OLD-WORLD EXTRA-Chapter 352: Taste Of The Future

With Phoenix healed up to the point where she could move freely, they headed to their vehicles, and a surprise awaited them there.

All their Fat Man rocket launchers were reloaded.

[Thank me later, yeah?]

Emir's chuckling voice echoed in their minds, and they knew exactly what happened.

They spent much too long, so he took things into his own hands.

[Sure.]

[Yeah, fuck off, and thanks.]

[Yes, Sir~.]

[Want some beans?]

[АНАННАНААН!]

Red Dragon replied with a snicker, Phoenix was rude and straight up as usual, Maharajah's reply was friendly seeing that they 'shared' a common 'interest,' Lionheart was just weird, and Southern Cross laughed like a maniac.

[Shut up you maggots; our spells are ready, so get the rockets up now!]

Their fun moment was interrupted by their annoyed boss, Judas.

They all replied in unison, saying something along the lines of:

[Yes, Sir!] [Understood!] [On it!] with only Ragnar standing out as he said:

[I'm waiting on the rest inbred, Sir!]

Emir chuckled again while shaking his head.

'They'll kill him one day.'

Lifting his finger off the trigger, he threw away the assault rifle, and retreated, joining the approaching five.

[Respect your seniors, you piece of shit! You're lucky the contract won't let me kill you right now!]

[Hah! Too bad you yanky fuck!]

While Judas and Ragnar started insulting each other, Emir looked at the nest of ants in the distance.

It was as if not a single ant had died.

The once-dug-out ground was filled back up with the green sea, and those that died were being munched on by the new ones.

"They got pumped out faster than I expected."

Focusing his eyes, he grabbed his rocket launcher from the motorbike's rucksack, dropped it on his right shoulder, and jumped up.

Reaching a hundred or so meters in the air, he materialized a platform and stood on it. "Hm, it reacted."

The War Queen's cocoon was much bigger in size.

It seemed that when they were busy fighting the pitiful hunters, it called in its children, reinforcing its defenses.

Not only that, the soldier ants forming her nest appeared to be much more agitated; gone were the interconnected tunnels, and came tall walls that encased the cocoon from all sides.

Thankfully, the rockets would come from above, so they could get through their defenses with no problems.

They only needed to create a wide enough gap in the cocoon for the two High Lords to attack and immediately kill the queen, not allowing it to retaliate.

[I'm ready you bastards! Morg is too!]

[I can speak for myself!]

Interrupting his thoughts were Ragnar and Morgiana, shouting at each other while driving away from the sea of ants.

[Red Dragon, ready.]

[Phoenix, ready!]

[Maharajah, ready.]

[Southern Cross, ready!]

[Lionheart, ready.]

Unlike the two, the HG leaders were more professional, and Emir should've appreciated that...

He should've, he really should've, but he didn't.

During battle, what he enjoyed was not professionalism or uniformity but chaos. As if his switch flips once he fights and his personality changes, welcoming playfulness.

There was no line to keep away from, no rules.

It recently got worse, alongside his corruption, and he had long since noticed that correlation.

But only now did he begin to notice how his original personality differed as well.

It was almost as if he became the opposite of his corruption-influenced state.

Right, since when did he become such an organized freak?

'...Lyra must've noticed but kept quiet about it. I have to talk to her.'

Shaking his thoughts away, he fixed the rocket launcher on his shoulder and stated:

[Emir, ready.]

As if his earlier thoughts were an illusion, his words were slow and his smile was wide, awaiting the chaos he trusted fate would bring.

[FIRE!]

Almost rumbling their minds, Judas's voice echoed, and they did as they were ordered, pulling the trigger.

WHOOSH!

Like the first volley, that sound repeated seven times, and every time a powerful thump followed it, tearing through all that was near.

HISSSSSSSS!

The rockets flew high in the air to the War Queen's nest, turning slightly till they were directly above the cocoon.

When they reached, they instantly faced the ground and blasted themselves downwards.

But just as they neared it, they exploded, bursting open and letting out a cluster of smaller rockets that went in rounds, exploding one after the other, chipping away at her cocoon.

BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM!

As if an earthquake was happening, the ground shook hard and continued to shake as the night sky began lighting up even further, due to just how many explosions occurred in

succession.

Once a few seconds passed, the aftermath was barely visible as the ants were lit on fire and much of the nest grew smoke.

It would've only been difficult for mortals to see however, and this group of people certainly

weren't that.

And Emir, who was in the highest position, saw everything.

Through all the smoke and flames, remnants of the cocoon remained, and the ants walling off the cocoon fell apart, rushing to strengthen the cocoon, walking over their dead brothers.

[...Breach failed.]

[...]

[...]

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[...]

At his report, a short bit of silence replied, and what resounded after were multiple sighs.

They suspected that already, but when Emir confirmed, it caused their moods to dim.

Before any of them could respond, he continued:

[But I can solve it. Ragnar, you got your Aether in the tracker, right?]

[Yes, do you want me to get you in there?]

Nodding at his simple reply, Emir answered:

[No, I've got an even better idea.]

[We'll trust that you're worth the delay, impure.]

[Us too, Eleventh.]

Ignoring Judas's and Red Dragon's attempts at being courteous, his eyes scanned the

destruction below, and after finding Ragnar, he Flash Stepped next to him.

"Bah! Man! Stop fucking scaring me like that!"

Emir chuckled and walked past his motorbike, nearing Morgiana.

"Prepare your strongest spell."

"Absolute zero?"

She asked, and he confirmed:

"Yes."

Returning to Ragnar, he pointed a small distance away in front of them, clear from all debris.

"There, make it as big as you can."

Ragnar raised his brows, surprised, as he just understood his intention.

"Sure..."

While doing as he was told, he closed his eyes and asked:

"But why not bring the others? Cause of the space?"

"That and because they've got little to no Aether. Besides, you'll barely handle our abilities."

Morgiana stepped behind the two, and the air around them instantly turned cold, slightly

colder than what they remembered.

'She got stronger, huh~.'

Snap!

Emir smiled at her and then turned his attention to the just-formed portal.

Fshshshshhhhhh.

It pulsated, its gravity affecting the dust around them, but all of that died down once Emir

pointed his finger at it.

As if the world was told to keep quiet, everything turned still, even the ants in the distance.

'Aether overdrive.'

His demeanor changed entirely, and all the Aether around them began to congregate to his

core, which snaked through the many tens of paths inside his body and ended at the tip of his

finger.

But he didn't stop there and used all that he had, emptying his reserves.

Once done, he looked beside him.

Morgiana had a long arrow of ice at the ready, it stood atop her long staff of blue, the dark-

blue crystal on top shining.

'Ready?'

'Ready.'

As they locked eyes, they knew that it was time.

"AETHER BLAST!"

"ABSOLUTE ZERO!"

Their collective roar echoed and a current of Aether went forth, destroying the ground

beneath, barely getting swallowed by the portal.

Behind it was an arrow of ice that froze the destruction, leaving everything as still as it was a

minute ago.

"Ughh..."

Just when they crossed through entirely, the portal closed, and an out-of-breath Ragnar smacked into the ground, huffing as he tried to absorb more Aether into his core.

The amount of concentration he needed to teleport abilities of such magnitude was immense,

never mind the incredible loss of Aether that came alongside it.

B00000000000000000000M!

[It's... done.]

Not knowing of the aftermath, Emir and Morgiana, who looked in similar shape, fell to the

ground, joining Ragnar, breathless.

If any of the ants in the distance came along, their lives would've been at stake.

"Great job."

But thankfully, that wasn't going to happen.

Four of the HG leaders stood guard around them, securing the perimeter and not allowing any

in.

Lionheart, the fifth, sat among them. His Zenith Replenish going on full blast. Meanwhile, at the top of the hill was a smiling Judas, a Sun Weaver.

His salt and pepper hair had turned fully white as he held a staff of gold that ended with a big

pearl with his left arm, placing it in front of him.

That pearl shined even brighter than his Second Sun, yet that brightness didn't travel far.

Just to the left of the light was the dark.

Judal, a Void Weaver, stood in a striking stance, a cigarette still in his mouth.

He held the bottom of his staff high up in the air as if he was going to swing it down.

And he actually was, as the staff was in the shape of a katana, with many streaks of black woven through the wood.

Darkness emanated from it like smoke, reaching many meters atop it while coloring his surroundings black and bathing them in a void.

His hair looked to be the opposite of his twin, as dark as Emir's eyes.

Emir, who looked at that scene with his mouth slightly ajar, noticed that but his attention was

on something else entirely.

It was his first time seeing a higher-ranked Celestial going all out, and it certainly was a sight

to behold. The sheer power their Aether held was immense-so immense that he couldn't fathom it.

Even the very hill the twins stood on trembled in fear.

'This-'

"DIMENSIONAL CUT!"

His sword traveled down, and the darkness that simmered atop it went forth, slowly at first,

then instantly slicing the ground in half until it reached what remained of the nest, the

cocoon, and the War Queen.

It was a hulking monstrosity of an ant, reaching almost thirty meters in height, with

mandibles that-

"KREEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The blade of darkness sliced it cleanly in half, separating it in two.

The two parts attempted to regenerate, connect back together, but they couldn't; darkness

laced its innards, continuously cutting it from further regeneration while also eating away

more of the queen, devouring its body bit by bit.

"Sun's Sword."

Next came Judas's attack.

He opened his eyes while moving the staff up and motioned it towards the War Queen.

With a flick of his wrist, the staff swiped downwards, and the air it touched left behind a

streak of light. Judas closed his eyes.

This light flashed...

Emir blinked.

And everything ended.

'...Ha.'

There was no aftermath, no explosion, simply death.

A death so quick, so painless, that not a single cry was heard.

The War Queen, along with the smoke and many tens of thousands of ants, simply

disappeared.

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Everyone down the hill was stunned to silence; even Ragnar couldn't say anything in that

situation.

It wasn't only out of awe but also because what they just saw was a taste of the future they so

desired.