[The first day of destruction]
Content Warning
This chapter contains graphic depictions of mass death, body horror, psychological breakdown, and extreme violence. Reader discretion is advised.
"—[Creeping Doom]."
The dazzling magic circle shattered into particles of light and dissolved into the atmosphere.
Oh, no. Oh gods, no.
Iris stumbled backward, a scream dying in her throat.
As a spy embedded in the army, she knew the classified reports. On the Katze Plains, the Sorcerer King had utilized a spell that harvested 70,000 lives in a single breath to summon gigantic goat-monsters.
He intends to massacre the entire Theocracy army here.
There was no time for hesitation. Iris reached into her tunic, grasping the teardrop-shaped platinum pendant hidden in her cleavage. She poured her mana into it.
Connect!
Her consciousness was yanked from her body, projecting outward like a fishing line cast into the void, seeking the mind of the Platinum Dragon King.
... The signal is weak. Is he in the east?
"—Is that you, 'Dragon's Eye 02'?"
The deep, resonant voice of the Platinum Dragon King echoed directly in her skull.
"I am currently... occupied. Report."
"It is the Sorcerer King!" Iris transmitted her thoughts with frantic urgency.
"The Sorcerer King? Are you certain? You are stationed with the Theocracy's invasion force..."
"He is here! Directly above the frontline near the Elven Capital! We believe he captured Zesshi Zetsumei last night, and now..."
"Wait. What did you say?"
For the first time, Iris heard a tremor in the Dragon Lord's voice. But she couldn't afford to analyze it.
"He has cast a Super-Tier spell! It resembles the report from the Katze Plains—a massive blue array—but the effects are currently unknown!"
Drip.
Drip, tock.
A drop of liquid struck Iris's cheek.
Rain?
She wiped her cheek and looked at her hand. It wasn't water.
It was a viscous, emerald-green sludge. Suspended within the slime were tiny, black particulates that writhed. A foul, acidic stench assaulted her nose—the smell of crushed beetles and rotting compost.
"Green... rain?"
Splatter. Splash.
The sky opened up. The sun was blotted out by a torrential downpour of the thick, foul-smelling slime.
"Shields up! Get inside the tents!"
"My barrier isn't working! It's passing right through!"
"Gaaah! It's sticky!"
Screams erupted around her. Iris watched in horror as the green rain ignored the magical barriers of the mages and the canvas of the tents, soaking into the earth and the soldiers alike.
"...' Dragon's Eye 02'. What is happening? What kind of magic is it?"
The Platinum Dragon King's voice was calm, detached.
A bitter smile touched Iris's lips. He is calm.
Of course, he was. To the True Dragon Lords, humans were dust. Ephemeral, fragile, and replaceable.
Iris knew this. From the moment she accepted the pendant, she knew she was nothing more than a surveillance node, a disposable tool to be used.
And yet, sadness welled up in her chest. Not for the cruelty of her master, but for the frailty of her own existence.
Tears mixed with the green sludge on her face.
That is fine. Even a tool has pride. To serve the strongest being in the world, to be the eyes that spot the danger... that is the only meaning my short life has ever had.
"It is... rain," Iris reported, her voice trembling but her will harden like steel. She forced her eyes open, ignoring the stinging burn of the foul liquid.
"A foul-smelling green rain covering a radius of several kilometers. So far... no lethal effects observed. Wait. The rain has stopped."
As quickly as it began, the downpour ceased. The sun returned, illuminating a world coated in green slime.
"The Sorcerer King and Commander Valeria seem unaffected," Iris noted. "But everyone else is covered."
"Strange. Perhaps a debuff? Or a marking spell for capture?"
"I... I don't know. Wait. Ugh..."
A wave of nausea hit Iris. It wasn't just nausea. It felt as though something was moving under her skin. A writhing, burrowing sensation that defied logic.
"What is the status?" The Dragon Lord pressed.
"I... I can't describe it... It feels like... insects... crawling inside..."
"Insects?"
"There is no one standing... except... Ahhhhhh!!"
Iris fell to her knees, clawing at her throat. She ripped her tunic open, desperate to scrape the sensation away.
"Ha... haha..."
A laugh of pure madness escaped her lips.
Beneath her skin, she could see them. Thousands of tiny ripples moving through her flesh. Her veins were bulging, shifting, changing color to a dark, chitinous black. It felt as if her blood had turned into a swarm of ants, devouring her from the inside out.
It hurts. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!
"Ah! It's coming out! It's—!"
Iris realized the horrific truth. It wasn't that worms were crawling inside her.
Her internal organs, her bones, her muscles—they were becoming insects.
Her vision fractured into a thousand distinct images—compound eyes. Furthermore, her spine cracked and twisted, elongating with a sickening wet pop. New limbs, jagged and hairy, burst from her ribcage and abdomen, tearing through her skin like paper.
I don't want this! I don't want to die! Please, Lord Platinum! Save me!
"Report! 'Dragon's Eye 02'! Report!"
"Dragon Lord... I... Squeeeeek—"
The humanity was bleeding out of her mind. The face of her mother, the face of the Dragon Lord, the memories of her childhood—all of it was being chewed away by a primal, buzzing instinct.
A new directive was overwriting her loyalty. Ainz Ooal Gown. The Master. The Hive Mind. Serve. Consume. Obey.
She tried to grab the pendant. She had to warn him. The Sorcerer King is... The Sorcerer King is death…
The pendant slipped from her grasp. Her neck had swollen, the chain snapping against the hardening carapace.
She reached for it.
But the limb that extended was not a human hand. It was a terrifying, segmented black leg ending in a hooked claw.
Is this... my hand?
"SKREEEEEEEEE!"
The sound that tore from her throat was not human. It was the chittering shriek of a monster. And she was not alone. The sound was being echoed by tens of thousands of others, a choir of the damned singing the song of the end….
The Chitinous Choir
The title contrasts the "choir" (the unified sound of the 10,000 soldiers) with the "chitin" (their new, insectile forms), highlighting the transition from an army of individuals to a singular, monstrous hive-mind.
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