Thud, thud-thud...
As if an earthquake had occurred, the body of the King of Flies was sucked into the city, causing severe tremors.
The massive bulk overturned the ground, raising a dense cloud of dust.
Within that grey-brown dust cloud spreading like fog, people slumped here and there, unable to recover from the shock, dazedly scanning their surroundings.
And then,
Thud! Thud! Thud...!
From within that dust cloud, the King of Flies's hundreds of legs simultaneously touched the ground, slowly lifting its collapsed bulk.
"Uwaaaah!"
"Eeeek...!"
"It's moving! Run away!"
Terrified, people scattered like a swarm of ants.
The already gigantic body of the King of Flies looked even more massive within the dust cloud, with only its silhouette visible.
The sight of its hundreds of legs moving all at once made it look even more grotesque.
Sschk! Sschk-schk-schk!
Hundreds of legs moved chaotically, snagging unlucky people who came within their range.
Captured and dragged away, people screamed.
"Arghhhhh!"
"Save me, save me! I don't want to die!"
"Stay calm! I heard the King of Flies only kidnaps, it doesn't kill right away!"
A soldier shouted, based on the information he had heard. A flicker of faint hope crossed the faces of those who heard him.
"Is, is that true?!"
"Yes! The prince has already rescued quite a few people! So, let's stay calm. After all, if you keep your wits about you, even if you're thrown into a tiger's den, you can survive..."
However,
Crunch-
"What? What what what?"
The strength surged into the Fly's legs, and lifting the soldier who shared that information high, it then slammed him down onto the ground.
Splat-!
The soldier was instantly killed, reduced to a bloody mess.
The faces of the other captives went pale all at once.
"What, what's this..."
"Kidnapping, you said it doesn't kill immediately... what is this...?"
The reason the King of Flies had not immediately killed its victims but kidnapped them was simple.
After merging with a demon species, the imp, it acquired the ability 'Sacrifice.'
To use this ability to drain the power of its victims, it needed to offer the 'live sacrifices' captured at an 'altar' through a series of rituals.
Thus, instead of killing the sacrifices outright, it paralyzed them and kidnapped them to the hatching chamber, which served as the altar, where it would then devour them.
But now, with the hatching chamber destroyed and a shortage of maggots to consume the sacrifices,
It couldn't absorb them as 'sacrifices.' That's why there was no need to keep the humans alive any longer.
Just tearing them to pieces was enough...!
Roarrrrrr-!
Thump! Splat! Crunch-!
The King of Flies roared and mercilessly slaughtered the people who came within the range of its legs.
The unprecedented situation of the entire southern wall of Crossroad collapsing. It was a situation too overwhelming for even the most veteran heroes and soldiers to keep their composure, and the casualties rapidly increased.
"Fall back-!"
"Retreat from the King of Flies's attack range!"
By the time the soldiers had managed to retreat from the King of Flies, hundreds of corpses had already piled up around them.
As the human army retreated,
Thud-thud, thud-thud-thud...
The King of Flies, moving its hundreds of legs in unison, slowly lifted its body within the dust cloud, sitting down 'like a human.'
In this series of movements, the soldiers unconsciously thought it resembled a human flicking a fly off a chair before sitting down.
Click-
The King of Flies sat cross-legged as if meditating, while the rest of its legs gathered in front of its chest as if in prayer.
Then it roared again.
Roarrrrrrr...!
With the roar, the dust cloud spread out wide and round. The sound was deep and majestic enough to spread beyond Crossroad, across the entire southern part of the continent.
And everywhere that sound reached.
Roarrrr!
Roarrrrrrr!
From the smallest flies to the giant flies living in the wild. Every fly species living in the present world.
Began to swarm, pouring towards the King of Flies.
"This, what is this..."
"What in the world...?!"
The soldiers let out perplexed groans.
Flies are found everywhere.
Moreover, it was late summer, a hot season buzzing with flies.
Not just in the city, but from every hill and dale, at the call of the king, flies and maggots swarmed out, flying and crawling towards the King of Flies.
The human soldiers could only watch this bizarre sight of flies filling the sky, not knowing what to do.
***
"..."
Within the collective consciousness of the flies, the old fly was calmly meditating.
'The situation is not good.'
The old fly assessed the situation coldly.
Most of the eggs were destroyed, the hatching chamber was ruined, its wings burnt and lost, and the King of Flies itself did not have much magic power left.
Stealing human technology was a good move, but human technology works efficiently within the human system.
Continuously using human barriers and pouring out human magic spells through a fly's body had led to severe magic power consumption.
But, it's alright.
He has kin everywhere that can be used as parts.
'Conscript.'
He notified his kin as widely and clearly as possible of his presence.
'Gather, my kin.'
Roarrrrrrrr-!
Once they heard this voice, all flies were forcibly bound to the collective consciousness.
The King of Flies was a great ancestor resurrected from ancient times and the deity of the flies. No fly could refuse this conscription order.
'All living kin's spirit and flesh are conscripted.'
The order was compulsory, merciless, and unrelenting.
Roarrrrrr!
The conscripted flies began to use their souls and bodies to repair the King of Flies's wounds, and also to neatly stack eggs in the now empty hatching chamber.
Flies, who lived their separate lives far from any swarm, threw their lives into maintaining the system of the King of Flies as if it had always been that way.
Of course, not all flies complied. As always, there were those who resisted.
And those flies were all,
Crack!
Caught by the old fly in the spiritual world, their heads bitten off.
"I do not make the same mistake twice."
The old fly growled as it chewed on the head of its kin.
In a past life, the King of Flies shared all its constituents and wisdom with its members. The aim was for them to think and advance together.
However, as a result, the subordinate flies rebelled.
The flies, having evolved to a point of excessive intelligence, no longer acted for the collective and split according to their own interests.
The King of Flies's empire was torn apart, and the flies, mired in endless internal strife, ultimately destroyed themselves.
So, this time, it changed.
As soon as it received its second life, the old fly purged all those who rebelled against it.
It devoured their heads, leaving only empty shells that moved as ordered.
It monopolized wisdom and selected for evolution. It shook and controlled the entire species of flies under its grip.
'Die for our species.'
Now, all flies under its command moved without any rebellion to its orders.
'Die for me!'
Thump-
The old fly tapped the ground with a scepter it picked up from the floor.
For the future of the fly species.
To truly make this world a paradise.
It was nothing but a necessary sacrifice. Both for itself and for the species of flies...
"If I can save my species, I'm willing to fall into hell with this body."
As it fell, the King of Flies's body, which had been shattered in the process, began to heal.
Newly supplied flies filled its broken skeleton and healed its wounds. Even the burnt wings slowly began to regenerate.
The humans' response was still too late.
As the walls collapsed, enveloped in a cloud of dust, soldiers rushed in desperation and surrounded the King of Flies once again.
But their formation was shallow, and their equipment was no match for that atop the walls.
The old fly looked around leisurely, smiling.
Though they fought well and with commendable effort, humans, no matter how well united, are merely a collection of individuals with free will.
Their will cannot be completely unified.
It's impossible for them to defeat his species, the flies, perfectly united under the will of a single being.
"...?"
That's when it happened.
"What's this, again..."
From within, where it should have completely digested all sources of discord,
The monster felt a vague sense of foreignness.
The old fly looked down at its belly in wonder.
What could it be, this sensation?
This slight unease...?
***
"What is that, insane..."
A bit away from the King of Flies's main body, in front of a lord's mansion in the downtown area.
Under Lucas's orders, magicians who had prepared zombies of flies replicating White Night hesitated and stepped back.
Roarrr-
Roarrrrrrr-
It seemed as if flies from all over the world were pouring in.
Flies from the present world, responding to the King of Flies's call, darkened the sky as they swarmed towards the King of Flies.
In front of this horrific, end-of-the-world scene, the magicians could only look around, not knowing what to do.
Then,
Buzz!
Buzzzz!
Lying in the courtyard of the lord's mansion, seemingly dead, the zombie flies' eyes suddenly lit up, and they all took to the air at once.
The magicians panicked.
"What the?! Who finished the zombie spell?!"
"No, nobody did! The zombies are acting on their own...!"
"Stop them! Stop everything right now! Force a halt to all operations!"
"No, we can't! It's unstoppable! They're no longer listening to our commands...!"
Roarrrr-
Dozens of zombie flies that had taken to the air formed a formation and then swiftly darted towards the magicians.
"Aaaagh!"
"Save us!"
The magicians screamed as they rolled on the ground, but the original targets of the zombie flies were not them.
It was the magical machinery containing the original White Night.
Crash-crack-boom!
The machinery, mauled by the flies, exploded.
After destroying the entity that could be considered their original, the dozens of zombie flies drifted into the air.
And just like the other flies, they neatly crossed the sky towards the King of Flies.
"..."
The magicians watched their departing figures in a daze.
***
In the collective consciousness of the King of Flies, somewhere within.
"You digested me...? Haha, don't make me laugh,"
With only her upper body, one arm, and half a head remaining, White Night crawled on the floor, limping.
"I'm the Grand Sorceress, White Night... You think I'd be defeated by mere flies..."
After being torn to pieces mentally by the old fly and swallowed,
At the bottom of this spiritual world, presumed to be the belly of the beast, White Night managed to gather and merge her torn self to regain this much form.
Even in this state, White Night was plotting a counterattack.
'That blond bastard knight of Ash... he had prepared more copies of me.'
She had noticed that a long time ago. They were ready to use her as ammunition for replication.
Well, then she would make use of that.
She would pour all her replicated consciousness into the King of Flies, forcibly seizing control of the King of Flies if he had to.
"After all, if I can wrest control of the King of Flies by any means, rather than being defeated by such flies and eaten forever..."
If she could find an opportunity for a counterattack and take revenge on Ash, who had pushed him into this hell.
What couldn't she do? It was a fight where she had nothing more to lose anyway.
So, as the King of Flies transmitted the conscription order to all flies in the area, White Night also sneakily sent out her signal.
With a unique frequency that only she could detect...
If that blond knight bastard had properly prepared more of her copies, it would have worked. Other versions of herself would come storming into this place.
Now, all that remained was to wait for the moment to strike back.
"Anyway, where is this...?"
White Night looked around, lifting her head.
The bottom of the King of Flies's collective consciousness was dark and gloomy. Though there couldn't possibly be a smell, the air felt damp and nauseatingly unpleasant.
Just as White Night thought to herself that she would burn down this collective consciousness and everything if she could just seize control of the monster,
"Where could it be?"
Suddenly.
From the bottom, someone's voice was heard.
"This place is where the 'remains' that the old fly ate and digested gather."
Startled, White Night quickly turned towards the voice.
In the dark, reeking of blood, the form of something appeared.
"Beneath the consciousness, at the very bottom, where the truly sinister intentions pool... one might call it the subconscious."
It was a throne.
Made from the heads of flies eaten by the old fly.
A throne of skulls, erected solely from the devoured heads, upon which some being sat like a king, murmuring in a voice that contrasted its light tone with gravity.
"I simply call it the sedimentation area."
Despite having no saliva to swallow, White Night, unknowingly making a swallowing gesture, asked in a trembling voice.
"Who are you? What are you?"
"...Well. I've forgotten my name. Such things are no longer important."
The being narrowed its eyes.
"But, there is something I do remember clearly."
Rising slowly from the throne, a massive horn that emitted a brilliant darkness sprouted atop the being's head.
"What I must destroy."
The being smiled.
"And, whom I must kill."
--TL Notes--
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