Chapter 139
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 139
Chapter Title: Aftermath (1)
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"That wicked deity wasn't called the World Tree's Spirit for nothing. Both its divine power and blessings could spread to the elves through the World Tree, and the elves, who were so closely tied to it, were able to accept it swiftly."
"So, now that the World Tree has been neutralized, does that mean the deity can no longer influence the elves?"
"Probably, with a high likelihood."
Ariene nodded at Seira's speculation.
The World Tree wasn't just some massive tree.
It served as a kind of relay station. The deity Nirsediya had been able to accomplish far more with less interference than other deities by using the World Tree—essentially its true first subordinate.
Now that the tree, which had played that role, had been crippled by the swarming ant-cicadas, Nirsediya's range of influence had been drastically reduced.
"In that case, all that's left is..."
Seira focused her mind and gazed through the hive mind at the rapidly crumbling landscape of the elven empire.
Not only the great forest where the elves dwelled, but every territory they had conquered and ruled was collapsing at breakneck speed.
Having lost their central command and leadership, the troops broke free from control, and rebellions erupted everywhere in the occupied lands, fueled by years of pent-up resentment.
Amid the chaos, the ants spread relentlessly, tracking down and hunting or slaughtering those who had received the deity's blessings.
The elves had to pay the price.
Even those who survived the ants would be killed by furious locals in the occupied territories or forced to flee.
Unlike the mechanical, blade-sharp ants—who neither killed nor spared based on personal circumstances—the enraged residents wouldn't spare any elf based on their individual stories.
Whether blessed by the deity or not, whether innocently caught up or not, they were all just long-eared, pointy-eared elves to them.
"So, what do you plan to do with the elves now? If you don't wrap this up quickly, the damage will only grow."
"Head to the safest place possible... and create a new great forest. The sins committed by the new elves won't be washed away easily."
Even from the brief, fragmented glimpses, Seira let out a small sigh and looked at Ariene with pitying eyes.
Ariene, still clutching the World Tree's fruit in her arms, gave a wry smile.
Fortunately, thanks to Asmora's curiosity, Ariene had obtained information about uncharted lands that no one else had seen.
She planned to lead her kin there, plant a new World Tree, and let them live on.
What happened after that? Even Ariene didn't know. It would be up to the surviving elves.
Ariene was no longer an elf.
She had fully severed ties with her people and now bore only the duty of serving as a legion commander in the ant horde.
It was a fate she had already accepted.
"It'll definitely be worth it. The more we strive, the more He'll recognize our efforts."
Seira smiled at Ariene.
She finally had a comrade in the same boat, someone to ease her loneliness.
With the war against the elven empire, which had dominated most of the southern continent, finally over, the ants had claimed more than half of the continent as their own territory.
"Now, the final one."
Asmora, perched in her nest, leaned back against the headrest made from worker ant bodies and turned her gaze.
Toward the northwest of the continent, where the orc kingdom—driven out by the nomadic horde after their expeditionary force's defeat and now sharpening its blades for revenge—and the dwarf confederacy had taken root.
"Still, we can't send every single soldier under the great horde's command to the western front right now. We don't know how many enemies are still lurking in the vast southern continent."
Even as the World Tree lay neutralized, siphoning its sap at this very moment, that didn't mean the deity's subordinates had been wiped out entirely.
Those who couldn't easily defy the deity's commands would hide, regain their strength however they could, and try to reclaim the World Tree.
The ants had deployed massive forces to hunt them down, and until that operation concluded, those troops couldn't be reassigned elsewhere.
"It won't take long."
Asmora responded curtly to Seira's report.
She thought Seira was showing off again—after convincing Ariene to join the hive and using that as a turning point to crack the battlefield open.
But the cleanup wouldn't drag on.
Asmora's calculations with her enormous brain showed that scouring the entire former elven empire territory and exterminating the hidden enemies would take mere moments with hundreds of thousands of troops.
Sounds, scents, vibrations, even the faint traces of mana and demonic power leaking out.
The ants had long mastered tracking foes with every sense and ability at their disposal.
Though large-scale battles were rare in the process, skirmishes continued nonstop.
Even subordinates who hadn't actively collaborated with the deity were hunted if they bore its blessing.
Ariene was a special case.
There was no reason for Asmora or the ants to personally sever her connection and spare her life.
"Irina, it looks like this is the end of the line for us."
"Kalen..."
In the midst of it, Asmora watched a man and woman who had resisted her pursuing ant hunter squads to the bitter end.
The sword-wielding human mercenary and the elf-like woman were utterly exhausted, bereft of strength to fight on, staring into each other's eyes as the ants closed in.
"No regrets."
"Me neither."
The man dropped his sword, the elf her bow.
The pair, who had defied taboos to fall in love and fought side by side, shared a passionate kiss in their final moments as the ants descended upon them.
Asmora pondered the sight.
Why had those two chosen that act at the end?
Some resisted to the last, others despaired and took their own lives—not uncommon. But this was the first time Asmora took interest in a couple kissing at death's door.
"They must have loved each other."
Seira explained the reason with a wistful expression.
A kiss was a universal sign of love and affection, transcending species.
Of course, it was just one of many ways to express it.
Seira figured the queen, who despised inefficiency, wouldn't attach much meaning to such a gesture.
[Asmora receives a great shock]
But contrary to Seira's expectation, Asmora was deeply shaken by the truth.
A kiss was something lovers did.
Asmora had known what love was for quite some time.
Wasn't it exactly what she yearned for from Jin-hyuk?
"Wait, love comes in many forms. Romantic love between lovers is entirely different from the devotion to a great being..."
"No."
Seira tried to stop the panicking Asmora, who seemed to be misunderstanding, but it was too late.
Asmora tentatively touched her lips, then began rejecting the nutrient transfers fed mouth-to-mouth, which she had always accepted casually.
If it was an act for those who loved each other, she had to do it too.
'Oh no...'
Seira let out a small sigh.
A worker ant delivering mana extracted from the World Tree for analysis approached to feed it mouth-to-mouth as usual.
But Asmora hesitated, then rapidly divided cells in her palm to form a butterfly-like proboscis.
The curled, tentacle-like appendage plunged into the worker ant's mouth, siphoning the nutrients directly into her body.
Having grasped the intent of a kiss, Asmora had chosen this solely to protect her own lips.
'Does the queen want to be His one and only woman?'
To Seira, Asmora's behavior looked no different from a pubescent girl's craving to try everything.
From her perspective, unable to gauge Jin-hyuk's true nature, she couldn't even guess how much reciprocation a creature's love for its creator might receive.
To become the woman of a god.
What an audacious, reckless notion.
But the scary part was that Seira herself wondered if Asmora just might pull it off.
The queen of the ant horde was the incarnation of obsession and desire.
With the madness that had transcended species to evolve and remake her body into a new existence, even the impossible could become possible.
"The south has fallen. The elves are done for. All that vast land and everything on it has gone to those demons."
"Just looking at the territory, it's more than half of Edelion Continent. That enormous swath of land... Can we really clean it up completely fighting like we are now?"
News of the elven empire's collapse spread swiftly even to the distant dwarf confederacy.
They, who had been tugging back and forth with just one nomadic horde across the vast plains, plunged into profound shock and anxiety.
In terms of combat prowess, maybe—but the great horde's scale dwarfed the nomadic horde by dozens of times.
"The Earth God has issued a divine oracle!"
Amid the turmoil, Dwarf King Dungram proclaimed the deity's command far and wide.
Hold out to the end in perfect defensive formation until they developed the new technology revealed by the Earth God.
Just endure until the tech was complete, and the mighty warriors of the earth would sweep away all foes.
The technology's name: Brasio Astra.
Fill entire mountains with massive power engines to summon a potent demonic power field, tear down the dimensional walls, and call reinforcements from another planet ruled by the deity.
What the hell are you doing? Now you're building walls and trying to hold out? You think that'll work?!
Shut up. We should have done this from the beginning!
The dwarf confederacy, expecting to fight alongside, had shifted strategy, infuriating the orc deity Urmark on the community boards—but the dwarves didn't budge an inch.
Perfecting dimension gate tech, warp tech, spacefaring tech, etc.—at the pinnacle of civilization—through subordinates to summon their main forces was one key to victory for deities.
Lower worlds couldn't handle armies arriving armed from higher realms; it was common sense.
Direct dispatch using coordinates of the contest zone was blocked by the Divine Net's planetary barrier, but maximizing subordinate tech to call them in was feasible.
Not everyone avoided pursuit or hunkered down grinding specific techs for this—but it was a solid strategy with high win rates on the boards, despite the hate.
The dwarves just hadn't started that way and pivoted mid-game, adding a touch of unease.
"From now on, focus every resource of this land there. Completing Brasio Astra is our only path to survival!"
The dwarf confederacy expanded their thick walls further, poured resources inward, and went all-in on tech advancement.
This left the orc kingdom as the most desperate.
Too late to switch directions now, and the onrushing ant horde would obviously prioritize them over the ironclad dwarves.