A spawn found its way in. That was the thought that sprung Vante on his feet, and with his hand on his scythe shaft, he sprinted out of the house and to the shrine. This left Nazrin, Patchouli, and Mystia in his dust, and the former soon followed.
As a precaution to paranoia, the shaft remained a shaft. It would have wasted a lot of time and what-not if the commotion didn't turn out the way he thought it would, or maybe he just didn't want to. He stopped and hid behind the shrine, peeking at the unfolding scene.
Aesera's spectacular entrance drew the ire of the Chaos spawn. It bared claws and teeth at the human, and for a moment, Wriggle thought that it had gone berserk again.
"It's a rather long story," the ant youkai piped up in her condescending voice without skipping a beat, "You may want to prepare yourself for one before she starts." Her tongue nearly slipped on its first few words, since she had just stopped trying to figure out how Wriggle had succeeded.
Wriggle, without moving from her place, slowly turned her head to the ant and gave her a disapproving glare. The incoming headache deepened her frown. The firefly had to bite back a retort to answer to the human. "Don't mind her. This... thing is an insect, and- Has anyone told you about me? No, I guess not."
"Fine, I'll continue. This thing is an insect, and I can control insects. Okay, wait, these monsters really aren't insects. Like she," Wriggle pointed to the queen without looking at her, "said a while back, it's a long story." Her voice began slowing down.
The abomination still stood its ground, in the same way it did before being tamed. Its new master clicked her tongue, and it scuttled beside her, albeit reluctantly, while snapping its bladed appendages warily at what it thought was a threat.
It seemed that the real questioning had begun. "Okay, so who is that youkai with you?" Aesera asked.
"That is-"
"I am the queen of all ants, and formerly the-"
"Oh, shut up." Both of them did.
"Please continue," Aesera said.
Wriggle moved her hand to stroke the spawn's slimy, black skin. "Well, I was attacked by it-"
"I wouldn't even touch that with a mile-long pole, if I were you, Wriggle."
The firefly nearly jumped. As everyone looked at the source of the new voice, even the Chaos spawn turned, almost breaking into a charge. It took a moment's notice to put the spawn's aggressiveness in check.
Vante was to Aesera's far left when he was spotted. He was nearer to the insects than he was to her, but the distances weren't really large. Aesera noticed that he didn't bring any weapon with him, and instead it was left with Nazrin, who was staying in between her and Vante. The mouse youkai didn't make a sound. Maybe she had just tagged along to see what was happening.
"Mystia's sleeping," Vante was barely audible, but it was loud enough for Aesera understand. Nazrin was not his partner.
"I guess I'd better get to explaining," was all that Wriggle could say.
"You'd better," the ant advised, "You wouldn't want to keep them waiting."
"Okay, let's start with how it became an insect. Vante would know this already. I was attacked by this blob here, and I fought back, but instead of magic, I used killer insects, 'cause this thing didn't play by the Spell Card Rules."
"Wait, they don't follow the Rules?" Nazrin asked, her head perking up, "They possessed people, but they still fought under them."
"But we almost got killed by them, too," Vante pointed out, crossing his arms and trying to warm himself from the inherent chill of the Chaos spawn's presence. Aesera did not raise any questions yet, as she was still intent on listening.
"Anyway, the blob absorbed the insects like water to soil. It wasn't even hurt. And then it transformed into this thing," Wriggle directed their attention to the Chaos spawn, heightening its alarm, "although it wasn't as... uh, bad as this."
"Oh, and did I mention that it got away?" the Ant Queen (as labelled in both Wriggle and Aesera's minds) gave a sardonic smile and a hearty laugh.
"Sino ka?" It came out so instinctively that the words only registered in Vante's mind seconds later. His skin went even colder.
"Pardon me, what did you say?" the ant was still able to detect a hint of thinning patience in his voice.
Oh shoot. He stopped jittering. "Sorry, I meant to ask about who you were. I'm not a native of Japan."
"Both of you, shut up!" The headache was taking its toll on Wriggle's mind. Her new servant hissed at the two, stamping its feet into the stone.
"So if all this were to be true, then I will guess that you called the then untamed beast," Aesera surmised, "and it came under your control."
"Yeah, but not without lots of effort. The thing nearly killed me," Wriggle's head began to lean forward from drowsiness and sheer tiredness. "And now you have the situation here: the thing standing by me."
