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Chapter 1703 - The First Captive
🕑 Added 2025-10-23 01:00:03 +0000 UTCWhat should I do? Should I cook him? Slowly roast this priest while turning him over a spit? Or boiling? Boiling is good! The flavour of evil and corruption will permeate the water and we can use it to poison the wells at Green Mountain. Oh, I haven’t felt this… this alive since the traitorous worm was captured!
I’m… I’m so free!
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
[Anthony! This is a Priest of the Path! You need to stop prodding him with your antenna!]
What? How dare Morrelia try to reduce this creature’s torment?
[Nothing shall cause the poking to cease!]
Yes… yessssss. The Priest looks very uncomfortable, and also deeply terrified, as I continue to give him sharp pokes with my antenna. Will it be the left, or will it be the right? THE LEFT! Muahahaha! And now… THE RIGHT!
As I jolt him from side to the side, the priest can do nothing but tremble with fear. Well, there may be loud protesting as well, but I’m not listening. In fact, now that’s come to this, I shall poke with both antennae at the same time!
[That’s enough!]
It isn’t Morrelia who intervenes this time, but Chyron, stepping in the way and knocking my antennae aside. Which stings, by the way. Those are sensitive organs. I have to work hard to keep them out of harm’s way during combat, and now people keep hitting them. Stepping in to defend literally anyone or anything else would have been better if Chyron is trying to persuade me to be merciful.
[You know what these priests do to monsters, don’t you Chyron.]
It’s not a question. I know that the Legion and the Church have a relatively cozy relationship. Not that anyone in the world seems to get along perfectly well with the Abyssal Legion. They’re so stubborn and unbending that literally everyone seems to have had issues with them at some point in history.
[You’re telling me you’ll let them do that to my siblings, but you can’t stand to watch one get mildly inconvenienced by my antennae?! It’s outrageous!]
[What do you mean ‘mildly inconvenienced’? Look at the man!]
I’ve been looking all this time… oh… uh… whoops. Perhaps I was a little too enthusiastic with my pokes. The priest’s face is swollen and bruised… and it seems as though his arm might be broken. I uh… did not intend to do that.
[If you’d actually hit him with both antennae, he’d be dead,] Chyron snaps at me.
Well… I do feel a little bad. I think I was perhaps a little blinded by my entirely justified rage.
[Ah… my bad. I wasn’t trying to actually hurt him.]
Much.
[I don’t think anyone is going to find that very convincing,] Morrelia mutters in my head.
[You three don’t seem all that interested in defending the delvers that I caught. What about them?]
[You aren’t actively breaking them apart,] Morrelia points out with admittedly flawless logic.
[Bah! Fine. I’ll leave this priest alone, but we aren’t selling him back like we are the others. The Colony will keep this guy, and every other priest we capture.]
[That’s not a good idea.]
Not Morrelia this time, but Chyron. She gives her usual, grizzled stare, and I know exactly why.
[It’s a terrible look, it’ll stir up tension, it’ll give excuses, and it makes us look like unruly monsters. I get it.]
Chyron might want me and every other ant to be destroyed, but she’d rather we didn’t cause too much of a disruption in the process of being obliterated. If the Legion wasn’t already stretched to the limit trying to hold the Dungeon down through these repeated waves and rising mana levels, they would have smashed the Colony by sending five Legions rather than the one they did manage to attack us with.
And that had nearly been enough!
[We won’t keep them forever, but we are going to extract something meaningful from the Church if they want them back. I refuse to release these… people, and I use that term reluctantly, without getting value.]
Behind me, the rest of the captives are being sorted by my siblings. Tiny stands over them, staring hard at each and every delver who walks past him, no doubt a flurry of ghost fists heading their way each second. For some reason, the delvers are reluctant to meet his eyes, can’t imagine why.
Honestly, they’re getting much better treatment than they deserve. They’ve been captured by the very monsters they came to hunt, and get to walk away once we get paid for them. If that isn’t the sort of big-hearted forgiveness that Pangera wants to see, then I don’t know what is. They sure wouldn’t have extended the same courtesy to one of us.
If I’m being totally honest though, we aren’t treating them entirely well.
“HOW DARE YOU PROFANE THAT WHICH IS SACRED?! HEATHENS! REPENTANCE IS YOUR ONLY WAY TO THE TRUE PATH!”
I decided to let Beyn and his crew take charge of the prisoners. He’s currently ‘welcoming’ them with a truly thunderous greeting delivered, for some reason, about two centimetres from their faces. The other ant-robed members of his clergy are lashing the delvers with cuddly ant toys and clacking at them with these strange wooden… mandibles?
Wait. Have they created a wooden facsimile of our mandibles to try and recreate the sound we make while chomping? They have!
There’s no hope for these people.
“YOU MUST BE SCOURGED TO RELEASE THE FOULNESS IN YOUR SPIRITS! LASH THEM, BROTHERS AND SISTERS. LASH THEM WITH THE FORMICA OF SHAME!”
I have no idea what he’s on about, and I don’t want to. That lousy priest fell over foaming at the mouth the second he saw me, and I have completely refused to let him speak mind to mind with me since. The power of his voice is enough to rattle my antennae, I don’t need him blasting me straight in the brain with that volume again. I’ll talk to him when he calms down.
Maybe.
Comments
Roombot
Finally a use for Beyn. Psychological torture!
KopiCAT
Wow. Anthony actually knows the meaning of the word facsimile? Wasn't expecting that. Hahaha. Well, shouldn't conflate childishness with lack of intelligence.
alt31415
THE FORMICA OF SHAME
Slapjack
Beyn cracks me up, dude is reaching 40k levels of fanaticism. GRUBS FOR THE GRUB THRONE.
Kris Piskorski
Chyron needs to be told to shut up, she doesn't have any say here
Silent Consent
More like cleanse!
Silent Consent
The conflict doesn’t really make sense otherwise. They could be out on the 3rd raising up tier 6 daemons to turn into experience goo just like the colony does to farm cores or be paying bounties for any tier 6 monsters. There is nothing special about the ants. Also this ritual should be able to use liquid mana or monster cores to make the exp drink, it doesn’t really make sense.
Silent Consent
Dude, they are lulling him into a false sense of security while they spy on his every move. He has been asleep for 6 months and literally just woke up a few days ago. They wanted to nail him on the 6th when he was T7 and now he is T8 already. In order to take him out they will need to lay an ambush for him on the 6th. Only Morelia can change the legion and she is a long way from running the show. This has all been established.
Silent Consent
I love the Formica of Shame! He needs to liquify the priest into exp… also he needs to put the legion in the isolation booth. They got permission to follow him around and watch not interrupt.
Keifru
I... dont like being negative. But I do have to ask- where is the Legion going for all this? Are there supposed to be character development through them of them coming to realize that not all monsters are Monsters? As everything has been set out/explained in this world, the fact the Legion wasn't heading out to assist the path/delvers to kill Anthony is a baffling since this seems like the prime opportunity. Thats what I expected from the characterization we have had, with zero change and growth from anyone except Morrelia. We've had a very long while and the Legion is just... there. A puppet to come out and be angry and bluster and... do nothing. Despite previously very much trying to kill Anthony. Sure, there's the Krath stratum stuff, Legion actually being useful/competent okay fine whatever. But with nothing changing, where is the betrayal so they can kill this super dangerous monster? The Legion as writ are in a weird spot philosophically and with zero development/change, it becomes more and more strange that there *is* zero development/change and they just become 'the acceptable annoying anti-ant people who are around to make angry noises about ants while the ants do silly ant things'
Val
He can
Loulatsch
Well they belive as monsters when another rising happens they will be controlled by the ancients. Its nic to make deals with demons but you better not let them get strong because arcodiem could control them anytime to bite your head off. This is a too serisous situation to just claim ants will not be controlled by ancients and thats it.
Ether's Blessed One
The Dark One rose and had fun. MUWAHAHAHA.
Paul S.
Can Beyn not speak to Anthony using pheromones yet? I was pretty sure that the priests could.
ZaneofBane
The fact that the legion is successfully negotiating with the ants, yet still considers them just monsters, is the height of stupidity. There's stubborn, and then there's this.
SomeponyElse
Thats why he is preaching about the "true path".
Shimelton
Wasn’t Beyn originally a priest of the Path?
Dan K
Honestly. She’s lucky Anthony is nice and isn’t changing Green Mountain into a green crater.
Ian Jones
Even with Anthony and other ants having intelligent conversations with multiple members of the Legion, showcasing their unmatched hospitality, the Legion is still stuck with thousands of years of prejudice against monsters. I think it's going to take Anthony either rescuing a large group of Legion members from an unwinnable fight, or kicking so many in the teeth without killing them that they eventually start to cool it with the ants
S10NN4CH
I can hear Enid facepalming rn lmao
carson
I was worried Anthony was going to be too soft on these guys and give them the usual tea and biscuit prisoners treatment. But weaponizing Beyn is pure genius. Also, regardless of her personal opinion about the Colony, Chyron needs to get some damn perspective. Green mountain and the false path are getting their just desserts.
blucube 14
Thanks for the chapter! Love the priests so much, the mandibles are amazing!
Lonez Zhavec
Shame! I love those priests so much! 😭😭
shawn B
I don’t understand why the legion thinks it’s ok for delvers to hunt ants and expect 0 fight back from Anthony or the colony. It’s ridiculous thought process even for them.
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
Pockman
“I decided to let Beyn and his crew take charge of the prisoners.” Nah, I’d rather get the Path treatment
Anthony Romanov
Ahhh thank you so much RinoZ! 😁 For letting DARK ANTHONY out. He enjoyed his poking the priest session! Ah back in the "BOX" he returns to wait for another priest! Gotta Catch them all! Priestsmon.
Buck
Not sure what the “Formica of Shame” is but I find it strangely appealing. 😂
Samuel Lim
Shameless plug for RinoZ's merchandise... I love it!
Scott Faulkner
beating someone with a stuffed animal is now my favorite form of punishment
UNKNOWN
The delvers must be questioning their sanity right about now lol...
CentaureHeart
Well, that's hilarious
Codered999
Path of the Paragon is probably what Beyn sells it as to people.
Chimurry Al
Not sure how many wars religions had started in Pangera, but... Could be the beginning of thousands of years in conflict between the Path and the True Path?
Bethany Bluebird
I did not know I needed to read about jerks being beaten with plush ant toys until now but... damn it is satisfying
Codered999
He's always been able to hear in the sense of his antennae receiving the vibrations, he just can't translate the vibrations that way so there's no understanding being translated.
Chimurry Al
So... Crusaders from the Path versus Crusaders from the True Path?
Dailion
Can Anthony hear Beyn now?
Aeseof
I missed Beyn. Good to see him again. Ever since his vow of silence, he's been one of my favorites.
Sam Persan
Always great to hear from Ant Pope Beyn
Theweird12345
It’s cool to see that even though Anthony wasn’t even trying to hurt the priest, much, his childish poking could have killed an actual man. A nice reminder that his most flimsiest parts are still battering rams. And ahh. Beyn. Convert the dwellers and then convert Green Mountain. It is your destiny!
Azgaroth
Thank for the chapter. Aaahhh Beyn..... (Nothing more to say....)
