Chapter 77: Approaching Storm

As soon as the command left his throat, the bodies of the zombie Blood Ants shook. Almost instantly, their lingering fear vanished as a new determination took hold.

Their king had already given his order, and what was now left was for them to obey.

As his subordinates, how could they not?

Whether it was the ants that were previously in conflict with these three members of the Radiant Stars, the hundreds of ants that had gathered on the fourth and fifth floors to protect Eris, or even the zombie Blood Ant soldiers and Eris who were at the deepest part of the nest on the seventh floor—every single one of them heard Ethan’s voice.

And the moment they did, their minds were put at ease.

Why?

Because they solely believed that as long as their king was with them, no hurdle could stop them.

It didn’t matter how powerful the enemy was or how dangerous the situation became; their king had given them an order, and that alone was enough.

Without waiting any further, all of Ethan’s subordinates moved at once.

The ants that were closest to the trio immediately opened their mandibles and pounced upon them.

Their legs scraped against the stone floor as they rushed forward, almost as if a huge wave of the sea was closing in on them.

"Shit!"

Hearing the sudden commotion behind them, the trio twisted their bodies only to see the enormous wave of zombie Blood Ants rapidly approaching them.

At once, they moved their bodies to dodge, with Owen swinging his remaining hair-covered arms. At the same time, Derek dragged his exhausted body towards the side, and Liam stumbled backwards, desperately attempting to create some distance.

However, regardless of their efforts, they were inevitably nearing death.

On one side, they certainly couldn’t handle so many Blood Ants at once, especially when their bodies had already been nearly exhausted from the continuous battle.

Owen could barely lift his arms anymore, while Derek had only one arm remaining. As for Liam, he couldn’t even gather enough Nox to create another ice spike.

At the same time, they couldn’t retreat either. The mysterious zombie was standing directly in their way towards the third floor.

Although he had only appeared a few moments ago, the trio had already concluded that he was a powerful zombie. Let alone his own presence, just the fact that he could control these zombie Blood Ants made him extremely dangerous.

"Move!" Owen roared at the top of his lungs like an injured hunter of the wild.

The three immediately ran towards the sides of the tunnel, pressing their backs against the walls in order to secure themselves before resisting the incoming ants with the last traces of strength within their bodies.

Owen raised both of his arms, his dense hair immediately spreading across his forearms despite the large patches that had already been torn apart.

Derek stood beside him, his remaining hand clenched tightly as he prepared to fight with everything he had left.

Liam stood slightly behind them, his pale fingers trembling as he desperately attempted to squeeze out even a tiny amount of Nox from his exhausted body.

Even though they knew they couldn’t escape this predicament, they were still hoping for some kind of miracle.

Maybe someone would come; maybe the Envoy had discovered their location—as long as it wasn’t death, they were hoping for it to be true.

During this time, their eyes crossed each other. Even within silence, they could see the fear within one another’s eyes.

For several breaths, none of them spoke and solely focused on defending themselves. Then Owen suddenly gritted his teeth and shouted towards Ethan.

"If you can control these monsters, then you’re intelligent enough to understand us!" His voice echoed through the tunnel, though Ethan remained completely silent.

"Please, just let us go!" Owen continued, his voice becoming increasingly desperate. "I swear on my name that I’ll never attempt to harm you again!"

Throwing away his ego, Derek immediately followed. "That’s right!" He raised his voice while several ants began crawling over the corpses surrounding them.

"We’re leaving this place! We won’t come back, we won’t tell anyone about you, and we’ll forget everything we saw here!" Liam swallowed his fear before shouting as well.

"Please!" His voice was trembling the most. "We don’t have to be enemies; we can leave peacefully. You don’t have to kill us!"

However, to their horror, no response came through.

Ethan simply stood there and silently observed them from the other end of the tunnel.

The three began exchanging glances again as their hearts sank deeply.

A strange coldness permeated their fingers and lungs as their bodies slowly reached their absolute limits.

Owen’s breathing became increasingly rough, as he began faintly gasping after each breath. "Damn it..." he whispered before raising his voice again.

"Can’t you understand what we’re saying?!"

"Then what do you want?!"

When no response came through, Owen’s eyes gradually became red.

"We’ll give you anything!" Derek’s expression changed as he hurriedly added.

"That’s right, anything you want! Resources, information, anything from Valeria City—we’ll get it for you!" Liam’s throat tightened as he yelled too loudly and lost a portion of his voice.

"We can even tell you about the humans outside; we can tell you where the other awakened settlements are. Just let us go!"

The ants continued approaching as their bodies slowly disappeared beneath the countless black and crimson limbs.

The three could no longer even see Ethan clearly.

"Please!" Derek shouted.

"Please, we’re not your enemies!" Owen’s voice became hoarse.

"I don’t want to die here!" Liam’s eyes became filled with tears as his knees almost gave out.

"I beg you..."

"I beg you, please let us go!"

Even then, Ethan’s mind remained unmoved.

Threats. Requests. Promises. Tears.

None of it mattered at all.

The humans had already entered his territory and had killed a huge number of his subordinates.

Now they were begging him for mercy only because they had realized that they were losing.

Ethan couldn’t help but find it almost ridiculous. ’If I were the weaker one, would they have let me go?’

The wave of blood ants finally reached them. Owen roared as he swung both arms forward, smashing several ants away with his remaining hair gauntlets, while Derek used his remaining arm to crush another one that attempted to climb over his shoulder.

"NO!"

The first mandible pierced through Owen’s defense. His expression twisted as another ant immediately climbed onto his body.

Derek attempted to help him, but several ants instantly surrounded his body, their mandibles tearing into his already wounded flesh.

"Get off me!" He screamed, violently shaking his body. But there were simply too many.

Their defenses had been breached.

Countless mandibles tore through their flesh at once, allowing deep red blood to spray across the surrounding walls as their screams echoed through the tunnel.

Liam desperately attempted to crawl backwards, his hands scraping against the ground as his eyes remained filled with terror.

"Wait!" His voice cracked as his eyes begged for mercy. "Please!"

Owen’s screams gradually became weaker while Derek’s struggling movements slowed.

Liam’s eyes widened as several ants surrounded his body from every direction.

"No... no, please..." His voice became barely audible before the ants eventually completely covered him and the others.

Ethan, on the other hand, silently watched everything happen.

He ignored their pleas as though he had gone deaf. He didn’t even blink an eye at their deaths. After all, he was facing yet another problem up ahead.

༺━━━━━━༺༻━━━━━━༻

Outside, the terrain had undergone extreme changes.

Several kilometers of ground around the cave’s entrance had been razed completely.

Trees and all sorts of vegetation had already disappeared from the surroundings, while the soil and rocks had been reduced to dust-sized debris.

Chaotic patterns covered the ground from the countless winds sweeping across the area.

In the air, the zombified Ironfeather Eagle was fighting the Envoy relentlessly.

Its enormous wings continuously flapped as it simultaneously attacked him with its claws, beak, and even its wings.

Each of its movements carried enough force to completely crush an ordinary D-rank awakener.

However, its attacks were deemed useless against the Envoy’s defenses.

Under these chaotic wind currents, the Envoy’s powers had been amplified, allowing him to wrap live wind currents around his body and create sustainable armor.

Through this, he was only barely able to defend himself, since the eagle’s strength far surpassed his own.

Although its claws were able to penetrate through the fast-moving wind currents surrounding his body, they couldn’t reach his actual flesh, as the currents constantly redirected the force and trajectory of each attack.

Similarly, although the Envoy could defend himself, he couldn’t properly counterattack. He would need to remove the wind currents around his body to launch an attack.

Frankly speaking, the battle had become a deadlock, turning into a battle of attrition.

However, that was exactly what the Envoy had wanted.

’The Ironfeather Eagle has certainly been zombified.’ His eyes shone with coldness as he continued moving through the surrounding currents.

’As long as I can persevere through its attacks for long enough, its intellect will surely dissipate, and it’ll be much easier for me to kill it.’

The longer a zombie remained separated from its consciousness, the more its intelligence would gradually deteriorate.

This would only make zombies more violent and predictable.

If the Envoy could simply drag the battle out long enough, then perhaps the strange intelligence keeping this monster’s mind together would eventually collapse.

But just then, his eyes suddenly widened as his body froze for a fraction of a moment before he suddenly twisted his neck and looked into the distance.

Something was approaching; he neither heard any footsteps nor sensed any other monster, but instead, a familiar energy.

The Envoy’s expression immediately turned dark as he felt a wind current carrying that energy through the air. Although it was incredibly faint, it carried a weak yellow lightning to it.

His jaw tightened with burning anger. "So you didn’t die after all..." His voice was filled with spite as his eyes stared towards the distant forest.

Then, after a brief moment, he snarled. "My dear student."