Chimera

【Elise senses her increasingly vast consciousness and knows that she can now devour and absorb even more things】

Lin Miao held his forehead, staring blankly at Elise inside the terrarium.

Meanwhile, she had already begun adapting to her brand-new body.

Lin Miao had a vague understanding of why Elise had designed her new body this way.

Her awakened intelligence had not only boosted her brain's processing capacity.

It had also exerted a profound influence on Elise's sense of self and consciousness.

“Your Majesty... your appearance...”

Even Celia, who already had one foot in the colony and was well-accustomed to all sorts of bizarre sights, was left speechless by Elise's new appearance.

Her body size had shrunk significantly.

She had gone from a colossus that could swallow Celia in a single bite to being roughly the same height as her.

She had grown a pair of hands and feet. Although they were completely different from human limbs, they looked as though she had been grafted with chameleon claws, making them appear incredibly bizarre.

Among all the food Lin Miao had fed her in the past, there had never been any bipedal creatures.

As a result, her rather awkward-looking joint-reversed legs had exceptionally thick thighs. Yet, perhaps in pursuit of a waistline, her waist was pinched incredibly thin.

【Elise believes that this form is merely part of an experiment. It is to achieve a more perfect state in the future】

Her chest was slightly swollen, bearing a slight resemblance to Celia's figure. Through the gap in her cracked breastplate, the beating magic heart was clearly visible.

Perhaps finding it too difficult to mimic a human face, she wore an ant-shaped mask similar to the one Celia wore.

But what shocked people the most was the massive brain she dragged behind her, connected by countless black, tentacle-like structures.

Lin Miao could almost feel Elise's internal conflict.

To maintain the extraordinary intelligence and powerful self-awareness she took pride in, she had to keep this massive brain. Yet, she also wanted to possess her ideal perfect body, so she had no choice but to keep the brain outside her body.

“...”

Looking at her like this, Lin Miao did not feel disgusted.

Instead, he felt a twinge of heartache. He knew that the only reason she had turned out like this was to draw his attention.

From the moment she gained self-awareness, Lin Miao had been her only reliance, her only help.

She viewed Lin Miao as her entire world, as absolute truth and law. It was not surprising at all that she would do this.

Because of this, a trace of desire gradually sprouted in Lin Miao's heart.

He wanted to stay by her side until she was no longer this incomplete chimera, but could create a truly ideal body that belonged to her.

The ant colony had completed yet another great evolution.

Lin Miao felt that day would not be too far off.

◆◆◆

“Fortunately, those monsters failed to scale the barrier... but no matter how you look at it, we can only assume they retreated intentionally.”

The barrier was scorched and broken in places, with human bloodstains and severed limbs scattered everywhere.

This colossal wall, engraved with the symbols of the Empire's glory and meant to stand proud for ages to come, now held nothing but a lingering stench of blood and the desolate aura of the fallen.

“They withdrew intentionally. Even if they slaughtered all of us and broke through the barrier, they would have been powerless to withstand the reinforcements arriving immediately. What is terrifying is that those creatures saw through this long ago and calculated it precisely.”

The defense captain sighed deeply as he looked over the scene of the aftermath. Staffen, his expression solemn, shook his head.

“Everyone needs to realize that those monsters are also growing and evolving.”

The battle just now had dealt a heavy blow to those who had grown increasingly conceited.

They had thought the Empire's magitech had ascended to a new level, leaving no force on this continent capable of rivaling them.

Yet, the ant colony had revealed the Tyrant, a brand-new mutated species, utterly crushing their arrogance head-on.

Now, the scales of the situation had once again tipped in favor of the ant colony.

Just how were they supposed to respond, and how were they to defend against the powerful Tyrants created by the ant colony?

The time remaining for them had become extremely urgent.

Because even now, the ant colony was still devouring resources, evolving continuously without a single moment of rest.

A subordinate mage spoke up, “Your subordinate has heard that many of the beastkin who abandoned the plains and fled westward are also being pursued by the monsters.”

Staffen snorted in disdain. “Indeed. Although they were fortunate enough to escape far away and barely survive, those fellows are also facing an impending catastrophe.”

The only reason they had kept their lives in the battle just now, and why the barrier had not been completely overrun by the ant colony, was that they relied on the heritage of the established hegemon, the Lucadia Empire, combined with the fact that the ant colony was still slightly lacking in stamina.

Under the precise strategies and clash of blades between both sides, the Empire had suffered an absolute, undeniable defeat.

But what would happen if the ant colony's power spread to other regions?

How would those nations without advanced magitech, without colossal high walls, and without the ability to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops at a moment's notice survive?

A faint glimpse of the future surfaced in Staffen's mind, and he couldn't help but let out a self-deprecating laugh.

For now, they could only pray that the ant colony's gaze would turn elsewhere.

Only by taking advantage of this stolen time could they quickly comprehend the true essence of magic inherited from the deities, pushing their own technology and civilization to advance at rapid speed.