Chapter 66
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Martyr (1)
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“Pick up the pace! Those bastards are still chasing us...!”
“No, it’s impossible! We’ve already lost hundreds to stragglers!”
No one knew how many enemies lurked in this northern land, which the ants had seized control of some time ago.
Mutants could burrow through tunnels and burst out from anywhere, at any moment.
That terror weighed heavily on them.
The commanders, including Erianne, succumbed to fear and pushed their forces to reckless speeds.
And as they did, the number of stragglers grew.
Those left behind had no choice but to be devoured by the pursuing ants, while the survivors watched in horror yet inwardly sighed with relief at the time it bought them.
The real problem was the urgent report that the main force had fallen into the enemy’s trap.
If they shared a single consciousness like the ants, they would have known the main force hadn’t suffered as much damage as feared and that the ants chasing them now weren’t present in great numbers. But communication had already been cut.
“We have to reach the promised high ground somehow. The reinforcements must be waiting!”
But the Holy Kingdom’s troops, lacking that unity, couldn’t control the fear from that single ambush.
They fled desperately, exhausting their stamina and supplies against enemies they could have fought effectively if they’d regrouped.
“You filthy bastards!”
The waterskin had long been empty; a single precious drop fell onto her outstretched tongue. Erianne hurled the skin to the ground, grinding her teeth as she glared at the sky.
Winged scout ants brazenly circled overhead, periodically scanning them.
By their own protocols, those scouts should be shot down on sight, but they lacked even the capacity for that now.
[Asmorah confirms that the enemies are growing weary]
Asmorah, overlooking the scene from above, recognized that the humans were self-destructing just as planned.
In truth, the ants could have caught them if they’d pushed harder.
They hadn’t out of mercy—it was simply to let them tire themselves out.
Unlike the ants, where workers rotated to feed the soldiers, the Holy Kingdom’s forces had abandoned their supplies and were now marching on, tormented by thirst and hunger.
[Asmorah remembers that weary humans are merely burdens]
Humans were different from ants.
They rarely abandoned exhausted comrades.
Unlike ants, who would end their own lives rather than burden the hive, humans thrashed desperately to survive even knowing they were dead weight.
If those exhausted burdens joined the reinforcements, would their strength truly increase—or diminish?
“There it is!”
Finally, the retreating forces reached the promised high ground where the reinforcements were due.
A signal flare shot into the sky at the same moment.
“Reinforcements! They’re heading to the high ground too!”
A mage sharing vision with his familiar shouted excitedly.
From the opposite side, a group of troops climbed toward them to rescue their comrades.
That flare from the reinforcements was a beacon of hope for those who had endured daily pursuit, watching their fellows fall behind one by one, swallowing despair.
“Confirmed. Marquis Lumiere and Apostle Erianne—everyone’s alive.”
“Thank goodness...”
“But they don’t look good. Their numbers are a fraction of the rear guard’s original strength, and supplies...”
Brandt, a priest who had awakened Holy Power and one of the Goddess’s appointed apostles, sighed at the sight of the barely surviving troops.
Not just the rank-and-file soldiers—even Marquis Lumiere, the commander, and Erianne, who always carried herself arrogantly, looked gaunt and desperate, their luster faded as they awaited rescue.
“We’ll merge with them first.”
Seira, who had confirmed Erianne’s state through her spyglass, bit her lip.
She looks exhausted. Can she even fight?
But her plan to unite with the retreaters and prepare for battle now faced complications.
The rear guard, ensnared by the ants’ meticulous trap, was too drained for combat—they needed food just to keep moving.
“Seira!”
“W-wait, there are too many eyes here...”
When Seira joined the reinforcements.
Erianne rushed into her arms, heedless of onlookers.
Fortunately, it wasn’t as passionate as Seira feared.
Even Erianne’s father, Marquis Lumiere, was too exhausted to notice anything else.
“Hurry back to the barrier. The main force is...”
“It’s fine. The main force recovered without major losses.”
Seira gently peeled off the clingy Erianne and shook her head at the marquis’s words.
Unlike them, Seira had maintained contact with the main force under Count Merlin.
Though most troops had been trapped in the ants’ nest-wide pitfall, they’d escaped successfully.
The trap was meant only to buy time—the ants’ true goal was elsewhere.
“They’re targeting us now. They went after the rear guard from the start.”
Seira’s face hardened as she revealed this.
Marquis Lumiere blinked blankly at her words.
“Why? Are those monsters after our supplies?”
The marquis had to ask.
He couldn’t fathom why they’d ignore the main force—successfully trapped—and target them instead.
“I don’t know either.”
Even Seira, who knew the ants’ behavior best, couldn’t grasp the truth.
The idea that the ants had targeted “herself” from the beginning, orchestrating everything, was too far-fetched even for her.
“Enemies approaching!”
“We have to fight. Win here, shake them off, and retreat safely to the barrier.”
Seira summoned her magic, shattering the head of a scouting ant overhead as she spoke.
Despair hadn’t ended.
It was time to face the greatest challenge they’d postponed.
[Asmorah identifies the prey. The archenemy of the hive designated by the Great One. To capture the Human Queen, Asmorah mobilizes all available forces]
And that challenge would be more brutal and horrific than anything they’d faced before.
The gaze of Asmorah, waiting in the deepest chamber of the primordial nest—the breeding ground—had clearly captured Seira’s face through the scout until its death.
“Prioritize sniping the ones with developed hind legs. They leap into our lines from afar, disrupting formation, then the others swarm the gap!”
The ants’ full might, gathered from all directions, crashed toward the Holy Kingdom troops holding the high ground.
With most forces sent to the western front, this was reserves plus newly awakened troops from the hatchery.
It was a final showdown for both sides. Defeat meant annihilation for the Holy Kingdom; for the ants, all their progress would crumble.
“Heavy ballistae, switch arrowheads! Reinforced enemy carapaces need arrows forged from their own shells to pierce!”
Seira naturally took command, pouring her all into directing the army.
Her unit, knowing the ants better than anyone, held firm even against the onslaught.
That one, huh.
The mutant born from devouring Liokk: the Devouring Ant.
A massive body, overwhelming power. A monster that crunched living warhorses with its jaws.
Holy knights and riders charged, but the Devouring Ant swatted them aside with its forelegs, then rammed its helmeted head forward, armor and all, crunching them in its jaws.
“Lasso it...!”
Seira used knights to hurl multiple lassos, ensnaring the Devouring Ant.
Oil barrels prepared in advance flew in, drenching its body.
To counter this variant’s armor and strength—impervious to heavy ballistae and low-tier magic—Seira’s hasty plan was fire.
“---!”
Oil seeped into the microscopic gaps of its full-body carapace and ignited; the Devouring Ant flailed its legs, burning from the inside out.
A costly method, but viable since Devouring Ants were still rare.
“There’s too many...!”
“They’re coming from the sky too!”
No time to relax. The plains below swarmed with ants, and hornet ants and dragon ants periodically dive-bombed from above.
“S-Seira, retreat! Break through the weakest point while we can!”
As the peril mounted, Erianne sought Seira with an even more haggard face, shaking her.
Aware she couldn’t contribute in her state, her usual arrogance was gone.
Trembling with fear of death, Erianne had long lost her will to fight.
“Don’t worry. We can win. Trust me.”
Seira gripped her shoulders, speaking firmly in the intimate “you” for the first time.
“Just do this one thing for me. You can. Use the Goddess’s power to break through there.”
Seira pointed to the most precarious spot.
A Devouring Ant they’d missed was breaking through with other variants, targeting the rear lines pouring fire.
By Seira’s calculations, plugging that hole would let them hold and turn the tide.
Erianne’s too worn out. Who’d have thought retreat would drain her this much.
Seira’s only concern was that Erianne—who should shine as a hero—seemed utterly spent.
And that was with Brandt’s healing; without it, she’d be combat-ineffective for sure.
“I promise. I’ll make sure we win here. So keep the promise you made that night in bed.”
Seira invoked their vow to spur her on.
The bold pledge, lying together in bed: she’d do anything for Seira.
“...Okay.”
Erianne bowed her head and murmured softly.
Then she turned and headed back to the battlefield.
Seira watched her lover’s back anxiously, unable to look away.
But she missed the cold resolve hardening Erianne’s face as she charged.
“The formation’s collapsing!”
“Defenses breached—they’re pouring in!”
The flaw in Seira’s calculations stemmed from overtrusting humans.
She never imagined Erianne would ignore her plea, take a handful of elites, and flee without looking back.
That last reserve, meant to slay the strongest foe, was used to carve her escape route.
Erianne’s absence gaped wide.
Ants exploited it, dismantling Seira’s preparations, then massacring with jaws, stingers, and more.
“Aaa...aaagh!!”
“Erianne...!”
Seira gnashed her teeth until blood flowed, watching Marquis Lumiere nearby dragged off by a hornet ant.
Far off, Erianne’s pink hair receded, free of pursuit.
Betrayal shook her, but greater still was the terror now dawning on Seira.
She’d seen countless wars, knew exactly how ants killed.
The moment her guard knight was snared by a spider ant’s web and yanked away.
Seira paled, fumbling for the scroll in her bosom.
“S-stay back!”
She screamed at the grotesque ants lunging for her and activated the scroll.
[Asmorah detects a foreign entity interfering with the hive consciousness]
“Urk...”
Her spirit detached and fled elsewhere—but before Seira loomed a colossal monster, crimson eyes glaring through its helmet’s slits, jaws gaping wide.
[Asmorah rages]
The humans’ queen—Asmorah’s archenemy—dared invade the hive consciousness and appear before it.
Unable to tolerate this, Asmorah unleashed the full hive mind to crush Seira’s spirit in an instant.
End of Episode 66 - Martyr (1)