Lian did not miss the opportunity, and at the same time, the Queen shifted her weight to the other side.
Lian ran to the right.
Hive Mind Dominion saw his path, dozens of black eyes turned in that same direction.
The Queen brought her left arm down with all her force to block his way, exactly what Lian wanted. Now the joint was fully open.
The ants separated from each other, the main threads were exposed, and lightning gathered in Lian’s legs.
How could he miss such a good opportunity to deal damage?
[Thunder Step]
He Dashed to the right, the Queen sent all her threads and arms to that point.
But Lian, before the movement ended, slammed his sole on the shell of a Soldier that was in his path.
The energy of Thunder Step was still flowing in his muscles, he changed the movement path in the middle of the Dash.
His body turned at an unnatural angle, the muscles of his right calf tore under the pressure.
The sound of bone cracking from inside his leg reached his ears, a white and sharp pain ran up to his thigh.
But the new path was formed. Lian entered the gap under the left arm directly from an angle that Hive Mind had not predicted.
The armored ants closed on top of each other, the forest light disappeared, he sank inside the Brood Carapace.
It was not absolute darkness. Red and black mana veins were moving in the tight space.
Hundreds of legs were crawling around him, jaws were opening and closing from a few centimeters away.
The ants’ bodies were stuck to each other like living walls, and black threads passed through their joints.
The smell of blood, acid, venom, and rotten flesh filled the suffocating space, there was no room for normal movement.
"It’s like a world of filth." Everywhere Lian reached his hand, he hit a shell or a leg.
Bloodborne Calamity Domain became dense in that enclosed space.
The red mist had no way to spread, it got trapped among the stuck bodies and its concentration multiplied. The first ant right next to Lian’s face was paralyzed.
Its legs folded, and all its weight fell on his shoulder. The second fell from above, the third was still resisting and clamped its jaw on Lian’s forearm.
Diamond Skin prevented his hand from being severed, but the pressure of the jaw penetrated to the bone.
"Ughhhhhhh" Lian crushed the creature’s head with his free fist, the shell split, and dark liquid splashed on his face.
Two other ants clung to his back from behind, a stinger hit his side.
Diamond Skin deflected part of the impact, but the pressure slammed his body between the shells.
Lian struck backward with his elbow, the sound of something breaking was heard, then he raised his knee and bent the Worker in front of him in half.
He was opening his path with fists, elbows, knees, and shoulders. Every strike crushed a body.
Every step landed on a broken shell, but every dead ant opened more space for the rest.
Jaws were grabbing his hardened skin from all sides, legs were wrapping around his limbs, the collective pressure of them was greater than the strike of a single monster.
His muscles were bruising under his skin armor, his cracked bones burned with every movement.
[Multiple physical injuries detected.]
[Warrior’s Madness has strengthened.]
[Power increased.]
[Speed increased.]
[Mental Corruption: 31%]
The sound of breaking shells echoed in the enclosed space, warm blood spilled on his fists.
Another ant approached him, and Lian sank his hand into the creature’s open jaw and pulled the two parts of its mouth apart.
The shell split with a harsh sound.
Then another.
Punch.
Breaking.
Another.
Elbow.
Blood.
Another.
Knee.
Sound of death.
The main goal faded from his mind. For a few seconds, nothing remained but destroying those living bodies.
Warrior’s Madness was burning behind his eyes. Every death made the urge to kill the next one stronger.
His mind was warning him that he was slowly losing his rationality, but the warning was fading among the sound of his heartbeat and the sound of crushing armor.
He currently had no time to listen to any warnings, it was not the time or the moment. This was his only chance to defeat this Queen.
If he failed, it would be the end for all of them!
Lian grabbed a half-paralyzed Worker and slammed its head against the living wall several times.
The first time the shell cracked, the second time blood burst out, the third time it was no longer necessary.
But he raised his hand for a fourth strike, and from a distance, a weak voice reached his ears.
"Lian!"
Nemi.
The voice had passed through several layers of ants and living armor, so weak that it could almost be mistaken for imagination.
But it was enough.
Lian’s hand stopped in the middle of the movement, his breathing was heavy.
His eyes fixed for a moment on the crushed corpse in front of him. He had not entered the armor to kill these ants, but he was venting his madness on them!
"At this rate, I’m slowly losing my rationality and I don’t even understand what I’m doing." His frown deepened.
He remembered his goal, the heart of the colony, the Queen.
Lian released the corpse. Predator’s Instincts showed the direction of danger again.
He followed the path of the black threads. In the depth of the Brood Carapace, a thick bundle of them, like a spine, was passing through the ants’ bodies.
Every time the threads contracted, the entire living wall also moved.
Lian moved forward, two Soldiers blocked his path. His first fist crushed one’s leg joint, and with his shoulder, he slammed into the second’s chest, sinking it into the wall.
Then he wrapped both his hands around the main thread bundle. At that same moment, the black strands moved.
Their tips, like needles, passed through the cracks of Diamond Skin and entered his open wounds.
"Damn it, not again!" A terrible cold entered his blood.
[Parasite Thread has entered the bloodstream.]
[Assimilation attempt detected.]
[Distance to heart: 34 centimeters.]
Lian’s right hand went completely numb for a moment, his fingers slipped off the threads, and part of his vision went black.
Then images entered his mind. Not one image, thousands of images. He simultaneously saw himself from above the roots.
From beside the dome, from among the moss, from under the dead bodies, from behind himself, from inside the darkness of the armor. Sight from thousands of angles entered his brain.
The differences in distance, sounds, and directions lost their meaning.
For a moment, Lian did not know which body belonged to him, which eye was real, which hand should move. His mind was breaking under the pressure of the network.
"So this is how the Queen sees? Her visual system? How does her brain handle it?" He really wanted to scream but controlled himself.
Seeing thousands of images at the same time was not something his brain could handle right now. Such a thing required much stronger Spirit.
The Queen had entered him and was taking full control of his body!
But the connection was not one-way. Among thousands of neural paths, Lian saw the main command flow. All the threads ultimately reached one point.
The center of the Brood Carapace.
Behind three dense layers of armored ants, where the parasite’s main body and its core were hidden.
"I found you." A bloody smile settled on Lian’s lips. All the pain he had endured was worth it!
He locked his numb hand around the threads again. Lightning formed inside his body, not to destroy one thread, but to burn the entire network.
He had to consume a large part of his mana, but he had no better choice!
[Thunder Calamity]
Electricity directly entered the neural column, the black threads shone with blue light, and the current jumped from one branch to the next.
From one ant’s body to another, from one arm to the legs, from the legs to the armor, and from the armor to the entire colony.
Outside the Brood Carapace, thousands of Crimson Needle Ants trembled at the same time.
Their black eyes went dark for a moment, their legs bent, some fell on the ground, some stood still without moving, and the Queen’s massive body lost its balance.
"Die, you bitch!" The main threads in Lian’s hands burned and burst.
Brood Carapace began to collapse. Hundreds of ants separated from the body.
The forest light entered the dark space through the cracks. A large part of the living armor fell to the ground with a loud crash.
"Ughhhhhhhh" The Queen screamed in rage!
At the same time, the defensive shield’s time approached zero.
[00:03]
The golden surface of the dome cracked from dozens of points.
Ravian raised his spear and stood in front of his sisters.
[00:02]
Sera, despite her wounded shoulder, pulled out her knife, and Nemi held her short spear with both hands.
[00:01]
The golden dome shattered.
Pieces of light scattered in the air like shining glass and then disappeared.
A few Workers that were still moving on instinct rushed toward them.
Ravian thrust the tip of his spear into the first ant’s mouth and deflected it to the side with all his weight.
Sera stepped forward and sank her knife into the second ant’s leg joint.
Her wounded shoulder trembled under the pressure, but she completed the strike.
Nemi, seeing a half-paralyzed Worker coming from beside her brother, swallowed her fear and held the spear’s tip against its stinger.
The impact pushed her hands back, but the stinger was deflected. Ravian immediately slammed the creature’s head to the ground with the butt of his spear.
They could stop a few confused and half-paralyzed enemies, but if Hive Mind was still active, they wouldn’t survive even a few seconds.
Finally, the remaining armor of the Queen collapsed. The main body was exposed. The parasite was no longer that slender and moist creature that had crawled out of the egg.
Black Assimilation had changed it.
Its body was several meters long, and incomplete layers of black armor had grown on its surface.
Its bony legs were thicker, and its vertical slit now extended like a massive mouth from its chest to its abdomen.
But the assimilation was unstable. Parts of the armor on its body were trembling, and the cut threads were twitching aimlessly.
Bloodborne Calamity poison was passing through its tissue and creating red veins on its black body.
The Queen understood that her time was coming to an end. Her vertical slit opened to its maximum, and all the corpses and living ants around started moving.
[Black Brood Matriarch has activated Colony Rebirth.]
[Assimilation Progress forcibly accelerated.]
[41% → 67%]
The corpses rose from the ground, and blood and tissue were pulled from the dead bodies, flowing toward the Queen like dark rivers.
[67% → 82%]
The living ants were also being dragged on the ground against their will, their legs creating scratches on the soil.
Some were still resisting, but the black threads were swallowing them.
The Queen ruthlessly wanted to complete the Assimilation Progress by sacrificing the entire colony! And this could end in a disaster!