The day to finally escape from the giant bug nest had come. The residents of the temporary civilization of the nest were restless while selected translators were explaining what to do according to the plan. They also explained that the destruction of some parts of the mountain was one of the possible results of today, so everyone should follow them and not be stubborn.
Amy and Clair were preparing the explosives to make them ready to be planted in proper packaging. Noah and Corvin offered help, but they didn't like how the bombs looked like when the boys packaged them, so with an excuse about fighting with the Queen, the girls stopped the boys from helping them. So Noah and Corvin were just watching the people listen to the translators.
Kharon was checking the state of the amateur armed group he trained in the small time he had. The spearmen were fully armed with light armour and a round shield now that the big day had come. Because there weren't enough professionals, they weren't going to help them fight the Queen or keep the other bugs away while the Queen was being slain by them, so they were just going to protect the escapees.
Acherie hadn't woken up yet, because she pushed herself too hard when helping Noah draw a map of the nest. But the maps were complete, one for the escapees and one for them, who were going to attack the Queen.
"Is Noah really okay?", muttered Clair unconsciously while packing another bomb.
"Hm? What happened to him?", asked Amy who was working on the bombs next to her.
"...Well, it's just that, he saw a nightmare..."
Amy glanced at Noah watching the people in front of him.
"Look at him. He is fine, isn't he?"
"I hope so..."
"And, it's just a nightmare, you know."
"...Amy."
"Hm?"
"C-Can you make a pill that makes fear go away? I think Noah will need that..."
"Why? Do you think he doesn't have courage?"
"No! It's not like that!"
"Then what?"
"Uuhh... I- I'm sorry, I can't tell that to you. It's private..."
Clair couldn't tell Amy that the nightmare Noah saw was of the Horde Queen and the events that surrounded it. That was the cause of a trauma for Noah, and he asked Clair to keep it a secret until he felt comfortable sharing it with everyone.
"Sigh~, I see, you don't need to look so dejected, I understand. I can prepare something, probably."
"Thank you..."
The reason why Acherie was exhausted more than normal and why Noah saw a nightmare was actually the same. Because they had been to where the Horde Queen was. Since they needed to create turmoil around the Queen to alert the nest and take attention away from the escapees, they had to find the Queen's room anyways, so Acherie and Noah took on this task without being asked to, since they figured they would be asked to do that anyways.
And they found it, the Queen's room. The location of it was hidden inside the magical map Noah prepared for the six of them, and excluded from the escapee map and instead showed a dead end of certain death to keep curious people away.
Thankfully, when they arrived, it was already quite late according to their biological clocks, and the Queen was asleep. With Acherie's unique magic hiding them, they didn't wake the giant sleeping monster up.
Just seeing the monster with their eyes and confirming it's location was enough for them. They knew they couldn't stay there much, and they definitely couldn't make a mistake. But even if it was brief, the scene burned itself in Noah's eyes.
The dark pink and purple exoskeleton of the giant, curled up into it's sleeping posture, the way it's armour gleamed, the sharp mandibles coloured pitch black, just like it's many long legs on it's long body, the big compound eyes on it's head resembling that of an ant's, the two long and transparent wings seperated into many different sections by pitch black lines, the long body of a centipede, everything was etched into his mind like a nightmare.
Remembering those days were a pain, and he thought he had healed quite a bit, but the image of the colossus was ruthlessly picking his scabs. But the only reason he was still determined to end that monster's decade old life was again because of the sight in that room.
'It is still wounded...'
The sleeping Horde Queen was intimidating, scary and big. There were no doubts about that fact. But there was something else as well, the damage that was dealt to it under the leadership of his father.
When it first appeared, the Horde Queen was longer than ten meters in length. This was not the case now. It was still a big monster, but it's body was around six meters long. At the end of it's body was a weirdly shaped stub, a part of it's body that was seemingly regrowing, but was nowhere near being completely healed.
That was the reason why Noah was determined to defeat this old foe. To finish what his father started as the next Margrave Vyolor, to overcome his old fears and finally start moving forward with determination.
'I- No, we can do it. We will kill that thing... I can't get cold feet here. I can't hold everyone back.'
*****
After everyone was informed of what to do and any objections dealt with, it was time to put the plan into action.
The first thing to do was planting the bombs in the appropriate places. And so, everyone started to move towards the butchery room. Corvin used his magic to silently move the boulder that was hiding the tunnel that led to this room. Moving everyone here was going to take time since the tunnels were nowhere near as wide as the corridors in the nest, and they also had to be careful to not alert any bugs by the small tremors caused by walking.
While everyone was moving to the butchery room, Amy was preparing a pill for Noah. She moved her hands quickly and created a pill that suppressed fear. Because she didn't have much time to spare, she had to be quick so she sacrificed the taste of the pill along with some side effects like being reckless because of the lack of fear and the partial suppression of survival instincts for the same reason.
When Amy gave the pills to Noah, he refused.
"No, I don't want that."
"Why? Clair asked me to do it, so you probably need it don't you?"
"I might be scared... But I can't take that. How do I say it... I want to overcome this fear by myself."
"Oh... I see."
"And I might not be physically strong like Corvin, but I still am a man, you know? I can't look like a coward in front of Clair."
"Well... If you say so."