“What’s the matter with you all? Where’s your courage now?!” Luther Krebs ridiculed the other noble-class Scruxs as they stood frozen in shock and fear.

At the same time, he, himself, also trembled with fear.

The display of brute strength was beyond what he had seen from the four emperors, not to mention the person didn’t resemble any of them.

‘An elf?’

Luther Krebs frowned.

Earth did not have a fantasy race like the elves, and certainly not someone who was even more powerful than the four emperors.

‘The World Tree in the Armentia Rainforest.’

Luther Krebs shortly recalled the recent news and determined the powerful blonde elf to be a resident of that new place.

‘Who knew elves from other worlds were so powerful?’ Luther Krebs thought.

Shortly after glancing at the noble-class Scruxs, Luther Krebs shook his head with disappointment.

With a single command, worker-class Scruxs would lay down their lives without hesitation.

Yet when it comes to the intelligently-evolved noble-class Scruxs, they were frozen with fear and very afraid of death.

He couldn’t rely on them to deal with the situation, nor could he afford to.

A single mistake, and they all perish.

‘Stop the attack!’

Luther Krebs transmitted his will to the worker-class Scruxs and had them retreat from the blonde elf to reduce further losses.

Shortly after, he took a deep breath before stepping forward to approach a powerful elf.

…

“Oh?”

Albion noticed the other party’s intent to communicate.

At a glance, he knew the person approaching was different from the other bugs due to his human features.

‘A parasitized human, and a high-ranking one at all. A human traitor?’ Albion concluded after a few breaths of observation.

At the same time, Fenriri noticed the massive bug army that appeared before she quickly returned to Albion’s side.

“Master, can I fight them?” Fenriri asked.

They were simply a larger pack of EXP.

“Not yet. They seem to have something to say,” Albion casually replied with a slight smile at her simple-mindedness.

She might have grown a fair bit in a short while, but the other side did not seem weak nor few in numbers.

It wouldn’t be easy for her.

Albion casually wiped some green bloodstains off Fenriri’s cheeks before he noticed a shade of redness left behind.

The Scruxs’ corrosive green blood had affected Fenriri, but the effect was also minimal.

Nevertheless, her beautiful silver-white fluffy ears and tails got partially ruined by them, making her look rather pitiful, like a cub that just escaped a pool of sticky tar.

…

A short moment later, Luther Krebs stopped at a safe distance before inquiring politely, “Your Excellency, may I ask why you are attacking us? Have the elves allied with humans?”

“Do I need a reason every time I feel like stepping on a few bugs?” Albion nonchalantly replied.

The question immediately silenced Luther Krebs.

He had no idea how to respond to such a question. Although it was a simple question, it was overbearing and filled with arrogance.

Such is the way of the world; the strong get to dictate the lives of the weak.

“What can we do to get you to stop attacking us?” Luther Krebs asked humbly with his head lowered, not daring to look the elf in the eye.

The elf’s aura didn’t seem much stronger than the four emperors, but his physical strength was horrifying.

“Hmm…” Albion contemplated before replying, “You can start by answering my questions. You look like you are still in control of your human self. Why did you side with these bugs?”

“To grow stronger, Your Excellency.”

“Why?” Albion asked.

“To survive the future apocalyptic changes, Your Excellency.”

“To survive, huh? Well, I can’t blame you for that.” Albion muttered thoughtfully before saying, “Well, it’s not impossible to spare all of you. You only need to help me find something. I have a pet dragon. Have you seen it?”

“…A dragon?”

Luther Krebs paused for a moment after receiving orders from Queen Kakina via telepathy before he replied, “No, we haven’t seen it, Your—”

Before Luther Krebs could finish replying, Albion unsealed his cultivation and made a sudden wave of his hand.

Swoosh—!

A colossal black flame swept past Luther Krebs and wiped out half the army, flesh building, hive tower, and all in an instance.

Ding!

<You have leveled up>

<You have leveled up>

…

Albion jumped five levels in the blink of an eye.

It was all too easy for a True Immortal to reap the lives of others, and in large quantities at that.

Luther Krebs stood stunned on the spot before turning his head mechanically to check the situation behind him.

His eyes slowly widened with shock in the next instant.

Millions of soldier-class Scruxs vanished just like that. The elf’s power is far, far more horrifying than he and Queen Kakina gave the elf credit for.

The insurmountable gap between them wasn’t something they could even dream of closing.

“We, you say? How are you so certain without asking the others? Do you think I’m a fool? I know my pet dragon is somewhere nearby,” Albion stated coldly.

His blonde hair grew even longer and danced wildly in the air as the wind billowed.

When Luther Krebs glanced back at Albion, his perspective completely changed.

Although they were around the same height, the blonde elf, who was a giant in his eyes, suddenly transformed into a behemoth and bore down on him with a suffocating pressure that threatened to snuff out his existence in an instance.

“Have mercy, Your Excellency! I did not mean to lie to you! I was acting under my queen’s orders!” Luther Krebs immediately pleaded on his knees.

The price of lying was too great.

Even if they found the dragon considerably valuable, they first had to consider whether they could afford the consequences.

And as it stood, they couldn’t afford it.

Back in the underground city, Queen Kakina’s expression paled as her connection to four million soldier-class subjects disappeared instantly.

It was clear she had made the wrong decision.

Queen Kakina sighed weakly.

…

Sometime later, a pillar of seawater suddenly rose into the sky not too far off the coast from the Scruxs’ territory as Pompom flew out of the sea.

A few bugs were seen falling off its enormous body and dropping back into the sea.

Albion and Fenriri depart not long after whistling Pompom over.

As the noble-class Scruxs watch them fly further and further away into the distant sky, one of them  blankly muttered, “The surface world is such a dangerous place…”

“Yeah, world domination is too much for us…”

“Let’s just hide in the hive…”

“Yeah…”

Safe to say, the Scruxs had abandoned the aggressive expansion plan.