A surprise, a surprise that had been crawling in the depths of the dark earth for a whole year, was emerging from the rocks and soil at the border of the Dark Forest and the Belt Plain like a natural disaster, appearing in the eyes of the army of mutants that swarmed out of the wasteland.
The earth rumbled as the entire southern border of the Gloom Mountains trembled. Deep in the dark soil, in a structure that humans could not perceive, the huge plant structure that spread all the way from the Solin Plain had already drilled out countless astonishing tunnels and holes. These things, which were not known whether they were roots or vines, gnawed at the soil and stones along the way and absorbed additional energy from the biomass conversion plants and storage tanks along the way. They had been growing over the past few months, accumulating strength for today's breakthrough. And now, the time to break out of the soil and embrace the sun had finally arrived. The 'distant branches' of the Solin tree began to wantonly extend their structure on the earth.
Thorny vines and wooden spikes tore the earth apart. From the southern base of Cecil's advance to the Gloom Pass at the border of Typhon and Cecil, countless plant structures were swarming out of the cracks and holes at a crazy speed. The huge 'roots' that gushed out were chilling. From afar, it looked like the earth had sprouted innumerable wild tentacles in an instant. Under the dim light, they stretched and swayed wildly in the air like seaweed, blocking all the exits to the Gloom Mountains in the blink of an eye.
The mutant army at the front sent back the last scene they saw before they died. The terrible scene was deeply imprinted in the eyes of the Dark Druil, Betheim. He saw the dark green or dark brown tentacles burrowing out of the ground and sweeping at the mutants and other mutated creatures nearby like predators. The vines pierced the flesh of the monsters, rolled up their bodies, and the massive force could even blow the weaker creatures into a pile of rotten meat. The vines wrapped around the mutants and the flesh of the behemoths and dragged them one after another into a large number of giant mouths that suddenly opened up on the surface. And in the deep dark crevices, Betheim saw countless squirming teeth, rolling and crushing muscles, and bubbling digestive fluid pools.
The entire underground of the belt plain … was a digestive organ as wide as hundreds of kilometers. It was a hungry, toothed stomach based on the underground karst cave and the huge biological structure. This massive digestive system had been starving for a long time, and now … the death of all things in the wasteland would send a huge amount of food to this hungry, squirming stomach.
Soon, this food would be transformed into a new source of biomass for the green forest barrier, a new limb of the crazily gushing "sea of plants"!
A chill that he had forgotten for hundreds of years finally surged out from the depths of his limbs and bones. Betheim felt that every inch of his bark and every branch was shaking in the cold wind. In the images sent back by the last few mutants, he saw that the roots gushing out from the ground were rapidly hardening and transforming. Their structures facing the sky quickly became the appearance of towering trees. These giant trees not only became the green barrier that protected the mortal world, but they also spread their green leaves to greedily absorb the sunlight, and their roots continued to replicate and spread outwards, making the defense line more stable.
But what was more frightening than this scene was the voice that was linked to his mind!
Ever since the mutant army came into contact with the green forest barrier, it was a vaguely familiar but particularly chilling female voice that had been transmitted into his mind through some kind of neural link!
"You are afraid. I can smell your fear, Betheim … Interesting. I have 'worked together' with you for hundreds of years. For hundreds of years, I have always regarded you and your deformed brethren as honorable comrades who were willing to sacrifice for a great cause. You said that you were fearless in the wasteland, that the survival of the world was your most noble pursuit … But now you are commanding a frenzied and dirty army to attack us, and after a little setback, you are trembling in fear … Betheim, am I that scary?"
The voice continued to transmit into his mind through the nerve nodes that spread deep underground and on the battlefield. The Dark Druil shook his branches and desperately urged the guards beside him to escort him as far as possible into the depths of the wasteland. At the same time, he roared angrily in his mind, "Bertilla! You freak that is even more deformed than us! You are even more disgusting than the mutants! You stand in the camp of those lowly creatures, you gnaw on the earth to build a barrier for them, but you are still a freak. There is no place for you in that so-called 'civilized country'! You are … a traitor among the posthumans! "
"I need to correct you, Betheim." Bertilla's voice continued to pierce into the dark priest's nervous system like a sharp awl. There seemed to be great sarcasm in her calm narration. "These so-called inferior creatures in your eyes have defeated the mad god in a head-on confrontation and ended the famine that spread across the Plains of the Sacred Spirits in two years. They have made an alliance with the Giant Dragon, reconciled with the gods, and deciphered the truth of the entire universe in the divine kingdom. I am afraid that no one in this world has the right to call them 'inferior creatures'. As for you worrying about my place in the civilized country … I am afraid that I will have to disappoint you. I have new friends everywhere here. A race that even dares to kill the gods, their knowledge is not as shallow as you think …"
Another tremor came from the depths of the earth as a thunderous rumble sounded near the extinguished Great Wall in the distance. Another forest of living creatures rose from the depths of the earth as the swaying tentacles and vines devoured all the aberrations and wasteland monsters that they could come into contact with. Then, they began to transform on the spot, forming layer after layer of protection. Beside the rapidly forming 'forest', another deafening roar began to rumble.
It was the main cannon of the 'Winter General' roaring. As the human defense line stabilized, the terrifying steel fortress had begun to fire shells in the direction of the Gondor wasteland again. The powerful shells it fired landed outside the 'hunting range' of the 'living forest barrier' and slaughtered all the monsters that were lucky enough to escape the forest's predation.
Half of the vanguard force of the legion had died in the continuous bombardment and the tumbling stomach acid of the living forest. Betheim's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw the shocking loss of life through the neural feedback.
"Bertilla!" He stopped in his fury and turned to glare at the living forest that stood at the edge of the Great Wall and had completely blocked the gap. He felt his heterogenous nervous system was boiling in anger. "In the end, you are just a mutant monster like us! Do you think you are a great savior? "
"There is no savior. All mortals are saving themselves. Brother Gwen told me that." The tingling in his nervous system struck again. Bertilla's voice pierced into Betheim's mind. "And the so-called monsters … my former colleague, sometimes only monsters … are the most suitable to fight against monsters. Cecil people have always advocated practicality …"
Betheim turned and left. Under the protection of the guards, he quickly moved deeper into the wasteland. He left half of his troops behind to attract Cecil's bombardment. After moving deeper into the wasteland, he finally felt his nervous system gradually began to recover. The constant tingling began to weaken.
Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief. While the living forest looked terrifying, its power could only be maintained in a fixed area like a plant. While the forest clearly had the ability to spread, its spreading speed was limited by the biomass reserves and its own structure. It could not run into the wasteland to pursue Hao Ren.
A strong enemy that could not move was not a strong enemy.
At this moment, Betheim was really relaxed. He even deliberately let himself relax. It was as if he wanted to use this method to temporarily let himself forget the horror of the living forest, forget the pain of the aberrations on the frontline, the pain of being torn apart by the teeth of the underground, the dissolving stomach of the living forest, and most importantly … forget the terrible failure of losing half of his vanguard troops.
He stopped in a low-lying area, surrounded by tall, jagged rocks that blocked the cold wind from the wasteland. He could still hear the faint sound of cannonballs hitting the ground and the chewing sound of the living forest. And in these sounds, which seemed to be the residual pain of the nervous system, he heard an intermittent, very faint whisper of an invisible voice.
"Run away … Go back to your nest … But we will eventually find you, Betheim … My distal limbs still lack a dessert. There is still a corner of my stomach left for you and Borken …"
…
In front of the communication bunker, Fendill was dumbfounded by the shocking changes on the battlefield. He looked in the direction of the Gloom Mountain Range and saw a lush forest standing in the wind. The forest was so lush that it was impossible to imagine that the land was a wasteland not long ago. In the dim shadows of the forest, there were still some wriggling roots and vines moving quickly. They smoothed the surrounding land and quickly transformed into the shrubs, flowers, and berry bushes in the forest.
Fendill recognized the berry bushes and shrubs. He had visited Thorin Castle before. In that land of miracles, similar berries and shrubs could be seen everywhere. They were important economic products of the local area.
The young Marquis of the Northern Region had already guessed a lot of things. He looked down at the green vines on the ground near the gate of the fortification and the flowers that had just bloomed on the ground. He could not help but whisper, "This is really … a big deal."
He could not figure out the complete plan of the emperor, but he could guess that this should be a trump card, and a trump card that was forced to be revealed in advance. The attack of the army of aberrations on the sentry tower was an unexpected situation, and the extinguishing of the Great Wall was not part of the plan. Therefore, the "living forest" that suddenly rose to block the gap was not meant to deal with this situation. This trump card should be used for something else, but now …
The extinguishing of the Great Wall forced Madam Bertilla, who was sneaking into the depths of the wasteland, to come out in advance and expose herself to the enemy in the form of a living forest.
Fendill shook his head and did not let his thoughts go deeper. This was not something he could think about now.
The excitement they had when they first joined the army had been cooled down by the reality. The vast, uncontrollable battlefield that was beyond the knowledge taught in school made the young people clearly realize that the real frontline of this era was different from what they had imagined.
At this moment, a buzzing sound came from inside the bunker, mixed with the rustling sound of signal interference.
Fendill and the signallers he led quickly looked at each other, turned around, and ran into the bunker.
The magic net terminal that had been urgently repaired was blaring intermittently. The voice from the frontline command center was broadcasting to all the soldiers on the defensive line.
The broadcast required the soldiers to take advantage of the short respite to quickly rest and reorganize, report the losses, transport the wounded, reorganize the troops, abandon the Great Wall that had been completely extinguished and could not be reactivated, and rely on the Greenwood Barrier that had just appeared to rebuild the defensive line.
Fendill was relieved that the general did not give the order to rashly counterattack and push into the wasteland in the midst of this sudden "victory."
The collapse of the mutant army was only a partial appearance. Hidden under this partial appearance was the possibility of the entire Great Wall going out of control, except for Cecil's defensive line. What was more … the living forest could not just run away like ordinary military units.
Stabilizing and reinforcing the defensive line was the top priority, and a victorious counterattack was the next thing to consider.
"Sir …" A soldier's voice came from the side, interrupting Fendill's thoughts. The soldier looked nervously at the "forest" that was swaying slightly in the wind not far away. He muttered cautiously, "This forest … is really our ally?"
"… The empire's army is changing with each passing day. Sometimes some unexpected friendly units will suddenly appear." Fendill did not know how to explain what he had speculated to the soldier. He could only force himself to say with a strange expression, "Wait until you get used to it. I have learned even stranger things in the officer school …"
"Yeah?" The soldier's mouth twitched, but he could not help but turn his head to look at the forest not far away. He muttered in a low voice, "That's a bit too strange …"
"Stop muttering, the orders have been given." Fendill shook his head helplessly and sighed. "Let's go back to the base first. I have a hunch that this is just the beginning."
…
The sudden emergence of the "living forest" near Sentry Tower 98 was not only seen by Cecil's people and the mutants.
Its scale was so large and its range so wide that it even affected the Tiphon people's defensive line.
On the eastern side of the Greenwood Barrier, at the top of a dangerous mountain ridge, Andesha Wendell, wearing a cloak, was standing in the cold wind. The corner of her eyes twitched as she looked at the "forest" that blocked the gap in the barrier.
"Cecil's people … what did they do this time?"
She suddenly felt that the changes in the world were a little incomprehensible.
(End of Chapter)
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