Chapter 747: The Decisive Battle That Determines the Fate of This Land!

Chapter 747: The Decisive Battle That Determines the Fate of This Land!

Deep within Blood Mountain, in a profound and shadowy cavern.

Silent scriptures chanted slowly in the nonexistent void, as one by one, the “sculptures” exuding a stale aura slowly opened their eyes.

They were mutants with names and titles, the mightiest among countless green-skinned brutes, champions among innumerable plague monks, and also “his” most gratifying masterpieces.

They were still far from true perfection, just like the deceased “Oulon,” merely the previous unfinished works of little consequence.

Yet even so, they sufficed as vessels to house his soul for a brief moment.

He did not mind this momentary condescension.

To meet that one, he needed a body capable of walking in the mortal world.

“…The fourth phase of the Celestial Kingdom has been restarted, the eternal Celestial Kingdom has descended, and all living beings on earth shall become followers of the Lord, embracing the supreme evolution.”

“My Lord is everything, and everything is my Lord.”

The statue at the very center opened its eyes, and a chilling light gleamed in its ghastly green pupils.

That light seemed to pierce beyond the cavern, locking onto a certain azure figure.

There was no mistake.

That police power armor painted in azure was precisely the relic of “Mr. Administrator.”

Now it was also being used by an administrator, albeit one from another vault.

A sinister smile gradually crept across the monster’s face, and a meaningful voice issued from its gaping maw.

“I see you.”

The trembling of the earth was drawing nearer, interrupting his drifting thoughts.

The past of Vault 117 was now history.

They were no longer the rowdy young men who once sought to open doors and save the world on the wasteland.

They had spent years witnessing the incorrigibility of the human species, and they had long understood that merely pushing open a few doors was not enough to save this fallen wasteland.

They would bring fundamental liberation to these stubborn, dying brethren!

Explosive dust drifted into the cavern, and an Alpha wearing a gas mask charged in.

Seeing the group of monsters before him, a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes, but without a moment’s hesitation, he raised his Gauss rifle.

Blue arcs of electricity flashed in the chamber, and projectiles accelerated to their limits filled the entire tunnel.

Under normal circumstances, the monster should have been riddled with holes.

Yet to his astonishment, a tremendous force slammed into his chest, and amid a burst of spore-laden smoke, he was sent flying backward.

His back crashed heavily against the wall, but the searing pain came from his chest, and a pained groan escaped his lips.

“Ah——”

If not for the armor plating on his exoskeleton absorbing ninety percent of the damage, that blow alone would have finished him.

“Corrosive explosives… All units, be advised.”

Gazing at the corroded armor plates, he reported the situation while struggling to his feet, picking up the rifle that had fallen.

Just then, he saw a figure three meters tall step through the gray-green smoke.

It had a humanoid form, yet was far removed from the image of a man, its body covered in rotting folds like a “bog slime” from the swamps.

Its form was marked with holes oozing dark red blood—wounds left by mass rounds.

What was terrifying was that within those holes, things like twisted earthworms writhed, intertwining at a visible pace, stitching the wounds shut as if treated with a nanite healing stim.

A flicker of shock passed through the Alpha’s pupils, but only a flicker.

He quickly drew the short-barreled grenade launcher hanging from his gear and fired a incendiary grenade.

Yet the monster’s speed exceeded his imagination; with a casual flick of its arm, it batted away the grenade trailing white smoke.

Flames erupted deep within the cave mouth, along with bursts of white smoke studded with sparks.

As the fire illuminated the cavern, the shock in the Alpha’s eyes gradually turned to despair.

There were nearly fifty monsters like this one!

“…What do you think of the name ‘Plague Champion’? I’m really not good at naming my creations.”

Looking down at the soldier backing away, the lead monster wore a chilling grin.

Staring at the gun aimed at him, a sense of boredom arose within it.

These incomplete “counterfeits” couldn’t even beg for mercy, as pitiful as slugs in a swamp.

It raised its right arm and slammed it down hard; with a wet thud, the blunt keratin blade split the silent figure in two from the middle.

The “stench of decay” indeed came from this one’s belly.

Parting the chest, it even saw the twisted “larvae.”

But even though those little things had tried their best, they couldn’t repair such a fatal wound.

Indeed.

The human body was still too weak.

Flicking off the guts and blood clinging to its blade, it turned to look at the ravenous plague champions and roared in a low voice.

“Kill them all!”

The wolfish plague champions erupted with hungry howls, charging out of the cave mouth, unveiling the bloody slaughter.

“Oooh!”

The Alpha task force that had already penetrated deep into Blood Mountain’s heartlands was immediately plunged into a fierce battle.

Meanwhile, in the spacious palace, the chosen prophet Sodo saw hope of victory, puffing out his toad-like cheeks and bellowing encouragement to the rekindled plague monks.

“Chop those human things to pieces—!”

“Throw them all into the pot! Boil them into soup!”

…

The gunfire was not confined to Blood Mountain’s caves and the Wei Mansion military base; on Broken Blade Mountain’s front lines, flashes of fire and billowing smoke also erupted.

Almost at the same moment the gray mist rose, the mutant brutes and goblins hidden deep in the tunnels surged out like a signal, launching a fierce assault on the coalition’s positions.

Stationed here were the 1st Regiment of the Corporation’s 100th Mechanized Mountain Division, along with a few Legion officers and Alliance players.

The sudden outbreak of battle caught the greenhorn soldiers on their first front line off guard.

Springwater Commander had expected these “Tzeentch-corrupted” rookies to be badly beaten, but their performance in battle exceeded his expectations.

Superior exoskeletons and rifles ensured their baseline combat effectiveness, while diverse cybernetic implants greatly enhanced their battlefield survivability.

Though they showed severe tactical inexperience, even seasoned veterans might not necessarily defeat rookies with auto-aim lock-on.

At least these “high-cost” soldiers performed not much worse than the cheap mercenaries.

The remnants of the Axeclan tribe, like waves crashing on the shore, soon suffered heavy casualties.

Apart from the mutants that wouldn't die even with their heads blown off, causing no small trouble for the greenhorns, the rest of the big green brutes and goblins were all shot dead in the rocky caverns.

The firefight on Broken Blade Mountain ended quickly. The commander of the First Regiment tallied the casualties: only twenty dead, thirty-nine wounded, and nearly a thousand mutants annihilated.

As for the players, since most of those lingering on the battlefield to watch were veterans, there were no casualties.

With the last remnants of the Rock Axe tribe wiped out, the final pus squeezed from the crevices of Broken Blade Mountain was expelled.

Yet the pervasive gray fog showed no sign of dissipating.

From the front lines to the rear, continuous gunfire still rang out, especially from the Wei Mansion military base, which was particularly worrisome.

Wiping the blood off his entrenching tool, Edge Loafing walked up to Spring Commander, his expression grave.

"...Alpha can't hold out much longer. The Administrator wants us to go help them. Could you trouble yourselves to head back to the Wei Mansion military base and take a look?"

"We've already received the order to fall back. The Administrator has set up a rally beacon at the Wei Mansion military base... Besides our Storm Corps, there's also Brother Mole's Skeleton Corps."

Tapping twice on the VM screen, Spring Commander looked at the map, a hint of admiration creeping into his brow despite himself.

"...So that's how you play this 'environment card.' Those guys do have some tricks."

Even though they were a bunch of anti-human madmen, he couldn't help but admit it was a well-played move.

If he had been dealt that card, he doubted he could have come up with a better strategy.

Maybe their card master, Brother Guang, could have thought of it.

From some details, it was clear their Administrator had some skill at playing cards.

For instance, ordering those two airships to immediately withdraw from the fog zone was the most correct decision.

On the surface, the gray fog couldn't even stick to the airships, but who knew what else was hidden in that fog?

"Are you starting to play cards too?" Edge Loafing asked, half amused and half exasperated.

Spring Commander chuckled.

"No, I'm just using a common analogy to explain. At first, I thought they were playing at scorched earth, but it turns out scorched earth was just a decoy—they had another trick hidden under our feet."

He paused, then continued.

"Barring any surprises, the main event should be tonight. If they've already decided to play this card, it shouldn't just be to cause us a little trouble. They must know that alone won't beat us."

Edge Loafing's expression grew serious.

"Is everything okay on your end?"

"Our end? Are you kidding?" Spring Commander laughed heartily, a teasing tone in his voice. "We weren't afraid of anyone when we didn't have a single airship, and now we've got two whole ones in our hands."

"Two starships right in their face—tell me how we could lose?"

...

While the Death Corps and the Storm Corps were assembling toward Blood Mountain and the Wei Mansion Wastelands respectively, the chaos at the Wei Mansion military base was gradually winding down.

Near the Imperial camp.

General Babita was hiding under a table, his body trembling uncontrollably.

Only when the gunfire outside subsided a little did he crawl out, shaking with fear.

"Damn it... where did these things come from?!"

Staring at the mess outside, his face was etched with terror.

Especially when he saw the Alliance's Chimera armored vehicles mowing down the Glory Army's clones, the panic on his face was beyond words.

Were the Legion and the Alliance fighting?!

But...

Why now?

His brain couldn't process such complex information, or rather, he was completely out of sync with most people here.

Especially when he saw the Vlandians also exchanging fire with those clones, his mind nearly short-circuited, and for a moment he couldn't decide whom to help.

Crazy...

Everyone's gone mad!

This wasteland is definitely messed up!

Joining the Conclave had been a mistake from the start. If Duke Garava hadn't gone that extra hundred kilometers east, none of this would have happened!

They should never have contacted other survivor factions in the wasteland. Selling cattle and slaves had been fine.

Without that series of accidents and mishaps, the Province of Brahma would still be that peaceful haven, and he would be enjoying his estate right now.

But this wasn't the time for regrets. Matters of such importance weren't for a general like him to decide.

Finally calming down, he turned and shouted at his adjutant, who was also hiding under the table.

"Where are our troops? Get them assembled immediately!"

The adjutant's face was twisted in agony, and he wailed, "S-sir, our troops are all scattered outside. Only your personal guards are in the base."

General Babita immediately roared in a panic, "Then what are you waiting for? Call them together!"

"Y-yes, sir!"

Even though he was utterly unwilling, the adjutant had no choice but to steel himself and run out the door.

The one in charge of farming was Centurion Markur—if only he could find that guy!

Watching the adjutant leave, Babita paced back and forth in the barracks, his mind racing.

Just then, a Vlandian officer, accompanied by two soldiers, strode through the door and barged in.

Seeing that prominent nose, Babita wiped the anger from his face and quickly put on a smile as he stepped forward.

"Friend, what exactly is happening outside? Why are you shooting at those clones—"

"What's happening? Can't you see with your own eyes?"

The Vlandian officer cursed darkly, then continued shouting, "Immediately muster your men—we need to know how many have been infected! This is an order from the coalition commander! If you have a problem, go complain to that Chu Guang!"

General Babita was taken aback.

"Infected?"

"That's right. Breathe in too much of that fog outside, and you turn into one of those freaks," the officer said, jerking his chin toward the executed clones outside the window. Seeing Babita's face grow pale, he couldn't help sneering, "Scared? Then hurry home to your mommy. Be good—this place isn't for the likes of you."

Typical of those led by civilian officials—a bunch of spineless wretches.

Though General Modlin had told them to be a bit more courteous to these people, ever since he discovered they actually preferred being looked down on with a haughty sneer, he couldn't be bothered with fake politeness anymore.

Watching the Vlandian officer turn and leave, Babita's face grew even paler.

He was indeed afraid.

If not for the Emperor's orders, he would have jumped on a train and fled this place of trouble immediately.

After what seemed like an eternity, his adjutant came crawling back, his face full of terror.

"Sir..."

General Babita raised an eyebrow and glared at the man, demanding.

"What is it? Speak properly!"

Facing his superior's interrogation, the adjutant said with a mournful face.

"Commander Macur is dead! Those... those rats have rebelled!"

Babita's heart skipped a beat, his eyes wide.

"Rebelled?! Those rats? How dare they!"

These useless, bungling wastes!

He had fed and housed them well, even kept them from eating dirt, and this was how they repaid his kindness?

Truly the lower class, a disgrace to the Empire!

"No, I don't know... I only heard it's related to that fog, the Torch's biochemical weapon. They inhaled too much of that fog and all turned into man-eating monsters."

The adjutant, pale-faced and trembling, spoke, while Babita grew more horrified with each word.

Remembering what the Vellant had said earlier, he suddenly felt his own throat ache.

Could this be the onset of poisoning?

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, he couldn't bear to stay a moment longer. He stepped toward the door, but then thought of the man-eating rats outside the military base and stopped.

His mind raced.

Perhaps out of desperation, he actually came up with a plan to save himself. He quickly grabbed the adjutant and asked.

"...Where is the Allied Marshal? The Administrator of the Alliance!"

The adjutant was taken aback.

"In the field research institute at the corner of the camp... Sir, shouldn't we seek out the Vellant?"

Babita replied almost without hesitation.

"Those fellows are reliable only when it suits them, but not when it truly matters."

...

Dusk slowly sank into the boundless valley, night devouring the bloodstained wilderness.

Echoing through the sky were piercing howls, like the devil's mockery of the mortal world.

A humanoid giant, about three meters tall, undulated through the air, its powerful wings flapping behind it.

By human aesthetic standards, its features were hideous, with fangs longer than its chin hanging from its mouth.

Its name was Kubo, one of the apostles in the diocese of the "Beast King."

Clad on him was a biological power armor developed by the Torch Church.

And there were over a hundred such "beings" wearing the same equipment, floating in the nearby airspace!

Beyond them, tens of thousands of bat-winged humans followed.

These were mutant infants, synthesized in special culture vats. Through the psychic interference module of the biological power armor, commands could be issued to them.

Even without commands, it didn't matter—if thrown into enemy territory, they would hunt and feed by instinct, causing massive trouble for Torch's foes.

The relevant technology had been tested in the Jinhe City diocese; they had enough seedbeds and organic matter to breed these things.

Even the largest-caliber artillery couldn't stem the tide spreading like a flood.

"...Our electronic warfare with the Alliance has begun, but it's not our forte. It's only a matter of time before their radar burns through ours."

Hearing his companion's voice in his ear, Kubo's face twisted into a cruel smile.

"No matter! It's enough."

Their target was never the two retreating airships; from the start, they aimed at the Weifu Military Base.

There, not only was the Allied command stationed, but also biological experts from the Alliance and the Corporation.

Especially the latter—their strategic threat to Torch far exceeded that of the two airships.

To lure those people to the front lines, they had spared no expense, releasing ample research materials and feeding them to the Alliance bit by bit through three positions.

He knew well how attractive those materials were to researchers.

Given the Alliance's unstoppable advance at the front, some overly eager researchers would surely be drawn in to get firsthand data quickly.

Now the time was ripe; it was time to close the net.

"...Remember your targets: kill all combatants and non-combatants in the military base to the fullest! Don't bother distinguishing their identities unless they surrender and beg for mercy, confessing who they are!"

"Now! Charge with me!"

Letting out an excited roar, Kubo led the dive toward the ground.

Led by the hundred apostles in biological power armor, the tens of thousands of bat-winged humans scattered in the nearby airspace surged toward the military base at once.

The once-quiet gray mist boiled like water coming to a rolling boil.

As if receiving the order to attack, the zombie puppets controlled by the Nago mycelium, one and all, charged toward the Weifu Military Base as if drugged.

Earlier, they moved driven by instinct and guided by spores; now, they heard the call of heaven—or rather, the signal from the psychic interference device.

The hundred biological power armors carrying psychic interference modules were the source of that signal.

Watching the tide of "Devourers" surging in, many soldiers of the Southern Construction Corps, who had served in penal battalions, wore expressions of shock.

A soldier, once a gangster from the slums of Boulder City, couldn't help but scream.

"Damn! Is this a 'Wave'?!"

Wasn't the Wave something only in Clear Springs?

How, after the Wave in Clear Springs ended, did it pop up elsewhere?!

Only a roar from behind snapped him out of his stupor.

"Fire! Open fire, all of you! Are your weapons just for show?!"

Heavy machine guns spat long tongues of flame, orange tracer rounds whistling through the thick gray mist, dancing with flickering lights across the plain.

Not just machine guns—

Artillery positions within the base and the Bison walkers also unleashed ferocious firepower, blooming dazzling sparks across the wilderness.

Fruiting bodies were crushed to the ground, but soon new ones crawled out of the earth.

These weren't temporary syntheses.

They were "fruits" completed long ago, buried deep beneath the soil alongside the "Heaven."

The exchange of fire around the Weifu Military Base had escalated from sporadic gunshots to a white-hot intensity.

At the same time, the radar on the two airships and the base's radar station simultaneously detected threats approaching from the sky.

Finally receiving the order to sortie, one by one, Cloud-Dragonfly ornithopters began vibrating their wings, leaving the tarmac with their compact fuselages, charging into the fog-shrouded sky.

The armored forces of the Skeleton Corps were crossing the wilderness near Mafu Town.

120 Chimera armored vehicles and 24 Panzer II tanks separated from their transport trucks, forming an attack formation on the boundless plain, charging with rolling dust toward the endless gray-green smoke haze.

The Death Corps rushing to reinforce the Blood Mountain front also completed their assembly, advancing against the Plague Champions leading the Plague Monks.

The tottering twilight finally vanished, and night completely enveloped the war-torn wilderness and mountains...

All cards had been revealed, and all chips pushed onto the table.

Without the slightest omen, yet everyone knew in their hearts that the decisive battle for the fate of this land had silently begun.

Tonight is destined to be a sleepless night!