
Cain, no matter how many years passed by, will never grow up or develop a mature mindset. He will stay as a child for the rest of his life, or until the Bug Empress does sothing about it. Which she can’t, for the longest of ti.
Because of his childish innocence, Cain was considered ’pure’ by everybody. In their eyes, he could never do anything wrong. He just wants to play, eat, and sleep all day long. He immitates what he sees, ask many questions, brought smile, youth, and energy wherever he goes, and would do his best to comfort anybody who’s feeling down.
It wasn’t just the Bug Empress’ family that dotes on him, the entire race do.
They’d let you speak badly of the Bug Empress, her husband, Pelle and/or Maricel, but never Cain...never him. They’d willingly lay down their lives for the youngest prince and would even dare to defy the Bug Empress if necessary.
So you see, after the Bug Empress, Cain was the next most important thing to The Horde.
That’s why when he suddenly fell ill, the entire race was concerned.
This matter isn’t sothing that the Bug Empress herself can keep under wraps. The first ti the youngest prince cried, the whole hive mind flared to life and panicked.
Everybody fussed. Operations halted and shifted priorities. dics were called, procedures followed. Everybody went on alert and waited for updates about the youngest prince’s status.
As for the Bug Empress herself, she was stressed. Probably the most out of everybody.
This wasn’t so simple illness, it was sothing else. A backlash of the curse.
At first, they all thought that it was Pelle who allowed this to happen. After all, he was the one who interacted with Cain first the mont he got back.
They all thought that he brought back so unknown illness from the outside and passed it on to him.
Pelle himself thought so too. He even voluntarily went into isolation and ordered every dics to check for any signs of viral infection, dirt, curse, hex, or anything that might apply that can be passed to his youngest brother.
He was crushed too. His remorse was sky high that the entire hive mind could feel it. So much so that even the Bug Empress, who was planning to chastise him, decided not to after witnessing how devastated he was.
But the results returned clean. They tested again and again. Pelle practically allowed himself to be disected by the dics just so that they could see the source.
Alas, there was nothing. He wasn’t infected with anything. He was clean and therefore, not at fault here.
Even the idea that maybe the illness was on him first and then shifted to Cain was rebuked because there’s literally no trace left behind on him.
It’s only after an extensive research that they learned that this was the backlash of the curse placed upon Cain by the Supre Will.
The law of ti itself was staring dead straight at the anomaly that is Cain.
In the eyes of Ti Laws, Cain was an impossibility, sothing that’s not allowed. It could accept him if Cain was ntally mature despire his immature physique. But for him not to show any signs, even a hint, of growth? That shouldn’t be possible.
Sure, stagnation was a facet of Ti Laws too, but this wasn’t stagnation. Cain waa an anomaly of ti, one that is not allowed.
And so, the Ti Laws began correcting him. And that’s where the complication began. Because of the Supre Will’s curse, Ti Laws cannot ’correct’ Cain.
Ti Laws, being a concept law, was amoral. It doesn’t ask for permission, doesn’t ask consent, doesn’t care if the targetted party would suffer. It just does what it should, regardless of what others think.
The Supre Will was above it and it doesn’t understand the curse placed upon Cain, but it also couldn’t allow Cain to continue existing as is because he could destablize sothing at the grand sche of things.
Hence, everything resulted to Cain’s perpetual agony.
The Bug Empress herself was forced to watch as he youngest was tortuned by elents she does not understand. She saw Cain aging before him only to revert back to his original appearance due to the Supre Will’s curse.
The entire process was nothing short of a torture for the young child.
Her heart broke when, in a miraculous streak, Cain regained consciousness and tried to bravely stifle his own cries because he saw her crying. He always said that he doesn’t like when he sees soone crying, especially his mom.
He thought that she’s crying because of him, because he was in pain. So, for her to stop crying, he’d pretend that it wasn’t painful, that’s he’s fine. He tried to smile despite the pain, but fainted right after.
Hell, everybody saw that happen and was heart broken too, so even wailed outright. The Bug Empress nearly fainted right then and there, Pelle fell to his knees, Maricel sobbed soundlessly, and the entire horde cursed the Supre Will for its cruelty.
That’s when the entire race moved in unison. Even without the Bug Empress’ orders, they began working hard.
Maricel was at the center of it all. As one of the most intelligent bugs out there, she frantically thought of ways to aid her sweet and pitiful brother.
She searched for thods, rituals, ways to alleviate him of his pain. Of course, she didn’t move on her own. Pelle practically turned into a slave for her. If she points him to whatever direction, he would march with his fearless and snarling army to get whatever she needed.
The entirety of the Crimson Womb Chaos Realm moved as a unit to save their young prince. It’s an incredible show of unity, progress, and movent that would surely stun every other race had it been shown to them.
This went on for a while, aning that Cain had to endure this agony just as long. But eventually, they figured out sothing.
Maricel invented sothing.
She has discovered the cause of Cain’s suffering and made a tool that hid him from the eyes of ti itself.
The worst part is that they have to hold down Cain to prevent him from thrashing around because this tool had to been embedded to his soul, but this was tbe solution they needed.
She hated every second of etching this tool into him. If there’s one thing she, or any bug really, couldn’t stand, it’s to see Cain in pain. Hurting him was equivalent to blasphemy in their eyes, but alas, this was a necessary thing to do.
Finally, after days of strapping Cain into belts, keeping him still while they embed the tool Maricel created to make him invisible to the eyes of ti, they finally suceeded.
And the relief was almost imdiate.
Cain disappeared to the eyes of ti, and seeing that there’s no target anymore. The attention disappeared.
The young prince breathed evenly and comfortably for once after such a long ti. Pain ebbed away from his expression and his peaceful slumber followed.
All of The Horde celebrated, albeit quietly so as to not disturb the prince’s peaceful slumber.
The Bug Empress wept in relief. Maricel followed, and Pelle too. All while Anuman kept his silence, but even he showed visible relief.
The young prince woke up after a week and he was ravenous. He ate a lot, complained, then played, celebrated, and thanked Marical for saving him.
He was back as his usual self. The ordeal that lasted for almost a century had been completely forgotten by him and all of The Horde celebrated.
Though, in truth, sothing has indeed changed within Cain, he just doesn’t show it. He kept it close to his heart.
As for the Bug Empress, she was enlightened.
Her youngest might’ve forgotten that entire ordeal but not her.
Oh, she was pissed. She wanted revenge. And she was reminded of why she beca the way she was in the first place.
Fuck the humans! Fuck the other races! And fuck the Supre Will especially!
The distraction ends here! The Supre Will had been a thorn on her side for far too long and it’s ti for her to end its reign...even if it ant the destruction of everything else.
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