Lohan’s perception reached a new level of clarity as he observed the queen’s silk web!
Through [Thermographic Perception Lv 9], he noticed that Mana was not flowing from the blue cocoon to the Queen, but rather the opposite: the Queen was injecting a mixture of refined life essence and mana directly into Pip’s body!
It was exactly what he did with Lisa... The Queen’s fighting style was an alternate version of his own!
She controlled silk very similar to his [Magic Web], she could nourish allies as he did using the [Natural Energy Core], her physical combat was apparently weak like his, but very resistant... it was as if she were an alternate version of him!
"Lisa, be careful! She’s not killing the fairy... she’s turned it into a weapon!" Lohan shouted through the mental link.
The Queen let out a dissonant laugh that reverberated throughout the fourth floor as if she had heard what he said, with a mixture of pride and pure malice.
With a sharp movement, she cut the silk fibers, causing the electric blue cocoon to explode in a shockwave and a wave of energy and Mana to flood the room even more, making the air here almost thick.
From inside the cocoon, the little fairy that Elle had described as "lazy" emerged.
But Pip no longer looked like a useless gardener... his body glowed with an aura of sharp, shiny glass, his butterfly wings now flapping at a frequency that produced sounds of sharp blades colliding, as if they were made of metal.
Then without a word, he shot toward Lisa with savage aggression, laughing in sync with the queen.
"Little Pip... show them the perfection of our union!" the Queen hissed, her will crushing any remnant of the fairy’s original personality.
The situation became critical.
Lohan activated the [Parallel Processing Core], attempting to coordinate their defense as Lisa was pushed back by Pip’s dizzying speed.
He controlled the clones to deal with the beetles closing in, but felt the mental weight of the task.
Although the new core allowed for independent mana paths, his human mind still struggled to exercise complete control over all bodies simultaneously while still defending against the queen’s mental attacks.
Even though Lisa had returned to her peak state, the beetles gathering around them were too many.
Lohan was able to guide one of the clones to use [Selective Viscosity] to pin the nearest Elite Beetle to the ground to buy time, while the other two clones acted erratically, serving only as mobile distractions that tried to bite the enemies’ legs and pin them to the ground if they were lucky.
Meanwhile, his Mana absorption worked in the background.
Every fragment of beetle that his main clone began to digest, he sent pulses of refined mana directly to his core, keeping Lisa’s [Obsidian Exoskeleton Lv 4] charged under Pip’s attacks.
"Halon, he’s too fast! I can’t hit him with my flames!" Lisa transmitted worriedly, her silver eyes focused on the bright blur that was Pip.
The legendary fox was being forced to use [Spectral Step] defensively every two seconds, but the accumulated fatigue and mental pressure from the Queen were making her movements heavy.
Lohan realized that in order to win, he would have to sacrifice control of the secondary clones and focus everything on a single strategy of total support, as fighting a "Symbiotic Queen" like him and her "Elite Familiar" while dealing with the more than ten beetles that attacked relentlessly was pushing the duo to the absolute limit of their current capabilities.
The situation in the incubation chamber had reached a breaking point.
With each dive by Pip, Lohan’s [Obsidian Exoskeleton Lv 4] over Lisa lost plates that Lohan struggled to replace, while the swarm of common beetles began to overwhelm the secondary clones, which at that moment were flashing like RGB lights to attract the beetles’ attention while trying to trap them as much as possible in the web trap.
"Lisa, change of plans! I’m going to have to sacrifice the coordination of the smaller clones, so in the meantime, focus on me!" Lohan commanded, feeling the mental weight of the [Parallel Processing Core] lessen as he deactivated control of the two erratic clones.
The two masses of gelatin instantly dissolved into raw biomass, being reabsorbed by the ground, causing Lohan’s heart to ache at the sight of so much biomass being wasted, but he concentrated 100% of his will on the remaining clone.
The moment Pip began a new dive, the clone jumped at the right moment using [Monocular Telescopic Vision], expanding the membrane in midair with [Biological Elasticity] and activating [Selective Viscosity] at the maximum level of adhesion.
The clone did not stop Pip, but clung to the fairy’s glassy wing like a dead weight, causing a brief imbalance, but because of the difference in mass, it was enough.
"LISA, NOW! DO THE SAME THROW AS THE SNAKE!"
Lisa understood instantly.
Ignoring the pain in her wounded flank, she dug her claws into the ground, used [Spectral Step] to gain momentum, and with a violent spinning motion, threw Lohan’s main mass directly at the Glass Queen.
She knew that performing such an attack would leave her completely exposed and vulnerable, but she also understood that the current situation was critical and that desperate times called for desperate measures.
Lohan flew like a black meteor, disabling the front [Obsidian Exoskeleton] to expose its acid membrane.
He collided with the Queen’s bulky, unprotected abdomen, the only spot not covered by her iridescent shell, taking the large insect by surprise, and using [Morphological Memory], he flattened himself and quickly slid down her metal plates, penetrating the cracks in the giant beetle’s natural armor just as he had done with the Elite Shadow Serpent!
[Efficient Digestion Lv 20 Activated!]
[Hemolymphatic Tissue Lv 11: Conversion rate raised to 1,221.45 Bio/h!]
The Queen let out a deafening mental scream, with a shockwave that made the silk cocoons vibrate violently.
Her agony was immeasurable... Lohan was devouring her fragile internal organs and her Mana channels from the inside out.
Desperate, she issued frantic orders, forcing the beetles and Pip to abandon Lisa to save her.
’DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!’ Lisa roared mentally.
The fox positioned herself between the swarm and the Queen, spitting out a barrier of [Spirit Fire] that prevented Pip from advancing.
Meanwhile, Lohan anchored himself firmly under the Queen’s shell to hide and protect himself from the beetles that reached him.
Whenever a beetle tried to attack him, he used the Queen’s own body as a shield, forcing her subjects to hurt their own mother if they wanted to hit him.
Thanks to [Bio-Synthetic Mana Circulation], the Queen’s molecular breakdown was replenishing Lohan’s mana in real time, allowing him to keep [Non-Newtonian Resilience] active to ignore the creature’s spasms of pain, while using the absorbed Mana and Biomass to inject poison, attack with ice spikes, and flood the queen’s interior with even more magic webs!
The battle of attrition that had previously favored her now belonged to Lohan! Under the protection of the enemy’s shell, he turned the queen into a biomass battery, while Lisa ensured that her "Elite Familiar," the only one small enough to enter his hideout, remained isolated amid the white flames of spiritual energy, still having to deal with Lohan’s clone who was holding him with all his might!
As this was happening, a very human expression of despair appeared on the queen’s face.