Because of Cyr's earlier remarks, several of the ants present were… a bit hesitant to lead him to the Queen's chamber. They were afraid he might actually try to kidnap her and keep her as a pet.
But considering the Queen's current condition… if they didn't bring someone to help, she was going to die.
Becoming a human's pet or dying—which one was more unacceptable to a Chimera Ant? That was a seriously tough choice.
"Hurry up and take me to see her…" Cyr urged, looking more eager than even the ants to go save the Queen.
"…Please… please come with us." The ants exchanged glances, and finally, one of them stepped forward to lead the way.
They looked pitiful, weak, and helpless now—completely different from how they'd been not long ago, when they marched around with the Chimera Ant army, capturing humans.
It was like they'd gone from being dangerous monsters to domesticated pets.
Of course, it was also possible that the stronger ones had already fled, leaving behind only these weaklings who, while not powerful, were fiercely loyal to the Queen.
Compared to the royal palace the King had established, the Queen's cave was downright primitive—like something out of the Stone Age.
Dark, cramped, but full of branching tunnels.
Ants were great at digging and building nests.
The Chimera Queen lay on a bed of dirt, her life sustained only by crude medical equipment.
She didn't look human at all. She was a giant ant, through and through, with a massive unhealed hole in her abdomen that left her jumbled internal organs fully exposed.
Honestly, it looked pretty bad. Also… kinda ugly.
She had the vibes of a cannon-fodder character who'd die not long after appearing.
Then again, that fake Queen from Meteor City had been decent-looking too—and still died pretty fast.
You really couldn't judge by appearances.
"Can this one… still give birth?" Cyr asked after eyeing her for a while.
Logically, her nest should've been full of eggs she'd laid, but the ant population hadn't grown in a long time. They just kept getting wiped out.
Was it possible the Queen couldn't reproduce anymore? If she was ugly and infertile, then she wasn't even worthy of being a pet.
Why would he raise a useless pet? Even Kite was at least good-looking—he could take him out in public without embarrassment.
"She can't anymore," Eili said, gently stroking the ears of the lamb in her arms as it let out a few bleats.
That's why her brother had taken back the piece of himself he'd placed in the Queen. A Chimera Queen who couldn't reproduce had no value as an experimental subject.
Originally, they'd just wanted to see if the Queen would continue to evolve or change in some way. But in the end, she was a disappointment.
"...Tch." Cyr instantly lost interest in the Queen lying on the dirt bed.
Without hesitation, he scratched her off his potential pet list. For the record, Aimé and Eili were still on that list.
"You don't want to save her," Aimé said, watching the impatient boy.
"I'm not a doctor. I can't save her. Let the medics handle it when they get here." Cyr waved his hand dismissively.
Though judging by what he'd seen, it was doubtful she'd even last until the medics arrived. She was… pretty much done for.
The wound was torn from the inside. Tch.
Did someone enter her body and then rip her open?
"So why is the wound torn from the inside?" Cyr asked, genuinely curious.
"The Ant King did it—he tore open the Queen's abdomen to force an early birth. He couldn't wait to be born," Eili explained in an even, detached tone, like a spectator narrating a show she'd already seen.
"Ah…" Cyr opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it.
Aren't ants supposed to be oviparous? Hatching from eggs shouldn't harm the mother, right? Or could it be that all other ants are oviparous, but the Ant King was somehow born viviparously?
Is that also why the Queen lost her ability to reproduce?
Without the Queen laying soldier ants to build an army, this war was as good as over before it even started.
The Ant King really was a dutiful son, huh? A human spy planted among the ants? Your Majesty, why must you rebel?
"Hahaha…" Cyr burst out laughing.
The nearby ants didn't dare speak, even though they thought laughing at a moment like this was incredibly rude and immoral.
"Hmm?" Cyr suddenly looked toward the Queen.
Beneath her, a slowly expanding black hole silently opened up. In the blink of an eye, the Queen fell through it and disappeared from sight.
"The Queen!"
"The Queen—!"
"We're under attack!" The few weak ants left behind were frantic, hopping around like they were on fire.
"She just got teleported to the humans, that's all. Why panic? Weren't you the ones who begged them for help?" Cyr remarked flatly.
Only ignorant folks would freak out over something like this.
"I'm out. Oh, right—don't go back, got it? If you really can't figure things out, just stick with Maro and the others for now," Cyr said to Kite in passing before vanishing from the cave himself.
What, was he supposed to stay behind and awkwardly stare at a bunch of ants?
Aimé and Eili exchanged glances, clasped hands, and slipped through the wall behind them, vanishing as well.
Kite glanced once more at the now leaderless ants and then left the cave.
There really wasn't any need to kill them.
"Brother, where are we going now?" Eili asked, their figures appearing on an open plain.
"To find the Ant King," Aimé replied, looking toward the royal palace.
What would become of the Chimera Ants now depended entirely on the King's next move.
The two of them made their way toward the palace, as if following a radar—retracing the Ant King's every step.
With the soldiers controlled by Neferpitou not needing rest, and the ants' natural efficiency at nest-building, the palace that had been damaged earlier was nearly rebuilt within just a few hours.
Their target, the Ant King, was calmly sitting on his throne… reading.
The siblings' sudden appearance in the palace corner drew the attention of both Neferpitou and the King.
"Why have you come here?" the Ant King asked, eyes fixed on the two unexpected visitors.
Even before he was born, while still inside the Queen, he had known about these two—always watching him with strange, threatening eyes that made his instincts scream danger.
It felt like they were just waiting for the right moment to dig him out with their own hands.
The Ant King never understood why the one who birthed him would allow these two freaks to remain so close.
It was precisely because of their presence—and those invasive stares—that he couldn't bear it any longer and forced his way out, becoming a premature newborn.
Originally, the moment he was born, he had intended to kill them on the spot.
But his plan failed. No matter how many times he blasted their heads or shattered their limbs, they always recovered.
Even when he devoured their bodies, parts of them would somehow wriggle out of him on their own, like they had a will of their own.
He couldn't digest them, couldn't kill them—couldn't even properly absorb them.
They were freaks. Pure and simple.
"…The Queen is dead. We've got nowhere else to go," Aimé stated simply.
Though technically the Queen still had a shred of life clinging to her, in their words, she was already dead.
"Only now? That's actually a bit later than I expected," the Ant King said with a faint smile, not the slightest bit saddened by the death of his so-called mother—only vaguely entertained.
"But I don't welcome you here," the Ant King said to the pair of siblings.
These two freaks never fought back, just kept getting beat up without dying. Worse, they tasted absolutely terrible—he'd never eaten anything so disgusting in his life. He couldn't even digest them, and they didn't provide any nourishment. Boring, useless creatures.
What he really wanted to eat now—
Was that white-haired one.
Probably one of those ultra-rare humans. From what he could recall, the taste of rare humans was said to be dozens of times more delicious than ordinary ones.
Aimé and Eili didn't say anything, but they also didn't leave. They had that "in one ear, out the other" look, doing whatever they pleased like they didn't understand a word he said.
At worst, the Ant King would beat them up again—not like it hurt anyway.
°°°
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