Crack— Crack…
Helzar's back cracked open, revealing three pairs of wings. Each wing was as big as him, who was three inches big.
‘Devouring hundreds of souls at once is a thrilling experience. Too bad, the chef didn't serve me more souls,’ Helzar sighed, recalling the Swarm's rise to infamy three months ago.
During the first month of the “apocalypse,” Helzar had the Lava Queen do a bit of heavy lifting. The Lava Ants were tasked to trap humans inside apartment buildings by blockading the doors and windows. With their ability to melt skin, flesh, and bones in moments, no one dared to brave a wall of Lava Ants.
At first, a few humans would escape through the upper windows. Fee died from improper landing, but most ended up fleeing with varying degrees of injury. Helzar didn't bother chasing after them and when the Lava Ants exploded in numbers, no one could escape whenever Helzar set his eyes on their home.
With the humans trapped, Helzar's Swarm would plant Motherbugs inside them, killing them within minutes at the latest and seconds at the fastest. With each human killed, the Swarm would gain dozens of thousands of Spawns and a few thousand of Motherbugs.
‘But with the constant upgrade on the Motherbugs and Spawns, less and less were produced in one human body.’
Currently, Helzar only gains a few thousand three inch Spawns, and a few hundred three inch Motherbugs. Helar didn’t bother producing Eaters, he wasn't stopping his massacre anytime soon. Furthermore, the agents can't halt his hunting spree completely, making Eaters redundant.
Seeing the rapidly growing Swarm, Alex sent hundreds of Agents to stop Helzar while he was doing who knew what. Alex must've missed his daily prayer to the goddess of luck, because Helzar killed all the Agents and devoured their souls, increasing his size to the current three inches.
‘After that delicious gift, Alex was selfish enough to stop agents from challenging me. I can't even ambush them because when the agents smell something suspicious, they'd scramble like cockroaches!’
Helzar cursed, flapping his wings and flying over to his “ally.” The Lava Queen was surrounded by Lava Ants, awaiting Helzar atop a long, rectangular table. There were Motherbugs and Spawns on the table too, and Helzar landed between them.
Helzar asked, unbothered by how big the Lava Queen is compared to him. Currently, the Lava Queen is a foot long! Her Lava Ants were half that, but they're still twice as big as Helzar.
After being mind controlled by Rex, the Lava Queen turned all her hatred from the organization to Rex, wishing nothing more than to melt the man into a puddle of human goop. One good thing was born from the humiliation, however.
When Helzar freed her from the mind control, she became sensitive to Rex's “signature,” and was able to sense whenever Rex would arrive. Each time, Helzar and the Lava Queen would make Rex scramble away.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
At the same time, the Lava Queen felt indebted to Helzar, something which the latter loved. ‘After all, pawns are only useful if they aren't treacherous.’
Helzar asked, making his insects crawl away upon seeing the Lava Queen dismissing her ants. Soon, the two were left alone, a king and a queen.
The birds she was talking about were the Sunlight Sparrows that Rex owns.
‘That Rex only has a dozen Sunlight Sparrows, and each of them can mind control others… though with how their ability worked, it should be more like hypnotism.’
Unlike the Spawns who control their victims like a puppeteer, the Sunlight Sparrows hypnotize their targets, making them do whatever Rex wants.
What made the Lava Queen call the Sunlight Sparrows “fake” was because despite their name and color, they weren't “fiery” in any way apart from their rebirth. Helzar theorized that the Sunlight Sparrows got their name because when they use their ability, they glow brightly like sunlight.
‘Those birds can't die, at least not in the ways I’m capable of. After “killing” them, their corpses would burst into blooming flames before they reform near Rex,’ Helzar sighed.
Although the birds had low firepower, their ability was a mess and a half to deal with, not mentioning Rex with his strange gloves.
Although she only gets one human corpse while Helzar gets five, she had trouble eating all the corpses brought to her. Unlike Helzar who had the Motherbugs, the Lava Queen lays all the eggs, meaning she also eats the most food among her colony. She struggled to eat all the humans given to her by Helzar, and most of them were either eaten by her ants, or simply stored away.
The Lava Queen gave a silent sigh, looking at her own body and wishing that she was a vacuum, or something alike.
After three months, she was sitting on several dozen millions of Lava Ants, while Helzar had more than a billion Spawns and several hundred million Motherbugs.
The Lava Queen abhorred even thinking about it.
At the same time, Helzar received news that an apartment the Swarm was feasting on was raided by the Agents. The Swarm forced them out, but the Agents managed to burn most of the corpses in the building, including the test subject Helzar was using.
Unfortunately, no Agents were killed. That would remain until Helzar fights the Agents himself.
‘That Alex won't be sending any Agents my way, halting my growth since two months ago,’ Helzar grumbled, wishing bad luck on his old, dear friend.
‘I had a theory about forcefully growing a soul in humans, but nothing's working so far,’ Helzar sighed as he landed on a nearby television. The television was turned on, displaying the news.
It was put on silent, however, and Helzar had no clue how to turn on the sound. He couldn't read either, despite knowing how to speak the human language. He simply didn't bother to learn how to read or write the human language.
The daily news was showing the devastated apartments that the Swarm had invaded, but Helzar couldn't care less.
‘Through mind control, the Spawns are trying to force all the energy of a human to their brains, hoping that they'll develop a soul that way.’
The experiment started a month ago, and it has yet to bear any fruits.
‘They need more time,’ Helzar concluded. Obtaining a soul was not easy unless they used Soul Contracts, which were a branch of magic that demons used.
‘Unfortunately, unless I give humans the Gluttony Contract, I can't force them to perform the “ritual,”’ Helzar shook his head. The Gluttony Contract required the user to personally “find” their soul, despite not having one. Helzar had no idea about the specifics of it, though he luckily completed the ritual.
Not only that, Helzar would die before he shares the Gluttony Contract with others!
The only Soul Contracts Helzar knows of were the Slave Contract and the Gluttony Contract, which was something he earned from killing the Lord of Gluttony.
Unfortunately for Helzar, all Moon and Moonlight Agents were ordered to never come close to Helzar. Hell, the apartment they recently raided would take Helzar a few hours to reach.
By then, Alex and all the Moon Agents would have arrived. Maybe the United Government would arrive too. Helzar could only die then.
Unbeknownst to Helzar, another colony of insects were about to make their grand debut!