The giant head of the King of Flies exploded into pieces.
We all held our breath and watched this spectacle. In a moment of silence, I swallowed dryly.
The massive body of the King of Flies, now headless, staggered. The halos that were rotating above stopped altogether, and the infinite orbits behind it gradually came to a halt as well.
Then, the enormous body of the King of Flies slowly crumbled, spilling onto the ground and-
Abruptly stopped in mid-air.
The falling mass of the King of Flies slowly righted itself and then-
Shhhrrrrrr!
Began to regenerate its head.
Hundreds, thousands of flies that had emerged from its body began to swarm and fill the empty head.
It was as if time was rewinding.
In no time, the King of Flies had restored its head and floated back into the air as if nothing had happened. The halos and orbiting wings that had stopped moving were now rotating again.
"Yeah, just like that..."
I gritted my teeth.
"There's no way it would die that easily...!"
It seemed only a brief pause in its march. The King of Flies once again stretched its legs forward.
This time, sixty-four.
Though I hadn't counted them, judging by the amount it had increased by, it was almost certain. Dozens of the King of Flies's long, hairy, and hideous legs began to slowly stretch forward.
Before its legs could fully extend, I issued an order.
"...Retreat."
Lucas flinched and looked at me. I spoke more forcefully.
"Full retreat! Now! We'll abandon the forward base! Prepare for a counterattack at Crossroad's main castle!"
Lucas quickly took my command and shouted loudly.
"Full retreat-! Withdraw through the teleport gate-!"
The heroes and soldiers responded quickly. Without any objections, they immediately grabbed whatever equipment they could carry and ran towards the teleport gate.
"Burnout! Bodybag! Leave the equipment! Retreat is the priority!"
I gave separate orders to the two of them. It was impractical to run away carrying such large equipment.
After all, there were spare equipments at Crossroad.
Hesitating at first, Burnout and Bodybag eventually nodded and dashed towards the teleport gate.
Alchemists and other non-combat personnel first. Then priests, mages, archers, and other ranged attackers. Finally, the vanguard heroes guarded the rear as they retreated.
In an orderly manner, we retreated.
"...?!"
Except for one team.
The hero party newly under my command, the 'Insect Busters,' excluded.
Crackcrackcrack!
The five heroes, clad in protective gear, remained at the end of the wall, continuing to crush the swarming flies.
"Insect Busters!"
I yelled desperately.
"Stop fighting and retreat! Can't you hear me?!"
"...Just a bit more..."
But, lost in their frenzy of swinging weapons, the Insect Busters still did not retreat.
"Just ten more, no, just five more to kill...!"
Meanwhile, the King of Flies was slowly extending its dozens of legs forward.
Brrrrrrrr-
Screeeeech!
An overwhelmingly large number of fly monsters emerged from the King of Flies's body and surged towards our forward base.
With our forces already in retreat, there was no way we could stop such numbers. Staying would mean certain death. I screamed at the top of my lungs.
"Retreat, I said! Hurry-!"
And in that moment of difference, they had crossed a point of no return.
Suddenly, a countless number of flies poured out, filling the space between the Insect Busters and us.
Like a summer squall, the swarm of flies began to destroy the walls.
The flies clung thickly to the automatic defense turrets firing barrages and slowly, but surely, stripped away their armor and destroyed them.
Artifacts were taken down one by one, and traps were completely neutralized.
The Insect Busters, who had turned too late, stopped in their tracks when they found themselves densely surrounded by flies.
"..."
And then.
Click-!
The leader of the Insect Busters reactivated their momentarily halted equipment and turned back towards the wall.
"Leave us behind, Your Highness."
What?
"It's impossible to break through this encirclement and reach you. So, we'll just fight and die here."
The leader chuckled.
"We're the ones who lost our families to these bugs. During the great pest outbreak in the east, it was us who ran away, leaving our families behind in our village. We saved our lives that day but lost everything else."
The leader's goggles shimmered with the fluids of bugs, turning towards me.
That shimmering... it looked just like the compound eyes of a fly.
The goggles, always foggy, were clear for the first time. It was then I truly looked into this man's eyes for the first time.
Empty. Hollow. Parched.
They were not the eyes of a living person.
'Ah.'
I realized at that moment.
Why these N-grade heroes, without any notable skills or stats, could fight better against bugs than any SSR-grade heroes.
The answer was simple.
They were fighting with their lives laid down.
Clickkkk...!
The five reactivated their equipment. Flamethrowers, venom sprayers, hammers, electric staffs, and magic-engineered saw blades roared fiercely.
"We swore that day. Never to run away from bugs again. Better to die with them."
The leader screamed, almost as if his cry was coming from the saw he wielded.
"Today is that day-!"
Screeeeeech!
A waterfall of fly monsters poured down on the five.
As I attempted to go back and retrieve those five, Lucas urgently grabbed my shoulder.
"My lord! You must retreat now!"
"But!"
"They ignored your command! Those who disregard military orders on the battlefield are no longer soldiers!"
"But they are people! People are to be saved! They still can return!"
As I spoke,
Screeeeeech!
A swarm of flies crazily clung to the isolated heroes, who began to swing their weapons, killing the flies. Indeed, even in such a situation, these five were powerful in exterminating the bug monsters.
"Give her back, you bug bastards!"
The leader roared with boiling rage.
"Spit out my daughter you chewed up, you motherfuckers!"
Crackcrackcrackcrackcrack!
The saw blade spun without hesitation, cutting through all the flies that clung to it.
I directed the heroes who hadn't yet taken the gate.
"Assist in the interception until they can return! Damien! Junior!"
"Yes, Your Highness!"
"Huuuu...!"
Damien drew his [Venom Fang] and began firing, while Junior, taking a deep breath, conjured a tornado.
Flies nearing the gate were shredded by Lucas's longsword and Evangeline's cavalry spear.
I erected a magic barrier to support the Insect Busters and continued to shout.
"Come back, Insect Busters! You can still retreat! We will open a path for you! Isn't it better to live to fight another day? Hurry...!"
But.
They did not look back.
And that decision was correct. Their return had already become impossible.
The moment the Insect Busters managed to hold at the end of the wall was brief. Completely surrounded by flies, they were wrapped up like a giant whip and dropped.
Brrr-
Thud!
And then, the poured flies... began to forcibly lift them into the air by grabbing their limbs.
"Let go, you bastards!"
The leader man managed to hold them off by swinging his saw,
"Let go, let go! Let this go!"
"Ugh, aghhhh!"
The rest of the Insect Busters, one by one, were captured by the flies and pulled up into the air.
With brutal footwork, the flies tore through their protective gear and deeply embedded their proboscises into the openings.
Then, the resisting heroes lost all their strength and hung limp.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Damien desperately fired his gun to shoot down the flies, but new ones quickly arrived to fill their places.
Soon, the heroes of the Insect Busters were dragged high into the sky.
Crack!
The saw held by the leader, fighting until the end, broke.
The leader, staring despondently at his saw broken in half, finally looked back towards us.
"There's no need to try to understand us."
The leader muttered with a hollow laugh.
"Just as humans cannot understand flies."
Brrrrrr!
The next moment, flies that rushed at him tore his protective gear to shreds and plunged their proboscises into his body, beginning to drag him into the sky.
"My lord!"
Lucas shook my shoulder violently as I watched this scene blankly.
"We can't hold on any longer! Hurry!"
"Ugh...!"
I clenched my eyes shut and turned around.
At the side of the gate, Torkel, remaining at the very back, nodded heavily. I clenched my teeth and threw myself into the teleport gate.
Looking back at the sky for the last time.
All five members of the Insect Busters were being dragged into the air by the flies.
And at the end of that void...
The giant King of Flies, with hundreds of arms spread wide, floated in the air, looming over everything.
"..."
Incomprehensible.
The actions of the monster, the hearts of people.
Flash-!
The teleport gate activated, filling my view with a bright white light.
***
"Ugh."
The leader of the Insect Busters slowly opened his eyes.
"Ugh... How long was I asleep..."
He was certainly fighting the flies...
...and was captured by them, dragged here.
"!"
The startled leader's eyes snapped open. He frantically swung his arms around, searching for his weapon.
But, strangely enough.
There wasn't a single bug in sight. This place was a clean, white space.
"Huh?"
As the puzzled leader let out a bewildered moan, suddenly.
"Daddy!"
A voice that shouldn't be heard rang out.
The leader, with eyes wide open, turned towards the voice to see his young daughter running towards him, smiling brightly.
His precious daughter, taken by bug monsters decades ago, whose body was never found.
The child he had abandoned to save himself, running away.
Without a single scar, exactly as she was in his memory, radiantly alive.
"Ah... Ahhh...!"
The leader stuttered, unable to form proper words, and eventually burst into tears, embracing his daughter.
"My daughter... my girl... I'm sorry, daddy is..."
His small, warm daughter in his arms laughed heartily. Clinging to that sensation, the leader begged for forgiveness.
"I didn't run away this time... Did daddy do well? Will you forgive me?"
"Of course, daddy."
The daughter wrapped her short, chubby arms around the leader's neck, answering brightly.
"Daddy, you're so sweet!"
***
Somewhere inside the King of Flies's stomach.
A breeding ground with countless eggs laid out.
The heroes of the Insect Busters, poisoned and paralyzed, hallucinated and laughed as they were transferred here.
Maggots that had just hatched swarmed over the five heroes like a wave.
The fresh maggots slowly covered the bodies and faces of the five heroes.
The face of the leader, laughing with a bloodied face until the end, was eventually completely covered by the monster's larvae and disappeared from view.
Brrrrrrrrrr-
In addition to the five heroes, the flies that went out to find food brought back everything that could be eaten and piled it up in the breeding ground.
From the corpses of their burnt kin to deer and squirrels, birds, and even trees and grass, everything.
Countless flies devastated the area, storing resources inside the King of Flies's body.
Floating in the air, moving slowly, the King of Flies emitted a languid cry as it stocked its offspring's food within itself.
Brrrrrrrrrr...
Aircraft carrier burning adult flies for travel, a breeding ground for raising baby flies.
A bio-seed ship existing to preserve and spread the species of flies, cycling through generations and circling the world.
King of Flies Beelzebub did not rejoice in its first victory against humanity but calmly resumed its march northward.
The monster knew well from its ancient experiences.
Unless it killed and ate all humans, its species would forever be persecuted.
So, it had no choice but to kill.
Before being killed.