Chương 460: (453) 6.67. Just One Question

Vin thought he screamed, but he honestly wasn't sure if he actually managed to do so. The world had gone red and he'd lost any sense of self from the all-encompassing pain that took up every facet of his being. For a moment, he didn't know where he was or even who he was, let alone what his lungs were currently doing. All that mattered was the searing heat radiating through him that felt as though it was burning every cell in his body. Total resistance increased to lvl 21! 4, 200 exp gained.

The unexpected notification popping up was like a life raft in a sea of agony, and Vin clung onto it with all his might. He knew he had to escape the blinding pain somehow, but he didn't have any way of making the Rebel Queen's attack come to an end. In his current state, he had no idea what condition Alka was in or what enemies they were fighting alongside the Rebel Queen. For all he knew Alka had already been taken out and the Rebel Queen was enjoying a victory lap, tormenting him just because she could.

Clinging to the thought that he needed to figure out what was going on, Vin had an epiphany as he realized there was at least one way to escape what was currently happening to him, even if it wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do in the middle of a fight. Before he could change his mind, he threw together the runic formation within his core and flooded it with mana as he leaned desperately on one of his newest skills.

The pain vanished instantly as Dormancy knocked him unconscious, and he popped up beside his body as Dream Walk activated. Vin looked around at the large room they were in, noting his fallen body. From the looks of things, he'd collapsed the moment they entered the Rebel Queen's chambers, right after he'd managed to seal the entryway. His face was red and his hand was bleeding from where his own nails had dug into his flesh while he no doubt writhed in agony, but now, his body was limp."

Looks like your companion's mind has finally given out," a high-pitched, trembling voice floated from across the room, followed by grating laughter. Vin turned, his astral form gasping as he took in what could only be the Rebel Queen. The leader of the trogums had changed quite a bit from how she'd originally looked during their first meeting. Before, she'd at least looked somewhat humanoid, with four arms and a ring of antennae across her head forming a living crown that she used to control the trogums.

Now, she was far larger. Similar to the meriders, the Rebel Queen's lower half had been replaced with what looked like a giant version of an ant. Her crown of antennae left her head and stretched down her entire back, each and every one of them currently turned and pointed toward Vin and the other trogums filling the room. Her two large eyes had turned to four, and she had a mouth of all things, making her the first trogum capable of physical speech that they'd ever met.

Towering over them at what looked to be almost nine feet tall, the Rebel Queen watched gleefully as Alka fought for her life against six elite trogums. The trogums fought as one living being, as though each of them knew precisely what the other was going to do at any given moment. While their blades couldn't pierce through Alka's golem body, they had quickly shifted tactics, attempting to get in close and smack her with large sticks topped with some sort of gooey, green substance.

It took Vin a moment to figure out what they were doing, but from the goo already coating Alka in a few places, it clicked quickly enough. Even if they couldn't damage her, they could still slow her down and eventually trap her." How much longer do you plan to maintain this futile dance?

"the Rebel Queen asked, laughing once again as Alka took another glob of goo to her elbow, restricting some of the mobility of her ball-like joint. She spoke both verbally and in mind at the same time, creating an unnerving echo." I never expected to see either of you two again, nor learn that there was anyone else on this new world capable of changing their body like I have.

You are potentially the sole being in all of Edregon immune to my mental attacks, so I will enjoy destroying you before continuing my conquest!"

"I liked it better when I couldn't hear you!" Alka grunted, her eyes flaring as one of the elites was just a hair too slow in its attack. Alka took another glob of goo across her thigh, but the trogum paid for landing its strike. Alka's sword flashed and cleaved the trogum in half before it could fully retreat, and the two pieces of its body fell to the cavern floor, spilling blood everywhere.

"You're running out of fodder for me to cut through! Better make your peace, because it'll be you lying in pieces on the floor soon enough you bastard!" After losing one of her last six elites, the Queen's many antennae pointed at Vin shifted, focusing on her final five. Instantly, the squad's coordination somehow became even more fluid and rapid, with them all attacking Alka not only at the same time, but literally striking through one another's attacks and arms.

With four arms per trogum, Alka was now facing a flurry of strikes like nothing before. She was good, but even she wasn't that good. I need to get back into the fight, Vin realized, wincing as Alka quickly became covered in more and more globs of goo, each one slowing her down more than the last. Already she'd managed to decapitate another of the trogums and sever two arms of a third, but it was clear to him she was rapidly losing.

If nothing changed, the two of them would die here together, and then the Rebel Queen would be free to continue advancing her way across all of Edregon, eradicating countless civilizations from this new world. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Not willing to let that happen, Vin stepped into his own body, entering some random dream.

Knowing that time dilation would be a problem, he didn't hesitate for even a second before forcing himself to wake up with Dormancy. As his eyes snapped open and he took a gasp of breath, he ignored the pounding in his head. Rolling onto his side, he raised a single finger as he took careful aim and acted before the Rebel Queen could focus on him again." Fireball," he croaked, hurling the largest, densest ball of flame he could manifest at his target.

Rather than go for her front, he curved the spell slightly, causing it to shoot behind the Rebel Queen before detonating in a devastating blast of heat and flame. The Rebel Queen screeched vocally and in his head at the same time, nearly knocking him unconscious again as she was knocked forward a few feet. Her large frame and many legs allowed her to remain standing and withstand the worst of the blast, but that was fine. Vin hadn't been trying to kill her with that spell.

No, he'd been aiming for the rows of delicate antennae traveling down the length of her back. Instantly, the four elite trogums lost all their cohesion, quickly getting tangled up in one another as they tried to launch another attack on Alka. Not one to miss such an opportunity, the Slayer struck forward, managing to carve through two of them in a single slash even with the sheer amount of goo now coating her body.

Alka was barely able to move her lower half at this point, but that didn't stop her from cutting through another trogum on her return slash, reducing the elites down to one. With only a single elite left that was missing one of its four arms, the Rebel Queen screeched again, her wide eyes focused on Vin as she shouted." You! How did you survive my mental attack?!"

"Is 'barely' an acceptable answer?" Vin asked. He groaned as he forced himself to his feet, before staggering and catching himself on the cavern wall. While his body was pretty much untouched, his skull felt like it contained a tornado filled with shards of glass.

"Took you long enough," Alka snorted, somehow managing to look as dangerous and deadly as ever, despite the fact that about eighty-percent of her body was covered in thick, sticky green goo.

"You want to do the honors? I would, but I don't think I can move from this spot at the moment."" Kill him!" the Rebel Queen shouted. The few, only minorly damaged antennae along the front of her scalp turned and pointed toward her last elite as she gave the desperate order. Without a word, the trogum turned from Alka and blitzed over to the side of the room, swapping out its goo-covered stick for two spears.

One of them it held awkwardly in a single hand, but its other two hands held the second like a master as it turned to face him. Vin had just enough time to realize he should probably cast some sort of magic before the trogum blurred toward him, each spear aimed directly for his torso." Enhance Gravity," Vin got out through clenched teeth. He watched as the wounded trogum tripped and crashed to the ground immediately before him, its spears skittering along the floor as they were knocked out of its hand.

Recalling that they wanted at least a few elites to remain alive in order to help out with the trogums that survived all this, Vin grabbed one of the discarded goo-sticks and jabbed the trogum with it, kicking it onto its back and ensuring it was effectively glued to the ground. As he killed his spell and watched the elite try to claw at the air with its three arms, his aching mind was reminded of an actual insect stuck in some sort of trap, desperately trying to get free.

"Vin!" Alka shouted, snapping him out of his haze.

"You're zoning out! At least finish the job before you pass out again!"

"Right! Sorry!" he said, shaking his head and immediately regretting it as he nearly blacked out from the pain. He was a tad surprised to find the Rebel Queen hadn't attacked him while he was distracted, but a single look at the large being before him made it abundantly clear why that was the case. She'd backed up to the edge of the room, her extra-large eyes wide as they looked around, as if searching for any more of her elite warriors.

What few antennae she had left were twisting and bending like crazy, trying to find anyone that could help her. Despite her monstrous frame and presumably immense strength… The Rebel Queen was no fighter. She'd probably never lifted a weapon in her entire life.

"You've killed a lot of people… You know that?" Vin asked. He slowly walked toward her as she continued trying and failing to scramble backward, her back already pressed against the cavern wall.

"I really don't like being forced to act as the executioner of Edregon, but you've sort of forced my hand here. How many thousands of lives do you think you've claimed in just the past few weeks alone? How many more were you thinking you needed to take to fulfil your greed to expand? You know what, better question. I have a spell that lets me know if you're telling the truth. How many worlds were you planning to eradicate before you were satisfied?!"" Only a few!

"she shouted, verbally and in his head as her antennae trembled and she stared down at him as he continued walking closer." It is the Queen's job to advance! To grow her people and claim more territory! It is who I am!"

"And that's why you have to go," Vin said quietly, his Detect Truth spell confirming that she was lying about her plan to stop after only a few fragments. Stopping before her, Vin cast Dimensional Sheath, pulling out a jagged, blood-red blade that he'd kept hidden away since their terrifying fight against the ranker king.

Despite knowing how powerful the pure-magic blade was, Vin hadn't been able to shake the feeling that merely holding it in his hand made him feel angrier, as though a sliver of the ranker king's own rage was sealed within the sword somehow. But at the moment, he couldn't have been more angry if he tried.

Ignoring the Rebel Queen's final screech that could have been one last mental attack or yet another plea for mercy, Vin slashed forward with his magic sword, separating her head from her body and forcing her twitching antennae capable of commanding entire armies to finally go still. As her head hit the ground and her body collapsed beside it, Vin let out a long, heavy sigh, glancing down at the lack of blood coating his magic blade. He didn't like being the executioner for Edregon, but this time, it had to be done.

The trogum tide would never claim another world.