Isekaid instantly dead 4.., p.1
Isekaid! Instantly Dead 4: The Colony, page 1
Isekaid! Instantly Dead 4: The Colony
Neil Jackson
Copyright © 2026 Neil Jackson
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
This book is intended for mature audiences only. Reading volumes 1 to 3 is required for understanding the story.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Afterword
Chapter 1
The prison was a large chamber temporarily excavated within the ant nest, with a narrow entrance guarded by soldier ants. Inside were several smaller alcoves serving as cells. Each "prisoner" had their own space, with even Swift Shadow allotted a private suite.
Beyond that, there was nothing else.
Under the cold glow of luminous moss patches on the ceiling, the expedition members exchanged uneasy glances. Exhausted and hungry, they couldn't fathom why the acid ants had imprisoned them.
At least they were out of combat. Jonah opened a Time-Space Door to the real world. Before leaving, he asked, "Does anyone need anything?"
Budd, now accustomed to Jonah's portals, merely grumbled, "I'm starving."
Mondino requested Spellcasting Materials like iron filings, thin cords, bird feathers, coal dust, and salt grains. Swift Shadow asked to visit the netherworld to absorb negative energy. Only the jester Adrian made the oddest request—a tuft of sheep's wool.
"Wool?" Jonah scratched his head, unsure if he could find sheep in Dustbowl county. He stepped through the portal and soon returned with twenty kilograms of supplies.
After everyone ate and drank their fill, Budd went to sleep. Grimwart and Mondino each took an alcove to prepare Divine magic and Arcane magic respectively. Adrian chuckled softly upon receiving his wool.
"What do you need wool for?" Jonah asked, puzzled.
Adrian rubbed the wool between his palms, murmured an incantation, and his silhouette immediately faded to near-transparency—barely distinguishable if he stood still. Still smiling, he explained, "I'm a jester. I know a few simple Cantrips."
*Blur—a useful Cantrip for sneaking into boudoirs.*
Adrian then sprinkled some powder from his pocket over himself, making his scent nearly undetectable. "I'll scout outside," he said, walking past the soldier ant guards who showed no reaction.
*Everyone here has remarkable skills!*
Jonah scratched his head, realizing there was nothing for him to do in the cell. Silly had been silent in her alcove for quite some time. When he called out at her doorway, he found the elf maiden sitting on a crude stone bed, clutching a longbow.
She'd seized this bow from a skeletal archer during their escape from the Bone Heap. Its recurved limbs bore intricate patterns in a unique style. The arrows it fired carried lightning damage—clearly no ordinary weapon.
"This bow is unusual," Jonah remarked to his maid, making conversation.
Silly gave a bitter smile. "This belonged to Uncle Dru."
"Who's Dru?"
"The skeletal archer you stabbed through the skull with your longsword."
Ah...?
When she took the bow, Silly had also torn off the archer's hand bones. The skeletal hand now lay on the floor. "Over fifty years ago, Uncle Dru fought demons alongside my father. They refused to retreat, even at the cost of their lives."
"To think he'd become Undead after death. That skeletal archer wasn't even one-tenth of Uncle Dru's original power, or we'd both be dead. But this bow survived."
Silly plucked the bowstring, filling the room with a humming vibration. "It's called 'Spread Wings'—a magic bow my uncle treasured. Its arrows carry lightning damage and can be fired in rapid succession with exceptional speed."
Jonah glanced at the severed hand bone on the ground, then at the 'Wingspread' bow. Though he had acquired a fine weapon, the story behind it sounded rather sorrowful.
Whenever past events were mentioned, the young girl's mood would instantly turn somber. Jonah crouched down and embraced Silly's shoulders, and master and servant leaned against each other, finding solace in one another. In this cold, desolate underground space, their shared warmth provided some comfort.
A long while passed, yet Adrian had not returned. Instead, a soldier ant entered the prison, conveying the Ant Queen's message: "Human, do you still wish to live?"
Left without food or water for half a day, an ordinary prisoner would have been disheartened. But Jonah and the others, having eaten their fill, had regained some of their energy and strength. Jonah himself had even held the stunningly beautiful elf maiden as they slept, as if replenishing his magic, and now felt revitalized.
"Speak, what trouble have you Acid Ants encountered?" Jonah asked lazily.
Through the messenger ant, the Ant Queen angrily retorted, "Human, you should show humility before the ruler of over a million ants. Discard this arrogant attitude of yours, or you will regret it."
Tch... Jonah replied calmly, "The trouble you're facing must be enormous, forcing your entire colony to flee your long-established home and seek refuge above ground. Am I right?"
The trouble was so severe it had triggered a monster tide across the entire Dark Forest, even flooding the territory Old Jonah had painstakingly secured. Hadn't he crossed the forest, braved the canyon, and gone through great hardship to find the elf ruins precisely for this reason?
Jonah's words struck a nerve, arousing the Ant Queen's suspicion. She asked with some surprise, "Human, what do you know?"
"If the trouble weren't so severe, why would you imprison us instead of killing us?"
"Our ant colony has a habit of keeping slaves. You could easily transition from prisoners to slaves."
"That sounds terrifying. What kind of slaves do you keep?"
"I'm not here to discuss slaves with you."
"Then what do you want to talk about?"
Jonah's unhurried demeanor infuriated the Ant Queen, the collective consciousness core of the colony. A punitive mental assault crashed toward his mind, but he immediately gathered his own mental energy to resist.
The ordinary soldier ant couldn't serve as a platform for the contest between the Ant Queen and Jonah. The pressure within its hard-shelled head became too great, and its bulging compound eyes burst, oozing disgusting fluid.
A piercing psychic scream echoed through the ant nest as the Ant Queen raged, "Human, how dare you resist?"
Silly tightened her grip, ready for battle. Jonah gently patted his maid's arm and walked to the prison entrance. Guard soldier ants swarmed in, surrounding him within seconds.
A flying ant darted in from outside, hovering mid-air with buzzing wings, and stared at Jonah. "Human, aren't you afraid of death?"
"Speak properly, and perhaps we can still negotiate. Otherwise, it's your ant colony that will suffer in the end." Jonah showed no fear, thinking to himself, "I provoked you precisely to gather more information. At worst, I'll just reload a save."
Silly held the 'Wingspread' bow, Budd hefted his Battle Axe, and the rested Grimwart and Mondino had also recovered. Everyone stood behind Jonah, ready for whatever came next.
The flying ant scanned the group and angrily demanded, "Why are you missing one person and a horse?"
Jonah shrugged, opened a portal to the underworld to summon Swift Shadow, and casually remarked, "One of our companions had an urgent need to relieve himself. He went to find a restroom."
Chapter 2
It was unclear whether Jonah's unyielding attitude had an effect or if the Ant Queen, recognizing reality, was desperate to grasp any lifeline. In any case, the Acid Ants compromised. They did not pursue the attitude of these foreign Adventurers but instead led them from the prison to the edge of a deep pit.
This was likely the deepest part of the ant nest, cold and eerily quiet. Glowing moss illuminated the path, and only the sounds of breathing and footsteps echoed as they moved. Outside the pit, the messenger fly suddenly halted and said, "The trouble lies ahead. See for yourselves."
Huh...
Jonah realized his current location was like a boundary line. Behind him, numerous Acid Ants were still active, but in the direction of the pit, there wasn't a single ant in sight.
What kind of existence could make countless Acid Ants so fearful?
Everyone was puzzled and confused. The Ant Queen offered no further explanation, only saying that a glance into the pit would make it clear. Left with no choice, Jonah turned to the necromancer and said, "Light a fire. I want to see more clearly."
A small Cantrip ignited an undying flame, illuminating a pit over ten meters in diameter. The mouth of the pit was pitch-black and unfathomably deep. But standing at the edge, they could see it was filled with a massive pile of ants.
To be precise... it was an enormous number of Acid Ant corpses.
This was a massive corpse pit, filled with thousands, if not tens of thousands, of ants. They were piled layer upon layer, their numbers so vast they nearly filled the pit. The ant corpses emitted an indescribable, sour stench that was nauseating and terrifying.
Silly took one look and turned away, while the others frowned in disgust. No one had expected this subterranean ant kingdom to have such an exaggerated corpse pit.
Swift Shadow, however, stretched out its long monstrous head and asked curiously, "What happened to these ants? I think I see a plump, white one over there. Is that..."
"That is the previous Ant Queen," the messenger fly said calmly.
The previous Ant Queen was enormous, roughly the size of four or five cows. But her white body was covered in black spots, which upon closer inspection appeared to be festering wounds. Some parts of her body had even dissolved.
Swift Shadow was even more astonished. "Ant Queen, will you grow that big too? How much would you have to eat?"
The Ant Queen ignored such a foolish question.
Jonah turned and asked, "Was there an internal upheaval in your colony?"
"Ant colonies do not experience upheavals. We are one," the Ant Queen replied.
"Then what is this..."
"It's a plague."
As a plague cleric, Grimwart interjected. He then looked up, and the others noticed pipes leading from various parts of the ant nest to the pit above. From time to time, the corpse of an Acid Ant would slide out of these pipes and fall into the pit.
With a wave of his hand, Mondino summoned one of the ant corpses before it could drop. Everyone examined it closely—the falling ant was not yet completely dead, its antennae still twitching. But its body was covered in festering sores, its limbs weak, and it was on the verge of death.
Was it really a plague?
Jonah was startled. A plague in this enclosed underground kingdom? He fumed inwardly, 'No wonder the Ant Queen didn't mention it earlier. If I'd known this damned place had a plague causing deaths on such a scale, I'd have rather fought for my life outside.'
But...
Jonah stepped back a few paces and shouted loudly, "Alright, no need to fear. We have Grimwart here, who worships the 'Mother of Plagues.' He's an expert in this and will surely have a solution."
The Ant Queen's tone rose slightly, "If only things could be solved so simply, but the situation is likely worse than you imagine."
Grimwart also spoke gravely, "I've never seen this kind of plague before. I might be able to study it, but I can't make any promises."
Jonah's heart instantly turned cold...
The Ant Queen continued, "To be precise, this is a 'Rotting Curse.' It has accompanied our Acid Ant tribe since our very inception. Even someone as noble as the Ant Queen cannot escape this plague. All we can do is endure it and face death.
The deep pit you saw isn't the only one in the anthill. In fact, since we settled here, we've dug dozens of similar pits. Each pit lasts about a year. Once it's filled with tens of thousands of ant corpses, we have to cover it and dig another one.
We've tried many methods to combat this plague, but none have been effective. We've long grown accustomed to living with this curse. Individual deaths aren't terrifying—as long as the tribe survives.
The plague naturally eliminates the old and weak, making the entire ant tribe stronger. But now there's a new development... For the first time, cases have appeared in the previously unaffected incubation chambers, and they're spreading rapidly.
If all the ant eggs become infected, our tribe is doomed. I spared your lives and brought you here because I hope someone can break the curse that our ant tribe endures."
Jonah forcefully interrupted, raising his voice, "The Acid Ants have had this curse since their creation? That means it's been at least decades. You couldn't solve it in decades, and you expect us to solve it? Aren't you just sending us to our deaths?"
The Ant Queen remained calm, "Stop complaining. Although I know the hope of you finding a solution is slim, I have no other options left. Don't expect a tribe on the verge of extinction to be reasonable."
"You..." Jonah's heart truly turned ice-cold at this point. Everyone's hearts turned ice-cold. They were trapped deep underground in an anthill—one experiencing a plague outbreak. Who knew if this plague could spread to humans?
Was it because they couldn't solve this plague that all the Acid Ants swarmed to the surface to escape? That they drove the monsters in the Dark Forest fleeing everywhere? That they incidentally destroyed Harmony Village, which had only been established for half a year?
This wasn't about fighting and killing—no amount of reloading saved games could solve this. Would they have to abandon Harmony Village's foundation and flee as far as possible?
Jonah's mind was filled with unsolvable problems.
The Ant Queen said, "I don't know if you'll be of any use. But if you have any ideas to solve the ant tribe's plague, state whatever you need, and I'll fulfill it as much as possible.
If you succeed, I'll grant you unimaginable wealth and treasures. The Acid Ants' collection accumulated over decades will be opened for your selection.
But if you try to escape, or if by the time this pit is filled you still haven't found any solution, you'll be thrown into the pit as burial companions. I mean what I say."
Everyone looked at Grimwart. The dwarf witch doctor shrugged, saying he had no expertise in curses.
Everyone then looked at Mondino. The necromancer gave a bitter, cackling laugh, saying that although he had some understanding of death and souls, curses were among the most mysterious aspects of Mysticism.
Everyone turned to look at Silly again. The elven maiden shook her head slightly, explaining that curses came in countless forms—some powerful, some weak. A curse that could persist for decades was absolutely not something that could be resolved casually.
Finally, all eyes fell upon Jonah. The young master scratched his head and spread his hands, saying, "At most, I know how to swing a blade at people. I don't understand anything about curses either."
They were fucked. No one had the knowledge. What an immense crisis!
Chapter 3
The day passed by easily.
Jonah headed to the elven ruins, crossed the Bloodflow Canyon, and ran into the nest of the Acid-drinking Ants. This massive underground kingdom lay two to three kilometers north of the canyon, where the ant colony had constructed a three-dimensional city structure beneath the surface.
This was a silent and reclusive species, unknown to outsiders for fifty years, yet now faced the crisis of extinction. A plague called 'Rotting Sickness' plagued the ant race, continuously devouring the lives of the population.
The Acid-drinking Ants had tried many methods to save themselves, and capturing foreign 'prisoners' to serve them was one of them. They built separate rooms within the nest, with the largest one given to the 'Plague Priest' Grimwart—though in truth, Grimwart was a Witch Doctor.
Though possessing only a faint divine power, Vyris, the Goddess of Poison and Disease, was a particularly troublesome entity. She had long been shunned by the other gods, and even scoundrels like Cytic looked down on her, considering her poisons and diseases beneath notice.
