Chapter 39: Sacrifice
"I have one day. Let's see how many workers you can produce," Kael said, looking down at the Blazing Ant Queen with its enormously swollen abdomen. He was eager to see just how potent the "touch of death" fire-poison described by the system truly was.
"Little Shell, Little Spike, Explosive Flies, go find me something high in protein," Kael ordered.
"What's 'high protein'?" the three summons asked, completely baffled. A thought echoed back to Kael's mind.
"Things like the Explosive Flies, creatures that are packed with nutrients! Little bugs and stuff will work too. Very nutritious!" Kael explained impatiently.
Once the summons had left, the clearing fell quiet. Kael looked at the motionless Blazing Ant Queen and began to ponder. This is my first time synthesizing a summon with only one passive ability, but one that can infinitely produce workers. And these workers sound pretty damn strong...
He suddenly felt unsteady on his feet. Now that things had quieted down, the weakness from the life force drain hit him.
"Here comes the side effect of losing life force. It really sucks. I definitely can't show my face in this battle. I'll have to rely entirely on my workers... I mean, summons!" he muttered helplessly. He quickly picked up the Blazing Ant Queen and went to find Rei to grab some rations.
But a nagging question remained. We've been making quite a bit of noise. Why haven't the Jashinists reacted at all?
Deep underground, in a vast pit a hundred meters across, a pool of crimson, steaming blood bubbled and churned. Thick, bloody bubbles rose to the surface, releasing waves of heat. The overpowering stench of iron filled the entire subterranean space.
Five black-robed figures floated silently in the blood pool. Strange symbols covered the surrounding walls.
A chilling voice suddenly echoed through the silence.
"A sacrifice... to the great Lord Jashin!"
It was a scene straight out of hell.
The next day.
The battle began so abruptly that neither Kael nor Watanabe Musashi had expected it. The moment the Hidden Hot Water Village Leader arrived, he immediately gave the order to attack. From the urgent, grim expression on his face, Kael could sense the immense pressure weighing on the village's leader.
BOOM!
The ground seemed to tremble as over two hundred Hidden Hot Water shinobi charged toward the underground entrance in the city center. Even from his vantage point high above, Kael could feel the vibrations.
Fighting underground is too dangerous for me in my weakened state. I'll have the Blazing Worker Ants engage first.
With that thought, Kael looked down at an iron basin on the Wind Eagle's back. It served as a makeshift ant nest, teeming with tiny red creatures crawling rapidly through its intricate tunnels.
He commanded the Wind Eagle to land and began issuing orders to the worker ants. "Show me what you've got. Go kill all those black-robed ninja!"
"Yes!" A collective thought seemed to echo in his mind.
Meanwhile, the battle in the underground space had already erupted.
Many of the low-ranking Jashinist followers were caught completely off guard, seeing countless Hidden Hot Water shinobi charging at them with murderous intent. Noticing the absence of any high-ranking members, they realized with dawning horror that they had been abandoned, left behind as cannon fodder.
"It's the Hidden Hot Water shinobi!"
"Fight them!"
"Everyone, run!"
"The leaders aren't here! They've abandoned us!"
"Why?"
No one knew why, and no one would ever answer them. Their fate had been sealed the moment they pledged allegiance to the Evil God.
The front lines of the underground cavern descended into chaos. The ordinary Jashinist followers screamed and cried, some begging for mercy, others fighting back with desperate ferocity. But without chakra, they were like chickens and ducks before the two hundred enraged Hidden Hot Water shinobi. In mere moments, over three hundred cultists were sent to the afterlife.
The Hidden Hot Water shinobi pressed deeper into the cavern.
At the same time, a swarm of bizarre creatures arrived at the entrance. In the darkness, an army of over a thousand crimson ants marched in perfect formation toward their target. Following the path cleared by the shinobi, they soon spotted the black-robed figures Kael had described.
Their attack began.
The Blazing Worker Ants surged forward, their neat ranks dissolving into a chaotic swarm. Yet, their movements weren't random. Each ant had a clear target and direction, moving with an eerie, coordinated purpose. Ants were terrifying social creatures, and these Blazing Ants, already aggressive by nature and enhanced by Kael's synthesis, carried out his command with unwavering resolve.
The Jashinist ninja were already engaged in a fierce battle with the Hidden Hot Water shinobi. No one noticed the tiny, fast-moving insects swarming the ground.
Until the Blazing Worker Ants crawled onto them.
The moment the ants touched their clothes, the Jashinist ninja felt an intense burning sensation spread from their legs throughout their bodies. It was just an illusion, of course. But when the ants bit down, the battlefield erupted in horrific screams.
"Arglebargle!"
"What are you yelling about?!"
"What the hell are these things?"
"Aaaaaaargh!"
The Jashinists at the front lines writhed in agony for only a few seconds before collapsing, their bodies charred black as if they had been burned alive.
Seeing this horrifying scene, the Jashinists further back turned pale with terror. They completely abandoned the fight, turning to flee, heedless of the attacks from the Hidden Hot Water shinobi. These cruel, inhuman fanatics, who reveled in slaughter, were utterly terrified by the unknown and gruesome manner of their comrades' deaths.
High above Freyal City, a cold smirk touched Kael's lips. Through the shared vision of his Explosive Flies, he had a clear view of the carnage below. If Rei saw him now, she might not even recognize him. His still-youthful face was contorted into a mask of cruel indifference, his dark eyes glinting with an icy light.
The fire-poison in these Blazing Worker Ants is truly terrifying, he thought, inwardly stunned. It's not quite fire, not quite poison. Just two or three seconds after being bitten, the ninja are completely blackened, as if burned from the inside out by an incredibly high temperature injected into their bodies.
However, it's only truly effective on the first wave. Once the enemy is aware of them, the ants aren't quite so devastating...
He quickly observed this phenomenon through the flies' eyes. The remaining hundred or so Jashinist ninja realized the tiny ants were the cause of the gruesome deaths and began targeting them with ninjutsu from a distance. Under the barrage of various elemental attacks, the fragile worker ants stood no chance. While Water and Earth Style couldn't wipe them out instantly due to their small size, any other energy-based attack vaporized them on contact.
But the Blazing Worker Ants weren't the only summons under Kael's command that enjoyed suicide attacks.