Re:Ant Lord-Chapter 107: Vaults Open

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Kai’s predator sense flickered confusion, real body masked. He knelt, palm to ground, listening for weight. Among illusions one silhouette sagged slightly, injured by Mia strikes.

He rocketed forward, ignoring phantoms. But illusions reacted; three beams lanced. He spun spear, deflecting two; third grazed thigh, adaptive armour sizzling.

[HP‑70]

He snarled, poured aura into legs, dashed again with 58kph speed. Real body loomed; Mia converged opposite trajectory. Basilisk predicted; hood flared open, revealing gorgon eye cluster. Grey ray swept across the stone conversion.

Mia shielded with lotus swirl; grey wave struck aura swirl, ricocheted. The reflected energy slammed illusions, they crystallised then shattered to powder. True body staggered, momentarily dazed.

Kai vaulted up neck, driving the spear through the gorgon eye cluster. Lens burst; basilisk screamed.

Roar!

Mia jammed her fist into an earlier spine rupture, her aura flared to dazzling white. She recited an incantation taught by the royal academy: Solar Bloom. Energy surged down her arms, budded inside the wound, then detonated.

A column of silver‑white fire speared from belly out underside, severing internal core. Tremor split chamber ceiling. Basilisk convulsed, tail slapping ground, then collapsed, dust pluming.

Silence... except crumbling quartz echoes.

Kai rolled to the sand, coughing, his spear tip was half melted.

Jun limped over, channelled mend glyph on Kai’s thigh; pain cooled.

Basilisk corpse twitched twice then stilled. Sable scales dulled. But central mass glowed, energy unclaimed like floating dandelion seeds.

Mia stood amid gentle snowfall of coiled aura threads. Her own core drank.

Kai stared at the Six‑point star crest which formed on her chest, it burned bright, but edges liquefied, stretching into a seventh faint spike. She gasped, fell to knees, hands on heart. freёnovelkiss.com

"Jun! Stabilise her channels."

Jun hurried. Kai knelt too. Mia’s aura spiked erratic, then settled into a new orbit, larger, serene.

[Ding! System notifications- Your luster’s mark entity advanced.

Princess Mia: Six Star → Seven Star (Low rank)]. System flashed.

Mia opened her eyes, it was blazing pure ruby. She exhaled a plume of gold sparks. "Seven..." she whispered, disbelief and joy entwined. Her star aura mark fell back behind skin; the cavern brightened as suppressed energy ceased warping light.

Kai grinned despite blood taste. "Congratulations, Princess. You rank up."

She laughed, and it sounded like chimes. "We did it. Thank you kai, without your strike under its hood the channel would not open."

Jun inspected corpse. "Six‑star predator... Guardians star cores are very rare."

Sure enough, within shattered thorax glinted a star core bigger than Kai’s head, swirling obsidian and sand‑gold. Kai climbed inside the ripped cavity, pried it loose. Hot as a furnace; he wrapped it in a hide strip and handed it to Mia.

He wanted to use his essence eater skills. But he didn’t get any chance. There are many people present. Hopefully he will get a chance later.

With the guardian slain, treasure retrieval began in earnest. Miners fanned, chiselling stanchions. Each chime rang like temple gongs; cartloads of shards stacked rapidly.

Kai, Fenn, Mia, and Jun advanced to central dais. On it lay a chest forged of metal locked by five interlaced glyph wheels. Mia traced runes; ancient dialect but cognate to court script. "Combination sequence... ironically matches our ant numerals."

Kai extracted star‑steel spear, pried side panel exposed gear lattice. Together they solved each wheel. Lock clicked; lid rose on steam of sealed age. Inside the box was an unknown skin map. Mia secured it.

Other members collect the rest of the treasure, Hundreds of Sand‑Ruby Slivers (a type of stat crystals) larger than Kai’s palm.

Amphora of Liquid Ember, a catalyst that super‑charges star‑crystal absorption.

A scroll titled Song of the Shifting Suns, hexagram manual rumoured to amplify heat‑type aura paths.

And, nested in velvet, three thumb‑long needles of Aethyrite, a myth‑ore that can pierce any aura shields below six stars. Many more treasures.

Mia’s breath caught. "This... is enough to raise our ant kingdom power."

Miners returned, faces smudged but gleeful. Satchels bulged. Brask, revived, carried a crate of layered quartz boards they hummed faintly like sleeping ghosts. They also collected the six star predator body. It can be used in weapon crafting, potions creation and many more.

Treasure load secured, the squad faced a problem: how to transport tonnes of treasure past Thea’s positions and out through besieged tunnels. There is a chance Thea will try to snatch the treasure from them.

Mia, newly promoted seven star rank solved with her aura: She shaped seven Lotus Platforms, levitating slabs that could each carry eight hundred kilos. She grimaced, "Feels like balancing amphora on antennae, but stable."

Jun sealed the vault gate so seamless it looked untouched. They retraced the route. No beasts accosted them; apparently the basilisk’s death-scents kept scavengers at bay. At drop‑shaft Mia used lotus lifts to float cargo up. Dawn overhead glimmered by time they reached the first cavern.

At exit fissure, Sergeant Jun peeled the rune plug and a sultry desert wind rushed inside. Outside, hush blanketed battlefield: The Ruler’s husk had fallen hours earlier. On a distant horizon, a colossal silhouette of A’zhorath’s remains lay half‑buried in dunes, a mountain-sized worm coiled, vitreous scales fractured.

Kai’s heart tightened, he felt a faint pang, as though egg grieved her mother. He rubbed the pouch gently. "I will keep you safe."

Mia surveyed corpse, unreadable. Then she faced Kai. "Take the first load of treasure directly to my personal supply depot, avoid Thea’s, she might plan an ambush." Her aura flared subtle intimidation; miners saluted.

They marched across smouldering sands, dawn painting sky blood‑rose. No Thea patrols intercepted; she was busy parading before queen with lesser spoils.

At Mia’s depot, camouflage nets draped over ruin columns, cargo was stacked inside a resin vault. She dismissed miners to rest, leaving only Kai, Jun, Brask, Fenn in conference.

Mia closed doors, sagged; lotus auras flickered then dissipated. Her breakthrough glow faded; exhaustion slammed.

Kai steadied her. "Sit. Drink some honey syrup."

Jun placed the canteen, Mia drank. "Thank you everyone. Without you all, I’d still be straining at mid‑six."

Kai shrugged. "That six star rank predator nearly killed us, you kept us alive."

She smiled weakly, then sobriety: "They will demand accounting. Thea will challenge authenticity. I need you to testify on tunnel mapping. Don’t mention anything about the treasure chest and the unknown map."

"Gladly." He omitted mention of heart‑core, star‑milk.

Mia touched his arm, brief, warm. "Rest, Kai. After the tribunal we will march home. This war ends, but a new storm approaches."

Kai nodded, though his gaze slid to vault crates. New storm is indeed rising somewhere.

He turned to the night sky; early stars winked. Miryam the desert ruler’s egg pulsed softly, as though she was sad.

Note: Volume 01 ends.