Leave a comment

While it had occurred to me before that the Mother Black Ant might not be able to control every Black Blood Ant we encountered, a thought which was just confirmed by her, I still brought her along anyway. The reason was twofold. First, I needed a method of communication. Second was, to be very frank here, I couldn’t be sure that the other Black Blood Ants would submit to me the same way that Mother Black Ant did just because I was a Fallen Angel.

“If you were to go over now, what would happen?”

“Mother Black Ant…doess…not know…”

‘So even she doesn’t know how they would react…’

Strictly speaking, every Black Blood Queen Ant had their own territory. And it wasn’t like we hadn’t encountered any other Black Blood Queen Ants’ nest prior to now. It was just that we didn’t have much chance to communicate then, seeing as they weren’t loyal to me and probably wouldn’t be in the mood to be so either. Before now, it had never occurred to me to learn much about them, resulting in my current lack of knowledge about their race.

“Try talking to them first, if they try to attack, I’ll burn them to a crisp with my Nether Flames.”

“Mother Black Ant…understandds…Masss..ter…”

Not one to disobey me ever, she began wriggling her way towards the countless horde of ants ahead of us. I gestured for the others to follow closely, maintaining a five meters distance between us and Mother Black Ant. With her decent crawling speed, the distance of 200 meters was easily covered in a moment.

“Chit chit chit~~~”

Upon seeing a foreign Black Blood Queen Ant appear before them, the horde of ant-like creatures responded with a strange chittering. While I might have been able to understand their strange language, I could see they were extremely excited, based on their waving feelers and agitated movements.

As per my command, Mother Black Ant tried to communicate with them, unfortunately that failed. The ant horde didn’t seem to understand her at all and were already swarming towards her. She knew she was clearly no match against their numbers, so her only option really was to retreat.

“Mama, let Mo Na handle it!”

Having flown to my side early on in Mother Black Ant’s attempted negotiations, Mo Na took the opportunity to act before I could, waving her adorable little hands in the air, calling forth a ten meter long wall of flames in front of Mother Black Ant.

It was a wall of immense heat, flames so hot that even the surroundings seemed to bend to its will. It was at a level that these ants could never resist. But still they charged fearlessly into the fiery abyss before them, on a journey with no return. Why? Because their brains were the size of an insect’s! That’s why. Had it been any other lifeform, they wouldn’t have done so. But not the Black Blood Ants, because they were on such a low level that their intelligence was basically that of an insect’s.

Faced with such a one-sided massacre, Mother Black Ant once again felt the sheer power we wielded, and that would only make her fear and respect me more. Prostrated like a supplicant, she dragged herself before me, head lowered as she seeked forgiveness.

“Master…Mother Black Ant…guilty…”

Her meaning was clear enough, but I never had any intention of blaming her to begin with. After all, she mentioned it before, she wasn’t entirely sure if she could even communicate with Black Blood Ants not under her. Thus I skipped straight to the point. “What did you tell them just now?”

“Mother Black Ant…saidd…meet…queeeen…ant…”

In other words, she stated her request but they just charged at her like flies attracted to a light…brainless…

Because the ant swarm had just fought with some Devils, there were a number of soldier ants mixed in the swarm. These mindless insects endlessly threw themselves to their deaths. If only they knew how to make a turn…that wall was only ten meters long after all…if they knew how to turn, they could easily route around it. Yet as facts would have it, they would rather die than curve in their ant path…

Just as the death toll was starting to reach for the heavens, a strange fluttering echoed in the air from the not too distant horizon. If I had to describe it, it was like the sound of a locust swarm closing in on us…the Black Blood General Ants…I could already see their winged silhouettes, each about 15 cm long, homing in on our location…

These ants were the last line of defense in a Black Blood Queen Ant’s arsenal. Each of them had at the very least the power of a One-star, with some of their elites even reaching Two-stars. Furthermore, because of their sheer numbers and ability to fly, they were a million times worse than locusts.

Thus a giant cloud of black came swarming towards us and right over the wall that Mo Na created.

Faced with an uncountable number of adversaries, those four Imp recruits were immediately scared limp, each scurrying to hide behind the nearest golem they could find. In all honesty, I wasn’t afraid of these ants. No matter how many came at me, I could simply activate my Nether Flames around me and burn them. However, I now had a more effective method of dealing with them.

I first grabbed hold of Mo Na, activating my Shadow Demon Guardian soon after hugging her. Born of my shadow, this guardian of mine was like a clone of myself. In some ways, it was even stronger than me, the main body…

As an ability I gained after evolving into a Fallen Angel, this was one of my favourite techniques. Reason being a simple one: it was convenient, fast, and it flew…

With that, the battle started, or rather the massacre.

Nether Flames wrapped around itself, the Shadow Demon Guardian charged right into the ant swarm. With just a mere touch of the flames, every flying ant was burnt to a crisp, dropping to the ground like a bunch of fried potstickers. The sight of blackened potstickers raining down from the heavens was truly a terrifying one. Yet what was even more terrifying was that before they could even land, these potstickers were all consumed by the Nether Flames they touched…returning once more to the earth…dust to dust…ashes to ashes… All that was left were their fragile souls which the Nether Flames left intact…

Because gravity really wasn’t an issue for a shadow, the Shadow Demon Guardian’s speed was unmatched. To its eyes, these flying Black Blood General Ants might as well have been crawling in the air, like a film being run at a tenth of its original speed. If I had to describe the scene, it was like Kirah riding the Gundamn Stryke Freedom against the lowest of the low, the Zahku…in all honesty, these Black Blood General Ants weren’t even better than an antique Ford…

Without taking five minutes, the skies were clean once more. The huskless soul rain came to a silent end as well.

Unlike the destruction faced by the Black Blood General Ants, those on the ground were still charging into the flame wall Mo Na summoned. Even though what they were doing was pointless from the very beginning, and came at great cost, they still endured on their anty path to destruction…