Chapter 14:

The Overspore

The Chitin Age




Kael and the surviving Myrminian scouts stood at the edge of what could only be described as a biocosmic wound.
Spanning kilometers across the undercanopy, the Overspore pulsed with translucent fungal tendrils that glowed softly—each heartbeat in sync with the planet’s crust. The Hive didn’t speak of it often, but whispers had passed through pheromone lines for centuries: the Overspore was ancient, older than even Myrminian memory.
And it was waking up.

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A Gateway to Memory
The Overspore was not just a living organism—it was a dimensional threshold, one that had absorbed the thoughts of civilizations long gone. As Kael approached, it reacted to him. Not to his physical form, but to the dark matter embedded in his altered DNA.
> “Why does it respond?” Kael asked aloud.


> “Because you are becoming... one of us,” Queen Myxa's voice crackled across a bio-relay.


The Overspore began unfolding. Inside were chambers of memory, suspended in time, where events from before the Insect Dominion had been stored—encrypted in mycelial dreams. Kael saw images:
Humans building colossal sky-cities above Earth’s surface.
A war with insectoid biotechnological life-forms erupting due to resource scarcity.
A fusion experiment gone wrong—the catalyst of The Chitin Age.


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The Secret Truth
Inside the Overspore's central node, Kael uncovered something horrifying: the dark matter within him was man-made.
An experiment by pre-Chitin humans—Project Umbra—had tried to weaponize dark matter using insects as living containment units. The test failed catastrophically. The dark matter contaminated Earth's biosphere and mutated countless insect species into what would become the Myrminians.
The Hive was not nature's revenge—it was humanity’s mistake.

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Bonded Consciousness
Overwhelmed by the truth, Kael collapsed—only to be psychically absorbed into the Overspore. There, his consciousness merged with Hive ancestry. The Queen’s memories. The Drone Wars. The Ascension.
When Kael awoke, he was no longer just himself. He had inherited a fragment of the Dream Architect, an ancient sentience dormant within the fungal intelligence. Now, it stirred within his synapses.
> “The Dusklings are not from outside,” he whispered.“They are what's left of humanity’s shadow.”



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Final Image
As Kael returned to the surface, the Overspore sealed itself shut, as if exhausted by revelation. Around him, insect cities shifted in resonance. The Queen of Silence had already sensed the change.
The war was no longer one of territory.It was one of origins.



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