Free Web NovelAs the flames died down, the battlefield became a scorched, molten purgatory, the air thick with the stench of burning and the crackling of rolling debris.
Lingering embers still licked at dry branches and carapaces on the ground, and a few Worm-Eaten Household corpses seemed to still be wriggling, their limbs twitching slightly, as if they might suddenly spring up the next second.
Louis’s gaze swept over the scorched earth, his expression unwavering.
“Advance by sections, clear out the remaining enemies,” he said in a steady tone, with an undeniable chill, “Watch out for feigning death.
Flamethrowers first, burn them completely.”
“Yes!” The knights did not hesitate, quickly forming ranks.
The flamethrowers behind them hissed, spitting hot flames, their tongues of fire like dragons, as if cleansing the earth of plague.
The elite Worm-Eaten Household that had miraculously survived barely lifted their heads before being pinned in place by the lines of fire.
The sounds of scorching and roars mixed together as the front line advanced with a cold, almost ruthless efficiency.
This was a silent cleansing.
Lambert, his face covered in soot, rushed over, a faint smile on his lips: “My Lord! Only a few minor injuries, no fatalities!”
The moment those words landed, Eduardo almost thought he had misheard.
“.No fatalities?”
He suddenly looked at the straight back standing in front.
Flames danced on Louis’s shoulder armor, his profile as calm as if this were merely a drill.
“Very good,” Louis merely nodded slightly, his voice flat but with a sense of certainty, “Not for nothing.”
Eduardo’s breathing hitched.
Images of the rising Mother Nest flashed in his mind: the terrifying pericarp, the writhing nest columns gnawing at the earth, and the Worm-Eaten Household capable of crushing half an army...
These knights had faced the Mother Nest’s core firepower head-on in such a place!
Launching an attack in such a location, according to general casualty standards, an estimated half a percent casualties would be considered fortunate.
Yet, these knights not only charged in but also emerged completely unharmed.
Was it tactics? Was it training? Was it firearms? Was it that Magic Bomb? Or was it the presence of this young lord himself?
Eduardo slowly approached, his gaze sweeping over the knight formation clearing out the remaining enemies on the scorched earth.
Their movements were clean, their steps uniform, flamethrowers roaring as they scorched every remaining active Worm-Eaten Household, each tactical maneuver precise and requiring almost no explanation. freewebnovel.cσ๓
“As expected of your soldiers,” he said with a smile, unable to hide his admiration, “From their reaction speed to their seamless coordination, there’s almost nothing to fault.
Not to mention that device for firing Magic Bombs; I’d bet no one in the entire Imperial Legion possesses one. Did you design it yourself?”
“Yes, the principle isn’t complicated. I made some minor adjustments, adding range and accuracy,” Louis said nonchalantly, his tone as if discussing how to modify an old carriage.
Seeing that Louis didn’t want to talk much about that topic, Eduardo reined in his smile: “However, this Mother Nest is indeed different. This one is much stronger than the one we encountered # Nоvеlight # last time at Cold Cedar Ridge.”
Louis did not answer immediately.
He bent down and picked up a small piece of burnt parasitic tendril from the ground, his fingertips gently caressing it, as if verifying some structure.
“They can Blood Boiling berserk, and they also have Battle Qi,” Louis said calmly.
“Hmm,” Eduardo nodded, “The previous parasites were, at most, used as vessels; they didn’t have Battle Qi.
But this time, as you saw, they can even unleash Battle Qi skills, almost indistinguishable from living warriors.”
“And their coordination is stronger, even possessing a certain tactical will—not like mere shock troopers, but more like ‘driven soldiers’,” Louis’s tone was calm, as if analyzing an ordinary specimen.
The two fell silent for a moment.
On the scorched earth, residual warmth still lingered, and in the distance, the flamethrower unit was meticulously inspecting every remaining shell, as if even fire could not completely purify the doubts in their hearts.
“There’s one more thing,” Louis suddenly spoke, his eyes slightly narrowed, “Did you notice that Mother Nest—it was moving.”
Eduardo’s eye twitched slightly: “I suspected it at the time, thought it was an illusion, but later, when its climbing nest column collapsed that stone slope, I confirmed it was indeed moving.”
“Unlike the previous one that could only stay in place, it seemed to be trying to imitate the gait of some arthropod,” Louis murmured, his fingers gesturing at the limb-like nest columns, “That’s not a habitat. That’s a mobile hatchery.”
Eduardo looked up at the collapsed, scorched flesh wall in the distance, a sense of unease quietly spreading in his heart.
“In other words, next time we face, it might not be a Mother Body hidden underground, but rather—” he lowered his voice, “a walking Mother Nest.”
Louis nodded, his expression devoid of extra emotion.
“This is no longer a defensive ‘breeding nest’ but an offensive ‘biological warfare platform’.
Stronger parasitism, more complete combat awareness, and even self-propulsion capabilities—this is directional evolution.”
Eduardo narrowed his eyes: “If they really start to move, then the situation will become very grim.”
Then he sighed: “You can’t handle this kind of thing alone. You need to get Duke Edmund to prepare early.”
“I know,” Louis’s tone was steady, yet without a hint of hesitation.
He turned and returned to the camp, picked up a pen, and at the war table, wrote a calm but heavily worded confidential letter, sealing it with Red Tide wax on the paper.
He then instructed a knight: “Go fetch a few nest body slices, live tissue, and residual venom sacs, process them, and seal them in glass.”
Less than a quarter of an hour later, a knight from Frost Halberd City quickly entered the tent.
“Take these to Frost Halberd City and deliver them to Duke Edmund; you will personally escort them,” Louis handed over the confidential letter and the sealed box, his gaze stern.
The knight knelt on one knee: “As you command!”
Frost Halberd City, Governor’s Mansion.
Governor of the Northern Territory Duke Edmund was sitting by the bed, gently wiping the fine sweat from his wife’s forehead.
Duchess Elena, pale but with gentle eyes, had her hand resting on her still slightly bulging belly, a faint smile on her lips.
“It moved,” she whispered, “He just moved a little.”
Duke Edmund’s eyes trembled slightly, then he smiled, reaching out to gently cover her hand.
That smile was rare, a father’s tenderness.
Since Emily was born twenty years ago, he had not had another child.
And he was already over fifty, with no heir since his eldest son died in battle.
As a Peak Knight, having another child was simply a gift from heaven.
Now that Elena was pregnant, he almost tossed and turned sleeplessly every night—afraid of disturbing this late-coming hope.
At this time, he had not intended to make a big fuss, lest something unexpected happen.
Just then, a servant quietly entered, bowing and reporting: “My Lord, a knight from Viscount Calvin requests an audience, claiming to bring important letters and battlefield samples.”
Edmund’s eyebrow raised slightly: “Louis? Take him to the conference hall; I’ll be right there.”
Before turning away, he glanced at his wife, who was smiling quietly on the bed.
Elena lay on the bed, smiling: “You go, that child must have something urgent.” freewёbnoνel.com
Inside the conference room, firelight flickered, and brass wall lamps illuminated the old Northern Territory war maps on the wall.
Duke Edmund pushed the door open, his gaze falling on the grey-robed knight in the room.
The man was covered in snow and wind, stiff with cold, yet stood ramrod straight, silently presenting two items: a letter,
and a heavy, iron-locked box.
“Thank you for your trouble,” the Duke said casually, walking straight to the main seat and opening the letter.
His gaze swept across the paper, his previously stern face subtly deepening by several shades.
“Suspected Mother Nest body again discovered in Snowpeak County Northwest, already annihilated. This Mother Nest shows significant signs of evolution:
Firstly, the Mother Nest itself can move actively and exhibits certain close-combat reactive capabilities;
Secondly, the Worm-Eaten Household corpses possess residual Battle Qi and can actively use martial skills, their combat strength far exceeding previous records—”
He gently raised a hand, signaling to open the box.
“Yes.”
The knight unlatched the lock, and the box lid opened with a “click.”
Immediately, a chilling sensation, a mix of scorched odor and putrid decay, wafted out.
Even with the sealing film, it was difficult to conceal the unsettling biological oppressive feeling.
Inside the box were several horrifying items:
A section of a nest column remnant, like an otherworldly tentacle, with signs of tissue still wriggling;
A grayish-white, not entirely carbonized neural sac, its surface seemingly still retaining minute nerves;
A transparent insect core the size of a fava bean, as if some residual will was faintly fluctuating;
And several drops of viscous nest fluid, contained in a reagent bottle, emitting a faint glow, as if “breathing.”
For a moment, even the firelight in the conference room’s fireplace seemed to dim.
It seemed Louis was not exaggerating, nor was he dramatizing.
This was a nightmare that had already truly happened, and it was not far from them.
The knight whispered: “Viscount said that if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed this thing had evolved.”
Duke Edmund remained silent for a long time, his fingertips slowly tracing the glass encasing the nest column, his brows deeply furrowed.
He had, of course, seen Mother Nests. He believed it was a very terrifying thing, not because of its inherent combat power, but because of its highly infectious nature.
Discovering two meant there were likely dozens more lurking in the Northern Territory.
Moreover, the Mother Nest was evolving, and purposefully so, towards a higher-order, more active combat form.
He slowly exhaled, thinking to himself: “This isn’t a singular mutation—this is like the continuation of some will.”
And his own investigative mission had yet to clarify the connection between the Mother Nest and the swarm, while Louis, that boy, had already single-handedly eliminated a stronger Mother Nest, and even cut off this thing as evidence.
It wasn’t just courage.
This ability to handle situations, the combat power he wielded, and his control over the tempo reaffirmed his belief that he had made the right gamble in marrying his daughter to this young man.
Edmund stood by the conference room window, silent for a long time, gazing at the city walls bathed in the night.
He slowly turned, his gaze falling on the tired but resilient young knight, and nodded.
“You did very well,” his tone was not heavy, but contained undeniable authority, “Tell Louis for me that his judgment was correct and timely, and he did very well.”
The knight immediately knelt on one knee: “As you command, My Lord.”
“You’ve worked hard. Go rest; you don’t need to worry about what happens next.”
The knight stood, saluted, and retreated from the conference room.
The heavy wooden door slowly closed behind him, returning to silence.
Edmund stood in place for a few seconds, as if organizing his tumultuous thoughts. Then he turned and walked to the table, pressing the bell.
Soon after, several personal attendants and scribe knights arrived. He had already reverted to his iron-blooded Governor of the Northern Territory persona, without a hint of wavering in his eyes.
“Notify my three direct knight commanders to assemble in the war room in fifteen minutes,” he said in a deep voice.
“Yes!”
“Next, draft a public document to all current Northern Territory lords, informing them that there are likely multiple Mother Nest entities, some already possessing evolutionary characteristics.”
He paused, his eyes deep: “Each lord may dispatch knights according to their actual situation to independently conduct investigations, and if there is any news, report it directly to me to avoid information lag.”
“Organize a record of the remains samples we received this time and send it to the Imperial Capital Intelligence Department and the Imperial Capital Academy of Sciences, signed by me.”
He seemed to have long anticipated that these directives would cause quite a stir, but his tone remained as calm as ever.
“These kinds of enemies come and go without a trace, and are extremely dangerous. We can only be one step ahead.”
Duke Edmund looked out the window, the cold wind blowing. The Northern Territory of the Empire had once again quietly entered a wartime footing.
