Southern Region — Pingze Town.
"There must be another one above them, a single queen commanding the entire swarm—including those nine Argos black locust queens!"
Through the narrow gaps of the energy barrier, Duke peered outside. Beyond the shimmering walls stretched a vast black tide, endlessly crashing against their protective cage.
The Argos black locusts surged like waves of ink, throwing themselves forward in suicidal floods, desperate to tear open a breach with their own bodies—to reach Duke and his companions and tear them apart.
"So you're saying we still have to find that last queen?"
Jarvan's face twisted grimly. One locust swarm producing nine queens was already absurd. But a tenth? And to make matters worse, killing the first nine had provoked this last one into a frenzy. Now she had vanished, hidden deep, commanding tens of thousands of black locusts to launch suicidal assaults.
"It's going to be rough," Duke muttered, rubbing the side of his flask. He casually closed the hovering energy screen. "That last queen's on full alert now—she's buried herself somewhere deep."
Jarvan frowned. "And how big is this swarm, exactly?"
"Eighty to ninety thousand," Duke said, shrugging. "Didn't tell you before—I didn't want to crush your morale. But now? No point sugarcoating it."
"Hundreds form a grove, thousands form a mountain, tens of thousands form an ocean. And we're up against eighty to ninety thousand ravenous locusts."
"With those numbers, you think your '400' squad can just fight their way out?"
"They could bury you under sheer mass alone."
Duke smacked his lips. "That's the trouble with bugs. Tough little bastards—strong vitality, horrifying reproduction, hive-mind structure. A complete nightmare."
"I… might have a way," Shyvana spoke for the first time, her voice hesitant.
She paused, wrestling with the thought. But as the air grew thick with the stench of burning chitin and the sound of countless wings filled the night, she exhaled. "I can transform into a dragon… and buy you time to escape."
"Forget it," Duke shot her down immediately. "Sure, you can shift between human and dragon—but ever heard the saying, 'a thousand ants can kill an elephant'?"
True, dragons sat at the top of the food chain. But against nearly a hundred thousand Argos black locusts, even Shyvana would be smothered the moment she took off.
Runeterra was a world of strange wonders, filled with creatures warped by ambient magic—each more vicious than the last.
Even a half-dragon like her would be overwhelmed.
"So what do we do then?" Fiora asked, eyeing Duke. "Aren't you supposed to be some kind of 'scientist'? Don't you have something to control this mess?"
"Oh, I do," Duke said, shrugging casually. "But this is Demacia. I can't just—go nuclear."
Did Duke have weapons of mass destruction?
Of course he did.
Energy high-explosive bombs, sonic resonance grenades, gravity disrupters, ion light-burst warheads…
Each one was a city-killer, developed and stored away for "special occasions."
But could he just use them freely?
Absolutely not.
If he did, he'd have a squad of Protoss dropping from orbit to raid him like he was a dungeon boss.
The starborn watched Runeterra closely—and even the unfinished prototypes in his arsenal were risky. Each lacked a completed core, precisely because finishing them might draw… unwanted attention.
So he split each weapon's main body and core apart—assembling them only when needed.
And here in Demacia, as an outsider, it would be downright suicidal to unleash that kind of power.
He'd shown restraint so far—not out of weakness, but etiquette.
When you're a guest in someone else's house, you don't redecorate the place with craters. Courtesy still mattered—even for Duke.
After all, just because a host welcomes you warmly doesn't mean you start planting mushrooms in their living room.
"So yeah," he said, sighing. "I can't just start a fireworks show here."
Jarvan's voice hardened. "Duke. If you really have something that can save us, use it. No hesitation. We'll take full responsibility for the consequences."
The prince's resolve was firm. The swarm's nine queens were dead, and the tenth had driven her millions into a suicidal frenzy. Hesitation now meant death.
"Fine," Duke said, stretching his neck. "Then let's give you a little show."
He reached into his inventory and pulled out something that looked like a speaker—but in truth, it was a Sonic Frequency Bomb.
Its detonation would unleash a high-frequency shockwave capable of liquefying every brain within a kilometer radius.
After securing the device, Duke tuned the energy shield's frequency to counter the bomb's output, ensuring the team wouldn't be harmed.
"First step—clear the field."
He pressed the activation button.
The bomb pulsed, flickering with blinding lights as chaotic soundwaves layered atop each other—like thousands of people screaming in unison.
A shimmering ring expanded outward, visible to the naked eye, sweeping through the swarm.
Every locust it touched went rigid midair, dropping like rain. Within seconds, the ground outside was carpeted with bodies.
"Good timing," Duke muttered, collapsing the energy barrier. He pulled another gadget from his inventory—the Anti-Gravity Field Generator.
The moment it activated, everyone felt their weight vanish as they drifted upward.
"Alright," Duke said, adjusting controls. "Let's take this party to the sky."
They rose higher and higher, far above the reach of the locusts.
Once the altitude stabilized, Duke tapped his glasses and opened a comm link. "Pride, Gluttony—evacuate twenty kilometers within three minutes."
"Yes, Father!" both replied in unison.
Abandoning their ongoing skirmishes, Pride transformed into a sleek motorbike and sped off, while Gluttony reformed into a roaring sports car wreathed in steam, vanishing into the horizon.
Duke waited exactly three minutes. Then, confirming both had cleared the blast zone, he reached once more into his inventory.
From the digital void, he pulled out a small, transparent orb—gleaming like a perfect drop of water.
One of his hidden trump cards—albeit a "smaller" one.
Still, it would be more than enough.
Duke held the droplet-shaped device in one hand, retrieving its missing core with the other: a self-cycling metallic sphere, spinning ceaselessly.
When the sphere touched the bomb, it dissolved into it like sugar melting into water.
Ripples spread through the orb, and a faint ticking sound filled the air—steady, deliberate, like the turning of a clock.
"Gravity Annihilation Bomb," Duke declared. "Effective kill radius: ten kilometers. More than enough for this situation."
Jax's eyes widened. "What does 'ten kilometers' mean, exactly?"
"You'll find out soon enough," Duke replied calmly.
He raised the bomb high, lips curling into a grin. "Command: Activate."
The ticking stopped. A dreadful silence fell—followed by an instinctive, skin-prickling dread. The kind that told every living thing: Run.
He dropped it.
The orb plummeted straight down, slipping through the anti-gravity field and vanishing into the churning swarm.
A moment later, ripples—visible, perfect rings of distortion—spread from the impact point.
Everything caught in them—living or dead—suddenly lost all sense of weight.
Tens of thousands of locusts floated upward, along with rocks, soil, even the nearby houses.
Duke ascended further, eyes narrowing. He knew what came next.
The bomb's purpose wasn't simple levitation—it disrupted the natural gravity field, only to collapse it in reverse.
When the ripple reached its ten-kilometer limit, the center became a sphere of total zero gravity.
Everything—absolutely everything—hung suspended.
Then, a low hum filled the air.
The floating swarm began to compress. Drawn by invisible force, locusts, debris, and shattered buildings folded inward—pulled into a growing black mass.
Within seconds, the landscape below was scrubbed clean.
And as the sphere shrank to its limit
A blinding pulse of darkness flashed.
Then silence.
Pingze Town was gone. Not ruined—erased.
In its place stretched a ten-kilometer-wide void, smooth and lifeless.
"Well," Duke said lightly, adjusting his glasses. "That solves that."
He turned to Edith, gesturing for her to archive the data.
The bomb had exceeded expectations. That final black flash had been gravitational radiation—ripping everything apart down to its smallest molecules.
"If I take this further," he mused, smiling faintly, "it might just become a black hole annihilation bomb."
"Guess I've got some research to do when we get back."
End of chapter....
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