The war set ablaze, hotter than molten iron. Spawns littered the ground, their blood oozing out in a blue sea from their mutilated bodies. The soil squelched with each step, drowning in Spawn blood without enough Spawnlings slurping up their sibling's fluids.

Human blood touched none of the earth, not even a red stain visible on the ground. In this afternoon feast, no human blood will be spilled, not with the Swarm still in the air!

BZZZ—

Helzar hovered above a human corpse, protected by the Swarm. All the Motherbugs flew around him like a ring, while the more than fifty million Spawns made a sphere barrier with Helzar in the middle.

Helzar slowly descended, his eyes spewing out faint blue mist. Burning stares landed on him, watching as his hands of death slowly touched their downed companion.

“You monster!” An Agent growled through gritted teeth. His eyes were bloodshot, and his knuckles turned white from gripping his weapon. Yet, he didn't move.

With Helzar recalling the Swarm to protect him, they were allowed a breather. He would be a fool to charge headfirst to embrace death in person!

With the evolved Spawns, Helzar's killing spree ensued. The Agents, besides Alex, numbered twenty two. One died after Zhar's sacrifice, and Helzar led the Swarm to kill five more agents, all of them being elites!

Helzar chuckled, his voice unfamiliar even to himself. Ominous blue tentacles manifested from his body, burrowing inside the Elite Agent's skull.

[AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!]

“Fucker,” another agent swore, seeing their dead coulege madly twitching in pain, even in death. His soul screamed in agony, before turning silent within Helzar's grasp.

Helzar spat, taking flight when the Elite Agent's head began decaying rapidly. A second ticked by and the human head was no more, turning into a disgusting, slimy meatball stuffed with a human skull.

Helzar retracted his tentacles back inside his body, absorbing the soul in the tentacles’ grasp.

Feeling the chill embracing his soul, Helzar hummed in pleasure. His soul was more powerful than the Elite Agents, but it would take time to digest the souls he devoured.

Not only that, most of the soul energy will be lost in the process, something no one, not even demons, can find a way around.

Helzar gazed at the Agents, his eyes aflame with cold fire. The ring of Motherbugs had flown beneath him, eagerly feasting on the human corpse.

“You're soulless, you know that?” A taunting voice entered Helzar's ears. The voice was familiar, and upon a closer look, Helzar couldn't help smirking.

Helzar's body brightened and glowing blue stripes started wrapping around his body. The Nest attached to him deflated, before completely “disappearing” inside his “main body.”

With cracks appearing all over his exoskeleton, Helzar's body grew to five centimeters with another pair of legs sprouting from his body. At the same time, his wings expanded, before another pair grew out of his back.

Helzar focused his soul energy to create a thick “string,” targeting one person in particular. The agent wasn't wearing the elite uniform, but Helzar could sense that his soul was stronger than the other agents, only behind Alex.

“Me?”

The Agent raised his spear, intending to cut the blue string reaching for his forehead. The string dodged, before suddenly bursting forward!

The Agent jerked, narrowly dodging the lethal strike as he backed away in a rush. His blood was pumping through his veins from the close call, but he kept a smile on his face.

“What about me, winged termites?”

The Agent scowled, mixing it with a sneer.

“An end? Yeah, yeah, talk all you want,” Jason scoffed. Suddenly, his body twitched and he moved as though he was ignoring gravity and the air around him. With a grin plastered to his face, he raised his spear, aiming at Helzar. Narrowing his eyes, his spear rocketed toward Helzar at doubtful speeds!

“Don't you know that villains die from talking too much?” Jason snickered, watching his spear crouse through the air, primed to hit Helzar's body. After his little trick, his weight seemed to double and his movements became sluggish.

Helzar saw it all. From the moment Jason's body suddenly sped up, to the moment the spear was already in front of him.

Helzar chuckled, blue tentacles bursting out of his body and catching the spear. With a hair's width to spare, Helzar evaded death.

Hearing the unrelated words uttered, Jason raised an eyebrow. “You good?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He clasped his hands together and the spear in front of Helzar's face vanished, manifesting beside Jason in a blink of an eye.

After retrieving the spear, Jason saw another agent sneaking toward Helzar. Helzar's back was faced toward Alex, but it was impossible to sneak up behind the Swarm.

There were millions of Spawns around Helzar, if none of them saw Alex, Helzar would kill himself!

“All Agents, charge! Kill the Swarm!” Alex yelled, waving his sword and effortlessly putting a hole through the sphere of Spawns. Helzar had just enough time to see a sword swiftly descending on him, making him ignore the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Spawns.

Helzar’s wings buzzed, glowing brightly in blue and he was already behind Alex. Alex twisted his body forcefully, swinging his sword at Helzar in a fluid motion.

Helzar's body glowed, blue tentacles reaching out to block the sword.

‘It’s too fast,’ Helzar felt his mind racing. He wanted to fly away, but his wings were numb with the overload of soul energy.

Seeing his tentacles about to be torn by the sword, Helzar felt bittersweet.

‘I’ll evade the lethal blow, but a lot of my soul energy will be consumed… just when I finally harvested a lot through the agents,’ Helzar sighed.

“I don't know how you'll do that in the afterlife,” Alex scoffed, watching his sword narrowly missing Helzar. He would've chased Helzar, but a wall of Spawns blocked his way.

If he tried charging through it like earlier, he'd be sure to invite Motherbug to live rent-free under his skin.

Alex sighed, jumping back and joining his agents.

“You lost six Elites?” Alex took a deep breath, letting out his frustrations with a heavy sigh. His seemingly eternal headache was now gone, he didn't want it back.

“Well, we were up against the Swarm, Chief,” Jason shrugged, a little sarcasm mixed in there.

“Watch your damned mouth, boy!” An Elite Agent scowled, glaring at the disrespectful Jason. Alex raised his hand, showing that he was unbothered.

“The Lava Ants have been pushed back for now. I injured the Lava Queen and that made them overly aggressive,” Alex narrated. “Until the Lava Queen calms her ants, engaging in combat with them is too dangerous.”

Alex narrowed his eyes at Helzar, who was covered by millions of Spawns.

“For now, we’ll kill the Swarm. All of you, support me in whatever way you can,” Alex said, crouching with his sword ready for blood.

BOOSH!

With a jump, Alex was already zooming toward Helzar.

“You heard the man, let's go!” Jason laughed, running after Alex while earning the ire of the rest of the agents.

Helzar's strings made from soul energy bursted out, before merging into tentacles. He was amused by the reaction of his subconscious mind, but he pushed the tentacles back into his body.

‘Not yet. I can't win against that,’ Helzar consoled himself.

Helzar hissed out and instantly, more than half of the Swarm u-turned and swarmed Alex. The Swarm was already down to less than 50 million, and Helzar was willing to sacrifice 30 to 40 million Spawns in exchange for his life.

‘On the run, just like always,’ Helzar felt exhaustion overtake his mind. His doubts caught up to him, and fatigue weighed him down.

‘I’m acting like a fucking coward, what brought me so low?’ Helzar's was drowning in his thoughts, ignoring the slaughter behind him. The Swarm successfully halted Alex's charge, but they were rapidly dying.

‘Alex is just a small fry, yet I'm having so much trouble. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to sacrifice more?’

As though on queue, 10 million Spawns joined the swarm against Alex, buying more time for their king.

‘The agents are my main enemy. They pop their ugly heads too often for the Swarm to properly grow,’ Helzar furiously flapped his wings, turning them blue. He was burning more soul energy and his wings felt like burning, but he couldn't care less.

‘I’ll kill them all. A genius? A future prophet? None of them matter in the face of my Swarm.’

Helzar poured even more soul energy into his wings, flying like a bullet out of the park.

While he was drunk in his thoughts, the Lava Ants joined his escape. They weren't as fast as Helzar, but the Lava Queen certainly was!

The voice invading his head disrupted Helzar's train of thought. He felt no rage, nor amusement. Instead he remained silent, pondering his words.

Helzar said in a cool tone. Through his link with the Swarm, he used more of his dwindling soul energy to have them fly faster toward him.

The Lava Queen was alone, having left behind her ants to intercept Alex. Otherwise, both her and Helzar would be a goner by now.

Helzar knew this too, but he didn't care one bit.

the Lava Queen hissed, flying toward Helzar but was intercepted by the Swarm who arrived in time.

Faced with Helzar's army, even the Lava Queen felt a bit of fear.

Helzar sneered.

The Lava Queen hissed, refusing to back down. Her stubbornness hid her fear, if not erasing it from her body.

Helzar rebutted. While the Lava Ants did delay Alex, they could never do so without the Swarm already stalling Alex.

<...let's work together, bug.>

Helzar barked, coming to a grinding halt before surrounding the Lava Queen with the Swarm. A singular tentacle came out of his body, trying to intimidate the lone queen.

His soul energy was too drained to form more tentacles.

Helzar halted the Lava Queen. Though he was acting tough and uninterested, he was intrigued by the Lava Queen's offer.

‘The Lava Ants are useful and strong, although they're slow to multiply. Despite that, they were able to equal the Swarm’s strength,’ Helzar calculated. He suspected that if Alex and the Agents didn't intervene, the Swarm would've lost to the Lava Ants.

‘The Lava Ants have more abilities compared to the Spawns who can only bite. That will change soon, however,’ Helzar kept his thoughts hidden from his potential “ally.”

the Lava Queen offered one more time. This time, Helzar had the Swarm retreat back to him, giving the Lava queen some face.

Helzar said, stating a fact.

the Lava Queen sneered. Helzar chose to ignore the last sentence.

the Lava Queen offered.

Helzar chuckled.

The Lava Queen hissed, red hot venom dripping from her body.

Helzar hummed.

Helzar started, flying closer to the Lava Queen while retracting his tentacle.

The Lava Queen spat, ready to charge at Helzar when suddenly, a mist engulfed her body. She felt sluggish, but it barely bothered her. What made her unsettled though was the glowing patterns on Helzar's body and his glowing blue eyes.

She felt like her soul was trembling in anxiety.

Helzar chuckled.

Helzar breathed, the mist growing thicker. The Devouring Mist engulfed only a small area, covering nothing but Helzar and the Lava Queen. As he waited, the Spawns crept into the Devouring Mist, enjoying the thrill filling their veins as their eyes glowed similar to Helzar.

Helzar grinned, opening his mandibles wide like a demon smirking at the person who dared to summon him.

<...that sounds suspicious.>

Helzar burst into laughter. Helzar shrugged.

Helzar chuckled, slowly approaching the Lava Queen. The mist kept thickening, though the Lava Queen failed to notice.

<...>

The Lava Queen calmed down, pondering the deal for a bit.

Helzar laughed, flying next to the Lava Queen.

A thin tentacle reached out for the Lava Queen, making her focus on it.

the Lava Queen touched the tentacle with one of her legs. She was five inches big, and Helzar was only five centimeters.

Yet, she somehow felt small after touching Helzar's tentacle.