Chapter 20: I Hate Ants (Part 1)

Year 11, Day 27

Leaf softly sighed to himself- Like him, all his other siblings had grown, not only in cultivation but also in appearance. He now looked like an adult version of himself! He was on the shorter side, standing at 5'9 with his long green hair. His dad gifted him new clothes he made in the moment, better to fit his new body- It was really weird having a body that could act like a human's body while being made entirely of Qi. Technically he could change his form at will, making himself take the form of anything he wished, which was something his sibling Chaos did. Right now the swords that he used were shorter thanks to his increase in height and size. The tallest amongst them was Ahteus, with the sheer size of 7 feet of height. 

He looked, according to their father's words, like a "punk bodybuilder that has used steroids since birth, but in a good way". Whatever that meant, they had no clue! 

His sisters, all of them, became what many of the mortals described as "jade beauties", with their long silky hair and beautiful soft faces. Lily was praised by their father for being "as beautiful as freshly fallen rose petals on snow", while Zylph was described by their father as "looking like the sound of wind chimes, rustling leaves, and moving breeze". They all wore their new clothes, since now they had bodies similar to humans, meaning they had genitals that worked and even the capacity to possibly procreate, but their father insisted that he did not want to become a grandfather so soon, so no one even had the thought of copulation with anyone. 

Now, with all they had to do was to remake their weapons so it could fit their new bodies and- 

"We're under attack." 

All High Spirits lifted their heads, their attention ablaze as they heard their father's words echo in their minds. 

"They come from the underground- My children, protect our home." Everyone suddenly felt this sharp snap on their minds as they were all connected to their father's mind and soul, soon they understood why- They now knew each other's location, the enemies' location, and what each place they would have to go to. This was their home, their territory, and they had the advantage here! They could communicate with one another by simply thinking, and that was the most effective form of communication between them because they could transfer their intent faster than they could say words. 

'Is this how Frost and Freeze do it?' Leaf and every single one of his siblings heard Ahteus' voice echo inside their minds for a moment, and all they could do was feel amused as Ahteus felt embarrassed for a little moment because it seemed he didn't want everyone to hear that. 'Let's divide and conquer, I'll send the locations you have to go to-' Leaf quickly analyzed the groups of various ants and their strengths, separating accordingly each sibling to each location, with the help of his father: '-Ahteus and Zylph will go to this place, Lily will take this, Freeze and Frost take this section, Lumin you'll take on this part, Namis and Fiero will take this side, Lilith can you help Chaos on this section?' He received a positive response, so he smiled to himself as he kept saying: 'And I will take this section.' The way they were spread out made so they could each spread around the territory, taking as many ants as they possibly could.

Leaf went first, his body fizzled into many leaves that the wind blew and carried- Only when he got to his destination was that his body reconstructed itself, the leaves folded and from them he appeared. This was an application of his technique [Leaf in the Wind Technique], which was literally that! As he re-materialized, he spread out his Nature Qi, sensing his targets and enemies from both beneath the ground and above ground, which he had to deal with- "I think I should do it." Leaf has been working on his [Soft and Hard Blade Technique] for a while now, his intent has strengthened by his countless days working on his swordsmanship, fighting and winning against many ants and even other Demonic Beasts. He drew his blade and had to think- [Simple Slash], [Simple Turn], [Simple Stab], [Simple Cut], or [Simple Parry]? 

He gathered his intent- [Rough, Hard, Smooth] and selected the stance: "Simple Stab - Thorns." The moment he stabbed him swords into the ground, his Nature Qi shot out, gathering and making all the roots of the trees around him react to his technique, having them grow several thorns. There thorns were sharp and long, some reaching even 5 feet! Many of these thorns sproud out of the ground and into the ground beneath, and from the thorns even more thorns grew, making the forest look like a thorn bush for a moment. Many ants were killed by these never-ending growing thorns, both above and beneath. "Simple Turn - Tornado." He moved his blade in a simple turn to the right, and from his turn, the wind moved forward and started spinning- Soon a tornado out white and silver wind gathered before him and moved through the battlefield, gathering the thorns that had grown out from the soil and adding into the deadly spinning whirlwind of sharp wind and thorns. 

The ants that were caught by the wind ended up being cut to shreds or stabbed to death by the thorns.

'This should be… 3,404 of them?' More or less. Leaf could feel his siblings excitement and glee as they ran around cutting and killing these ants- Lily felt extremely pissed off, which scared Leaf. He has only see Lily angry once, and that day has been engraved in his memory as a gruesome one… As his body floated above the canopy of the trees, he heard a soft melody, instantly knowing this was Lily's work. 'Nope.' He thought, getting as far away from the source of that haunting melody as he possibly could! His blade moving alongside him as he whispered: "Simple Cut - Windslash." As he cut the air with the [Rough, Hard] intents, a large blade of wind cut through the air and ants, killing a few hundred of them again.

He had a lot of them to deal with still.

Amidst the Trees, Death Blooms

Lily felt rage. Deep, seething rage.

Her new clothes, a gift from father, was torn by the pincers of one of these little insects- What happened?

She had arrived at the destination Leaf had marked for her, and when she got here she was confident. She didn't have to deal with many of the ants underground, instead being sent to the hoard of ants that were coming from aboveground, the seemingly endless army of many, many ants. Where did so many ants even come from? As she rested her feet on the ground, she pulled out her fan to try a few attacks first to see how much strength would she need to use for each ant or how much Qi she would need to do her thing. 'Let's see…' She simply waved lightly her bladed fan, sending a blast of pure black wind towards one of the ants, killing it instantly and exploding it outwards, taking a few more ants in the process. Lifting her eyebrows, Lily was pleasantly surprised to see that her simple Death Wind Blast was able to kill so many of them at the same time! 'They're weaker than I thought…' She simply floated above them, and as they were unable to reach her she simply used her simple and most basic attack ever, her Death Wind Blasts were so simply they weren't even a technique. 

"This…" She increased the speed in which she batted the fan, sending more and more blasts of wind to explode the ants and kill them- She killed so many and barely even used her Death Qi! She was thinking- This is too easy, right?

But in an instant, she was proven wrong. 

She only felt dread, her body moving before she even registered what happened, her body getting out of the way from the sharp spear-like rock that flew right past her, but close enough to destroy a part of her beautiful black robes with red flowers embroidered on the long sleeves and chest area. She felt the black robe made with Death Qi silk being cut, and her anger blasted. 

She was a normally calm person, but if there is one thing she hates is having the gift her father gave her being tempered or damaged by someone else. She remembers the time Fiero ended up burning her robe when they sparred once, in her anger she made a wave of Death Qi destroy and wither many trees and grass around her, causing her siblings to be slightly scared of her. Fiero did apologize, and she did also apologize for scaring them, in the end Leaf recovered the nature around after she brought decay to the region- But now? Right now? She was pissed. 

Her beautiful robes was damaged.

By a FUCKING Ant. Literally!

She looked at the proprietor, a large humanoid ant with a surprised look on her feminine face- Lily let out a simple whisper as she used her technique [Whispers], focusing on her target. The ant woman held her head in pain, for the words carried the whispers of the dead! In that moment, Lily pulled out her violin and started playing, the moment the first string was pulled, the air around her came to a still- Immediately, all ants in a 10 meter radius to her, fell down, completely dead. "Thrilling Melody - Ascension." The dead ants rose to their feet once again, being pulled from the dead as simple strings made out of the black Qi from Lily's melody pulled them into her control. Her movements were slow at first, but the ants under her control were relentless and cruel, biting, destroying, eating their fellow ants in a ravaging rage that only mimicked her own.

The ant woman finally stopped holding her head in pain due to the effect of her [Whispers] technique being overrun by her own thrilling music. Each movement of her arm was like the tugging of the strings, she was a orchestrating her own legion like a puppeteer, her puppets were also her orchestra, and she guided them with her song. She danced through the air, dodging the many rocks being thrown at her body as she started to use her technique [Devil's Songs]- Her body turned semi-ethereal, black blood started pouring through her eyes and mouth as she could feel her own body being overflowed with this liquid. As she played, these droplets of black fell upon the ground, and from them, skeletal beings started to crawl out of.

These skeletal beings had many shapes and sizes, some resembled cats or felines, some resembled dogs or canines, and some resembled even cows/bovine! As her song increased more, they started resembling the wails of the dead, each and all of the skeletons started to crawl and joined her hellish forces and her dark crusade against the ants. Her anger only served to fuel her own power, with each angry stroke, more and more black blood falling upon the ground and more and more skeletal beings crawling out of them- Now that she was at the [Core Formation] realm, her techniques became even stronger and she could keep them going for much, much longer tha ks to her new pool of Qi. Her largest skeleton crawled out, it had the size of a large spider-like being but made of bones. 

"Devour, Destroy, Consume, turn all to Void." With her words, her skeleton army and her undead ants continued to kill, and with each killed, her army only increased in size. More and more were killed by her and more and more were added to her army of undeads. Her own song also increased the power, strength, speed, and endurance of her hellish army.

"...I hate ants."

[author] Most chapters of the Ant War will follow the POV of one or two children of Root. [/author]