Chapter 83
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Ruler of the Era (1)
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"Fortunately, those bastards didn't manage to breach the barrier... but no matter how I look at it, I can only conclude they retreated on purpose."
The barrier was shattered here and there, scorched black in places, with human bloodstains or body parts turning up whenever anyone glanced around.
This massive wall, emblazoned with the proud emblem of the empire destined to conquer all, now hummed only with the stench of blood and the limp exhaustion of the weary defenders.
"They did retreat intentionally. Even if they'd killed us all and breached the wall, they couldn't have faced the reinforcements rushing in right after. What's terrifying is that they already knew that and factored it into their calculations."
Shtafen shook his head gravely as the defense captain sighed, surveying the scene where cleanup was finally wrapping up.
"Everyone knew it deep down. That those ants are growing and evolving."
The recent battle had hit like a brutal wake-up call, smacking the complacent right in the back of the head.
They had been certain that, having leaped ahead, no force on the continent could rival the empire's magitech anymore. But the ants had unveiled a new variant called Tyrants, shattering that illusion head-on.
Now, the ball was back in their court.
How would they counter and prepare for these formidable Tyrants the ants had unleashed?
And the time they had was critically short.
After all, the ants were devouring resources and evolving even at this very moment.
[Bellona is shocked upon seeing Asmodra's new body]
[Asmodra warns that you and I are fundamentally different]
It wasn't for nothing that Shtafen and the others, having truly felt the ants' new power, were gripped by fear.
And now, there was a slight chance their hopes might come true.
Bellona, the second queen, had requested support from the main horde regarding the Tyrants while expressing utter disbelief at Asmodra's latest evolution.
'Why are these two fighting again?'
Jin-hyuk stared at the nonstop notifications with a bemused frown.
[Bellona evaluates Asmodra's body as utterly inefficient for combat]
[Asmodra dismisses her, saying she doesn't understand beauty]
Bellona had openly criticized Asmodra's body because she always reveled in charging to the front lines herself, valuing direct combat above all.
Asmodra, on the other hand, had no intention of stepping onto the battlefield personally.
War was for the soldiers she created.
A noble queen should reign above them, focusing on winning the heart of the great existence who nurtured this vast horde by any means necessary.
"Um..."
Seira was the only one awkwardly caught in the middle of the two queens bickering through the hive mind.
Jin-hyuk, knowing they'd been like this since they were born, didn't mind at all.
To him, it just looked like little sisters squabbling with their big sis.
[Bellona requests a mana core to create her own Tyrants]
[Asmodra says there's not even enough for the main horde yet]
The conversation inevitably shifted to the truly critical issue: how to allocate their limited mana stones.
Though their temperaments differed, both queens shared the duty to nurture and strengthen their hordes.
Bellona let the matter of Asmodra's new body slide at that level, but she pressed hard on this one.
"What are you two even fighting about? Just split them evenly."
Chucking softly, Jin-hyuk pulled out two mana stones and dropped them into the breeding ground, signaling they should stop fighting and share fairly.
Unlike other deities with no real use for it, he had plenty of interference points to spare, so he sent an oracle to Seira.
His resources were for both sisters to use equally.
"The great existence decrees that half of all future mana stones shall belong to the queen of the roaming horde."
Seira relayed his will through the hive mind to Asmodra, having received it clearly.
Even if some intent got lost in translation, simple commands like this transmitted flawlessly now.
She had fully adapted to her role as the horde's saintess.
With Jin-hyuk's will made clear, not even the queens could defy it.
Asmodra grumbled but ultimately handed half the mana stones in the breeding ground over to Bellona's forces.
[Bellona deliberates. Asmodra insists that precise mana core processing for the roaming horde must be led by its queen, Bellona]
Asmodra had sent an enormous mana stone capable of yielding dozens of cores whole.
Since Jin-hyuk was supplying them directly, more were being transported in bulk afterward.
Worker ants shuttled them nonstop via secret tunnels and paths blanketing the northern lands now claimed by the ants, racing day and night to Bellona's position.
But Bellona faced one remaining hurdle: processing them.
'Would heart synthesis worms be a poor fit for the roaming horde?'
Jin-hyuk, having watched the ants from birth to now, could guess her dilemma.
Her mobility-focused legions didn't suit the fragile, massive heart synthesis worms that needed worker ant protection in the safest spots to produce mana cores.
"What to do, huh."
He smiled faintly, gazing at Bellona on the screen.
Unlike Asmodra, her entire body had evolved solely for battle—bigger, heavier, stronger. Bellona was a warlord, but also a queen with duties to her horde.
As Asmodra had sharply pointed out, she couldn't just revel in slaughter; she had to fulfill her responsibilities.
[Bellona searches for a new method]
So Bellona racked her brains. Unlike Asmodra, her intelligence was heavily skewed toward combat and command, but a queen was still a queen.
Moreover, as the little sister, she had an older sibling to observe and learn from.
'What in the world...'
Jin-hyuk swallowed dryly at the new variants Bellona had produced.
They differed vastly from all previous ones.
For starters, they were tiny.
Much smaller than small worker ants—mouse- or hamster-sized.
Yet their forms varied perfectly for their roles.
Hundreds or thousands of bug-like ones resembling shore crabs or woodlice swarmed the mana stone's surface, gnawing and shattering it with sharp teeth.
Mixed in were leech-like ones that latched on, meticulously shaping the fragments.
Since the process was shared via the hive mind, she'd simply devised an alternative method.
Bellona had even created toad-like transport units that carried hordes of these in their mouths and bellies.
Moving with the horde, they processed and stored mana stones on the fly, finally preserving her mobility.
[Bellona continues producing new variants]
But she didn't stop there.
She processed the mana stones to gain the new power of Tyrants.
Just as Asmodra had used them to create even stronger variants, Bellona now began crafting her own Tyrants in her unique way.
"Looks like the ants already swept through here."
"Unlike what we'd heard... their lack of a fixed nest is our eternal curse."
A dwarf squad armed with cannons and firearms entered a human village already reduced to ruins, lamenting their fate.
The ants left tools and valuables but devoured every edible thing—livestock, humans, all of it. That was their signature.
In the great plains' western reaches, orc migrants had enslaved local powers to form an orc kingdom, while dwarves from beyond the great mountains had formed a coalition sharing the area.
It was a contest among deities—and a desperate scramble to absorb more forces.
Bellona's roaming horde played the role of common enemy and regional scourge amid it all.
"Everything's fine except their mobility issue. We still haven't cracked that."
The dwarf captain smacked his lips.
Their firepower, led by cannons of various calibers, was undeniably potent.
If the ants had a nest, they'd charge it and obliterate everything without hesitation.
The problem was Bellona's roaming horde, unlike Asmodra's main one, had no fixed base.
More nomadic than the plains orcs, they exploited the dwarves' sluggish mobility perfectly.
"Captain! Scouts spotted ants not far from here!"
"Pursue them at once! Even those bastards need time for whatever they're doing!"
Then came valuable intel: scouts had sighted ants in a nearby valley, plundering a village and processing the spoils.
The dwarf captain's eyes gleamed.
A chance for glory. Worker ants hauling loot from the roaming horde were ripe for the picking—and the rewards.
Plus, they couldn't move at full speed while handling spoils. Prime prey.
"Hurry! The squads that rack up the most kills will earn the great earth god's blessings!"
The captain spurred his troops.
Hauling heavy cannons through forests and over mountains, they dreamed of slaughtering the distracted ants and claiming the spoils.
"...What the hell?"
But when they finally arrived...
The ants, who should have been busy butchering and processing massive loot, had vanished.
All that remained were corroded cloth scraps, armor, weapons—byproducts.
"What is this stuff?"
The captain prodded the sticky, dark blue liquid pooled on the ground with his sword tip, face tense.
The entire valley, once lush with greenery, was blanketed in it—a viscous, potent digestive acid that ate through dwarf-forged steel in seconds and hadn't evaporated yet. It spewed fumes that made even the warriors cough.
[Bellona is highly satisfied with the speed of her new food breakdown and transport process]
Bellona confirmed it through her aerial scouts' eyes, twitching her antennae as if grinning slyly.
Inspired by her brainless sister Asmodra's approach, the roaming horde's queen had devised a novel system: instead of digesting food inside individual bodies, handle it externally all at once.
< Chapter 83 - Ruler of the Era (1) > End