"What's the situation? What did the scouts at the front say?" Sivell asked anxiously. (The leader of the reserve regiment that came to fight Zaizai.)

"It's not good. He said the enemy's defenses were almost nonexistent, but now he's lost contact with me. It's likely..."

Hearing this, Sivell immediately became agitated. "Damn it! Who told him to do that! Is he crazy! What's the point of provoking these monsters for no reason! We're here to rescue people, not to kill monsters!"

He was furious. Where was this? This was the front line facing the unknown, a place where they could be ordered to hold to the death at any moment. Shouldn't they quickly finish their work and retreat, instead of staying here to die?

"But, aren't we supposed to fight these monsters? They've destroyed our homes! Are we just going to stand by and do nothing?"

"Shut up! Just listen to my orders! Who's the commander here, you or me!"

Just then, a monster they had never seen before appeared in the sky. Sivell's face darkened even more. He knew without even thinking that they were here for revenge. Why hadn't they come sooner or later, and instead chose this moment?

Accompanied by a strange, ear-piercing screech, green droplets fell like rain, hazily covering the entire area.

"What is this? Hiss! It hurts! Is it fire magic?"

After landing, a layer of faint green gas constantly dissipated from the ground, accompanied by a pungent smell.

The green smoke enveloped the entire area almost instantly, severely obstructing visibility.

Before anyone could react, everyone present began to cough violently, one after another.

These were corrosive spores, not just smoke. Anything green on Zaizai's body represented aggression.

"Everyone! Use Purification! Don't be stingy!"

Purification was a special drug used to deal with Abyss demons, simply put, to remove negative status effects.

The goal was to avoid being infected by Abyss toxins.

The sound of glass bottles breaking.

As bursts of golden light lit up, it was indeed effective, but after the temporary clearing, they still had to breathe, right?

So…

Then came an even more interesting point.

As soon as they started breathing again, they immediately began to cough, even more severely than before.

Sivell was stunned. Was this a negative buff that couldn't be cleared?

That's right, usually when using this on the Abyss battlefield, they were already out of combat, so there wouldn't be any new sources of infection, so this awkward situation wouldn't naturally occur.

This was the price of inexperience.

The sparse raindrops still hadn't stopped, but the monsters seemed to have stopped attacking?

Why? Were they letting them go?

Impossible, he was certain that the other party had discovered them, but why hadn't they killed them?

He couldn't figure it out, but it seemed they had survived!

They had survived!

"Holy Light!"

As a dispel spell was cast, the conditions of the other members of the squad also improved slightly, perhaps.

Temporarily scorching the surrounding air did have a bit of an air-clearing effect.

Apart from the burning sensation in his lungs, there seemed to be no other problems.

Also, his head seemed a little heavy, and even though the danger had just passed, he was still in low spirits.

"Forget it, there's no time to explain. Retreat! After inspection, there are no survivors here! Issue a retreat order to all squads."

After speaking, he looked at the communications officer who had argued with him earlier, who was now pale and listless.

"Yes."

Sivell curled his lip. He had been so loud earlier, but as soon as he had to go to the battlefield himself, he immediately fell apart. His words became nicer, and he was much more obedient.

There were too few people who could put their lives on the line in the face of death; those were the eternal spiritual legacies of later generations.

Clearly, these weren't them.

"Commander! Thirty percent of the squads have lost contact!" The young man's teeth were chattering as he spoke.

"I know. Let's go now too. This is no longer a place we can stay. We must bring the current intelligence back."

Whirr—

The sound of falling rocks immediately drew Sivell's attention.

"You… weren't you here to save us… why… are you leaving now…"

Stumbling groans came from the rubble behind them, along with the sound of stones breaking.

"Who's there!" Sivell immediately took out his weapon, staring intently in the direction of the smoke.

"Weren't you here to save us? Why are you drawing your swords against me?" It was still a calm voice, but it didn't seem to be the same person as before.

Cold sweat trickled down his temples.

Thud—thud—

Sivell held his breath, staring intently at the source. No, this time the position was different from before, on the left?

The squad formed a circle, warily watching their surroundings.

"Show yourself!"

"Okay, but you're really impolite. Our Overlord says she's very unhappy. There's nothing she wants here, so you can all die."

In a calm, emotionless voice, a nearly rotten humanoid walked out in a strange posture. No!

Rather than walking out, it looked like it was being lifted up by something, its legs dangling behind it.

The rotten face revealed the eye sockets, and the eyeballs seemed like they could fall out at any moment.

These reserves had never seen such a disgusting sight, and it was wearing the same uniform as them! No need to ask, this was their former colleague.

"You're being controlled! Zak!"

"I'm not, Commander. Only those who have seen the Empress's glory can understand my thoughts. The Empress's power cannot be stopped by ants like us!"

"Therefore, submit! Submit to the great Zerg Overlord!"

The calm tone suddenly became excited, and even the eyeballs were twitching.

"Ugh—"

The communications officer couldn't hold it in any longer, bending over and kneeling on the ground to vomit.

The eyeball seemed to come alive, like a python, the muscles pulling behind it swelling and thickening in a few seconds, slowly extending.

"What are you vomiting? Is it my ugly appearance… or… our Empress!!"

The mad tone immediately alerted Sivell, who yelled and tried to stop him, "Get out of the way!"

But it was too late. The eyeball shot straight towards the young man's face like an invisible afterimage, passing lightly through his brain.

"Ah!—"

Clang!

Sivell immediately severed the tentacle.

The eyeball's tentacle was severed, but the severed part, like other long creatures, was still wriggling.