Catalyst

“What on earth has this world come to...”

That place had clearly once been a human village.

And it was a fairly large village that had housed at least several hundred residents.

The abandoned farmlands and barns scattered around, along with the broken houses and furniture, all proved this.

But now, the masters of this land were no longer human.

Countless giant ants of various shapes and sizes densely covered the area, tirelessly digging up the earth, piling up dirt and stones, and constructing a massive nest.

“A-A castle! Those things are actually building a castle!”

Watching the worker ants effortlessly lift heavy boulders time and again and embed them into the nest's walls, he couldn't help but shout in shock.

The previous invasions, where they had dispatched numerous hunting squads to attack anything in sight, had actually been nothing more than a preparation phase.

Once they confirmed that there were no longer any forces in the area that could threaten them, the ant colony began a more thorough operation to completely turn this world into their own.

Seizing the land to survive, plundering the resources they depended on.

A war of extinction that went beyond victory or defeat, risking the very survival of their species—this was their way of life.

The incoming news dealt a fatal blow to the northern territories, which were barely holding on.

“We must stop them. If we wait for them to take root in this land, eat everything, and completely contaminate this place, even if we reclaim the land in the future, will we still be able to survive here?!”

The furious lords tried every means possible to drive the ant colony out.

Even the beastkin of the great plains, who had fought with them for hundreds of years, would at most plunder the area and never dared to dream of occupying the land.

Losing the land that was the foundation of their survival was more cruel than a death sentence to the lords.

A soldier suddenly seemed to notice something and spoke up, “What is that sound?”

Another soldier immediately looked up at the sky and cried out in terror, “It's in the sky! Look up there!”

However, in the wake of the news of the joint coalition army's crushing defeat in their battle against the main force of the ant colony, the northern territories, which the ant colony had been greedily eyeing from the very beginning, had absolutely no strength left to block the even more powerful ants as they marched south.

Watching the figures swooping down from the sky, the people let out desperate screams, “It's the Wailing Wings!”

The mutated tiger hornet ants, the core of the ant colony that had achieved great distinction by crushing the main force of the joint coalition army, had also appeared here.

Whenever they appeared, they were accompanied by fierce winds kicked up by their flapping wings and a deafening buzzing.

Those who had initially acted tough, claiming they were nothing but mere flying pests, only had to clash with them once before they began calling these tiger hornet ants the “Wailing Wings” and fell into absolute terror.

“No, hold the city walls... Ahhh!”

The tiger hornet ants, capable of flying freely through the air, gave the ant colony's siege capabilities a qualitative leap.

The tiger hornet ants flew wildly in the air, tearing the defenders' carefully prepared defenses to shreds, while the rest of the ant colony took the opportunity to swarm forward, scale the walls, capture the city, and reduce the entire city to ruins.

The defenders, who had resolved to protect their homeland and families, were repeatedly snatched into the air, pierced by venomous stingers, covered in spraying venom, and ultimately torn to pieces by the mandibles of the swarming ants.

“Ah...”

In the center of a street thrown into chaos by panicking, fleeing crowds and the pursuing ant colony, a young adventurer who had lost his sword froze completely in place, staring at the tiger hornet ant that had killed all of his companions.

The tiger hornet ant's mandibles still held the severed head of his companion, while its barbed forelegs still carried his companion's shredded corpse.

Even if they did not know how to utilize it, these tiger hornet ants were special individuals nurtured with a massive amount of food since their larval stage.

A vast amount of magic power had accumulated within their bodies, naturally forming a powerful resistance and granting them tough defensive capabilities.

With the level of this nameless adventurer, trying to leave even a single scratch on its exoskeleton was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

【The servants have once again wiped out a hostile colony and obtained food】

Yet, no matter how low their level, most of these adventurers, who made a living hunting monsters and working as mercenaries, could manipulate magic.

The tiger hornet ant crushed this last adventurer—who would serve as precious nourishment—with its mandibles, left the subsequent cleanup to the other ants catching up, and flapped its wings to take to the sky once more.

—!

Looking through the field of vision of the tiger hornet ant flying into the sky, the city captured by the ants had already turned into a living hell.

Screams and wails echoed endlessly. A mage, resolved to drag the enemy down with him, set his own body ablaze, and the raging fire constantly consumed the wooden houses and buildings, slowly spreading.

The scorching flames were indeed one of the ants' weaknesses, but a fire of this level was no longer a threat to the current ant colony.

For they only needed to swarm forward and use methods like spraying venom to easily extinguish the fire.

“I originally thought digging tunnels to besiege a city was simple enough... I didn't expect there to be an even faster method, and they actually pulled it off.”

Lin Miao softly muttered to himself as he watched the ant colony continuously accumulate victories through calculations that were far more precise and rapid than he had imagined.

The ant colony would only ever need one thing: resources.

As long as there were enough resources to consume, they could grow infinitely.

The lord slumped in his chair, his face as pale as ash as he said, “It's over, everything is over. I can't just sit here and wait to be eaten alive by those monsters.”

The attendant beside him spoke up timidly, “My Lord...”

The lord suddenly raised his head and roared, “Servants that bring about the end. Yes, what Celia said was right! They are the end! Prepare to evacuate immediately!”

Faced with the ant colony's unstoppable march south, all attempts at resistance were crushed by brute force. In just a few days, the northern lords were forced to leave their homes behind.

They had no other choice.

If they did not abandon their ancestral homelands and flee, they would ultimately be hunted down by the swarming ants and become their food.

The lords gritted their teeth and ordered, “Take as many people as possible and join the Church of the Goddess of Light. This is the only way to survive.”

Just like that, the people forced to leave their homelands declared their entry into the Church of the Goddess of Light one after another.

They, too, had no other choice.

For the destitute lords who had lost their foundations and the refugees, the only faction willing to accept them was the one controlling the central region, which sought to reunite the fractured kingdom under the banner of the Goddess.

“...This is truly a complicated feeling.”

Count Merlin, who had luckily survived the previous battle, let out a bitter laugh as he watched the lords swarming in to beg for shelter.

Not long ago, the northern lords led by Count Roland had been at loggerheads with the Church of the Goddess of Light, with absolutely no intention of submitting.

Yet a single defeat, coupled with the swarming ant colony, had turned everything into what it was now.

Count Merlin sighed. This situation was nothing to be happy about.

Because after the northern lords disappeared, they would be the ones facing the ant colony head-on next.

One thing was certain.

That was, the ant colony would absolutely never stop.

They had to prepare. Sooner or later, they would have to wage another brutal battle against this insatiable ant colony that consumed everything around them.

Count Merlin looked at Celia, who had come to find him, and wore a bitter smile. “It seems you have made up your mind.”

Celia replied with a solemn face, “Yes.”

Count Merlin nodded and said, “The look in your eyes has changed a lot. It is both regrettable and admirable.”

Just as he said, there was not a trace of a smile on Celia's face at this moment, only cold determination.

Bogut's death had become the strongest catalyst.

Once, although she was bent on stopping the ants, there had always been a subtle trace of hesitation in her heart. But now, that hesitation was completely gone.

Count Merlin looked at her and asked seriously, “Are you willing to follow the Goddess's will?”

Celia replied resolutely, “I don't care about anything else. To kill those monsters, I am willing to do anything. From now on, this is my mission.”

“Very well, then prepare to set out. While those monsters are rampaging in the north, we must gather as many forces as possible in the name of the Goddess to increase our strength,” Count Merlin said, looking down at the map spread across the table.

Although the north had fallen into the hands of the ant colony, there were still many places where the Church of the Goddess of Light could expand.