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Shuri watched as Marie conjured a gust of wind to dissipate the pollen hanging in the air. As the dust settled, she was able to gauge the nature of the battle to a better degree. It was between two combatants - more precisely between a single combatant against an army led and spearheaded by the second combatant.

"That's an Insect Queen," Shuri murmured.

"Fancy!" Dora finally extricated herself from Marie's loose grasp and bounded towards the downed Insect Queen named Fancy. The beast was magnificent - or at least it would look that way if a sizeable chunk of its thorax hadn't been chomped off. Surprisingly, the creature was still alive.

"What happened, Fancy?" Dora pleaded as she tried to gently caress the downed beast, but her trembling hands refused to budge.

"A fight for territory," Marie answered in Shuri's stead. "Between Fancy here and that creature over there."

Shuri followed Marie's extended finger and noticed another insectoid creature at the centre of the sector of destruction extended outward from the hollow trunk at the centre of the meadow.

"Vespid Monarch," Shuri offered. It was a beast twice the size of an insect queen, and ten times less pleasing to see with its curvaceous yet accentuated sharp form and garish yellow and black colouring. Its appearance mimicked a hornet's, which already triggered a fear response from the observer. Furthermore, the beast is known to be communal, in that it commands and controls hives of its lesser kin using powerful pheromones. This was also evident by the veritable army of wasps scattered around the area, all dead with their legs raised towards the sky.

"It seems the meadow you've created here for your little friend has attracted enemies," Marie said.

"What? No..."

"Vespid Monarchs are known to create sprawling hives that produce a special type of honey with a myriad of medicinal properties. It is highly sought after in the Alchemical circles. However, to produce the honey, they require nectar which is extracted from flowers," Shuri left the rest unsaid as Dora already made the connections.

"The Vespid Monarch attacked with its battalion hoping to kill and take over Fancy's meadow. However, Fancy took them all down with a powerful wave of pollen," Marie narrated.

"We- We have to save her!" Dora pleaded as she tried to lift the downed insect.

"If you move her, she will die," Marie declared with a morose town. "Besides, the Vespid Monarch's attack has damaged a lot of her organs. To save her, we will need to find replacements. And even if we did, we don't know anyone capable of operating on a magical beast."

Shuri saw the colour drain from Dora's face as the dreaded words left Marie's mouth. Tears were streaming down the little girl's face and her eyes were red with sorrow.

At that moment, Shuri noticed a mysterious glint flashing across Marie's eyes. Marie opened her mouth and spoke with a measured pace.

"Of course, the Vespid Monarch should have all the organs the Insect Queen should 'theoretically' need. If only there were a way to 'Assimilate' the two together."

The word "Assimilate" had an eerie echo to it. Maybe it was the pronounced way in which it was spoken that caused this feeling.

"Assimilate?" Dora parroted, her gaze turning blank for a faint second.

"Assimilate," Marie affirmed.

"Assimilate..." Dora repeated as she walked towards the corpse of the Vespid Monarch. She grabbed it by the antennae and started to drag the creature towards the Insect Queen. Dora's expression was blank, and her lips moved as though she were in a trance.

"What is she-"

Marie raised a finger to her lips and shushed quietly. Shuri followed the command and observed Dora's actions. The girl struggled to move the heavy insect over the uneven terrain but succeeded eventually.

"Assimilate..." Dora muttered. "~What?! Your Insect Queen is evolving!~"

Dora's voice turned mechanical and adorned a ghost-like, emotionless tone.

"~Woah! It is fusing with the Vespid Monarch?!~"

'What in the world?' Shuri's frown turned graver.

Dora's hand touched both the Insect Queen and the Vespid Monarch's corpse. Her head jerked upwards and an ethereal light started to gush out from her agape mouth and eyes. Incrementally, the Vespid Monarch's corpse started to crumple up.

Then, from the palm contacting the Insect Queen, wisp-like silk started to ooze out and quickly bound the creature into a glowing cocoon. The cocoon started to pulse, vibrate and then deformed, until suddenly, a black insectoid leg punctured the cocoon. The leg arced across, cutting the cocoon in two (which in turn dissipated into glittering particulates), and from it, emerged a creature dripping with a viscous liquid.

The creature extended two protrusions from its back. As they unfurled, they revealed a magnificent pattern of vibrant colours, that looked like a mask with two piercing black eyes. The creature vibrated before its body unfurled, revealing a more curvaceous form (less like a butterfly, more like an ant or wasp) with a pointy tip at the base of its abdomen where a stinger pulsed in and out. The creature had an amber and black jacketed body, with four antennae extending from its pincered head. The creature shook itself clean of all viscous residue and bounced up, its wings oscillating with a pleasant rhythm.

"~Congratulations! Your Insect Queen has evolved into a Vespid Queen!~"

At that moment, the light emanating from Dora ceased, and the girl escaped her trance.

"Wha- What happened..." Dora moaned while grabbing her head. "Huh? Fancy? Is that you?"

The creature, which was now half a metre taller than Dora, played out a dance that oozed with enthusiasm and gratitude (which Shuri was somehow able to make out).

"Yaaaaay!" Dora exclaimed enthusiastically as she bounced and clapped. "Uh? But you look different."

"What do you mean I did this?"

"No way! I can't do any magic!"

Shuri's brows scrunched up in confusion. "Is she talking to the creature?"

"Yes," Marie answered.

"How?"

Marie simply shrugged and kept her attention trained on Dora.

"You feel different? How different?" Dora said while tilting her head.

The Vespid Queen - as Dora described it in her trance - Twirled around and flicked its wings with a flourish, causing a wave of pollen to spread outwards. Shuri instinctively reached to cover her nose but was held back by Marie. The pollen enveloped Shuri and went in through her nose as she inhaled. Suddenly, a wave of calmness took over her.

"What was that?" Shuri said while trying to suppress a relaxed moan.

The creature then flew towards the hollow tree and landed on a branch. Then, the air around the meadow started to grow heavier which Shuri realised was caused by the creature recruiting the mana in its domain.

The flowers in the meadow went straight and droplets of liquid started to rise from their centre. The suspended droplets started to rush towards the creature which split its pincers and revealed a long proboscis. The protrusion stabbed the growing globule of translucent fluid and quickly drained it, causing its abdomen to swell up markedly. The creature then skittered into the hollow tree.

"Fancy? What are you doing?" Dora screamed into one of the holes in the trunk.

"Ah, I see," Dora hummed in disappointment. "Well... okay then..."

"What did she say?" Marie inquired.

"She said she needs to make a stronger and bigger home for her children," Dora answered.

"Children?" Shuri blurted out. "It's making more?"

"She said that having more eyes and legs will make it easier for her to accumulate more nectar and flowers, as well as defend herself," Dora explained.

"What's not what I was talking ab-"

"That's great news, Dora. Since Fancy is going to be busy now, why don't you go back home? Matron Reva said she needed help with something," Marie interjected.

"Okay! See you later, Big Sis and... Umm... Who are you again?" Dora paused mid-wave with a confused frown. "Eh, whatever! See you later guys!"

And with that, the little girl skipped away and disappeared through the illusory veil.

"What just happened?" Shuri probed, unable to contain her curiosity any longer. "What did she do to that creature?"

"Didn't you see? She merged the two together," Marie answered nonchalantly.

"You can't just merge magical beasts together like that! That magic is unheard of," Shuri challenged. "How did she do it?"

"I don't know," Marie deflected with a shrug.

"Don't give me that! You knew she could do it. You nudged her to do it! The girl didn't even remember performing that magic, whatever that was. You engineered the scenario, didn't you? Was it to fulfil a condition - was being in a state of heightened emotion the prerequisite? Did you doctor this confrontation that caused the girl's pet to end up like this-"

"Woah! Woah!" Marie grabbed Shuri's shoulder and pressed down gently. "Calm down. I didn't doctor this situation. It was going to happen one way or another. I just made it so that Dora had a chance to help her friend."

"But that magic-?"

"I just moved the situation in a favourable direction, that's all. She had the power inside her, all I did was pierce the thin membrane that was holding it back," Marie expounded. "Sometimes, chicks need help breaking through their shell."

Shuri's gaze turned sharp and drilled into the side of Marie's head. "If you stare any harder, my head might just burst into flames. Besides, don't you have something to do?"

"Why don't you just make all of our lives easier and tell me where to look?" Shuri scoffed.

"If I told you, then you won't find it yourself. If you don't find it yourself, I won't see it in your future. If I don't see it in your future, I won't be able to tell you where to look," Marie's brows wiggled as she spoke the sentences one after another. "You see where I am going with this, right?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Shuri snorted and walked towards the hollow tree in a huff.

"This is the place," Shuri declared.

"What place?"

Shuri looked at Marie and revealed a smirk, "I found it. Now it's your turn to tell me!"