Chapter 137
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 137
Chapter Title: Fusion Entity (2)
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“Those disgusting, horrific monsters dare to invade even the Great Forest? Are you just going to stand by and watch?!”
A holy warrior like Arie, but unlike her, Varnen proudly embraced his fate and encouraged his allies with spear in hand.
He was in a foul mood right now.
His main force, leading with their overwhelming power, had been on the verge of destroying the ants' nest and pushing north when they hit a major roadblock.
Word had come that an uneliminated swarm of corrosive ants was charging toward the Great Forest.
'No choice. I'll slaughter them all here.'
Furious at losing his chance for glory and achievements, Varnen bit his lip as he glared at the ants approaching from afar.
The only way to vent this pent-up rage was to rip the enemy apart.
His lips curled into a grin as he imagined shining on the battlefield, cutting down foes, earning merits, and basking in glory.
“...Huh?”
But Varnen couldn't fight as he envisioned.
Atop the broad, massive carapace of a turtle ant heading their way sat a massive, all-too-familiar cannon.
“It's an Elder Spine barrage! The bastards are firing our own weapons at us!”
The firepower of the world's mightiest siege weapon, unlike before, flew in the opposite direction.
A weapon the elves should have wielded was now in ant hands, turned against the elves to kill them.
“No way...”
Varnen, closest to the incoming barrage, panicked but couldn't dodge.
Far from instinctively spreading his wings to evade, his body moved against his will, flying straight into the projectile's path as if ready to block it and explode.
“Spirits! Graaaah!!”
The holy warrior realized Varnen's intent to sacrifice himself and offset the Elder Spine shot, but he couldn't say more.
Varnen vaporized alive to weaken the blast, not even a single hair left behind—he simply ceased to exist.
“Quite the amusing spectacle.”
Asmora watched and deemed it decent enough.
To her and the ants, such ruthless consumption for the swarm was commonplace. She'd always viewed enemies who failed to demonstrate it as pathetic.
Only now, cornered, were they showing glimpses of such resolve.
“N-No... Varnen...”
But Asmora overlooked that the Elf Empire's forces weren't born like ants.
They were living beings, each with their own ego and world.
To ants, for whom serving the swarm was natural, sacrifice was no big deal. But to them, it was sacred and noble—something not just anyone could do.
Shock was inevitable.
Especially among the non-elf units in the Elf Empire's army, already resentful of being treated as expendable.
With each such scene piling up, cracks formed in the tower built on divine power.
“Elder Spine needs time to recharge...! Charge!”
“Fire our Elder Spines too!”
Battle erupted immediately.
The Elf Empire's forces rushed to destroy the ants' Elder Spine before it could fire again, while launching their own in response.
“No need to waste a precious holy warrior's life like that.”
Seira raised her staff alongside the gathered Askalon mages to intercept the incoming Elder Spine barrage.
She dispersed its power using a mana prism, just like before.
Dozens, hundreds of ants died to the scattered beams, but the ant swarm never wavered, even if comrades or themselves fell.
It was simply natural.
From the swarm's view, 999 dead was a clear gain over 1,000.
“They have no one to calculate such things for them... or willing to accept it.”
Arie, watching darkly from behind her mask, drew swords from her gauntlets.
“Traitor!”
To confront the holy warriors charging to destroy the ants' Elder Spine.
The holy warriors, already informed of Arie via the divine, swung at her without hiding their hostility.
No matter how much stronger Arie had grown with ant aid, she couldn't block a barrage from multiple holy warriors unleashing power heedless of their own bodies.
“W-What the hell are these now?”
But others appeared to aid Arie and block the holy warriors.
Executioner Ants - Askalon, wielding scythe-like claws as swords.
But these differed from prior specimens sliced apart in one strike.
“That emblem, that mana stone. No way?!”
One holy warrior hesitated upon seeing the purple reinforcement stone embedded in the Askalon knight's forehead blocking his sword.
The energy from the reinforcement stone—a power source from a civilization apart from mana hearts—flowed through circuits, amplifying the bearer's strength.
A technology widespread across the Elf Empire, including non-elf units, reborn in ant hands.
Spirit Sword Technique
While one blocked the holy warrior's sword, another crossed its arms and slashed with blade-blue energy-coated claws, mercilessly bisecting the shocked foe in an X.
Not just physical strength.
Ants who acquired the holy warriors' Spirit Sword Technique via Arie now slaughtered elves with their own tech.
“Just kill them quickly. Before more have to sacrifice unwillingly.”
Arie watched coldly as holy warriors fell, a reinforcement stone handed by an approaching worker ant smoothly attaching to her earwig ant's abdomen.
“The defensive line... is collapsing.”
“They're swarming from the north and east. We have no more troops. Most legions annihilated, First Legion still trapped on that island...”
The central council in Luen, the elves' city at the Great Forest's heart, was heavier than ever.
The false hope they'd denied—or believed they could win beyond denial—shattered at last.
Ants now surged toward the Great Forest; the empire's vast territory nearly lost to control.
With elves at their limit, subservient non-elf units began defecting one by one.
'Why? What went wrong?'
Sariel sat silently amid the chaos.
No clear answer emerged, no matter how she pondered or probed.
She and the elves had done their utmost.
They swiftly seized the Great Forest interior, rallying kin. Suppressed backlash, earned full authority.
Expanded outward, proclaiming elven greatness.
Conquered humans and others who infiltrated their peaceful ancient home, enslaving elves—now subjugated them.
With amassed might and advancing tech, stepped toward wider world.
They would have claimed this continent, this world.
If not for Jin-hyuk's endlessly evolving, devouring ants.
“What in gods' names are those demons truly? We advanced fighting them, yet...”
Overseer Kael's lament captured it.
Elder Spine, guardians—elves pushed limits to match ants.
Even seized momentum briefly. Could have eradicated nests, purged ants from the land.
But survival's scales tipped to ants.
Ants endured assaults, prepared counterstrike.
Elf Empire crumbled, no troops or arms left.
'Arie...!'
Sariel bit her lip hearing it.
Fate tangled like threads.
Kael wailed at ants' impossible prowess, but this wasn't solely their doing.
Had Sariel killed her beloved Arie, or prevented forced exploitation.
Had ants not exploited Arie to pierce elven gaps.
Ultimately, a possible disaster self-invited.
“Chairman, what now?”
“What choice remains? We fulfill duty to the end.”
Sariel gazed skyward briefly, rose at faint, fierce wingbeats on the wind.
Grown massive enough for gale-force winds, hornet ants' raw, chilling flaps—aka Screaming Wings—descended en masse over Luen.
Preemptive strike to weaken elves, scout before ground forces.
“Shall we lose homeland and ancestors' legacy to demons? Defend!”
Glancing at the colossal World Tree at Luen's center, Sariel nocked her bow, firing at ants swarming onto it.
Abandoning Great Forest homeland for exodus held little meaning for elves.
They'd dwelled millennia to guard their root, their all—the World Tree.
Unchanged now. Divine-taught pinnacle, Man-gi Gong, centered on World Tree's power.
Elves couldn't abandon it; full understanding required knowing the Tree.
[Asmora reacts to the power dwelling in the great tree]
First entering the Great Forest depths, ants sensed it upon confirming the World Tree.
Deep in primordial nest, watching all—Asmora's eyes gleamed.
Ant detection revealed vast power flowing through Great Forest, centered on World Tree.
< Chapter 137 - Fusion Entity (2) > End