Chapter 148
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: Kinds of Minds (1)
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The orcs' deity had departed of its own accord.
However, it hadn't abandoned its subordinates. Having understood its will and intent, Scrumm ultimately accepted responsibility, rallied the survivors, and resolved to lead them toward a new future.
In a sense, everything had unfolded exactly as the ants desired.
In the end, Jin-hyuk's ants had driven yet another deity from this land, Edellion, taking another step toward establishing their god, Jin-hyuk, as the sole divinity here.
"..."
But at this moment, none of that held any meaning for Berggren.
Near the orc kingdom's capital, where the fierce battle had raged...
In a horrific nest woven from sticky spiderwebs, slime, and ant secretions, Berggren slumped against the wall, his broken body and dazed expression all that remained of him.
"Why?"
His hair now completely white, he muttered in a cracked voice.
He moved unconsciously, but his body refused to obey.
In his desperation to protect, he had burned through his limits and consumed his mana—flames that ultimately devoured his own body. In truth, Berggren had been a dead man even before his defeat at Bellona's hands.
It was Bellona's power that had suppressed the mana inferno raging from within. In a way, she had saved his life.
His limbs charred black from the tips, his body was little more than a torso clinging to breath.
Without aid, even if rescued, he wouldn't have lasted.
"Why didn't you just kill me?"
The ones forcibly sustaining his life were the ants—now well-versed in human physiology—who pieced together his ruined organs, supplied vital nutrients, and kept him alive. His will played no part in it.
And the one directing them was Bellona herself, who had defeated him and dragged him here.
Bellona, who typically shunned war despite her love for it, sat before his body, staring blankly.
"Damaged body. Considering repair and modification options."
Of course, Bellona had skipped the final battle not out of disinterest in toying with Berggren, but because no opponent promised greater thrill.
Instead, she was deep in thought now.
Pondering how to modify and strengthen this war trophy, Berggren, to surpass the already impressive feats of Asmora's legion commanders—making him cooler and stronger.
"You're going to turn me into one of you? Turn me into a monster like you...?"
Berggren could only scoff in disbelief.
Bellona's mindset was beyond the grasp of ordinary humans.
"Yeah."
She nodded with a beaming smile, leaving him speechless.
That pure, unfeigned grin, hidden within her rough, ferocious exoskeletal helm...
Their ways of thinking were worlds apart—rational conversation was impossible.
Besides, his absolute superior held not just his life and death in her grasp, but ownership of the body she forcibly preserved.
Staring at the alien, beautiful Bellona who gazed at him intently, Berggren realized he was powerless and squeezed his eyes shut.
"Look at this."
Of course, Bellona had drawn inspiration from Asmora.
The key was making absorbed legion commanders fight willingly.
The 'ego' that could inhabit the Collective Consciousness—a unique ability awakened in ordinary ants upon becoming a deity's subordinates—was something only pureblood queens could originally possess.
It was granted to legion commanders sparingly, solely to benefit the collective and bolster its forces.
Bellona had the spider-ant Askalon nearby cast a spell.
As the Askalon mage conjured a flickering screen in the air, Berggren's eyes widened.
There was Scrumm, surrounded by ants but unharmed, directing surviving orcs and humans to gather supplies and handle cleanup. The ants merely watched, not attacking.
"Master!"
Their time together hadn't been long, but Berggren regarded Scrumm as his true mentor, grateful for the genuine grace shown.
He had assumed Bellona, who loathed Scrumm, would kill him. Yet Scrumm lived, tending to those Berggren would sacrifice himself for.
Bellona's eyes sparkled at his reaction. As expected, the new toy outshone the broken Scrumm.
"If you refuse, they die. All of them. I'll chop off limbs, slice open bellies, pull out guts, sever necks, chew heads, and smash brains."
And Bellona said this in the most innocent tone.
"If you put it that way..."
"Uh..."
[Asmora snorts]
Seira, Arie, and even Asmora herself found it absurd, hearing through the Collective Consciousness.
The pieces for gentle persuasion were all in place—why resort to crude threats?
This was Bellona's nature.
For her, whose core was violence, convoluted deals held no place.
She crushed with raw power.
She seized what she wanted through victory. Winners claimed rights; losers submitted.
"So that's why you spared them. To use as leverage against me?"
Fortunately, Berggren pierced the essence.
Whether persuasion or threat, the goal was the same: his willing integration into the collective. Cooperation would end it.
'My fate leads here.'
He fell silent for a moment.
A few years ago, as a reckless prince, he couldn't have imagined it.
Not his homeland trampled by eastern steppe orcs, nor learning true enlightenment from one.
Nor fighting alongside orcs against abyssal demons, only to be absorbed.
'But my purpose hasn't changed.'
Against orcs, or with them against ants—his goal remained constant.
Even allying with ants wouldn't alter it. He could accept that.
He believed it his destiny. He'd already staked his life to protect. Body and soul were his to give.
"This body's already ruined beyond repair. What use could you have for it?"
Resigned, he leaned his head back. Bellona's smile widened triumphantly.
Finally, she had a toy rivaling Asmora's enviable ones.
"Keurgh... Aaaargh!!!"
Under Bellona's orders, the Askalon mage cast her spell at him.
This magic—born when Seira, once a human mage, arrogantly tried hacking into the Collective Consciousness—was designed to forcibly insert an external consciousness into the ants' hive mind.
As his consciousness tore from his body amid agonizing screams, Berggren was cast alone into a vast void, just like Seira and Arie before him.
Wandering the emptiness, he first heard wails echoing from the smoke.
Sounds of metal scraping, hundreds of swords clashing—the raw cacophony evoking battlefield agony.
Then it coalesced into a distant storm, taking form. Before its immensity, Berggren—mere speck—ground his teeth unwittingly.
Blade-storm like sand, eyeless grinning faces, torn joints, weapons jutting from lips—it surged as a whirlwind.
At its heart strode a colossal beast, god of war incarnate.
Black exoskeleton armored its form like plate mail; limbs of beasts, insects, humans writhed.
From the helm's massive jaws gleamed eyes, hunter's instinct alight for living blood.
Unlike Asmora's human-fixated presence in the hive mind, this was Bellona's essence—another queen's consciousness.
'Could that be...'
Behind Bellona loomed another vast consciousness, a faint afterimage watching him.
If Bellona was storm, this was solar might—untouchable even by tempests.
The absolute will, pleased with Bellona's new toy, turned to Berggren.
"Take care of her...?"
Sensing it faintly, Berggren faltered, speechless.
No harsh interrogation.
No test of "What are you?"
Instead, it felt like a worried father entrusting his wayward daughter.
"She seems quite taken with you, so help her out well."
Jin-hyuk approved of Berggren's joining.
Unlike Asmora, Bellona relished charging into danger.
She'd nearly died to Scrumm; peril wasn't absent.
Worried, Jin-hyuk wished for someone to support—even protect—her.
Berggren fit perfectly.
As Bellona said, a knight awakened to protect exerting that for her would be ideal.
[Bellona anticipates the newly forming body]
While Berggren's consciousness acclimated in the hive mind, his body underwent thorough overhaul under Bellona's lead.
A ruined human shell was unnecessary.
Her humanoid guise was mere ploy to steal their tech and claim it.
No need for human flesh. Stronger, cooler would suffice.
"Too alien. Risk of adaptation failure."
Asmora intervened, unable to watch.
In variant creation and genetic design, she reigned supreme in the collective.
While Bellona battled, Asmora orchestrated from the nest, crafting new variants with all her prowess.
Her point: if Berggren's new form diverged too much, he couldn't adapt and wield full power.
She'd solved it for Seira and Arie by overlaying earwig-ant shells on their original bodies.
"This is my way."
But Bellona grinned defiantly at Asmora's critique.
Confident her method would resolve Asmora's concern while achieving her vision.
'That...'
Jin-hyuk sighed at Berggren's new form emerging from the massive pupa.
Fueled by vast nutrients and resources, the body rapidly formed. Berggren's eyes snapped open, tearing free from the slime-filled cocoon to reveal his reborn self.
"Perfect."
Shadowed face alight, Bellona threw her head back, grinning up at the towering figure before her.