Chapter 71
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Two Saintesses (3)
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Large-scale magic was typically created by layering or combining multiple spells, much like stitching pieces of fabric together to make a garment.
The holy barrier that had appeared over the wall was no different.
This barrier, formed by mages designing the magic circle and priests infusing it with holy power, was meticulously crafted to withstand physical impacts and drain the ants' strength.
But just as cutting a single crucial seam in a stitched garment could cause the whole thing to unravel in a chain reaction, even this massive spell had its vulnerabilities.
And right now, to the eyes of the mage Seira, those magical seams were glaringly obvious.
"What is that!?"
"Sir Gilbert, look over there!"
The Holy Kingdom's forces cried out in alarm at the massive fireball hurtling through the swarming ants toward them.
This blazing orb, rivaling the scale of a joint casting by multiple mages, was as large as a small carriage. It streaked through the air in an instant and slammed into the barrier.
"Magic? That's impossible!"
Gilbert's face drained of color as he watched the fireball collide with the barrier and dissipate. His eyes widened in shock.
No one could have imagined such a thing flying from the ants.
"The magic circle is collapsing. The mana circuits are breaking!"
"How could this..."
But Gilbert had no time to worry about that now.
Just as the mages screamed, the fireball had struck precisely at the core of this holy barrier. Like a boat with a hole slowly sinking, the massive shield began to crack and crumble.
Asmora seizes the opportunity.
The charging ants didn't miss the opening.
While the wall's defenders panicked, another coordinated aerial assault rained down from the sky.
At the same time, the leaping ants at the front exploded their powerful hind legs, vaulting over the high wall in a single bound and pouring into the interior.
"Damn it, hold them back!"
Gilbert drew his sword and fought alongside the others against the oncoming ants.
But the ants, now fighting in earnest, were fundamentally different from the skirmishes and attrition warfare they'd waged on the wall so far.
"The ants are trying to breach the wall!"
Someone's desperate shout echoed across the wall amid the brutal melee.
The endless ant horde crawled up or leaped over the battlements, ignoring the piling corpses at their feet as they surged forward relentlessly.
'Are these things really going all out!?'
Gilbert cleaved through the head of a charging blade ant with his sword, then sliced off the leg of a spider ant hurling silk at him. Cold sweat trickled down his face.
He'd already slain countless foes, but all he saw ahead were more ants pouring in.
They fought with everything—auto-turrets firing spells automatically, armor forged from ant exoskeletons, support from priests and holy knights channeling holy power—but there was a fundamental problem.
The absolute difference in class was too vast.
"There are too many."
Gilbert caught his breath, staring at the ants still swarming everywhere.
The Carmion Kingdom, the foundation of the Holy Kingdom, wasn't a large nation.
Compared to the neighboring Empire, it was a small country with less land and fewer people.
With limited power, the goddess's influence was weaker, and the forces they could muster had clear limits.
In contrast, the ants that had seized the entire northern lands could devour far more than the orcs or humans who once ruled there, allowing them to produce vastly superior numbers.
"Why isn't the Wave of Judgment activating!?"
Gilbert shouted urgently.
In truth, the holy barrier wasn't their only preparation against a massive ant assault.
They also had a large-scale spell ready to activate in emergencies, unleashing a powerful wave to sweep away the ants clinging to the wall.
If they could trigger it, they could avert a breach crisis multiple times.
"Th-the spell circuits engraved in the wall have all been destroyed!"
"What?"
But the response left him stunned.
"Look over there...!"
One of his subordinate holy knights grabbed his shoulder and pointed.
Gilbert's eyes widened at the sight.
'Who is that?'
There, atop a massive heavy armor ant, stood someone aiming a staff and systematically destroying the spells engraved in the wall.
Gilbert didn't recognize her.
Not only was her body covered in black exoskeleton, but she wore a mask resembling an ant's head armor over her face.
"The magic that shattered the holy barrier—could it be her!? I'll go. We have to kill her!"
Though he couldn't identify her, Gilbert instinctively sensed the danger and made his decision.
He would charge out himself and eliminate this unknown threat.
Without doing so, the wall would fall, and everything would end. For Gilbert, bearer of the mission to protect the goddess and her forces, there was no choice.
"Who the hell are you?"
"..."
Gilbert timed his leap perfectly, vaulting from the wall and landing atop the heavy armor ant near the barrier.
In the chaotic battlefield, a pocket of eerie stillness formed, as if only the two remained.
Seira silently aimed her staff at him.
"Where do you think you're—!"
Gilbert's eyes flashed as he surged forward in a flash.
As an apostle blessed by the goddess and equipped with various divine items, Gilbert was one of the Holy Kingdom's elite knights.
Before the spell could fully cast, he closed the distance, swinging his sword rippling with golden holy power to shatter Seira's summoned barrier and slash from her shoulder to her chest.
"Kuh?!"
Yet, despite carving deep into her upper body—enough to bisect her—the blade halted there.
Even so, Seira didn't fall. Instead, she gripped the blade with her hand.
"That hurts, Sir Gilbert."
"...Impossible."
The exoskeleton enveloping her body creaked and began moving on its own.
The mask over her face split open, revealing it, while her bisected torso writhed, pushing out the intruding blade.
'What the hell do you even call that?... Shellback ant? Does "ant" even fit anymore?'
Jin-hyuk, watching Seira's body twist grotesquely like an insect's legs wriggling, let out a small sigh.
What covered Seira now wasn't mere armor assembled from exoskeletons.
It was a living organism that freely reshaped itself to cling to her bare skin—a biosuit fused with her flesh, acting in unison.
Going beyond merely manifesting or combining devoured abilities, Asmora—now capable of manipulating cells at will—had invested significant resources into creating this mutant.
"No way... You! How could you—!"
"Please believe me. These are not Outer God subordinates. They are fundamentally the same as you, a subordinate of the goddess."
Gilbert staggered back in shock.
In that moment, her half-severed upper body had already regenerated.
Through the parasitic Thorn Ant now hosted in her body, Seira had partially assimilated with the ants. She too was influenced by Asmora's omnipotent cells.
"To save even one more life, we must erase the goddess's traces from this land. Please!"
"Sh-shut up. Those wicked demons have even desecrated her corpse!"
Seira pleaded desperately, but Gilbert couldn't accept this shocking truth so easily.
For him, who harbored no ill will toward Seira, it was easier to believe the ants had skinned and mocked her corpse.
"Die, you monster!"
In the end, Gilbert charged at Seira once more.
This time, he poured all his strength into a powerful horizontal slash aimed at fully dismembering her.
"!"
But in that instant, Seira—now masked again—summoned a massive magic circle at incredible speed.
Gilbert's eyes bulged as he instinctively realized this was a composite battle spell that required multiple mages to activate over a long time.
Asmora takes great interest in using magic.
This wasn't magic from the Seira who couldn't react to Gilbert's speed.
Though borrowing Seira's body and knowledge, this grand spell was cast by Asmora using the hive mind's power.
Its speed and scale surpassed what dozens of mages could achieve.
No matter how blessed by the goddess Gilbert was as an apostle, he couldn't withstand a direct hit from such massive magic at point-blank range.
"Ahh..."
Seira collapsed to her knees at the sight of Gilbert's corpse, reduced to just his shins and ankles before evaporating.
She had exceeded her limits, expending all her mana and the mutant's power connected to her.
Normally, such overexertion would cause heart rupture, burnout of mana circuits, and permanent damage even if one survived—but Seira's body regenerated even that backlash.
Asmora is certain of the barrier's fall.
As Seira caught her breath on the ground, she saw the ants forcing their way over the crumbling wall.
The fierce battle at the wall had long since ended.
The Holy Kingdom's forces, suffering massive casualties, could only barely retreat.
But with the wall breached, there was nothing behind it. Seira knew that better than anyone.
Before the ants now lay only fresh prey and land to devour.
'I can't hesitate here.'
Seira gritted her teeth and rose on trembling legs.
Jin-hyuk had certainly extracted a promise from her: to spare those beyond the reach of rival deity Goddess Henes's power.
That meant, to save even one more from the ants' indiscriminate slaughter, she had to step up.
"We must evacuate now!"
"Yes. For now, retreat to a safe location and build a new wall or..."
The wall had fallen. Demons descended from the north.
The news spread instantly across the Holy Kingdom.
Terrified people, regardless of status, dropped everything to prepare for evacuation. The church couldn't stop them.
After holding out so long, the resistance crumbled all too easily once the ants went all out.
"Doesn't this make it seem like they were holding back until now? Even now, they're off fighting orcs in the distant great plains!"
Duke Rubert slammed the armrest of his chair in fury.
"Have you heard the vicious rumors circulating from the north, where refugees are flooding in?"
"I've heard. Betray the goddess, and the demons will spare your life! What nonsense!"
In this ominous atmosphere, one rumor spread.
The ants spared heretics who betrayed Goddess Henes.
For her subordinates—who gained power and authority through her blessings, with her prestige promising future strength—this was a horrific rumor they had to deny at all costs.
"...The goddess has just issued an oracle."
But the rumor soon proved true.
The high priestess, who received the oracle, announced the shocking fact with an incredulous face.
Seira, thought dead, was alive—and now served as the vanguard of an Outer God.
< Chapter 71 - Two Saintesses (3) > End