“BUGS! THERE ARE BUGS! IT'S THE SWARM!”
Yelled a man wearing an office suit. His trembling hand pointed at the distance, as a cloud of black took to the air, rising above the humans below. Everyone ran, scrambling like quails when they heard the slight ruffling of dried leaves.
“Look at them, running like pigs they are,” Helzar laughed.
“Zhar!”
Hearing his name being called, a three centimeter long Spawn flew beside Helzar. Zhar had immediately grown to his current size the moment Helzar awoke his soul, and the blue engravings on his exoskeleton had extended as well.
Blue stripes covered Zhar's exoskeleton like a proud tiger. His mandibles had become sharper too, and his exoskeleton itself was tougher than before! His wings had grown bigger and stronger, giving him more speed whenever he took flight. The last gift Zhar received was the ability to link with more than one Spawn at a time.
“You've called? My lord?” Zhar asked, bowing to Helzar whilst in mid-air. Behind Zhar, there were three more Spawns, and all of them only had three legs like Zhar. These Spawns were three of the strongest Spawns in the Swarm, aside from Zhar himself.
“Zhar, there's no need to fear anymore! The agents are gone, and the scent of Spiritual Magic went with them. Kill! Kill and feast, and grow my beloved Swarm!”
Helzar cackled, a faint blue light cascading from his body toward the ground where several humans have yet to flee. They all heard Helzar's laughter, but when the light touched them, a severe headache invaded their bodies!
“RAAAAGH!!!”
Without exception, they all wailed in agony, writhing in pain as they fell to the ground while clutching their heads. A hand covered with thorns and salt was peeling their facial skin, cutting a hole through their forehead and crushing their soft, defenseless brains.
At least, that's what they're feeling.
“Your every wish is my command, my lord,” Zhar bowed one last time, before commanding a million Spawns to rain upon the fallen humans, which numbered a few dozen. The rest of the Swarm remained with Helzar, circling around the vicinity to avoid being a sitting duck.
Majority of the humans hid indoors, or were too far away for Zhar and his army to quickly catch.
‘How the tables have turned. These humans killed countless insects without a spare of thought in the past, but now? Now, they are the ones being killed by the insects they deemed unworthy of their thought!’
Helzar glanced down at the carnage beneath him. The unlucky people died while feeling everything done to their mortal vessel. Dozens of Motherbugs burrowed under their skin, digging a tunnel in their flesh.
Laying egg after egg, the Motherbug's only goal was to produce as many eggs as it could without dying. Once the eggs drank the bloody haven they were born into, they hatched into Spawnlings, munching on crimson flesh before maturing into adulthood.
Once they became adults, they'd emerge from their host, joining Zhar's army to guard their human prey.
“QUICK! Hurry up but be careful,” a policeman yelled to his fellow officers. His shout quickly gained Zhar's attention, and he didn't think twice before commanding hundreds of thousands of Spawns to kill the incoming threat.
“FIRE— DARREL, DON'T POINT THE FLAMETHROWERS AT US, POINT THEM AT THE FUCKING SWARM!” Yelled the same policeman, who would've punched Darrel's head if not for the life threatening danger in front of them.
FOOSH!!!
A dragon's breath emerged from the bulky weapons they carried, scorching the air and the swarm of Spawns coming their way. They glared, their eyes reflecting the rage they felt within their hearts, burying whatever amount of fear they had down on to the soles of their feet.
A fight ensued, with Zhar using his limited intelligence to guide the Swarm in defeating the eight policemen with flamethrowers. Although the Spawns had tough exoskeletons, they were only a centimeter long. To get past the flames, they have to bathe in its love for a good few seconds.
The moment they exit the fiery embrace, they are ready to be put in some exotic, insect salad.
From above, Helzar kept an eye on Zhar.
‘Zhar can't find a way to outmaneuver those… flaming weaponry,’ Helzar landed on a nearby lamp post. ‘Thankfully, he knows not to foolishly brave the flames. So far, the humans keep on using those flaming weapons, while Zhar only lost a few ten-thousands of Spawns,’ Helzar nodded.
He watched for a while, when he noticed the eight policemen slowly retreating, making Helzar frown.
Zhar didn't disappoint Helzar. He also noticed the retreating policemen, and he ordered his army to surround them!
“Shit, they're not letting us through!” One of the policemen yelled.
“Thanks, captain obvious! It's not like we have fucking eyes!” The highest ranking officer among them cursed, grabbing a grenade he had with him. He was the same policeman who yelled at Darrel earlier.
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“Who else has a grenade? If we're going out, might as well go off with a bang!” He grinned, his mandness reflected by his bloodshot eyes. Before the other officers could even respond, he had already pulled the pin.
“Sir Derrek, we have a family unlike you!” Swallowed by irrational rage, Darrel spat, before one of the policemen gave him a grenade. Its safety pin and lever were removed, ready to explode a few seconds later.
“Yeah, and they'll mourn a ‘hero’ one way or the other. It's a matter of choosing between a painless death or a—”
BOOOOOM!
Helzar would've squinted if he could after the explosion below him. Chunks of meat soon rained down, and he sensed that a few more tens of thousands of Spawns died as a result.
‘Zhar is alive, that's what's important.’
As for the other casualties, it didn't bother him. After today's feast, he'd gain hundreds of thousands of Eaters, tens of thousands of Motherbugs, and a few million Spawns.
‘After finding another hideout, the Swarm can lay low while I stabilize my soul. I need to fully understand what I gained and lost, if I even lost anything,’ Helzar spread his wings and took flight, urging Zhar to have the Motherbugs lay more Eater eggs rather than Spawn eggs.
They need to move on before more humans can surround them.
+++-+++-+++
Creeping atop the broken television which became the perfect home for countless bloated Eaters, Helzar looked at his newly built fortress.
Currently, the Swarm lives in a basement. The owners of the house were already devoured, leaving only their useless bones. The Swarm had likewise emptied out the family's food stash from the vegetables to every piece of meat in the freezer.
After emptying the house, Helzar ordered Zhar to make a fortress in the basement to test his skills and stimulate his creativity and intelligence.
‘Zhar blockaded the stairs to the basement and created a wall using various objects. He also had the Swarm to dig out several emergency exit tunnels, big enough for the Swarm to exit within a few seconds.’
Helzar felt proud.
‘The only thing he missed would be blocking the doors and windows upstairs, but it's a start.’
Resting his body on the television, Helzar let out a small, inaudible sigh. In the end, his body didn't grow any bigger after his soul stabilized last night.
‘In total, I gained four abilities.’
The first was his ability to “speak” out loud and inside human minds. He used the latter during his fight with Alex, and he used the former during his killing spree after he fled from the fight with Alex.
‘The ability to speak has potential, but that is limited for now. I have no inkling to cooperate with forsaken humans,’ Helzar scowled.
The second ability he obtained was making illusions of himself. Looking at it from another angle, he was basically making clones of himself.
‘I use around 20% of my energy to use my first ability, but creating clones uses up 50% of my stored energy.’
His newfound soul allowed him to store up to a thousand Spawns worth of energy, but even then, the energy he needed was astronomical for him.
‘I need time to digest all twelve souls from the agents, but that'll barely increase my total energy capacity,’ Helzar lamented.
The third ability he obtained was an aura of some kind, maybe a “domain.” For now, he called it the “Devouring Mist.”
When his soul was unstable, this ability could only manifest as a faint blue light, and being inside it would rapidly exhaust his enemy’s soul energy. The side effects ranged from headaches, weakening, or even hallucinations.
For those without a soul, they would feel like their brains were being dug out.
‘Now, this ability manifests as a dark blue mist, hence the name,’ Helzar smirked. After the stabilization of his soul, the Devouring Mist's effects were enhanced.
‘The energy consumption of this ability depends on my use of it.’
Helzar stood up, crawling toward the edge of the television and watching the Swarm below him. The Spawns were busily carrying Bloodworms to the countless Motherbugs, while the Motherbugs worked tirelessly on laying eggs. The eggs themselves sucked on the Bloodworms, maturing into Spawnlings.
Satisfied with the Spawn's development, Helzar went back to his thoughts.
‘My final ability is the ability to sprout wings from my back, and retract them into my body whenever I wish,’ Helzar hummed, focusing on his back.
Crack—
His back cracked open, but it wasn't painful. In fact, it gave Helzar a feeling of relief. Through the gap in his exoskeleton, four small buds grew out, before rapidly expanding to become two pairs of large wings on Helzar's back.
‘Neat,’ Helzar praised his own wings. Now, he didn't need to go through the agonizing wing transplant like Zhar and the three legged Spawns did.
‘It’s convenient, because I barely spend any energy sprouting my wings. I bet that I'll use a ridiculous amount of energy to recover them, though,’ Helzar sighed. That was the reason he didn't have his wings out all the time.
“I've grown to have a habit of living inside basements,” Helzar couldn't tell if it was good or not. Either way, during their stay inside this basement, the Swarm will forsake hunting humans. Instead, their focus would be on producing as many Spawns as possible with their current food supply.
“Hmm, I still have a few million Eaters. We'll probably be here for another day or two,” Helzar mumbled to himself.
“Although the Swarm has grown to dozens of millions even after the fight with Alex, I remain unable to act unbridled among humans,” Helzar searched for Zhar using his mental link with the Swarm. After finding his trusted Spawn, he called him over.
“It’s been a while since I upgraded any of my insects. It's also been a while since I made new insects, but I don't see a need for that right now,” Helzar crawled in a circle.
“For now, I should modify the Motherbugs to lay bigger Spawns. Come to think of it, the Eaters will need an upgrade too, and so will the Motherbugs…”
Helzar suddenly felt a heavy weight on his head, and his mind became sluggish from thinking of the work needed to be done.
“Uhh, Zhar is intelligent. I wonder if I can teach him how to use the Nest…”
Helzar sighed. While waiting for Zhar, he focused on another topic, which was the Gluttony Contract.
“It's a demonic contact, making me technically a demon now. A demon who can't use magic,” Helzar snickered, laughing at his own misfortune.
He wasn't a demon, but he was no longer a regular insect or monster either. He was a mix in between, because a demon can use magic, while insects, or in this case, monsters like him don't have intelligent minds.
“Either way, demon or not, with or without magic, the Swarm comes first,” Helzar placed down the Nest, which was now three centimeters long and looked a bit bloated. It thankfully looked thicker, relieving Helzar.
The accident on his first day made him excessively worry about the Nest bursting in half.
“First thing's first, the Motherbugs. They'll be the ones laying all the eggs for the Swarm.”
Soon, Helzar was lost in his mind, thinking of nothing but upgrading the various insects which he created from scratch. Zhar soon joined him, and Helzar quickly realized that Zhar was of no help.
+++-+++-+++
“I forgot to sample the red ants from before,” Alex deadpanned.
“I remember they could melt objects like they're secreting lava. It's a broken ability, but sadly I failed to harvest a few of the red ants…”
Helzar facepalmed with two of his legs. It took a moment, but his regrets were soon forced out.
“If I can find the red ants, then it won't be a problem,” Helzar comforted himself. With the Swarm's current strength, he could easily destroy the previous colony of the Lava Ants!
“I'm sure they would've grown in numbers too, but surely they haven't grown as much as us. Not only that, I literally have a soul,” Helzar shrugged, commanding Zhar to search for their previous enemy.
“Bring ten million Spawns with you and search the vicinity. Remain stealthy and avoid being discovered,” Helar instructed. He also instructed Zhar to return in less than half a day, to which Zhar had no complaints.
“I spent an entire day working on the Nest, finally finishing the enhanced Motherbug,” Helzar groaned. He made numerous failed Motherbugs, the amount of which could pile up into a small mound.
“I don't know why, but trying to increase the size and efficiency of the Motherbugs seemed next to impossible.”
While he experimented, he had the Nest bathing on a pool of blood from the Bloodworms. After each failed attempt, three to five Bloodworms were consumed.
“Does it have to do with my soul?” Helzar's mind turned grim. “If that's the case, then should I have looked for another method to grow?”
Helzar thought about it, but quickly discarded his bitterness. What troubles he was experiencing now was nothing but breadcrumbs compared to the benefits he reaped and would soon harvest!
“Anyway,” Helzar turned his attention to the Motherbug in front of him. It was bloated and fat, even fatter than an obese Eater, if those existed.
The Motherbug was three centimeters long. It had four pairs of legs and at the end of its legs were sharp claws that could put a knife to shame. It could burrow quicker into human bodies using both its claws and mandibles.
“This Motherbug can lay Spawn eggs that would become three centimeters long, still with only two pairs of legs and wings.”
Helzar also added the Motherbug's claws to the new Spawns, improving its combat abilities. As for the Eaters, Helzar simply increased its size. After all, it was a storage unit. The bigger it is, the more energy it could store!
“This Motherbug can lay the enhanced Motherbug eggs too, but at a slow rate. It's not a problem now, but in the future, I predict it will grow into an issue.”
Helzar was looking forward to having that problem, as well as abhorring the idea of an inevitable bottleneck.
Meanwhile, a colony deep underground felt a disturbance outside their lair. The swarm of ants moved, their mandibles clattering in rage, their stingers twitching in anticipation, and their wings about ready to spread before they could even surface.
These ants had five centimeter long, spiky bodies, and their faces were as menacing as their enormous mandibles. They had crimson red exoskeleton, and though they looked bulky, they moved with the swiftness of the wind.
As they surfaced from their underground safe haven, they glared at the intruders hovering above their nest. Their wings instantly spread open, ready to take them into the skies.
Meeting their old adversary again, the Lava Ants couldn't be happier to remind them who's boss in the Western Continent!