There was a slight pause before Phoebe spoke up. "We have no use for the creature. WE do not use organics as a base for our armour, you are free to claim this as a spoil of war. I’m sure the rest of us agree."

The surrounding Nymphs gave affirmation and I felt the shaking diminish. I then turned to them and nodded before grabbing the body of the creature with one hand and its head in the other before applying all my Gyrokinesis to them.

"Ok, thank you. I will get this out of your hair so you can focus on the crystals."

I then proceeded to jump good with the massive creature trailing behind me, up into what looked like its lair.

After dragging the parts into a comfortable sturdy spot, I looked down through one of the large holes in the ceiling before letting out a breath.

The moment I did I commanded my armour to open itself and I crashed out holding my head.

"Fuck that hurt... Shit Jewel, you could have warned me what your will might feel like directly in a deep telepathy. I can’t believe my eyes are still in their sockets." I complained and rubbed them.

Thinking back to mere moments ago. The instant the creature was dead, my armour, which was a hive bio-form without the ability to think suddenly could... It wasn’t coherent like Onyx or Orchid. It wasn’t even like a drone with minor capabilities of self thought when not in a task.

It was intent. Raw hunger and a single word that I could comprehend.

"Devour!"

The word shook my Mindspace heavily. Almost cracking it.

I took a few more moments to compose myself before standing back up and looking at the creature. I reached out with my bare hand, caressing its thick natural armour.

"Ughhhhhahahaha." I found myself chuckling after shuddering. I then materialised the Stick in my hand and raised it above myself.

*Bonk*

The stick didn’t enact its judgement on me like it did my partners, but I could tell it appreciated my action before I put it back.

"Bad Apollo. You can lewd the Hive, not other bugs... I think I’ll be ok... I’ll just chalk this up to not seeing her for a few months. It’s not like if I walked into a restaurant and saw a lobster I would get a chub... It’s just the exo plate being so strong and durable... I hope so. I really hope so"

I then gave the beast a final look over... Before turning back to my armour. When Phoebe granted me the insect, the intense urge to devour disappeared after all. The predatory urge to defend the prey had ceased as it was now mine without dispute.

Getting back into the armour I took a deep breath as I felt the telepathic connection relink. As usual there was nothing but silence now so I walked forward to the insect before closing my eyes to focus.

The purple orb on my chest. A manifestation of Jewels infinite hunger began to thrum with my intent to eat such a powerful beast. I could instantly feel its passive power begin to rise and rise.

The force and sheer power at hand was hard for me to control. It took all my focus to get it to its maximum at which point I could barely walk. But slowly I took one step and then another. Followed by a couple more before placing my chest against the creature.

The durable chitin and... The exo-plate began to crumble and disintegrate. I smiled, rubbing my armour tenderly as it fed. As that is exactly what I was doing. I was feeding my armour, I was feeding my mate a prey it clearly wanted to eat.

...

"What do you think he is doing up there? It’s been a few hours." Marnes asked, putting down a crate filled with Praedoxite."

"Maybe he is eating the creature? Perhaps he has a power that makes him grow stronger with the creatures he devours? It would explain his unusual strength. Hey, Ness, does he have a power like that?" Aeteos asked.

"No. Apollo does not have such a power to my knowledge. Though he has said to me before he has a knack for obtaining his powers quite unorthodoxly." Nerissa said as she materialised another crate."

"Should we go and investigate? I really want to know what is happening up there. I am literally dying from curiosity. "Rhapso declared, looking upwards with a frowny face.

"You shall do no such thing." Phoebe declared as she entered the cave. "Apollo is free to do as he likes for as long as he likes. You all, however, have a job to do so do it."

"Do we have support above, Phoebe?" Nerissa asked and Phoebe nodded her head.

"Yes. I just finished a relay with Commander Hyllus. She is sending in a drop in a few hours with some elites and knights. Alongside some of their scarce sub orbit flyers so we can extract. The Phalanx are also going to begin to push in mass towards this area as our allies were not keen to find out the Drakoshi were mining Redoxuite. Now, enough idling. We still have so much to pack up... The others are going to be so happy to see so much-"

*Thud*

Not too far from where the Nymps stood. A heavy object suddenly made impact with the ground nearby, throwing up a cloud of debris.

A few moments later the cloud dissipated enough to show a silhouette. Humanoid, roughly eight feet tall with a bulky appearance. The next thing to appear was purple. Spots of glowing purple began to appear through the mist. The eyes were the most prominent, staring directly at them. The second most being a glow on the chest.

As more of the cloud disappeared the Nymphs suddenly went wide eyed at what they were seeing. They knew what it was, they knew who was inside it, but what they were seeing... They had never seen anything like it.

Apollo’s armour was already alien in design and functionality. It had no tech inside it at all, several scans of the armour had proved that, but now... It truly looked alien. Like a bipedal insectoid.

His armour, which was already black and tan to begin with, now had a mixture of amber colouring around the torso as well as circles of it on his forearms and pauldrons. Spikes were now visible all over his armour, the most prevalent upon the pauldrons. They jutted out, sharp, jagged. Deadly.

His gauntlets and sabatons were now weapons in themselves. Ending in sharp claws that could rip through meat with triviality. Around his body in certain areas, a purple cloth like material was covering him, but the material was clearly not as fragile. Seemingly made from the same chitin the insect was previously made of.

The helmet had also changed considerably. Before the helmet looked to be one coherent piece. It had a visor with a great amount of bulk. Now, the helmet was streamlined, tight fitting with sharp contours. Looking at it was intimidating. It reeked of xeno technology a lot more. Not to mention the three sets of horns atop the head and the small pentagonal crest added to this factor even more.

Three of the Nymphs suddenly felt vaguely alert staring at the unmoving figure before them. A stalemate of tension began to rise. The air became thicker with each passing moment.

"Why are you all staring at me like that? Does it look bad? I thought armour mark two looked pretty cool."

The tension immediately vanished as the same light-hearted voice suddenly spoke and with it, washed away the tension.

"Apollo!!! What is happening right now! Your armour looks so... Wow!" Rhapso suddenly yelled and ran up to me before twirling around me inspecting every nook and cranny. "Haha! Look! A purple cape! Aww, Apollo. Have you found interacting with us so inspiring that you have taken our colour as your own? Isn’t that just so sweet!"

"Oh, I didn’t design the suit at all. After the suit began to devour the insect, it just began to create. This is the final result. And I am not disappointed. My durability is insane now, I can tell just by being inside of it. I feel like a juggernaut."

Rhapso’s boldness and her poking at all my joint locations encouraged the others to step forward and begin to inspect me. I had no qualms with it as I had seen what the armour looked like. It was both badass and terrifying. ’Just like the hive.’

"Apollo?" Nerissa began. "Did your armour devour the entire creature? The thing was massive how have-"

I interrupted her. "I weigh a shitload right now. When I came down I used the same force I usually do to just float and I dropped like a lead balloon. Seriously. Gyrokinesis is the best. You should try it sometime."

Marnes and Aeteos then proceeded to look at each other and a moment later I felt myself just shy of a quarter of an inch off the ground.

"Nnnghhhh!!"

"Aaagggghhh!"

The two Nymphs were screaming out before hastily collapsing backward. I then stood to the side to allow them room to get up safely, at which point the duo got up and looked at me once more before speaking in unison.

"Gyrokinesis apparently is the best..."