(T/N): Okay guys now im just tempted to put out a bunch of chapters because theres some parts that got me jumping around in my seat and I wanna share it with you all (╥﹏╥)
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Gepard hurried through the oppressive city, heading straight for the Iron Guard barracks.
Before he even got close, a strong smell of blood assailed his nostrils.
The gates of the garrison camp were wide open, and the sight before him made the Iron Guard Warden's steps falter.
Several Silvermane Guards soldiers slumped on the cold ground, their sturdy armor covered in hideous cracks and claw marks, some parts of the metal even fused with their flesh.
They gasped for air, exhaling not white mist, but a turbid, scorching gas.
"Guard Captain Gepard!"
A young soldier saw him and struggled to stand, attempting to give a standard military salute, but his trembling body nearly made him fall again.
Gepard quickly stepped forward to support him, his voice low and firm: "Rest first…"
He stepped over the wounded soldiers and pushed open the door to the military command center.
The scene inside was like hell.
Medics moved through the wails of pain, the air thick with the smell of blood that even disinfectant couldn't mask.
Severed fragmentum creature limbs and… shattered Silvermane Guards emblems were scattered everywhere on the ground.
"What's the situation now?!" Gepard's voice, like frozen ice, struck an intelligence officer who was organizing battle reports.
The intelligence officer's face was pale, and he rushed to stand before him, his voice trembling.
"Reporting, Warden! The northern defense line… suddenly saw several times the estimated number of fragmentum creatures, we… we were caught off guard!"
"A large number of soldiers are trapped in the northern district, currently… currently…"
"Speak!" Gepard's command was unyielding, his gaze sharp as a knife.
The intelligence officer swallowed: "Officer Dunn… he took a squad of soldiers to rescue them…"
"Nonsense!"
Gepard's roar drowned out all the noise in the camp.
He clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging deep into his palms, forcing himself to calm down.
He was the Warden of the Silvermane Guards.
He could not fall.
If he fell, the morale of the army would completely collapse.
Gepard took a deep breath, the bloody air restoring his reason.
"My orders! Medical teams, do your best to treat the wounded. Soldiers who can still move, retreat the defense line by a hundred meters and redeploy!
All veterans with two years or more of service, assemble immediately! Follow me to the northern district!"
"Yes, Guard Captain Gepard!"
With the order given, Gepard looked back at the area behind the barracks.
There, Belobog was brightly lit.
The last bastion of civilization.
If this place fell, those lights would be extinguished forever… After preparations were complete, Gepard led an elite force of over a hundred men, charging towards the blockade leading to the northern district.
It was a huge steel gate, but now it glowed with an eerie dark red, like a branding iron thrown into a furnace.
Everyone, without exception, felt a scorching heat washing over them!
That heatwave even distorted the snowstorm!
How could this planet have such a temperature?
What kind of tragic battle had taken place behind the gate?
Gepard took a deep breath, the scorching air filling his lungs as if to ignite his internal organs.
He raised his hand, signaling the soldiers to open the gate.
"Let's go!"
"We depart!"
—
Gepard's military boots trod on the scorched earth of the northern defense line.
Instead of the muffled crunch of snow, there was a grating, teeth-aching "creak" underfoot.
In the air, the biting cold wind and an eerie scorching heat wildly intertwined, forming visible distorted currents.
The strong smell of blood, ozone, and the acrid scent of molten metal mixed into a nauseating stench that drilled into his nostrils.
Immediately after, a hellish scene slowly unfolded before his eyes.
But this hell seemed to be reserved only for fragmentum creatures.
The accumulated snow had long melted, forming turbid black streams that washed over the gruesome remains scattered everywhere.
Countless fragmentum creatures were severed at the waist, their cuts smooth as mirrors, as if instantly sliced by some invisible divine punishment.
Gepard led his soldiers, advancing cautiously into the depths of this desolate ruin.
Finally, behind the wreckage of a collapsed building, they found the first group of survivors.
The survivors had no fatal injuries.
However… everyone lay neatly on the ground, their eyes vacant.
A soldier who was still conscious looked at Gepard.
He trembled violently, his teeth chattering uncontrollably, making a "clattering" sound, "Gepard… Warden…"
He used his last ounce of strength and said, "Black robe… mask… he… he was smiling… he kept smiling…"
Before he finished speaking, the soldier's eyes rolled back, and he completely fainted.
Gepard's heart sank heavily.
He thought of March 7th's seemingly joking description, and Dan Heng's hesitant solemnity.
That black-robed man… an existence that could make battle-hardened Iron Guard soldiers mentally collapse just by recalling his smile.
Was he friend or foe?
No, could such an existence truly be defined by simple terms like "friend or foe"?
"Leave the medics to treat the wounded!"
Gepard forcefully suppressed the confusion in his heart, giving the order in his coldest, hardest voice.
"The rest of you, follow me and continue forward!"
The deeper they went, the more horrifying the scene became.
From fragments of small fragmentum creatures to the corpses of massive, mountain-like constructs later on, without exception, all were instantly annihilated by an absolute power beyond comprehension.
This was not a battle.
This was a purge.
The subsequent groups of soldiers rescued were in the same state as the first.
Their lives were safe, but their minds seemed to have been branded with an indelible trauma, only repeatedly muttering meaningless words like "mask," "black light," and "laughter."
As they delved deeper, the eerie scorching sensation gradually faded, and the biting cold wind reclaimed their dominance.
The snowstorm also grew larger and larger… Finally, behind a shelter completely frozen by ice, Gepard found Dunn and the squad he led.
Dunn, this veteran known for his composure and bravery among the Iron Guard, now had no trace of calm on his face.
His face only showed the helplessness and fear of a mortal facing a natural disaster.
Gepard knew very well that Dunn was not afraid of death.
He was merely using his flesh and blood to shield the trembling soldiers behind him from the all-consuming… unknown.
"What… exactly happened ahead?" Gepard asked in a deep voice, recounting all the terrifying sights he had witnessed along the way.
Dunn, however, shook his head, his voice hoarse, "I don't know. We took another path and didn't see any of the bodies you mentioned."
"We only know that just now, all the fragmentum creatures ahead… like they went mad, all turned around and charged towards us!"
Dunn swallowed a mouthful of cold saliva, adding:
"They weren't attacking. They… seemed to be fleeing for their lives."
Whoosh—
Without warning, the wind stopped.
The raging blizzard, as if paused, countless snowflakes hung eerily in mid-air.
Dead silence.
An absolute dead silence that could make one's heart stop beating.
The next moment, countless points of ghostly blue and crimson light suddenly illuminated behind the static curtain of snow.
The sky, the ground, all directions… densely packed fragmentum creatures, like phantoms seeping from the void, surrounded them.
The sky was obscured by wings, casting a shadow of despair.
On the ground, two colossal figures slowly approached.
One was covered in ghostly blue ice crystals, each breath causing the surrounding air to freeze into frost; that was the [Ice of the Outer-Verse].
The other was wreathed in dark red flames, each step leaving molten imprints on the ground; that was the [Flame of the Outer-Verse].
Behind them were tens of thousands of fragmentum constructs, their numbers more than a hundred times that of the Silvermane Guards!
Gepard's pupils instantly contracted to pinpricks.
"How is this possible… Why would a fragmentum tide of this scale suddenly erupt?!"
Dunn's voice trembled: "I only know one possibility… that could make them gather like this, without regard for the cost…"
"That is, behind them, an apex predator has appeared… one that makes their entire species tremble!"
Before he finished speaking, the beast tide launched their full assault!
Energy beams, ice shards, fireballs… raining down, like a doomsday catastrophe, pouring down!
"All units, prepare! Counterattack!"
Gepard let out a thunderous roar, immediately activating the Field Barrier that he had used to protect Belobog countless times.
The invisible barrier, like the Wall of the Architects, resisted the destructive attacks.
However.
In the face of such overwhelming numbers, human strength was as insignificant as an ant.
Endless attacks, like raging waves, crashed madly upon the Field, creating ripples of destruction.
Screams instantly erupted, and the outermost soldiers were torn to shreds by the energy torrent in the first wave of impact.
Gepard gritted his teeth, pouring all his strength into his defense.
Serval, Lynx, the glory of the Landau family… scenes flashed through his mind.
Watching the soldiers around him fall one by one, a tragic determination flashed in his eyes.
"Dunn!" Gepard roared with all his might, "Take everyone and retreat! I'll cover the rear!"
"But!"
"This is a military order! Soldiers… only obey!"
Gepard infused all his power into the Field, and the invisible barrier suddenly expanded outwards, forcefully tearing open a narrow path through the beast tide.
"Take care of…"
His last words were almost inaudible.
"…my sister!"
With that, he pushed the power of the Field to their limit.
Gepard forcefully held on until the last guard retreated behind a steel gate.
Finally, the light shield let out a crisp, mournful whine, and with a "crack," it completely shattered.
He knelt on the ground, exhausted, a bitter smile on his face.
It was over.
No! Not yet!
Gepard tremblingly raised his Field weapon, "Just… hold on for one more second!"
But the next moment.
The entire battlefield once again fell into that eerie dead silence.
The frenzied fragmentum constructs all stopped moving.
They… were trembling.
They… were afraid.
Gepard struggled to lift his head and witnessed the most absurd and shocking scene of his life.
A maniacal laugh, not coming from any direction, but seeming to echo directly in the deepest part of every creature's mind.
The laughter was not loud, but it carried a strange penetrative power, overriding the sound of the wind, heartbeats, and even the fear in the depths of their souls, making everything else their background sound.
"Hehehehe… hehehehe…"
[Current Emotion: Extremely Maniacal]
The laughter made the bodies of the fragmentum creatures tremble.
A black figure, at some unknown point, had quietly appeared at the very rear of the beast tide.
He slowly raised his head.
The golden mask reflected an eerie light under the dim sky.
Gepard's pupils contracted violently, his mind a blank.
Black robe? Mask?
The laughter that made soldiers mentally collapse?
The missing companion the Astral Express crew was looking for?
The "apex predator" that monsters feared!
All the clues, at this moment, twisted together into a fact he could not comprehend.
"Scum of the fragmentum…"
The figure spoke, with a hint of madness, "What… exactly are you afraid of…?"
He gripped a black greatsword in his hand, and the laughter beneath the golden mask grew more maniacal, more joyful.
"This good show… has only just begun… hehehehe…"