Chapter 108
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 108
Chapter Title: Proper Governance (2)
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"Demons from the north are swarming in! From the sea!"
The Kingdom of Vanest had long been known as the Southern Kingdom. Seira was at least aware of its name and reputation.
It took particular pride in its advanced maritime prowess and seafaring skills, boasting a rich history to match.
And now, that very kingdom was transforming into a living hell under the assault of countless ants surging from the coastline.
'The Kingdom of Vanest borders the Great Forest to the east and has long served as the elves' rear supply base. We have to wreck this place to throw the elves into disarray and keep them from advancing on the Lucadia Empire.'
Asmodra urges nest construction.
"We'll seize this coastal city of Zafir and build our nest here."
Moreover, this invasion of the Kingdom of Vanest differed slightly from the erosion-nesting tactics used to disrupt imperial supply lines.
The plan was to construct a proper nest, complete with heart-synthesis worms for producing Demonic Power hearts and fusion-metamorphic worms for amplifying nutrients, turning this land into a true ant domain.
The ants aimed to plant a dagger right under the elves' chin.
If they stopped at mere disruption like before, the elves might simply abandon the Kingdom of Vanest—a mere occupied territory outside the Great Forest.
'A good thing, then.'
Seira was content that they weren't resorting to indiscriminate erosion-nesting, which would pollute the land and make it uninhabitable for other creatures.
"You bastards... don't run! Protect the city at all costs. These are orders from above!"
Instead, Seira advanced toward the city's governor, who bellowed orders at his subordinates.
This governor had killed the original noble who once ruled the city and taken his place, all while swearing loyalty to the elves. His body was embedded with enhancement runes and a magic stone core—an irreversible servant of the elves.
"Y-You...!"
The governor recoiled in horror upon seeing Seira land before him in a single bound, having leaped across the chaotic battlefield.
Her notoriety had long spread even here.
'We need to end this war quickly, before more of these turncoats multiply.'
Seira gritted her teeth upon confirming that the governor and all nearby troops were members of the elf imperial army's heterorace units.
The ants no longer fixated on mere human prey, but they never spared subordinates blessed by other deities.
They hunted them relentlessly, killing them by any means necessary.
The more advanced a region's magic theory or enhancement runes—indirect blessings from deities—the more such irreversible subordinates proliferated.
From Seira's perspective, every last one had to be eradicated before they could spread further.
"Nest construction will commence immediately. With a steady supply of raw magic stones, this land will soon fall into the legion's hands."
Having obliterated the governor and his cronies in a single strike with flame magic on the scale of what would once be hailed as an eighth-circle miracle, Seira stood atop the half-ruined governor's mansion and surveyed the city.
Ruins amid collapse. Burning debris. Countless corpses strewn about.
Seira watched the desperately fleeing refugees of the dominated classes—ignored by the ants—before turning her gaze to the ants rapidly filling the voids.
Worker ants cleared rubble and debris to form the new nest. Heart-synthesis worms and production units transported via Leviathan settled into position.
Fusion-metamorphic worms, starting as tiny cell clumps, swelled into house-sized behemoths, anchoring tentacles into what had been the city plaza and preparing vast nutrient production.
Even spider ants wove webs into defenses and traps.
The storied coastal city, vibrant moments ago, was swiftly morphing into a grotesque ant nest.
'Elves live long and each one is formidable, but their numbers are few. Whether by their own design or divine command, their rule evolved to compensate for that weakness.'
In the spirit of knowing your enemy, Jin-hyuk had compiled records on the foes the ants faced from the outset.
Goblin hordes, the Holy Kingdom, orcs, the Lucadia Empire, the Dwarf League—and now the Elf Empire.
At first, information was limited to what the ants could glean, but Seira's integration into the hive changed that.
Even in her half-human, half-ant state, Seira retained human reasoning and focused on intelligence gathering, granting Jin-hyuk far greater insight.
'With so few in number, elves have no choice but to win over conquered peoples. Elevating them to a new ruling class and granting power ensures loyalty... but resources are finite. They can't extend that to everyone under their sway.'
Loyalty was never easily won.
It was precisely what other deities obsessed over: fostering blind devotion without coercive measures.
Goddesses demanded unconditional faith. Gods of knowledge like Astragon dangled answers to mysteries and civilizational progress as bait. War gods empowered heroes to lead as proxies.
All for that purpose. Which method was best? An eternal, tiresome debate in the Divine Community.
But the ants were different.
All individuals linked by hive consciousness moved as one body. Ordinary units lacked ego, rendering betrayal or slacking impossible concepts.
With Asmodra—the equivalent of their sovereign—offering absolute loyalty to Jin-hyuk, every ant obeyed his slightest whim.
"Shake up the elves' colonies. Tell them not to focus solely on war—put effort into internal governance."
There was an easier path; no need to stray from it.
The elves' war machine drew power from endlessly squeezing their conquests.
Disrupt those, and dissenters eager to escape elven control would inevitably rise.
Unlike the elves, ants had no fear of internal unrest. They could simply sweep away the weakened foes.
"Have you heard the news?"
"Those damn monster scum!"
The self-proclaimed "new elves," distinct from their ancient kin—denying it or not—dwelled in the elves' eternal homeland.
Irsillen, the elven city at the Great Forest's heart, where the World Tree's colossal form propped up the heavens.
Reactions exploded in its conference chamber.
"The Third Legion had nearly conquered the southwest human forces!"
"Well, that makes the First Legion the real losers. They were processing spoils after securing surrender documents and merger treaties."
"The Fifth just reached their objective. And now we're to turn back?!"
The uproar stemmed from the absent guardians dispatched to various fronts.
Yet their faces flickered on screens hovering over blue liquid in stone basins, engaged in real-time debate.
"No choice. We must gather all forces and drive out those beasts in one go."
In response to the guardians' outrage—leading legions scattered for conquest—the elf at the head seat sighed and shook his head.
Long silver-white hair framed his face. He was Sar-El Belpir, chair of the Central Council governing the Elf Empire's expansion beyond the Great Forest.
Title aside, his status matched the others, leaving him perpetually weary from mediation.
"Conquest wars on hold. No threats remain to the Great Forest Empire in this region anyway."
Sar-El murmured, gazing at the intricate map before him.
Vast as it was, the Great Forest was but a fragment of the continent.
Yet from it, elves had conquered surroundings several times its size, forging a mighty dominion.
Their heterorace legions outnumbered the elves themselves—and would grow further... or so planned.
'Never thought the human empire would prove our greatest foe.'
When he'd incited rebellion to oust the elders, Sar-El had pegged the traditional powerhouse, the Lucadia Empire to the north, as the elves' rival for continental dominion.
But as elves bulked up to match them...
The Lucadia Empire crumbled to other foes, gifting its lands away.
And these new enemies defied imagination.
To the point where the World Tree's spirit—a deity he'd never doubted—even it couldn't properly identify the ants.
"This is our absolute mandate, a task we must fulfill. Consider priorities."
"Hm..."
"No helping it. Securing what we have trumps new conquests."
The guardians sighed and nodded at Sar-El's solemn words.
"Second Legion, hold the line until reinforcements arrive."
Sar-El turned to one side.
Belpein, commander of the Second Legion locked in fierce combat with the ants, gave a stiff nod.
Impertinent, but none dared provoke him over his nephew Silian's brutal death.
"Reports indicate their domain stretches beyond the human empire into the far northern uncharted lands. We'll need more troops and resources."
"Wait—conscription and levies from the provinces are already at capacity. These conquests aren't stable yet... pushing further risks backlash."
Eradicating the ants wasn't enough; a full-scale counteroffensive into their nests demanded massive preparations.
Overseer Kael, managing taxes, drafts, and slaves from occupied territories, widened his eyes at Sar-El's mutterings.
Most conquests unstable. Slave labor from criminals and POWs was hitting limits.
"Challenges ahead, but third-class citizens' dissent is irrelevant. This is the natural toll."
Sar-El shook his head firmly.
"Backward tech, filthy streets, primitive cities... We've remade them all with our power. They owe far more."
From Sar-El's view—blessed by divine support, achieving vast change in just over a year, a blink for elves—these conquests were utter barbarism.
Elves rode magic spirit engines armed with enhancement runes, while they still fought with swords, spears, and mage-summoned spells.
Unlike elves freed from food scarcity via artificial spirit fusion rites, they still prayed to the heavens for rain. To Sar-El, they were pitiable heteroraces needing salvation.
Granting them an advanced world? Repaying with their brief lives—mere decades—was only fair.
Most new elves thought likewise.
"Expel the beasts. Other powers are advancing from the distant northwest. We claim all spoils before they do."
Dwarf League and Orc Kingdom—current ant foes—were future adversaries too.
Thus, the Elf Empire stirred to action.