Re:Ant Lord-Chapter 174: Sparks Beneath the Silence

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His spear joined a second later, jabbing in behind the mandibles. The serpent reared—’

But it was Too late. White light exploded. A dome of searing plasma engulfed them both.

But when the light cleared... He still stood.

Breathing hard, armor cracked, but victorious.

The Tesseral Seraphim collapsed, its body spasming, then slumping forward like a punctured god. Its molten core ruptured, and it dissolved into a river of cooling quicksilver. Steam hissed into the air.

From the ridge, Azhara screamed like she was having an orgasm.

She clutched her chest with one hand, another one inside her mouth, covered with Sylvia. Her body was trembling. Her eyes flooded with tears. She never felt pleasure like this. She thought, "Seeing him fight is this much fun. Then... what if he is inside me?"

[Ding! System notifications- Kill Confirmed: Tesseral Seraphim (5★ – Aberrant)

+500 EXP

Loot Acquired:

Cracked Lightning Heart ×1

Ore-Infused Scale ×12

Level Up: Level 39 → 40

Passive Upgrade Unlocked: Aura Sink – Reduce incoming elemental damage by 5% while grounded. ]

Kai dropped to one knee. Not from pain. But from the weight of the storm leaving his body.

[Devour Option: Cracked Lightning Meteoroid Heart. Devour Now? [Y/N]

He selected No. Not yet. The item was too valuable raw. The heart could be refined later into a weapon, or offered to Miryam when she reached juvenile form. It pulsed with unstable elemental essence, perhaps even used as an awakened catalyst of lightning.

He stored the full corpse in his Soul Cube, feeling the heat of its memory sear into the cube’s sigils.

Then he retrieved the two remaining meteor shards. They were dense, heavy, still pulsing with charge and shouldered the extra weight.

28 kilograms total. Enough for five or six reforged weapons. Maybe a royal grade armor plating.

He climbed to the rim of the crater again, exhaling steam, each breath ragged but satisfied.

Azhara was waiting. She knelt at the edge. Her head was bowed, Eyes shining with madness.

"Sir..." she whispered, voice quivering, ears twitching uncontrollably. "Please... let me follow. Hurt me again... I mean... train me. I want to be like you."

(Check image in comment.)

Her face flushed with shame. Her claws dug into her own thigh to suppress the tremble. She had never bowed to anyone. Never feared anyone. Never desired anyone.

But feeling Kai’s aura and watching Kai battle lightning, tame the storm, and consume the heavens... It broke her.

And in that breaking, something darker bloomed. She was no longer just a survivor. She wanted to belong to him. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

The lightning had died, but Kai’s aura had not.

Smoke curled from the plates of his Adaptive Armor. His steps cracked the cooling glass beneath him as he climbed from the crater, spear strapped to his back, eyes forward like the storm had never happened.

Azhara knelt just a few meters away, still trembling.

Her ears twitched at every motion he made. Her thighs clenched tight, claws buried in the earth. The primal glow in her black eyes flickered with hope, shame, and a strange hunger only she understood.

When Kai passed her without a glance, her lips parted.

"Sir..."

He stopped. Not abruptly. Not violently. Just a pause. When he turned, his gaze was fire beneath frost. "I am not your savior," he said. "You are my enemy. You have done something that caused the death of a subordinate."

The words were calm but beneath them was pressure. Real pressure. The kind that suffocated instincts and ground pride into dust.

She bowed lower, nose to the ground. "I know... but—"

"No." His voice cut sharper than his spear. "Leave. If you follow me again... I won’t show any mercy."

She flinched. Her body betrayed her, she was trembling from more than fear. But she didn’t argue. She remained crouched as he turned and walked away, each step ringing in her ears like fate moving forward without her.

She stayed there for a long while. And then she rose. She didn’t cry. She didn’t whimper. She simply followed him. It was quiet as a shadow.

Kai didn’t look back.

The storm beast was dead, but the mission wasn’t over. The system had marked this zone as rich in star meteoroid iron, and he had already used one shard to ground lightning. He needed more... much more for his future army.

[Objective: Collect rare materials. Estimated value for reforging: 800kg minimum.]

His Soul Cube stored barely a fraction of it. It wasn’t enough.

He moved across broken terrain—slag valleys, ridges of magnetic ore glass, fields of blackened stone where lightning had split the crust. Here and there, he spotted glints of silver blue beneath rubble. Faint veins of the meteoroid.

He began harvesting. He was Careful and Efficient. And unknowingly... he was not alone.

Azhara watched from higher ground. She didn’t breathe too loud. She didn’t dare get close. Not yet. But every time Kai moved forward, she moved behind.

When he cleared one boulder to find a meteor shard, she waited until he passed, then circled wider to scavenge on her own.

She found two smaller cores, half buried in sulfur pits. Her claws burned. Her pads blistered. But she kept going.

Later, when Kai rested at the edge of a canyon and sharpened his spear, he felt something odd near him. 34kg Star-Iron Ore was placed there. Few moments ago there was nothing.

He narrowed his eyes, glancing toward the high ridge. Nothing. "So, she collected this. Is she trying to win me over with star Meteoroid iron? Whatever, let’s collect it."

She was hiding behind a big rock. She thought Kai wouldn’t know. But Kai’s predator instinct already showed him everything. He ignored her and moved on.

An hour passed. Then three. Then five.

Kai hadn’t spoken a word. Not to himself. Not to the air. Just task after task—search, scan, extract, store. His muscles moved with the rhythm of focus, but even focus had limits.

And somewhere between the sixth and seventh hour... he saw her. She wasn’t hiding this time.

Azhara stood near a ridge, arms full of a jagged shard nearly half her size. Her legs trembled beneath the weight. Static buzzed off the metal. Her hands bled from where the ore cut her, but she said nothing.

She dropped it gently onto the stone and backed away. Only then did she look up.

Not with pride. Not with seduction. But with offering.

Kai exhaled, a long and quiet breath. He didn’t move. Not for a while. When he finally stepped forward, he didn’t speak until the shard was in his hands.

"...Where did you find it?"

Her ears perked, just barely. "There’s a pit. West of the sulfur line. The rocks crack easy. But they sting."

Kai inspected the shard. The quality was pure. It was untempered, raw, and far more valuable than he’d expected from terrain like this.

"...You’re useful," he muttered.

She looked up.

"But I didn’t say I forgive you," he added.

Her smile died before it bloomed. Still, she nodded. "I didn’t come to be forgiven. I came to serve you."

Kai turned away. "Don’t worship me. It’s annoying." "Yes, sir."

He paused. After a moment, he continued walking and this time, he didn’t tell her to stop.