In another dimension,
“Lord Kuzuri, I’ve placed my subordinates as you instructed, but is this truly acceptable? The Undead King’s forces and the nobles are about to clash head-on.”
“That’s precisely the plan. They are merely pawns. They are fools who grasp for positions far beyond their capabilities, blinded by ideals. It’s about time they served a purpose.”
Far from the battlefield where the rebellious Aristocratic Union and the Undead King’s forces faced each other, lay an old dungeon where the Insect King had been in hiding.
This was a secret dungeon, unbeknownst even to the Demon Lord, a treasure of the Insect King’s clan.
Built in ancient times, this dungeon was in a near-perfect state, still preserved by the presence of divine beasts that maintained its functions.
Here, the Insect King, Kuzuri, who had faked her death, had been continuously creating subordinates.
“They will become precious nourishment for my clan’s long-cherished wish. Even these puppets will be pleased, I’m sure.”
The Demon Lord’s Army is, in essence, a collective of ambitious beings. They constantly strive for greater heights and aim to be the strongest.
Within this environment, the Insect King harbored a perpetual dissatisfaction, questioning why she herself had not become queen.
Her magic power aptitude was eight, not low by any means, but undeniably inferior compared to the current Demon Lord’s talent.
She detested being defined by such limitations of her innate ability.
More than anything, she possessed the talent to create various insectoid races, exhibiting an inborn queenly temperament. She could not tolerate equals and believed all beings should be subservient to her.
This was why, at first, she had thrown herself into the war-torn era, leading her subordinates in a bid to become the Demon Lord.
Her talent for creating armies was a formidable power that could overwhelm others through sheer numbers.
Vast armies, rather than powerful individuals. She embodied this principle, achieving consecutive victories, believing she could eventually conquer the entire continent. That was until she met the current Demon Lord.
She remembered clearly, from that moment on, she had taken a dislike to that man. He possessed an overwhelming talent that she herself lacked. Simply for that reason, she decided she could not stand him.
Therefore, a battle was inevitable.
She attempted to crush him with her usual overwhelming numbers, but the result was a crushing defeat. Like an elephant trampling ants, she was utterly trampled, and the legend of the undefeated queen came to a close.
What followed was simple. She was presented with two choices: death, or becoming a subordinate. The Insect King yielded.
“She should regret not killing me back then.”
For her, that period was the ultimate humiliation. She viewed the title of Insect King as a cruel irony, a queen only among the insect race. She felt as though she was being told to live her life with the proverb, “The frog in the well knows nothing of the great ocean.”
Therefore, she lay low, biding her time for an opportunity to sever that arrogant neck.
“Ah, and convey this to that young lady. She can either respond to this or prepare her defenses. She can do as she pleases.”
Creating that opportunity had been incredibly difficult. While not exactly a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend, she maneuvered to avoid incurring any debt to Isal, creating a situation where the Demon Lord’s Army was at a disadvantage.
And finally, war erupted. This was what she had been waiting for. The humiliation of that time, the shame of defeat, would be repaid with battle.
“However, add to that, if she interferes with me, I will kill her.”
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She would not yield it to anyone else. She was absolutely determined to take the Demon Lord’s head herself.
The Sun God’s forces, the aristocratic rebels, Isal’s allied army – none of them concerned her.
“Understood.”
“Yes, then you may go.”
This resentment, bordering on obsession, fueled the Insect King’s ambition. The unification of the continent by the insect race was merely a pretext to rally her subordinates. For her, the clan’s long-cherished wish was merely a byproduct of her own. She had a different ultimate goal: the Demon Lord’s life, and nothing else.
“Well, well, for that, I need to make various arrangements.”
She had prepared her army for this very day. Using her hidden dungeon and her abilities, she had poured her wholehearted effort into creating the strongest army. Additionally, she incorporated soldiers borrowed from Isal into the Aristocratic Union, leaving the direct confrontation to them and planning to strike the weakened enemy in a two-pronged attack.
Still not satisfied, Kuzuri sent word to the princess in the other world that an opportunity had arisen.
Even then, she was not content. This might still not be enough to kill that Demon Lord. Currently, Kuzuri saw a four-way conflict unfolding. On the continent, there was the Demon Lord’s Army, the anti-Demon Lord nobles, Isal’s alliance, and Kuzuri’s own forces. In Isal, the subjugation of the Demon Lord alliance, led by the Empire, was clashing with the Oni King’s forces. The Dragon King was injured, the newly born Human King was unconscious, the Machine King was in defense, and the Tree King and Giant King’s movements were unclear; these were the outstanding issues for the Insect King.
“In that case… what needs to be secured first is the tool of that god over there.”
Acting in a way that the opponent dislikes is the best course of action on the battlefield. For Isal, their initial foothold was lost. Thus, by recapturing that foothold and handing it over, the Demon Lord’s Army and Isal’s forces would clash, placing a burden on the Demon Lord’s Army. She, on the other hand, could create a debt with Isal with minimal losses and weaken the Demon Lord’s Army. The eroded strength could be fully recovered with a little time.
“You lot, go cause a ruckus in the capital and clear out the area around that tower. You can do it, can’t you?”
Her own offspring, created by her, were expendable. She instructed her powerful daughters to move and to occupy the capital swiftly through the underground passages beneath it. Each daughter was in charge of one division. Three daughters were sent, launching a surprise attack from below with three divisions. Even the Demon Lord’s Army, despite its immense power, would likely fall in no time with the capital’s capture. Even if the Demon Lord’s Castle remained intact, the disgrace of losing the capital would crack the Demon Lord’s Army’s support base.
“Now, now, what will you do?”
Kuzuri prided herself on the idea that having many options meant being powerful. She would remove their legs, remove their arms, and then take their heads. The preparations were steadily progressing.
Or so she thought.
“Huh?”
However, the worst thing one can do is to fail to consider the unexpected. Deep within the continent, in a territory that could be called a remote, hidden region, lay the Insect King’s dungeon. Even in a place that nobody paid attention to, the Insect King maintained sentries and a network of vigilance. That was precisely why she noticed. Her insect sentries had been killed, intentionally and efficiently, in a way designed to make the Insect King “aware.”
“What? Who’s there?”
The sentry had been killed before it could spot them, and its location had been deliberately revealed to her. The only ones who would use such a preposterous method were the Oni King and the Undead King. The Tree King would simply not allow them to be noticed, the Machine King would find it difficult to do so given the scale of his forces, and the Giant King was simply not capable of such a delicate maneuver. The Dragon King, being the strongest as a lone warrior, had no need to do this. As for the new Human King, she didn’t know, but she didn’t believe he could muster the strength to fight the Insect King in such a short time. It would be different if he had an ability to multiply numbers like herself. However, the human race was incapable of that. Therefore, the Insect King had no idea who this attacker was. For a moment, she wondered if it was some stray adventurer. Anyone who would do such a thing would be tied down on the front lines. If so, this attack was just a random occurrence. However, her years of experience allowed her to sense the danger, so she deployed other eyes and, through shared consciousness, witnessed the cause.
“Hahaha, what an idiot, a complete fool.”
There it stood, waiting boldly. It was an undead clad in Western-style armor, the one who had killed her sentries. Seeing it standing there with a two-handed sword held like a knight, as if to boast, she knew who had arrived.
“Did you think you could handle this alone?! Undead King!”
While facing the anti-Demon Lord Aristocratic Union, she also had to deal with the Insect King. Seeing her former colleague deploying a two-front strategy, the Insect King felt not anger, but a sense of foolishness. It was true that the undead were adept at producing large numbers. However, she had never imagined they would be foolish enough to challenge her in terms of numbers.
“I thought you were smarter than this. It seems my expectations were mistaken.”
The number of undead soldiers appearing one after another was indeed large. However, “You probably left enough troops to hold the Aristocratic Union and came to crush me first, right? But honestly, that’s underestimating me too much.” To the Insect King, who could prepare three times that number with one hand, it was still a small force. She didn’t even need to draw reinforcements from her base dungeon. From the forest, the perfect battlefield for insects, a steady stream of insect soldiers emerged.
“Now, I’ll show you what it means to be trampled.”
The diverse army that emerged to trample the invaders. The forces, loyal to a single queen, were hungry. “My children are hungry. If I don’t feed them enough, they’ll start eating each other. You lot are just the right snacks.” To produce numbers, food was essential; even supplementing with magic power had its limits. Yet, she was able to increase her numbers by fully utilizing the principle of the survival of the fittest. They multiplied, and those that were produced were consumed to further increase their numbers. The only creatures lurking in this forest were insects.
“Now, it’s time to eat, you lot.”
Therefore, external enemies were equivalent to meals. Whether rotten or mere bones, they were nourishment. Insects began to pour out from the forest. They instantly engulfed the undead knight who had killed the sentries. He brandished his sword, desperately trying to resist, and cut down five insects, but dozens attacked at once, tearing at his limbs. It was as if this was the fate of the undead army. The continuously appearing, organized undead army and the swarms of insects driven by their hunger. Which side would the victory lean towards? A wave of insects surged, threatening to engulf the undead. It was like a natural disaster, echoing with the sound of wings and grinding teeth.
If they were ordinary undead forces, they certainly would have been engulfed. But who were these soldiers?
“Oh, you’re putting up quite a fight.”
This was the army of the Undead King, one of the Seven Generals. Unlike the undead created by some eccentric mage, these were among the strongest of the Demon Lord’s Army. As the insect wave was held back, they fought with remarkable order. While the Insect King found this irritating, she acknowledged they could perform at this level and deployed additional forces. This time, insects skilled in flight took to the air, their numbers obscuring the sky, and attacked the undead army from above. Resisting them were the ghost army, and as if competing for dominance of the skies, the insect and undead forces became entangled in aerial combat. This continued for a minute, five minutes, ten minutes, leading to a stalemate.
“What in the world?”
It was a stalemate. Despite constantly deploying more forces, the insect army maintained a state of equilibrium. This was strange, very strange. As the numbers of the opponent decreased, the Insect King’s forces should have gained the advantage, yet they were evenly matched. Something was wrong. Before she could even investigate the cause, she noticed that the left flank of the Insect King’s army was beginning to falter.
“How is that possible!?”
She had the advantage in numbers. The quality of her “children” was far superior to that of ordinary soldiers, so seeing them pushed back was unthinkable. “They’re increasing! Why, why are they increasing like this!?” There was only one reason for being pushed back: the numbers were now equal. The Insect King was confronted with the reality of losing on her own territory.
Today’s saying: Believing one cannot lose can lead to the worst possible outcome.
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