Chapter 91: The Insect Nest
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A loud, earth-shaking roar echoed through the canyon as Elizabeth and Reinhardt finally saw the monstrous creature emerging from the depths below.
It was a massive, twisted chimera formed from several different insects. It possessed the head of a butterfly, a fly, and a praying mantis all fused together, the deadly scythes of a mantis, the broad wings of a moth, and a long tail that ended in a giant centipede. The creepiest detail of all was not its overall appearance, but the fact that an elven face protruded from its forehead, a face that bore a disturbing resemblance to Alfrion.
The creature was as large as a three-story building! At the same time, Elizabeth heard thousands of tiny footsteps echoing from every direction. From the thick red threads woven throughout the canyon, hundreds of small red insects began pouring out.
They looked like miniature versions of the giant monster.
[Nightmare Insect Chimera Queen – Rank 6+]
[Nightmare Insect Chimera Warriors – Rank 4+]
[Nightmare Insect Chimera Soldiers – Rank 3+]
There were also bulkier variants with thicker armor and much stronger scythes. Those were the Warriors, and they sat at Rank 4. Meanwhile the Queen herself comfortably occupied Rank 6. She hissed at Elizabeth, clearly surprised that the dragon girl was completely unharmed after being hurled such a long distance.
But the worst realization of all was that the enormous concentration of lifeforce… it all originated from this place. This nest. All the cocoons she now noticed dangling from the canyon walls and ceiling seemed to respond to the noise, twitching slightly.
They were people!
“Everyone…!”
Elizabeth sensed there were roughly thirty people trapped here, possibly even forty. At least half of the adventurers who had been present in the Adventurer Guild at that time were likely suspended inside those silk prisons.
The smaller bugs crawled all over the cocoons, covering them with even more sticky threads produced from their hardened saliva. Some of the insects stabbed their sharp centipede tails into the silk and injected venom directly into the victims.
“This is bad, Elizabeth! All the humans are trapped here and already poisoned! If we don’t get them out quickly, they’re going to melt into delicious soup!”
“Okay, I get it. You don’t have to say it would be delicious—”
“GRYYAAAARRR!”
The Queen hissed furiously and rapidly charged toward Elizabeth before leaping into the air. Her wings were not strong enough to let her fly freely because of her enormous weight, but they allowed her to hover briefly as she descended, aiming her razor-sharp claws straight at her target.
“Tsk!”
Elizabeth immediately summoned her Shapeshifting Weapon, transforming it into the Daylight Blade, and unleashed Grass Cutting in perfect combination with Sword Light.
SLAAASH!
A powerful wave of holy energy slammed into the red exoskeleton of the beast, sending it flying backward. It crashed hard into the canyon floor below, crushing dozens of its own offspring beneath its bulk.
Its armor, however, remained incredibly tough. The attack left only a long, shallow scratch across the surface.
“It’s tough as hell if even your attack didn’t do much!” Reinhardt shouted. “Elizabeth, what do we— Ahh! They’re coming!”
“Huh?!” Elizabeth’s eyes widened in alarm.
They had no time to breathe or form a proper plan. A giant swarm of flying Soldiers surged from every possible angle and completely overwhelmed them, dragging them downward.
Elizabeth felt hundreds of tiny jaws trying to bite every part of her body. They targeted her tail, her wings, and even her more vulnerable areas in an attempt to tear her apart.
Reinhardt cried out in horror, but Paragon’s living armor covered him completely and seemed completely impervious to their bites.
“Grrrr…! BEGONE!!!”
Elizabeth roared in pure anger and unleashed her Divine Aura together with a mighty Dragon Roar. A shockwave of Harmonious Energy exploded outward from her body. The weaker insects surrounding her instantly vaporized into ash, while the stronger Warriors barely survived, left half-charred and smoking.
“I am not so weak that freaking bugs can harass me like this!”
She roared again, sharpening her claws and combining their power with Harmonious Light.
“Dryad! Mongrel! Paragon! Take care of the small fry! I’m going after the Queen!”
Elizabeth noticed that the Queen had landed on the canyon floor and was already being healed by her servants while releasing a thick, pink-colored gas, pheromones that strengthened the entire hive and drove the insects into a berserk frenzy.
BBZZZZTTTT!
The hellish sound of hundreds of wings flapping at high speed echoed from every corner of the canyon as the swarm charged Elizabeth and her party once more.
She activated every available Dragon Skill’s active effects, Small Divine Presence, Young Dragon Scales, and Newborn Draconic Vitality, to gain every possible advantage before charging straight toward the Queen.
The hellish swarm of insects tried desperately to block her path, but she swung her claws in wide arcs and tore dozens of them apart with ease. She combined Sword Light with Dragon Claw for devastating results while simultaneously charging Harmonious energy into her Daylight Blade and swinging it at full power from a distance.
SLAAASH!
A horizontal slash created through Grass Cutting split through an entire wave of bugs, opening a clear path for her to advance.
Her Grimoire, Ariel, manifested at her side.
“Ariel! Set Automatic Spells… All of them!”
“!!!”
Ariel seemed to nod for a brief moment before unleashing dozens of glowing magic circles that began rotating around Elizabeth. Every single spell activated continuously and automatically.
This was the true power of Grimoires!
[Protective Shield+] quickly conjured multiple barriers around her and helped her withstand the pressure of the massive hive. At the same time, Ariel also created barriers around every member of the party. Whenever one of those barriers broke, she immediately formed a new one.
[Harmonious Mind+] cleared Elizabeth’s thoughts and smoothed her thinking process, allowing her to process information faster and remain fully active without growing tired.
[Celestial Cherubin] manifested four separate times, summoning small angels of light that fired arrows of pure radiance against nearby foes while simultaneously healing anyone in range, even from a long distance.
[Good Dreams] produced an especially interesting effect against Nightmares. It weakened them significantly by spreading a soft pink cloud throughout the area. The Nightmares lost their berserk status, became confused and sluggish, and allowed the party to cut through them much more easily.
And lastly, Ariel’s newest spell…
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
[Holy Beam] was simple yet incredibly powerful. Boosted by Elizabeth’s massive magical stats as a divine dragon, the beams became enormous, comparable in size and force to her own Harmonious Breath.
She greeted the Queen with dozens of these radiant beams, bombarding the massive insect from every possible angle.
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