Eliji ran through the tunnels with lightning speed, knowing that time was of the essence. Being too slow will ultimately lead to the mission failing, and being reckless will lead to his death. He didn't think much; he much preferred to act out orders, which is how he was able to get along with Selena, who was a natural leader. He still remembered the day they first met, as well as the reason and mission he had been assigned to by the deity they both believed in.
Due to the presence he imposed, multiple Fallen creatures had appeared to stop him, but all of them fell before his hands and claws. If Sunny could look inside the soul of Eliji, he would've seen a multitude of spirits inhabiting his soul. Flying about, staying idle, or waiting to be summoned, they were all souls that Eliji was now grazing within his soul and revered him, meaning he could make them stronger with the correct methods.
The strongest being a Transcendent Tyrant soul, however, using it was risky, as his flaw made it so the backlash on his soul would be tremendous, although the backlash was a one-time attack after activation. Whenever using a ranked soul below his rank, there was little to no damage on his soul, essentially allowing him to use it as much as he'd like. Souls that were on his rank did moderate damage or a little more, depending on the class. Those were what he used during battle, as low-ranked souls would mostly be used for convenience due to their low rank. Transcendent souls would essentially bring him out of the battle quickly due to their high level and backlash. The essence consumed for using the soul's ability rose higher as the rank and class increased.
Currently, he was merely operating with two souls, one used for lighting and the other to augment himself. The former was an Awakened soul, while the latter was a Fallen. Pulling out his arm from the corpse of a Fallen ant, he saw the spirit rise from the body. Without hesitation, he plunged his fist through the chest of the spirit ant before it could resist as he sensed a new spirit enter his soul. At the top of his arms, a translucent needle lay sticking to his wrist.
Quickly getting used to the new ability and slightly adjusting the position of the sharp needle, he moved forward, slaughtering group after group of Awakened and Fallen ants. At the next intersection, he went left and faced a dead-end, so he went back and kept going into tunnels until he found the right one leading deeper. Each nest the ants built, the layout was different, so no matter how well he memorized the last base, it would be impractical to think they built it the same again.
While traversing the tunnel, he ran into his first group of pure Fallen ants, a tenth of the Fallen battalion if his companion was correct. Moving in without hesitation, he struck at the head of the leading ant, instantly impaling and killing it before it could fight back. The ants behind it were angered as they quickly attacked while they moved closer, covering each other's blind spots as Eliji dodged and backflipped to prevent him from being surrounded. He maintained a certain distance from the ants as he returned to the spot where he set up a funnel made with dead corpses to help him deal with the group, which he had prepared in advance. However, the obviously intelligent Fallen ants knew the death trap from a single glance and stopped their advance, but this played right into his hands.
Upon them stopping, Eliji summoned a snake-like spirit in his soul sea as a ravenous green snake shimmered into existence. The snake was as big as the tunnel size, so, opening its mouth, it rushed forward and devoured the stunned ants as they were crushed and eaten in the jaws of the snake, which was the method for the snake spirit's evolution.
It gave a quick burp before disappearing back into his soul sea, and not before long, after adjusting to the familiar pain of his soul being shaken and damaged, he ventured deeper into the tunnels.
***
Saint moved methodically and calmly without any particular bodily expression, and she slew each ant with quick slashes from her sword at each of their weak spot and blocked with her stone shield. She had grown stronger, not physically but in her skill in battle, during her time venturing and hunting down weak creatures. She carried herself with strength like a veteran warrior, and it was obvious to anyone that her dark onyx figure was a walking disaster.
Despite it, the loyalty of the ants to their tyrant overcame their desire to fly, which could be seen as foolish or simple bravery. Saint didn't bother herself with any of these useless thoughts as she simply followed through with her master's command. She was a proud foot soldier of the Underworld and had participated in endless battles against corruption and other beings. She had no time or desire to even give a thought to the ants, not because of a feeling of superiority, but by feeling indifferent.
As she faced another group of Awakened creatures, she readied her sword before charging forward. Immediately, the pressure began as the ants, having been instructed by their queen, quickly went behind and attacked the wall in order to create a cave-in. It worked as the ants, and Saint was crushed by the crumbling tunnel roof.
The tunnel fully collapsed as some legs could be seen poking out from the collapse, but from the rubble came Saint, who seemed unhurt. There was an ant that had survived but was on the brink of death, with its lower body stuck under the weight of dirt. Saint had pulled herself out from the couple of tons of dirt with some struggle and, without hesitation, beheaded the ant, giving it undeserved mercy. However, she did not feel so she did not react as she proceeded to go down deeper into the tunnels.
***
"Grrrr," Bitey growled as he ate the meaty parts off the Fallen ant's body.
After leaving his master on the task to kill weak creatures, he had grown the habit of eating the delicious meaty parts of corpses. It was not that he needed substance to survive, as it was a shadow, but it satisfied its blood-hungry thirst. As it finished up, he quickly proceeded downward as he effortlessly wiped out more and more groups of ants.
***
The Ant Queen watched with horror as each of the four evaders massacred her army, which she had spent a year developing. But she was only slightly disturbed as it didn't matter if even all her army were executed as long as she survived. Once she did, she could restart in another place and rebuild, with a new army and a new nest. However, she was currently unable to leave as she was inside a huge embryo that took up half the cavern it was inside. It could only weakly communicate with her legion as she grasped the situation at hand.
It was not a normal tyrant in the slightest, as even impressive tyrants couldn't be compared to her. After her transformation, she would march out and crush the intruders into tiny bits, but for now, she stalled and bided for time as it grew stronger, bigger, and gained a terrifying presence.
***
As Sunny continued heading down, he finally sensed a heavy and dreadful presence that was suppressed, but he could merely make it out on the outskirts of his shadow sense. He could also sense the shadows of his shadows and Eliji, so he knew with the layout in mind that he could intercept Eliji, summon his shadows to his side, and with the four of them face the tyrant.
The walls shook with violent bangs as Sunny ran to the right and eventually met up with Eliji, who was in the middle of battling a group of Fallen ants. In a sneak attack, Sunny, along with Saint and Bitey, jumped in, and each of them took out one on their own due to the element of surprise.
Finally noticing their presence due to [Lord of Shadows] having hid them before, half of them turned around and faced them, eyes crimson with bloodlust and rage. Sunny had to parry two legs and, with his bottom arms, tried to cut off the bottom of the needle legs, but they quickly retracted. They threw an onslaught of attacks as Sunny relatively easily dodged and blocked before smashing his spiked tail into the face of the ant on the left, before cutting off a leg of the right ant. Screaming, it tried to pierce his head, but Sunny dove underneath and sliced off its head with the help of his shadows augmenting [Ashwake].He went to help his shadows out. In the end, the quick skirmish ended as Sunny then explained to Eliji that he found the queen while Bitey feasted upon the dead corpses, which he found odd.
'Bitey never did that before, neither had he seemed interested...' Sunny wondered if something major had happened while they ventured out to fuel Sunny's growing cores, but he didn't think so since Saint seemed to fight.
But, then again, it was hard to tell what was going on with the stone-cold war-hardened veteran Saint.
They started moving back the way he had returned, and now, with a target and their combined strength, they rushed through the waves of soldiers that tried to fight back. It was a total massacre as the spell rang in his ears each time Sunny killed a Fallen ant while Bitey single-handedly slashed through the shells of a couple of surrounding Awakened ants. Eliji, seemingly filled with silent hatred, was the first to dash into battle with Sunny behind to provide background.
Again and again, cavern after cavern and so forth, more and more bodies dropped. Sunny didn't even curse at the spell, as he hadn't gained any new memories, and he was so deep into the bloodshed and battle spirit. At times, he called upon the shadows to attack the same needle legs the ants had to his back or hands to extend his reach or take the ants by surprised, it was a nefarious but strategic strategy that reaped many ants who were slow to react. He did this because he had an inkling of a clue as to how to achieve the third step of Shadow Dance, but he would need to wait until he became an ascended to try it out.
Eventually, they faced a long, deadly tunnel that led to the queen. From what he could sense, it was guarded by what seemed to be the last of the guards, but he could tell from the deep cuts on their hides that they were veterans. Sunny would make them sorry they hadn't been discharged.
Eliji went in as the battering ram, as he clashed with a strong line of ants holding each other, slowing before completely stopping his charge. The ones on the side moved in, but Sunny and Saint were at Eliji's flank as all three of them began to slash or hit with immense force. Sunny had to be careful, but having long after shaking off his rustiness, he moved like a shadow between attacks coming from multiple ants. Above, below, from the side, they all failed to hit him, coming within a hair's breadth before he attacked back by the opening, whether that was attacking from below at their belly or their heads.
He could describe fighting the army of ants as fighting those Carapace Scavengers, but if he were to fight them now, it would be child's play. Eventually, they broke through and killed the last guard. They quickly dashed into the huge flat-roofed cavern, where in the center was a huge silver cocoon. Sunny was reminded of the room with cocoons as he "saw" the huge shadow that almost certainly belonged to the ant queen.
'Wait...' Sunny hesitated to move forward as he noticed an anomaly. The shadow seemed to get bigger, stronger, and more mentally straining to sense. He had thought the third anomality was merely the ant queen suppressing her presence and shadow in order not to be noticed, a concealment ability the tyrant had gotten when it had been a devil. But the formers only showed up once he got close enough to be in sight of where the shadow came from. Eliji must've also noticed an anomaly, as all four of them stayed in place, two formulating and thinking of the reasons for the issues and whether they should attack, and two having been told to stay.
While Eliji was busy with his thoughts, Sunny secretly summoned his chest and took out a ring before putting it on. After giving him a certain look, they nodded before moving quickly before anything else could happen and Sunny threw [Ashwake] into the cocoon before activating its explosion ability. The cocoon, like a bubble or balloon, popped open as green, seemingly sticky, corrosive oozed out of the cocoon rapidly as the white cage started to lower in volume.
At the same time, he threw both his daggers, augmented by his shadows, and Eliji threw in a ball of flame that burned as bright as the sun into the deflating cocoon. Not a second later, they heard screaming inside as Sunny felt the shadow of the ant queen suddenly turn loose and weak, as he suspected that whatever the queen had been doing, which he suspected was increasing in rank, was interrupted just like how Nephis attacked the Fallen Terror atop the Crimson Spire.
However, Sunny immediately felt as if his head had been hit by an iron Warhammer as blood started dripping from his nose as he shut off his shadow senses quickly, which stopped the immediate attack, but he was still suffering from the effects he had gotten from sensing the shadow of the ant queen.
'What the hell happened! Are we too late in stopping the descention of corruption of the ant queen... wait!' Sunny's eyes opened in shock as he had a crazy thought.
They weren't late in stopping the increase of rank; the completion must've been close enough that the queen was in a damaged state of a Corrupted Tyrant, not complete yet, nowhere near the ordinary Fallen Tyrant. Thus, the tyrant, who was supposed to take on a new, more powerful form but was stopped during its transformation, was becoming something unknowingly horrid and random, becoming what was expected of something corrupted, a swarm of wiggling worms or a frightening sea monster with terrifying tentacles.
Its corruption leaked out of it like the faulty faucet that he had previously had when his mother was alive. Its new body would naturally be filled with more corruption, which was the source of its strength, but since it had nowhere to store it, its physical body was trying to accommodate it by finding a new form.
Little did he know he was right, but he would only be sure of it after the fight.
However, his thoughts came to a halt as he saw what came out of the cocoon.
The ant queen... no, whatever it had become, was something that even frightened Eliji as they all took involuntary steps backwards. Sunny could barely withstand looking at the truly corrupted thing. Physically, in his soul, he could feel a wicked and evil corruption taking root inside his soul, trying to corrupt him. The queen's legs popped out of the cocoon and had turned into melting wax that tried to form into sturdy, unbreakable legs, but it kept failing as its "legs" would turn into a variety of shapes.
'The failed queen.' Sunny, terrifyingly called the new horror that was born into the equally horrifying worlds. Unholy was the only fitting term.