Insect King Subjugation Battle (4): The Gluttonous Preta

Have you ever walked down a tree-lined path on a summer night when the sky had grown pitch black, only to suddenly notice the streetlights illuminating the road? Or seen a dog that had been hit by a car and left to rot for three full days? Though the two sights are worlds apart, they share one common trait: bugs swarm to them like mad. Moths, mosquitoes, and every kind of flying insect around the lamps. Ants, maggots, and the ground’s cleanup crew around the corpse. Whenever I stumbled across such a scene while walking, my whole body would prickle with phantom itch. But right now, I was thinking that sensation was practically a blessing.

After all, those bugs hadn’t been measured in meters.

Buzzzzzz!!

The holes Lily had sealed were torn open. At the same time, the insects that had been piling up behind them poured in without order or restraint. Filling every corner of the audience chamber in all directions took them mere minutes. Poisonous flyers filled the sky. Human-sized insect monsters rampaged across the ground.

And then came the worst news of all.

“Cough…!”

Adel ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had been poisoned. Bright red blood spilled from her lips. Lily flinched, interrupting her chant, and begged Yulise for a purification. Yulise, who had been incinerating bugs with holy power, rushed over and examined her condition.

“This is serious… Purification will take at least two minutes!”

“Two minutes?”

Two minutes. In normal times it would pass in the blink of an eye. In the middle of battle, it stretched longer than eternity. With their combat strength taking such a heavy hit, Kamilla shouted at me again.

“Hero, I can’t hold them anymore!”

“…Let’s fall back to the corner. We don’t need to worry about the monsters coming this way anymore. Protect the party members first.”

I swallowed a groan. There was no helping it. The situation was too urgent; we had to abandon something. If we moved to the corner, at least we wouldn’t be completely surrounded by bugs. My own burden would double since I could no longer block the monsters, but that was inevitable.

I continued, “No matter what happens, keep every monster away from Lily and Yulise. They need to focus.”

Even now, I still had one pillar of hope. Lily’s magic. Her overwhelming one-shot firepower could definitely land a clean blow on the Insect King. Add Yulise’s buffs on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠top of that, and delivering the finishing strike wasn’t impossible.

So the plan from here was simple. Kamilla would guard Lily with everything she had, and I would carve away at Valcan until Lily could land the decisive hit.

That was what I was thinking when—

Thud!

“Ugh…!”

A heavy impact slammed into my side. I turned to see a longhorn beetle the size of my own body ramming me.

“You son of a—”

Swoosh!

I swung the holy sword and sliced it apart, then quickly checked my flank. No broken bones, but the pain made movement awkward. Regeneration would heal it soon enough… but every second was precious right now.

I looked forward again. Bugs and monsters now packed the space around me. Valcan hid among them, panting hard. He wasn’t in good shape either. His insect army had arrived as planned, but the king himself had already been driven to the brink of death.

I charged in again to deliver the final blow.

Buzzzzzz!

A living wall of insects blocked my vision. They fought desperately to obstruct me. Spikes, pincers, fangs—countless attacks flew my way.

Thump. Crunch. Crack!

I dodged what I could and took what I had to. There was no time to mind each individual strike. Faster. More precisely. I searched for any gap that would let me reach him.

That was when I realized something.

No matter how many gathered together, every gathering still had seams. Just as sand pressed into a lump never truly becomes a wall. If I kept slipping through the cracks, I would eventually reach the main body. All I had to do was find those gaps more efficiently.

“Uraaaaaah!!”

The clear system alarm rang out, and my field of vision widened another degree. My Heavenly Martial Body was working even in this hellish situation. The movements of the bugs attacking me, the monsters throwing their lives away to protect their king—every motion became sharper, clearer.

Then I spotted a spot where their cohesion was noticeably weaker. Figures. Even bugs are stupid when they gather. Almost as if drawn there, I swung my sword toward the gap.

Swoosh!

“Khuk!”

The blade connected. The holy sword, swung diagonally, severed one of the Insect King’s slender legs.

Whoosh.

Through the chaos of flying insects, I caught sight of his left leg spinning through the air. I cheered inwardly.

Got it.

I had taken his mobility. He wouldn’t be able to dodge nimbly anymore. And robbing him of mobility meant it would be much easier to land a heavy blow.

“Out of the way.”

After our long struggle, a calm voice rang out from behind. It wasn’t loud, yet it cut clearly through the mayhem. When I glanced back, I saw Lily radiating blue mana. Above her head burned a flame as red as her hair. Though the fireball was no larger than a grain of rice, its brightness was blinding.

I wasn’t worried. She could wield the four major elements at will, but her foundation was ultimately fire magic. Its precision and perfection could not be compared to anything else.

She hurled the tiny fireball at Valcan. It flew slowly, almost gently, and settled onto the gravely wounded Insect King. Then it set the world ablaze.

“Kuaaaaaagh!!”

Fwoooooosh!

The grain-sized flame swallowed him in less than a second. One of Lily’s highest skills—Mana Combustion. Everything in the world contains mana. So if one could influence surrounding mana using their own, wouldn’t it be possible to cast magic beyond their normal limits? That idea had given birth to this spell.

Fire-aspect mana spread like a contagion, igniting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠everything around it. Because it burned not only her own mana but also the ambient mana filling heaven and earth, its power far exceeded imagination.

Kyaaaaaaa…

For a long while, Valcan’s screams echoed from within the inferno. I lowered my sword and let out a deep sigh.

*

…It’s over.

At least, that was what I thought. As far as I knew, very few beings could survive flames of that intensity. Even if he did survive, he would be in no state to continue fighting. He had already used his final survival skill, Molting.

I allowed myself a moment of relief. Kamilla and Adel saw the insects suddenly freeze and exhaled in exhaustion. Even though they had only faced a limited number of monsters in the corner, they had been reaching their limits.

They stared blankly at the burning Insect King. Lily felt deep pride in her final strike. It was a blow created by pouring every ounce of her skill and mana over the course of five full minutes. Since he couldn’t even defend properly, few could possibly survive it. She was certain of their victory.

And Yulise cheered inwardly.

It worked.

Finally. At last.

We did it!

They could escape this wretched place. They had defeated the Insect King she had feared so terribly. “We did it… We really did it…!”

She had always hated bugs. That feeling hadn’t changed even with her past memories. Getting used to them and hating them were two different things. No—precisely because she had both the memories of the past two months and her previous life’s experience, because she had personally felt the Insect King’s power, this victory felt impossibly sweet.

Everything was far better than her previous life. Unlike last time when the defense had been breached immediately, this time they had held the bugs back for a full fifteen minutes while steadily wearing Valcan down. They had overcome every skill he had shown before, and the hero had been able to conserve his lifespan. Of course there had been crises in between, but… from her perspective, it was a perfect victory.

They had struggled, but they had won. There had been hardship, but they had overcome it. The hero and his party members each savored their own emotions, intoxicated by the early triumph.

But they had overlooked one thing.

Despair blooms most quietly when hope shines brightest.

“…I have been defeated.”

The Insect King was a genius. From a young age he had created his own unique magic called Insect Sorcery and mastered it completely. No one ever looked down on his ability. Yet at the same time, he could also be called ordinary. Though his talent overflowed, compared to the other Heavenly Kings who had been extraordinary from birth, his origin was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ultimately that of a mere mortal. When compared to sky-flying dragons, mutants born with supernatural powers, or giants who could tear the earth apart, he was simply an average demon.

For someone like him to later claim a seat among the Four Heavenly Kings must have required unimaginable effort. He studied dark magic. He created lifeforms such as one-eyed bugs and dimensional thorn insects. He compensated for his lacking martial prowess by summoning bugs all day long, and when his lifespan ran short, he sacrificed his own body to become a lich. After honing Insect Sorcery to its absolute limit, it had eventually reached the realm of Authority.

Insect King. The one who had used the lowliest beings to earn the title of King. A monster who had begun from the very bottom and, relying solely on his own ability, claimed a place among the calamities.

“…However, I cannot die like this.”

His stubbornness and obsession were closer to that of a madman.

“I cannot betray the expectations that person placed in me. Even if my entire life must be burned away, you will never pass through this place.”

In that instant—

Fwoooooosh!

A magic circle spread across the floor. An enormous circle that covered the entire vast audience chamber.

“What?!”

“W-wait, what is this?!”

“I sense an evil aura.”

The party members began to panic at the ominous purple light filling the room. Even the Saintess was no exception.

What… is this?

She had never seen it in her previous life either. In other words, this was the first time Valcan had ever cast it. An enormous amount of mana, incomparable to anything before, surged above the magic circle.

The Saintess looked toward the hero with trembling eyes, wondering if he might know something. When she saw Luke’s face—

“…Fuck.”

It was colored with pure disbelief.

“You’ve got to be shitting me…”

Anger, absurdity, futility—every emotion flashed across his eyes. He stared at the magic circle for a long time as if nailed in place. Then he muttered in a voice no one else could hear.

“Why the hell is Gu Summoning appearing on the first boss…”

At that moment, every bug and monster in the audience chamber was sucked toward the summoning circle. No—not just the audience chamber. Every insect inside the entire Insect Assembly Castle.

“Ancient transcendent being born in antiquity, worst of all lifeforms. I release the prohibition binding you and call upon you. I shall give you whatever you desire. I will let you eat to your heart’s content. If it is not enough, I can offer half of my own body. I will bring every delicacy the world has to offer and lay it before you. Therefore, manifest in this place now.”

Even the charred remains of the Insect King’s body were offered. He was sacrificing everything he had built to summon the Gu.

The summoning circle that had been greedily devouring for so long finally brought something into being.

Kwaaaaaang!

The audience chamber collapsed. The enormous hall, large enough to hold multiple sports fields, crumbled in an instant. Boulders fell from the ceiling. The sealed sky was torn open. Outside it was night. The hazy moonlight had begun to shine on us, but something immediately covered the sky again, smothering it.

Ssssssssssh!!

It was a single colossal earthworm. An overwhelming body that looked kilometers long. Luke froze for a moment at the sheer scale that filled the night sky. He knew exactly what it was.

Among the three Gu sealed within the world, the third.

Gluttonous Preta.

Its endless appetite would one day devour the world itself. Fused with the creature, the Insect King—only his upper body emerging from the Preta’s head—spoke a single sentence.

“Today, I was defeated in this place. However, there shall be no victor either.”

Scarlet warning windows flashed violently across Luke’s frozen retinas.