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Chapter 52: Kill Them All

"Brother... Brother... I'm scared..."

Ju, my younger sister, was sniffling and sobbing.

The truth was, Baine wanted to cry too. No, he already felt tears welling up, barely held back at the tip of his tongue.

‘No... I can’t cry. I have to be strong for Ju. I'm her brother.’

Baine bit his lips hard, forcing himself to swallow the sobs. He spoke in a shaky voice, "It's okay, Ju. Dad... or the guards will find us."

"But... but..."

Ju's voice quickly turned into loud sobbing.

"They didn't find that auntie when she went missing, did they? What if they just think we went out to play, Brother? What if no one comes looking for us...?"

“That...”

Baine bit down on his lips harder. He had no words to comfort her.

A few months ago, the lady who lived next door disappeared. She had four children. The eldest was much older than Baine and Ju. The other two were also children, but they had died.

The three younger kids were close to Baine's age, and they often took turns feeding the livestock together. Their father drank a lot, and the couple fought almost every day.

One night, the lady had run to Baine's house for refuge.

Maybe that was why, when she disappeared one day, no one looked for her. Her husband was the only one going around asking about her, but he did it out of anger rather than concern.

Baine had overheard his parents talking about it.

"Who in their right mind would tell him anything when he looks like he’d kill her the moment he finds her?"

The adults seemed to agree that it was only natural for her to run away.

Baine remembered how upset he had been, watching her child cry while the father beat them. If she was going to run away, why didn’t she take the children too?

Baine, and everyone else, never thought that she might have been dragged to a place like this.

He turned his head slightly to the side, but he couldn’t move much. His body was coated in something sticky that restricted his movements.

At first, he could wriggle a bit, but as time went on, the substance hardened quickly.

When the ant monsters confirmed it had hardened, they would come back and apply another layer of the sticky substance. After numerous applications, the coating was now several layers thick.

Baine blinked his tear-clouded eyes, trying to clear his vision. His tears rolled down his cheeks, and only then could he barely make out what was around him.

A short distance away, in a spot where a faint light streamed in, he could see the auntie sitting there. Her entire body was covered in the substance the ant monsters had smeared on her. Only her face was left uncovered, peeking out like someone poking their head from a beehive.

She couldn’t even turn her head. But she wasn’t dead. She was in pain, whimpering softly, "It hurts... it hurts..."

‘The eggs... the eggs must be hatching inside her.’

Tears welled up in Baine's eyes again.

He was scared.

So scared.

The monsters hadn’t placed any eggs inside Baine or Ju yet, but it seemed like only a matter of time. Once the coating on their bodies was as thick as the auntie's—once the strange things that the monsters kept feeding them made their bodies strong enough—they would implant the eggs.

But Ju didn’t know what was inside the auntie. Baine had shouted for her to close her eyes when the ant monsters had injected eggs into the other people.

‘I wish I hadn’t seen it either.’

Baine sniffled, trying to control his tears as he cried silently.

The pitiful, aching cries weren’t just coming from the auntie. There were countless other people trapped in that massive chamber, unable to move, their bodies stuck in the hardened substance, their faces peeking out.

Baine couldn’t see far into the chamber—his vision didn’t reach that far. But he could hear them. And judging by the state of those around him, it was clear they were all in the same condition.

They all looked the same.

"... Brother... is this a punishment for not listening to Dad...?"

Ju asked through her sobs.

Maybe it was.

Their father had always told them to watch over the livestock while they grazed. He'd said it so many times. But Baine had left the task to the neighbor kid and had gone off to play with Ju instead.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

And then, all of a sudden, something had grabbed them. There hadn’t even been time to scream. In the blink of an eye, they were dragged into a dark hole and brought to this chamber.

‘We’re being punished.’

The sob he had been holding in finally escaped. As Baine started to cry, Ju followed, her sobs growing louder.

"...Brother... I'm scared..."

"I'm scared too, Ju. But..."

"Ju... d-don’t... don’t cry... The monsters will come..."

The monsters seemed to get agitated when people cried or made noise. They must have thought the people were hungry because they’d feed them that strange food.

But that food twisted their insides, giving them diarrhea and making them feel strange. It drained all their energy and left them feeling hazy.

"... Brother..."

Ju’s voice, full of fear, grew louder.

Hearing her cries, a few ant monsters from the corner started to move toward them.

No. No, please. Don’t come. Don’t come.

"Ju... Ju... Please, be quiet... Please... The monsters are coming..."

Baine tried to speak through his own sobs, but it only seemed to make Ju cry even louder.

"I'm scared... Brother... I'm scared..."

Ju’s wailing mixed with Baine's soft sobs.

Someone, please help us.

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Holding the torch, I ran down the long tunnel.

‘Where are they?’

I sped up, anxiety gnawing at me.

The sounds were echoing strangely, sometimes from this direction, sometimes from that. I couldn’t get a fix on them.

I would think I had pinpointed the direction, run toward it, only to hear the sound echo from a completely different passageway. I thought it was coming from below, but when I went down, I heard it coming from above.

I had been so sure I’d find them quickly, but I had no idea where the sounds were coming from.

On top of that, this ant nest was unlike any human city.

The passages weren't neatly aligned on the same level—they twisted upward, downward, and in every possible direction. There were endless holes branching off, leading to other paths. And if I kept going down those twisting passages, I'd often find myself at dead ends—like now.

I had no choice but to use my spirit armor to carve through the tunnel walls to make my way forward.

I wanted to turn back, but the sounds were coming from ahead.

At first, it had sounded like strange, inhuman wailing, but now it was the sound of a child crying.

My heart raced with anxiety.

‘Is this really the right way?’

It felt like if I continued on this path, the sounds would just move again, coming from another direction. I no longer trusted my ears.

‘At least let me mark my path.’

I lowered my shoulders and carved an arrow into the wall.

I had been making marks as I went to avoid getting lost, but after turning around in circles so many times, I had completely lost my sense of direction. It seemed that I was already lost.

Not because I’m bad with directions—this cave itself was a maze.

There were just too many passages.

“...”

I glanced up at the ceiling.

If I wandered for too long without finding my way, my only option would be to break through the ceiling with my axe and head up to the surface.

‘If it comes to that, I might end up collapsing this entire underground labyrinth.’

Ants are skilled builders, so it should be fine as long as it’s left alone, but the moment I interfere, the buildings on the surface might be affected.

No, they definitely would be.

I sighed softly as I continued running, when suddenly a large shadow fell on the tunnel wall.

Antennae.

The moment I realized it, an ant sprang out from a side passageway.

It opened its mandibles as if trying to bite my face.

Disgusting.

I smashed its head with my wind-clad fist.

Crunch.

The hard exoskeleton of the ant shattered, and the peculiar sound echoed throughout the tunnel.

The exoskeleton of these ants was as hard as iron armor. Even small ants made a crunching noise when pressed by a finger—these massive ants had skin that was unimaginably tough.

The carapace of a flesh-eating ant must have been far stronger than human armor. It wasn't a big problem for me, but I knew those fighting above would be struggling.

I smashed the ant's head again, sighing softly.

I had to rescue the captured people—especially the children who were crying out—but whether it was because of my lack of direction or my poor hearing, I couldn't seem to get any closer.

The frustration bubbled over, and I took it out on the ant, pounding it again and again. As if trying to save its comrade, a few larger ants rushed toward me.

These were probably the soldier ants the guild worker had mentioned.

They were significantly larger than the ants I'd faced so far. Come to think of it, this passageway was wider than the others I’d seen. It could be a path meant for the soldier ants.

Just as I was thinking that, I realized the crying sound was louder here.

Previously, the sounds had always been somewhat distant and unclear, but as I entered this passageway, they became distinct.

‘Did I finally find it?’

This path also sloped upward.

I had assumed the feeding chambers would be deep underground, but maybe flesh-eating ants were different.

After all, these weren’t just any ants—they were monstrous.

I alternated between using the spirit armor and my fists to take down the ants, racing toward the source of the cries.

The higher I went, the more ants appeared.

Smaller than the soldier ants—likely worker ants—started to swarm in greater numbers. And the cries grew closer and clearer.

‘I’m almost there.’

Upward, upward, I continued running.

But at some point, the sound grew distant again.

I retraced my steps, listening carefully. The cries were coming from a side tunnel.

I must have gone in and out of multiple tunnels, trying to trace the direction. But finally, I was on the right path.

I turned into the side passage, and suddenly the crying was unmistakable.

My heart pounded heavily.

After running for a while longer, the passage that had been sloping upward leveled out again.

Brother... I'm scared...

It was a young girl’s voice.

The words were crystal clear now, and I found myself at the end of the tunnel, emerging into a large space.

It was about the size of an elementary school playground.

The rounded chamber didn’t seem to be far from the surface, as faint rays of light streamed in through several cracks in the ceiling. It was still dim, but bright enough that I could make out vague shapes without the torch.

I stared blankly around me.

The damp air in the chamber supported moss and other vegetation, and scattered throughout were what appeared to be floating human heads.

On closer inspection, their bodies were encased in something resembling a beehive, with only their heads protruding.

They hardly moved—at first glance, they seemed dead. But if I looked closely, I could see their mouths twitching slightly.

"... it hurts... I want to die... please kill me..."

Their voices were barely audible, as if their very souls were fading.

Hundreds—no, thousands—of such faces filled the chamber.

And ants moved back and forth between them, as if tending to their prisoners.

"Is this... the feeding chamber?"

Several ants were moving toward the entrance of the chamber.

From their direction, the cries I had heard earlier grew louder, almost as if in desperation.

"... Waaah... Brother... I’m scared..."

Two children—a boy and a girl.

They were both so young.

They couldn’t have been more than ten years old.

I gripped my axe tightly.

This space was big enough for me to wield it.

A few of the ants had finally noticed me, their antennae twitching as they rushed forward.

"Kill them all."

As I charged into the vast chamber, I growled the words like a snarl.