Evolution begins with an ant colony

Hestria, being led to the throne room with two guards by her side, couldn’t help but feel tense. She wondered how she was going to present what happened in the forest to the king and how she would suggest the bizarre notion of going to another nation, one populated with monsters, to have an audience with their king.

As reality dawned on her, she couldn’t help but panic inwardly. "How will this play out? Should I inform the king of the news and the fact that the king of the nation of monsters requested to see him? Won’t I be sounding disrespectful?" She lifted up her right hand and traced it around the purple marking that was now on her neck, due to the fact Akun had enslaved her.

As she mused further, "won’t I just lose my head for having the audacity to propose such a notion?"

She paused, thinking about it deeply. She then let out a sigh as she mused further, "Well, I’ll do what I can. I’ll explain if the king doesn’t come, there could be serious bloodshed. So maybe he will decide to put the lives of the people first." She hoped. @@novelbin@@

Arriving before the massive iron doors of the throne room, the guard that was to Hestria’s right suddenly spoke up, "My lord, the magic knight Hestria has returned from her mission with urgent news to deliver to his majesty. Permission for her to enter."

The voice of the king echoed in the throne room and through the doors as he said, "Granted." In that moment, the guards in the throne room proceeded to pull open the door for Hestria to step in. As the doors slowly swung open, the throne room and all its magnificence came into view.

A massive golden chandelier hung overhead, a red carpet lined the path that led towards the throne, and sunlight streamed in through the massive side windows on the left side of the throne room, bathing it in a warm glow.

The King’s advisors and some nobles were present, along with the bright minds that created the superweapon. Various art pieces lined the walls, along with unique carvings that were on the walls. Hestria braced herself, then began to walk towards the throne. The eyes of everyone present gazed intensely at her every move. The air in the throne room was so tense it was easy to choke on.

Arriving just close enough, before the throne, she got on her knees, bowing her head. One knee to the ground and the other raised, with both arms fisted and placed on the ground. She then began as she addressed the king, "My lord," her voice quivered as she knew this was the moment of truth, "I have come to inform you of matters that are of the utmost importance.

Our nation is on the line, and we could risk losing everything if matters aren’t handled immidatly."

"Speak, what is it you have come to inform me? Also, where are your comrades? What happened to them? Why are they not here?" King Leonheart asked, his tone calm yet commanding.

Upon hearing the king’s words, Hestria paused. Slowly, she lifted up her head, gazing at the king. She spoke with a low tone as she revealed, "Well, their fate is also part of the urgent news I bring for you, my lord."

"And what is that?" the king asked as he narrowed his gaze. Hestria then finally revealed, "My lord, the mission failed, and my comrades were completely wiped out in battle. I am all that remains of the magic knights that were sent to the godforsaken forest to retrieve monster cores."

For some reason, her words didn’t seem to shock anyone in attendance there. It was almost as if part of them had already assumed that would be the case with Hestria arriving in the castle alone. Along with her face, the air she had about her was not one of daring confidence she possessed when she first left on her mission.

"And what is the rest of the news?" the king asked, leaning forward in his throne, his intense gaze fixed on Hestria.

Hestria then mumbled, "Let me start from the beginning," she said in a calm yet worried tone.

Meanwhile, outside, "If you aren’t going to stand down, then we will have to use force," Aron yelled as he pointed his sword at Leona and Oliver, giving the instruction, "Arrest them!"

Out of nowhere, the knights closed in on the duo. While they did, Oliver smiled as he pulled the string of his bow and an arrow made of his green mana materialized. He then mumbled, "This will be fun." In that instant, he let go of the string.

The mana arrow shot forward with a massive shockwave that caused cracks to ripple on the ground beneath Oliver’s feet as the arrow proceeded to break through the sound barrier and instantly burst through the heads of three knights that were directly in front of him.

Completely obliterating their upper halves, not stopping, the arrow made its way like an unstoppable railgun, firing until it collided into the already damaged section of the wall of the royal capital, creating a massive boom. The construction workers working there at that instant were thrown off the wall, falling to their deaths as they landed on the floor with a sickening bone-crushing thud.

Some of them who managed to survive ended up being crushed by massive sections of the wall that fell on their bodies.

Leona, with her katana, wanted to not cause too much damage, but she was still not fully aware of what she was fully capable of since she had exited the forest. She then mused while she swung her katana at the approaching guards, "I’ll use 30% of my full strength. No matter how powerful I am, that shouldn’t cause too much damage," she hoped. Discover exclusive tales on NovelBin.Côm

As she swung her blade, cutting down the approaching guards in halves in the blink of an eye, her swing was so powerful it caused the wind that was pushed forward as her blade cut through with such force to be propelled forward swiftly, forming a wind blade. The wind blade went ahead to split multiple homes in the territory in half.

The buildings with suddenly compromised structural integrity collapsed in on themselves, and the sounds of people screaming in pain as they were either crushed or trapped in the wreckage could clearly be heard.