"This is it, right?"
"Yeah..."
They couldn't help but hold their breath as they stood in front of the entrance to where the Horde Queen was resting.
"Noah, create an illusion... here."
Noah nodded and took out some painting supplies. He quickly drew an illusion painting, a more complex version of the one he drew in the butchery when they camped there. As the now better drawn and coloured horse appeared on the ground of the corridor, Amy and Clair went inside the semicircle on the ground.
"This is a much stronger version of the one before. The illusion is one sided and also acts as a barrier. So you will be able to hear and see from the outside, but won't be seen from the outside. The sign is inside the barrier, so you two have to keep injecting mana while inside of it."
As the girls nodded, Noah turned back to Corvin, who was talking with Acherie and Kharon.
"The illusion is done and I am also ready."
Kharon and Acherie nodded their heads and walked towards the entrance of the Queen's room. Noah readied his violin and positioned himself so that his violin is both heard inside the Queen's room and in the corridor.
Corvin held up three fingers and started a silent countdown. After the third finger went down, Noah's violin started to make a beautiful noise. As Corvin pulled the long explosive line and send the signal, he also unsheathed his sword and got ready to fight any bugs that might come and try to help their Queen.
When a loud monster shriek came from the Queen's room, the rumbling of many feet also reached Corvin's ears form the opposite side.
Many different bugs came into his vision as the enraged horde started pouring out towards Corvin.
Corvin, who was under both the effects of Amy's strongest pills and Noah's music that echoed loudly inside the cave, started to attack the bugs that came for his life. The bugs didn't try to fight cleverly like they used to, and instead started to throw themselves towards Corvin, who was swinging his sword as fast as he could to kill anything and everything that might hinder the hunt of the Horde Queen.
'They aren't fighting like they used to, but the numbers are still too much... How long can I go, I wonder...', thought Corvin as he sliced another soldier ant into two.
Corvin hadn't started to sweat yet. He didn't need to use his magic as much as he used to yet, since his enemies had openings all around.
"--!!"
While he was fighting, the rumble of battle that came from where Kharon and Acherie fought came closer. Just then, Corvin felt a massive threat from behind, but the threat went away quickly. The thing he felt was the speed and momentum of the Queen. Even though his sense of vectors wasn't developed yet and could be compared to the eyes of a mole, his body stopped from fear for a single second.
Kick! Thud!
"Khak!"
As a bug sent him flying to the wall of the corridor, he used his magic to get back to where he was with haste. That single second of fear caused him to be attacked by three bugs, resulting in a back pain and a cut on his leg and a bite on his arm. In that small frame of distraction, he saw some bugs go past him and enter the Queen's room.
'T-That thing... It is not close to me, but even I can feel it's power from here... If we hadn't encountered those two, I would have fight with that... No, I would be murdered in seconds...'
As he was reminded of the power gap between him and the two warriors fighting behind him, he tried to calm down his frightened heart and hold his sword tightly while continuing killing the bugs in front of him.
Clank! Swish! Thud!
As he was fighting the next wave of bugs that came towards him with hateful eyes and aggressive attacks, something came flying out of the entrance of the Queen's room with a loud noise.
*****
---About 10 minutes ago---
After Corvin's countdown, Kharon entered the Queen's room with Acherie following from behind.
"What a horrific monster..."
As Kharon muttered, the antennae on the Queen's ant like head twitched, followed by the movements of it's many legs. The sound of Noah's violin entered their ears, and soon, the two warriors felt themselves getting stronger.
"Oops... Looks like that woke Her Highness up...", said Kharon as the corners of his mouth lifted up slightly.
He took out his bluish-silver greatsword and walked forward. Behind him, Acherie took out her two black daggers.
"Acherie, I will fight it head on. You find openings and hit her where it hurts. Try to create a weakness in her defence that my sword can enter."
"Okay.", said Acherie and took a couple of steps back and faint black smoke appeared around her.
As the Queen unwrapped it's long body, it turned towards Kharon and lifted it's head high. The Queen opened it's wings wide and let out a monstrous shriek in an attempt to frighten the intruder.
In response, Kharon started to shine white as he used his magic on himself to further enhance his strength that was already enhanced by Amy's pills and Noah's music.
As he stared at the Queen without fear in his eyes, the image of another man engraved in the Queen's trauma overlapped in the eyes of the Queen, causing the monster to start it's relentless attack immediately.
The sound of flapping echoed along with the melodies played by Noah, as the Queen attacked Kharon head on without holding back.
Fhweeew~ Clank!
Kharon also jumped towards the flying monster and his sword clashed with the monster's head in air. Kharon used his sword to throw the Queen away instead of slashing it, and the monster was pushed back while flying.
Just as Kharon landed, the Queen suddenly appeared right besides him, and started stabbing the ground towards wherever Kharon was without hesitation. Even though it was leaving many openings for Acherie to exploit.
'Are you kidding me?! It's not even glancing at Acherie... And what is with this speed and power. I am hardly keeping up...'
As Kharon continued blocking the incoming attacks, he was being pushed back. He couldn't counter attack the giant monster. But he didn't need to. Suddenly, black fog appeared near one of the Queen's legs that it was using to support it's body during it's restless attack. From within the smoke, Acherie appeared and attacked the leg from the joint.
The joint was severed and the Queen lost it's balance. Using that opening, Kharon jumped and attacked the other legs of the Queen.
Swiish~ Shatter! Shatter!
The white shine around Kharon' arms changed shape and looked like a giant beast's arms. He swung his sword using the most of his strength he could muster, and the white light that enveloped his sword extended as it moved while slicing the legs of the monster. The shattering sound of the Queen's armour echoed in the room.
The white shine of magic coming from Kharon, the pain of losing body parts. The Queen's monster instincts telling her to kill the humans in front of it was silenced by the fear of losing it's life and the pain of losing this many body parts once again in it's life.
The Queen flapped it's wings in desperation and flew away from Kharon in fear, towards the entrance of the room, the only way to escape. The Queen got to the exit in just seconds, but there was someone just a bit faster than it.
Acherie suddenly appeared in front of the Queen's eye. As she stared coldly into the pitch black compound eye, she stabbed it. The daggers moved like a wind and almost completely destroyed her eyes.
The Queen flew away in panic, and Kharon got next to Acherie.
"Are you okay, Acherie? You used your strongest move twice there."
"Haah~, I am... No, I am not okay... I am too tired..."
Kharon nodded and turned away from Acherie. He couldn't bear looking at her pitiful state, he felt like his heart was being stabbed.
'I promise, I will make sure you never get tired like this...'
Kharon ran towards the Queen. Now that the Queen was injured greatly, he could match his speed and even counter attack if he was lucky. So he started to attack the Queen. His whole focus was on the Queen so that he wouldn't miss any openings.
That's why he didn't hear Acherie's tired shouts trying to warn him. That's why he didn't see the two wasps that managed to get inside when Corvin was startled for a small second when he felt the Queen's speed as it tried to run away from Kharon.
When he was suddenly thrown backwards by the Queen, he got pierced by two stingers. One in his lungs and one in his stomach. As he fell down after cutting the bugs by twisting his arms around himself, he saw Acherie running towards him with a horrified expression.
"KHAROON!!!!"
'Don't come here... Run away... Acherie..'
Acherie immediately came next to him and checked his wounds with tears in her eyes.
"Kharon! I wi-"
"Go..."
"What? What do you want?"
'There are dangers around here Acherie... Go away..'
"Go... Away..."
Acherie closed her eyes and leaned her head on his chest while crying.
"NO! I will die with you... I won't leave you here alone..."
Kharon smiled and looked around. The Queen was shivering away from him, and the wasps that stabbed him were dead. He started to run his fingers through the hair of the tiny woman that was cilnging to him. Feeling his touch, Acherie snuggled further into his embrace.
"..."
Kharon lifted Acherie with his arms, her face got closer to his face. His arms that were holding her started to shine white brighter and brigher. He kissed Acherie's forehead and whispered.
"I am sorry."
"Huh?"
Acherie lifted her gaze to question why Kharon apologized to her. Then she felt herself being lifted up. She saw the bright, almost blinding light that covered his arms.
"No! NO! NO!!"
As she desperately tried to stop him, Kharon threw Acherie towards the entrance of the room with a smile on his face.
"Goodbye..."
Acherie watched Kharon collapse because of overusing his magic and body. While screaming Kharon's name in despair, she came flying out of the entrance of the Queen's room.