Cris slumped against the damp alley wall, still wheezing from the fight. His tie hung loose, his shoes were scuffed, and his dignity had evaporated somewhere around the third time he screamed like a child.
"Okay," he panted, holding up a finger like a man bargaining with death. "Time out. I need… a moment. Just one moment to… not die."
The ants did not share his exhaustion. Their voices thrummed in his mind like a hive chorus, steady and solemn.
"Hunter retreated, but will not stop. More will follow."
Cris threw his head back with a groan. "Yeah, I figured. The creepy blue glow wasn't exactly saying, 'Have a nice day.'"
He rubbed his chest where the fragment still pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat that wasn't his own. "So. Let's talk about it. Who—no, what ,was that thing? And don't give me the usual 'danger persists' crap. I want answers."
Silence stretched. Then, one by one, the ants spoke, not in their usual cryptic snippets, but in woven phrases that painted vivid pictures inside his mind.
"They are the Voidsworn. A race not born of soil or sun. Forged in collapse between stars. Hungry shadows clothed in false flesh."
Cris blinked. "Voidsworn? That sounds like a knock-off heavy metal band."
The ants ignored him, their voices growing heavier.
"They hunt fragments of the Great Relics. Each shard is a seed of creation… or destruction. To consume one is to bear weight of ancient wars. The queen hid hers, but hunters never cease."
Cris shivered. Images not his own flickered through his mind, skies torn open by rifts, insect armies clashing against figures cloaked in darkness, fragments glowing like falling stars.
He shook his head violently. "Nope, nope, stop with the cosmic horror slideshow. My brain's not ready for Lord of the Rings but with bugs."
Still, one detail stuck like glue. "Wait. You said… the queen hid hers? Then why the hell is mine in me? I didn't sign up for any galactic bug war."
The ants hummed in grim unison.
"Accident of fate. Host consumed fragment unknowingly. Yet fragment chose to remain. Choice… is never accident."
Cris pressed his palms into his eyes, groaning louder. "So let me get this straight. I accidentally ate a piece of ancient space jewelry, now some cosmic boogeymen called Voidsworn want to chop me up for it, and you guys expect me to just… what? Swing my bug-sword around until I save the universe?!"
"Yes."
Cris dropped his hands and glared at the empty alley, voice cracking. "That wasn't a rhetorical question!"
For a moment, silence returned, except for the faint buzz of neon lights overhead. Then one ant's voice, older, steadier, cut through.
"Voidsworn are enemies older than your world. They consume light, devour memory. Only relic-bearers can resist. That is why queen passed fragment to host. That is why we remain."
The words carried weight, like an oath.
Cris wanted to argue, to scream, to deny everything. But his body still hummed with residual energy from the fight. His hands trembled, not just from fear, but from the aftershock of wielding power he never imagined.
For once, he didn't crack a joke. He just whispered, "And if I lose?"
The ants' reply was simple.
"Then all lose."
A chill ran down his spine.
He exhaled shakily, forcing a laugh to break the tension. "No pressure then. Just me, a bunch of sarcastic ants, and the survival of the world. Great. Just great."
He pushed himself to his feet, brushing dirt off his pants. His legs wobbled, but he stood anyway. The city noise slowly bled back into the night, cars honking, music spilling from a bar, the oblivious hum of ordinary life.
Nobody else knew that a Voidsworn hunter had just walked their streets. Nobody else knew that reality itself was balancing on a tired office worker who couldn't even finish his reports on time.
Cris sighed. "Fine. If I'm stuck with this… then you bugs better keep pulling your weight. Next time, I want an instruction manual. Or at least a tutorial mode."
The ants buzzed faintly, and though they had no mouths, he swore he could hear amusement in their tone.
"Tutorial begins… when next battle arrives."
Cris groaned. "Of course it does."
He staggered out of the alley, half expecting another hunter to drop from the sky. But for now, the night was quiet.
Too quiet.