Death Ascension - Chapter 82

Avery inspected his brother’s figure from head to toe. There was something amiss with his adorable youngest sibling but Avery could not quite pinpoint the change.

‘Is it because he’s covered in dirt?’

‘Somehow… he looks older?’ Avery cocked his head then lightly shook it in denial, ‘No… it’s more like he matured… a LOT.’

As he was looking all over Deon to find the source of incongruity, two crimson knights approached.

“Your Highness, we are done with the evacuation.” The middle-aged crimson knight informed Avery.

Mikael, who floated beside Deon, clicked his tongue in disapproval, ‘Tsk. How rude. There’s another prince here who also deserves a greeting.’

As if he heard Mikael’s grumble, the crimson knight gave Deon an icy look before bowing his head in an insincere gesture, “Young Prince, I am glad you are safe.”

“What about the report?” Avery asked the other knight.

“Well… I’m not sure if this is accurate, your highness…” The other crimson knight glanced at Deon before saying, “The participants said they were saved by a genius Almagi and the prince.”

Silence fell.

Everyone turned their heads toward Deon with looks of disbelief.

The first to react was the crown prince, “HAHAHA!! You must be kidding. Deon? My innocent little brother, who couldn’t even hurt a fly?”

The two knights also sniggered, struggling not to laugh. They found the notion of the useless cowardly prince stepping up to save people to be ridiculous.

Avery, assuming his brother hid behind the other participants and would thus not know much, told the crimson knight to bring in a member to get a testimony.

The knight brought back Sir Conor, the tier-1 ground specialist Almagi who fearfully approached the crown prince.

Avery sat down on a collapsed boulder and elegantly crossed his legs, “Sir Conor, can you tell me what really happened here?”

Conor gulped, “Uhmm… firstly, the third prince, together with Sir Finn and Dame Nora rescued us from repletes then they gathered us in the Midden. The prince scouted the queen’s chamber saw a dragon corpse that was feeding the queen with concentrated mana hence the abnormal strengthening of the killer ants so we divided into two groups using a strategy devised by his highness and Sir Finn who also led the group themselves. Lastly, the prince led the attack against the ant Queen and her soldiers.”

With each line that came out of Conor’s lips, Avery’s expression turned sour, “Sir Conor. I’m not here to listen to your nonsense so, could you please filter out the unnecessary patronage? Tell me the truth.”

Conor pursed his lips, weakly muttering “but it IS the truth…”

Avery sighed in exasperation and decided to investigate the colony himself.

He dismissed Conor and led the Royal Almagi and Crimson Knight Orders through the winding tunnels while at the back of the line was a dispirited Deon.

“Wow… your brother sure knows how to annoy the sh*t out of me, kid.” Mikael fumed, “What? An innocent little brother who couldn’t even hurt a fly? What are you? A toddler?”

“Sir… But it’s true. To my eldest brother, I’m just a boy who couldn’t do anything by himself. It makes sense that he doesn’t believe Sir Conor…”

“UNTIL a week ago, that is. Doesn’t he know that people can change? Ugh!” Mikael rolled his pale green eyes and said, “Kid. You gotta show them that you are no longer a helpless boy. You have to make ALL of those who mock you acknowledge your strength.”

Mikael hated being looked down upon. He had enough of that while he was alive and he didn’t want his one and only partner to suffer the same fate, “Don’t worry. You have me. I’ll help you.”

Deon softly smiled. He was happy that he had Mikael who slaps him out of negativity and inferiority complex and gives him the courage to face daunting tasks.

Meanwhile, Avery and the orders gawked at the aftermath of the war. Corpses of killer ants were strewn at every tunnel they passed and when they arrived at the chambers where Deon and Finn’s groups battled against waves of pheromone-crazed worker ants, they couldn’t help but swallow their saliva.

The scene of carnage was nothing that a mere two hundred untrained competition participants could possibly achieve.

“Are you telling me that those weak-looking participants annihilated the whole colony?” Avery turned his head toward the middle-aged crimson knight.

“That seems to be the case, your highness.” He concurred.

Just looking at the monster-filled ditch, Avery knew that whoever thought of their strategy was a genius.

‘I’m sure Deon just went along the Almagi for protection. So, I can probably dismiss the report about him leading the group. This means that the only mastermind of the operation is the Almagi.’

‘Was his name Finn? I want him.’ Avery decided, ‘I have to get him by my side. Serving anyone else will just waste his talent.’

Avery already coveted the Almagi he hadn’t even met yet.

As the group continued down an unexplored path, Mikael heard a faint whimper.

“huuuuuhhh…. Huuuu…”

He turned around, trying to locate the source of the voice when his gaze landed on a hole hidden behind a large boulder.

“Hey, kid… can you hear that?” he asked Deon, making sure he wasn’t just hearing things but Deon shook his head.

“Huh… that’s creepy…” he muttered.

“Really? Coming from you, sir?” Deon snarkily remarked.

“Oh, shut up,” Mikael replied when he heard the sound again…

“Cold…. it’s cold…. mama…”

No.

It wasn’t a sound.

It was a thought—a thought so clear that it couldn’t have been a killer ant.

“No way… was there another monster hiding here?” Mikael’s eyes widened in fright. They could not afford another life-or-death battle now that body reinforcement was no longer available, “Kid. Hurry up and move along. Quickly follow those strong knights.”

But the crown prince’s group was no longer in sight and in the maze that’s the colony, it was hard to track where they had gone.

‘What the heck? So much for being royal guards… how could they leave a prince behind?’

As Mikael was busy insulting the Knight’s order, Deon hesitantly spoke.

“But sir… what if it’s not a monster? Maybe someone’s stuck in there and needs our help?”

–Chapter end–