With a grasp as warm as a candle's touch, honey-like azure blood crawled to where Helzar stood. But as the blood circled around his feet, Helzar felt like ice was climbing his body, turning his heart cold and his blood even colder.

Staring into Zharan's lifeless vessel, dark-blue mist seeped out of Helzar's exoskeleton and slowly covered what remained of Zharan. Very soon, the mist covering Zharan's frame began shrinking until moments later, Zharan was no more.

<...>

Delving into his soul, Helzar watched the tiny soul that was flickering next to his soul. It was weak, fragile, and helpless, and it couldn't even stably remain in Helzar's soul.

Helzar asked, even though he knew weak souls couldn't feel emotions.

Helzar hissed, his mandibles clattering he spat more of his Devouring Mist. Hearing his call, a Seed crawled wordlessly toward Helzar, and Helzar drove one of his legs into the Seed's head.

Helzar's eyes began glowing in a brilliant blue.

With a roar, the Devouring Mist suddenly exploded, expanding to more than thrice its initial size. The lightless sewer was illuminated by a pale blue glow, banishing the aura of gloom within the tunnels.

At the epicenter of this brilliance, Helzar stood still as he guided a weak soul into the Seed's head, burning energy as he did so. Spawns crawled and shoved each other to climb Helzar's back, before promptly splitting their heads and abdomen apart with their sharp limbs. As warm flesh coated Helzar's exoskeleton, a warm rush of energy gave him the power to keep guiding the weak soul.

Otherwise, his own energy was years away from being enough to utilize the barbaric technique he was forcing.

As strong as souls are, they are fragile against the physical realm. Even a simple flick could destroy a healthy soul, let alone a dying one. Without Helzar's guidance and the energy of thousands of Spawns covering the weak soul, it would've long evaporated.

Even then, as Helzar was crudely stuffing Zharan's soul inside an unprepared body, he doubted whether Zharan could live. He heard of demons capable of transferring souls to other objects, but he wasn't a demon who knew how to do that. In all technicality, he was still a “newborn.”

As though a burning bonfire, the Devouring Mist raged before quietly receding as though it had burned all its wrath. When the sewer was basked in darkness once more, a motionless Seed was standing before Helzar. The Seed was like a statue, a living statue but a statue nonetheless.

Helzar called, but the Seed didn't respond as expected. He couldn't telepathically link with the Seed anymore, but he could still feel its vigorous vitality.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

‘It’s up to Zharan at this point. I wish you a smooth recovery… friend,’ Helzar sighed.

CHAA!

Helzar yelled, his voice echoing inside the hearts of his Spawns. About half of the Swarm died just to help Helzar transfer Zharan's soul, but he ignored this sacrifice.

SHAAA!!!

With his call dropping like a hammer to an anvil, the Swarm numbering in half a billion gushed through the tunnels and erupted aboveground, jetting up and eating whatever they saw. Giant Cockroaches, Giant Bees, and even the mutated worms with big serrated teeth, springtails were like bouncing balls of flesh, half-foot flies infesting the ocean of dead and the occasional human-sized snakes were not spared from the Swarm's hunger.

‘The Swarm must move on. We can't be trapped in here forever,’ Helzar looked at the ground as he flew closer toward the unreachable clouds. Originally, his plan was to rally up the armies of La'Queen and Zharan together with the Swarm and migrate elsewhere.

Who could've guessed that before he could even move a leg, his allies were already being killed.

‘The only way to win this war is by eliminating the other colony,’ Helzar silently followed the trail of Giant Bee corpses.

‘To eliminate their colony, their Queen must die!’

Remembering his previous encounter with the King of Bees, Helzar poured gallons of gasoline in his blood before igniting it with a bomb.

‘Most of the Swarm died all because I was slow in development. I should've assumed there were other continents, and I should've gathered more information from the humans!’

Alas, Helzar could only swallow his regrets. He couldn't turn back time, after all.

‘I don't know which route the bees took to get here. But if I fly in a straight line, surely I'll reach some land, right?’ Helzar clicked his mandibles at the idea. Naturally, he knew it was impossible to fly indefinitely, and he himself couldn't do it, let alone the Swarm.

‘Screw it,’ Helzar cursed. To get to the shore, the Swarm had to cross through a mountain range and a forest that Helzar barely touched after conquering it.

The journey took less than half a dozen suns and moons. As the Swarm neared the mountains range, Helzar quickly found something odd after a swift look.

Helzar frowned. He and La'Queen spent several weeks clearing all life in this mountain range in the past, and he was sure they killed every single animal in there.

Not even another colony of ants, termites, or even bees were spared from their killing spree. Sharpening his eyes, Helzar located the intruders with barely any effort.

There were simply too many of them to not spot a few at first glance.

Commanding the Swarm to land, Helzar gazed on the mutated animals that silently took over one of his territories.

‘Strange, the Spawns never came across these mutated animals during their patrols.’

Helzar's territory was 100% covered in Spawns before the invasion of the Giant Bees, making it impossible to avoid detection. Unless someone used some sort of teleportation to transport all those mutated animals, Helzar couldn't fathom how they got there.

Helzar growled, his deep metallic voice stunning the mutated animals. Very soon, they were swarmed by the Spawns, and not even their bones remained.

Unlike the magic-infused organisms like the Spawns or the Giant Bees, the Spawns could fully digest normal flesh and bones in less than an hour.

A day was like a snowflake in the summer, melting before it could even touch the ground. During this time, Helzar observed the mutated animals as well as the surrounding terrain.

Helzar had the Spawns scout the edge of the mountain range and a few thousand returned to their old nest as well.

The Spawns who made a trip back to their old nest had yet to fly back, but the ones who scouted the outskirts of the mountain range all reported one thing.

Helzar stretched out his wings and flew to the skies. Hovering high above, he looked out while enhancing his vision. At such a high vantage point, he could see the Swarm hunting the mutated animals as usual.

Helzar wanted to rejoice, wasn't this paradise? But at one speck in his heart, he couldn't let out a breath. It chilled his stomach, leaving him breathless and making his heart beat faster and faster.

Helzar yelled, flying back to where he came from. He had a great memory, and he never forgot which direction they flew from.

However, every hour that he spent here, his memory was slowly clogging. When he realized that even soul energy couldn't melt the grease smearing his mind, Helzar finally brewed up his escape.