Tales of the Endless Empire
Chapter 169: Entering the Hive with just a Touch of Violence

Thalion had hoped to land near the hive's entrance and transform into the big termite, but little did he know what awaited him.

The moment he arrived above the termite hive, over eight hundred meters above the ground—swarms of insects flew up to attack him. There were snipers, a new variant that resembled dragonflies, and of course, the deadly murder pixies.

And it wasn’t just a few insects. There were close to a hundred. Most were the new dragonfly-like creatures, the rest were snipers, and over ten were murder pixies. The stream of insects didn’t stop as more and more emerged from the jungle below.

Thalion didn't hesitate and activated all his domain skills at once. He also used the crystal to empower the domain further, summoning lightning bolts that rained down from the sky as strong winds howled, throwing the insects around.

However, the dragonflies quickly adapted to the chaotic winds, using them to their advantage as they ascended even faster. The pixies activated their green mana shields, which blocked the lightning bolts.

Thankfully, the dragonflies and snipers had no way of defending against the powerful lightning strikes, which helped Thalion immensely. Without that advantage, he might have faced serious trouble.

The dragonflies were fast, and the pixies fired powerful dark green projectiles that weren't greatly affected by the strong winds.

Thalion remained fine for now, relying on his title ability to discern which attacks would hit and which wouldn't. This was crucial as countless projectiles shot toward him.

He responded with a few wind blades but mainly focused on dodging as his domain skill eliminated the approaching insects.

The dragonflies were fast but couldn't withstand the lightning. One bolt was enough to knock them out or kill them.

The attacking force thinned rapidly as lightning strikes found their targets. Thalion continued circling above the swarm, never letting them get too close, gradually rising higher into the sky.

After taking down over a hundred dragonflies, the pixies dove back toward the ground, and the insect stream finally ceased. Thalion dispatched the remaining stragglers with wind blades and swift claw attacks, all empowered by his crystal.

Now came the real problem: how to enter the hive. The termites were undoubtedly on high alert, and he hadn't managed to kill a single pixie.

Thinking back, how had they spotted him so early? He had a legendary passive skill that should have concealed him in the sky. Their ability to detect him was impressive, and he would need to move carefully from now on. Any misstep could be fatal.

As he descended closer to the ground, he spotted termites swarming around the hive entrances. They responded with Stingers, rock spikes, and dark green projectiles which shot toward him at incredible speed.

With his heightened perception, Thalion saw the pixies glowing with power—far more than should have been possible. They were clearly being buffed by other insects.

The towering trees blocked his lightning bolts from reaching the termites on the ground, which was a problem.

But that wasn't the only issue. A brown mist spread among the termites, and soon Thalion spotted half-human termite mages expelling the mist.

The situation worsened by the second.

Thalion briefly considered activating Mistform to appear in the middle of the termites and using the new power of the Sanguine Thorn to tear them apart, assisted by the mental effects of his armor.

But that plan was now off the table.

He still had other options. One was landing at a distance and hunting them down termite by termite as the Umbral Predator.

The second was blasting apart the giant trees with lightning beams until the termites could no longer hide from his domain skill.

Thalion chose the second option, as he had plenty of resources to sustain it, especially with the storm crystal assisting him.

He circled above the towering trees with incredible speed, launching charged lightning beams that struck termites while simultaneously cutting down the trees.

The termites didn’t give up, attacking him relentlessly in return. Thalion occasionally tried to snipe one of the murder pixies, but they were quick and managed to evade his attacks over and over.

Those pixies were truly formidable despite not yet being at E-grade.

The termites would undoubtedly be a major problem in the future if they continued progressing this rapidly.

Unfortunately, there was little Thalion could do. They were already too powerful.

He could only hope that some chosen ones of a god would also appear on Earth to deal with this mess.

For now, his goal was simple: kill as many termites as possible before they drove him back.

Reaching the queen's chamber was no longer an option—the termites were far too strong.

And even if he somehow succeeded, the queen would likely be able to teleport to New Earth just like the flying creatures had done before.

Thalion kept blasting the trees and insects with lightning beams over and over. At one point, he even managed to kill one of the murder pixies, which lost track of him in the storm above. Unfortunately, another pixie immediately stored the corpse in a spatial ring.

This sparked fury in Thalion’s heart. He had worked so hard to kill that beast, and now the termites had countered him so effectively?

Calm down, Thalion. This is just a temporary setback. You’ll catch up and get that form, he told himself while dodging a stinger shot at him. He retaliated with a charged lightning bolt that obliterated the termite sniper and split the tree behind it.

The aerial battle was going well. With over twenty trees now fallen, his lightning bolts began to strike the termites on the ground. He was starting to turn the tide as the termites were shocked one after another by his relentless charged lightning attacks.

Without the crystal, he would have run out of mana long ago. Fortunately, thanks to its assistance, his mana depletion was slow. When he refrained from using the disgustingly powerful lightning beam, he even managed to slowly recover mana.

The termites hadn't hit him once, though some attacks came dangerously close. Still, they refused to give up. Only the pixies and strange mages retreated into one of the tunnels.

Thalion huffed in annoyance. Why did it always have to be so difficult? The termites were undoubtedly preparing their next line of defense beneath the surface.

It took him quite a while to finish off the remaining termites. He had come close to reaching level seventy-four after killing so many. The exp gain from those termites were bad and he wouldn't be surprised if the queen had something to do with it. The ground above the hive was now a wasteland, littered with burning, fallen trees and countless twitching termite corpses.

Thalion made a few flybys, shooting lightning beams into the tunnels just in case enemies were waiting for him. His assumption was correct—termites stationed inside were blasted backward.

Checking his kill notifications, he saw that he had even hit one of the mages. He repeated the maneuver a few times, clearing multiple tunnels, before landing in front of one and transforming into the giant termite form.

The body felt weak and strange. Coordinating all those legs was difficult and awkward. Now he understood how Jack must have felt when he had transformed into a giant squid.

Thalion hoped he could just walk past the guards waiting around the first corner.

To his disappointment, that assumption was wrong. The first guard immediately noticed he was not one of them and attacked.

How they figured it out so quickly, he had no idea.

The only thing Thalion could do was transform into the Umbral Predator, dodge the incoming attack with an incredibly fast step to the side, and counter with a shadow claw humming with power.

The claw ripped through the first termite, killing it instantly and even cutting down several more behind it.

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Thalion followed up by brutally dismembering the termites in his way. These were the larger variants, all at early E-grade, but none of the murder pixies or other advanced classes were in sight.

With no truly powerful enemies nearby, he had no trouble slaughtering the termites one by one.

Outside the tunnel, the strong winds from Eagly's domain had dispersed the brown mist, but inside the tunnels, it still lingered.

For Thalion, it posed no threat. He had learned how to protect his soul from such influences and wasn't affected at all.

It didn't take long to clear the first tunnel. He then entered a massive chamber over two hundred meters beneath the ground.

This was where the murder pixies waited. But they weren't alone.

The half-human mages were there, along with the larger termite soldiers. Further down, workers and snipers scuttled around.

One termite stood out—a new variant that looked almost human, clad in chitin armor.

The creature radiated a cold, ominous aura of fear. Its fingers ended in long, sturdy claws that reeked of bloodshed.

Thalion's title connection warned him that something was profoundly wrong with this entity.

It was an outsider—but not just any outsider. It was connected to that madman with the black spear and the pillar.

Was this the origin of that man? Had the termites experimented on humans first, and that guy escaped?

There were so many questions, but this was also an opportunity.

Thalion might be able to extract the outsider and add it to himself using his technique.

The problem was that he would need to carry the creature out, and the runes on its chitin armor combined with its malevolent grin suggested that wouldn't be easy.

The aura emanating from the creature was more than just a little alarming—enough that Thalion completely forgot about the pixies.

For a moment, everything stood still as Thalion and the new creature sized each other up.

Termite Reaper – Level 80

The nearly human termite reaper had black chitin skin and stood a bit over two meters tall. Its only visible weapons were its long, sturdy black claws.

The knees were on the wrong side, but that was probably part of the design. The entire body was covered in multiple runes, all interconnected. Some appeared to have grown naturally, while others had been meticulously carved into its armor, forming a seamless network.

The head looked disturbingly human, lacking any hair. Its eyes resembled two black voids, and the mouth looked human, unlike the murder pixies, who had mandibles. As the reaper smiled, Thalion caught a glimpse of long, inhuman teeth.

This was going to get dangerous—should he run?

Before Thalion could answer that question, the reaper attacked.

Its form blurred with astonishing speed, appearing right in front of Thalion. At the same time, it unleashed a fearsome aura. Thalion had resisted the brown mist without any effort, but the reaper's aura pierced through his defenses. Only a pulse from his soul core managed to dispel the invasive energy.

Thalion didn’t bother trying to dodge—he blurred into action as well. The reaper's claws extended, glowing with power as it slashed at him. Thalion didn't activate Shadow Claw. He dodged to the side, using the smaller reaper as a shield against the murder pixies aiming at him.

The reaper relentlessly pursued, slashing with both claws. Every swing left mana slashes in the air, similar to the Shadow Claw of the Umbral Predator.

Thalion tried to stay calm, fully focusing on the fight even with the aura of fear hitting him over and over.

They were trying to end his life—that was something he couldn't let happen under any circumstances.

Darkness began rising like mist from his skin, teeth, and claws as he pushed his body to its limit. The shadows around him grew darker, and even the dim light from a small fireball on the cave ceiling seemed to flicker and fade.

Thalion and the reaper were locked in a fierce melee, slashing at each other.

Thalion quickly gained the upper hand, healing almost instantly whenever the reaper’s claws struck him. The reaper, lacking such passive regeneration, soon bore deep cuts on its body, with festering darkness spreading through its wounds.

Thalion pressed the attack, fully focused on each movement, knowing he had to be perfect—or it was all over.

Before he could deliver a decisive blow, the other insects joined the fray.

Until now, they had held back, but something had changed. Multiple spikes flew toward him.

To his dismay, Thalion discovered that the reaper had a blink ability. It reappeared twenty meters to the side, leaving Thalion directly in the path of the incoming spells.

In desperation, Thalion activated Abyssal Devourer, hoping the tentacles would block most of the damage.

The situation was dire. The reaper was far from any ordinary enemy he had faced before—fast, powerful, and undoubtedly capable of more tricks like that blink.

While the tentacles slowed the attacks, Thalion dodged backward to avoid them entirely.

The reaper blinked back into existence right in front of him, swinging its claws. Thalion countered with a slash of his own, noticing that some of the reaper’s wounds had already begun to heal.

The impact of their clash sent both of them flying in opposite directions.

Thalion’s right arm broke under the blow but was already healing rapidly. On the other side, the reaper's arm was in an even worse state, with the festering darkness dissolving its flesh.

It was time for Thalion to leave. There was no way he could defeat the hive or the reaper in a short time, not with over ten murder pixies and countless high-rarity termites lurking behind it.

He spun around and shot through the tunnel, heading back to the surface, the reaper hot on his heels.

Halfway through the tunnel, Thalion's eyes widened in surprise and horror.

The path was blocked by boulders, and standing before him were two more reapers.

How was this possible? Was this all just a trap for him?

He had no idea how solid the barrier was, but he knew one thing for certain. He would have to break through it with three reapers on his tail which wasn't very likely to work.

The three reapers attacked simultaneously.

Thalion briefly considered using Mist Form to search for another entrance, but the brown mist was everywhere, combined with the intense mental attacks from the reapers.

He didn’t know for sure, but he suspected those skills would be highly effective against him in mist form and he really didn’t want to find out right now.

So the battle began.

Thalion wasn’t fighting to kill them—he was fighting to create an opening to escape back into the cave below.

Many tunnels led into that cave, and he hoped one of them would be his way out.

The reapers now showed the full extent of their abilities. One shot a dark lance of black energy at him, while another released a shockwave just as Thalion grabbed it, attempting to tear it apart.

The shockwave blasted Thalion backward but also caused him to dodge the dark lance.

He had no time to breathe—another reaper was already upon him, swinging its claws in a wide arc empowered by an insane amount of energy.

Thalion dodged to the left, grabbed the reaper’s arm, and threw it at the other two. Before letting go, he gave the arm a final vicious twist, ensuring it was useless for the moment.

The sound of snapping ligaments and bones was music to his ears.

Unfortunately, the termite didn’t slam into its allies as Thalion had hoped. It blinked to the side, clutching its damaged arm, which began glowing as it rapidly healed.

Thalion had no intention of staying to see the healing process complete.

He turned and sped down the tunnel, back toward the cave, the two healthy reapers right behind him.