Chapter 96
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Great Leap (3)
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[Asmora urges Seira to teach her knowledge of magic right away, convinced that her current self can comprehend it.]
Astragon's overt recruitment of other deities ends here, along with the intimidated retreat of those who saw an opportunity in the assault from the southern elven forces and beyond.
Under the judgment of the Great Hive's Queen, Asmora, the ants launched a full-scale counterattack. But Asmora did not assume victory simply because she now commanded greater numbers.
Her ability to devour and absorb prey was sufficient as it was.
What Asmora craved now was something new: knowledge.
"As I mentioned before, the essence of magic as a discipline boils down to how one manipulates and controls mana. That's the sole focus. Everything else is merely a derivative."
Seira wore a troubled expression as she explained why Asmora and the ants could not learn magic.
The biggest issue was that mana, the core of magic, differed from the power the ants wielded.
Existing magic had been tailored to similar yet distinct energies like mana or demonic power, so to acquire it, the ants would need to fully replicate those source energies as well.
"This... honestly, I don't even know how to explain it."
Seira had once marveled at the power flowing into her body when she assimilated with the ant hive in the past.
Through researching and conceptualizing the ants to create a demonic power heart, she had learned even more about that force.
It was a new energy, born solely from the ants' flesh—something that had never existed before.
It carried traces of every type of inner energy the ants had devoured and absorbed from their prey, yet it was never quite the same.
As the ant hive evolved, more energy accumulated within the collective, and that power was gradually mutating into something entirely different from any existing inner energies.
"Kair. That's what I'll call it."
Seira drew a name from ancient myths she knew and bestowed it upon that force.
In that instant, a new power—never before seen—had inserted itself among the various inner energies that even deities accepted as natural law.
'And that's not the only problem. Magic is ultimately a discipline crafted for specific beings, after all. There might be magic for orcs or humans... but magic for those ants? It doesn't exist anywhere in this universe.'
Jin-hyuk, who had been listening silently to Seira, grasped the issue as well.
Simply understanding the structure and principles of a technique did not allow one to replicate it.
It was like how someone without arms couldn't wield a two-handed spear—no matter how well they knew the forms, the prerequisites were essential.
Prophets, including deities, possessed the ability to bridge such gaps between worlds, mitigating or compensating for those conditions.
But no such being existed to fulfill that role for the ants now.
Not even Jin-hyuk, who had driven the ants' evolution by providing countless creatures as fodder, nor Seira, with her deep knowledge of magic.
[Then Asmora decides she'll create it herself.]
Of course, that didn't mean Asmora would give up.
Once she set her mind to something, she achieved it. Once she desired possession, she claimed it. That greed and obsession were the core of her being, awakened alongside her ego.
[Asmora believes that while perfect replication of the enemy's techniques is impossible, imitation is feasible.]
Asmora twitched her antennae and rapidly sifted through the vast knowledge stored in the hive.
She accepted that she could not analyze and absorb knowledge in the same way she devoured and integrated genetic information from living beings.
But Asmora had experience mimicking other creatures without devouring their genes.
Of course, the experimental human mimic she created back then had been little more than a useless lump of organic matter, incapable of even basic biological functions.
Building on that, she abandoned perfect replication and chose a path of reinterpretation—creating something uniquely her own from what was given.
That was precisely the new body she had now formed by mimicking a human.
'Our own techniques, our own power.'
Asmora began reinterpreting the magical knowledge passed down from Seira.
Just as Seira had absorbed all the knowledge from Arkaina Zero in mere days by borrowing the hive mind, Asmora now ingested that vast body of information in a single breath.
Countless methods for moving mana, designing spells, and manifesting them into reality.
In the past, such advanced concepts would have been incomprehensible no matter how much they were explained. But now, her vastly developed brain made it possible.
"No way..."
Jin-hyuk stared in shock at Asmora's form on the screen.
The first technique of the ant hive—reconstructed and reinterpreted from that vast array of magic and knowledge, implemented through Kair.
It was a deep blue barrier manifesting from the demonic power heart.
Within the barrier enveloping her entire body, Asmora's red eyes gleamed fiercely.
"The bastards are climbing up...! Load the spellters now!"
On the towering barrier where fierce combat raged—equipped with advanced defensive installations developed through immense labor and Astragon's aid—the imperial forces fought desperately.
Beneath the barrier, countless ants swarmed, charging toward them.
Especially those that had successfully scaled the walls began swinging their sharp mandibles and hooked claws.
"Fire!"
At the commander's order, the knights under his command set aside the large, rune-engraved shields on their arms and aimed their loaded wands downward in unison.
The flaming lances they unleashed were powerful weapons that allowed even non-mages like knights to fully harness magical firepower.
They punched through the thick exoskeletons of ants that ordinary arrows or spears could no longer penetrate.
"Don't stop. Shields up!"
While the wands recharged, the knights cleared the corpses of the swept-away ants and held their shields to endure.
"While the knights hold, we keep firing nonstop. Stay on the move!"
The regular soldiers weren't idle either.
They supported the knights by holding shields on the defensive line, transporting ammunition, and providing firepower.
Mana wave cannons—devices that could fire magic without aid from mages or knights.
Though they required teams of five to operate, Astragon had insisted on introducing them as an interim step before performing mana awakening procedures on all subordinates.
"How goes the battle?"
"As expected, it's evenly matched."
In a watchtower of the newly completed second barrier, a short distance from the intense fighting at the first barrier, Supreme Commander Duke Alserion stood gravely surveying the overall situation via a mage's display screen.
"Our firepower and technology are certainly sufficient."
Vice Commander Count Linhardt pointed at the screen as he spoke.
Even large soldier ants with tough exoskeletons and massive frames, or devourer ants, were shattered by the mana wave cannons fired by the soldiers.
The knights' barrier, equipped with gas masks, held firm against the blade strikes of charging beheader ants or the poison blasts from exploding bomb ants.
On top of that, the latest combat golems leaping down to slice through dozens of ants in short order.
The Lukadia Empire's forces on the barrier were strong, having concentrated the empire's full might and talent here, bolstered by their accumulated experience.
"But we can't hold out forever."
Count Linhardt declared with a hardened expression.
While the ants' numbers had surged after fusion mutants partially resolved their food supply issues, the empire—torn by internal chaos—continued to cut back on supplies and reinforcements to the barrier.
"Has the Minister of War said nothing? What of the Prime Minister?"
"Not yet..."
"This barrier and the north are the empire's future. And they hesitate over a few dead southern hill folk?"
Alserion clicked his tongue and shook his head.
One might call it harsh, but he had witnessed too much while leading his men to defend this place.
"Your Grace, the sun is setting!"
"Their momentum is unusual, but given their habits, they won't press the attack through the night."
Uncertain of the ants' condition, supply concerns lingered, but they could likely hold through today.
Thinking so, Alserion furrowed his brow at the swarming ants under the sunset glow.
New recruits to the barrier often recoiled in horror or terror at the sight.
A horde of oversized, grotesquely mutated ants triggered humanity's primal fears perfectly.
"Multiple superiors appearing in the sky and on the front lines!"
"So that's why they hadn't shown—they're finally here!? We must take them down. Sniper teams, prepare!"
In that moment, urgent reports flooded in simultaneously from various sectors.
Tyrants had appeared—evolved one step further from the existing mutant ants, now bearing demonic power hearts.
'They hold them back, deploying only at key opportunities, so they must be valuable. Taking even one more burdens them!'
Alserion's eyes lit up. Tyrants were top-priority targets for elimination.
Beyond their danger, they were the ants' precious elites. Most crucially, everyone knew that recovering a tyrant corpse yielded large, finely crafted magic stones from within.
"They're attacking the batteries."
"Tch, we already knew they crystallize magic stones into stingers and claws."
Alserion snorted at the sight of hornet ant tyrants bombarding ground batteries with venom barrages.
When they first appeared, their stingers had pierced barriers, inflicting heavy casualties.
But not anymore. Thicker barriers blocked the venom, and they counterattacked with magic shells to intercept the tyrants.
It wasn't just the batteries.
The knights on the walls also hurled pre-prepared magic stone bombs at blade-wing tyrants and scorpion ant tyrants.
"They think we're pushovers!? Ha, got one!"
Alserion clenched his fist at the explosions.
No tyrant, however exceptional its magic resistance, had ever withstood such firepower.
Their pre-planned tactics seemed perfect. Or so they thought.
"...What the hell is that?"
But when the thick smoke cleared.
Alserion stared in disbelief, murmuring blankly.
The hornet ant tyrant he assumed downed was still airborne, shielded by a barrier mimicking their own.
"They won't die! They've got some kind of barrier!"
"No, the defensive line's breached. Hold your positions!"
Screams and shouts erupted from all sides.
Other tyrants, barriers drawn from their demonic power hearts using Kair, were massacring the imperial forces reeling from the hits.