Army Ants

“Is it... over?”

“We survived again this time, but next time...”

Long before its construction, the Church of the Goddess of Light had dubbed this high wall the "Wall of Hope."

But unlike the holy crusade they preached to those on the inside, the battlefield that had just fallen quiet was a literal living hell.

Exhausted soldiers who had miraculously survived the battle against the ant colony stared blankly at the damaged wall and the mountain of corpses, sighing with hollow eyes.

The onslaught of the ant colony, which swarmed forward at the slightest gap, never truly stopped.

Although the high wall had never been breached, the casualties continued to pile up.

“Ron! Where are you?! Answer me!”

An old soldier, not even taking the time to remove his helmet, anxiously called out his son's name.

A nearby soldier sighed upon seeing this. “I'm afraid that Sir Knight was also dragged away.”

On the ground, it looked like there were more ant corpses, but that was only because the ants were much larger, and a massive number of human corpses had been deliberately dragged away by the ants during the battle.

For those who were dragged away, even their bodies could not be recovered.

All that was known was that they were dragged off somewhere, dismembered, and turned into food for the colony.

“Knights, mages, priests... Don't you find it strange? The corpses they drag away just happen to be...”

“Really? I heard a lot of regular soldiers' corpses have gone missing too.”

Of course, some people had already noticed that the ant colony was deliberately targeting specific individuals.

Even if they didn't yet know that the ants devoured their prey to absorb their power, it wouldn't be difficult to deduce the truth once they gathered a little more evidence.

【The Queen Ant anticipated this situation and commanded the colony to drag back more corpses of regular soldiers】

But before the humans could catch on, the Queen Ant had already seen through it.

She took extra measures to mislead and cover up her intentions before the enemy could figure them out.

Inside the terrarium, the Queen Ant waved her antennae within her nest, overlooking everything through the hive mind. Her tactical planning did not stop.

【The Queen Ant believes that if they continue to attack fiercely, this trap that continuously supplies food will lose its utility】

Having completely taken control of the former Kingdom of Karmi, the Church of the Goddess of Light was still squeezing the kingdom's resources to supply the high wall.

But even though they had just completed their internal integration and operated with extreme efficiency, they still couldn't match the speed of the colony.

The colony could instantly transition from the larval stage into various mutated individuals, and their growth time was constantly shortening due to the Queen Ant's increasingly precise genetic design.

The Queen Ant worried that at this rate, the high wall would collapse before they could harvest enough prey.

【The servants sense a gift bestowed by the Great One!】

But even so, she could not weaken the offensive against the high wall. Only by continuously obtaining food from here could the colony grow.

Just as she was worrying about this, something fell from the "sky" of the terrarium.

The Queen Ant instinctively looked up.

Whenever they fell into a predicament, the one who guided them and found the answers for them was always the great presence protecting them.

Lin Miao looked at the few ants inside the test tube and chuckled. “You actually managed to get them so quickly? I thought they only lived in Africa and South America.”

“It's also thanks to the changes in the world. Nowadays, we can treat rifts as private warehouses, and by using double gates, we can cross continents just like using portals.”

Just as the dealer said, the world today was already vastly different from decades ago.

Though still young, Lin Miao, who could still remember the days of old, felt this deeply.

The great cataclysm he had experienced when he was eight years old was once the biggest turning point of his life.

But not anymore. His life, and indeed the entire world, was being swept into an earth-shattering event.

【The Queen Ant preys on new targets and absorbs their abilities】

The army ants Lin Miao introduced were naturally no match for the mutated ants under his command.

The mere handful of army ants were torn into pieces of meat and delivered straight into the Queen Ant's mouth.

Lin Miao, contrary to his usual calm self, waited for the Queen Ant's reaction with a hint of nervousness.

To the ants, who had already grown so much, army ants were not particularly special food.

The unique organizational capability of army ants was far inferior to that of a colony with a fully realized hive mind.

And their individual combat strength was no match for a colony that had devoured and absorbed the abilities of various other insects.

Even so, Lin Miao had still chosen to introduce the army ants so that his colony could inherit their migratory abilities.

This ability to roam endlessly without a fixed nest, devouring everything in their path, would open up options for the colony beyond the Kingdom of Karmi.

【The Queen Ant falls into deep thought. She determines that by utilizing the newly absorbed ability, she can establish another colony to expand into more distant regions!】

“Did it work?”

The Queen Ant had perfectly understood Lin Miao's intentions.

Coincidentally, this ability solved the very problem she was worrying about.

【The servants begin preparing to establish a new colony and march toward the west. At the same time, the Queen Ant begins producing new reproductive queens!】

The colony immediately sprang into action.

Starting with the Queen Ant who had acquired the new ability, they began creating individuals capable of embarking on a distant expedition alongside the new warriors.

Within the main colony, a new sub-colony and migratory colony were born.