CHAPTER 406: 406: CALL TO THE HALL PART ONE

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While walking Kai checked his new status window of Five star rank. Kai says, "System, show me my status window."

[Ding! System notifications:

Status window-

Name: Kai (Elite Warrior Ant)

Species: Monarch Devourer Ant

Titles: Humanoid Ant Monarch. Ruler’s Guardian. First Flame Father.

Titles effect: All ants below host level submit to him. All Ruler’s below host level submit to him. Bonded offspring growth +10% while within lair.

Level: 50 (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Exp: 0000/1000

HP: 5000/5000

Aura: 5000/5000

Lifespan: 50+ years (+20 from new rank up)

Strength: 500

Speed: 500

Stamina: 500

Soul power: 500

Unallocated stats: 215

Ultimate Skill:

1. Essence Eater

Sub skills: Essence Overlord, Devourer’s Bite

2. Monarch Brand

3. Predator Roar (Active) Current unfocused radius: ~3 km (effect scales by target rank).

4. Crown of Wrath — First Crown (Passive/Toggle)

5. ??? (Locked/Unknown, ’I will decide and add it later.’)

Subordinate Slots: 9/ 20

Silvershadow Rank 4★ , Shadeclaw Rank 4★

Skyweaver Rank 4★, Vexor Rank 3★, Shale Rank 4★, Flint Rank 3★, Needle Rank 3★, Wolf: Rank 2★, Lirien 5★,

Branding costs 400 Aura per target. Branded subject evolves into Ant-Hybrid form retaining original racial perks + colony synergy. Brand obeys Monarch’s direct commands, range limitless once bond stabilises.

Unique skill: Luster’s Mark

1. Mia- impression points: 40 (Seven Star ant)

2. Luna- impression points:75 (Four star bunny)

3. Akayoroi- impression point: 60 (Four star ant)

4. IKEA - impression point: 20 (No star for now)

Inventory: Soul-Bonded Storage Cube (4x4x4)

Item: Many liters of star crystal liquid, Essence liquid 105 liters, meteoroid star iron many kgs, and a few tons of Beast meat. Two Nine star rank cores.

Skill Set: (Duration: 5 minutes without any cool down.)

Antenna Sensory Boost – Sensing enemies through vibration and pheromones.

Worker’s Resilience – Briefly buffing stamina at the expense of fatigue earned.

Tiny Tank – Hardening the exoskeleton for greater resilience.

Ant’s Instinct – Enhanced resource finding but with a few bugs.

Reflex Mode – Movement speed increased; use at your own risk as it is unstable.

Adaptive Armor (Passive): Exoskeleton can adjust to reduce damage from different types of attacks.

Predator’s Instinct (Passive): Enhances detection of threats and weaknesses in enemies.

Pain Resistance (Passive): 50%

Soul Core Mastery Effect Upgrade: —Global Mark Resonance (One-way): Host may open a soul channel to any subordinate marked by Monarch’s Mark or Luster’s Mark, regardless of distance or plane. —Aura Cost: 100 per 1000 km transmission. Cost scales linearly; no upper distance limit recorded. —Channel direction: Host → Subordinate only. Subordinates may reply only when the channel is open. (For Now, without their own soul power they can’t contact Kai)

Apex Form+ (Active) Enhanced apex manifestation. Increased height/mass; denser plates; reinforced mandible torque; forelimb power-up; dorsal aura vents for short-burst thrust and ground-shock. Cost: +20% more aura than Base Apex. Base Apex remains available (lower cost/impact, different silhouette).

Kin Egg Devourer (Chamber Rite) Authorize a devour-rite inside the sanctified egg chamber: embryos compete/absorb until only the strongest remain.

Survival rate: 1–10% (1% floor guaranteed if aura guidance is maintained).

Advantage: Survivors hatch at the same rank as the egg-layer, with heightened cohesion to the Monarch and accelerated first-march maturity.

Constraint: Chamber becomes dedicated to the rite for the full cycle; cannot pause once begun. Consort morale/ethics should be considered.

Aura Cost: -200 upon per use. ]

A few moments later...

They came behind because Kai asked, and because the way he asked said this was not a small talk.

He moved through the upper galleries with Miryam asleep in one arm and his spear on his back. Alka had set them down on the spine of the mountain and gone to roost two ledges below; Skyweaver and Azhara walked tight at Kai’s flanks, both cut and dusty, both walking anyway.

Silvershadow shadowed them with his injured hand tucked against his ribs, face calm in the way that said pain could wait. Shadeclaw was already in the main hall when Kai arrived, head bent over a slate of running notes.

Flint, Shale, Needle, Vexor and Wolf took posts by habit without being told. Luna and Akayoroi stood together, Luna pale but steady, Akayoroi’s chin up. Naaro waited at the nursery threshold with her four ant-legs braced and her human eyes bright. Lirien, soot marking one cheek, slipped in near the back and folded her arms.

No one spoke first. The main hall held their breath with them.

Kai set Miryam gently on a warm pelt atop the low table beside him, tucked her cloak under her cheek, and let his hand rest on her hair for one slow count. She slept hard, lashes clumped from dried tears, dried blood still streaked along her temple where Alka’s wash hadn’t reached. He lifted his hand and turned to the circle.

"Listen," he said.

They listened.

"In the east there is a man with a grin who calls himself vice general," Kai said. "His name is Mardek. He took Miryam with a net. He gave her drugged bread. He killed her friend in front of her to make her small. He sent a hundred to fetch me. I answered." He explained the rest.

Shifts moved around the room — fur, chitin, steel. Luna’s fingers dug into the edge of the table and then eased when Kai glanced at her. Azhara’s mouth had no jokes left in it. Akayoroi’s eyes went sharp and then warm again, as if she had to remind herself that the child was breathing now. Shadeclaw’s jaw ticked once. Silvershadow said nothing at all and didn’t blink.

Kai didn’t hold them there. He told it clean in ten sentences: the cage, the dagger, the first fall, the elite line, the crown that came when he roared, the cutting, the shell, the ten minutes the girls bought for him with knives and wings, Alka’s carry, Mardek’s voice promising he would march by dawn, Skyweaver’s count of three more armies in the desert beyond him.

"Four troops," Shadeclaw said, low.

"Four," Kai agreed. "Mardek’s five hundred are the closest. He lost many tonight. Not enough. He will still reach us in five or six hours if he runs by night. The others will not be far behind."