Chapter 63: Master of the Swarm

Boom—

The thick anti-magic barrier forcibly crushed the Alliance’s sun-like fireball.

The blast wave from the explosion sent residual steel and broken iron flying through the ruins.

Ella hunched her body and tightly shielded the four unconscious figures beneath her.

Her back was sliced open by flying metal fragments, and she furrowed her brows from the pain.

Her scarlet eyes locked dead on the sea surface.

That sky-blotting giant shadow finally fully emerged above the water.

The Pathstrider’s body coiled across the sea.

Its pitch-black, ink-like outer skeletal carapace gleamed with a cold, hard metallic luster.

Four pairs of blood-red vertical pupils glowed with ferocious light amid the fire of the collapsing transfer station.

Its hideous mouthparts opened and closed, spraying white mist that carried the salty stench of seawater.

On both sides of its shoulders, two giant mana cannon muzzles condensed red light.

The hum of surging energy made the very air tremble.

Mana several times more violent than the Alliance coalition’s fireballs earlier was frantically compressing inside the barrels.

“What! What is that monster?!”

The demon in obsidian armor finally panicked.

Her amber pupils contracted sharply.

The original arrogant expression vanished without a trace.

She subconsciously beat her demon wings and retreated.

The hellfire around her body began to destabilize.

This was not a swarm creation within her understanding at all.

She had never seen a monster like this!

“Open fire! Full coverage with all firepower! Blow it apart!”

The command voice from the Alliance battleship carried a cracking fear.

The remaining warships turned their gun muzzles.

Countless shells and magic missiles poured down on the Pathstrider like a torrential rain.

Yet the shells striking its carapace only raised scattered sparks and could not even leave a single white mark.

Magic beams hitting the anti-magic barrier were instantly swallowed and dissolved.

The Pathstrider did not even shift its body.

It only slightly lowered its ferocious head.

“Kill… them! All of them!”

Ella’s voice was hoarse as sandpaper scraping.

Nosebleed still streamed downward.

Her entire body continuously trembled from the extreme pain of the neural connection, yet the madness and ruthlessness in the depths of her eyes had already burned to the extreme!

These hypocritical, disgusting bastards had injured her subordinates! Her companions!

Whether they were some shitty Alliance or any other mongrels!

Right now she only wanted them! Dead dead dead—————!

All of them had to die! Become nourishment for the swarm! Food! Not even slag left behind!

The moment the words fell.

Hum—!!!

Two beams of dark-purple mana light columns erupted from the Pathstrider’s shoulder cannons.

They tore through the sea surface and the sky, slamming straight into the Alliance fleet.

Flames shot toward the heavens.

Seawater was instantly evaporated into white mist.

Two battleships directly melted into molten iron within the light columns.

The broken hulls, still burning, sank into the seabed.

Explosions continued one after another.

A towering sea of fire ignited across the ocean surface.

The coalition’s chanting cut off abruptly.

Angels and demons stared at the warships that had been annihilated in an instant, their faces paper-white.

Even the thought of fleeing was crushed by the giant beast’s oppressive presence.

“Impossible… Even an adult Kraken isn’t this enormous… How could…”

The female demon trembled all over.

Even her obsidian armor quivered slightly.

She finally understood that she was not a hunter who had come to harvest prey, but bait that had delivered itself to the door.

The Pathstrider slowly turned its body.

Its massive tail fin swept across the sea surface, raising a tsunami dozens of meters high that crashed toward the ruins of the transfer station and the Alliance remnants.

The steel city beneath their feet completely split apart.

Seawater poured into the broken cabins.

Screams and cries were swallowed by the waves.

Ella braced her softening legs and stood up.

Looking at the Alliance remnants covered by the giant beast’s shadow, the corner of her mouth could no longer restrain a cold smile.

The Alliance wanted to destroy the transfer station and bury her together with all the refugees in a sea of fire.

She didn’t care about that at all!

The only thing she cared about was these companions she had spent half her life creating!

“Kill them! Kill!”

“Kill!”

“Kill!!!”

Scarlet mana gathered energy once more.

The two cannon muzzles fired toward the warships on both sides.

Mana melted the armor.

Seawater rose in white steam.

“Hiss—”

Amid the violent explosions, no one noticed a sound of something cutting through the air growing closer and closer.

“Alliance mongrels! You—!”

Ella’s words froze in the air.

A light arrow formed of green mana pierced through her right forehead and exited from the back of her head.

Her silver hair flew up under the impact of the mana and then fell.

Her red pupils began to lose focus, continuously dilating and becoming hollow.

“No matter how powerful that monster is, as long as we kill the one controlling it, it’s fine, right? Are you an idiot? From the demon fleet?”

A slender figure landed beside the demon.

Her bare feet clearly stepped on the ground yet picked up no dust at all.

Long ears peeked out from her golden hair.

The bow in her hands still shone with mana light that had not completely faded.

“Tch, an elf? I was only shocked for a moment. Anyone would jump when seeing a monster like that for the first time.”

“Hey, why isn’t she dead?”

“Hmm?”

In the elf’s trembling tone, the demon looked again at Ella, who should already have been dead.

The silver-haired girl truly should have died.

Although her hair covered the terrifying wound, blood had already flowed out and completely dyed her right eye red.

Yet she had not fallen.

She had not even swayed.

This was strange.

No living creature should be able to remain completely still like that.

She had not screamed from the pain, nor had she cried.

On her face there was not even despair or fear to be found.

The demon looked toward the monster on the sea.

The monster had indeed paused its movements.

Although the strange shield on its body was still operating and attacks still had no effect, at least no more warships were being sunk by it.

“Just one more arrow then. Die, bug.”

The elf nocked her bow.

Lightning-fast mana once again condensed into the shape of an arrow.

“Hey! Watch out!”

The demon tried to push the elf away, but it was already too late.

It was a figure that could literally be called illusory.

The demon only barely managed to see its appearance in the instant the other launched the attack—strange purple outer skeleton, mantis-like forelimbs—and the moment the attack ended it vanished again, never to be seen.

“Aaaah! My hand?!”

Purple blade light flashed.

With only a single attack, it severed the elf’s right hand.

The mana she had condensed dispersed, and the bow slipped from her grasp.

“What the hell is that?!”

“Listen for footsteps! It can turn invisible!”

“Even if you say that—!”

The demon frantically looked around herself yet still saw nothing and heard nothing.

“Tch! Who cares! Killing this one ends it!”

The demon once again swung the long sword burning with hellfire.

Silver light flashed, and a figure caught her strike.

“What?!”

Her voice could finally no longer hide the panic.

Silver carapace, angel-like wings, yet paired with the compound eyes and mouthparts unique to the swarm.

It had appeared in front of Ella at some unknown moment and perfectly received the demon’s attack.

“Command. Angel Tyrant. Assassin. Eliminate these two enemies.”

Ella’s voice had become completely without fluctuation, even excessively cold.

“Aaaah!”

“What’s wrong with you?!”

The demon, fear showing on her face, looked toward the elf.

The other’s abdomen had already been pierced by a sharp forelimb.

After convulsing a few times, she lost all breath.

And she herself was beginning to be unable to resist the other’s strength.

The power of an angel mutually restrained her.

Finally, in her confusion, a sharp blade likewise pierced through her abdomen.

She still had not given up resisting.

The long sword she swung wildly this time was forcibly caught by the other’s forelimbs.

The disparity in strength left her in despair.

The blade pierced her heart.

Her final scream forever lodged in her throat.

The last image she saw was those ferocious six eyes gazing at her without a trace of emotion.

“Judgment. Insect Princess Shuang Ling’s action of extracting the insect eggs from Insect Mother Ella’s body while she slept and injecting them into the corpses of that pair of angel and demon is worthy of commendation. Should make greater use of the fact that she possesses a human mind and give her more rewards to increase her loyalty to the swarm.”

“Command. Pathstrider. Continue attacking.”

“Command. Angel Tyrant, please use holy light to treat the four.”

“Command. Assassin, protect Insect Mother Ella well.”

The ruins beneath their feet continued to sink.

Ella’s red pupils blinked once.

“Command. Pathstrider. Come here.”