Chapter 99: Choosing between Submission or Death
The Primordial Queen Mother paced slowly within her own chamber with worry. At the same time, she was sending distress signals to all of the nest inhabitants outside. Every Elemental Fiend suddenly fought desperately harder, startling the spiritual bird. The ones demolishing the ice walls increased their vigor. A lot of Elemental Fiends drowned by Chomper's water barrier while trying their best to break Shiro's multiple layer ice walls.
The trio had not noticed the change within all Elemental Fiends behind the ice walls since the other two purple ones attacking them previously were dead. Hana killed the one that attacked her while Chomper had bit off half of the head of the purple Elemental Fiend he fought, killing it in just a few minutes later.
As they walked rapidly while dragging the half-dead Elemental Fiend King, they came across three small pools of different colors emitting intense disturbance in the air above it. The first pool was filled with reddish molten lava-like substance within. The pool emitted very high temperatures until the air distorted above it. Chomper immediately made a thick layer of water bubble while Shiro froze the bubble surface outside and took control of it. The surface of the ice bubble became like glass while isolating the heat from reaching Hana.
Hana was in awe at the sight. "Are we inside an underground volcano or something? Is this natural?"
[Maybe. However, I am not too sure, Mom. Another possibility is, there might be a fire attributed spirit vein here.] Shiro answered hesitantly.
Not too far from the Fire Elemental Pool, the second one was a pool with viscous black liquid within and produced dark greenish fume. Observing the dangerous-looking unnatural pool, Hana instantly could guess that this was the Poison Elemental Pool. This was because its color was the same as the poison-attributed black Elemental Fiend.
The last pool was the most dangerous one. White lightning was spewing out from it from time to time and was too bright to be observed properly. What Hana could make out was only a ball of unstable whiteness within the glare.
"What a wondrous sight! I have never seen lightning brewing inside a location like this without dispersing. It looks too dangerous, isn't it?" Hana couldn't fathom how could something like lightning persisted like this without dissipating. It had defied her understanding of the world and made her extremely curious to know. Hana urged the rest to move from the final pool.
At that moment, something purple flashed from their side.
Shiro nonchalantly reached out with his other empty paw towards the air and grabbed without even looking. The newly advanced purple-colored General-class Elemental Fiend's thorax was caught within his grasp. It was snarling and snapping its dangerous-looking mandible with ferociousness, making Hana and Chomper paused their steps with worry. However, to Shiro, the purple bug will remain as a soft bug in his eyes; fragile and easily killed. He could just pinch it to death if not for Hana's incessant reminders not to kill wantonly. He looked at it in disdain but noticed that a faint peculiar aura still lingered around it.
The dissipating aura made him reminisced about an absolute heavenly treasure deeply sought after by many experts! A treasure that many experts were searching like crazy for it, but lo and behold, he might just got a clue in this tiny nest! Shiro's gaze turned serious as he utilized his spiritual sense to scan the purple bug up and down.
He then quickly noticed that the faint aura came from trace amount of liquid upon the crevices of the Elemental Fiend's exoskeleton. Before he could further analyze it, the aura has entirely dissipated.
[No wonder I couldn't detect it in other Elemental Fiends. I still cannot believe this to exist here…] Shiro was shocked by the revelation from his most recent prey and straight away discussed the findings with Kuro…
A moment of awkward silence later, Shiro quietly put away his findings and continued their journey. He threw a lasting glance at the Elemental Pools with a thoughtful look.
He had just agreed with Bro Ku to push it back first and investigate it later before reporting to Mom. Right now, they need to focus on the subjugation of the queen bug. He knew the most dangerous part was yet to come and couldn't make himself and Mom became distracted with this finding.
...
The Primordial Queen Mother droned in apprehension when loud sounds were heard just outside her grand chamber. She moved as faraway as possible from the entrance as the booming sounds got louder and louder.
Boom!
Booom!
Booommm!!!
After three loud booming sounds, the giant boulder fitted on the doorway towards her chamber, shattered into pieces. Behind the cloud of dust, she could see a shadowy figure of a large floating fish. The fish moved to the side to let a small white-colored creature with tree branches on its head to slowly appear, dragging the half-dead Elemental Fiend King on his left, and the dying General-class Elemental Fiend on his right imposingly.
The white creature flared its aura domineeringly while looking down on her with disdain in its eyes, "Submit or die, right now." It threw the two Elemental Fiends in front of her. The two Elemental Fiends were not moving anymore, but she could still detect a tiny spark of life within them. However, she knew they will die in a matter of hours from their grievous injuries.
"Well?"
The Primordial Queen Mother couldn't understand the white creature's words, but from his domineering aura, she knew what it wanted.
It wanted her to submit to it.
From how it looked at her, she was sure she will be killed if she refused. After a moment of hesitation, she immediately lowered her head in submission willingly. Although the queen was a spiritual beast with underdeveloped intelligence, she instinctively had an inclination to submit to a stronger spirit beast for survival.
A dry humorless cough sounded.
"No, not me, you need to submit to her." The white creature moved to the side to reveal another timid looking creature. It was the first time for the Queen to see such a creature. Its body looked so soft and squishy; it must be a little too mushy when eaten, which was not to her liking. The creature with the long black rope-like mane had very weak aura; it nearly didn't have any presence at all. The queen was so speechless, she looked to the left and right with her compound eyes. [Is this the white creature's Master?!] It was simply unbelievable! She was still willing to submit to the white creature, but she will never ever submit to this soft squishy random worm!
Suddenly, she roared and tried attacking the little bug-like creature in retaliation! A soundwave attack was produced and bombarded towards Shiro. Her intentions were straight-forward; if she managed to kill the fragile worm, she didn't need to submit to it. Maybe, even the white creature will be thankful to her for releasing it from its bonds to the worm and let her go.
She immediately dragged her slug-like heavy body towards the worm in an attempt to reduce the distance and launched a mental attack to stop the worm from running away. At the same time, the other Elemental Fiends pounced from the back in coordination! It's a two-pronged attack! They had successfully breached the ice wall barriers and had stealthily blocked the intruders' escape by sacrificing a large number of their comrades to drowning. The attacks were so well-coordinated, they happened at the same time.
Before Shiro and Chomper could act, a horrifying pressure descended upon the Primordial Queen Mother and the rest of the Elemental Fiends. The pressure was domineeringly strong and pressed all of them to the ground. Some weaker Elemental Fiends started bleeding white substances from their orifices, while the ones with grievous injuries were directly squashed, including the newly-transformed General-class Elemental Fiend beside the King. The Primordial Queen Mother struggled hard to move her limbs and force herself to attack the black-maned worm. However, she couldn't even lift her head. Only her six compound eyes looked at the creature with horror.
The black-maned creature walked step by step towards her while a large translucent dome appeared out of nowhere, isolating the other Elemental Fiends at the back from the intruders and her. The King was barely breathing and was on its last breath, while the new General was already dead.
"Submit, or die. Choose well, please." A ghostly looking red glowing eyes looked at her thoughtfully.
The Primordial Queen Mother felt a very dangerous aura emitted for the black-maned worm, It was like a different being altogether!
"Slap her for me."
Two tight slaps were delivered to the Primordial Queen Mother's face. To her, the slap was akin to being banged by a fast-moving horrifying blunt force. The first slap had made her large body fly to the left ice wall while the second slap she got midair had slammed her down to the ground directly in front of the black-maned being again. She coughed a lot of blood. All the orifices on her face were leaking white blood now.
"Submit, or die. Last chance. I can always promote someone else as the next Queen."
She wanted to nod, but couldn't move at all. She tried to move her limbs, but she couldn't. She was in a state of panic at the moment. She didn't want to lose her life due to a misunderstanding! She gave the creature a pleading look, but the creature seemed not to understand her pitiful gaze. Obviously the aunty couldn't differentiate between a steadfast giant termite and a crying giant termite.
The creature sighed again and shook her head. "You asked for it."
....
Just before Hana was going to order Shiro to beat the Primordial Queen Mother again, she heard the voice of her beloved little pet who was observing with her eyes.
[Mommy? The queen bug already submitted. But she couldn't show any reaction due to the Soul-pressure. However, don't lift it first. Make sure to let her ingest your blood first.] Hana sweated as she heard Kuro's reminder within their telepathic channel.
Hana blushed and nearly fell. [Ah? Really ah? Aiyohh..]
Hana cleared her throat and closed her eyes. She reduced the intensity and the scope of the Soul-pressure to only encompassed the area within the ice bubble wall. At that moment, Hana felt a coppery taste within her mouth, but she held it in as hard as she could. She couldn't show a trace of weakness in front of the spiritual beast she was going to make her own. What if she retaliated during Soul-pact once it knew she was injured internally?
Shiro could see Mom's complexion getting paler. The medication from the little slave fish was working before, but she didn't truly get better. It flared up again after she used the Soul-pressure skill again.
Hana held her finger to Shiro to let him nicked it as she was too afraid to do it herself. Her index finger started bleeding with copious amounts of red blood. Her face turned paler as she looked at her own blood; she knew her phobia for blood was surfacing. She quickly brought her finger to the Queen's mouth.
....
As the terrifying pressure reduced, the Queen could finally open her excessively large mandible to receive the creature's blood. She obediently ingested the blood as the creature kept on dripping more and more in her mouth. The ownership runes within the blood stealthily manifested and spread to the Queen's whole body in search of her soul to conquer it.
Suddenly, she could feel something deep within her soul! Her soul had been forcefully wrenched to half and taken over!
The Primordial Queen Mother looked at Hana's face unconsciously with fear in her eyes. She understood that the creature in front of her now held her life, and she couldn't break away from it even after death!
The creature finally took away her bloodied finger and placed its hand on her head. "You won't regret it. Following me will give you lots of benefits."
The Primordial Queen Mother saw the creature walked towards the dying King. It then fed the King with something. To her pleasant surprise, the King's vitality became better in just a short while.
...
"Do you want one? This medicine?" She showed the All Cure Pellet she fed to the Elemental Fiend King to the Primordial Queen Mother. At the moment, she could feel her emotions. It was filled with agitation and mostly of fear towards her. She could also feel confusion from the queen termite.
[She didn't understand us, Mom. She's a low tiered spiritual beast with a lack of intelligence.] Shiro helpfully explained to Hana.
Hana rubbed the head of the queen to appease it. Once she touched the gigantic termite's head, she could feel the Queen's fear increased a couple of notches. Her touch didn't work. It only agitated the queen more. Hana directly fed the queen with the All Cure Pellet and tried to feel her emotions.
Firstly, she felt apprehension, then surprise, and finally, an increasing amount of joy.
Hana smiled.
As the ice bubble wall was lifted, all the Elemental Fiends in the vicinity lowered their heads, led by the Primordial Queen Mother and her fully cured Elemental Fiend King.
They now had a new Master. Prompted by the Queen Mother, everyone droned together in unison, "Master" was what being droned about, but Hana wasn't able to understand anything. It almost sounded like a prayer. Shiro nodded curtly with satisfaction, obviously feeling pleased with the title but wasn't planning to spill the beans, lest Hana will start asking everyone to call her 'aunty' again.
At first, Hana was shocked by their servile action; they had just fought each other too. After a while, she had finally accepted their prostration with ease. At the same time, her heart was so overwhelmed with their success. She could brag about this operation with dearest Arash for a whole year while lifting her nose up! Dang, that man dare looked down on her all this while. She felt so relieved as if a heavy burden had just been lifted from her chest. As she relaxed all her taut mind, her vision clouded a little.
[Hmm? What happen? Did my glasses get dirty?] She took off her glasses in an attempt to wipe it on her wet yellow shirt.
Suddenly she felt something wet and hot dripping from her nose before she could even wipe her glasses clean. Hana placed the glasses back on her nose and attempted to wipe the snot that might have come out embarrassingly only to see a copious amount of blood on her hand. She hadn't realized that her ears were bleeding too.
[D*mn, this is too much...]
Her vision quickly becomes dark, and she suddenly lost consciousness.
…
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mrandmrsmooncat
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