My Wife is a Dead Villainess, and I'm Her Living Weapon-Chapter 23: Weak

A low groan echoed as a colossal beast crashed violently to the ground. Anywhere else, this monster would've flattened cities. But here? It was just food.

Hundreds of black metal serpents—extensions of Elian's Living Metal—descended upon it. The Soldier Ant fought back—its massive jaws snapping through metal—but within seconds, five of its six legs were gone.

With only one leg left it couldn't even roll on the ground. It squirmed helplessly as a black figure leapt on its thorax. A loud impact made the air tremble. It was as if the weight of the world pressed on the monster.

THUD.

Elian's immense mass bore down on the Soldier ant. Sharp cracking sounds echoed as parts of the monster's carapace cracked under the stress. It screamed and called for its allies all while thrashing. Yet besides the corpses around it, no one else came.

Not really caring about his prey, Elian ripped apart the torn sections of the Ant while it was still alive.

KUUUU!!!!

No longer fazed by anything the Ant ever did, Elian quickly found the core and had one of his snakes take a bite. He held the fragment in his palm then absorbed it. A second later, root-like tendrils exploded out of Elian's chest and skewered the Soldier's core.

"Bianca."

"I hope this tastes better. The last one was positively foul."

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"When we find a taste you enjoy, we will hunt to your heart's content. For now, please bear with it."

The Soldier ant thrashed violently as Bianca began to eat its core while it was still alive. An acidic scent wafted heavily it was almost as if the air itself was made of vinegar. Many Ants were dispatched just like the Soldier—prepared, gutted, and served.

"Ugh, Elian, I grow tired of Ants. Can't we have something else, please?"

"I promise we will never eat Ants again after this dungeon. But you need to restore your strength. How about I sprinkle in some of the cores we got from the Crestfall people?"

"Yes please. If I have to endure yet another one of these disgusting cores I am going to hurl."

Elian could only smile wryly as Bianca began to act spoiled. At first, she was fine just having Elian feed her directly. But she soon wanted to take an active part in battle, which made the two to come to blows.

"What? No! Absolutely not! Your mana is still below 30%! It is your punishment for throwing a tantrum. If you try to use mana before you recover, I will force you to eat more Ants."

"Tsk. Elian, are you threatening me?"

"Bianca, we both know you are impulsive as heck. Just bear with it for now. Stop being so spoiled. Aren't you supposed to be older than me?"

"W-What has age have to do with anything? We are both no longer human. Such numbers mean nothing to us. You need to stop thinking like a human."

"Sigh, fine, let's do this instead. If you behave and do as I tell you, I will listen and do one thing for you, no questions asked."

"What kind of wager is that? I own you, remember? You're MY weapon, you insolent brat!"

"So you don't want it?" Elian teased.

"I-I didn't say that...Fine... I'll wait till my mana recovers to at least 100,000. And not a moment later."

"Thank you, Bianca. Tell you what, I'll let you kill the Ants yourself in exchange."

"What? How can I kill the ant if you won't let me use my mana?"

"What else? You will eat it while it's still alive."

And so, every ant they encountered after that suffered the same fate—devoured spiritually by one, gutted alive by the other. In futility, the monsters kept releasing acidic pheromones in bulk as they slowly left this world—in body, mind, and soul.

"But this is the last tunnel in this network. The Red Ants work fast. They all abandoned this section within minutes of our arrival. Guess we should be glad that at least we got a Soldier Ant's core this time. Here, I added a core from an unknown monster, I hope it tastes better."

"I find it more ridiculous that you have an entire Red Ant colony running in fear of you, Elian. Do you have any idea how insane that is? Even with my power they never ran away. I'm done. We can move to the next one. The core you mixed in was delicious, it tasted like a papaya," she declared as she finished.

Bianca's ghost even took out a napkin and wiped her mouth. She wasn't really wiping any stains, but it spoke of her classy upbringing.

How adorable. It's like a child drinking invisible tea.

"You just thought about something rude just now didn't you?"

Surprised, Elian's eyes grew wider. "What? O-Of course not! Anyway, Papaya? That's the best description you've given so far. At least it tastes like food. The ones before it were sand, feet, and charcoal."

"Yes, surprisingly that last one tastes pleasant."

"Okay, then let's try this cyan one next. If only I could scan these to know what monsters they are. It just says the rank. Don't they get confused if they don't have the ability to differentiate cores?"

"Well, the nanomachines I had in Forged were the top of the line at one point. But it has been years since then. Even the information mine has is technically outdated."

"Is there a good way to update them?"

"Yes, drain them from the blood of a living Breaker."

"What, like getting a blood transfusion? How are we going to get them to cooperate?"

"Why would I even care about their opinions? Mount them on spikes. Drain the blood into a basin."

"...You're kidding right?"

"What do you think?"

Bianca's words caused her companion to pause, "You know master, some of the things you say are downright terrifying. You should be grateful I have adamant or I might have run away too."

The Witch of the Frozen night huffed in displeasure. In the next moment, the ground Elian was about to step on froze and turned smooth like glass. Without any friction, the living weapon lost all traction and slipped comically.

Tremors rocked the tunnel they were on, it was so violent parts of the structure collapsed.

"Ow. Really?"

"What? How is your lack of coordination my fault?"

"Bianca, the floor iced. Who else could have done it but you?"

"Hmph, so what if it was me? Your mere shadow causes entire ant legions to turn tail and scatter. Compared to you, I am a harmless mouse."

"What? That's a load of crap! You can practically demolish entire cities with just those ice spears! And that was you holding back!"

"Stop being so vulgar, it's unsightly. But on a separate note, how can you be so certain that I was holding back?"

"Because you aren't even using water in any of your attacks. If you did. The amount of carnage you can do with that would be many times worse."

Elian, still on the ground, failed to notice. Bianca hid her trembling hand behind her back, composing herself before speaking again, "And what good will that do?"

"If you have the power to thaw ice, that means you can create water. And water expands when frozen—especially in confined spaces. Trap it inside one of your lances and the pressure could tear even armored enemies apart from the inside."

"..."

Seeing his companion no longer replying Elian turned to look at Bianca, only to see her stare at him in silence.

"Elian, I never once thought about using physics in tandem with mana. I only focused on the speed and scale at which I could manifest my ice. Your way of thinking, it's completely opposite of how Talent users think."

At that point the boy understood. Talents allowed mana to break the concept of physics. Thus many thought little about the rules that governed their world. After all mana just broke them.

But he was different.

Due to being weak and without Talents, he respected and wielded science and physics like a weapon. His Air Shotgun was created using the same method.

"I see. Who would have thought that being weak gave me my own style of battle."

"Elian, anyone who calls you weak is but a fool."

"Haha, maybe but I am certain it is only because I know how to be weak that I will grow stronger."

"I would say that's ironic," Bianca said with a smile, "but coming from the boy who keeps weaponizing physics... I'm inclined to agree."