Evolution begins with an ant colony

Chapter 164 Sudden Change And Another Player?

(A/N: Read to the end pls)

Aelorin mused inwardly as sweat streamed down her cheeks and fell to the floor. "This doesn't make any sense. How is he walking straight for us like that? The giants don't seem to be weakening him at all. Instead, he is instantly destroying them, and my mana reserves are starting to get low from creating so many of them.

If he gets here now, I wouldn't be able to defend myself." She glanced over at Thalanor as he gritted his teeth, creating stone giants immediately after Akun destroys them.

Suddenly the system's voice echowed in Akun's thoughts:

[Ding!! GX-CHAOS- has finally finished absorbing ?? From ??]

[?? Has been successfully integrated!]

[The player's characteristics will now finally change.]

Suddenly, Akun stopped in his tracks, catching both Thalanor and Aelorin off guard as they wondered what he was going to do next.

Suddenly with a sigh, Akun said, "I'm starting to get tired of this whole making you all see how weak you are thing. What if I just kill you all now?"

"Preposterous!" Elder Thalanor lashed out, his gaze narrowing as he waved his hand. "How dare you look down on us simply because you are..." Before he could finish his statement, a sudden force pulled him towards Akun. Time seemed to slow down as he mused inwardly, "What is this? I'm flying?" Landing, his neck met Akun's outstretched hand.

The air crackled with tension as Thalanor's defiance met Akun's power.

Akun instantly drove his hand through Elder Thalanor's chest, ripping out his core. Blood splattered across the forest floor, and an eerie silence descended as if the entire forest had borne witness to the elder's sudden death. Akun's bloodied hands held Elder Thalanor's bright green core as he emerged from the chest.

With a chilling calmness, he stated, "Old man, I'm done with cliches. I just want to end this and save my people. I've lost interest in everything else."

Thalanor's death happened so abruptly and unrealistically. One moment he was alive, and the next, he was gone. It was such an impractical and surreal event that it left Aelorin and Nyressa questioning the nature of their reality.

As the light faded from Thalanor's eyes, Akun crushed his core. He then flung the elder's lifeless body back towards where Elder Aelorin stood. She had stopped creating golems and dropped to her knees, her speech stolen by the shock.

Gently, she laid Thalanor's head on her lap as he bled to death.

"Thalanor!" they both exclaimed. Nyressa, rising from the rubble she had been in, underwent a transformation, shifting into a dragon, though her size was nowhere near that of the originals.

Akun commented with sarcasm, "Impressive skill, I must say." His tone then turned serious as he added, "But turning into a fake dragon won't bring your friend back."

Elder Nyressa, in her dragon form with glistering red scales, unleashed a massive breath of fire at Akun, hoping to inflict significant damage. However, her expectations were quickly shattered as multiple black swords emerged from the other side of her head, piercing through her mouth and coming out the other side.

The shock was fleeting, as she fell heavily to the ground, her life extinguished in an instant. The impact created a massive crater where she landed, and her body began to revert to its normal form, a massive sword still gouged into her abdomen.

The sight of elder Nyressa's sudden death deepened the emotional turmoil in elder Aelorin's eyes. She rose to her feet after gently laying down elder Thalanor's head on the ground and spoke with a cold, accusing tone, "You've been toying with us."

Akun acknowledged with a hint of nonchance, "Can't say it was fun, though. For some reason, all that I'd been doing earlier suddenly felt so childish and pointless, like a veil was lifted from my eyes. If I possess this power, why should I hold back against my enemies? I should have obliterated this clan from the very beginning."

Elder Aelorin clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. She couldn't help but express her disdain, "For a being to possess such a capacity for violence, you must truly be a vile creature."

Akun, undeterred, responded with eyes that shone brightly, "Says the clan that implanted a seed in another living being, allowing the roots to sprout, taking the life of its host, wreaking chaos and mass carnage. If I were to call anything vile, it's the fact your tribe is responsible for this. And then you think there would be no punishment for it?

It's downright demonic the way your people can still smile happily, knowing fully well that their tribe is responsible for the mass murder of other living creatures. And you call yourselves dryads."

Aelorin clenched her fists as she responded, "My people had no knowledge of what happened in your tribe, and everything that happened there is a result of my instructions."

Akun, unfazed, added, "It doesn't matter whether you are responsible or not. The fact is, if I want to save my people, I need all of you to die."

Elder Aelorin then let out a small chuckle before her tone turned serious. She reached into a pocket in her dress and pulled out a seed, which she threw into her mouth. Before the seed entered her mouth and she swallowed it, Akun used his dragon eyes to identify it as a

"[Dryad ancient tree seed.]"

Upon seeing the item information, Akun mused inwardly, "It seems she plans to turn herself into that tree as a last resort. Well, it's not like it matters to me, but having to deal with that again will be a huge waste of my time." In a split second, Akun instantly created a small railgun over his head, and it began spinning.

Once fully charged, he fired it at Elder Aelorin just as the seed entered her mouth.

With "Mini Railgun, 100%," he fired it. Although the attack's radius wasn't enormous, it was large enough to completely obliterate her, leaving only her legs and some remains of her clothing on the floor.

Akun then walked up to her remains, mumbling to himself, "Now that that is over with, why don't I pay the princess a visit?"

Meanwhile, in an underground passage beneath the tree castle, Elder Sylara, the princess, the king, queen, and what was left of the dryad tribe were making their escape from the lands of the dryad tribe. The king and queen were being carried in their king-sized bed, with four guards lifting it from all four sides. The princess, still unconscious, was being carried in the same manner.

The passage was adorned with green glowing runes on the walls as Elder Sylara led the way. Her thoughts raced, "They said they would do what they can and join the rest of us, but where are they? Once I had finished healing the princess, I did as we all discussed.

I immediately started evacuating what was left of the tribe." Her hands trembled as she continued, "But their delay was never part of the plan. Did something happen to them?"

Her inner musings were suddenly interrupted by a figure up ahead in the cave, clad in all black with a dim purple glow surrounding their body.

Sylara halted the group by raising her hands, signaling the other dryads to stop. She gazed seriously at the approaching figure, who spoke with a deep and condescending voice, "Has your tribe retrieved the core?" The man stood tall and started to walk toward the dryads. He wore a white mask to conceal his face and had small red horns protruding from his head.

It was a demon, the one who had sent the dryad princess and elders on the self-destructive quest to retrieve Akun's core.

Elder Sylara spoke up, stating, "This is not the time for such a meeting." The demon, maintaining his distance, responded, "I do what I want, when I want, how I want, and where I want. You cannot tell me not to have this meeting here and now. Now, back to the question: Have you retrieved the core?" His presence was overwhelming.

As the dryads observed the man, an unspoken rule dictated not to provoke him. Even the children present felt the shift in the atmosphere and refrained from crying or making noise.

Because they were all well aware that angering this man could lead to their instant demise, the dryads stood in tense silence.

Sylara trembled as she contemplated how to reveal their failure to him. The atmosphere was so heavy that it felt like you could cut it with a knife. Summoning her courage, she finally spoke up, "You still have to give us some more time, please. The person you set us up against is not someone we can easily deal with.

But I'm sure if you just give us a bit more time, we will provide you with what you want." Inwardly, she considered, "I can't tell him that we have failed. If he somehow finds out, I'm certain he would eradicate what remains of the dryad tribe." She glanced at the trembling dryads behind her, thinking, "But I fear that such an obvious lie won't deceive him.

The only thing I can do for my people now is hope."

The man then spoke up, "It seems I was wrong about the whole thing. Well, I guess it's back to the drawing board then."

Suddenly, an ominous system voice echoed in the man's head, asking, "‡[Has the player decided to give up on the current objective?]‡"

The man responded, "No, but it seems I'll have to use a different approach."

His words made no sense to Sylara, and she wondered who he was talking to. She muttered, "Have you decided..."

The man spoke with an ominous tone, "Yes, yes, I have."

The Dryads misunderstood the man's words as mercy, and they collectively felt relieved.

However, the man suddenly turned around and said, "System."

The ominous system voice responded, "‡[What is it, player?]‡"

Your next read is at empire

The man then said, "Devour them. If they can't help me with my objective, the best they can still do is offer up their stats and traits to me." He whispered as he began walking away.

Suddenly, a semi-transparent head appeared and loomed over the Dryads, its jaws directly above and below them. The parts of the Dryads that were outside the jaws were severed from the other parts that went in as it bit down. The passageway instantly turned into a gruesome scene, with multiple body parts scattered on the ground.

The rest of the Dryads had vanished instantly as the man continued to walk away. A system notification echoed in his head.

"‡[Ping!! The player successfully devoured 234 Dryads and obtained 57253+ stat and 527+ trait points.]‡"

"[Does the player wish to integrate them now?]"

The man then said, "No, keep them. I'm going to use them for when he and I finally meet." He smiled sinisterly as he disappeared into the shadows.