Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage Chapter 811: The Nest Queen Last Stand

CH811 The Nest Queen Last Stand

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The Heavenly Tribulation descended without mercy, shattering the Nest Queen’s egg and revealing her true form.

She looked both familiar and utterly alien compared to the creature that had entered the cocoon.

Now standing nearly three metres tall, she retained the characteristic insectoid body plan of a head, thorax, and abdomen.

Beyond that, however, she no longer resembled any ordinary bee or wasp.

Her body had grown from barely sixty centimetres to almost three metres in length, yet her wings had remained virtually unchanged.

Once merely small, they now appeared almost insignificant against her immense frame.

By all logic, such tiny wings should have been incapable of lifting a creature of her size.

And yet, with every gentle beat, the Nest Queen drifted effortlessly through the air.

She neither struggled nor hovered awkwardly. Instead, she floated with a grace that seemed to defy the very laws of nature.

It was as though she had transcended the limitations of her lesser kin, evolving into a lifeform no longer bound by the rules governing ordinary insects.

Her exoskeleton was covered in intricate vein-like patterns that resembled both runic inscriptions and segmented scales, giving her an appearance that was simultaneously regal and deeply intimidating.

Even so, Alex could immediately tell that the greatest change wasn’t her appearance.

The instant the Nest Queen emerged from the shattered egg, the bond connecting them strengthened dramatically, instinctively informing him that the true transformation lay in the scope of her abilities.

BOOM!!

Before Alex could even begin to process the flood of new information, the Heavenly Tribulation struck again.

The crimson-gold lightning ignored the Nest Queen’s physical body altogether.

Instead, it struck directly at her essence.

"AHHHHH!"

The Nest Queen let out a piercing scream of agony.

Alex instinctively tried to move.

He wanted to help.

Yet he found himself completely immobilised.

Everything within him—from his Rune Tattoos to OmniRune itself—had been forcibly suppressed, rendered utterly incapable of responding.

Thin streams of blood seeped from the cracks between the Nest Queen’s exoskeletal plates.

She raised her head to glare defiantly at the Heavens, unwilling to die without resistance.

Yet her mind could devise no method of opposing such an overwhelming force.

That simply wasn’t what she had been born to do.

Instead, she fell back upon the one instinct she understood best.

Whether driven by ravenous hunger, the instinct to survive, or both, the Nest Queen suddenly dived towards the countless carcasses scattered across the battlefield by Alex’s earlier slaughter.

She tore into them with astonishing speed.

Great chunks of flesh disappeared with every bite.

Even a four-metre-tall Earthshaker Bull vanished in fewer than a dozen mouthfuls, bones and all.

With every mouthful of flesh she consumed, the Nest Queen’s injuries healed at a remarkable rate.

But the Heavenly Tribulation had no intention of standing by and allowing her to recover.

The first strike...

The second strike...

The third strike...

The seventh strike...

Each bolt was vastly more powerful than the Heavenly Tribulation Alex had endured during the Elemental Stele trial within the Pyramid of Elements.

Yet every time she was struck, the Nest Queen only became more frenzied, devouring everything in sight in a desperate attempt to cling to life.

As time passed, however, it became painfully clear that the Heavenly Tribulation was inflicting damage faster than she could regenerate.

Worse still, she had nearly exhausted the hundreds of Berserk Beast carcasses Alex had left scattered across the battlefield.

Only then did Alex realise the terrifying truth.

Whatever intelligence governed the Heavenly Tribulation had timed every interval between the lightning strikes with near-perfect precision.

It allowed the Nest Queen just enough time to consume more flesh and desperately attempt to heal herself...

...only to strike again before she could recover completely.

It was a battle of attrition.

One the Nest Queen had been destined to lose from the very beginning.

Alex struggled with increasing desperation to break free from the invisible restraints holding him in place.

Yet it felt as though the Heavenly Tribulation—or the will behind it—was deliberately forcing him to watch as it reduced the abomination he had created to nothingness.

The twenty-fifth strike...

The twenty-sixth strike...

The twenty-seventh strike...

Alex watched helplessly as the Nest Queen endured a barrage that had already equalled the number of lightning bolts he himself had survived during the Elemental Stele trial.

Yet the dark clouds above showed no signs of weakening.

The Heavenly Tribulation had scarcely expended any of its power.

There was no doubt it could continue.

The Nest Queen could not.

Her primal instinct... Her desperation...

Both poured relentlessly into Alex’s mind through the bond linking them.

She had consumed every one of the hundreds of Berserk Beasts Alex had slain.

Even so, the Heavenly Tribulation was nowhere near finished.

BOOM!

Another bolt descended.

The Nest Queen was blasted violently to the ground.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Again and again, crimson-gold lightning rained down upon her.

Each strike pulverised more of her exoskeleton, reducing it to drifting fragments of dust.

Slowly...

Methodically...

The merciless Heavens dismantled the Nest Queen piece by piece.

Alex fought with every ounce of his will to break free.

In response, the crushing pressure pinning him to the earth only intensified.

All he could do was lift his head...

...and watch.

Eventually, the once majestic Nest Queen had been reduced to nothing more than a pitiful lump of flesh, scarcely larger than the original sixty-centimetre creature that had first entered the cocoon.

And at last... Alex gave up.

He was on the verge of accepting that the Nest Queen was dead.

That the merciless Heavens had taken from him what was potentially his greatest creation since OmniRune.

For a fleeting moment, hatred towards the Heavens welled up within him.

Then a cold, unwavering rationality deep within his mind extinguished the emotion before it could take root.

The voice echoed calmly through his thoughts.

Alex lowered his forehead to the ground.

Only minutes earlier, he had been slaughtering the surrounding Berserk Beasts without restraint.

Young or old, it had made no difference.

He had even felt a quiet exhilaration at the overwhelming efficiency of his own strength.

Then reality had struck him with merciless cruelty.

In the blink of an eye, something precious had been torn away from him.

What made the experience even more bitter was the fact that, until this moment, he had never truly cared about the Nest Queen.

She had simply been another extraordinary lifeform born through fortunate coincidence.

Only after witnessing her desperate struggle to survive...

Only after watching her challenge the Heavens themselves in order to cling to life...

...did he finally begin to see her as more than an experiment.

He finally recognised her.

But by then, it was already too late.

Alex knew this memory would likely haunt him for the rest of his life.

Yet he wouldn’t erase it even if he could.

Instead, he would engrave it into his heart, even.

It would become another constant reminder never to grow complacent again.

Just as today had proven, a single moment—one action by a more powerful existence—could overturn everything he possessed.

If he wanted to avoid losing something even more precious in the future, then he had to become stronger...

Much stronger.

He could not allow himself to become satisfied with the power he currently possessed.

Yes, as a Class Three, he could already battle opponents beyond his rank and even contend with peak Class Four experts.

But that did not mean every future enemy would conveniently stop at Class Four.

What value did his superior combat ability hold before a Class Five?

A Class Six?

Or even...

A Class Seven?

He could not be satisfied.

Just as those thoughts settled within his heart, Alex suddenly sensed something.

It was incredibly faint.

Almost imperceptible.

The weak impulse travelled through the mental bond connecting him to the Nest Queen.

Alex’s eyes snapped open.

His head raised and snapped towards the place where the Nest Queen had been reduced to little more than a tiny lump of flesh.

To his astonishment, the small fleshy mass was no longer lying upon the ground.

It was floating weakly before his face—barely a few centimetres above the earth.

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