Chapter 60: What’s That?

Deon felt his heart crumble at the sight of the queen.

'No…It's impossible! There's no way we will ever defeat such a monster! We'll all die!'

For once, his opinion coincided with Mikael's.

"Kid… let's just stop here. We already did our best. No one will blame us if we back out now." Mikael persuaded his partner.

Sure, this would be a great place to train Deon. With the sheer number of minor workers in the colony, he was bound to become even stronger, but Mikael would never let him take that risk.

Deon was still young.

He still has decades ahead of him and Mikael was willing to wait for him to grow at his own pace.

After all, Mikael was already dead.

He will not age.

Even when Deon had become a wrinkly old man, Mikael will remain a 22-year-old. Forever.

Time had lost its meaning to the poor soul who only wished for a better afterlife.

In a sense, Mikael had already become an immortal and so, he could bear to stay beside his royal partner for a few more years—until he dies of old age.

'Plus, I'm still a poltergeist. I haven't yet collected enough positive karma so, I can't let him die here.'

Mikael gazed back at the queen, wondering what her new danger class was.

'Is it S-class? Or maybe SSS? Surely, she can't be an A…'

But then something in the queen's background caught Mikael's attention.

'Huh? What's that?'

He peered into the gloom and was dumbfounded by what he saw!

"WHAT THE F--!! D-Deon… I-IS THAT A F*CKING DRAGON?!" Mikael pointed a shaking finger at the dragon behind the queen.

"What do you mean, Sir Mikael? That's obviously the ant queen."

"NO… LOOK WHERE I'M POINTING, YOU IDIOT!"

"Sir, I can't even see you!" Deon retorted. "And don't call me an idiot!"

"Ah! Right…"

For a moment, Mikael actually forgot that he was dead and cannot be seen with the naked eye, "Ehem… look behind the queen, kid. There's a dragon."

Deon gave the agitated spirit a side-eye, assuming that Mikael was at his side, before turning to look again at the queen.

GASP!

It was now Deon's turn to be horror-struck!

"T-t-there r-really is a dragon, s-sir…." He stuttered.

It was Deon's first time seeing a dragon!

No, he might even be the first of mankind to ever see one!

Dragons were creatures of the myths. They were legendary beings who were said to have ruled the world before goddess Kariyah took over and gifted Phantas with mana.

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They were so powerful that they could easily stomp mountains into flatlands and cause tsunamis in their baths.

Every beat of their enormous wings caused tornadoes while every sneeze caused forest fires.

All sorts of natural disasters were associated with dragons, making them subjects of terror!

But according to the ancient tales, the goddess made a deal with the dragons—to never interfere with humans and to guard the peace of the land in exchange for mortality.

The dragons were originally said to be immortals, but after eons of existence, they had grown tired of living the mundane life.

So, they wished for death.

Because only when there's an end, do beginnings have meaning.

The goddess gave them her long golden hair and told them,

'Take this and it shall be your lifeline. As the years pass, this thin thread will burn like a candle wick and with it, you shall die.'

The dragons flew away and nestled in a place far from humanity where they lived in peace, happy to await death.

True to the tales, the dragon in the colony was dead. Only its bones remained, but even that exuded a stupefying majesty that spoke volumes about the power of this mythical race.

"Now that I look at it… doesn't it emit a dark aura?" Mikael cocked his head as he closely looked at the Skeletal remains of the dragon,

"AHA! YOU POSER! IT WASN'T YOU!!"

Mikael scoffed at the ant queen after realizing that the oppressive aura came not from her but from the dead dragon.

"That's why this place reeks of the underworld!"

After listening to Mikael talk to himself, Deon also came to a realization.

"This must be the reason why the Killer ants evolved, Sir Mikael!" He exclaimed, "Because of the cycle of mana, all deceased creatures will return their mana to the atmosphere, leaving only a small amount of mana residue! And because dragons have the highest mana purity, their deaths are bound to affect the surroundings!"

"So, you're saying that this dragon's mana is getting absorbed by the killer ants which then makes them stronger?"

"Not only that, sir!" Deon excitedly pointed to the Queen, "The queen's chamber is the dragon's tomb! This means that the queen absorbs most of the mana! So, every time she gives birth to a new batch of Killer ants, they're bound to be stronger than the last generation!"

They watched as minor worker ants queued to deliver food for the queen.

All sorts of monsters ranging from F-class to C-class were served to the queen who doesn't even take a minute to munch on her meals. She just chomps on them in a single bite before moving on to the next-- all while continuously popping out monster eggs on her rear like a high-maintenance, heavy-duty monster factory.

"What the heck?! Just how many eggs does she lay per minute?" Mikael exclaimed, "We really need to kill them before they absorb everything otherwise, they'll be too strong!"

Mikael was alarmed by their discovery.

Just thinking about a strong species with a high birth rate made him shudder in fear!

A vision of armies of Killer ants going down the Wesnar mountain flashed in Mikael's mind.

'Yeah… their colony size will inflate uncontrollably with the decrease in predators… and when the food supply from the mountain is no longer enough, they'll start to attack towns and cities!'

"We NEED to stop this disaster, Deon!"

This matter had gone past Mikael's moral boundaries that told him to escape and prioritize Deon's life over others.

With millions of people at stake, Mikael no longer thought in terms of good karma but of ethics.

"No, Sir Mikael." Deon corrected "We WILL stop this."

--Chapter end--

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