Chapter 68
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Martyr (3)
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‘This is... an Outer God?’
Seira already knew about Outer Gods.
She had heard all the information about subordinates passed down through Goddess Henes, right by her side.
The Outer Gods she learned about were truly horrific existences.
They wielded repulsive creations like tools, invading and destroying countless worlds solely for ruin and chaos.
Their appearances were grotesque, and they were transcendent monsters beyond common sense—that was the image of Outer Gods Seira knew.
In truth, the presence she sensed within the hive mind fully embodied chaos itself, commanding this destructive monster horde that devoured and slaughtered indiscriminately.
“...”
However, when Seira was briefly linked to Asmodra through the ant thorn parasitizing her body, allowing her to feel Jin-hyuk's presence for that fleeting instant...
The sensation was entirely different.
To Seira, amid the violently indiscriminate hive mind, only the Outer God's aura felt calm and strangely familiar.
Crucially, there was no hatred toward her emanating from the Outer God, unlike what she felt from Asmodra.
Something's off. What is this?
Seira instinctively doubted Jin-hyuk's true nature.
Now that she faced him directly, he felt somehow different from the Outer Gods she knew.
This was closer to pure intuition, relying on sensation rather than rational judgment or knowledge.
But Seira realized this was her one and only chance.
“Please... hear my prayer. I want to know what you truly are.”
The moment Seira regained consciousness in the dim ant nest, she endured the churning nausea in her gut and the throbbing pain in her body, mimicking the Golden Mandate Society priests she had observed over her shoulder.
She knelt on the ground, prostrating herself toward Jin-hyuk, and began to pray.
Your subordinate is praying to you for the first time.
Oracle: Deities of mid-level or higher can use interference power to convey a portion of their will to subordinates.
“...Good.”
And her action was close to correct.
It gave Jin-hyuk, who had been watching her, a way forward.
I was curious. Are oracles really that versatile?
Jin-hyuk had seen other deities giving hints or information to their subordinates countless times.
Until now, his own rank had been too low, and the ants couldn't properly understand his words anyway, so he hadn't bothered much.
But thanks to Asmodra implanting an ant thorn in Seira's body, forcibly integrating her into the hive mind, Seira had become his subordinate against her will.
In other words, the conditions were now met for his oracle to reach her.
Oracle opportunities are limited by count per individual and duration.
...No room for idle chatter, then.
Jin-hyuk quickly racked his brain to solidify the will he would convey to Seira.
There were limits on uses and time—especially for him at merely mid-level rank 5, opportunities were scarce.
Wasting one on a frivolous question would make it hard to communicate with her again for months, at least.
Asmodra questions the slave's actions right after awakening.
Above all, Asmodra was showing intense interest in Seira.
In this precarious situation where she could be vivisected alive by Asmodra at any moment without a chance to act, Jin-hyuk needed to imprint his influence on Seira as quickly as possible.
“Let's make a deal. I'll share part of the truth, but I need your cooperation.”
Unable to waste words on anything extraneous, his first proposal to Seira was a straightforward deal. Having decided on it, he pushed forward without hesitation. It had already been months since the ants dragged him into this mess—his eyes now gleamed with resolve.
“Kkh!”
Seira's eyes flew wide open in her prayer posture as her body shuddered under the overwhelming pressure flooding into her.
Jin-hyuk had merely conveyed words lightly, but the vast gap in their ranks was undeniable. To him, it was a mere breath; to her, the weight of a transcendent being.
I have to endure this to understand his will.
Yet Seira gritted her teeth and bore it.
She already knew the pains the priests of her order endured to commune with deities.
Asmodra is bewildered. She senses the aura of a great being from the slave.
Asmodra, sensing something amiss, ordered the worker ants to drag Seira in—but only after Seira had collapsed from exhaustion receiving the oracle.
Asmodra could have killed her on the spot if she wanted, yet she refrained from touching the brought-before-her Seira.
The aura emanating from her was unmistakably connected to herself—Jin-hyuk's power.
The ant thorn embedded in Seira's body was part of the hive mind, making it crystal clear.
“...Prime Queen, the hive's brain, Asmodra.”
Seira, breathing laboriously, stared directly at Asmodra.
Asmodra detected a shift in the way she looked at her.
The wariness remained, but scholarly curiosity had replaced the fear.
“He has given me a mission. Assist Belzahad and drive out the other deities' forces from this land.”
Having received part of Jin-hyuk's will, Seira had already made her decision.
“If you do, he promised to show mercy and spare the innocent.”
Stumbling, she prostrated herself before Asmodra of her own accord.
What Jin-hyuk demanded from Seira was her cooperation with Asmodra and the ants to ensure victory in battles against other deities' forces.
In exchange, he promised that once the ants had grown sufficiently, he would halt the slaughter, have them leave this land, and move to a new one.
Learning of the deities' quarrels and faction wars left Seira stunned.
Even without the ants, war would never cease here.
The very fact that such negotiation was possible proved Jin-hyuk differed from a true Outer God.
This is the best I can do. I won't break. No matter what...
Seira's eyes were resolute as she bowed to Asmodra.
Now aware of the ants' true power and nature, she no longer believed hostility could lead to victory.
Instead, to save even one more life, she chose to cooperate with these rampaging monsters.
Even if history branded her a traitor who consorted with beasts, the worst witch in human annals.
Asmodra confirms the great being's will.
Witnessing Seira bow voluntarily, Asmodra dismissed the worker ants.
Of course, she didn't understand everything.
She had simply detected Seira's submissive posture without parasitic compulsion and sensed Jin-hyuk's will within her.
“Phew.”
Watching it all, Jin-hyuk let out a sigh of relief.
The biggest hurdle was cleared. Now, all that remained was to accelerate his plans using Seira.
The Holy Kingdom... no reason to keep it around anymore.
Jin-hyuk pondered over the map he had sketched himself.
Among the forces currently clashing with the ants, the largest was the Lukadia Empire.
While the unified steppe orcs battled the ants, the empire was linking its pre-existing northern fortresses into a massive wall.
Even to Jin-hyuk's eyes, it dwarfed the Holy Kingdom several times over.
The Holy Kingdom's role as a fishing net seemed at its end.
He judged this the perfect timing to eradicate Goddess Henes's forces from the land entirely, after she lost Seira and many troops in this battle.
Too bad we couldn't inflict more damage on their main force in the trap before they slipped away.
Of course, the ants had paid a heavy price capturing Seira, so their main enemy force had retreated near the wall with minimal losses long ago.
The ants needed time to recover from their casualties and rebuild strength—no denying that.
Asmodra is satisfied with the volume of food supplies from the front lines.
But their recovery speed was overwhelmingly fast—that was also true.
The ants could rebound far quicker than the battered Holy Kingdom could restore its forces.
“So much...”
Switching screens, he marveled at the sight of countless worker ants transporting food through dedicated tunnels they had bored.
On the western front, where ants relentlessly dug forward and orcs desperately blocked them in fierce combat, endless fodder was being produced for the ants to devour.
From slain enemies to allied corpses—none were spared.
The ants processed it all indiscriminately, hauling it back to the nest to feed the larvae and Asmodra ceaselessly.
Bloodline Adjustment - Lv. 5: Utilize acquired information from predation to regulate produced individuals and create new castes.
*Acquirable information expanded.
Asmodra molts once more.
And Asmodra's growth showed no signs of stopping.
Breaking free from her shell again, she prepared to devour new prey with an even larger body and more developed brain.
“Evolution happens like this...”
One difference from before: someone watching it all in stunned admiration by her side.
Seira shuddered at Asmodra's real-time evolution.
This was the moment she truly understood the absurd growth speed the ants had demonstrated.
“Vertebrates... no way, already?”
Asmodra's growth was familiar by now, but her eyes widened at the ability to prey on vertebrates.
They had long outgrown mere ants, but this was a pivotal evolution that could shatter boundaries once more.
It would multiply their options exponentially.
Of course, without changes to their production capacity, creating standout variants might be limited to something like preying on crustaceans for slight exoskeleton reinforcement.
Eventually, could they eat magic beasts, demonic beasts... or even more?
Providing new materials to the ants had been Jin-hyuk's sole responsibility so far.
The ants ignored trivial prey like insects or arthropods in that other world, making it impossible to test if they could safely consume Edelion's creatures.
Asmodra senses the need for a new production system to accelerate hive recovery.
In that process, Asmodra craved more knowledge, more materials.
The more she knew, the more inefficiencies in the current system stood out.
To her now, the ants' progression—egg to larva to pupa—was glaringly inefficient.
“She wants a new breeding method?”
Jin-hyuk pondered upon reading that.
To him, few creatures reproduced faster than ants.
Barring microorganisms that divide, is there anything quicker?
The fastest reproducers he knew were, naturally, microorganisms—but ants couldn't gain that ability.
“Hmm, division... regenerative division, huh.”
Yet one idea crossed his mind.
A creature large enough for ants to eat, possessing near-division-level super-regeneration.
It wasn't true reproduction and came with limitations, but who knew.
His ants had already reached the stage of freely remodeling abilities from mana, Demonic Power, and various devoured beings. How well Asmodra could adapt the absorbed super-regeneration was up to her.