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Chapter 1727 - Don’t Look a Gift Church Army in the… Face?
🕑 Added 2025-12-03 01:00:08 +0000 UTCSummoning an army to try and defeat a monster isn’t as simple as it seems. Powerful monsters may be large, but they are also, most of the time, quite cunning as well. Trying to engage one with a force of tens of thousands within the unpredictable terrain of the Dungeon is far from a simple matter.
If the beast senses you coming, it may well just leave the area, moving somewhere else for a time before returning to its previous den. If the monster is particularly attached to its home, then perhaps it may choose to stand and fight, but there is a limit to the number of men and women able to engage a monster at once.
This is why, when the need arises, most monsters are hunted by armies of at most ten thousand. Special training and unique discipline is required when engaging a monster of such size and strength as it is far from a regular sort of engagement.
Excerpt from ‘Hunting The Great Beasts’ by Xinci
Really now. The Church of the Path, the very people I hold the strongest grudge against, just decided to send a punitive army of thousands over here to deal with me?!
That’s… that’s… so delicious!
No. No! Down, Dark One! Back to the forbidden depths that spawned you!
Aha! You think I will slink away into the darkness so easily while my prey has delivered itself on a silver platter? Nay! Nay, I say again! This is my place, and here I shall remain!
[How many of them do you think there are?] I ask Crinis.
[At least four thousand, Master. I didn’t stop to count, I was worried they would find me.]
[Good call, Crinis. Better if they don’t know that you’re here.]
Not to mention, they might have strange monster-trapping techniques that would prevent her escape. I’m the one who wants to be trapping them, not the other way around.
Thousands of minions from the Path, right in front of me. It’s almost too good to be true. Should I just gravity bomb the lot of them to heck? If I spit out a bomb as big as I can make it, empowering the spell with the Altar, would they be able to deal with something like that?
Wait a second, I can’t do that! Unleashing a bomb of that size directly under Green Mountain could destabilise the entire city! Goodness knows what sort of damage that would do, and it’d completely destroy my peace plan while I was at it!
Damn you, Dark Anthony! Get back to the pits!
Sheesh. Holding a grudge against the Church of the Path is only right, but letting it derail everything I’ve been trying to do here? No way.
As much as I’d like to go completely wild and unleash my wrath on this army, that won’t win me the peace that I want.
“Eldest… you aren’t thinking of doing anything… drastic… are you?” Sloan asks carefully.
“Wha… Me? Of course not!”
“How bad?”
“I thought about bringing the entire mountain down on them using a gravity bomb so large it would probably kill all of us.”
“That’s pretty bad.”
“But I’ve recovered! Sheesh! Sometimes you have so little faith in me.”
“I was just a little worried, Eldest. You can be impulsive at times.”
“... I wish I could say I’m shocked and offended by that description.”
I can’t, though. I really, really can’t.
“Look, this complicates matters, but not dramatically,” I tell the general. “We have more opponents to deal with than we thought, but that’s fine. Ultimately, our goal remains the same. In fact, this could even work in our favour.”
“How could this possibly work in our favour? There are thousands of monster-killing specialists out there, hoping to destroy you, specifically. In my opinion, you should probably leave this area and return to the nest.”
“We agree,” Protectant whispers from somewhere invisible.
Let me check… she’s on my head. Really?! It’s not free real estate up there! I start waving my antennae in disguised motions, trying to sweep her off without anyone realising what I’m doing, but she’s too damn agile, which only makes me more irritated. Stop hopping about up there, dammit!
“I’m not going anywhere! Our eventual payoff just got bigger, that’s all that’s happening here. We can deal a bloody nose to Green Mountain and to the Church at the same time. What’s not to like? If they aren’t stupid, they’ll learn not to mess with our family and will give us the space we need to finish our work in the fifth.”
Once we succeed there, being the first in Pangera to achieve any sort of victory over the Krath, we will be unassailable heroes the world over. Nobody would dare to say we were dangerous and useless monsters after a historic accomplishment like that.
“Eldest,” Sloan says, “I’m just worried that this will be more than you are able to take on. You are powerful, but you’ve only recently evolved. This plan was already dangerous with just Green Mountain involved. Now there is an entirely new army for you to deal with. Isn’t this more than you can handle?”
“Of course not,” I scoff. “You have no idea just what I’m capable of now.”
In truth, I myself am not completely sure what I’m capable of, but this will be a great way to find out!
“You worry too much, Sloan. Uh… Sloan?”
Nothing but the fading shadows greet me as I turn to look at where the general had been standing. Even now? Even here?!
They really aren’t mucking around.
Comments
Zenopath (AEV)
There was a Historant chapter intro blurb like 500 chapters ago that foreshadowed the ants basically razing the church's capital city and only stopping out of pity. It's not clear when that will happen, but I'm hoping we're on our way to fulfilling that historical footnote. Don't remember what chapter, but it was shortly after Anthony was beaten down trying to recover the ant the church stole.
Mandarin
I truly hope that Anthony is able to squash and hurt the church of the path. Green mountain may be a xenophobic settlement which they want to use as a propoganda piece, but the church is like a mindless machine of consumption to the ants. The things that the colony is accused of trying to accomplish are the exact goals that the church have with the colony. Extraction and control.
alt31415
There are literally thousands of them. You cannot do that. Like, physicailly, it will not work.
Brian Schwab
Antnapped for an ant nap! Lol.
UNKNOWN
He always hungers to be set free. The last time he was in full control was when they captured the egg-killer.
Runaway_Cactuar
I mean, you don't gotta turbo charge the gravity bomb. Maybe just a free sample bomb to kill a couple hundred baddies, without bringing down the mountain.
Slapjack
I think this is setting up for a pretty big setback in the story. Anthony's going to attempt to deesculate with posturing and The Church is gonna try to pull something. This might be when Dark Anthony comes out in full.
alt31415
That's also deadly. Because blood sinks then.
Aeseof
Options are limited really. If Anthony let's them just do as they like, they'll cut into the colony's movements and likely take stragglers. Plus at least some of their supplies come from foraging in the Fourth. If they can't do that... Location matters, but not all that much really. As long as collateral damage doesn't hit the noncombatants anyway.
Scott Faulkner
FINE I'LL GO BACK but you better at least us a altar and liquid mana infused Gravity domain so that they might feel the weight of their sins
UNKNOWN
F you in particular kinda situation
Vampiric Dust
*sniff* But oh great dark one... what about a Singularity fueled with liquid gravity mana? Common... you know you want to turn the dungeon into Swiss cheese. That being said, imagine trying to hurt a Colony member when a blast from Singularity rips from the bottom of the dungeon all the way into space just to smite you.
giann flroesca
Lol Sloan gettin antnapped
Caleb Herring
TYFTC!!! Can’t wait to see what happens in this skirmish!
Anthony Romanov
Rattles the Cage! "LET ME OUT!!! "
Greyg
Overload the gravity domain make them crawl
David Harshman
We did learn that in the prior chapter, yes. 🤣
blucube 14
Thanks for the chapter! Hah torpor time for sloan.
Buck
Looks like Sloan has been missing torpor! 😂😂
alt31415
... okay yeah if they're under the Mountain right now, starting to just turbo-murder the Path would probably be the worst possible idea to do when every great power of the world is just looking for any excuse to kill the 'non-person' monsters.
alt31415
You're stupid. If Anthony did what you wanted and just started murderizing the countryside, everything would go to shit. And you know this. Sitting behind a keyboard saying 'why is the story too gentle to kill humans' is real easy when you aren't the character who'd have to deal with the very real consequences of that. Of course this berating is just gonna go over your head. No way the glorious Hayden Leech could ever be wrong about anything ever, it's the other people who are wrong. Anthony himself couldn't hope to make something as dense as you.
alt31415
He could be classified as a weapon of mass destruction at Tier 7.
UNKNOWN
Can Anthony be classified as a weapon of mass destruction now?
UNKNOWN
The nameless will be happy to assist her on that front, we're always watching... Speaking of watching, have you gotten enough rest?
Frank Moore
Im picturing Jeff Hayes getting to the dark Anthony not goong back to the abyss line. He so enjoys Anthony's shinannagins.
Alessandro Mattioli
I see many a convert via Beyn
Hayden Leech
Whelp. I did say yesterday that I dare not hope for a real fight with real consequences. And I didn’t. I knew there was going to be some reason to turn the church invasion into a playground slap fight with and a stern reminder to “go home!” No way Anthony has a real fight with sapients in this story. Waaay too gentle a setting for that. Meh.
Koala Man
While the sloans away the ant will play :)
Clara
The darkness comes (Dark Anthony) and goes (Sloan getting kidnapped)
ChillyPepper
Maybe Sloan will feel a little better about the situation when she's had a proper nap :P
Tag
Let the Dark One out!
Im in Your walls
Second, gotta love the mid conversation kidnapping
Flavio Mulero
First
