Chapter 42

The silence was deafening, drowned out only by the pouring rain.

The ant rose to its full, towering height.

[He was not the King.]

Kanae stepped backward, gritting her teeth. “Damn it, Goto… why did you have to get yourself killed?'

Another step back, and she bumped into Mari Ishida, who was shaking like a leaf. Kanae froze, assessing the scene with a single glance.

Ippei Izawa stood rooted to the spot, trying desperately to raise his weapons, terror locking every muscle. Kei was slumped on the ground, exhausted, dry heaving until only bile came forth. Kumamoto was hunched behind Ippei, too frightened to move, too frightened to run.

Kanae tightened her grip on her blade and drew a long breath. “You all need to leave.”

“The hell are you talking about?!” Ippei shouted, voice shaking.

“Don’t question me!” Kanae roared. Suddenly, her aura erupted, waves of deep, burning purple surged from her body, displacing wind and sand alike.

Then the ground cracked, and the purple energy blazed into a brilliant, blinding white.

Mari flinched, shielding her eyes as something soft wrapped around her waist. The sound of rushing wind drowned out her gasp as she was hurled backward across the beach. A sharp yelp drew her attention to Kumamoto and the others, thrown alongside her, tumbling into the air.

The ant tilted its head, crimson eyes narrowing as the pillar of blinding light subsided, and Kanae stepped forth.

Her hair was no longer black, but a luminous, silken white. Her skin shimmered like pearl. Her slitted eyes blazed a soft, burning amber. And from her back unfurled nine translucent, silvery-white fox tails, threads of mist and wind that swayed and shimmered like a dance.

The ant refocused its gaze, tracking the scattering bodies of the guild flying through the air, thrown to safety by those very tails.

[Are you the King?]

A faint, mist-like shawl coiled around Kanae’s neck as she exhaled slowly, standing tall and serene. Her voice came like a whisper across the storm, soft, alluring, and yet commanding.

“Am I the King, you ask?”

The ant screeched, releasing a shockwave of blood-red mana that surged across the island, shaking the earth and splitting the air.

Kanae smiled faintly as the ant’s claw came tearing toward her face, a blur too quick for the eye. “Such a position…”

Then came the sound:

BOOM!

The beach erupted, sending sand and water soaring. The nearby port splintered and collapsed under the sheer force of the impact.

A faint ting rang out.

A ripple of water shimmered across the surface of the ocean as Kanae landed upon it, the tip of her boots brushing the waves like a ballerina. She did not sink.

A soft mist rose from the spot where she came to rest.

Her voice, soft and languid, floated across the storm.

“…belongs to another.”

---

A fleet of helicarriers hovered miles above the ocean, far from the island’s deadly perimeter. Their role was simple: monitor the situation, stand ready for an emergency evacuation if the raid failed, or a retrieval if it succeeded.

One of the soldiers adjusted the long-range view glass, narrowing his eyes. “Hey, what’s that?” he called out sharply.

Another soldier looked up from his console. “What are you seeing?”

“An explosion at the rendezvous point,” the first said, voice rising. “But it’s too early. The signal hasn’t gone out yet. Does this mean… they failed?”

The second soldier grimaced. “Means they might be in trouble. No signal, no word, and explosions aren’t a good sign. I’ll notify the captain.”

He started to turn when the first soldier spoke again, voice wavering. “Uh… Yoon?”

“Yeah?” the second said, looking back.

“What do we do if… the ocean splits in two?”

Yoon froze, then spun around and pressed his eyes to the view glass.

Far below, a crimson and a white streak of light slashed across the surface of the ocean. The sea erupted with every collision, plumes of water rising like monstrous geysers. Suddenly, a shockwave surged out from the point of impact, tearing across the waves.

“Shit! Brace for impact!” Yoon yelled.

A moment later, the shockwave slammed into the carriers, making the massive ships shudder and tilt, sending equipment and personnel sliding across their decks.

---

Far below, the battle raged.

A streak of crimson crashed down like a meteor, sending a mountain of seawater high into the air. An ant the size of a car surged out of the mist, its monstrous claw slamming into the ocean surface.

Boom!

A crater of churning water appeared where the ant had struck, only for it to be refilled instantly as the ocean surged back in.

Kanae glided across the surface of the ocean like a skater, her boots brushing the waves as she spun, a luminous mist trailing from her body. The ant came down again with a swipe meant to shatter steel and bone alike, but she tilted herself just enough for the massive claw to miss, cleaving the water apart where she had stood a breath ago.

Each collision shook the sea and whipped the wind into a frenzy. To the helicopters far above, it was like watching gods duel upon the waves, a blur of crimson and pearl streaking across the surface, carving craters and splitting the ocean apart, only for the water to crash back down seconds later.

Yet for Kanae, in the heart of the storm, this was the single most terrifying moment she had ever faced.

Stuck on the defensive, Kanae could do little more than run and dodge, relying on every ounce of speed her transformation granted. Luckily for her, that boost was enough to match the ant’s blistering swiftness, for now.

With every clash, the sword drank deep, siphoning stamina from the ant, allowing her to sustain herself far longer than she had any right to. Much longer than a certain guild master.

But still…

A bead of sweat traced down her temple as she tilted backward sharply, the ant’s claw cutting a lethal arc where her head had been a heartbeat ago. The ocean surface barely rippled from the grace of her dodge.

'This isn’t working.' The thought surged in her mind as she tightened her grip on the hilt. 'Thanks to the sword, I can hold this form longer.'

Her amber eyes lifted, narrowing as the ant rose above her, its translucent wings beating too fast for the human eye to comprehend. 'But… I can’t contain it anymore. I can no longer herd it. And now, it knows.'

The ant wheeled in a blur, circling like a predator that had settled on its kill. The situation had been reversed. Kanae felt herself herded, step by step, until she was precisely where the ant wanted her.

Behind her, impossibly far across the churning ocean, was one of the battleships stationed to intercept any ants trying to escape. Against the ant’s sheer speed, ten miles might as well have been ten paces.

If she dodged this attack, that ship, and every soul aboard it, would be reduced to burning steel and shattered bone.

A crimson comet blazed down from the sky, splitting the air with its shriek.

Kanae’s amber eyes narrowed as the ant surged toward her. She sank into a stance, leaning forward, fingers clenched tight around the hilt of her blade.

Time slowed to a crawl.

'I miscalculated!!'

The battleship buckled as if gripped by a giant hand. Its midsection folded inward like paper, tearing apart with a sound too deep and low to comprehend. The forward and aft ends crashed together in a burst of flame, the force enough to boil the ocean surface.

Kanae burst out of the other side, back first.

Through the blazing wreckage, Kanae was hurled backward, her body slamming across the surface of the sea like a skipping stone. The sheer force stripped the air from her lungs. When she finally came to a stop, rising shakily from the water, the flames illuminated her amber eyes.

Through the veil of mist and misted breath, she watched as the ship sank, wreathed in fire. The screams were faint, quickly drowned by the crackle of burning steel and the crash of waves.

Kanae stood silent upon the surface of the ocean, her gaze fixed on the burning remains of the battleship as it sank, twisted and broken, into the depths.

High above, aboard one of the helicarriers, Yoon watched with shaking breath. He and the rest of the bridge crew had just witnessed an S‑Rank Hunter launched like a missile through a battleship, tearing it apart and killing everyone onboard.

"What the hell…" he whispered.

[KEKE]

Kanae felt it before she heard it. The air warped around her, and every instinct screamed for her to move. Too late. The ant’s leg was already upon her, a crimson blur splitting the sound barrier.

She crossed her arms just in time.

The blow landed with an earsplitting BOOM, and the ocean erupted. A dome of water exploded outward, vaporizing the surface for dozens of meters in every direction.

Kanae felt the bones in both her arms splinter as the force ripped through her body. The world spun, and she was hurled backward like a comet across the waves.

Her amber eyes widened.

'Oh no.'

Behind her, the silhouette of an approaching fleet came into view. Battleships, carriers, destroyers, countless men and women staring out across the storm-torn waves, weapons aimed, fear beating wildly in every chest.

Kanae blitzed past them, without them even noticing.

The sound came after. The air parting with a screech, like steel tearing apart.

The shockwave came last, ripping through the fleet like a scythe.

Steel twisted. Organs burst.

Men and women were torn apart in an instant, ripped from their posts, shredded by air pressure so brutal that ships buckled inward as if gripped by an unseen hand. The carriers folded like paper, the destroyers exploded, and the battleships twisted upon themselves with a screech of death.

In that single, brutal moment, the surface of the ocean became a graveyard. Blood misted the air. Steel screamed and sank. The sound of implosion merged with the sound of the storm until the two became indistinguishable.

Kanae hit the surface of the ocean far beyond the burning wreckage, skipping across the waves like a broken stone, for the second time in twenty seconds, until she sank down to one knee upon the ocean surface.

She didn’t even hear the screams this time. The hunters and soldiers hadn’t even known what killed them.

A faint breeze brushed past, sweeping her long, silken hair forward. Kanae’s amber eyes widened as she felt the ant’s mandibles clamp down from behind.

“Urk!” she choked, a strangled sound escaping as the ant’s massive claw wrapped around her neck, lifting her into the air. Its grip tightened like a steel vice, crushing her windpipe.

[WHERE IS THE ONE YOU CALL KING?]

Faint blotches of black edged her vision as her transformation began to falter, burning itself out. The silvery mist around her waned, her long, luminous hair fading back to midnight black as the nine translucent fox tails dissolved into mist. Limply, her legs kicked for a moment before sagging, her hands pawing weakly at the ant’s claw.

Around them, the scene was apocalyptic. Dozens of ships, carriers, destroyers, battleships, sank into the churning ocean. Broken steel jutted from the waves like gravestones. The flames reflected crimson upon the surface, burning until the mist claimed them.

Hope felt like a forgotten thing.

[KE?]

The ant tilted its monstrous head, mandibles clicking as its crimson gaze settled upon the broken hull of one of the carriers. At the edge of the wreckage, framed by a burning flame, a figure emerged. The ends of his long, dark coat whipped in the wind, and half of his sharp, unreadable face was lost in shadow. The other half was illuminated by the flame, a single, deep-blue eye burning like midnight.

“You’ve caused quite the commotion,” the voice came, low and measured.

Through her half-closed eyes, Kanae managed to recognize him. Sung Jin‑Woo.

[KEKE.] The ant’s voice bubbled with glee as it fully turned to regard the newcomer. [YOU HAVE QUITE THE THREATENING PRESENCE, HUMAN.]

Sung Jin‑Woo narrowed his eyes, voice calm as a blade. “A talking ant. So Baek Yoon‑Ho wasn’t exaggerating after all…”

Kanae felt the ant’s grip constrict tighter, her fingers brushing desperately at the monstrous claw choking the life from her. The ant’s voice rose in a screech:

[ARE YOU THE KI..?!]

The ocean detonated.

BOOM!

A shockwave erupted, tearing a hole across the ocean for as far as the eye could see, flipping the water inside out and exposing its pitch‑black depths. The ant’s words drowned in the blast, and Sung Jin‑Woo didn’t so much as flinch.

Through the mist and spray, Kanae felt herself smile faintly, blood staining the corner of her mouth.

Then came the silhouette of a girl, standing in the heart of the explosion. Dark hair across her face, concealing her unreadable features. The falling ruins of the carrier framed her like a throne as she landed upon its buckled hull. In that moment, twin burning suns ignited within the shadow of her hair.

Kaede had arrived.

Her gaze, swept the scene, the ant hovering with Kanae in its grip, the wreckage upon the sea, and the man in black upon the ruined ship.