302 Unexpected Disaster

"How can there still be ants?!" 

Everyone felt their hair rising with goosebumps and trickling cold sweat as they were terrified by the discovery.

"Who cares why there are still ants! Fucking move it, or we all die!" The group leader bellowed angrily. 

Hearing the reminder, everyone quickly turned around and began running. The group leader, who was at the forefront of the group initially, became dead last. If the group were too slow, he would be the first to die!

"Which path are we taking at the crossroad?" One of the members hurriedly raised a question. They had not yet reached the crossroad, but it was not wrong to plan ahead of time! 

"The left one!" The group leader shouted. Being pressed for time, he did not have the luxury to backtrack the way they went. He could hear the ants closing in fast.

"Ahhh!

As they drew closer to the crossroad, they heard a painful scream from the left passageway. Everyone's faces fell. The voice belonged to the soldier that managed to escape while they were still confused about the danger!

"Right! Take the right passageway!"

It was a race against time and a life or death situation. Everyone immediately followed suit and entered the right passageway as they sensed the danger from the left passageway.

No one cared whether that soldier lived or died in the left passageway. They were not even sure if they were going to keep their own lives! Why would they have the time to care about others?!

The right passageway led them through twists and turns that were foreign to them. They were made aware that it was an entirely new passageway they had yet to explore.

"Not good! I remember the last crossroad we passed had three passageways! Why are there only two?!"

"Don't tell me it was another crossroad we had overlooked?!"

"Darn it! What kind of godforsaken place is it! We should have never come here!"

"Shit! Shit! Shit! We are all going to die!"

"Shut up and run! If you have the energy to scream, then put some effort into running faster!"

The entire Group Four was thrown into a chaotic mess when their lives were at stake. Running through a maze of endless and narrow passageways, they felt trapped and enclosed. 

With the threat of death lingering ever behind them, it was enough to make them go crazy as they ran with all their effort.

At some point, the passageway began to widen enough for them to all run side by side.

"It's open space! We made it out of the passageway!" A person celebrated.

However!

That celebration was short-lived as everyone's joy soon turned to despair when the light from the oil lamp illuminated part of the vast open space.

"No! this is not the way we came from!" 

Group Three found themselves surrounded by an army of ants. As the ants screeched agitatedly and pounced on them, the entire Group Three was devoured clean without being able to put up much of a fight. Even their painful screams were drowned out by the noise created by the sea of ants.

Surprisingly, the bodies of Group Three did not enter the stomach of any of these low-level ants. Ants brought a mouthful of their remains back deeper into the cave with the crunching sounds of bone breaking as they chewed on it.

After arriving before a humanoid ant that laid on a stone bed, seemingly asleep, the low-level ants each spat out a ball of ground flesh, blood, and bones.

The humanoid ant was the Ant King that led the attack on the Elder Tree before the tree ascended to the world level. 

Many parts of the black exoskeletal shells were missing from the Ant King, and numerous cracks were seen in what was left of it. Underneath its black shell was human-like flesh, stained in blood, not of the color, red, but a yellowy greenish color.

It may greatly resemble humans, but it was still an ant at its roots. 

The Ant King's chest rose and fell along with the rhythmic beating of its heart. It was heavily injured, but very much still alive.

Screeee! 

(Please eat and heal yourself, my King!)

The ants all urged their Ant King to eat. Eating the blood and flesh of humans could help the Ant King recover swiftly!

The Ant King was born different at birth, but it gave rise to the most exceptional innate abilities of them all. Whether it was physical strength or recovery, its capabilities far outstripped any other ant the Ant Queen had ever given birth to. 

That is why it is the Ant King! It was the most powerful, and most worthy of leading all the ants!

When the Ant King was born, the Ant Queen was no more. It died giving birth to the Ant King over 400 years ago, which was also around the same time the Hero King disappeared.

The Ant King opened its blood-red eyes. It weakly reached out for one of the flesh balls and proceeded to munch on it. It started off slow but began to increase with speed and vigor with every bite.

After everything offered by the ants was devoured clean, the Ant King's severely wounded flesh began to heal at an incredible rate! 

Although the Ant King could not recover its broken black exoskeletal shell, its flesh grew back stronger than ever.

When the Ant King's recovery was complete, the Ant King stood up proudly as a tyrannical aura exploded out from its body.

Screee! 

(Thank you, my subjects! Now that I have recovered, it is time to take revenge for our fallen kin! Our attacks may have failed, our numbers may have dwindled, but this, for sure, we will be victorious!)

The Ant King communicated to the ants and infected them with its overwhelming confidence, confidence that came from its increased strength after absorbing the nutrients from the humans!

Scree! Scree! Scree!

(Long live the king!)

(Long live the king!)

(Long live the king!)

The ants rejoiced with excitement and frenzy like a group of devoted believers. The base intelligence of ants was not high, but their loyalty was unquestionable. They were all born for one purpose and one purpose only; to live and die for the king!

…

At the same time, no one on the surface was aware of what was happening in the subterranean world.

Lilith was in a large tent with a group of archeologists studying a select few ancient texts and relics, among other items collected from underground. She found a giant white orb but failed to recognize what it was and asked around.

"What is this thing?"

"Ah, Lady Lilith, I believe this is… hmm." An archeologist proceeded to explain, but frowned when he also failed to recognize the white orb. "Does anyone know what this is?"

"Hmm… I'm not sure, but I heard quite a few of those were found on the first underground floor, where it was full of… webs… hmm?" Another archeologist spoke, before recalling something. "Now that I think about it, isn't this a spider egg? Who brought this here?"

"What?" 

Lilith faintly felt something squirming inside the 'white orb' and tossed it away in shock after hearing what the archeologist said. She hates spiders!!!

"Someone, burn this thing!" Lilith frowned, feeling she had forgotten something very important, but could not quite remember. 

After watching someone burn the spider egg, only to see a spiderling hatch from it and enjoy the fire, Lilith recalled what the important thing was.

"Oh shit!" Lilith cussed in shock and smacked her own head. How could she forget something so important!!! Only she had seen the Spider Queen survive the fire and become human, but she had yet to inform anyone about this!

'Lilith, ah, Lilith, why are you so stupid?' Lilith blamed herself, believing the human kingdom was going to face another disaster after giving the Spider Queen time to repopulate.

"My word, Lady Lilith. Your language…" The archeologists were taken aback. 

"Sorry! I must have been hanging out with the soldiers too—"

Boom!

Suddenly, the earth shook from a shocking and explosive impact.

"What was that?! Did something just explode?!"

"It sounded more like something being struck with great force!"

Everyone in the tent was confused. 

It did not take long for chaos to break out as sounds of fighting could be heard outside. Heading out, they saw ants swarming out from under the World Tree and waging war on it.

"Protect the World Tree!" 

Elder Evergreen's urgent voice was heard. The tree spirit had entered a dormant state and did not retaliate.

The Ant King frowned when his powerful blow did little to no damage to the World Tree. However, his ruby-like eyes began to glitter when he saw large numbers of humans on the surface.

SCREE! 

(Forget the tree and attack the humans!) 

The Ant King issued a powerful command to all his subjects across the lands. There were so many humans to aid its evolution!