---
Now unard, Darius lunged with hands. Kai slid behind, hooked neck with spear crook. He could finish, yet Darius’s hidden left hand yanked a vial and smashed it on the ground. A flash bomb of liquid glare. Kai’s optics seared white. Darius tore free, stabbed Kai’s side with a concealed stinger blade.
HP 200.
World tunneled. Darius staggered too, exhausted. Kai swayed. "This is a dying breath."
He inhaled, tasted iron and basilisk sap. He ate one three star core. Got 200 aura. Activated simultaneously Essence Overlord with the last of his strength. Spear tip drank, edge smoking. He charged blind mory of Darius’s aura.
Darius lifted his broken sabre with a broken wrist for the final block.
Kai thrust. tal screech... Light flared... And the aura shattered in mid-impact.
Dust floated in lazy ribbons above the shattered hall, lit only by moon-shafts pouring through the broken roof. Shards of black enal sabre lay everywhere, still steaming where Kai’s final thrust had seared them with Essence Overlord.
For a heartbeat nothing moved, until the crimson tip of Kai’s spear finished its trembling arc and clanged onto the flagstones. The sound rang like a lone bell announcing a new age.
Across the debris Darius knelt, impaled clean through the breastplate. Devouring darkness crawled from the wound, racing beneath his plates like spilled ink. His eyes, once bright with four-star rank arrogance, clouded over.
Kai’s balance faltered, his HP bar fluttered at 27 / 2000. But he kept his gaze locked on the traitor. "Enjoy your burial," he rasped.
Darius tried to raise a hand, whether to beg for rcy or curse Kai with his dying breath, this thought flowing inside his mind. But the spreading void turned joints brittle. With a final shudder, his aura guttered out and the body collapsed to the ground, shrivelling into grey husk as the Kai bit his heart with essence eater skill.
Kin-Devourer Effect triggered as he drinks deep. A hiss like wind through a crypt ssage washed over Kai’s thoughts.
[Ding! System notifications: Essence Eater activated, Kin Trait detected.
40 flat stats absorbed in all primary attributes.
Exclusive title earned: Devouring Monarch ]
He staggered, vision exploding into a lattice of red sigils. A geyser of scarlet data scrolled before his eyes.
[LEVEL-UP CHAIN COMPLETE.
30 ➜ 31 ➜ 32 ➜ 33
Star-Threshold reached.
Rank Advancent mission complete: Three Star Rank archive. ⭐ ⭐⭐
All Primary Attributes 30 (Rank up bonus)
King-Slayer (Kin) bonus 40 to all attributes
Queen-Mark: auto-purged from the host body. Status: UNBOUND
New Aura Cap: 3300
New HP Cap : 3000
Unallocated Points: 00
Lifespan increased by 10 years.
Total lifespan: 20 years. ]
Power detonated behind his sternum. Chitin plates liquefied, reforming into flexible dark armour that felt like living silk. Muscles rippled, bones lengthened. Pain burst white, but underneath, exultation surged, this was the path the System had always promised.
His back arched, a faint crackle raced along his carapace then dissolved. When he finally opened his eyes the world around him looked... smaller. No, he was taller. Ant form still, but elongated, almost humanoid. Sharp crimson sigils traced across polished obsidian armour, argent hair tumbled past his ears, framing iridescent red eyes. A single ruby node smouldered on the steel-black breastplate, shaped like a crown of mandibles.
"This... this is the form, now I look almost the sa as my previous life. But stronger and with a non-human nature." he realised. This is the HumanMonarch form, system had whispered of.
An erald screen shimred.
[Ding! System notifications: Evolution Option resolved.
Monarch Human Form selected.
Exo-Colossus Ant pathway given (locked), once its unlocked host can transform from human to ant or ant to human. Host can also change his body size big to small or small to big.)]
Kai flexed his new fingers, five-segnted digits ending in gloss-black talons but capable of gripping with a craftsman’s precision. His antennae had retracted to delicate silver hairline, sensory data now registered through them as well as through human-like eyes.
"I took out a noble, half reaper," he thought and a wry smile tugged across sharper lips.
More notifications was floating in front of his eyes.
[NEW Ultimate SKILL ACQUIRED.
Monarch Brand: Subordinate Creation
Imprint up to 10 living beasts or any species at or below current Rank (★ ≤ 3)
-Branding costs 400 Aura per target.
-Branded subject evolves into Ant-Hybrid form retaining original racial perks colony synergy
-Brand obeys Monarch’s direct commands, range limitless once bond stabilises
-Subordinate cap scales: 10 × (For current Star Rank)
-Warning: branding a sapient unwilling target risks instability backlash. ]
He chuckled through cracked lips. "So the throne cos with servants."
The last system panel blinked in satisfaction:
[Quest - Avenge Betrayal is COMPLETED.
Reward distributed.
Failure clause voided. ]
The stigma beneath his chest plate cooled, the first of three Ruler’s Roar charges gone forever. Worth it...
A lull fell. Kai let himself breathe, then strode to Darius’s husk, pried loose the warped core pouch, and fed four three-star stones into his Soul-Cube. The four-star captain core he kept separate, it pulsed like a dismbered heart, waiting to be repurposed. Feed all the blood to the egg. Miryam enjoyed it.
"Paynt in full."
Sudden warmth rippled across his abdon. He lifted the broken cuirass, the old Queen Mark, once branding every ant beneath the Seven-Star rank had faded into a faint ash trace. The purge lingered like a phantom itch. He was free at last.
"Mia..." The thought of the red-eyed princess landed soft, almost tender. "When I return, it will be as equal, not property."
But returning now would be suicide, the Queen might sense the void left by her mark and brand him traitor. Better to vanish, for now.
He extracted Miryam the egg from its padded pocket. The tiny oval glowed approvingly.
"You okay? Got a good al, didn’t we?"
A tiny trill brushed his thoughts. The egg was happy seeing Kai’s human form.
The fortress still scread chaos outside. Kai slipped along collapsed corridors, rcenaries lay scattered, most fainted by Ruler’s Roar shockwave. Those who rose were confused. He wasted no ti. "Ti to leave."
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