"Oh?" Flynn regarded my gift with interest before turning back to me. "A gift, you say? But I presume it comes with conditions."
I shrugged. "Presume however you want. Consider this a gift of good faith. Whether you listen to my request or not is entirely up to you, but whatever the outcome, I will still present Yvonne as a gift to you. I'm sure you have a grudge of your own against her, right?"
Hunters were one of the insect legions' most hated enemies. Mostly it was because hunters knew best how to exterminate insects, having been forced to occupy the same spaces as them in the forest. Dealing with mosquitoes, for example, denying flies their food, and flushing out worms from the soil – these were skills that hunters were taught since young.
Even though it was difficult to tell because Flynn's compound eyes couldn't possibly widen, I could perceive pleasant surprise in his insect features as he gazed hungrily upon Yvonne's body. He evidently recognized her and he nodded.
"I appreciate the gift, my…lord."
"Good. That's the most important thing."
Behind me, Stella stiffened. She shuffled toward me and dropped her voice to a whisper, doing her best not to be overheard by Flynn and his insects. Not that it mattered even if they had heard. After all, we had nothing to hide.
"Is this really necessary, my lord? To extend the suffering of an enemy like this? Yvonne has already been defeated. While I am not suggesting you spare her life, you could at least show her some mercy by killing her as soon as possible, rather than prolonging her…punishment like this."
"She doesn't deserve any mercy," I muttered, and then sighed. "Whether she lives or dies is entirely up to Flynn."
Stella hesitated, but didn't say anything. She actually didn't know what Flynn would do with Yvonne, other than "revenge." She assumed he would just kill her and feed her to his larvae or something similar. If she had known the gruesome fate that Flynn had in store for Yvonne, she would have objected even more strongly.
That was why I didn't tell her. Yeah, I was a lying bastard. But I wasn't going to let honesty, honor or a conscience get in my way of a satisfactory revenge.
There was a brief silence before Flynn fixed those unnerving eyes upon me, his mandible clacking impatiently.
"My lord, earlier you mention something about a request?"
"That's right." I nodded. "I was hoping you could pull your troops back across the border. Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to. But if that happens…"
Flynn tapped his insect legs on the ground, watching me cautiously.
"…you will sanction me, correct?"
"No." I smiled slyly. "I will treat that as a direct defiance of my orders and will take the appropriate military action to bring your legion back under my command."
There was a long silence as Flynn paused to consider this.
"Are you threatening me, Demonic Emperor?"
"The Divine Generals will decide your fate."
"I am a Divine General."
"Not yet."
"It's treason then."
"…dude, you do realize that you're the traitor here? I'm the Demonic Emperor. You're the one defying my orders."
"Oh, right." Flynn held up two of his insect limbs while his wings buzzed unceasingly. "You have a point, my lord."
Was it my imagination, or were the last two words spoken with heavy sarcasm? With the insect droning of Flynn's voice, it was hard to tell. Though, given how both Stella and Larson tensed and placed their hands on the hilts of their swords, I discovered that I wasn't being overly sensitive.
Flynn obviously had no intention of obeying.
"Anyway, that wasn't a threat. It's just a warning." I turned away. "For now, you should just enjoy your gift. Take your time to think things through. Don't rush it. I'm sure that you'll need a while to make a decision."
One of the insects chittered, and even if I didn't understand insect language I could tell that the giant bug was being aggressive. Most likely he was saying that they shouldn't let us go, and they could easily kill us right now.
As if to confirm my suspicions, Flynn held up one of his insect arms to forestall the giant bug's objections.
"No, we won't," he said. "And I'm sure our lord here has his own ways of…fighting. He doesn't strike me as someone stupid enough to walk into an insect hive unprepared. If we attack him and his retinue now, we'll end up biting off more than we can chew."
The giant bug retreated back into the recesses of the forest, hissing grumpily. Flynn turned back to me, his head lowered.
"I thank you for your generosity, my lord. I'll give you an answer shortly."
"Like I said, take your time." I waved a hand dismissively. "This isn't an easy decision, I know. Whatever choice you make, I won't judge you."
I smiled, even as my eyes narrowed behind gleaming lenses.
"You're more than welcome to challenge me for the throne, if that's what you want."
There was nothing I wanted more than an excuse to eradicate the insect legion, after all.
Flynn didn't seem to notice that last, unspoken bit. Or maybe he did, but he didn't react to it. Instead, he kept his head lowered deferentially and waved his insect limbs.
"I won't see you off," he said. I nodded and continued to lead my vampire knights out of there, slightly disappointed that I didn't have a chance to summon my ice dragon and see the effects of my freezing magic on giant bugs.
I was actually relishing a chance at a fight. Well, on the bright side, it meant that Flynn still didn't know what trump cards I held. I guessed I could keep my ice dragon a surprise for later.
My retinue and I left Flynn and his giant bugs, Yvonne still lying on the ground. She jumped up, finally waking up now that I had freed her from my ice stasis spell.
"Where…where am I?" she demanded. Then she recoiled when she caught sight of Flynn and the giant bugs. "M…monsters!"
"Now, now. You hurt our feelings." Flynn cocked his grotesque head to look at her quizzically. "And it's not as if you haven't done anything yourself. You have killed so much of my kind."
"You deserve it!" she whirled around and caught sight of me and my retinue. "You! Klein, you are the one who did this, aren't you?"
I paused for a moment, and then turned to smile at her.
"Didn't you say you desire to be pregnant with strong offspring? I'm just helping you fulfill your wish."
Then I turned away and left the clearing, trying my best not to laugh at Yvonne's horror-stricken face. Behind me, Flynn gestured toward one of his subordinates, a giant wasp that flew over to sting poor Yvonne.
There, they began implanting their eggs into Yvonne's body, so that they would leech the nutrients from her, hatch into larvae, and began eating and burrowing their way out of their host.
*
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Yvonne screamed as her body convulsed violently, racked with pain. She went into spasms, her limbs folding and contorting under her even as she was eaten alive. She could feel those…things squirming inside her. Her belly, her chest, even what was left of her arms and legs.
"NOOOO!"
Excruciating pain washed over her as what seemed like needles chewed through her muscle and flesh. She could feel those things move inside her, thrashing about as they fought their way free. Tears leaked from her eyes and blood erupted from her mouth and nose as she continued to convulse forcibly from the shock of the larvae burrowing their way free.
The first one burst out in a shower of blood, crying, the slimy worm then exciting and crawling along the ground. The second emerged from her belly, biting a hole through it before flopping onto the ground and slithering away. Yvonne continued to wail as a third punched through her chest before crawling across her body, and then a fourth exited in hideous fashion, leaving shreds of flesh and muscle on the ground, revealing bone.
Yvonne writhed about before coughing out blood. She lay on the ground, contorting and groaning for a few moments before realizing that she was still very much alive.
"Ha ha…" she laughed weakly, tears streaming from her eyes and mixing with the blood pouring out of her other orifices. "I…I survived."
Miraculously, she had endured the parasitic implantations and the maturation of the larvae. She could feel none of them now, all of them having already emerged from her damaged body.
That was only to be expected. Yvonne was a hunter and she belonged to the strongest Hero party. Her body had been built to endure worse punishments. Such a thing wouldn't kill her, despite the fatality rate being almost hundred percent for all other hosts.
But Yvonne was not like any other hosts. She was stronger than most humans. She had experienced much worse pain and damage than this, and she had healed, recovered and stood back up. She would survive this as well.
Yes.
Yvonne grinned, revealing blood-flecked teeth. She would survive and then recover. Then she would have her revenge.
Whether it was the hideous giant wasp – Flynn, the Lord of Flies, the huge bugs that had gathered over here, the giant wasp that had implanted the larvae in her and caused her so much suffering, or the "kind" mage who brought her here in the first place…she was going to take her revenge on every single one of them. Kill them.
Hunt them. Like how she hunted everything so far. That last time she tried to hunt the despicable ice mage who came back from the dead, she made the mistake of underestimating him. She would rally her tribe back up (at this point, she had no idea that her tribe had been annihilated) and set all of them on that stupid mage. No matter how powerful he was, even his dragon wouldn't be able to withstand the full might of her hunter tribe.
For now she had to escape from here.
"Ugh…"
Yvonne winced from the pain. Her body had suffered far too much damage for her to move freely. It was only natural. The larvae had burrowed out of her body, leaving fatal injuries in the forms of holes. They had also weakened her severely, having leeched away nutrients from her body. She was also prone to infections from hosting them, as well as the current injuries.
It was a miracle that she was even alive. Unfortunately, she would need to rest for a bit before she could move. That was fine. She had all the time in the world. All she needed to do was play dead and recover her strength, bit by bit.
Patience was a virtue. It was something drilled into every hunter since young. And since she knew she was in a forest, she would be at home here. Unlike most humans, she would survive. And she would get revenge…
"You're very tenacious, aren't you?"
Yvonne tensed when she heard the familiar voice. She tried to play dead, but the owner of the voice wasn't to be fooled. She felt an insect limb grip her and haul her up roughly.
"It's useless to pretend. I can sense your pulse. It's a little weak, but I can still feel the vibrations."
Yvonne's eyes flew open and she almost screamed when she found herself staring pointblank into the grotesque features of Flynn. The Lord of Flies seemed to smirk, but it was difficult for a human to tell when all he had were mandibles.
"You…what do you want?" Yvonne spluttered, terrified. Were they going to implant more larvae in her body again?
"Don't worry," Flynn assured her, as if he had read her mind. "You're far too weak to be a host now. There's probably not enough nutrients in your body left to feed the embryos. The larvae will die inside you, starved to death."
He then glanced at the growing larvae that had gathered some distance away, feeding off leaves and fungi. He appeared to smile.
"Still, your…offspring are pretty strong. I'm sure they will grow to become powerful soldiers."
"W…what will you do?" Yvonne stammered, trying to keep the fright out of her voice. "I'm of no use to you now, right? Then there's no reason for you to keep me…"
"Oh, you seem to be mistaken about something."
Flynn leaned closer. Yvonne bit back a scream.
"You still have a lot of use to me, Huntress."
"W…what?"
"The human mind is a powerful thing," Flynn continued. "It can store all sorts of knowledge and information. Since his majesty wishes for me to pull my legion out of this region, then I will do so. But in return, I will have to look for new territory elsewhere."
"New territory?" Yvonne repeated, not sure what the Lord of Flies was talking about.
"You're not from here, are you? I can't really tell the difference between humans, but the tone of your skin indicates that you're not from the wintry northern regions of your human kingdom. The humans here tend to be of a paler skin tone. No, you must be from a more…tropical region, where there is more sunlight."
"So…so what?"
"So I'll need some information regarding the region you are from," Flynn replied. Yvonne swallowed, contemplating for a moment. As much as she loathed the monster in front of her, she needed to survive, no matter the cost.
Even if it meant selling out her southern provinces.
"Fine. If I share with you the information of the southern provinces, then will you let me go?"
"Share with me?" Flynn chuckled. "It appears that you are mistaken. I don't need you to share your information with me. I intend to get it directly from you."
"Huh? How?"
"By devouring your brain."
Saying that, a proboscis extended from between Flynn's mandibles and he stabbed it right into Yvonne's forehead. The huntress screamed and flailed about, but with her hands and legs cut off, there was little she could do other than helplessly bludgeon the monstrous creature feeding on her brains with her stumps.
And then, slowly but surely, Flynn began the agonizing process of sucking out Yvonne's brain, bits of gray matter gradually traveling through the needle-shaped proboscis.
Until the very end, Yvonne remained conscious, thrashing until she literally and completely lost her mind.