Chapter 44
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Locust (4)
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"I said the day we met again would be when one of us had their head lopped off and rolling on the ground."
"What can we do? Things have turned out this way."
Great Chieftain Gorjan and Mogor—the two orcs who were practically the representatives of their forces—faced off, each leading their subordinates.
Even in this face-to-face situation, they didn't hide their wary glares and clicked their tongues at each other, but this scene was quite symbolic.
It marked the end of the power struggles between orc factions that had raged across the plains until now.
"The monsters' movements are far from ordinary. This isn't mere plundering. They're like a swarm of locusts, intent on sweeping this entire land clean."
Gorjan spoke in a heavy voice, furrowing his brow.
Gorjan was essentially the leader of the faction influenced by the Deity Urmark.
He had risen as a major threat to the established powers by leading his tribe to unite the surrounding ones, all to repay Urmark for the opportunity granted to him.
"We've only stopped fighting each other. We still don't trust you. Before those monsters, it was your lot who brought chaos to this land."
In contrast, Mogor—who still eyed Gorjan warily—was practically the representative of the coalition of longstanding, hardline tribes that had banded together out of caution toward Urmark's faction's rapid growth.
The two forces had been vying endlessly over their territory on the plains, but the sudden appearance of the ants traversing the vast flatlands and grasslands had turned everything upside down.
It was no longer the time for petty tribal unification wars between them.
Whether Gorjan's forces or Mogor's, the ants moved in groups of tens of thousands, indiscriminately sweeping away and devouring everything in their path.
Already, hundreds of orcs and thousands of livestock had become ant fodder.
"At the very least, it's clear we share the same enemy."
"...Fine. Our top priority is stopping those monsters."
Thanks to this, a miraculous agreement was reached.
Gorjan and Mogor, stepping forward as representatives, clasped their rough hands and formed a truce: cease infighting and prioritize dealing with the ants.
This was similar to how the Golden Mandate Society forces in the south were desperately attempting internal reforms to bolster their constitution while erecting barricades to fight the ants—such events were beginning to unfold one by one in the surrounding areas.
The Queen notices that the orc forces are gradually growing in scale.
Unaware of this situation—and even if they were, unlikely to change their behavior—the ants were, at this very moment, sweeping across the plains and devouring everything they could.
The Queen recognizes that the roaming colony she leads differs greatly from the main colony in many ways and realizes that an entirely different path of evolution is needed.
"...It's growing way too fast?"
In the quiet house, sitting alone on the sofa and staring at a screen no one else could see, I paused the record and let out a small gasp of admiration.
The roaming colony was indeed very different from the existing ants.
Since they didn't build nests and settle down, mobility was crucial, and the endurance of individual ants was equally vital.
And the one realizing and adjusting for that was the second queen.
This second queen—essentially a clone of the first queen, Asmodra—was growing at a far faster rate than Asmodra herself.
From the start, she had absorbed all the data accumulated in the colony, including Asmodra's experiences, so her rapid growth as a latecomer was only natural.
'This means I need to factor that in too.'
The differences between colonies. Only by understanding them could I provide appropriate aid.
New materials with abilities helpful to the roaming colony. If I put them in the breeding pen, Asmodra would eat them and share the data with the second queen.
"What would be useful?"
I stood up and walked over to the breeding pen, peering inside.
Inside the pen lay a dead crab and a dead shrimp, each one. Creatures on an entirely different level from insects—impossible to compare.
I'd bought ones barely clinging to life from the mart and tossed them in, and sure enough.
Asmodra couldn't digest the crustaceans' abilities after eating them. It would take more time to reach that stage.
The subordinates detect the orcs' counterattack.
What was needed was more data, and more resources.
I wasn't sure if "perfect timing" was the right phrase, but the notification that popped up seemed poised to fill those gaps all at once.
[If their numbers grow any more, we're done for. We have to thin them out as much as possible.]
Sorry, but I'm struggling just to hold the barricade.
I could see Goddess Henes's curt reply to the post from what appeared to be the orcs' deity in the Divine Community.
As Henes said, the Golden Mandate Society forces weren't budging an inch from the southern barricade.
'Well, the ants aren't exactly short on manpower.'
Henes seemed to think she'd catch a breather while the ants turned their attention elsewhere, but that was unlikely.
The ants were temporarily ignoring the barricade to form a new independent colony and restock the "fishing net" of the barricade with fresh prey.
The battles would continue. It was just that the battlegrounds had doubled in number.
'Still, the orcs are getting serious, huh.'
The orc armies scouted from the sky by reconnaissance ants were massive.
The orcs—outnumbering even the roaming colony's ants when combined—were splitting into two prongs, advancing toward the roaming colony.
Their momentum screamed intent to clash head-on from the start and uproot them completely.
The subordinates see this as an opportunity.
But the ants didn't shy away from the fight either.
Whether through their own calculations or not, they intended to seize this chance—just like before—to further evolve and grow the colony.
The roaming colony especially had only preyed on fleeing stragglers from small orc tribes, abandoned livestock, and wild animals up to now.
They wanted a proper battle to claim spoils and achieve a new evolution unique to the roaming colony.
'So, what's the plan?'
I wanted to know how the second queen would fight the orcs and turn this crisis into opportunity.
The oncoming orc armies weren't the small tribal forces they'd faced before.
The subordinates plan to push back the enemy forces from the southwest, seize the spoils, and retreat.
"Southwest..."
Seeing that, I bit my lip.
Because I'd hoped they'd fight the enemies coming from the northwest instead.
'The southwestern enemies are the deity's subordinates.'
Snooping around the Divine Community let me glimpse the plans of other deities.
I'd learned there that the orcs following the deity and the established orc powers opposing them had halted their quarrels and called a truce to deal with the ants.
According to that intel, the enemy forces approaching from the southwest were the deity's subordinates—meaning they might be hiding some unknown power.
'They picked that side because the numbers look smaller. Well, the ants couldn't know anyway.'
Overall numbers-wise, the deity's subordinates seemed fewer, so it wasn't a wrong call for the ants to prioritize them.
But I wanted to correct that thinking.
I wasn't even asking for full-on divine oracles like the other deities. Just a hint would do.
Asmodra senses unease through the connected bond.
At that moment, an unexpected notification appeared.
Surprisingly, Asmodra had picked up on part of my feelings.
"Ah, you get it? What I'm saying?"
Asmodra doesn't fully understand why this sensation is occurring.
Stunned, I muttered blankly, but the unease felt through the bond was more like an instinct.
For an ordinary subordinate, it would've been the kind of fleeting hunch easily dismissed as "what was that?"
Convinced this is no natural occurrence, Asmodra shares it with the colony.
However, Asmodra's still-immature ego and the ants' collective consciousness proved helpful here.
By not ignoring that subtle unease and sharing it with the colony, it influenced the second queen's judgment.
The Queen doesn't ignore the unease and changes her choice. The roaming colony turns toward the northwest.
Amazingly, the queen redirected the colony, advancing toward the northwestern orcs.
'It worked. Not perfectly, but finally—my will reached them!'
Frozen in place, I shivered with thrill.
Until now, the biggest reactions from the ants had been them rampaging wildly, swept up in my emotions without truly understanding them.
Now, we'd crossed that threshold: my will had reached them, however faintly, manifesting in action.
"Those are their scouts...! The small ones with wings!"
"They're heading this way, just as we thought!"
The entire roaming colony—including the queen and even worker ants carrying larvae in their mouths—crossed the plains to confront the northwestern orcs.
The orcs, too, spotted them through their dispersed scouts.
These orcs, hastily assembling, were a local force not yet under the deity's command.
'A bit disappointing, but if left alone, they'd end up like the Golden Mandate Society—fully under the deity's sway soon enough.'
Normally, it'd be ideal for the two factions to keep bickering, but the ants ultimately needed to devour other forces to grow.
Better to wipe one out before they fully united.
The stage was set.
This was the moment when the roaming colony—which had steamrolled small orc tribes and swept the area in successive victories—finally clashed with the dominant local orc power.
The subordinates are moving based on their past experience fighting orcs.
The ants prepared for battle using the colony's accumulated experience.
To block wolf riders' charges, they positioned numerous variant soldier ants up front and held even more mobile variants on both flanks for counterattacks.
True to their collective consciousness, they appeared chaotically mixed at a glance, but the ants reorganized their lines at astonishing speed and readied for combat.
'How much do they know about us?'
But how well did those orc troops know the roaming colony ants now before them? If they had the deity's aid, the deity might expend interference to share intel from the community.
The battles at the southern barricade were fierce enough to send chills down my spine, even from my perspective.
The Golden Mandate Society had quite a few capable fighters; whenever variants appeared, they quickly devised countermeasures and resisted somehow.
One thing I'd confirmed watching them: knowing your enemy and how well you countered them decided victory or defeat.
Even from my position of inducing ant evolutions, I had to ponder how to neutralize the enemy's weapons.
The Queen predicts victory.
The roaming colony's queen had strong faith in certain special variants.
One key difference from Asmodra's main colony: variants that had preyed on mantises and harnessed their abilities.
The variants Asmodra produced resembled the original mantises.
With elongated chests and waists compared to others, they walked normally with front legs folded, but in combat, reared up and slashed foes blade-like with fully extended front legs.
The roaming colony queen's variants took a completely different form.
She equipped highly mobile variants with a pair of hook legs on their backs, allowing free swinging or stabbing.
They could evolve differently based on environment and role. These—the first fruits of that—were set to prove themselves in their first large-scale battle, not mere one-sided slaughters or raids.
< Chapter 44: Locust (4) > End