I must be out of my mind to have accepted this mission.
Raum had grown up with the young Emperor Calian since childhood, and the two were as close as brothers.
He was one of the few people Calian trusted most, and he had always done his utmost to help Calian reclaim true imperial power.
That was why he had volunteered for this mission.
But when he stepped alone into the territory of the Great Devourer to secretly convey the Emperor's will to Celia, all the courage he had summoned instantly crumbled.
Unlike other forests teeming with nature, the Great Devourer's territory was shrouded in a toxic fog, and even the air carried a bizarre, eerie atmosphere.
Moreover, the ground was littered with clothes, weapons, and various tools that had once belonged to humans.
There were also internal organs, bone fragments, and human tissues accidentally dropped by the ant colony while dragging away their prey, hanging from tree branches or discarded carelessly on the ground.
Logically, these remains should have been cleaned up by scavengers long ago, but large beasts had already been hunted to extinction by the ant colony, and smaller animals had all died out, unable to withstand the Great Devourer's toxic gas.
Toxins seeping from the nutrient fluid had killed the soil, preventing plants from surviving. This land was gradually turning into a place of death.
Such was the place where the Great Devourer had resolved to carry out its invasive nesting.
“P-Please, I beg of you! I am the Emperor's envoy! Killing an envoy goes against all morals...”
Just then, the worker ants and guard ants that had detected his approach surrounded him in an instant.
He could only desperately state his identity and purpose, pleading with these Great Devourers who had absolutely no concept of "morals."
“The Emperor's authority means nothing to them. In their eyes, all humans are merely organic matter.”
Just as despair gripped him, a gust of wind magic blew away the toxic fog, and Celia removed her mask as she appeared before him.
Raum stared at her face, temporarily lost for words.
This young and beautiful woman seemed completely out of place with the black exoskeleton covering her body and the surrounding ant colony.
Despite her notoriety as a witch, her blue eyes held not a trace of ferocity or evil; instead, they were filled with depth and an indescribable sadness.
“You requested a secret meeting, yet you didn't tell me what exactly we would be discussing.”
“T-That is...”
Raum did not dare demand that she respectfully accept the imperial decree, as a typical envoy would have.
A worker ant snatched the imperial decree from his hand with its mandibles and handed it to Celia.
Standing tall, she took the decree with one hand. After reading it, her brow furrowed slightly.
【Elise desires to extract more information from him】
“I don't know the exact details either. I-It's just that His Majesty seems to believe what you said is true.”
Seeing Raum hesitate, Elise did not hesitate to prepare to torture him to squeeze out all the information.
Just as she had done with the human warrior under the elf's command before.
But at the thought of that human who had suffered a mental breakdown and died a miserable death after being parasitized by a Gene Stealer, Celia shook her head.
“If he doesn't make it back alive, we will never see the Emperor. However, I have a condition.”
Celia managed to persuade Elise with great difficulty, and then she presented her counter-proposal to the anxious Raum.
If Emperor Calian was willing to personally come to the designated location, she would agree to meet him.
Having escaped by the skin of his teeth, a pale-faced Raum reported everything he had seen and heard to Calian.
“Does that witch really think I wouldn't dare to go?!”
Hearing Celia's proposal, the young Emperor, who had already made up his mind to leave the palace, felt his competitive spirit flare up and agreed without hesitation.
Raum tried his best to dissuade him. “Your Majesty, please reconsider. Those monsters, and even that witch—they are all far too bizarre.”
But Calian bit his lip, his eyes resolute and unyielding. “From the moment I stepped out of the imperial palace, all my decisions had already been made.”
The meeting place designated by Celia was an abandoned town near the Great Devourer's nest that had not yet been contaminated by toxic gas and had been deserted by refugees.
It was not far from the front-line city where Calian was currently staying.
On horseback, they could slip out in the dead of night and make it back before dawn.
“Can we really slip out undetected?”
“Compared to the imperial palace, the guards here are practically non-existent. It won't be a problem.”
“The Chancellor's disdain actually worked in our favor this time.”
Schuber had drastically weakened the Emperor's guard, to the point where their combat strength was no longer worth mentioning.
Calian gave a self-deprecating laugh. With the help of Albert and his other trusted aides, he changed into plain clothes, quietly slipped out of his quarters on the night of the appointment, and mounted his horse.
Even though her body is that of a monster, she has a human face, speaks human tongue, and thinks like a human. Could those rumors actually be true?
Galloping along in tattered clothes with his face hidden under a hood, Calian suddenly recalled a rumor Raum had shared with him.
It was a story passed down among some of the refugees who had fled the Holy Kingdom on the day of its fall.
A tragedy about a female mage and her fall from grace—a tale whose truth was hard to discern at the time, and which had gradually been forgotten.
Under the cover of night and chaos, the two fortunately went unnoticed by anyone and arrived smoothly at the designated abandoned town.
A deathly silence hung over the place. The residents had long since fled, and even the ant colony had not visited this area.
Fortunately, the other gods are still unaware of this meeting.
The moment the two nervously entered the town, Lin Miao, who was observing everything through the ants hidden underground, took a glance at the Divine Net forum and breathed a sigh of relief.
There were no other servants of the gods nearby. Furthermore, although Calian and Raum nominally belonged to the Empire, they were not recognized as Astaroth's servants.
Thus, this secret meeting would go completely unnoticed.
“You have come, Your Imperial Majesty.”
Celia was already there, waiting for them.
“So you are the one...”
Calian's eyes widened as he saw her standing alone in the abandoned town square.
Raum's description had only been the tip of the iceberg.
Already half-human and half-insect, she exuded an extraordinary aura beneath the pitch-black night sky.
Before Celia could speak, Calian courageously took the initiative to ask, “Before we talk, I must confirm one thing. Is it true that you will not harm innocent people who do not follow the evil will?”
This atmosphere... could it be?
Even Lin Miao, who was observing from the sidelines, could clearly sense the subtle shift in the air.
Celia's eyes flickered slightly. “Your Majesty, how much do you know about the secrets of this world?”
Celia revealed the truth to Calian—the existence of the gods, their forum, their competition, their powers, and their ultimate goals.
In fact, through Schuber and those mages, Calian had already guessed some of it.
He knew that the knowledge which had instantly elevated the Empire's magitech civilization by several levels had originated from elsewhere.
And those people swore allegiance not to him, the Emperor, but to that unknown will.
“As long as they remain interested in this land, endless war will sweep across the entire world.”
“And is war not also something that you cannot give up?”
“Indeed. For to utterly destroy and devour those corrupted by evil gods is the innate duty and mission of the Great Devourer.”
Celia did not deny the violence and slaughter of the ant colony.
For this was something that could not be understood by human standards in the first place.
“And right now, this is also the only way you can save more citizens of the Empire.”
Celia calmly stated the reality. She knew better than anyone how powerful the Great Devourer, led by Elise, had become.
She did not believe the Great Devourer would lose, so she advised Calian that his best option was to bow his head and preserve his life.
“Ugh...”
This was undoubtedly an extremely arrogant and insolent act.
Since ancient times, what envoy had ever dared to speak such words to the Emperor of the Lucadia Empire and leave alive?
But the Celia standing before Calian now was no diplomatic envoy.
She was a predator warning him of the impending, horrific slaughter.
“...With my strength alone, I cannot stop the servants of the evil god breeding within the Empire.”
Taking a deep breath, Calian spoke with firm resolve.
He had finally confirmed the true identities of Chancellor Schuber and his followers, who had been weighing heavily on his mind.
Those who did not swear allegiance to the Emperor but to an external existence were traitors. It was the Emperor's duty to eradicate them.
Celia's expression grew serious, and she took the initiative to propose, “But I can help you attack them.”
Calian lowered his voice to reveal key intelligence: “The newly relocated Silver Twilight Secret Society. It is a massive research facility where all of the evil god's servants, technology, and manpower are gathered.”
Hearing these words, Celia seemed to have already anticipated them, calmly responding, “If Your Majesty can provide me with the exact coordinates and detailed information of its defense facilities, I can save tens of millions of innocent citizens of the Empire.”
That was the place she had once infiltrated, blown up, and escaped from.
Although she had destroyed a lot of data at the time, she had not completely demolished everything.
Now, it had been remodeled into an even larger and more heavily guarded facility, serving as the core of the Empire's magitech civilization.
The ant colony's goal was to completely destroy this lifeline of Astaroth and his servants.
“Are you still hesitating? Look around you. Wherever the Great Devourer goes, it turns into a barren wasteland of death. Do you wish to see the Empire's land further devastated?”
Seeing Calian waver, Celia gestured toward the surrounding ruins.
“Do not rush me! The most important matter has yet to be addressed!”
Calian snapped his head up, his voice trembling.
“How can I trust you? Will you... no, will those countless monsters from the abyss destroy everything and slaughter everyone at their whim? Just as you said, human common sense is meaningless to you. Promises and faith are also worthless to you, are they not?”
Verbal communication seemed flawless, and the reasoning was sound enough.
But Calian had long understood that words alone could guarantee nothing.
“You are right. If we cannot see into each other's 'hearts,' then any agreement carries risk. In other words, we have no reason to trust your words either.”
Celia gave a bitter smile and slowly walked toward them.
At the same time, from her tightly clenched fist, a large, squirming Gene Stealer slowly revealed itself.
“N-No!”
Terrified, Calian and Raum turned to flee, but at that moment, the ant colony that had been lurking around, masking their presence, erupted from the ground and surrounded them.
“Forgive my rudeness. The pain is only temporary, Your Majesty.”
Forced down and his mouth pried open, Calian could only watch in horror as the Gene Stealer burrowed into his body, fusing with him.
Celia had not lied to him.
The Gene Stealer now implanted in Calian's body was an individual whose functions and potency had been adjusted by Elise after listening to Celia's advice.
After all, except for highly gifted individuals like Celia, ordinary humans would experience an instant collapse of their sense of self upon contact with the hive mind.
This Gene Stealer parasitizing Calian merely turned him into a member of the colony, while also serving as a bomb that would detonate on the spot should he display any treachery.
Suppressing the intense discomfort deep within, Calian looked at her with tearful, resentful eyes, his voice trembling. “You actually... did this to me...”
Looking at his state, Celia silently turned her head away, avoiding his gaze.
Her voice was flat and devoid of emotion as she slowly spoke, “You may resent me and hate me all you want. In exchange for your body as the price, the people you wish to save will live.”
Rate on N.U.
