My Three Vampire Queens In The Apocalypse-Chapter 35: The Insect Queen [2]

We walked for a while before I finally stopped near an abandoned hospital.

I glanced at Juli as she stood beside me, her blonde hair swaying gently with the wind. It was as if this was all just a strange trip instead of the end of the world. I did not know if that innocence was a strength or a weakness yet, but I knew one thing for sure.

If I did not shape it now, someone else would.

"Training starts now."

She looked up at me, blinking in confusion, clearly not expecting that. "Right now...?" 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Of course right now. This was not a school where we followed schedules and rang bells before lessons.

I exhaled slowly and gestured toward the ground. "You have one of the most broken abilities in this entire world, and you are using it like a child poking ants with a stick. That is honestly painful to watch."

She puffed her cheeks a little, clearly offended, but did not argue this time. That alone told me she was starting to take this seriously.

I walked a few steps forward and crouched near a thin crack in the pavement. The concrete had split just enough to let something live underneath. It was a perfect starting point.

I tapped the ground lightly. "Call them."

There was hesitation again, but less than before. Juli closed her eyes, and for a few seconds, nothing happened. I crossed my arms and waited, letting her concentrate.

Rushing her here would only make things worse, and I was not in the mood to fix unnecessary mistakes.

Then the ground shifted.

Ants began to crawl out, one after another, until a small cluster formed near her feet. They moved restlessly, like they were waiting for something.

I watched quietly, feeling a small sense of confirmation settle in my chest.

Her instinct was working exactly as expected.

"Good," I said, straightening slightly. "Now we move to the part where you stop being decorative and actually control them."

She frowned, but instead of arguing, she focused again. That small change in attitude was more important than anything she had done so far.

I picked up a small pebble and tossed it a short distance away. It landed with a soft sound against the ground, completely ordinary, completely insignificant.

"Move that."

She looked at the pebble, then at the ants, and for a moment I could see the doubt again. It was almost funny. The future Insect Queen, hesitating because of a pebble.

Still, she closed her eyes.

At first, the ants moved like a complete disaster. Some wandered in the wrong direction, some circled aimlessly, and a few seemed to have lost all purpose in life. Watching it felt like observing a group project where no one knew what they were doing.

I resisted the urge to comment.

Then slowly, something changed. A few ants gathered around the pebble. Then more joined. Their movements became less random, more focused.

They pushed, and the pebble moved. It was not much, but enough.

Juli opened her eyes immediately, her face lighting up in surprise and excitement. It was such a simple reaction, so genuine, that for a moment it did not match the world we were standing in.

"They moved it..."

"Of course they did," I replied, keeping my tone calm even though this was exactly what I wanted to see. "They are yours. If they did not listen, that would be a serious problem."

We repeated it again and again, and each time the ants became more coordinated. The chaos slowly turned into order, rough and imperfect, but clearly improving. I watched everything carefully, noting how quickly she adapted, how naturally she connected.

Her control was weak, but her connection with the insects was on a completely other level.

After a while, I stood up and stretched slightly before nodding toward a nearby car with shattered windows. The inside was dark and cluttered. It carried a faint smell that already told me more than I needed to know.

"Next step. Send them inside and tell me what is there."

"I cannot see through them..."

"You are not trying to see. You are trying to feel. Follow one of them and focus on what it experiences."

It was not a perfect explanation, but the girl in front of me was a genius. She just needed confidence.

She closed her eyes.

Her expression changed much faster this time. Her breathing slowed, her brows drew together slightly, and I could tell she was already connecting.

"It is dark... and something is broken..."

"Keep going."

"They are climbing... and there is something soft..." she paused, her face tightening a little, "and it smells really bad..."

That was expected. I nodded to myself. She was picking this up faster than I had hoped, which was both reassuring and slightly concerning.

She opened her eyes again, looking a bit unsettled but not scared, and that was what mattered most.

Fear would have slowed her down. Curiosity would push her forward.

I pointed toward a broken vending machine nearby, its glass cracked but still holding together just enough to keep most things inside.

"Last part for today. There is food inside that machine. Get it out without touching it."

She followed my gaze, then looked back at me, clearly thinking it through. This time, she did not say it was impossible. She just turned back toward the machine and closed her eyes again.

The ants moved almost immediately.

Not perfectly, not smoothly, but with clear intent. Some climbed up the machine, slipping through the smallest openings. Others gathered near the edges, adjusting, repositioning, reacting to each other.

It took time.

I stood there quietly, watching both her and the slow, deliberate movement of the swarm, while my thoughts drifted.

This was how it always began.

Not with destruction or chaos, but with small, controlled steps. A pebble moving across the ground. A hidden space explored without risk. A simple object retrieved from a distance.

The foundation of something much larger.

A packet shifted inside the machine. Then it slipped.

It fell out through the cracked opening and landed on the ground with a soft sound.

Juli’s eyes opened instantly, and the smile that spread across her face was so bright that it felt completely out of place in the middle of broken streets and silent buildings.

"I did it..."

I walked over, picked up the packet, and handed it to her. She held it carefully, like it was something far more valuable than it actually was, and for a moment, she just stood there, happy in a way that felt simple and real.

I glanced at the ants still moving around the machine, then back at her.

A small swarm. A small success. But it was the beginning of something great.

I let out a quiet breath and turned away, starting to walk again. She quickly followed, staying close like she had been doing this whole time.

"Big bro," she asked after a few steps, "what were you thinking about just now?"

I looked ahead at the empty street, at the long path we still had to walk, and at everything that could go wrong between now and whatever came next.

Then I glanced down at her, at the snack she was holding so carefully, and at the quiet trust in her expression.

"I was thinking," I said slowly, "that you learn faster than I expected, which is good for survival but very bad for my future peace of mind. If you keep improving like this, you are going to become someone who can cause problems on a scale that I will personally have to deal with.

And I really do not like dealing with large-scale problems unless I absolutely have to."

She blinked, clearly trying to process that entire sentence.

Then she frowned slightly. "I only moved ants..."