Dissection

Just as the imperial army was completely driven out of Rupelin,

the captured Count Louis, tightly bound in the tough threads of spider ants, was sent to a certain place along with the mangled corpses that littered the ground.

Aside from Count Louis, there was another strange occurrence: the ant swarm had gone out of its way to collect and carry off magic stones and magical items that possessed magic power.

The swarm had always shown zero interest in things they couldn't eat, making this behavior highly unusual.

Count Louis had fallen into a state of utter panic. He screamed until his voice went hoarse, but no one came to save him.

As far as his eyes could see, there was nothing but a dense, crawling sea of ants.

[God of Knowledge: What on earth do these beasts want to do!]

Even Astaroth, the god who had taken Count Louis as his servant, shared the exact same sentiment at this moment.

Thanks to Count Louis being captured alive, he was finally able to catch a glimpse of a corner of the swarm's territory—which had previously been like an uncharted domain—but that was as far as it went.

【The connection with the servant who has entered another deity's territory is about to be severed.】

The prompt that popped up before Astaroth's eyes meant he could no longer even use Count Louis as a live surveillance feed.

After all, although Count Louis was the commander leading the imperial army against the swarm, he was only nominally under his jurisdiction and had not received any of his divine protection.

Moreover, the most important medium between Count Louis and the god—his mental strength—was on the verge of collapse, making it impossible to maintain the connection.

“Save me! No—no! Kill me! Please, just kill me!”

Surrounded by the spine-chilling ant swarm, Count Louis was dragged into a massive cavern. He ultimately suffered a complete mental breakdown, thrashing and struggling wildly.

Thus, by the time he was dragged before Elise, his connection to his god had been completely severed. He had become an utterly isolated and helpless existence in this universe.

“Ugh...”

Having been dragged all the way and finally thrown violently onto the ground, Count Louis had no idea where he was.

In this pitch-black darkness devoid of a single ray of light, he could only hear a massive entity crunching and chewing on something.

【Elise has shown a keen interest in the first living human she has ever encountered.】

Finally, surrounded by countless worker ants, the massive monster raised its head. The myriad compound eyes within its head-shell lit up as it slowly propped up its body.

When Count Louis clearly saw what this monster—several times larger than himself—was feasting on, he froze completely. It was the bodies of his former colleagues and subordinates who had been transported here alongside him.

“You're the leader, aren't you?! The Queen Ant of this swarm of monsters!”

Count Louis had finally recognized Elise's identity.

But his body had already been cast defenselessly into the deepest part of the ant nest.

“Aaaah?!”

Elise brought her massive head closer, gently touching his body with her sharp mandibles and straight antennae. Count Louis let out another blood-curdling shriek.

“My god...”

Lin Miao, who had always viewed the swarm's actions as his own karma and had never once looked away, could not help but close his eyes at the scene that unfolded next.

【Elise is analyzing the physical structure of a living human.】

【Elise has recognized human language and is attempting to comprehend its meaning.】

【Elise has confirmed that he is a male incapable of laying eggs and is not a queen. She has also confirmed that human colonies can function normally even without a queen.】

【Elise has determined that the current sample and information are severely insufficient.】

Coincidentally, right before Count Louis was delivered, Elise had just devoured more prey and completed a new round of molting.

This meant her intelligence and self-awareness had grown once again.

With the assistance of the worker ants, she vivisected and dismantled Count Louis to satisfy her curiosity. Yet, far from quenching her thirst for knowledge, she felt the information was still vastly inadequate.

If Elise's Predation ability could work on intelligent life at the human level, she wouldn't have needed to go through such a process at all.

However, for Elise to be able to prey on human-level intelligent life, there were still far too many hurdles to overcome.

Lin Miao finally understood why Elise had allowed a worker ant to fall into the hands of the humans behind the high wall, and he couldn't help but hold his breath.

She wanted to see more and hear more through that worker ant.

Lin Miao had not expected Elise to be capable of such calculated maneuvers already, and his body trembled slightly.

“For our future, I believe we must bring this monster to the research institute for study.”

“We will do as you say. What do people like us know anyway? Whether it's research or anything else, as long as we can be of help, that's all that matters.”

Because of this, not only Elise but even Lin Miao could see everything happening there through that worker ant.

Unlike Count Louis, whose connection to his god had been completely severed, the connection between this worker ant and Lin Miao had never been broken, even though it had been dragged into another deity's territory.

This was because the hive mind to which the worker ant belonged was considered a single, massive, unified entity, maintaining its connection with Lin Miao, who was a god.

Furthermore, the issue of mental strength simply did not apply to a worker ant.

Lin Miao stood before the terrarium with a troubled expression.

He had just brought new prey for Elise, who had completed another growth phase today.