Agatha Wakes

Splash—accompanied by the sound of fluids spilling everywhere.

Agatha emerged from the chrysalis beside the spawning pool.

Mucus slowly dripped from her body. Two of Agatha's claws worked with the telekinesis granted by psionic energy to gradually clean the slime from her body, while her other two claws were held together as she gazed elegantly to the side.

The Dragon Lion that had entered the pool with her still had to undergo a full-body zergification while preserving its soul, so its progress bar was crawling along. It had not even reached the final cocoon-development stage yet, and the completion of its transformation was still far off.

"Agatha, you're awake." The Overmind's call came through the will of the hive.

Before Agatha could respond, violent psionic energy suddenly surged before her. Amid flashing red arcs and shadows, the Overmind, along with his throne and the Dragon Dog beside it, abruptly appeared before her.

Agatha lowered her head to look at the Overmind, her expression utterly calm—her previous Overmind had often torn open wormholes to send her on urgent missions. She was already used to it.

The Overmind looked up at Agatha, who had recovered to a height of over five meters now that her injuries had healed, then silently levitated his throne until they were at eye level.

"It is a pleasure to see you again, Overmind."

"What's there to be pleased about? I checked on your condition three times a day." Apart from the period when Agatha had been asleep while her neural cords developed, she had remained awake for most of her time in the spawning pool and cocoon.

"Come with me. I happen to have something for you to do." The Overmind controlled Agatha's body, having her place a claw on his throne.

The Overmind himself stepped onto a white-patterned footplate on the underside of the throne, and blazing psionic energy erupted from his body.

In a flash, the Overmind and Agatha vanished together.

That white-striped footplate was naturally part of the Shadow Spider's carapace. Before tossing it into the spawning pool, the Overmind had cut off part of its tissue and fixed it onto the throne, using it to open a subdimension known as the Shadow Realm.

At least in the field of space, having enough psionic energy truly meant one could do whatever one wanted. The evolution chamber had not even finished half its analysis and testing of the White-Striped Spider, yet the Overmind could already use psionic energy to forcibly tear open an entrance to the subdimension.

Shadow Realm.

The Overmind and Agatha were still standing not far from the spawning pool.

The Shadow Realm was largely no different from the real world. Everything that existed in reality existed here as well. The only difference was that the Shadow Realm had no concept of "color"; everything was black and white. Moreover, because it was separated by a layer of dimension, all things seemed to be covered by a frosted-glass filter, rippling from time to time, making everything look like a dull gray silhouette.

That was likely where the Shadow Realm got its name.

Because they had forcibly entered, the Overmind and Agatha were like roast chickens just lifted from beneath a pot lid, continuously giving off steam-like wisps of mist.

That was the manifestation of the psionic energy they were constantly consuming in the Shadow Realm. Under normal circumstances, only projections of the real world existed here; when one's true body entered, expenditure was unavoidable.

And once the Overmind's psionic energy ran out—he would be expelled from the Shadow Realm.

Yes, merely expelled from the Shadow Realm, without even any accompanying physical impact. It was extremely safe. If he had not repeatedly confirmed that point, the Overmind would not have entered personally.

Pulling Agatha along, the Overmind shifted toward the shadow cast by the spawning pool beside them.

Once their bodies were covered by shadow, the "psionic steam" rising constantly from the Overmind's body visibly diminished.

This was another feature of the Shadow Realm. It was easier to enter through areas covered in shadow, and while remaining in the Shadow Realm, the less color one had on one's body, the better. Ideally, one should be like the White-Striped Spider, covered in nothing but black and white.

"Getting used to it?" the Overmind asked.

After Agatha nodded, the Overmind had her release the claw resting on the throne. The psionic mist around Agatha's body trembled briefly before stabilizing again.

She had begun maintaining the energy expenditure required to remain in the Shadow Realm on her own.

"This is a subdimension." Agatha extended a claw, red arcs crackling repeatedly between her three fingers. "Psionic energy has become more active here."

"Not only that," the Overmind added. "It's also much easier to refine psionic energy here."

Agatha quickly reached a conclusion. "Compared to the real world, this place is closer to the Void."

And what did being closer to the Void mean? More Void energy, stronger psionic power, and zerg units that could be more easily infused with psionic energy...

The Overmind had not found Terrazine or Yujin in this world, but the existence of the Shadow Realm still gave him the ability to mass-produce elite units.

"I'll establish an evolution chamber specifically responsible for testing the Shadow Realm..." Halfway through speaking, the Overmind could not help looking up at the sky.

Just how many evolution chambers have I already planned? One immediately after the hatchery was completed, one dedicated to vitality, one dedicated to souls, and now another for researching the Shadow Realm.

But in reality, he had yet to unlock even the prerequisite technologies for hatching Roaches—"Corrosive Metabolism" and "Permeable Epithelial Cells." Hydralisks were even further away...

"Exploring the subdimension concerns the production of high-tier Swarm units. It is worth investing in research," Agatha advised.

"Let's hold off for now. It won't be too late to build it after we secure a foothold in the cavern world." The Overmind changed the subject. "Agatha, I have a task for you."

As he spoke, the Overmind pointed ahead. On the Creep some distance away grew a knot the size of a human head. Unlike the other things around it, which seemed shrouded in smog—

Its clarity seemed adjustable, periodically blurring—sharpening—blurring... This meant it was periodically interfacing with the Shadow Realm.

"The evolution chamber has yet to fully unravel the secret of dimensional traversal, but creating specialized sensory organs is no longer a problem."

As the Overmind spoke, the psionic energy around him stirred slightly, and he and Agatha returned to real space together.

From reality's perspective, that Creep knot was merely an unremarkable mass of Creep tissue.

"Deploy these monitoring nodes in key areas of the Swarm," the Overmind instructed. "Especially in the caverns. Don't leave any blind spots. Dimensional traversal may be one of their common abilities."

"Yes." Agatha nodded.

"Besides that, modify the monitoring nodes in preparation for cavern-exclusive scouting units." Not to mention that the relevant research was still incomplete, the Swarm's anti-stealth units—whether Spore Crawlers the size of main battle tanks or Overseers the size of hot-air balloons—were unsuitable for exploring cavern terrain.

"Understood." Agatha agreed readily. Once the spawning pool had been built, not only she, but even the Overlord had the ability to create new zerg units.

"Lastly," the Overmind said, holding out a hand. An Arrow Gull landed on it. "Modify the Arrow Gull's intestines so that it can coexist with Sokin Fungus. The force generated by its wings alone is too weak. See if you can turn it into a jet-powered unit. Or make it a suicide unit if that doesn't work."

Having issued these instructions, the Overmind waved a hand and summoned the Dragon Dog, which had been obediently squatting beside the spawning pool all this time.

He had an even more important task—training the dog.

That meant possessing the Dragon Dog and using psionic power to repeatedly open the Shadow Realm until the Dragon Dog learned Shadow Walk.

The White-Striped Shadow Spider's Shadow Walk relied on its unique soul and a supernatural power known as "magic." With so few samples, it would not be easy to decipher the secrets behind it, whether through the Dragon Dog's consumption or analysis in the Evolution Chamber.

It would be better to use the Shadow Spider's affinity for the Shadow Realm, combined with psionic power's affinity for spatial abilities, to create a psionic version of Shadow Walk.

This was not actually difficult. The Overmind, Agatha, and even the Overlord could all do it with ease.

But that was because they were psionic units by nature, able to wield psionic power as effortlessly as their own limbs. It was difficult to replicate on a broad scale.

On the other hand, if he could give a Zergling—even an elite Zergling—the muscle memory to perform Shadow Walk, then he could use the Spawning Pool to reverse-engineer and reverse-transcribe the entire skill set, engraving it into DNA and transferring it to other Zerg units.

Of course, Shadow Walk was not especially valuable for Zerg ground units. As long as they unlocked Tunneling Claws, they could simply dig their way forward underground.

But for aerial units, the value of this ability was enormous. Could one imagine a Scourge, during a suicidal charge, slipping through the shadow of another Scourge into a sub-dimension and flying wildly ahead for a stretch?

Thinking of the scene after he built a Scourge Nest in the future, the Overmind could not help increasing his psionic output.

Wasn't it just Shadow Walk? There was no way this stupid dog couldn't learn it! Watch me enter and exit the Shadow Realm sixteen times in one second!

"Skree—blegh—"