Ch.716The Difference Between Humans and Insects

======[ Faeirus ]======

‘…I misjudged.’

Faeirus sighed with a troubled expression while stroking his chin.

Things had gone awry. He had managed to awaken the worm dragon from its slumber through the necromancy he had planted in Nidhogg’s skull, but the awakened dragon refused to follow his control and began rampaging on its own.

It was a disconcerting situation for Faeirus, who had no intention of devastating the island.

‘I completely dominated its brain, yet who would have thought it could sever the brain’s commands and move freely on its own.’

Unlike Isabella, the insect enthusiast who slept with bugs and even gave birth to them, Faeirus lacked knowledge about insect monsters.

His specialty was handling the souls or corpses of the dead, not rolling around with insects. This had led to his miscalculation.

The newly resurrected worm dragon was essentially a fusion of hundreds of millions of insect monsters, making it impossible to control by simply dominating its brain.

The hive consciousness of hundreds of millions of entities that constituted the dragon’s body.

The insects, which faithfully followed only the commands of their mother Isabella, discarded the brain itself as soon as it was infected by the foreign presence transmitting forceful commands.

For other creatures, this would be tantamount to suicide… but amazingly, the worm dragon Nidhogg could continue living and moving about wildly even without a brain.

The resurrected dragon retained the characteristics of insect monsters, allowing it to utilize nerve ganglia scattered throughout its body as a substitute for the brain.

Of course, since these were simpler organs compared to a brain, it lost intelligence and judgment, relying on instinct to move…

Nevertheless, this allowed Nidhogg to escape Faeirus’s control and rampage according to its own impulses.

‘…I should have embedded dozens of necromantic spells to dominate its entire body. I shouldn’t have ended after infecting just the brain like with other undead.’

It was truly a fatal miscalculation for Faeirus.

Like a true mage, he had chosen the most efficient method, which ironically became his mistake. He could almost hear Isabella’s mockery ringing in his ears.

—-

That was why the resurrected Nidhogg had been fighting like a beast rather than a dragon.

Without a brain, it could only show instinctive reactions to external stimuli, unable to make proper judgments.

Until now.

【 Krrrrrh…. 】

After nearly twenty minutes, the worm dragon, which had used the insects near its skull to completely devour its original brain, finally completed a new one.

This was the moment when Nidhogg, the dragon of worms, escaped Faeirus’s influence and gained complete freedom.

Having finally completed its brain, the worm dragon abandoned its previous tactics of merely thrashing its tail and front legs, and began to fully awaken the power and authority residing in the dragon’s body.

The first step was to control the vast dark mana pooled beneath its feet to summon an army of the dead.

The half-soul technique it had learned by devouring and absorbing the brain infested with necromancy.

With its newly acquired brain, the worm dragon controlled the dark mana with its will, implementing a large-scale half-soul technique in the air to summon an army of thousands of dead.

It was all too simple for the dragon. Regardless of how many deaths had accumulated in this city, countless vengeful spirits were overflowing here.

The number was limited to just thousands only because priests had frequently purified them, and the apostles had recently been diverting newly formed vengeful spirits to fill the Holy Grail. Without those efforts, more than a hundred thousand undead would have risen with plenty to spare.

—-

The pillar of light summoned by Lacy was pulverizing the climbing undead by the second, but it was impossible for her alone to handle the ever-increasing skeletons.

If her only enemies were the skeleton army, there would be no problem, but an enemy incomparably stronger than the skeleton army would not leave her be.

【 Kahaaaaa…! 】

“Everyone be careful! This bastard’s movements have changed!”

Perneisia shouted, breaking out in a cold sweat.

Unlike before when it rampaged like a beast, the worm dragon with its restored brain began actively utilizing dark mana for both offense and defense.

The rising dark mana covered the worm dragon’s body like armor, blocking the elemental’s attacks, and each subsequent counterattack was enhanced with blades of dark mana, demonstrating power incomparable to before.

– Kwaaaang!

Powerful enough to blow away the entire upper body of a high-level elemental with a single strike.

Of course, the shattered rock elemental could restore its body by gathering the broken stone fragments as it had done until now, but…

‘Too slow…!’

Since its entire body had been completely shattered, it would require considerable time and enormous mana to repair.

In other words, the rock elemental could no longer stop the worm dragon’s movements.

After slicing the rock elemental to pieces with its dark mana-covered front leg, the worm dragon turned its gaze toward the pure white human emitting the unpleasantly bright pillar of light, raising its tail like a scorpion.

“Senior Lacy! Dodge!”

No sooner had Demian’s warning ended than Nidhogg’s tail shot toward Lacy like a beam of light.

Unlike before when it had been casually flailing like a whip, this was a thrust with the tail held rigidly straight like a spear. A vortex of dark mana drawn from the ground wrapped around the dragon’s tail, spinning fiercely like a drill.

“You monstrosity…!”

“Lady Elmaine! I’ll retreat for now!”

A force too powerful to block while maintaining the pillar of light. Lacy had no choice but to withdraw the light pillar that had been pulverizing the undead and hastily retreat.

– Kwaaaang!

No sooner had she entrusted herself to Belth’s hands and dodged sideways than the pillar-like massive tail pierced through where she had just been standing, shattering the ground like paper. Lacy unconsciously swallowed hard.

“Krrrg!”

“Kahk! Kraak!”

A sound like nails scraping against metal.

Taking advantage of the disappearance of the light pillar, the undead, whose numbers had instantly multiplied, raised their rusty weapons and clattered their black jawbones while letting out grotesque shouts.

Despite purifying so many, there still appeared to be an army of five thousand.

Moreover, mixed among the legion were skeletons with elongated snouts and reverse-jointed hindquarters, and even quadrupedal skeletons, suggesting that non-human souls had been mixed in.

【 Graaaaaaak! 】

Nidhogg roared once more, looking down at the undead.

As if that cry were some signal, the skeleton soldiers who had been standing in disarray let out shrill cries and charged all at once.

In all directions.

“These vermin aren’t targeting us?!”

Ophelia shouted.

The thousands of undead summoned by the worm dragon were not charging toward her and the other high-level mages or masters, but were spreading throughout the island in disarray like starving beasts.

As if they had no intention of facing the powerful individuals who could sweep away dozens or hundreds single-handedly.

“Then just leave them be! The Imperial Army will handle them!”

Perneisia shouted while restoring her shattered elemental.

“That would be best. We’re not in a situation to worry about mere undead right now…!”

Floheita nodded in agreement with Perneisia’s words and pointed her index finger down at Nidhogg.

Mana condensed in the air formed a dark cloud, then transformed into a massive lightning bolt that struck the worm dragon’s back.

【 Kahaa-! 】

The next moment, the worm dragon scooped up dark mana with its tail and hurled it toward the lightning. The dark mana that had been rising like water changed shape in midair and spread like a net.

– Crackle!

The lightning bolt summoned by Floheita was blocked by the net of dark mana and scattered in all directions.

Unlike before when it had endured attacks with its body like a beast, this was an efficient and sophisticated defense method comparable to that of a high-level mage.

Floheita’s vigilance rose to the extreme. Through that single exchange of offense and defense, she realized that the monster before her had acquired intelligence at least at the level of a mage.

‘It’s gained intelligence… No, has it awakened? This is dangerous. If that’s really the case…!’

It would begin to exert power on a completely different level than before.

For a being without intelligence to gain it was no different from a wild beast evolving into a werebeast.

Evidence that turned her concern into certainty soon appeared before her eyes.

【 Kraaaaaah! 】

A massive shadow covers the ruined streets like a curtain of night.

The worm dragon spread its wings wide.

Not wielding its outer wings like shields as before, but both its outer and inner wings.

The meaning of that movement could only be one thing.

Wingbeats.

– Whoosh!

Wings of carapace and membrane spanning dozens of meters move up and down, calling forth a typhoon.

Massive air is driven toward the ground, pushing away all the debris scattered across the streets and the humans surrounding the worm dragon.

“Kuk…!”

Demian, who had leaped into the air aiming for the dragon’s head, was thrown back like a ball, and the high-level mages who had hastily deployed mana barriers were pushed back.

“This bug bastard, don’t tell me at this point…!”

The wingbeats grow faster. The area beneath the worm dragon transforms into a clean clearing.

Even Perneisia had to abandon her archery and hide behind the rock elemental’s nape to withstand the pressure like a raging storm.

And then,

【 Krrrrrrr…. 】

Very slowly, Nidhogg’s legs rise against gravity.

The dragon was taking flight.