Chapter 118
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 118
Chapter Title: Humiliation (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“The attack point... right in the middle of the elves' territory...”
Seira, who had received Kim Jin-hyuk's oracle, couldn't help but be flustered.
The location he had personally provided coordinates for and ordered them to strike was smack in the center of the Elf Empire's domain on the map—right near the Great Forest.
She hesitated for a moment, never expecting such an order.
Until now, Jin-hyuk had focused solely on observation, and this was the first time he had provided detailed information and directed action himself.
Moreover, since that position was deep in enemy territory, which she had judged unreachable, it was only natural for Seira to freeze up without having heard the full details on what was there or why they needed to attack it.
[Asmora ponders an air raid strategy]
But Asmora was different. The moment Seira relayed Jin-hyuk's command, she began racking her brain to execute it without a shred of hesitation.
'What on earth is she planning?'
Seira swallowed dryly as she watched the queen's demeanor.
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't see a way herself.
But Asmora, who could do anything for the command of the great being, would surely find a method somehow.
Jin-hyuk's orders took precedence over the colony's gains or efficiency.
That was how strong the trust and influence he had steadily built since the ants were just a small colony.
Seira figured that if push came to shove, Asmora could create a new variant to make it work.
“!”
[Asmora calls for Seira]
And that's exactly what happened.
Seira, waiting tensely, flinched at the contact from Asmora, who had finished her rapid calculations and was calling her.
“W-Wait a second...!”
However, it wasn't just because Asmora had found a method.
The core of that method involved selecting Seira herself, and she had no right to refuse.
[Stealthy maneuver and infiltration with a small force capable of high firepower. Asmora intends to repay the enemy in kind]
Asmora's eyes gleamed fiercely from within the nest.
Bellona's death had awakened fury in her as well.
It was an incident where the enemies had dared to assassinate the core of the colony.
As a member of the colony and its queen, this was an unforgivable humiliation.
Thus, she had to repay that humiliation, by any means necessary.
'Is she modifying Seira?'
Jin-hyuk swallowed dryly as he watched the massive ant colony drop everything at his single command and pour all their efforts into it.
The first thing they did was bring Seira to a specific location and reclaim the shellback ants covering her body.
“...!”
The shellback ants, which normally moved at her will, slithered off her body in an instant.
As the startled Seira hurriedly covered her flushed body, worker ants approached the wriggling, slug-like shellback ants.
Shellback ants were exceptionally special.
Made by mixing slug-like mollusks and other soft-bodied creatures with pluripotent cells, it was the one and only individual Asmora had created solely to control Seira at her own will.
Though now, since Seira had been recognized as a saint by Jin-hyuk and operated at the rank right below the queen, the fused shellback ants moved according to Seira's will—but modifying them still required the queen's design and abilities.
“That thing...”
Seira, who had knelt on one knee and covered herself, widened her eyes as she saw the worker ants inject something into the shellback ant.
The shellback ant, reverting to a soft, jelly-like form by releasing its hardening ability, was flooded with mana hearts crafted by heart-synthesis parasites, nutrient solutions, and more, transforming it into a new existence.
'You do it.'
Seira flinched at the will transmitted through the colony consciousness.
Right now, Asmora intended to further modify her into a being comparable to the orc hero Scrumm, who had defeated the previous wandering colony.
She was the only one in the ant colony capable of that role.
“Eek!?”
The completed shellback ant latched back onto Seira's body.
The fluid mass flowed along her curves, hardening into armor, and thorns pierced into her body, linking their nervous systems as if they had been one from the start.
Up to this point, nothing was different from before.
'My power has multiplied several times over.'
But Seira staggered, struggling against the overwhelming power surging through her body.
In truth, the newly modified Shellback Ant·Tyrant looked largely unchanged on the outside, but much had been altered internally.
From the power density in each cell to the density of the cells themselves—it had all skyrocketed.
Her body weight had increased several-fold, cracking the parched ground just from stepping down.
The mana in her own heart and the shellback ant's also resonated with the mana heart embedded in her chest center, converting into kair, the ants' unique power.
“Ugh...”
A mask forming an ant's face gradually covered her frowning, pained expression.
'It hurts so much. But my body...!'
The back armor split open as rapidly dividing cells formed a massive pair of wings encased in membrane.
Seira, wracked by excruciating pain and pleasure from the neural network connection, arched her back, spread her wings, and shot into the sky in one go.
“Seira has evolved.”
Jin-hyuk murmured in admiration as he watched the scene.
To be precise, the shellback ant fused with her had evolved—but the shellback ant was a power granted only to Seira, the one talent Asmora acknowledged who could access the colony consciousness independently and bear its aftermath.
Seira crossed the sky in an instant, ascending to an altitude high enough to evade enemy detection nets alongside a small aerial force, then oriented herself and began flying toward her target.
The coordinates Jin-hyuk had provided, naturally.
'Me too.'
And Asmora, watching Seira, felt the same.
In her mind, unspoken even to the point of no alerts appearing, the image of Seira—silver hair fluttering as she cleaved through the heavens—was crystal clear.
In truth, Seira was also Asmora's experimental subject.
An experiment to understand true beauty, something Asmora herself yearned to possess.
“How's the extraction going?”
“It seems like we're finally picking up speed.”
This place was right before the Great Forest, a buffer zone the elves of the Great Forest had called it since ancient times.
Even the Varnest Kingdom, bordering the northwest with the Great Forest, hadn't dared develop or cultivate it, leaving it untouched.
Now, the elves were using it as their massive experimental ground.
“These wicked bastards...”
“That chieftain-level specimen still has breath left to complain, it seems.”
It was a horrific sight. A goblin, barely managing to speak, was bound by tree roots piercing through the magic circle-etched ground, being drained of its power alive.
And they weren't the only ones.
Hundreds of roots bursting from the wide clearing had seized countless goblins alive, absorbing something from their bodies.
“Ask that mongrel god you believed in and followed why the mercy granted to others doesn't apply to you.”
Mauren, the elf researcher in charge, turned with a stern face before the dying goblin.
In truth, even the elves didn't fully know why they were doing this.
They only knew the order from the Deity: extract "something" dwelling in the goblins' bodies.
That "something" was a holy relic containing the Deity's dignity, and restoring it would grant the elves a powerful new weapon—their own Deity hadn't revealed that yet.
“We're gathering quite a bit of mana. Why not skip executing the prisoners and just squeeze power out of them instead?”
“That would be nice, but it takes too long and might not be efficient.”
Of course, subordinates going beyond their Deity's orders and running wild was something all Deities faced.
Some elves had discovered decent results from vivisecting goblins and were conspiring to expand it to other races as well.
'Whatever happens, prioritize completing the assigned mission first.'
Still, as the person in charge, Mauren focused more on the present than distant futures.
There is no future without the present. Failing the current mission would render any future plans meaningless.
He knew how much resources and effort the higher-ups had invested per the Deity's command. Failure was not an option.
Besides, he wasn't one to demand much.
Rather than his colleagues' cries for a grand elven civilization, he just wanted to safely end the day, go home, and spend time with his wife and kids.
“Everyone, back to your stations and let's finish today's work...”
But as Mauren moved to resume work.
Something pierced the overcast sky and plummeted straight onto him from above.
“Huh?”
“Lord Mauren!”
Everyone around gasped in shock.
A bolt of lightning struck precisely, incinerating Mauren from head to toe, vaporizing him alive and leaving only part of his legs.
At the same time, a massive something that had plunged from the sky landed at tremendous speed, kicking up dust and a shockwave.
“Cough...”
The elves, stunned by the sudden ambush, emerged from the thick dust to behold the enemy and cried out in horror.
The enormous bulk was an illusion. It only appeared huge due to the massive pair of wings matching its body.
The main body, with crimson eyes gleaming, revealed the graceful curves of a woman's form.
'Kill them all and destroy everything.'
While the elves hadn't even grasped the situation.
Seira, who had raided the facility, raised her staff.
To carry out Jin-hyuk's order and wash away the colony's humiliation.
“---!!”
Vast magic circles formed around Seira's body, unleashing enormous grand magics that became a raging storm, engulfing the area in an instant.
Fused with bullet ants, shellback ants, and more, her power had already surpassed human limits, earning her the title of one of the era's rare grand magi.
But this moment, fused with the further enhanced Tyrant, transcended even that.
If someone knowledgeable in human magic were here, they would shudder.
It had achieved the realm of 9th-circle magic, possible only in myths.
'I don't know exactly what that holy relic from the goblins' Deity is, but anyway, it's embedded in the goblins' bodies right now.'
Jin-hyuk had already read all the posts of lament from the goblin Deity, the Green Catastrophe, via the Divine Community.
The reason the elves were torturing goblins alive, too.
“Simple destruction won't satisfy. Can we hijack it instead?”
He aimed to seize the holy relic the elves sought.
In his view, the ants didn't need the elves' complicated experiments—they could just absorb the power melded into the enemy's bodies.
“Kaaaargh!”
[Asmora detects a special power dwelling in the enemy's bodies]
In fact, Jin-hyuk's guess was spot on.
As the wretched elven corpses lay crushed amid the ruined ground and collapsed buildings.
The ant-maids who had infiltrated with Seira approached the immobilized goblins and plunged sharp stingers into their bodies.
“Grooo...”
The goblins writhed in agony as all their bodily fluids were sucked out, leaving them as mummified husks of bone and skin.
Compared to the elves delicately siphoning power and essence with the World Tree's might, this was brutally violent and merciless.
The ants had been born with the ability to absorb powers mixed into enemies' bodies from the moment they became subordinates.
No complicated processes needed—just devour them.
“Absorb the goblins first.”
Seira ordered the ant-maids to recover all the goblins' bodily fluids, then glanced at the elven knight order hastily charging from the distant Great Forest.
The knight order, composed entirely of pureblood elves in ornate armor, had no need to be fought right now.
The ant-maids, their bellies swollen from draining all the goblins, took to the sky in unison, and Seira spread her wings as well.
'What's this? Why are those elves captured too?'
In the process, Jin-hyuk spotted a group of elves bound in the corner.
Clearly elves like the others, yet tied up by tree roots bursting from the ground, just like the goblins.