…

Uncharted Lands

…

Gregor leapt off the ledge, striking towards Azel's face with his sword, but she backpedaled out of range faster than he thought possible given her large form. He slid down the embankment, catching his footing at the base of the cavern.

All around him, cutters converged on his position. The Queen lingered behind them, content to let her children die for her. "You versus me, huh?" Gregor asked pointedly as he began to spin, easily tearing through the smaller cutters.

As Gregor spun, his vision sharpened and fragmented into little bursts of movements. It was something he'd never experienced before. Ripred had told him about it, but he'd never quite believed it. He was raging, but he wasn't actually angry. He was in complete control. It was empowering. It was freeing. He let out a laugh. Finally, he was solely protecting. He didn't fight Azel out of anger, or some desire for vengeance. He fought her out of necessity.

Out of nowhere, Azel's mandibles shot towards his head. He ducked under the blow, scoring a glancing hit along the Queen's face, but was instantly forced back by a swarm of cutters, one of which nicked him on the arm. He spun away, wincing, glaring at the Queen. "Not playing fair, are we?" he demanded.

"The only law in the darkness is the law of survival," Azel repeated simply.

"Yeah," Gregor said, gritting his teeth. "I've heard that twice now, and I'm already sick of it." He charged back towards the Queen, disemboweling three cutters before ducking underneath Azel's blow. He slid underneath the Queen's massive body, scoring two hits on her armored underbelly before rolling out the other side. He could win this. The Queen was fast, and raged well—but her gargantuan size prevented her moving quite as fast as Gregor did. He simply had less mass to move. He spun around the Queen, dodging each blow by a millisecond and starting to chop away at her legs.

With a mighty two-handed whack, Gregor cut one of the Queen's legs off entirely. Letting out a cry, Azel spun her head and her left mandible slammed into his chest, sending Gregor flying across the cavern. His back slammed against the wall, and Gregor felt at least a few of his ribs crack. He stood, dazed, fending off the few cutters that tried to kill him while he was down.

The Queen was more pissed than injured. Hate radiated out her beady black eyes. "You may be fast and strong, Warrior," she hissed. "But is Helena?"

Helena, from the entrance of the tunnel, yelped. Gregor had been so focused on Azel he'd almost forgotten she was there. As he watched, ten cutters diverted away for him and swarmed up the wall towards Helena.

"DON'T COME AFTER ME, GREGOR!" she yelled as she ran away down the tunnel, the cutters hot on her tail. Gregor hesitated, but didn't follow, turning back to Azel.

"How is she still so brave?" Azel hissed.

"You didn't break her," Gregor taunted. "She's stronger than you."

With a screech, Azel darted across the cavern. Gregor barely rolled out of the way in time, rubble spraying free as the Queen's mandibles tore a large gash in the wall. Gregor chopped at Azel's leg, and this time, anticipating the move, ducked under the swing of her mandible. Suddenly he sensed rather than saw five cutters behind him. Spinning, he deflected Azel's next attack while quickly eviscerating two of the cutters. He danced out of range, catching his breath.

"You're fast, but not faster than me," Gregor continued to taunt. "You're strong, but I'm more precise." Gregor saw Azel's eyes splinter with rage as she charged him. The cutter Queen was certainly not a rager of Ripred's caliber, who had controlled his raging into a fine art. With Gregor's newfound sense of purpose and control, he found the battle remarkably simple. He ducked directly under the Queen's charge and swung with all his might, dislodging a piece of armor on her underbelly. The pale, vulnerable organs were red and easily visible through thin membrane underneath.

One more blow in that area, and the Queen would die. He made to strike, but he saw the Queen's body tense, and he rolled out of the way right as she slammed flat on the floor in an attempt to crush him. His best opening yet presented itself, and he took out the Queen's right eye.

The Queen screamed something unholy, twitching and retreating in on herself to the far end of the cavern. What remained of her cutter guards surged forward, forming a wall between him and the Queen. His expression flat, he tore through the guards with ease. Suddenly, the Queen was all alone, her back to the enclave.

Azel's mandibles twitched anxiously, and her one good eye flicked from side to side. She seemed disoriented. The brief amount of time it had taken Gregor to cut down her guards had not given her enough time to recover. Gregor darted forward grimly. It was time to finish this.

"Wait!" Azel cried out, and despite his better judgment, Gregor slid to a stop.

"Wait," Azel twitched, dragging herself backwards into the enclave. "I'll stop the attack. Cutters will leave this land forever."

"How can I trust you?" Gregor demanded.

Azel twitched nervously. "Send Helena to confirm—"

"Too slow," Gregor said coldly. "Every moment I waste not killing you is another life lost. I'm sorry, I cannot accept that. Not when those I love are at stake."

Azel sneered. "Then kill me, Killer. Embrace what I know you to be, rager. Extinguish my line, end the cutter species. You'll be a hero."

Gregor said nothing. He rushed forward, swinging towards the Queen's face. As the Queen flinched back, he saw the end of the battle seconds before it happened.

Azel lashed back out with her mandibles. Gregor dodged and thrusted his sword at her good eye, and she reared back. As she did so, Gregor slid forward on one knee and impaled the great Queen through the weak spot on her belly, her dark guts and exploding outwards.

The Queen let out a deep, dying screech, and before Gregor could react, collapsed on top of him.

Hot. Burning. Disemboweled blood and guts slushed all round him. He was inside the Queen's body. His lungs choked and heaved on her thick blood. Working quickly with his sword, he chopped away at her guts, digging a hole for himself upwards. With his echolocation, he could make out the inside of the armor that covered her back. He wedged his sword into a gap and pried one of the armored plates free.

Suddenly, Gregor was gasping in open air, his body half out of the Queen's back. He'd cut a hole clean through the Queen's torso. He looked down at Azel's face. Her one good eye was hazy, and her legs had stopped twitching. She was dead.

Gregor slid the rest of his body out of the Queen, rolling down her side and collapsing hard on the cold stone. He vomited all over, cutter guts and gore splattering from his mouth over the floor. For a long moment, he remained there on his hands and knees, covered from head to toe in the filth. Was it really over?

Suddenly, he remembered. "Helena!" he cried out, jumping to his feet. Scrambling across the cavern and up the embankment, he ran down the tunnel and around the bend towards the chamber with the larva. When he entered the larva chamber, he was greeted by a strange sight.

Helena stood directly by the larva, her thin knife pressed directly against the thin white membrane of the larva. The ten cutters that had been sent to kill her watched Helena in a daze, almost unmoving.

"What's going on?" Gregor said slowly.

Helena gasped when she saw him. "Are you hurt?" she asked.

Gregor shook his head. "No. A few cracked ribs, but the blood is all hers. Azel's dead."

Helena's shoulders relaxed and her gaze grew distant. "I… am glad." A part of her seemed lighter, freer.

Gregor gestured to the cutters around her with his sword. "Why aren't they attacking?"

She snapped back into focus. "I think it has to do with this larva," she said excitedly. "Ant queens give the orders, right? They control the minds of their colony—they do all the thinking for their workers. As long as I'm touching the larva, I can give them orders. Look." she said, putting the palm of her hand on the larva. "Jump!"

All ten cutters jumped at once, or at least attempted to. After the order was followed, they immediately settled back into their docile complacency. Gregor smiled widely. "This is great news!" Realization washed over him. "Did you—"

"Yes," Helena said, cutting him off. "It's over. The cutter invasion is over," she said.

Gregor's sword lowered. Over. It was really over. He laughed, darting forward and embracing Helena.

"Ew," she said. "Not while you're covered in cutter guts."

Gregor pulled away, still laughing. "Sorry," he said, feeling incredibly light. "I can't believe it."

Helena smiled. "I've ordered all cutters to return to the lair at once. They won't post a threat to us ever again. The question remains though… what do we do with this larva?"

He hesitated. If they killed it now, the cutters would slowly die off without a Queen to reproduce. The Underland would never again be threatened by a hostile cutter Queen. All logic said that Gregor should kill the larva and be done with it.

Then Azel's haunting, mocking voice returned to him. He thought about the living, breathing creature beneath that thin, vulnerable membrane. It knew nothing of this world, and had no hate in it yet. It was not evil simply because it was born cutter. Wasn't violence supposed to be the last resort? Mind made up, Gregor sheathed his sword.

"Are you sure?" Helena said slowly. "We could take it with us, as insurance. Control the cutters from afar."

Gregor shook his head immediately. "No. Someone would kill it out of hate, or use it for their own gain. The cutters must remain independent, and this larva… she has the right to choose her people's fate." He placed a bloody hand on the larva, feeling it pulsate underneath his touch. He smiled. "This will be our secret for now. The Underland is not ready for the truth. Not yet. But one day, it will be. One day, even the cutters will choose peace. I have to believe that. I have to have hope for the future, because otherwise, what's the point of living?"

Helena nodded, smiling to herself. "I like you better this way, Gregor," she said. "You'll make a good king."

Gregor blushed, thinking of Luxa, and then worry shot through him. "Let's hurry back," he said. "There could be many injured."

Helena nodded in agreement, and the two darted back down the tunnels to find Neptune.

…

The Fount

…

James had long since used up all of his ammunition. Now, weaponless, he silently watched the cutter horde slowly pile up towards the top of the inner wall.

Above him, bonded fliers dived, with the humans lighting individual cutters on fire with their torches while the bats flung cutters up into the air and out into the abyss. It only slowed the inevitable. Without more barrels of oil, the defense could not cook the entire horde the way they had at the outer wall. Within minutes, the inner wall would fall.

Mareth put a hand on his shoulder, his face ashen. He'd obviously reached the same conclusion James had. "What should we do?" James asked quietly.

Mareth spared a glance at him. "I will fall with my city. I will call a flier for you to take you home."

James hesitated. His daughters needed him—he couldn't die here. He gave a quick nod. "Alright."

Mareth let out a long whistle for Araxes, and as he did, James looked out one final time over the cutter horde. He almost laughed. In the distance, he could finally see the end of the horde. Their numbers were finite. However, it didn't matter. The cutters would overwhelm the last of the defenses long before they were wiped out, and destroy the city. The fact that the end of the invasion force was in sight seemed almost like a taunt. Maybe if they'd had more oil, a bit more luck, they would have won. Around him, he noticed soldiers bristling, noting the same thing he saw.

Then, a ripple of motion seemed to run through the entire cutter horde, starting at the distant back line and rolling forward all the way to the front line, mere feet from him down the wall. James stared into the beady black eyes of the cutter less than ten feet beneath him. Its mandibles twitched, antennas flicking.

All of a sudden, the cutters began to retreat as fast as they had come. The mountain of cutters against the inner wall dispersed in an instant, pouring back over the outer wall, rushing out of the city and into the cavern. James and the soldiers could only watch, dumbfounded. The attacks from above ceased as a moment of silence set in.

Then, someone cheered, and then everyone was cheering, swords thrusting into the air, strangers hugging. Some men slumped against the battlement, overwhelmed by the moment. James laughed as Mareth embraced him. "Gregor did it!" Mareth exclaimed. "Your son did it!"

Realization flooded him and the widest grin James had ever had in his life stretched across his face. "You're right!" he yelled over the cheers. "Only Gregor getting to the Queen could explain this!"

Far below, on the distant port side of the city, cheers broke out amongst the waiting civilians. The day had been won, and nothing was more energizing than hope. Spinners embraced fliers, gnawers embraced nibblers, and even the diggers appeared out of the ground and seemed surprised when they were embraced by the human defenders.

To his surprise, James observed several new bonds being formed between members of all species. What was once a tradition reserved for humans and fliers was now being embraced by all the creatures of the Underland. James blinked back tears, deeply moved, thinking about his years of imprisonment by Gorger. How far this world had come. How much they could teach those that lived above.

James spun as chants broke out further down the wall. "LUXA! LUXA! LUXA!" James saw the young queen quickly climb up a pile of boxes, standing tall above the crowd on the wall and raising her hand for silence. Somehow, the crowd fell quiet.

"IN THE YEARS THAT FOLLOW, LET US NOT FORGET THIS DAY," Luxa declared. "THE DAY WE CAME TOGETHER AS ONE, THE DAY WE SET ASIDE OUR DIFFERENCES AND RALLIED BEHIND OUR COLLECTIVE RIGHT TO LIFE. TO LIGHT."

The queen took a deep breath. James was impressed she was still standing, given the extent of her injuries. Some strange power, energy seemed to radiate from her, keeping her uplight and electrifying her violet eyes.

"WE MUST ADMIT THAT WAR IS AN UNACCEPTABLE WAY OF SOLVING OUR DIFFERENCES," Luxa cried out. "I AM AS GUILTY OF THIS AS ANYONE, BUT THE UNDERLAND HAS SEEN MUCH DEATH THESE LAST SEVEN YEARS. WHEN WILL THE BLOOD SPILT GROW UNCONSCIONABLE? WHEN WILL IT BE ENOUGH?"

Luxa swung her sword wildly out over the crowd, a few people closest to her taking a step back. Suddenly, she spun towards the edge of the wall and flung her sword off its side, blade glimmering as it flew through the air and sank into the mountain of cutter corpses far below.

"I SAY TODAY, WE CHOOSE TO LIVE BESIDE ONE ANOTHER! I SAY TODAY, WE FIND COMMON RESPECT AND UNDERSTANDING IN ONE ANOTHER!" Luxa bellowed, and the crowd began to roar. "I SAY FROM TODAY FORTH, WE CHOOSE PEACE!"

The crowd descended into mayhem, cheering Luxa's name. She was swept off her feet by a massive man James recognized faintly as York, and carried on his shoulders through the thick crowd that flocked towards her. She raised a fist as she was carried through the sea of life, a mingling of all creatures of the Underland.

James knew he was watching history, but ever so slowly, his stomach began to sink. For so long, he had fought for his son, and told himself that he would be able to let his son go when the time came. That moment was fast approaching now, wasn't it? James leaned back against the battlement for support as the crowd continued to roar their approval around him. He thought back to the first time he had held his boy. Grace's proud expression, Gregor's big brown eyes. So innocent. His boy. Now, that little boy was a man. James knew this place would save him, if it hadn't already. His son had chosen his own destiny, and that was a good thing. He'd failed his son in so many ways… did he even have a right to hurt as he did?

James gripped his chest, taking deep and careful breaths. "I'm happy for him," he said. The hurt diminished a little. "If I really love him," he said to himself, cheering bodies pressed all around him, "I need to let him go."

…

Outside Regalia

…

As Neptune emerged out of the tunnels and back into the open air of the great cavern of Regalia, Helena began to cough horribly, smoke invading her nostrils. "What is that?" she managed to hack out.

Gregor frowned, covering his nose with one hand and hanging onto Neptune with the other. "We should investigate," he coughed, and Neptune banked sharply towards the source of the smoke.

As they drew closer, the air seemed to quake around them. Helena heard faint booms. That could only be…

"The Overlanders are here," Gregor said before she could. "What are they doing?"

Neptune dived through the thick smoke, and nearly collided with a metal hovering object as he did. It was painted black and red, with bombs hanging underneath it. "It's a bombing drone!" Helena exclaimed. Her lungs heaved. It was getting harder and harder to breathe.

Gregor coughed bitterly. "The fools. Down here, the air gets trapped. With this amount of firepower, they're going to smoke out the whole Underland!"

"I can fly a bit longer," Neptune gritted out.

"We need to find the Overlander soldiers," Helena said. "Head towards the second entrance." It was hard to see through all the smoke, but Helena could sense it with her echolocation faintly up ahead, swamped with Overlander soldiers. As they descended, the smoke began to thin, and Helena nearly retched at what she saw.

Overlander soldiers rained bombs down upon the fleeing cutter soldiers, shredding huge chunks of their force to bits. Cutter parts and blood rained everywhere. The entire cavern glowed and bled red. At the edge of the tunnel to the Overland entrance stood fifty American soldiers, control pads in their hands as they directed the small army of drones on the bombing run. Not a single cutter was trying to attack them.

The Americans didn't notice their approach through the smoke until they were within fifty feet. As they raised their guns, Gregor and Helena raised their hands high where they could see them, so they held their fire.

Neptune half-landed, half-collapsed next to them, and Helena frantically motioned for a gas mask. Two were pressed into Gregor and Helena's hands, and a soldier pressed one tight against Neptune's snout. Gregor gasped for breath into the mask for several long seconds. Between the battle with Azel, nearly drowning in cutter guts, and now the smoke, it was too much for him. He curled up on the ground. Helena took the lead, straightening angrily. "WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?" she screamed.

A man stepped forward. "I am. Captain Johnston," he said.

"STOP THIS MADNESS AT ONCE," Helena raged. "YOU'RE POISONING THE AIR OF THE UNDERLAND."

Captain Johnston looked confused. "This is the only thing working against these ants," he argued. "If we stop bombing them, they'll attack again!"

Helena half-laughed, half-rasped: "You're a fool if you think your attack is what is causing their retreat. Let them run. The war has been won."

Captain Johnston recoiled. "Why would they—"

"YOU ARE NOT AN UNDERLANDER!" Helena screamed. "LISTEN! EVERY SECOND YOU CONTINUE BOMBING, THE MORE YOU POISON THE AIR!" Her voice grew more raspy. "If you wish to support the Underlanders and win their trust back, you must stop the bombing at once."

Captain Johnston hesitated, then angrily gave a quick signal to his men. "If they attack again, I'm resuming the bombing," he warned. "I will not forfeit the lives of my men."

What about the tens of thousands of Underlanders, Helena thought. What about the fact that none of them had gas masks to avoid inhaling the poisoned fumes in the air? Helena glared angrily at Captain Johnston's back as he stalked away. Despite the victory against the cutters, Helena couldn't help but feel that the Underland's troubles were far from over.

…

Author's Notes

Well, that makes for the longest chapter of this fic by far. That does it for the cutter war. However, the new Underland unity is still under threat. Setting aside Captain Johnston's bombing run, remember that Mr. Barwell is now free and plotting an assassination of Luxa…

Still several more chapters to go, but the end is in sight. Hope you all enjoyed this one.

- Gyltig