Newfound Advantage (1/2)
We then see a glimpse of the Arkin pushing deeper into the tunnel systems. The battle in these parts are going comparatively smoothly, evident by how little effort they had to put into securing the key points in the Ant's hideout.
All day long, Kaalhyme and the other chief officers receive reports about how chokepoint after chokepoint are being secured. Ever so slowly, the Ant Queen is running out of places to hide.
Oddly enough, Haalfrin insists on having everyone focus on securing the areas around the Threshold instead of directly attacking the Queen. Many of the generals think that this is the prime time to take her out.
Haalfrin, however, believes that the Queen is still too powerful; not only does he want to slowly build up his Death Aura reserve by slaughtering the helpless Ants, but he also wants to finish cultivating all of his Wills into Arkin, as well as help the Arkin grow to the most powerful they can be – all while not being overly invasive.
He knows full well the tactical value of keeping his true numbers a secret. He also knows that if he lets his men fight the Queen in smaller trickles, then the Queen would be able to eat more of his forces and gain more mana. He can't allow this.
However, if they pretend they're still numbering a few ten thousand, then attack with half a million all at once, then the Queen won't stand a chance!
Even more, Haalfrin's arcane technology crew are coming up with new spells all the time. For one, they've learned how to replicate the Spatial folding technology found in the more advance Death Realm worlds.
With the ability to fold space on top of itself, he's able to fit far more things in the Hall of Valor than before, allowing him to have far more soldiers than is apparent.
This is the perfect way to surprise the Queen with an overwhelming invasion.
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"When's that human and his pointy eared demons going to attack?" the Queen wonders as she paces back and forth.
"Mom?" one of her 'children' asks, "Why would you WANT them to attack us? It's scary when they attack."
"I Advanced my Reh Name," the Queen answers. "That means I have a surprise for them."
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What Haalfrin assumes is several decades pass by as his forces steadily grow stronger and stronger. With the Ants being increasingly unable to fight back, the Arkin are able to kill the Ants many times more efficiently than before; with more Death Aura, their rate of growth increases as well.
Once the snowball effect starts, Haalfrin knows that the Queen will be unable to do very much about it.
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Finally, after who knows how long, Haalfrin is sure that his forces and himself are more than a match for the Queen. When he gives the signal, a numberless host of demons descend from the sky and fly towards the Threshold – all to take back their home!
In order to clear out as many Ants as possible, Haalfrin has his men venture through the tunnels instead of flying over the plains and landing on the Threshold directly; he doesn't want to risk having the Queen hiding in a random corner and escaping.
After several days of one sidedly slaughtering the Ants, Haalfrin holds up his sword and yells to his men, "WE CAN SEE THE THRESHOLD FROM HERE!"
He looks at the Threshold and grins in anticipation. He has nearly half a million Arkin now – all of which are either 5th or 6th Gate mages by now. With 70% of his forces directly behind him, he's feeling pretty unstoppable right now.
(Of course, 10% of his soldiers were left behind to guard the Hall of Valor, and another 20% are holding key areas in the tunnels and double checking all the Queen's potential hiding places.)
During the battle in the tunnels, they had baited the Queen and tricked her into going into another part of the tunnels. They only had about 10,000 Arkin there, and the Queen was still under the impression that 10K was a significant portion of their forces.
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Just as Haalfrin is marching with his army into clear view of the Threshold, the Queen is looking through her children's eyes and gasping in shock. Something isn't right…
The Arkin? Why are there hundreds of thousands of them!? HOW DID HAALFRIN GET SO MANY!?
The Queen almost curses aloud… but then she remembers the plans she had rehearsed long ago, after she advanced her Reh Name. Yes. There's still hope.
With practiced precision, the Queen pulls out a dagger and… immediately slits her own throat.
"AAHH!" one of the Ant children cries in shock and grief. "Mother! No! Why!?"
Did their mother give up on the battle and choose to surrender the cowardly way? Why would she kill herself?
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There is an Ant who had buried herself deep in the ground – utterly fearful of the demons sweeping the tunnels. The girl had barely managed to enter her stasis mode in time to avoid being spotted by the pointy eared monsters.
Just when the girl thinks she's safe, her eyes roll to the back of her head, and she gasps in pain.
After convulsing futilely in her small hole, a great power wells up in her body, and she stands up from her hole.
"Ah! Missed one!" one of the demons smiles while pulling his sword. "Go on ahead boys. I'll get this one over with real quick."
Before he can swing his blade down, the little Ant moves faster than he can see – so fast, in fact, that she breaks the sound barrier.
Before the demon in front of her, nor his friends, can register, all of them lie "dead" at her feet.
Smiling victoriously, the Ant girl outstretches her hand, and countless sparkling dots fly out of her skin… only for each of these speckles of light to sprout up into full sized Ants.
"Mother!" they cry in chorus.
"Yes yes," the Queen rolls her eyes. "I'll head for the demon's castle; you'll spread out and hide in these tunnels and lock yourselves in stasis to avoid being found."
She wants plenty of backups to revive into in case she gets killed in the battle.
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Indeed, the truth behind the Queen's Advanced Reh Name is that each and every Ant is neither a magical creation, nor a clone; they're all fragments of her own soul – little bits of herself.
Under this logic, killing the main Queen is no longer a big deal, since she and her swarm are truly of one body and soul.
In other words, even if the Queen Ant is killed, she can just use one of her children's bodies to revive into.
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"Commander Haalfrin!" one of the Arkin reports urgently, "the Queen has been spotted in the tunnels! She evaded our search somehow and launched a surprise attack on our soldiers. She took out about 10,000 Arkin in less than 5 minutes."
"Got it." Once the soldier leaves, Haalfrin updates his generals about where the Queen is at, and he orders, "Focus on completely clearing the Threshold of Ants. We need every last bit of Death Aura to aid in our fight against the Queen."
"What about the Queen?" one of the generals asks.
"Have your men avoid the tunnels she's in, like we've always done. I want to push her into the plains beneath the Hall of Valor and use our mana cannons to chip away at her defenses. Collapse any tunnels that she might flee to. I want her to only have one direction to go."
"Yes Sir!"
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After all these years spent fighting, the Queen is well familiar with how long it takes for word to pass around the demons. Those pointy-ears ALWAYS makes it a priority to know where she is, then fight AROUND her. After all this time, she's come to see a certain rhythm to it all.
First, she'll show up. Then, within a minute, the Arkin will all start disappearing from her sight, then reappearing in places where she isn't – all the while killing her children and racking up a huge harvest of Death Aura.
"I'll just use that pattern against them."
And so, after the Queen shows up and kills a couple thousand Arkin, she waits until the pointy ears are out of sight before she kills herself again.
After she dies, the Queen moves her soul around until she finds a spot where the demons' slaughter is the thickest. She then replaces one of her children there and surprises her enemy.
With so many demons packed so close together, and with them being completely off guard, the Queen slaughters several tens of thousands of demons before the remaining few manage to get away.
"Eh… heheh…." The queen can't help but laugh gleefully. She'd never been able to secure kills so easily!
Once she's satisfied seeing her children start to feast on the kills she'd gotten for them, she kills herself again and repeats the process.