7 – Kingdom of Hornest

Kingdom of Hornest; 15 minutes after Wasporio left BeetleField:

The Kingdom of Hornest was a giant wasp Nest that hung near the very top of the Holy Tree…

In the past few seasons the Kingdom of Hornest – or the Nest, as the wasp folks often called it – had been through a lot… The old wasp Queen was overthrown by her own daughter, Hornetta, who felt great repugnance towards her mother, with whose leadership, Hornetta thought, the Kingdom of Hornest saw no chance of surviving the Grand Menace whose doomsday was getting closer and closer each passing minute…

Thus she had hired 11 assassins to murder her own mother, which would make her take over the Kingdom.

She did not predict, however, that another adversity was waiting in the shadows for the Queen to pass away…

This adversary was none other than Caesar, the cunning, one of the Great Knights, who were thought to be long gone, as the last time any of them were seen in public was when Lucana, the sharp, won the Ultimate Showdown over eight seasons prior to the Queen’s downfall.

Thus, when Caesar emerged out of the shadows in which he was hiding to claim the Nest for himself, Hornetta was devastated…

Her assassins may have killed the Queen, but there was no way that 11 mere assassin wasps could murder Caesar, the legendary giant cicada wasp…

So Hornetta was left with no other option than an alliance with the Cunning Knight…

“You may be a legend, but you were gone for ages! The Nest has changed, and so have its citizens! You can’t rule over them without royal blood… But I have a solution…”, she approached the Cunning Knight with an offer he could not refuse.

“Go on, Princess Hornetta…”, Caesar fell right into her trap.

“Become my husband. I become the Queen. You have royal blood and along with it the trust of all citizens of the Kingdom. We both win.”, Hornetta said, without a single stutter, or any showing of fear or anger. She sounded confident in her plan.

“… You speak to me with no fear… no hesitation… emotionless… cold… I like that… Your Highnestness…”, Caesar said and kneeled before Hornetta, taking her top right leg and kissing it.

“I’ll prepare the ceremony for us… Lord Caesar…”, Hornetta said with the same tone from earlier. And while she did not know where Caesar was all this time, why he was hiding nor what had happened to the other Knights and King Dabir, she knew that this was the only way she could ever get the throne for herself, and that if she asked too many questions, Caesar wouldn’t hesitate to murder her on the spot…

That was why Hornetta settled for ruling alongside Caesar… at least until she figures out how to get rid of him...

“Who dares fly there?!”, one of the wasp guards yelled when he saw someone flying near the entrance to the Nest…

“Calm down, Wendall! It is I, Great Wasporio!”, Wasporio said to Wendall, the guard, who seemed frustrated to see Wasporio.

“I am not calling you that! What are you even doing here? Aren’t you supposed to, like, watch over BeetleField in case something happens?”, Wendall asked Wasporio.

“That is exactly why I am here, Wendall! Something did happen in BeetleField!! Two things to be exact!”, Wasporio said with a cocky tone.

“Hmpf… whatever… go on, I guess…”, Wendall let Wasporio enter the Nest.

On the inside of the Nest was a town filled with cellular-hexagon-shaped houses. Each one was the same size – enough to fit a couple of wasps inside. All except for one – a giant hexagon tower that ran the entire height of the Nest. It was the so-called Hexagon Tower. The Palace where Lord Caesar and Queen Hornetta resided.

It had 5 floors – each floor having its own purpose, whether it was storing weaponry and armour; having a dedicated training camp or simply being a large bed chamber.

Wasporio knew that he needed to go to the third floor, where Caesar personally trained soldiers around this time of the day.

Since the entrance was at the very bottom of the Nest, Wasporio was currently at floor one. So he headed to the entrance to the Hexagon Tower, where another guard stood.

“Oh! Isn’t that the self-proclaimed “Great” Wasporio? What are ya doing here?”, the guard asked Wasporio.

“I am here to tell Lord Caesar something of utmost importance, Harlow!”, Wasporio shrieked.

“… Alright.”, Harlow said and let Wasporio enter the Tower, so the latter rushed upwards to reach to third floor as fast as he could.

“Excellent job! You are almost ready for the upcoming battle!”, Caesar told the soldiers who had just finished their training. “You are free to g-”

“LORD CAESAR!!”, Wasporio shrieked loudly when he suddenly entered the training camp. This startled Caesar, who turned to Wasporio and flew towards him at full speed. He grabbed Wasporio and pinned him to the ground saying: “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing? Wait… Aren’t you the one I sent to look over BeetleField?”

“Y-Yes, L-Lord!”, Wasporio muttered.

“Then what the hell are you doing here? Tell me one good reason not to end your miserable life.”, Caesar menacingly demanded.

“I-I-I have t-t-two reasons, actually, my L-Lord!”, Wasporio fearfully exclaimed.

“Then say them!”

“I-I-I saw a-a-ants in Beetle-B-BeetleField, Lord!”

“Ants?”

“Y-Yes, Lord, t-two ants!”

“Hmmm…”, Caesar was thinking for a few moments then continued: “That is… interesting… Still…”, Caesar put more pressure on Wasporio, “I do not think that ants alone are worth the disturbance you’ve caused me!”

“T-T-T-That is not all, sir!! Those were no ordinary ants…”

When he heard this, Caesar released the pressure he put on Wasporio. “Go on…”

“Yes, my Lord, these ants… they were carrying none other than the legendary Ozara’s blades, sir…”

“What?!”, Caesar’s shocked face came closer to Wasporio, “Are you sure?”

“I am, sir-”

“Are you certain?”

“Y-Yes, sir! I am! I couldn’t believe it neither when I saw it with my own eyes!”

“I see…”, Caesar finally let go of Wasporio and said: “I’ll have to look into this… What is your name, again?”

“Wasporio, sir!”, Wasporio said proudly.

“Wasporio… if it turns out you’re correct you will be greatly rewarded! As two Ozara’s blades are surely going to greatly benefit us in the upcoming battle! But… if it turns out you are mistaken… well… I think you can picture your fate in that scenario…”, the Cunning Knight said. “You are dismissed until you hear from me. Go!”

Wasporio understood and left the tower without saying a word…

* * *

In the meantime, BeetleField:

“Here it issss…”, Darra told Nanthan.

“So this is the place… Do you want to come with us?”, Nanthan asked Darra, who seemed to be surprised by this question.

“I… Do you think I should?”, Darra honestly asked Nanthan.

“… I don’t know…”, Nanthan answered plainly.

“I think you should!”, Antonio swiftly said. The other two bugs looked at him, “I… I think you should go with us and… and apologise to Hercules! I’ve heard about what kind of person you were in your youth… But that is in the past, Darra… I believe that everyone can change if they try hard enough… You did some bad… evil things in the past… but I can feel that you grew to regret it…”

“…”, Darra was silent.

“Tell me, Darra… do you believe in karma?”, the young ant asked the old ladybug.

“I… I do.”, she said after a bit of hesitation.

“I do, too… if you do something good, a good thing will come back at you… and the opposite is true, too… you’ve done some bad things in your past… and it came back at you… you had suffered… but I think you’ve suffered enough! I think you can turn things around! And the first step would be apologising to Hercules for what you did…”

“I…”, Darra’s eyes got teary again, “You’re right… you’re right, Antonio! I can’t fix the past… but I may be able to put those things behind me and move forward…”

Antonio smiled.

Nanthan, who did not believe in karma, who thought that Antonio’s views were those of a child, did not intervene, as he has already seen the kind of magic Antonio’s childish, yet charming heart can do to others… he’s seen it with Antonio and the Queen… and now with Darra too…

“Heh.”, he, too, smiled, “Let’s go inside, then...”

And so the three entered Hercules’s house...