The ant king charged at Jason without hesitation.

Six arms stretched forward—three on each side—claws gleaming, mandibles clicking in anticipation. His two powerful legs propelled him across the chamber in a blur of red chitin. He crossed the distance in less than a second—faster than Jason could blink, faster than he could breathe.

Jason stood frozen, his empty hands at his sides, his pink skin pale with exhaustion.

*Didn’t my system say this thing was under my control?*

The ant king’s hand—clawed, three-fingered, dripping with the ichor of the three-eyed creature—was already outstretched, aimed at Jason’s throat.

"S-STOP!" Jason screamed.

The ant king stopped instantly.

Inches from Jason’s face. His claws hovered in the air, trembling. His black and gold eyes blinked once, twice. His mandibles clicked in confusion.

"Why did he do that?" Jason thought, confused as to why it would attempt to attack him.

Jason’s chest heaved. His heart pounded so hard he could feel it in his teeth. He stared at the claws inches from his jugular.

"Oh," Jason exhaled. "It worked."

He let out a shaky laugh. A sigh of relief that turned into something almost hysterical.

But the murderous gaze in the ant king’s eyes never wavered. Those black depths promised death, promised consumption.

The creature wanted to kill him. The system’s dominion was the only thing holding it back.

Jason swallowed.

"I have no idea how this works either, buddy," he said, keeping his voice steady. "But it looks like your free will wasn’t taken into account. Sorry about that."

The ant king tilted his head. His mandibles clicked.

"So," Jason said, lifting his arm and pointing across the chamber at the queen—who had turned to face them, her dozens of eyes wide, her arms raised.

"Kill that bitch over there for me."

The ant king’s head snapped toward the queen with killing intent.

The queen was shocked.

Her mandibles parted. Her legs skittered backward. She had expected the ant king to kill the host—the strange, pink-skinned creature that reeked of something she couldn’t identify. She had expected the king to feed, to evolve, to return to her side.

Instead, it obeyed him.

"How?" she hissed in her mind. "He should be mine. They are all mine."

Caelus was shocked too.

The pure blood vampire stood among the scattered bones, his chest still bleeding, his red eyes wide. He had never seen anything like this. A queen’s spawn—a creature born from her own eggs—taking orders from a foreigner.

Impossible.

He looked at Jason. Really looked at him. The round ears. The pink skin. The complete absence of mana signature.

"What are you?" Caelus asked, his voice low.

Jason smirked. Exhaustion melted into cockiness.

"The main character," he said.

The ant king moved, not ran, not charged but appeared.

One moment he was beside Jason. The next, he was behind the queen. His six arms were extended, his claws were wet.

And in his primary right hand, he held the queen’s severed head.

Her dozens of eyes were still blinking. Her mandibles were still twitching. Black ichor poured from the stump of her neck, splattering across the stone floor.

The queen’s body remained standing for a single heartbeat.

Then it collapsed.

Thud.

Jason’s jaw dropped the moment he saw this.

"What the actual fuck!?" he shouted, his voice echoing through the chamber. "It was that easy all along!?"

He looked at Caelus. Didn’t say a word. Just stared.

Caelus felt the weight of that stare. The vampire’s jaw tightened. He had been fighting the queen for what felt like hours—bleeding, struggling, nearly dying. And this creature, this *ant king*, had ended it in less than a second.

"He’s mocking me," Caelus realized.

Jason closed the distance, grinning. "Fuck, man! You saved our lives! I thought we were all going to die in here!"

He reached out to clap Caelus on the shoulder—

The queen’s body moved.

Headless, limbed, still alive. Her four arms lashed out, claws aimed at Jason’s exposed back. She could live without a head, her nervous system was distributed throughout her body. She didn’t need a brain to kill.

The ant king moved again, a blur of red.

Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap.

Four sounds, four limbs severed at the joints. The queen’s arms fell to the ground, twitching, curling, useless.

Jason spun around.

A claw—severed but still armed—stopped inches from his face. The tip hovered in the air, frozen mid-lunge.

"Shit!" Jason stumbled backward. "That was close!"

He looked at the ant king, who stood over the dismembered queen’s body, ichor dripping from all six of his hands.

"Thanks," Jason said.

The ant king did not acknowledge him, he simply crouched.

And he began to consume the queen.

Jason watched in horror, this was anything but a pretty sight.

The ant king’s mouth opened—wider than before, wider than any natural creature. He tore into the queen’s torso, pulling out chunks of chitin and flesh and organ. He ate, and ate and ate.

Black ichor sprayed across the floor. The sound of cracking shells and tearing muscle filled the chamber.

Jason’s stomach turned. He thought he might throw up.

"He’s eating her. Whole." Jason thought.

The ant king’s body began to change. New chitin grew. His already six arms thickened. His legs bulged with muscle. His eyes—already flecked with gold—began to glow.

He was becoming an even bigger threat.

Caelus watched in silence because he had never seen anything like this in his entire life.

His red eyes tracked every movement, every transformation. His mind raced.

"A queen’s spawn killing its own mother. I didn’t know that was possible."

"But it happened. And he controls it."

He looked at the person controlling it—the round-eared, pink-skinned, exhausted being who stood there with his mouth half-open, watching the monster feed.

"This already makes him a threat. A massive one."

Caelus’s hand twitched. His blood manipulation gathered at his fingertips.

"I could kill him now. While the ant king is distracted. While he’s vulnerable."

He looked at the ant king. The creature was feeding faster now, consuming the queen’s massive body in chunks. If Caelus killed Jason, would the ant king go berserk? Would it turn on him? In his current state—wounded, venom slowing his healing—he wouldn’t survive.

Caelus lowered his hand in defeat.

"Not now. Not yet."

He watched in silence as the ant king fed and grew even stronger.

The cave groaned as it had reached its limti.

Above them, the ceiling cracked as dust rained down. The queen’s chamber, already weakened by Helga’s rampage and the ant king’s emergence, had finally reached its limit.

Jason looked up, his eyes widened. "The cave is coming down!"

Caelus raised his hands.

Blood manipulation flared. Not the queen’s blood—his own. He pulled from his veins, from his reserves, from the very life force that kept him standing.

Pillars of blood erupted from the floor.

Thick, red and glowing. They shot upward, slamming against the ceiling, bracing against the falling stone. More pillars followed—ten, twenty, thirty—forming a temporary foundation that held the mountain at bay.

Caelus’s face went pale as his arms trembled. Blood dripped from his nose.

"Hurry," he said through gritted teeth. "I can’t hold this forever."

Jason nodded. He looked at the ant king.

The creature had finished feeding. The queen was gone. Every last piece of her—chitin, flesh, organs, ichor—had been consumed.

The ant king stood on multiple legs, taller now, broader. His six arms hung at his sides—three on each side. His black and gold eyes glowed in the darkness with fucking wings momentarily sprouting from his back right before burrowing itself into its back. But this wasn’t all, it had now gained the ability to blood manipulation.

He looked at Jason and waited, but Jason could tell it had only just recognized him, kneeling to show its submission.

"Yeah, I’m glad I didn’t abort you, my child," Jason thought to himself.