Chapter 615 - Chapter 9: The Ant Queen - Early June
"In a sense, it's a convincing result."
Harold-sama said after hearing the explanation from Eleanor-sama.
"Apart from the mountainous regions of Finis, the only places where Red Ants have been discovered were the Demon Lord's cave and the Demon Realm of Engrio."
The ants in the Demon Realm of Engrio didn't come out of the forest despite being close to the plains. Or rather, at that time, we saw wasps but didn't see any ants.
According to Harold-sama, although the third floor is vast, it's ultimately just an underground cavern and is far narrower than the surface. It seemed more strange that ants would spring up one after another in such a narrow place, and he couldn't help but think it must be connected somewhere.
"Since I thought there must be a base somewhere, if there were similar things around that ant nest, each of them might be connected to various places."
In other words, is it that? If we dig up that hill and wipe out the ants, we can prevent them from springing up on the third floor?
"Shall we have Price move? If we can at least exterminate the Red Ants, it'll be easier later on."
Harold-sama says that if the royal families of each nation's military and commanders can't move due to the situation on the continent, we should get support from the church's monster subjugation team, which advocates anti-war, and conquer the ant nest. Henry-sama also agreed, and it was decided to contact them later.
Contacting them later means we have no choice but to do it ourselves this time.
On the fourth day, we jumped early to the third base we made inside the ant nest. The clearing was left to the Paratroop Jaegers. So, Harold-sama and Beatrix are also here. This is because we plan to defeat the Queen this time. Naturally, there's no guarantee the ants won't go to the third floor, so the glowing tree operation continues. Even if there are no ants, there are still plenty of insects. Since Robinson-san is staying to manipulate his fellows, it'll be productive.
What we do is the same. Basically, just dig a hole and pile up the ants along with everything else after hardening them. But separately from that, Harold-sama, Harrison-san, Bonnie, and I rode in Beatrix's bowl and observed the nest while illuminating with Fireflies.
We descended to right near where the digging was going up, and we could see quite a few horizontal holes. This is because we're digging purely vertically for fear that it might collapse if we expand it horizontally. Since we're illuminating, they retreat into the back, but it seems to spread quite far horizontally too.
There are large rooms here and there. Since Wilson-san is digging without question, they're being cut through in the middle of the rooms. There are usually eggs and larvae, so Harrison-san defeated them with a reflector-equipped Over Flow. The larvae were maggots with a color like transparent red wine, and worker ants looking after them were also there.
"There are quite a lot of them, aren't there?"
"Umu. There are tens of thousands of adults, after all. They're supporting them. The Queen must be laying a massive amount of eggs."
Harold-sama apparently even dug up normal ant nests to observe the Queen ant as a countermeasure against Red Ants. He said the Queen ant wasひたすらに laying eggs as if to say that was her job. That part is the same as wasps. Perhaps the women of Primordia in the past were similar in some ways. However, neither ants nor wasps are just wives; they are Queens, so all the chores, including childcare, are done by worker ants and worker wasps. Humans do all the housework plus farm work as long as they can move. That part is different.
While we were observing and occasionally attacking like that, Harrison-san suddenly let out a shout.
"Ascend! Beatrix, it's coming from below!"
Harold-sama ascended rapidly, and Beatrix put her will into the Wind Barrier she had deployed under the bowl just in case.
Gwan!
Immediately after a sound like a heavy object colliding was heard, several pillars of soil thrust up from below to above on the left and right of the bowl. Soil and sand also flew up with them.
Sand Pillar!
Beatrix had instantly made a flat circular Wind Barrier into something like a ship's bow by folding it in the middle. Looking at the shape of her hands, she seemed to have pushed down hard. Because of that, she was able to crumble the pillars of soil. It was lucky the terrain was all soil. If it had been mixed with rocks, it would have been Stone Pillar. This time we're flying in a lidless bowl. If we had been thrust up from below, we would have been thrown out of the bowl.
Harold-sama ascended all at once to near the top. Eleanor-sama's bowl had already moved above that. Since we're using lighting fixtures, we didn't collide.
"Are you okay?"
Since Mute isn't applied, Eleanor-sama's voice can be heard.
"I sensed the activation of Sand Pillar, so I instantly fired Sand Storm under your bowl."
"I noticed. Thanks to that, we were saved. Thank you."
Err, was I wrong...
Finally, the Queen's appearance.
When I searched with Sense Living, there was a thick and long reaction like a Land Worm... a huge maggot. It's right below. If Wilson-san can't see it, it's probably in the soil... to be precise, the room under the current soil. In other words, she fired magic through the soil. She's a monster.
"Since there was a description in the secret book and even a ranking was given, she must have been defeated in the past. We're going to defeat her."
It's Eleanor-sama. She seems to have a plan, but...
Wilson-san made a wall with Wind Barrier and temporarily withdrew to the third base while preventing the flying soil.
It's time to remake the medium-sized bowl. Harold-sama's bowl and Eleanor-sama's bowl were dismantled, and Wilson-san remade a medium-sized bowl. There's a hole in the middle of the bottom, and a Teleportation Magic Circle drawn on a board Eleanor-sama brought is sandwiched in. We're heading out again on that.
"Jeanne, please deploy a wall of Light. Beatrix, please support the wall of Light with Wind Barrier. A circular shape is fine. Instead, please set an angle and make it slanted. The opponent will likely attack mainly with earth magic and at the same time ants will crawl up and spit saliva, so please drive them away with light. We'll make a defensive wall and attack from above. I'll handle anything that breaks through."
"How are we going to attack?"
Beatrix is asking Eleanor-sama.
It probably won't mean much to fire Light at full power from a distance.
"I'll borrow a comrade's plan."
Comrade? A frog?
Eleanor-sama's plan was a water attack. When she sent instructions through the magic circle for sending letters, after a while the magic circle glowed and water came out 'doba-doba'. The water traveled along the slanted Wind Barrier and fell to the bottom of the vertical hole Wilson-san had dug. Does she intend to submerge it? Indeed, the frog made a marsh to stall the ants and extended its tongue to eat them. The Queen, perhaps more as a countermeasure for submersion than an attack, hasn't counterattacked by flying soil.
"Let's stop the water once."
It's Wilson-san. He was kneading the soil at the bottom with Clump Sand, but since his night vision is good, he's also acting as a lookout.
We watch for a while.
"Please resume."
After a short while, the water discharge was resumed.
The Queen's attack of flying mud stops. Since the effect would be lost if it got covered in mud, I flipped the Wind Barrier that was stuck to it while the Light output was throttled and washed it with water.
"Let's stop once."
Another stop. Mud comes flying again.
"Please resume."
Water discharge began again.
After that, we repeated the same thing several times. I feel like it would be better to leave it running if we're going to submerge it, but...
"It's about time. I think it's good soon."
Wilson-san's signal came. The bottom has apparently become like a wild boar's wallow.
I don't know what's 'about time', but Eleanor-sama gave the instruction to descend. At the same time, the instruction to increase the light amount came, so I put it at full power.
We descended quite a bit. Because of the large amount of mud that flew, the wall of Light can no longer emit light. However, although she seems to be firing Sand Pillar and Sand Storm, perhaps because it's mud, we were able to stop everything with the defensive wall.
The descent of the defensive wall stops, and the bowl approaches as if clinging to it.
Wilson-san thrust both hands out from the bowl.
"Cumulonimbus!"
He fired the ultra-high-level lightning magic toward the bottom. To fire it into that narrow hole...
Clouds formed 'moku-moku' beyond the defensive wall and...
Countless thunderclaps resounded.
The defensive wall is smaller than the diameter of the hole. As a byproduct, many lightning bolts flew toward us too. Since they basically fly toward moving objects, I think they probably flew toward the mud the Queen flew, the mud falling after hitting the defensive wall, the ants crawling on the walls, and the ants squirming in the wallow, but maybe the ones that hit the ants on the walls bounced back, because they flew over quite a bit. On top of that, perhaps because of the impact, soil fell silently from above. Harold-sama called out and told us to hold our heads and crouch, so everyone did. Since it wasn't a large amount, no damage was caused, but it was quite scary.
"Listen, can't you care a bit more about the safety of your allies!"
I nod vigorously at Harold-sama's complaint.
"My apologies. I didn't think it would come to this."
For someone saying that, what do you mean by being the first one to crouch?
"Everyone, please keep your heads low just like that. It's still just beginning."
"You're still going to do it?"
"Naturally. The opponent is B-rank. We have to hammer in five shots."
Five shots...
Just as Harold-sama looked up at the ceiling, Wilson-san fired the second shot.
"Wait, wait!"
In a hurry, Harold-sama fired a Wind Barrier to make a roof.
"I should have done this from the start, shouldn't I?"
"Honestly, give me a break."
"Now, now, since there was no damage."
In the end, he really fired five shots.
"Could we have defeated it with this?"
"No, that would be impossible."
What did he do it for?
Eleanor-sama says that mud conducts electricity. With Cumulonimbus, he must have dealt damage to the Queen along with the worker ants. And the characteristic of lightning magic is that it temporarily paralyzes the opponent. She apparently thought that if we could turn the soil into mud by sprinkling a large amount of water, making it easier for electricity to pass through and paralyzing her temporarily... or part of her body... it would be easier to defeat her.
"We'll ascend once."
Saying that, we retreated into the horizontal hole where the exit to Medioland is. We temporarily released the bowl and the defensive wall.
"Prominence!"
What Wilson-san fired next was Prominence. He fired it downward from a foothold of Wind Barrier made to overhang from the horizontal hole. Two shots with an interval. After that, likely to cool it down, he fired Blizzard.
The reason he didn't use Megiddo Fire is probably because the heat wouldn't escape in a closed space. Resist cannot withstand the heat of Megiddo Fire. And Wilson-san is here.
"With this, the mud will dry a little."
Eleanor-sama says something quite carefree.
It seems she used Prominence to dry the water she had sprinkled so much.
But, rather than drying, won't the soil burn and become like bricks?
The inside of the hole is already getting a little hot. Perhaps because the water in the mud evaporated, I also feel humidity.
What he fired next was, as expected, Curve. A triple strike. Even Wilson-san is finally getting tired.
"Since Curve wasn't blocked. Finally, we can attack properly."
Attack properly?
"Weren't the ones until now attacks?"
As expected, he was questioned by Harold-sama.
"The opponent uses earth magic. We can't possibly win in the original state. Therefore, we stopped the opponent's movement with lightning magic. First we have to see the main body or it won't be a battle."
I don't really understand, but she does something very elaborate. I hope we can really see the Queen's form with this.
Again, digging the hole is resumed. Since the bowl was remade, Wilson-san is manipulating it. As I thought, the soil has burned and become hard, so the work proceeded as if removing the pieces cracked by Curve. If the opponent is paralyzed, it's a chance. We lowered the new defensive wall and bowl with all our might and dug through 'don-don'. Since the enemy's resistance has stopped, the wall of Light is emitting sufficient light. When I peeked from the bottom of the bowl, the construction situation was clearly visible. Since he fired two Prominences, it's quite hot.
After digging for about half an hour, a hole opened with a 'boko'. Apparently, we dug through to the Queen's room.
"Well then, let's go one more time."
Eleanor-sama began to chant. It's Cumulonimbus again. She fired it into the hole and timed it when the clouds formed to cover it with the defensive wall.
For a while, it's flashing 'bika-bika' beyond the defensive wall. Since Harold-sama made a roof just in case, it seems safe this time.
"Charging in."
Finally, Eleanor-sama, having confirmed there was no resistance, gave the instruction. The vanguard drew their silver swords.
The defensive wall was temporarily released, the bowl changed its shape to a plate, and we descended and charged into the room.
The Queen was inside.
Since Beatrix, instructed by Eleanor-sama at the same time as the charge, floated a Fire Ball, the Queen's form and shape were clearly understood.