The Primordial True Ancestor, Nihilus Karmashia

The wave of blood and flesh subsides.

Regardless of regeneration and resilience, the hero’s sword, which cuts off the very source of everything, was a natural enemy and weakness to the horseflies, which were a fusion of True Ancestor and maggots.

Alice could infuse this power into her magic, body, and tentacles with the power of Gluttony, but Oriana had eliminated the tide of horseflies with just the hero’s sword.

Because all she could do was swing a sword.

It was the ultimate skill reached without thinking by someone foolish and stupid who had lost her friend and the world, so she may have been able to cut through the wave of blood and flesh even more easily.

The walls and floors of the Dunhill mansion were covered in blood and flesh.

There were still pieces of flesh wriggling alive, but having been cut by the hero’s sword, they would soon die.

It was a miserable end for a calamity that could originally be resurrected even if only one cell survived.

“…Uh, um.”

Looking at the horrific scene, Alice had mixed feelings.

That sword is the one, right?

The hero’s sword that killed me… I think it pierced my heart?

Alice’s memories of her time as the Demon King weren’t 100% intact, and only habits and unconscious areas remained, but one of the things Alice was sure of was, ‘Demon King me is so strong!’

She was a little curious about how a young hero could have killed someone like that, but seeing Oriana slice through the wave of blood and flesh with just a sword, the little curiosity and interest she had left disappeared.

Ah, so I was sliced like that too?

In reality, the young and inexperienced Oriana at the time couldn’t have performed the same skill as she does now, and Alice had simply offered her heart to be stabbed without a fight, but that wasn’t important to Alice now.

How should I put this?

I’m grateful and happy to receive help from Oriana, but thinking that she killed me with that sword makes a corner of my heart tingle… no, it really hurts?

I thought the hero’s sword wasn’t an ordinary weapon, but realizing that it had pierced my heart, the area where my heart is hurts.

It’s not like I’ll die if my heart is pierced now, but for some reason, is the memory of being stabbed by that sword in my Demon King days still lingering in my soul?

Could this be a scar left on my soul?

“Ah, I’m sorry… Alice.”

As Alice’s expression became subtle, Oriana’s face, who was watching her, also hardened slightly.

That’s because Oriana had brought about the death of the Demon King and the calamity with her thoughtless actions, and she regretted it so much that she wanted to die.

She had endlessly repeated the process of gathering humanity, defeating the calamity, creating the Ark, and trying to recreate Alice, and now that she had finally met her, she wondered if she had been of any help. She wanted to be praised, even if it was just a little, even if it might be a slightly arrogant thing to say.

But when Alice saw the hero’s sword in her hand and her face hardened, what would Oriana have thought?

‘Ah, she remembers the moment she was stabbed by me.’

Oriana unknowingly dropped the sword from her hand and lowered her head.

She didn’t deserve praise or anything like that.

What praise could she expect now, after she had led her friend and the world to destruction at the same time?

On top of that, Oriana and Rilstia were in a rare state of fusion.

When Rilstia fell into the trap of other administrators and her body died, she had to have a body fused with Oriana to have a recovery period.

Thanks to this, Oriana now has the personality of an adult, but Rilstia also possesses the mentally young personality of a girl, just like her appearance.

Neither of them is a complete adult, nor a complete girl, but after all, they are the same person, so it’s not strange that Oriana is easily caught up in bad thoughts and shows a weak mental state like a child.

While Oriana was stuck in a self-deprecating loop, and Alice was clutching her chest where her heart should be, Fira, who was being held in Alice’s arms in a princess carry, said,

“Alice, that’s the part where that Horsefly Bitch tore out your heart to use as bait.”

“Ah, is that so?”

It seems like it’s just a feeling.

Well, it hasn’t even been five minutes since my heart area was torn out.

“Anyway, Oriana. I don’t know how you knew and came, but thank you so much!”

“…D-Did I do well…?”

“No, I told you to speak comfortably. Here, I’m just a useless Second-Class Overseer, and Oriana is an administrator, a First-Class Overseer, and a hero, so aren’t you a really amazing person?”

“B-But compared to you, I’m not amazing at all…”

Me being amazing.

That’s just a story from the past.

Right now, I’m just… the Grand Governor of the lower layer with a population of 2 billion, the revolutionary first party member and leader of the Red Labor Party, an Übermensch, friends with the owner of the Satellite City Zain, have about 50 secret weapon dolls from a mega corp that went out of business, have a few former executioners who have turned from uncles into girls, and thanks to Jess’s consideration, who is nominally my adoptive mother, I still maintain my status as the eldest daughter of the Arbentaine Family, a merit family of the Ruincrest layer…

Huh? Maybe I’m more amazing than I thought?

Ahem, that’s not what’s important right now.

“What’s so great about me, who went from being a tin can android to half flesh and is now evolving into something a little better? I was so scared of that horde of horseflies that I ran away.”

“…Thank you, Alice.”

“For what?”

“Just… for praising me. For being here. For just being in this world…”

“Why are you suddenly like this? That’s a death flag. It’s a bad death flag like ‘I’m going to confess to her when this fight is over’.”

Anyway, Oriana’s face cleared up again in an instant, probably because she was praised by Alice.

A faint and warm smile, like a spring breeze, appeared on her cool career woman-like face, and for some reason, it looked like a very childlike smile.

It was also proof that Oriana had not yet escaped from the days when she was a reckless young hero who stabbed the Demon King’s heart, even though her body had grown and her strength had increased.

Anyway, the atmosphere has eased a bit. Oriana, who had even been praised by Alice, glared at Fira, who was still being held in Alice’s arms like a princess.

“But Fira. Why didn’t you do anything?”

“Eh, what are you talking about?”

“Why are you pretending to be weak?”

“Oh my, did you notice?”

“…Fira?”

In fact, Fira could have spectacularly blocked the tide of flesh from the horde of horseflies like Oriana.

You may have forgotten, but Fira is the Supreme Commander of the Outer Expeditionary Force.

In terms of military power, she is naturally the top individual in the Ark, and she has a history of beheading True Ancestors several times before.

Since Fira was like that, she was a little troubled when facing the first horsefly because it was a creature she had never seen before, but after analyzing and interpreting its body, it wasn’t that difficult to deal with the other ones.

But her skirt was getting in the way, making it hard to run, so Alice is holding her like a princess?

Yay, I should enjoy it a little more.

“Fira, isn’t that kind of joke too much in a life-or-death situation?”

“Oh, I won’t die even if I’m torn to pieces here.”

“What?”

“Just in case, I always have one or two maggots in my body resting somewhere else. Just in case I die on the front lines, the maggots that are resting will perform a resurrection ritual and I might be resurrected, so don’t worry~”

I found out later that Fira is a terrible and terrifying person from the perspective of the enemies because of this.

People can’t always keep their five senses on high alert for 24 hours. If you use all sorts of weapons, traps, ambushes, poisons, bombs, and strategic weapons, there may be times when even Fira has no choice but to die, but even if you kill Fira with all your might, Fira will come back to find the enemies again thanks to the maggots that used the resurrection ritual somewhere.

Of course, all the attacks that were eaten before have been analyzed and dismantled, so they won’t work.

Oriana, who wields the hero’s sword and founded the Ark, modestly lowers her position, so it is said that Fira is the most terrifying First-Class Overseer and the strongest individual in the Ark.

Anyway, the wave of blood and flesh has been resolved.

But the fundamental problem has not been resolved at all.

“I think we need to destroy all the hatcheries first.”

There are at least over a thousand hatcheries in the Dunhill Family.

I guessed it after seeing the wave of horseflies earlier, but the number of hatcheries has increased and is estimated to be much higher than when Fira knew them.

It was a very closed family, and a family with so much money and power that they privately used three or four layers and all the civilians living there.

Even if something like this happened to the Dunhill Family, it wouldn’t be strange for outsiders to think that the closed Dunhill Family was doing something among themselves, as they always did.

“I didn’t even know something had happened to the Dunhill Family until I directly monitored it with hologram projection.”

Even Rilstia (Oriana), who can observe all the electronic devices of the Ark in real time, said that, so in fact, almost all administrators, overseers, and executors would not know about the disaster happening in the Dunhill Family.

“First, I’ll use Rilstia’s authority to immediately summon the execution force. But it will probably take some time. If we seal off the outside of the layer and start the stabilization work slowly from the outside, it will take at least a week.”

“And a week is too much time for those True Ancestor mosquito bastards.”

I don’t know exactly what the True Ancestor’s purpose is, but they have swallowed up the Dunhill Family’s huge number of family members and lives, as well as the mansion and hatchery, so even if we leave it alone for a day or two, it won’t be a problem for it to develop into a major disaster.

The Horsefly Bitch that Alice encountered is an existence that outsiders can’t kill no matter what they do.

The characteristics of the True Ancestor, who can be resurrected even if only one cell remains, are combined with the enormous vitality of the Dunhill Family’s maggots, so it seems to be virtually immortal.

Here, Oriana can defeat them with the hero’s sword, Fira with the Ark’s strongest individual military power, and Alice with the power of Gluttony, but outsiders will not be able to do so.

“So in the end, we have to go deeper and find the culprit or the True Ancestor who caused this situation.”

“The only being who could cause such a thing is the Primordial Calamity, whom the True Ancestors serve like a princess.”

“The Primordial Calamity… ah, who was it again?”

“Nihilus Karmashia.”

“Ah! That bitch!”

That white lady Fira met in the Abyss.

A monster that looks no different from a human on the outside, but contains monstrosities and calamities inside, and is the princess and source of all True Ancestors.

“Fira said you met her in the Abyss before, right?”

“That’s right. After all, what I faced was just an avatar, so I don’t know how much the main body is… but it would be right to assume that the main body of that mosquito has descended here.”

The three of them had this thought.

True Ancestor, you son of a bitch.

No, you damn mosquito bastards.

Didn’t we have a relatively peaceful agreement in the peaceful Ark and live well in the Abyss?

Why did you suddenly come out and cause trouble?

“Haa, my head hurts.”

“That’s right… Did someone put an Artificial Sun in the Abyss or something…”

“…Huh?”

Alice shuddered slightly at those words.

‘Could it be that the True Ancestor suddenly went berserk because I installed an Artificial Sun in the lower layer…?’

The number of Artificial Suns that Alice had created while living as the Grand Governor of the lower layer was quite large.

At first, there were only about five, but over time, a total of 38 Artificial Suns are now shining on the lower layer and spreading warmth.

In other words, it’s a huge glare for the True Ancestor.

For mosquitoes who live with darkness and shadows as friends, companions, and partners, 38 suns may be too harsh.

‘Eh, no way. Could it be because of that?’

It can’t be…