Chapter 40
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Will of the Heavens (4)
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‘Am I really doing the right thing here?’
The thought flashed through my mind in an instant.
What if I tossed the mantis into the breeding pen as planned? How would the ants—the queen—react to it?
These ants, having evolved time and again, were no longer the type to blindly snatch up any food that appeared before them without a second thought.
I already knew that, which was why I'd run experiments with mealworms up until now.
Instead of acting on pure instinct, they had begun to analyze phenomena, assign meaning to actions, and weigh cause and effect. They would definitely scrutinize my behavior in their own way.
More precisely and thoroughly than before.
[The queen gains confidence in her judgment. At the same time, she informs the colony that their actions were correct.]
And that guess turned out to be spot on.
The moment I hesitated briefly before finally dropping the mantis into the breeding pen and the ants noticed it, the queen grew excited, convinced her thinking was right.
She interpreted my act of providing a mantis—one I could use as evolution material—as praise and a reward for their recent victory.
‘If we keep this up, new food will continue falling from the heavens. Those food sources are essential materials for producing variants that strengthen the colony.’
In the end, the queen's line of thinking might not be wrong.
I was clearly hoping for their victory, and if they had lost the war, I would have had to expend resources rebuilding the colony, leaving no spare capacity to provide new materials like this.
‘I've gone and egged them on.’
There were no other options anyway, so my actions wouldn't change, but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.
It no longer felt like we were caught up in some accidental mishap. Now, it seemed like I was actively stepping in to drive the ants forward.
[The subordinates hunt a massive new enemy.]
The mantis I'd thrown in was being dismantled by the ants, just like any other insect—reduced to a single meal.
Mantises were ambush predators by nature.
In the wild, a few ants might make a decent snack for one, but against these variant ants that didn't exist on Earth, its sturdy, razor-sharp forelegs and sheer size had clear limits.
[The queen devours the food and absorbs new abilities. The subordinates possess sufficient resources to produce the new variants the queen creates.]
The massive mantis corpse was completely broken down by the worker ants and fed entirely into the queen's mouth.
Fortunately, there was no issue with her digesting it—no spitting it back up.
Even now, as she continued gorging herself and accumulating special powers in her body, it seemed like just a few more steps and she'd be able to handle heavy, massive insects like stag beetles.
"...It'll be soon."
I turned my gaze. On the screen, a barrier flickered with countless flames.
The Golden Mandate Society had repelled the ants' assault on the barrier's weak points once.
But with all the forward fortresses fallen, the next attack would be different. The ants would go all out.
In their eyes, the barrier and everything beyond it was a treasure trove of the special food they craved. No way they'd give up on it.
‘At this point, the queen needs to grow as fast as possible.’
I shifted my view back to the screen showing the queen.
Indiscriminate slaughter, incomprehensible rampages...
For these beings whose endless gluttony was practically their reason for existing, was it even possible? Even so, I wanted the queen to grow quickly now.
I saw firmer hope in the queen's ever-developing intelligence.
The hope that someday, she might truly listen to and obey my words.
But how much food would that take?
‘Karma's piling up.’
The Divine Net had said deities were beings made of countless karmic deeds and equally heavy fates.
Denying or glossing over that fact—the essence of what elevated my own rank—was impossible forever.
"Wrong. The forward fortresses have already completely crumbled. Holding out or retreating if needed—both failed."
"No way... Smoke is still rising from the beacon towers. If they were wiped out, how is the fire still burning?"
The barrier still needed more construction time to be fully complete.
From there, you could see the beacon fires lit at fortresses in the rough terrain.
Even now, a full day after the ants' assault ended, smoke still rose from the beacon towers.
Fires wouldn't burn this long without someone tending them.
"No way those monsters are deliberately keeping the beacons lit...?"
"If there's no other answer no matter how you look at it, that's it. No reply even after the communication orbs recharged—don't you get it?"
Baron Radion, who had been defending the barrier, recalled the ants he'd seen in the north following Judge Daniel and sneered coldly.
The ants before them now were common-sense-defying variants.
Unlike the baffled reactions from the local knights, he could believe the ants standing on two legs and dancing a jig right now if he saw it.
"The Goddess says the guardian lights protecting us have turned to wicked flames. Clearly, a warning not to be deceived by the beacon towers."
And Baron Radion's sneer soon proved true.
Goddess Henes had issued an oracle to key figures, revealing the ants' scheme.
Even if it kept them from falling into the ants' trap, issuing an oracle was a burden on a deity—a needless expenditure of power. Naturally, Henes's mood was foul.
‘You little bastards. Fine, we'll hold them off no matter what. Whatever it takes. Even if we can't wipe out that insane monsters' nest, it's enough to make them turn their eyes elsewhere.’
The reason she built the barrier and desperately defended it wasn't to eradicate the ants—it was purely to survive.
If the ants failed to breach it and looked elsewhere, she could recover her strength and seize a chance to counterattack.
"Incoming! They're swarming again!"
And so, the fierce, desperate war around the barrier truly began.
The ants that had annihilated the forward fortresses charged the barrier in far greater numbers than before.
A deathmatch between those fighting for survival with no place to retreat, and those fighting to devour them.
[The queen realizes that barrier is essentially a trap drawing in prey naturally.]
But there was one fundamental difference.
The more they killed each other, the more one side got exactly what it wanted, step by step.
[Rather than toppling the barrier in one go, the queen wishes to leave it be and secure as much food as possible.]
And the queen—the colony's brain—had realized it.
Ants had always preferred war over indiscriminate hunting to secure more food at once.
From their perspective, a battle at the barrier where the Golden Mandate Society had gathered the Kingdom of Carmion's full defensive might was worth a war of attrition.
"There they are! Those are the ones!"
The site of fierce clashes with the ant hordes flooding in like waves was the rugged mountains in the unfinished eastern kingdom barrier.
Having spotted its vulnerability via aerial scouting, the ants targeted this spot heavily, leading to another brutal fight today, just like last time.
The variant leaping ants that had been key to toppling the fortresses last time were deployed again.
"Designated archers, ready up! Those with the oversized hind legs are them. Take them down in mid-air if possible!"
But this time was different—they knew what the leaping ants were.
The field commanders, drenched in sweat, had archers with mana-powered ultra-strong bows at the ready, ordered to snipe the ants as they leaped.
Info on the variant leapers had come from Henes herself. Of course, it cost her extra interference power.
"Got 'em!"
"The misses fell into the traps!"
Mana-infused arrows they'd been saving for this moment flew out, embedding in or piercing the leaping ants mid-charge.
Not all were shot down, but even those that missed the arrows were impaled on the sharp stakes erupting from the landing zones.
"Nailed 'em good!"
"...It's not over yet. If there'd been more, we might've been breached."
Marquis Dentis, Golden Mandate Society holy knight and overall commander, raised his fist at the sight, but Seira—who had proposed the stake traps—remained grim-faced.
‘Can we hold? If one section of the barrier falls, the rest loses meaning.’
Whether coincidence or not, having survived every encounter and seen the ants longer than anyone here, to her they were incarnations of terror—living calamities.
She couldn't relax until the very end.
Not when bizarre new variants could appear anywhere, anytime, to upend the battlefield.
"Ahem, true, but morale matters on the field. Hope and conviction that we can win. Without it, our soldiers can't hold. Unlike those monsters."
Displeased with her demeanor, the marquis cleared his throat and pointed to the ants still pouring in.
Mountains of corpses piled up by the minute along the incomplete barrier.
Even if the leaping attacks failed, every ant except the heavy soldier variants had the ability to climb hills and walls.
Unlike the soldiers screaming or snarling to suppress fear, the ants moved with mechanical precision under colony orders, utterly emotionless whether pierced or sliced.
"Good thing we got golem support from the Empire. They can block the unfinished wall sections..."
The reason the incomplete barrier held was the stone golems plugging gaps with their massive, sturdy bodies.
These mana-core golems, forged from great stone and magic, were inanimate—immune to venom, stings, or even crushing jaws. Impenetrable foes.
And they matched even giant soldier ants in weight and brute strength.
[The queen seeks a way to pierce the tough, massive enemies.]
These were foes on a whole different level from the humans, orcs, and goblins they'd faced before.
The queen struggled to find a way past the golems, but the mere dozens held firm.
‘The golems are dominating now, sure. But why can't I shake this unease? Those monsters will figure out how to counter them soon.’
Even seeing the golems excel, Seira couldn't relax.
Those who didn't know better saw the ants' terrifying mechanical coordination as the biggest threat, but she instinctively knew their true strength was growth.
"Marquis, is it impossible to lead with golems and assault their nest? We need to strike before the monsters adapt."
"You mages should know why golems vanished from battlefields, relegated to hauling supplies or construction in the rear. You plan to march them all the way to that distant northern land?"
Variants weren't the only issue.
Having attended ant wars diligently, Seira had a faint grasp on the ants'—or rather, the growing queen's—intelligence.
Despite Count Merlen's warnings, she'd come here herself to observe them.
But counterattacking ants wasn't easy, no matter how impatient she grew.
[The queen confirms the golems are slow and stationary, ordering the colony to bypass and attack around them.]
In this situation, the queen quickly spotted one of the golems' weaknesses and immediately directed the colony to act on it.
The ants' goal wasn't crossing the barrier anyway. Useless inanimate golems could be ignored.
"Th-that sound...!"
"The sky! Screaming wings!"
Waiting variant hornet ants took to the air en masse, priming for a dive.
Their signature wingbeat now triggered reflexive terror—their infamy had spread far in short order.
And not appearing from the start, but timing their entrance when strength waned.
The ants were already exploiting human emotions and habits in warfare.
‘We can't give them time. The monsters just keep getting stronger.’
Seira ground her teeth, breaking into cold sweat at the colossal sky-beasts.
The ants near the golems had vanished entirely.
Instead, more poured into other sectors, clashing fiercely with defenders. In the process, they antennated specific corpses before tenaciously dragging them rearward in their jaws.
All knights, mages, adventurers, priests—those bearing mana or holy power.
"N-no! Captain!"
"These bastards are desecrating the dead now!"
The enraged, grieving onlookers didn't yet know why the ants obsessed over them.
No one imagined corpses could be devoured to absorb their mana-like powers.
Not even the deities knew this yet.
[The queen notices her power has evolved once more.]
Bloodline Adjustment - 3
「Utilizing information from secured predation, production units can be regulated and new castes recreated.」
「*Currently acquirable info: Limited to certain arthropods」
And the reward for their relentless foraging came swiftly.
The queen's endless feasting had evolved her abilities once more.
To consume far, far more.