"Use your bugs, my sense of smell may be better than yours, but it's not so good that I can find an exact location, summon a swarm… ugh, if only they'd just waited to question you we could have just broken out, broken into their office, and searched for a location that way, they'd definitely have had correspondence, maybe we could even have tracked their scouting party." Inta admitted and shrugged.
"You could have just let it happen." Entoma suggested.
"No. I could not." Inta retorted with finality and crossed his arms.
'There's no arguing with him when he's like this.' Entoma reflected, 'I hope Lord Ainz will forgive my failure to take the easy win over a few injuries.' She thought and cast her spell. "Burrowing swarm!" She called out, and tens of thousands of buzzing wasps appeared as a tornado in front of her, she pointed to the sand and shouted, "Search!"
Every few feet a wasp hit the ground, creating a blanket of black and buzzing insect wings and scratching legs, the carpet of working bugs sent torrents of sand into the air which was picked up by the wind to create a small, localized storm. 'It may not be here, but it is damn close, I wouldn't be surprised if this oasis was created just to supply their hideaway.' Inta considered as he watched Entoma guide the insects around, they moved in a massive, orderly grid, tearing through dunes and leveling the ground again and again, removing the hills of sand from existence one after another until…
"There." Entoma said and pointed a bowshot away at a distant dune. Inta followed her gesture, her arm shaking in pain from moving the injured arm, she still held the position until Inta's hand touched an uninjured spot and he gently pushed it down again.
"I see it. I see it." He said in a hushed whisper, then began to trek toward it, his feet sinking into the sand with every step. When he was close, he tapped the stone, at first glance, nothing special. Just a cut lump of brown rock set in a frame that angled down into the ground.
"Do you think they have a lot of holes like this?" Entoma asked when she stood at his side again.
"I-I don't know, but that's a very good question." Inta answered her as he stepped back and put his hands on his hips. "If they make a lot of these, beating the Devor will be easy, but crushing them completely will take… who knows? Generations? Between the mountains, wilds, and the sheer amount of territory between here and Mict'aratz alone, let alone farther east with the Tlachopan?" The scale of the coming conflict hit Inta just then… "We'll be a long time establishing settlements there, and…"
"The Empire will change a lot, all new nobles will rise up, new cities, new ideas, our students will have more opportunities than anyone can dream, and… so will our children." Entoma pointed out, and Inta's mouth dropped open as if to speak, but she killed the chance to reply by leveling her hand at the sealed door and casting her spell, "Bombardier!"
A large gray carapace covered insect rolled out of nowhere and rushed toward the door like a ball, and then it ground to a halt, its back to the door, it unleashed a torrent of foul smelling liquid and gas, the door might have been solid, but it was not a perfect seal and the gas began to filter within.
"Step aside." Entoma instructed, and the pair split apart to stand away from the door.
From within, shouts and screams began to go up, the sound of retching, vomiting, and voiding bowels was a storm hidden behind the door of stone, and then came the sound of trampling feet.
"Out of the way, out of the way, out of the way!" Voice after voice went up from within as the noise of charging feet continued, it was slower, far slower than a human might have moved, but the weight of every mass of steps shook the stone.
'More anakores, they seem to dominate this location. I haven't seen these in-' Inta thought and clutched his head as a splitting pain ripped through his mind. The sound of fumbling hands and claws forced the thought away and he struck a combat stance.
Entoma shook her head when he slid one foot back and a ball of blood formed, hovering above his outstretched hand.
She tilted her head back, and he looked over his shoulder, the wasps were approaching en masse, the door toppled down like a drawbridge, crashing into the sand and scattering it, giving the anakores that still hacked and coughed, one horrified moment before the black tornado hit them all at once.
The insects swarmed inside their mouths, stung their eyes, crawled into every orifice, stinging all the way, their cries and desperate swatting killing dozens out of the thousands, but their hardened bodies had soft insides, and they could not close their noses, mouths, eyes… or anything else.
They struggled to run, fleeing pain, unable to even speak any martial arts if they had any, or concentrate enough to cast spells if any were known. They ran.
And ran.
And fell.
Their bodies began to undergo seizures in the sands as the insects continued to torment the dying until their final moment. The bodies began to swell as they were stung inside their stomachs, lungs, and the insects began to devour them from within.
Ten thousand little chewing mouths gnawed and ate away at dead flesh from the inside out before Inta turned away, content that it was over. "Ouch." Was all he said and he walked inside the dim entrance and down the long steps that led beneath the ground.
"They shelled me, I hollowed them out. Fitting." Entoma said with a succinct nod and fell in beside Inta, he put his arm around her waist and held her up, allowing her to hobble down into the darkness at a pace comfortable for her.
"Do you think Watson is all right?" Entoma asked.
"You're not angry at him?" Inta asked, "Or are you asking so you can think of ways to make him pay, later?"
"We wanted in, he got us in. The rest is on the Devor." Entoma answered, "They seem to just love stacking blood debts against themselves."
Inta snorted, "They do that." The headache threatened to return, and so he focused on helping her down the steps, her slender body felt so small, wrapped in his arm as it was, and every step she took, he could feel the wince run up and down from head to toe. "But I think he's fine, they'll hail us for heroes when we get back… but let's not wait for him, when we have the Queen, we'll go back 'my' way. You shouldn't be walking right now."
"Are you offering to carry me instead?" Entoma chortled as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"If you would allow me?" Inta prompted.
Entoma stopped, the agony in her body was worse than she wanted to admit, the carapace armor over her flesh was vital, and the muscle within even more tender than what lay beneath human skin. Worse, the insecticide was still burning and showed no sign of stopping its brutal assault. Lethal or not, her flesh felt like it was on fire, so she nodded, and answered… "Just this once. Just you. Only you."
Then Inta stepped away, crouched down, and allowed her to fold herself against his back before he rose to his feet once more, and then he resumed the walk forward, with Entoma clinging to his back.