Chapter 127
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: Empty Shell (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Why has it come to this...?"
"Now's not the time to worry about that! Block them before the formation collapses!"
Scrumm berated his subordinates, who were thrown into disarray by the unforeseen situation, then drew his sword and charged forward himself.
Ants were endlessly crawling out from the massive holes punched through the ground.
With ants charging head-on as well, the allied forces were effectively under attack from both sides.
"Hurry and collapse those holes!"
To prevent their lines from crumbling without even putting up a proper fight, Scrumm bellowed as he swung his sword.
The sword beam that erupted from his blade instantly bisected a charging venom ant and shattered the tunnel entrance, causing it to cave in.
The others desperately tried to seal the tunnels as well.
Dwarves hastily tossed bombs into the tunnels, while mages and shamans collapsed the earth to block the entrances.
But countless ants had already surfaced, turning the ground into a wasteland.
Bellona and the ants' strategy of ambushing them in this utterly unexpected manner had succeeded, preventing a proper battle.
"This thing..."
In the midst of the chaos, Scrumm froze at the sight of a grotesquely bizarre monster crawling out of the tunnel on its numerous long legs.
He had unconsciously grown accustomed to the variant ants that mostly resembled insects or beasts up to now, so the intense sense of wrongness from the creature before him was unavoidable.
"---..."
The monster had the body of a massive spider with a grayish upper torso dangling from it—a blank face without eyes or nose, just a mouth devoid of lips.
Its hands formed a mudra as a bizarre incantation poured from that horrific maw.
"[Chant words flowing out]"
Spotting the hazy magic circle manifesting, Scrumm realized it was an incantation summoning magic and recoiled in horror.
The spider-ant Ascalon's magic—optimized by maximizing the traits and strengths of devoured creatures, including humans—was superior even to that of a human mage infected with cordyceps.
"Kuh...!"
Scrumm hurriedly raised his sword into a defensive stance.
The powerful shockwave bursting from the magic circle spread in a fan shape, crushing and pulverizing the allied soldiers around him alive.
'So they've finally crossed the line.'
Grinding his teeth at the sight of the devastated surroundings from a single spell, Scrumm gripped his sword tighter, instinctively realizing the ants' evolution knew no bounds.
Each time the ants revealed such horrors, his resolve to eradicate them from the world only grew stronger.
"Die!"
For now, he had to deal with the grotesque variant Ascalon before him.
He could accept them using magic via infected human mages riddled with cordyceps, but the ants absorbing and wielding magic as their own power was something he absolutely had to stop.
His greatsword, glowing with crimson demonic power, came crashing down on Ascalon's head in an instant.
The creature conjured a sword-blue barrier with its emitted kairos, but the technique infused in Scrumm's blade honed the blazing demonic power to a razor's edge, slicing through the shield in one stroke.
"You...!"
But in that moment, someone else swiftly intervened, swinging their sword to block his own.
Scrumm's eyes widened beneath his helmet at the blazing red glare.
It was Bellona, who had been slain by his blade not long ago, now returned in an entirely different form—clashing swords with her mortal enemy.
"You demon. How dare a monster like you mimic a 'person'."
Scrumm had no idea what Bellona had consumed to transform like that. Was she imitating an orc? A human? It wasn't clear.
Unlike Asmode, Bellona's body was slightly off from a typical human woman, making his reaction natural.
But to Bellona, it didn't matter.
No matter her appearance, all she desired was to become the strongest, fight ever more powerful foes in greater numbers, and slay them.
"...!"
Scrumm flinched at the pair of arms sprouting from Bellona's body.
A being wielding swords with four arms was a foe even he, an orc over a century old, had never faced before.
'A fiend with a notorious reputation. Removing her will boost our morale—might even rattle those monsters.'
He didn't know she was the queen he had beheaded, reborn like a larva turning into a butterfly.
As a leader who had to guide those around him and kindle hope, he fought on.
Even against an unfamiliar enemy.
"Think I'll fear you?!"
Scrumm kicked off the ground and charged Bellona first.
A single strike loaded with immense power to shatter the enemy's guard and disrupt their stance—Crushing Shatter.
As the force exploded in a fan shape, Bellona lightly leaped into the air, ramping up her mana heart's output while whirling her four swords in a frenzy.
Each blow unleashed slashing waves packed with maximum power.
"Uuak!?"
"Everyone, fall back! The great warrior is fighting at full strength!"
The aftermath was so immense that fighters from both sides—alliance and ants alike—had to retreat.
The air howled from the sword clashes, and each rapid ground-kick caused the unstable earth, riddled with tunnels, to crumble and split.
'How can there be such mechanical swordplay?'
In the brief exchange, Scrumm couldn't help but admire as he parried Bellona's mad flurry of techniques.
The techniques and swordsmanship Bellona had absorbed and mastered while ceaselessly roaming were vast, precise, and refined.
The learning prowess via the hive mind and auxiliary brain was one of the ants' proud strengths, now greatly aiding in mimicking and collectively refining techniques the queens took interest in, like magic or martial ki.
On top of that, sensory organs, reflexes, processing speed, and more—all transcending normal lifeforms.
Even her basic swordsmanship, combining it all, had elevated Bellona to the realm of a first-class warrior who could etch her name in history.
"Kuh."
A glancing sword strike from Bellona tore through Scrumm's demonic power, shattering his armor and leaving a vivid scar on his arm.
"A monster...!"
On the fierce battlefield where tens of thousands clashed.
The ants' ambush had succeeded, but true to their numbers as a united alliance, they weren't collapsing outright and were somehow holding on.
As corpses piled up in real time on the ground, Berggren—panting, his barrier shattered—finally tore his gaze from the scorpion-ant Ascalon's corpse, felled by his own sword.
It was a significant feat, single-handedly slaying the valuable asset that had received considerable investment from the ant horde, along with its escort variants.
But a short distance away, Scrumm was locked in a fierce duel with Bellona.
A brutal fight no ordinary soul could approach.
"No...!"
In that moment, Berggren cried out in shock as Scrumm took a wound.
For him, who had recently begun learning the Crushing Extremity realm from Scrumm, the idea of his master losing to anyone with the sword was unimaginable.
"Think you've won?"
But just then, as Bellona thrust to finish Scrumm, a swift counterstrike flew at her.
The riposte severed one of Bellona's flinching arms.
Bellona leaped back, spraying blood from the stump, while Scrumm—eyes wide—rose, burning away the blood coating his demon-power-clad sword.
"A bit deeper, and I'd have taken your head with it."
Scrumm eyed Bellona's bleeding arm with regret. Any deeper, and her head would have fallen with the arm.
"The monster before us has no heart. They're nothing but claws and blades moving on orders."
Catching his breath, Scrumm scanned his surroundings, including Berggren—all eyes desperately fixed on him with hope.
He had to reward them.
As the light guiding them all, the beacon illuminating the path.
His voice grew louder, emphasizing the pounding heart, the burning soul of a great hero.
"But we're different. We have hearts and souls. We advance with them on our backs. You've bled to reach this point!"
He shed his shattered armor and roared, regripping his sword.
His blazing demonic power surged across his body in sync with his fierce emotions, pulsing rhythmically like a heartbeat.
"Shattered armor, flowing blood, yet unbroken spirits. That's why we're warriors. We go together! To the end! And we return alive!"
With that, he charged once more at Bellona, now down one arm.
Overcharge technique amplifying power to the max—the Crushing Extremity realm he himself embodied.
Bellona tried to counter with her remaining three arms, but one strike snapped her sword, the next severed another arm.
'Calculation error.'
Contrary to her expectations, Bellona was overwhelmed by Scrumm's realm, which grew stronger with each exchange.
Another arm gone—now only one arm and sword remained.
"No matter how perfectly you imitate, you can't copy this. Can a monster like you have a burning warrior's heart?"
Scrumm spat coldly at Bellona, unable to match the Crushing Extremity despite her superior senses and physique, then severed her final arm and unleashed a brutal kick into her defenseless abdomen.
The strike, powerful enough to shatter thick rock, cracked her armor-like exoskeleton and crushed her innards.
Bellona staggered back, spraying fluids as she collapsed, writhing on the ground.
"..."
Losing again? She saw Scrumm approaching to finish her.
This would be her second defeat. The first to skill, the second to heart.
[Bellona rages]
"What...!"
Absolutely not. Never. No way. A colossal rage and hatred boiled up, propelling Bellona's body.
Scrumm mistook her reaction for panic, but Bellona wasn't some mere variant—she was a queen.
A queen of the ant horde at this level was far from an empty husk.
The queen's desires set the colony's very identity and direction.
Who dared belittle the heart of the being leading this vast consciousness?
The queens had transcended their species through evolution fueled solely by that desire.
Though different from the noble warrior's heart Scrumm extolled, its flames burned no less fiercely.
[Roaming Horde rages]
Bellona's fury spread to the entire horde under her command.
At the same moment, a swift ant moth crossed the battlefield, dropping a wriggling leech-like mass it gripped with its six legs onto Bellona's head.
A variant of Seira's shell ant.
The shell ant instantly enveloped Bellona's body, merging with it to heal and regenerate, restoring her ability to fight.
"You... no way."
Scrumm shuddered, suddenly realizing something from the intense hatred directed at him.
The roaming horde, which had crumbled when he beheaded the queen, now regained its strength fully restored.
The emergence of a new variant radiating fury and hatred especially toward him.
"Queen!!"
Scrumm cried out in horror as Bellona lunged at him.