Further Evolution

【The Queen Ant does not wish to destroy the high wall immediately, hoping to prolong the conflict to harvest as many prey as possible.】

As the brain of the colony, the Queen Ant had already keenly sensed this.

After all, the colony naturally preferred war over indiscriminate hunting just to secure as much food as possible in one go.

To a colony like this, the Church of the Goddess of Light gathering all the forces of the Kingdom of Karmi to fight to the death at the high wall was a war of attrition well worth investing in.

The soldiers screamed in terror, “It's them! It's those monsters!!”

In the steep, mountainous region of the eastern kingdom where the high wall was still unfinished, humans were locked in a fierce battle with the surging tide of the ant colony.

Through aerial reconnaissance, the colony had discovered the weak points in the defense here and selected this area as their primary target.

Today's battle was as brutal as ever.

The mutated jumping ants, which had played a major role in capturing the fortresses earlier, were also deployed to the battlefield.

The commander on the scene, drenched in sweat, barked out orders, “Archers, get ready! Target those monsters with the exceptionally developed hind legs! Intercept them in midair!”

But unlike before, the humans now knew the capabilities of the mutated jumping ants.

The commander ordered the archers, who held powerful bows that could only be drawn when infused with magic power, to stand by. The moment they spotted any ants leaping, they were to shoot them down immediately.

The information regarding the mutated jumping ants had also been provided by the Goddess Hestia.

Of course, because of this, Goddess Hestia had expended a significant amount of extra intervention power.

The archers shouted excitedly, “Direct hit! The ones we missed fell into the traps!”

Arrows infused with magic power, which had been drawn and ready for this very moment, shot through the air, piercing and tearing through the bodies of the leaping jumping ants.

Not all the jumping ants were successfully shot down, but even those grazed by the arrows fell and were impaled on the sharp wooden stakes set up at their landing zones.

“It's working!”

Marquis Wike, a Paladin of the Church of the Goddess of Light and the supreme commander of the battlefield, raised his fist in excitement as he witnessed this.

“...It's not over yet. If their numbers increase any further, we might not be able to hold them off.”

However, Celia, who had suggested setting up the numerous wooden stake traps, did not look relieved at all.

Can we really hold them off? Celia's heart was filled with anxiety. Once a single section of the high wall is breached, the rest of it becomes utterly pointless.

Whether by coincidence or fate, having narrowly survived every encounter, she had observed the ant colony longer than anyone else present.

To her, the colony was the embodiment of terror, a walking calamity.

She dared not let her guard down until the very last moment.

There was no telling when or where another bizarre mutated variant would appear to completely throw the entire battlefield into chaos.

“Ahem. That may be true, but morale is equally important on the battlefield. Without the hope and belief in victory, our soldiers won't be able to hold on. They are different from those monsters.”

The Marquis did not seem to appreciate her gloomy outlook. He cleared his throat and pointed at the continuously swarming ants.

Atop the unfinished high wall, countless corpses were piling up by the second.

Even if their leaping attacks failed, all the ants—with the exception of the heavily built mutated soldier ants—possessed the ability to climb steep slopes and city walls.

Unlike the human soldiers who roared to dispel their fear, the ants showed no emotion even when their bodies were impaled or sliced open. They acted in strict accordance with the colony's commands.

The Marquis let out a sigh of relief and murmured, “Fortunately, we received a large number of golems as support from the Empire. We should be able to defend the unfinished sections of the wall...”

The only reason the unfinished high wall had managed to hold out until now was because of the massive number of golems blocking the gaps with their thick, sturdy bodies.

Driven by a core in their chests and constructed from massive stones and magic, these golems were inanimate creations. Venom and poisonous stingers had no effect on them, and their hard bodies could not be crushed by the ants' mandibles, making them extremely difficult enemies to overcome.

Furthermore, they possessed heavy bodies and brute strength that rivaled even the giant soldier ants.

【The Queen Ant is attempting to find a way to breach the hard, giant enemies.】

This was undoubtedly an enemy completely different from the humans, beastkin, and goblins they had fought so far.

The Queen Ant tried her best to break through the golem defense line, but the mere dozens of golems proved to be exceptionally resilient.

Even as she witnessed the stellar performance of the golems, Celia still could not put her mind at ease.

Those who did not understand the ant colony believed that their terrifying, mechanized actions and coordination were their greatest threat.

But her intuition told her that the colony's greatest strength was their never-ending growth.

Celia turned to Marquis Wike and spoke urgently, “Lord Marquis, can we use the golems as a vanguard to launch a surprise attack on the enemy's nest? We must strike before they find a way to counter them.”

Marquis Wike shook his head and replied helplessly, “As a mage, you should know this, right? There is a reason why golems were retired from the front lines and are only used for transporting supplies and construction in the rear. Do you expect them to slowly march all the way to the far north?”

The issue was not just the mutated ants.

Having been involved in every battle against the ant colony, Celia had vaguely sensed the intelligence of the colony—or more accurately, the continuously growing intelligence of the Queen Ant.

She had ignored Count Merlin's warnings and insisted on coming here in person just to observe the colony's movements up close.

However, contrary to her anxious desires, launching a counteroffensive against the ant colony was by no means an easy task.

【The Queen Ant confirms that the golems are slow and will not leave their positions. She intends to bypass them and launch an attack elsewhere.】

Indeed, even in this situation, the Queen Ant quickly identified one of the golems' weaknesses. She communicated this to the colony, and they immediately put the plan into action.

In any case, the colony's goal was not to breach the high wall right now anyway.

Inanimate objects like golems, which could not be consumed, could simply be ignored.

“Th-this sound... Could it be?!”

“It's from the sky! The Wailing Wings!”

The mutated tiger hornet ants, which had been standing by, took to the skies all at once, preparing to launch a surprise raid.

In a short span of time, the distinct buzzing of their wings had become notorious, enough to trigger a conditioned reflex of terror in any human.

What was worse, they did not appear at the start of the battle. Instead, they deliberately chose to strike at the exact moment when the humans were utterly exhausted.

The colony had begun to learn how to exploit human emotions and habits to formulate tactics and wage war.

Cold sweat poured down Celia's face as she stared at the massive monsters in the sky, gritting her teeth.

Before anyone realized it, the ants that had been marching toward the golems had completely vanished.

Instead, the ants deployed to other areas locked horns with the defending soldiers. During the battle, they used their antennae to search for the corpses of specific individuals, gripping them tightly in their jaws and dragging them to the rear.

These corpses all belonged to individuals whose bodies contained magic power or holy power—knights, mages, adventurers, and priests.

“These bastards are even desecrating the dead!”

Those who felt immense rage and sorrow as they watched the corpses being dragged away by the ants had no idea why the colony was so obsessed with them.

It had never crossed their minds that a terrifying ability capable of preying upon and absorbing the magic and other powers contained within corpses could actually exist in this world.

Even the high and mighty deities knew absolutely nothing about this.

【The Queen Ant senses that her own power is evolving once again.】

【Bloodline Adjustment LV3: Allows the adjustment of bred individuals using genetic information obtained through Predation, and the creation of entirely new castes.】

【*Current retrievable information: Limited to certain arthropods.】

And the reward for this obsessive preying had truly arrived.

Through constant feeding, the Queen Ant's ability had once again evolved.

And all of this was so that she could devour even more.