Chapter 749.2: KABOOMZ

Instead, the noise merely attracted their attention. Hunger shone within their amber-colored eyes and not only did the Creepers fail to slow down, they started speeding up. Cheerful cries of "Yiwu!" rang out as they eagerly pounced upon the undead. The two grotesque tides collided instantly. Against the battle-hardened sub-entities from Clearspring City, the corpses corrupted by Na Fruit stood no chance whatsoever. Especially under the influence of the spores released by the type B strain. The mist infesting the land visibly withered before everyone's eyes, until it finally died. The battle shifted almost instantly. The entire southern front of Guardian Manor Military Base fell under the control of Little Feathers. More and more sub-entities continued arriving from the rear, driving the frontline outward toward both the eastern and western flanks of the base. "Beautiful!" From the cockpit of his Thunderbolt fighter, illuminated by the glow of flares, Falling Feather caught sight of the battle unfolding below and yelled in excitement. "Yiwu! (Thank you for the compliment!)" An affectionate reply came through the communication channel. Judging by the tone... It almost seemed to be asking: Praise me some more. At the same time, on the opposite side of the battlefield, Kubo hovered in the air, beating its wings as it stared toward the southern battlefield in stunned disbelief. Its grotesque face filled with shock. The Kingdom of Heaven was collapsing! How is that possible?! It was merely an Apostle. Although it had assisted the Pathfinder called Human Emperor with portions of his research, its responsibilities had never involved Kingdom of Heaven's core technologies. It had merely been responsible for containing and capturing experimental specimens. As such, Kubo had absolutely no idea what was happening before his eyes. Just then, a sigh echoed within its mind. It was the Human Emperor's voice. "... I expected events to unfold beyond our predictions, but I never imagined that the thing wouldn't even last a month, let alone half a year." Blood Peak had fallen and the Hive had fallen with it. They could conclude with certainty that the New Alliance had mastered some method of devouring Hives, and had inserted genetic material from Baiyue Province's primitive Na Fruit strain into Blood Peak's Hive. That possibility had never crossed their minds. Originally, they had assumed the New Alliance would pursue a completely different technological path. Specifically, using gene editing technology to modify the primitive Na Fruit strain so it could be cultivated outside Baiyue Province. That was the safest approach and the one almost anyone would think of first. Had the New Alliance chosen that path, they would have played directly into the Torch Church’s hands. They would soon discover they had merely retraced the same road the Torch Church had already walked, entering a maze with no exit. Instead, those blue moles had bypassed the maze entirely. They used sub-entities themselves as culture vessels, effectively pulling off a clever move of hatching their eggs using other people’s hens. Even the Human Emperor had to admit that their imagination was truly extraordinary. Hearing its master's voice, Kubo respectfully asked, "Lord Pathfinder, what should we do?" Human Emperor pondered briefly before replying, "We retreat. There’s no point to stay here any further. We would be better off preserving our strength for what comes next." Beast King had held three cards. Blood Peak's Hive, the Mutant Humans, and the Kingdom of Heaven spread throughout Ten Peaks Mountain and the Guardian Manor Plains. The first two cards had already been torn apart and the third would only be a matter of time before it fell. Expecting 10,000 Winged Mutant Humans alone to capture the heavily fortified Guardian Manor Military Base was nothing more than wishful thinking. They would be far more useful conducting guerrilla warfare in the mountain ranges between the Brocade River Province and Ocean Edge Province than dying as cannon fodder. A trace of hesitation crossed Kubo's eyes. "What about the Beast King?" Without hesitation, Human Emperor replied, "He has already lost. Helping him now would change nothing. He must pay the price for his arrogance..." Before he could finish, the voice stopped abruptly. It was as though someone had suddenly changed the channel. Kubo blinked in confusion. Soon, a ragged voice suddenly forced its way into his mind. It seemed to originate from the biological exoframe he was wearing. "... Give me control of your body, lend it to me. I'll give it back afterward." the Beast King's voice soon rang in his mind. Kubo could tell. The Beast King was exhausted, worn down, and carrying unmistakable desperation. The Bloodhoof Clan had been destroyed. Not only that. All of the masterpieces he had painstakingly created had been wiped out alongside it! Although a handful of mutant underlings still carried implants from the church, those creatures were insignificant. At best, they could serve as eyes. His influence over the mortal world had never been weaker. Even his own colleagues no longer listened to his voice. Fortunately, he still possessed one final trump card. Every suit of biological exoframe he had crafted still contained his chip. Although Kubo served under the Human Emperor, the biological exoframe it wore had been built by the Beast King himself! "... Wait! What are you doing?! Let me go!" Kubo cried out in terror. It suddenly realized it had completely lost control of its own body. Helplessly, it watched itself dive toward the ground. Its body no longer belonged to it as it was controlled by someone else. And that someone was completely insane! Not content with seizing Kubo's body alone, the Beast King simultaneously hijacked every mutant wearing biological exoframe. Ignoring Kubo's furious screams echoing through the Sanctuary, the Beast King paid him no attention whatsoever. Controlling Kubo's body, he dove directly toward Guardian Manor Military Base. "Attack! Charge! Use your fangs! Use your claws! Tear open the chests of those humans! Decorate this land with their blood, flesh, and entrails! Make them regret ever setting foot here!" he roared into the communications channel while simultaneously broadcasting an attack order to every Winged Mutant Human through the psychic interference devices. Under the influence of the psychic waves, every Winged Mutant Human instantly descended into a frenzy, shrieking piercingly as they charged recklessly toward the nearest enemies. Looking down upon the battlefield below, which resembled the very depths of hell, Kubo, whose body was under the Beast King's control, revealed a savage grin. He wasn't going anywhere. There was nowhere left for him to go. His colleagues had abandoned him, but he wasn't about to sit there waiting for death. They were in his territory, and it always would be. Now that the fall of the Kingdom of Heaven was inevitable, there was only one thing left for him to do. He would launch one final, all-or-nothing strike before the Kingdom of Heaven completely collapsed. As long as he could shatter the coalition’s command structure, he would still have a chance to rise again. That's right! The New Alliance's Administrator is here too! As long as he killed that man, everything would be fine again! At some point, he had forgotten the ideals he had once sworn to achieve. Though by now, those ideals no longer mattered. He had already lost everything. Soon, even the Kingdom of Heaven he had built would be taken from him. He absolutely would not allow that to happen! If the new world bore no trace of his name, then what meaning did that new world have? The Torch Church’s grand plan no longer mattered. All he wanted was for those who had ruined everything to die! Every last one of them had to be pound into the ground! ... Meanwhile, at Guardian Manor Military Base, near the temporary research institute jointly staffed by New Alliance and Enterprise researchers, gathered outside the institute, Kakarot stared in astonishment at the Winged Mutant Humans that had suddenly gone berserk. "Holy shit! Did these guys take drugs or something?!" Only half a minute earlier, they had still been maintaining a steady, methodical assault. Then, all at once, they had gone completely insane, charging forward in one massive wave. "... On the bright side, it also means they're out of tricks." Spring Water Commander wiped the blood from his helmet visor, slammed a fresh magazine into his 20mm Lance, and resumed firing at the charging targets. Not far from them, the Hound Special Forces had already suffered casualties exceeding 50%. Unable to withstand the increasingly ferocious assault, signs of collapse were beginning to appear in their lines. The officers of the Xilande Empire seemed to be over there as well. Although he had no idea why those people had come, if they were trying to escape, they had certainly picked the wrong place. The Torch Church seemed to have realized something and their offensive against the temporary research institute grew increasingly intense. For a moment, Spring Water Commander couldn't tell whether those Winged Mutant Humans had been drawn over by the administrator, or by the researchers themselves. Or perhaps, they had simply sensed through battlefield instinct that the coalition forces had committed unusually strong defenses to this location and concluded that it housed a high-value strategic objective. At this point, however, none of that mattered. The enemy had already committed everything they had. All they needed to do was crush them head-on. Every trump card had been revealed and every chip had been pushed onto the table. There were no more tactics. Only brute force remained. Whichever side possessed the greater strength would slam the other's hand onto the table. At that moment, Ten Punch Man came roaring up in a half-open military truck. Mounted on the trailer behind it was a quadruple anti-aircraft autocannon that immediately elevated its barrels toward the sky. The weapon had been dismantled from the anti-aircraft position on the southern side of the base. It was no longer needed there. Bringing it over to the place with the strongest offensive, it arrived at precisely the right moment.