Overlord

"Teacher, is this... is this a war...?" Rosaline asked in shock.

"It looked like it." Ivette nodded gravely.

From Abyss Base to the vast Ish Island, based on her observations of the Mutants, she could clearly conclude that they were unsocial creatures who fought independently. Only upon reaching the Second Stage did they gain a little intelligence, comparable to that of a human infant. In such a scattered rabble state, they could not threaten the peaceful lives the two of them led on Ish Island, as long as she did not get herself killed.

But if a war emerged, the situation would be completely different. First, they would surely possess a shared will. Whether it was the individual will of a high-level Mutant or a connected hive mind, it would drastically alter their social structure, twisting them into a single rope before driving them to expand outward. Sooner or later, they would threaten the two women living long-term in Ish City.

And there was that Twin-Blade Demon, suspected to have reached the Third Stage and possessing intelligence comparable to that of a human. What role exactly did it play in this war between the Mutants...?

As the battle line advanced, the Grayport Faction retreated again and again.

After Ivette piloted the hovercar in through an unnoticed blind spot, the two of them reached the deepest area with almost no difficulty.

Standing atop a high-rise building, they saw an enormous flesh-and-blood creature in the central plaza. Most of its body was hidden beneath the collapsed ground, while what protruded above the surface was a giant, chrysanthemum-petal-shaped opening. Beneath its translucent crimson skin, crisscrossed with thick blood vessels, a huge and bizarre embryo seemed to be brewing.

"It should be something like a Mother Nest. The Mutants outside are either attacking it or guarding it, which means this thing is the 'brain' of both sides." Ivette frowned. The last time she had come to Grayport City had been many years ago. To her, perhaps only a few years or even a decade had passed in the blink of an eye—a very short time—but it had given the Mutants the chance to evolve a Mother Nest. She did not know whether to say that the long passage of time had made her sense of time somewhat abnormal.

"Then should we do something?"

"No. It's too dangerous." Ivette shook her head and looked toward a corner on the ground.

There was a Giant Scorpion the size of a small truck. What made their scalps tingle was that dozens of human-like eyeballs were embedded in the creature's back, which was covered in thick black armor. Those eyeballs hid beneath the gaps in its shell, occasionally peeking out to take in everything around them from every direction.

Looking at its bizarre yet complete form, as well as its quiet appearance as it lay dormant in the shadows, utterly unmoved by the battle at the front lines, Ivette could not help suspecting that it was also a Third Stage Mutant. Like the Twin-Blade Demon, it possessed considerable intelligence and had thus been deployed specifically to guard the Mother Nest.

"Teacher, over there... the Twin-Blade Demon!" Rosaline suddenly tugged at Ivette's sleeve.

Ivette turned to look and discovered that inside a nearby building, a black figure with four wings on its back was also lowering its head to observe the situation below.

Suddenly, it seemed to sense the gaze from the other side. Slowly, eerily, it twisted its head around. The muscles at the corners of its mouth began to twitch unnaturally, gradually pulling upward.

But before it could reveal the human-like smile that had given Rosaline nightmares all night, four blue-white Rune Rings lit up beside Ivette and fired several bursts of Wrath of Thunder at it.

The speed of that strike was something no ordinary spell could match. Blue-white lightning flashed before the Twin-Blade Demon in an instant.

Sensing the formidable power hidden within the attack, the Twin-Blade Demon's smile abruptly vanished. It immediately fled, tracing loop after loop through the air like a mosquito desperately escaping an electric swatter, utterly bedraggled.

In the end, after dodging for so long only to still be struck by electricity, the Twin-Blade Demon had a hole burned straight through one of its wings. It finally did not dare linger any longer. It gave Ivette a deep look, then turned and vanished into the gaps between the ruined buildings without a trace.

By evening, after the war between the Mutants temporarily ceased, Ivette and Rosaline stopped watching and drove the hovercar back to Ish City.

The outcome of the war was somewhat unexpected. In the end, the embryo inside the Mother Nest emerged.

It was a bloated giant four or five stories tall. Its swollen abdomen bore a huge mouth filled with countless thick tongues, capable of sweeping more than a dozen Mutated Tideworms into its belly at once and digesting them at high speed.

With the help of this War Giant, the Grayport Faction barely reversed its decline and forced the Tidebug Army to retreat on its own initiative.

Including the Giant Scorpion lying dormant beside the Mother Nest like a guard, two new Third Stage Mutants had been added to Rosaline's notebook. They were respectively named the Gluttonous Troll and the Hundred-Eyed Scorpion Demon.

"It's too terrifying... the evolution speed of these Mutated Creatures..." Rosaline sat down at the table uneasily.

"If there are Mother Nests, the Ish Mountains and Luya City in the far north may have had them long ago. But Grayport City's Mother Nest should have appeared only in recent years." Ivette lowered her eyes and began considering their current situation.

"What should we do, Teacher? Should we do something?"

"Tomorrow, we'll investigate near the Ish Mountains and Luya City to determine the situation," Ivette said. "If there is a large disparity in strength, we can consider intervening at the margins and supporting the weakest side, maintaining the balance of power between them."

This was the best solution she could think of at the moment. After all, measured against Third Stage elite type Aberrations, Rosaline's current combat power was probably comparable to one Elite, while Ivette herself could perhaps fight three or four Elites at once. That sounded good, but it still carried the risk of death. Rather than take such a great risk, it was better to choose a lower-risk method of balance.

However, just as they were about to settle on this conclusion concerning their future survival strategy—

Ivette suddenly turned her head, her icy gaze shooting like arrows toward the manor beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, bathed in orange-yellow light.

Following her gaze, Rosaline's heart suddenly stopped.

From the shadows, a tall black figure with four damaged wings on its back slowly emerged, silently standing at the boundary between light and darkness.

The Twin-Blade Demon!

Why was it here?

Almost instantly, Rosaline wanted to grab the Alloy Combat Blade by the door. Even Ivette narrowed her eyes, walking toward the front entrance while preparing to bombard it with spells.

But to their surprise, the Twin-Blade Demon did not display any intention to fight. Instead, it stood where it was and waited quietly.

Then, once the two women approached, it slowly opened its mouth. One awkward, halting Black Tide Language word after another, as though it had only just learned them, came out in broken fragments—

"Human... mage..."

"Overlord... will be born..."

"If we don't hurry... we..."

"Will all die...!"