Chapter 123: I Am the Swarm

In the forest, a group of people found themselves under attack by hundreds of terrifying insects.

Each insect possessed the combat strength of a powerful, unevolved totem, and they threw themselves at the group without the slightest fear of death.

If there had not been four second-rank Spirit Masters among them, commanding a total of six evolved totems, they would have long since been surrounded and slaughtered by those dreadful creatures.

Crisis followed crisis. One Spirit Master’s totem beast after another suffered grievous injuries, teetering on the brink of being torn apart and devoured by the insects.

Just as they were about to reach their limit, the insects suddenly withdrew like a receding tide. In the blink of an eye, not a single living insect remained nearby—only those that had been badly wounded.

“Senior Lyle, how could there be such terrifying wild insects? Won’t they come back?” someone asked, hurrying over with panic written across his face.

Lyle wiped the sweat from her brow. Of the six evolved totems, she herself controlled three. Only because she had fought with all her strength had they avoided the catastrophe of losing anyone.

She glanced around. One after another, her companions lay collapsed on the ground from exhaustion. Nearly half of their totem beasts had sustained serious injuries. Some had even seen their protective spiritual light shattered and had come within a hair’s breadth of death.

There was nothing they could do. The insects had appeared for no discernible reason and vanished just as inexplicably.

There had been more than two hundred of them, and every one had been astonishingly powerful. Lyle could not help wondering what had happened to the world. She had never heard of anything like this before.

Raising totem beasts required enormous resources, yet recently, terrifying wild creatures had begun appearing all over the world. Every one possessed strength comparable to that of a totem, and every one emerged without warning.

“Withdraw immediately and rendezvous at the southern coast. A tremendous secret lies hidden on this island. We must return and report to the higher authorities as quickly as possible,” the girl ordered calmly.

As one of the core members of the team—and the younger sister of a third-rank Spirit Master—she possessed numerous hidden trump cards. But they could protect only her own safety. If she wanted so many people to escape alive, they had no choice but to withdraw decisively.

Curiosity had killed the cat—and Spirit Masters happened to be an especially curious lot. She forcibly suppressed the urge some of them had to investigate further.

They had only just escaped a deadly crisis, yet they were already itching to venture into the depths of the forest. Was that not simply courting death?

On the way out, someone suddenly cried out.

“Look! They’re here!”

The group hurried toward the voice. In a low-lying area, they finally found the objective of their expedition into the forest.

However, the two women had long since been torn apart. Shreds of clothing soaked in blood lay scattered across the ground.

Fragments of flesh and splintered bones remained strewn over the earth—a textbook scene of insect feeding. Several members of the group were overcome by intense nausea and fear.

A few who had been close to the women could not help sobbing softly.

Lyle sighed. “Withdraw at once. When the academy’s senior officials arrive, they can be given a proper burial.”

She had witnessed similar bloody scenes before. Her temperament was normally exceptionally steady, and she did not allow the sight to disrupt her composure. She continued to insist firmly that everyone from the academy leave immediately.

Even a moment’s delay would bring them an even greater disaster.

After the battle, nearly all the source crystals they carried had been consumed. If another swarm of insects appeared, the consequences would be unthinkable.

But what about those three?

Lyle’s brows drew tightly together. That woman had been a Spirit Master whom even her brother had praised on rare occasions—a powerful expert who had completed dozens of missions for the law-enforcement corps. How could she possibly have fallen prey to such weak insects?

......

In the underground space.

The person Lyle was worrying about had just returned from the academy aboard the Anos Divine Eagle, carrying a bundle of flesh several meters in diameter.

“Now that we have a better substitute, let’s merge you into one.”

His expression grew increasingly fanatical, his eyes blazing with a compelling intensity.

Moon Child had become his tool. One tentacle after another transformed into a surgical blade, and under his powerful mental control, they carried out the most precise incisions and dissections.

After the Insect Queen’s failed evolution, she remained a swollen mountain of flesh. He carelessly cut her open and inserted the mass of flesh into the region of her heart.

Then he distributed hundreds of source crystals throughout her body and activated the Source Power Transplantation technique.

Surging source power coursed through the Insect Queen’s enormous body like searing flames, setting her entire form ablaze as sizzling sounds filled the air.

Evolution points plummeted. The fifth attempt had begun.

A moment later, layer after layer of shell peeled away, and a strange creature several times smaller crawled out from within.

Under his flawless manipulation, the Insect Queen had completed a total metamorphosis. Her entire form had been renewed.

She had transformed from a bloated mountain of flesh into a gigantic, centipede-like beast with a hundred legs.

She was only fifteen meters long and three meters wide—a most astonishing reduction in bulk.

Mouthparts the size of washbasins had appeared across her body, enabling her to feed more quickly.

“Unnamed: Special Totem, Ultimate Form, cannot be enhanced.

“Abilities: Egg Laying, Mental Link, Psychic Storm, Parasitic Control, Fungal Carpet.

“Description: Born from a special mutation and fusion, it has inherited the original advantages while gaining a variety of terrifying abilities. It represents the birth of an entirely new race. It is itself a species, capable of cultivating an innumerable army of insects. It can feed on all kinds of organisms and even minerals, possessing the traits of rapid expansion and limitless invasion.”

What drew the most attention was her head. It had taken the form of an enchantingly beautiful woman—a flawless female visage.

Mysterious purple markings traced her cheeks. Her eyes sparkled like amethysts, while her skin was fair and delicate, seemingly soft enough to yield beneath the slightest touch.

Her bare breasts swayed faintly, exposed shamelessly to the air and wantonly provoking masculine desire, perfectly embodying the phrase “turbulent waves.”

A cascade of brilliant purple hair streamed in the wind as she stared expressionlessly at Charles.

If one ignored everything below her abdomen, she could easily have been mistaken for a devastatingly beautiful woman capable of bringing ruin to nations.

“Impressive. I never expected such a wondrous existence to emerge. Since you resemble that being so closely, I’ll name you Kerrigan!”

Charles had not expected anything so strange to be born. Curious, he walked over and pinched her body. To his surprise, it was soft and smooth, not hard as he had imagined.

She did not react in the slightest, allowing his hand to glide over her body.

Even when he toyed with the two soft mounds before him, her expression remained utterly unchanged, like an exquisitely lifelike doll.

“Unfortunately, you can’t stay here any longer.” Charles moved his hand away without revealing a trace of embarrassment.

A moment later, Moon Child crawled out through a passage, carefully holding a small tree less than a meter tall—

The sapling of the World Tree.

“Then go to the Twilight Forest. It can provide enough resources for you to reproduce and survive.”

With a smile, Charles decided where she would go.