Lin Xiyue, Su Wan, and Xia Lian stood at the very front of the new defense line.
Their mission was to ensure the Captain's safety.
A task that had sounded perfectly normal not long ago.
But now, looking at the vitrified death zone ahead of the canyon, the same absurd thought rose in all three of their minds: Did that silver-steel god of slaughter really need protecting?
On the other side of The Bottleneck, the remaining Insect Tide surged in invisible panic.
With over 200,000 insects, this was still a number that would make any Commander feel suffocated.
But Sam's strike had caused far more than just a physical clearing of the field.
It had severed the Swarm's chain of command.
The more than 200,000 insects at the vanguard had vanished in an instant. For a Swarm that relied on pheromones and mental links for command, this was no different from a central nerve being instantly severed.
Chaotic orders frantically crossed, overlapped, and contradicted each other within the Insect Tide.
The originally despair-inducing, unified attack rhythm completely collapsed.
No. 055 accurately seized this golden tactical window.
Seven heavy enchanted crossbow cannons, just dragged into position, completed their final calibration on the new defense line.
Their menacing muzzles were all aimed at the bottleneck opening ahead, which was only 170 meters wide.
What did this width mean?
It meant that no matter how many insects there were, only a small group could squeeze through at a time.
It meant the engagement area had been drastically reduced by two-thirds.
The once open battlefront had been compressed into the entrance of a hellish meat grinder.
And behind the entrance were three layers of deep defensive positions and the crossfire of the seven crossbow cannons.
"The Bottleneck is secured."
No. 055's voice returned to its usual calm.
"Defense line strength assessment... 87.6%."
"Estimated duration... "
It paused for 0.2 seconds, its core module flashing blue as it seemed to perform a final calculation.
"One month."
When these three words were spoken by an absolutely rational war machine, their weight was completely different.
If a human said this, it might be a boast to boost morale.
But when a machine said it, it meant that this was the only precise conclusion reached after 47 million simulations running in its core module.
In the new defensive zone, Hao Chi leaned against the cold rock wall, his legs giving way as he slid down to sit.
His brain refused to think, with only one thought echoing repeatedly.
One person.
One attack.
Turned the tide of the entire war.
He recalled the despair he had experienced here over the past two days.
The endless sea of insects, the crumbling defense line, and a tin-can commander who could only calculate casualty numbers.
He had repaired the crossbow cannon and nearly died at the blade of an Insect Guard.
All his struggles, efforts, and desperate fights seemed insignificant, even somewhat ridiculous, in the face of the massive battle situation.
Then, a pink-haired Priest walked in.
She took out a medal and obtained the highest authority.
She transformed into a Mecha and, with a single strike, leveled a kilometer.
Hao Chi suddenly understood something.
It wasn't that the people from Tianshu University were crazy.
It was that the difference in their levels was truly too vast.
The ceiling he had reached with all his might was actually just their floor.
"...I give up."
He muttered to the empty air.
He took off his cracked goggles and tossed them carelessly at his feet.
-
Meanwhile, deep within the Insect Tide on the other side of the Bottleneck.
A terrifying change was taking place.
The silver Mecha, "Sam," hovered in the air before the Bottleneck, its wings of flame slowly flapping, the scorching air currents distorting the space behind it.
Its electronic eyes calmly watched the Mantisfolk in the latter half of the canyon, who had already been thrown into total chaos.
On the Mecha's tactical interface, lines of green data flowed past.
[Target area cleared: 100%]
[Remaining enemy units: Approximately 212,239 (behind the Bottleneck)]
[Allied Forces have occupied the designated defensive zone, defense posture is being established...]
Up to this point, everything was perfect.
Then, an alarm tore through this perfection.
It wasn't a mere notification.
The entire tactical interface was forcibly switched, all data vanishing instantly, leaving only a shocking crimson red.
[WARNING: Over-spec energy reaction detected!]
[Target Type: Swarm Broodmother (No. 1)]
[Threat Level: City-Extinguishing]
[Current Status: Has broken free from the Celestial God's restraint, entered Berserk Mode]
[Heading: Current Location]
[Estimated Contact Time: 47 seconds]
"Sam's" pair of ghostly green electronic eyes snapped upward, gazing at the sky deep within the canyon.
In the distance.
Very far away.
A black dot was rapidly expanding at a speed that defied the laws of physics.
Broodmother No. 1.
The largest of the three Broodmothers.
If ordinary Mantisfolk were sedans and Elite Insect Guards were heavy trucks, then this Broodmother was a skyscraper flying at high speed.
A living, killing skyscraper, covered in bone blades and bristling with hideous mouthparts, its entire body a deep purple!
Six massive, cicada-wing-thin membranes vibrated at a frequency the naked eye couldn't capture, sonic booms exploding in the sky in visible rings of white vapor.
Behind it, an Imperial Guard of over a thousand followed like shadows.
These were all the highest-tier Elite Insect Guards, their formation tight, resembling a reaper's honor guard.
But they were completely different from the Insect Guards Lin Qingyue had slain before.
Each one was more than three times larger, their carapace surfaces covered in a strange, dark red metallic luster.
That was a terrifying resistance layer, passively "tempered" by fighting under the White Tiger Celestial God's Metal Qi for a long time.
Their bladed arms were longer and sharper, their edges flashing with a true metallic chill, a semi-metallic biological mutation caused by the erosion of Metal Divine Power.
They were the elite among the elite, the butchers among the butchers.
The Broodmother's countless compound eyes, at this moment, locked onto "Sam" in midair from a vast distance.
It was analyzing.
After fighting the White Tiger Celestial God for so long, how many tens of millions of its children had fallen?
A mere two hundred thousand was but a drizzle, not even worthy of a moment's grief.
But the instantaneous battlefield-clearing capability displayed by this silver mecha had already created a "variable."
A variable sufficient to tip the scales of victory.
In its calculations, if it personally intervened, it estimated it could dismantle this newly appeared "toy" into pieces within three minutes.
Once this totem, which had just ignited the Allied Forces' hope, was destroyed, their morale would instantly collapse.
This was an extremely profitable trade.
Punishment of the Seven Sins: [Pride]!
It did not place this mecha on equal footing with itself at all; it simply regarded it as a troublesome, high-grade turret that needed to be cleared out as a priority.
It suddenly opened its terrifying mouth, large enough to swallow a battleship.
A piercing shriek.
It tore through the entire canyon.
That was not an insect's buzz, but a composite destructive roar blending ultrasonic waves with a psychic shock.
As the sonic wave swept across, the Allied Forces soldiers who had just taken their positions on the new defensive line stumbled and fell in entire ranks. They covered their ears, crimson blood slowly seeping from the gaps between their fingers and their nostrils.
Above the Nine Heavens, the White Tiger Phantom's eyes, shining like golden suns, narrowed slightly.
Within those massive golden pupils, a flash of astonishment first flickered.
"Wait, it turned its head? Facing this Celestial God, it actually dares to be distracted?"
Immediately after, that astonishment was replaced by a peculiar, sparkling glint known as "watching the drama unfold."
As Broodmother No. 1 broke away from the battle circle, the pressure He felt plummeted, allowing Him to even spare more energy to toy with the remaining two Broodmothers.
The consumption rate of Metal Qi dropped significantly, and the initiative in the battle had already returned to His hands.
"Hmm... This is a variable, yet also a destiny. The Heavenly Order turns, and it has its own logic."
He feigned profound contemplation with a single remark.
"I shall quietly observe the changes to judge right from wrong."
His gaze, once again and with great interest, fell upon the lone silver mecha below.
If Lin Qingyue could interpret that look, it could probably be translated into a line of egging someone on:
"Fight! Fight! Hurry up and let this Celestial God see just how much skill you have, you tin can!"