The reading lamp illuminated the black ink, which still looked fresh upon the sheets of paper. From the sharp scent of ink that had not yet fully dried, Kristo knew the file in his hands had been printed only this morning. This meant there was a window of only a few minutes from the moment the report was received by the Royal Intelligence Agency until it finally reached his desk.
Normally, a report like this would not arrive directly in this room. Usually, every document would first be processed by various divisions—filtered, verified, and analyzed—before eventually being forwarded to the upper echelons. Only the most dire reports, those requiring immediate decisions, would be brought straight to his office. Even to simply lie upon this desk, a report had to meet one simple criterion: the problem was too vast for anyone other than himself to contemplate.
Of course, Kristo was not the supreme ruler of this ancient kingdom. He was merely one of the henchmen of the true sovereign. Yet, his position as the Head of the Kata Royal Intelligence Agency made him one of the fastest individuals to learn of every piece of news circulating in the world.
Occupying such a position naturally made him one of the most vital people in the kingdom. Every information in his hands was enough to plunge the entire populace of Kata into panic should it ever be leaked.
But this time, the file in his hands was enough to make even him feel uneasy. Kristo took a slow breath, trying to compose himself before reading the report once more.
In truth, within just a few minutes, he had already managed to memorize the entire contents of the document. Still, he reread the chronology.
Day One: Palace activities proceeded normally.
Day Two: The Queen did not attend the royal court session.
Day Three: Servants last saw her entering the royal meditation chamber.
Day Four: The chamber door was opened… and the Queen was no longer inside.
There were no signs of a struggle. No marks of an intrusion. No residual psychic energy. It was as if the Queen had simply vanished from the world.
Of course, the report did not consist only of those four brief lines of chronology. There were also interrogation records of the guards on duty that night—who had most likely lost their heads by now. There were also the testimonies of palace servants, only a handful of whom remained alive after days of relentless interrogation.
But in the end, all those reports converged on the same conclusion.
The Queen had disappeared. No one knew how. No one knew exactly when. No one knew where. And most irritatingly—no one knew why.
If that were the only problem, perhaps Kristo would not feel this anxious. The disappearance of a queen—even if she were the absolute ruler of the kingdom—did not mean the world would immediately collapse. There were always other queen candidates capable of replacing her. Even within the Kingdom of Kata itself, there were plenty of candidates with the strong psychic power and sufficient intelligence to become the new Matriarch.
It was just that Queen Lyna was such a powerful figure, both politically and psychically, that as long as she lived, no one dared to challenge her. Now, with Lyna's disappearance, the aspiring queens finally had their chance to show themselves.
But… that wasn't the real problem.
Kristo placed the report slowly onto the desk. Beside it lay several other, much thinner files—just a few tattered sheets of paper held together by simple clips. Unlike the official palace reports, these documents came from his own spy network scattered throughout Eukaryota.
The contents were not facts. They were merely fragments of rumors. He picked one up.
"The Kingdom of Myrthea reports that their queen has not appeared for the past three days."
Kristo fell silent. He took the next report.
"Envoys from the Scaraba region state that their Matriarch has suddenly stopped emitting control signals."
The furrow in his brow deepened. The next sheet was even more alarming.
"Several colonies are beginning to lose the psychic bond with their queens."
Kristo closed his eyes for a moment. Of course, the accuracy of such information could not yet be confirmed. Queen Lyna's disappearance forced the Kingdom of Kata to act with caution. Blindly prying into the secrets of other kingdoms in a situation like this would only worsen matters. At least until a new Matriarch emerged, the kingdom had to maintain a low profile.
And yet… something nagged at his mind.
Ten kingdoms. Ten Matriarchs. If these rumors were true… then it wasn't just Queen Lyna who had disappeared. Every ruling queen of Eukaryota had vanished.
Kristo's fingers slowly tapped the wooden table.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound echoed softly in the silent room. If ten Matriarchs had truly gone missing at nearly the same time… then it was no coincidence. Kristo didn't know where the feeling came from, but his long experience in the world of intelligence made his instincts whisper that these rumors… might be true.
He stared blankly at the pile of documents before him. Then, in a voice that was barely audible, he muttered to himself.
"Who… is capable of abducting ten queens at once?"
Kristo's mouth clamped shut. A cold sweat began to drench his body. In his mind, the image of an invisible enemy began to form—something so powerful it could destroy them all without ever showing itself. Was this their destiny? Was this the fate of a species that, from the beginning, had known only war?
Kristo winced.
Eukaryota—that was what they called the planet that was home to their species. A vast world spanning three major continents and surrounded by four oceans. From giant mushroom forests to barren chitin deserts, from black stone cities to colony nests dug deep into the earth—everything was under the dominance of a single species.
The Arachnoax.
A species that, in many ways, resembled insects, yet were not insects. Their bodies possessed flesh and organs like other land creatures, rather than the mucus typical of most primitive arthropods. Their skin was coated in a layer of hard chitin, capable of withstanding iron blades and war arrows.
Arachnoax possessed long lifespans. Naturally, they could live for over a hundred years before their bodies began to weaken with age. Yet, in the entire history of Eukaryota… almost no Arachnoax truly reached such an advanced age.