The Queen’s Secret
Delegating complicated problems to your comrades is the key to keeping your body comfortable.
Right around the time when my party and the Nepentula were locked in fierce combat, the two queens continued their silent battle in a space reduced to nothing but ash. They warped their own bodies to create weapons and hardened their skin into tough carapaces to shrug off fatal wounds. Adela maintained her focus in a style of combat only possible for queens from beyond the front lines—something the queens of the North, who underwent periodic generational replacement at the hands of the Northerners and possessed short average lifespans, could never replicate.
The opposing queen, who had been pressing the attack with viciously shaped blades, suddenly spoke.
"?"
Adela narrowed her eyes at the queen’s words. Why would she start a conversation in the middle of a fight to the death? When she openly displayed her confusion at the incomprehensible situation, the queen smiled gently.
"That’s strange. Why would an enemy want to talk?"
The queen who had spoken such cryptic words gave a bitter smile and swung her arm. It stretched like a whip and came rushing in. Adela arched backward to dodge, then immediately planted her hand on the ground, gracefully lifted her legs, and flipped over to evade the follow-up strike. She then leaped straight toward the queen.
Adela usually preferred a somewhat wild fighting style, but this time she changed it slightly—striking like a bee carrying lethal venom. She shot forward with deadly precision.
"The Guardian of the Earth? You mean Magranas?"
The Guardian of the Earth. Considering that monster’s infamous reputation, the name felt both strangely unfitting and oddly appropriate at the same time.
"Didn’t Magranas kill your mother? Then why are you serving under him?"
At the queen’s words, Adela made an expression of understanding. Survival was an important matter. Submitting to the strong in order to live on was a natural flow of things, so she offered no further comment. The craving for survival belonged to the realm of instinct rather than reason.
Seeing Adela remain silent, the queen gave a self-mocking smile before composing her expression again.
"A secret?"
The queen’s words instinctively brought to mind the stories Argo was always going on about. He used to grumble that this world was full of secrets. Something about an era before the Great Opening—about a thousand years ago—where some kind of secret existed, but he had no idea what it was and found it frustrating. She didn’t know why that memory had surfaced, but she realized the queen was talking about the secret from before the Great Opening.
"…Then how do you know about it?"
Magranas had taken an interest. It was a short but overwhelmingly powerful answer. She almost forgot they were fighting and nearly stopped moving entirely.
"What is that secret?"
A strange playfulness crept into her previously dazed expression. Adela lightly furrowed her brow. How annoying. Couldn’t she just tell her?
Even as Adela’s mind grew tangled, the queen continued speaking without pause.
"Our… secrets."
At the queen’s words, Adela frowned and roughly shook her head. The more incomprehensible things she heard, the more her head hurt. Interpreting this kind of complicated lore was far better suited to Argo or Neon than to her. Adela decided to straighten out the strangely flowing atmosphere.
Even though they were fighting with their lives on the line, the queen’s attitude was utterly relaxed. Adela lowered her stance and spoke in a low voice.
Compared to the queen before her, she might lack experience, but there was one thing the queen was missing. Unlike queens accustomed to fighting alongside countless ants, Adela was used to fighting as an elite few—or even alone, or with just one or two comrades. Her dream of creating an insanely cool mobile nest had unintentionally shaped her into a solo-type queen. In other words, when it came to queen-versus-queen combat, there was no queen who could fight better than Adela.
"Well, for adventurers, the right amount of confidence is essential."
Without hesitation, Adela leaped toward the queen. Seeing her charge straight from the front, the queen clicked her tongue and swung her blade-whip to keep her at bay. A single graze would tear away flesh, yet Adela paid it no mind. Maintaining an expressionless face, she accelerated.
Slash!
The whip tore through her armor and gouged her flesh, but she ignored it lightly and closed in on the queen’s chest. The queen, who had never expected Adela to charge like a berserker, wore a look of shock and tried to respond—but it was too late.
Having grown up watching Argo pull off circus-like maneuvers relying solely on Phase Shift and Neon, the North’s number one aggro-drawing, provocation-dodging tank, Adela’s combat style was in a category the queen could never have imagined. Not giving the pierced queen any room to respond, Adela transformed both arms into blades, stabbed them into her shoulders, pinned the fallen queen’s legs with her knees, and drove her arms even deeper.
"I’m a queen who hasn’t even built a nest yet, so I don’t have that kind of thing."
At Adela’s words, utter bewilderment rose on the queen’s face. A nest was as important to a queen as her own life. It was a place that protected her from external threats and provided the foundation for her colony’s growth. Hearing that she hadn’t built one left the queen stunned.
But Adela paid it no mind. After all, if the queen heard her proposal, she would abandon her outdated old nest and come running. The charm of an insanely cool mobile nest was an irresistible offer no queen could escape. Then she would spill every secret she had, and all the complicated problems could be handed over to her comrades.
"Hiiik…?!"
A light flashed in Adela’s eyes, and the queen’s face twisted in fear at the sight of her madness.
Plants came rushing in from every direction. They carried venom that could melt bone and flesh with the slightest touch, yet Neon twisted his body with dazzling grace and dodged them all. Rolling, evading, evading again, and using shields and Blink at precisely the right moments—the sight was almost artistic.
As the skill he had honed purely for survival shone brilliantly, rage surged in the Nepentula’s eyes.
After Owen had sealed its regenerative power, the Nepentula lost its composure every time it gained a new wound. In the end, it could no longer hide its hatred for Neon’s black magic and was thoroughly aggroed.
While Neon worked hard to draw its attention, I maneuvered through the air, breaking through the plants’ anti-air net, and dove sharply toward the Nepentula’s back. As I accelerated downward without regard for what came after, even the Nepentula couldn’t ignore me and responded. Countless plants grew at terrifying speed, filling my vision and bristling with thorns. The droplets of venom clinging to their tips looked unmistakably deadly. To anyone else, it would have seemed like a place no one should ever enter—but not to me.
I laid my sword-spear horizontally and increased my speed. The spear, possessing the Indestructible property, remained completely fine no matter how many razor-sharp thorns scraped it or how much flesh-melting venom it was drenched in. Relying solely on the spear’s defensive power, I charged down recklessly. The moment I felt my speed slowing, I used Blink and finally teleported directly above the Nepentula.
Kwagagak!
I drove the massive sword-spear into its back, then used Blink again to retreat. Owen approached my side.
"You’re one to talk, Owen. You were even more reckless."
The three adventurers’ utterly bold assault left the Nepentula’s body covered in wounds. Even with its regeneration sealed, it was still a powerful monster. Yet thanks to the three adventurers’ ferocious offensive that even the infamous Nepentula could never have predicted, we ultimately seized the flow of victory.
Owen spread both arms wide with an utterly relaxed expression.
"No matter how many times I think about it, that really is a cheat ability."
I looked at him with envy. It was an incredible ability that even its owner called a cheat. There was a restriction that it could only seal one ability at a time, but the massive advantage of being able to start a fight by sealing one of the enemy’s abilities couldn’t be overstated. On top of that, his own personal skill was outstanding, allowing him to make full use of his power. I finally understood why he remained at the upper ranks of Gold-class despite his young age.
"Stop chatting! Hurry up! And save me! I’m starting to have trouble holding on!"
"Oh, right."
At Neon’s cry full of resentment, I smiled awkwardly and began my attack. We sent Neon, who had been forced to play the tank without even being able to rest because of his black magic, to the rear for protection, then charged forward.
After soothing the thoroughly sulking Neon, I looked at the Nepentula that was rampaging wildly. Since it was putting up its final struggle, it was time to finish things.