Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Great Catastrophe (2)
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"Oh my god..."
Luon, a mage belonging to an adventurer party operating in the northern region, was struck dumb with horror at the sight relayed through the shared vision of his crow familiar.
That place had clearly once been a human village. A fairly large one at that, home to at least several hundred residents.
The abandoned fields and livestock pens scattered here and there, along with the shattered homes and furnishings, bore witness to it.
But now, the land's masters were no longer human.
Giant ants of various shapes and sizes swarmed the area by the thousands, digging into the earth in real time, piling up soil and stone to construct a massive nest.
"A fortress... It's a fortress! They're building a fortress!"
Upon seeing worker ants effortlessly hoisting massive stones and embedding them into the nest, he could only shout as much.
Sending out multiple hunting parties to attack everything in sight was, in truth, merely a preparatory phase of the invasion.
Having determined that no threats remained in the area, the ants moved with even greater thoroughness to claim this world as their own.
They seized the land to live on and the resources to consume.
This was their way: fighting not just for victory in war, but for the survival of their species unto extinction.
"We must stop them at all costs. If they establish their nest here, devour everything, and corrupt the land, even if we reclaim it later, could we ever live on it again!?"
This news dealt a fatal blow to the northern territories that had barely been holding on.
The enraged lords sought any means to drive out the ants.
The orcs of the great plains, with whom they had quarreled for ages, had always stopped at pillaging—they never dared to occupy the land itself.
Losing the foundational earth itself was, to the lords, a death sentence beyond compare.
"What is this nonsense?"
"The sky! Look up!"
But at the moment the allied forces' main army clashed with the ants' main force in the west and suffered defeat...
The northern territories, which the ants had eyed covetously from the start, lacked the strength to repel the even more empowered ants advancing southward.
"Screaming Wings!"
The core of the ant horde that had crushed the allied main force— the mutant hornet ants—began appearing here as well.
From the moment they arrived, they unleashed fierce gusts from their wingbeats and deafening roars.
Those who had initially scoffed that they were just flying beasts soon learned otherwise after a single encounter, dubbing them the Screaming Wings in utter terror.
"No, hold the walls... Aaaagh!"
Thanks to the hornet ants rampaging freely through the skies, the ants' siege capabilities grew even stronger.
As the hornet ants swarmed chaotically, dismantling the defenders' hard-prepared barriers, the other ants scaled the walls en masse, breaching them and collapsing the city.
The garrison, resolved to protect their hometown and livelihoods, were endlessly plucked into the sky, pierced by venom stings, drenched in erupting toxins, and torn apart by the jaws of swarming ants.
"Ugh..."
In the midst of the chaotic city streets, choked with panicking civilians fleeing and pursuing ants slaughtering them, a young adventurer who had lost his sword froze upon facing the hornet ant that had wiped out his party.
Its jaws clutched a severed comrade's head, while its thorny forelegs dangled the mangled corpse of another.
Though it didn't know how to wield them, this hornet ant was a special specimen raised from larva stage on massive amounts of food.
The vast mana and demonic power accumulated in its body had fused, granting it innate resilience and formidable defenses.
No nameless adventurer could easily scratch its exoskeleton.
[Subordinates once again annihilate an enemy group and secure food]
Even so, low-rank as they were, most adventurers who hunted magical beasts and worked as mercenaries knew how to handle mana.
The hornet ant crunched the final adventurer—precious rations—into pieces with its jaws, left the cleanup to the following ants, and soared back into the sky.
"---!"
Through the hornet ant's eyes as it took to the air, the fallen city was already a vision of hell.
Screams and shouts never ceased, and a mage, going all-in, ignited flames that consumed even his own body, slowly spreading through the wooden homes and structures.
Intense fire was indeed one of the ants' weaknesses, but flames of that scale posed no real threat to the ant horde now.
They could rush in and neutralize it by spewing venom and bodily fluids.
"I thought tunneling would make sieging fortresses easier... but no. There was a faster way, and they've actually done it."
Jin-hyuk murmured softly as he watched the ants rack up victories through calculations even more precise and swift than he had anticipated.
What the ants always needed was resources.
With enough to devour, they would keep growing.
"We can't just hold out and get eaten alive by those monsters. It's over. Everything's finished."
"My lord..."
"Heralds of Doom. Yes, the Redenverk girl was right! They're the end times! Prepare for evacuation immediately!"
Faced with the ants' relentless southward advance that crushed crude defenses through sheer force, the northern lords were forced to abandon their ancestral lands in mere days.
They had no choice.
Failing to flee meant becoming prey for the onrushing ants.
"We'll join the Golden Mandate Society with as many people as possible. That's our only path to survival."
And so, those displaced from their homes one by one declared their intent to unite with the Golden Mandate Society.
Again, no alternatives existed.
The only faction willing to accept landless lords and refugees was the one gripping the center, seeking to unify the fractured kingdom under the Goddess's name.
"...What an odd feeling."
Count Merlen, who had barely survived the previous battle, let out a hollow laugh at the sight of lords flocking to beg for shelter.
Just recently, the northern lords centered on Count Dyke had been locked in a staring contest with the Golden Mandate Society, showing no sign of yielding.
Yet a single defeat and the encroaching ants had reduced them to this.
'This fulfills the Goddess's will: unifying the center and north. But we've lost most of the northern lands to the Outer God's subordinates.'
It wasn't a situation to celebrate outright.
Now, they were the ones who would have to face the ants head-on in the vacated north.
One thing was certain: the ants would never stop.
In the end, they would have to prepare for another brutal clash once the ants devoured everything around them.
"You've made up your mind, I see."
"Yes."
"Your eyes have changed. It's regrettable, yet admirable."
He gave a wry smile to Seira, who had come to see him.
As he said, her face was now stern and humorless. Tuks's death had been the decisive spark.
Though she had believed the ants must be stopped, a lingering hesitation had held her back—no more.
"Will you join the Goddess's will?"
"I don't care about the rest. I'll do anything to kill those monsters. That's my mission from now on."
"Good. Then prepare for travel. We're heading to the center. While the monsters tear the north apart, we must gather strength under the Goddess's name."
He spoke while gazing at the map on the table.
The north was lost to the ants, but lands for the Golden Mandate Society to expand into remained.
[Expansion of territory and infamy. Deity rank rises once more]
[Lower Deity Rank 4 → Lower Deity Rank 3]
[Limited functions unlocked]
Where some lose, others gain.
Jin-hyuk stared blankly at the split screens showing his ants rampaging freely, subjugating the region as he desired, until the notifications popped up and widened his eyes.
'Faster than I thought?'
The ants' lives were his life, their strength his strength.
He had expected his rank to rise as they expanded, but the pace exceeded his projections.
[Queen Ant is satisfied with her predation]
He rose and headed to the breeding pen.
The ants had just hunted the new insects he had introduced and brought them to the queen amid the pathetic remnants.
The queen had molted and grown once more.
Having relegated future queens to mere egg-layers, this inaugural queen—unrivaled in the colony—had grown larger still, her brain developing accordingly.
'Pathfinder was a success. Next, shall I give her a mantis for leg strength? Or a dragonfly? Dragonfly might be too big.'
After devouring longhorn bees and absorbing explosive dust bees, the ants—especially the queen—craved further evolution with the spoils from their expanded domain.
His role was to oblige with targeted feed. Plenty of local test subjects remained.
The ant colony was undoubtedly transforming into new forms under his guidance.
This time's new prey was the pathfinder stag beetle, boasting immense combat prowess and stamina. The queen would absorb its traits through consumption and innovate a new variant ant.
[Queen Ant contemplates. She believes there are more efficient, stronger ways than the current structure]
However, the ants' advancing abilities—especially the queen's rising intelligence—brought new concerns.
'This breeding pen... is it okay to leave it like this?'
He glanced at the still-ordinary enclosure.
The real problem arose when their intelligence reached an awkward midpoint.
If the ants, particularly the queen, realized the nature of their confinement and sought to explore or escape it...
Higher intellect bred greater curiosity. Far from idle fancy—tales of creations challenging their gods were all too common.
"Hm..."
Imagining that, he shuddered involuntarily and groaned.
They weren't mere obedient fodder for a lofty deity's command. With budding intellect, meddling would surely spark such issues.
This joined his list of worries.
Unsure how to proceed, he resolved to do something regardless.
[Divine Community access granted]
'A place where deities converse anonymously. Such a thing exists.'
This awakening unlocked a new source of information: the Divine Community. Reviewing its details, he opened it with a tense expression.
[Limited functions]
Logging in as a full-fledged deity was still blocked, but mere silent observation—what was commonly called 'lurking'—was allowed.
Jin-hyuk was speechless for a time, beholding a new world he had never imagined.