You are sharp, cold, and proud, a silent specter who takes lives on the battlefield.
You are lean and tall, like a fierce leopard, skilled at strangling with one hand.
You should have commanded a battleship and become one of the brightest glories in human history. After a triumphant return, you should have married a beautiful woman and enjoyed a happy family life.
But you died.
Or so everyone thought. Your loved ones wept at your funeral, and an empty coffin was buried in the ground.
No one knew that the person comforting your family was the one who had pushed you into the insect nest.
Now you have broken several bones and are on the verge of death.
The insects bustle around you. Their mandibles gently comb your snow-white hair, their petal-like mouths clean the blood from your handsome face, and their mouthparts chew up the fungal mat, ferment it into sugary liquid, and carefully feed it to you.
“Mother...”
“Humans abandoned you, but you will always be our mother...”
You have grown wings, delicate and translucent, and amber-colored honey flows from them. You are bewildered by this change, while they scramble to lick you, engulfing you.
They gently press their limbs against your lower abdomen, inspecting it again and again with peculiar fascination. You don't understand what they're doing, but you'll know when you come of age.
Deep in the cave, the insects in their cocoons thrash about with jealousy. They are your loyal warriors, not yet hatched, all desperate to win their mother's love...
“Heavens! What happened to you?” A man burst into the insect nest and stared in horror at you, your body crawling with terrifying insects, yet smiling as gently as a mother goddess.
The insects seized the man and dripped insect honey into his mouth.
“If you become one of us too, you won't suffer anymore.”
The man struggled, trying to resist the will of the nest. He had to get you out. He couldn't let himself be devoured and assimilated!
But... Mother really is so beautiful...
He fell, crawling to your snow-white ankles. His eyes flickered between lucidity and obsessive madness, his former cold arrogance gone.
“Mother has a new king consort!”
The insects excitedly waved their antennae and whispered among themselves.
“What should we do next?”
“Build a bigger, safer nest, with a restaurant Mother likes, a garden, and a breeding paradise!”
“Build an insect mothership and conquer more planets to make Mother happy!”
The insects will take care of everything for you. You don't need to worry about a thing, so you yawn lazily, ready to rest and recover.
But this is a nightmare you would rather die than experience. They are children who have lost control and are cruel by nature, and they will destroy the world you love. You have to wake up in time, don't you?
Then, Dixi, new insect queen born of blood and fire, welcome to the world of the insect race. Good luck, and may you escape soon~
“You are the Lord of Greed. The planets swallowed by your fungal mats scream inside you, and you brew their screams into honey to feed your offspring. Your maternal love is as black as the abyss, boundless yet tender.”
“You are the ultimate mother. You destroy everything and give birth to everything. Billions of offspring swell and hatch in the folds of your womb, longing to create even more offspring with you.”
“You are the god of all insects, sleeping in the depths of the nest. Your offspring fight without end for you, devouring starlight and offering you everything you desire! And you compassionately kiss the cocoons of those who fall in battle, warming them with your fluids and amniotic water, hoping they will open their eyes once more.”
“Our loyalty will remain unchanged for all eternity, across the entire universe!”
“But Mother, why do you love all living things now, and everyone but us?”
Reader's guide: A battle-scarred, straight male lead adored by everyone. All the love interests are one-sidedly in love with him. The insect love interest is an overachiever, and the abandoned, utterly devoted dog is secretly going mad. The protagonist only returns the main love interest's feelings.
Many original elements. An ensemble survival story about insect lords on an alien planet.
Theme: Love is a miracle of life, a glimmer of light in the darkness.