Chapter 313

The embers of war had not yet fully cooled, and above the void and the earth, the wizards' creations had already begun to efficiently "clean up"

the battlefield.

Those new types of cannon-fodder units specifically designed for the Giant Spirit Realm battlefield swarmed like hungry locusts toward the scattered warship wreckage, mechanical fragments, and the corpses of the Giant Spirit Realm natives.

They were not there to destroy, but to swallow them greedily as nutrients.

Metal was smelted and reorganized, biological tissues were decomposed and absorbed, and dissipated energy was drained dry.

Even more astonishing was that when the substances and energy accumulated within these cannon-fodder units reached a certain critical point, they would split on the spot, dividing into two!

And the newly born individuals would immediately join the swarming army.

Thus, these cannon-fodder units were like a self-replicating grey tide, spreading rapidly from the battlefield toward the surroundings, expanding the defensive line.

These war machines were devouring the territory and resources of the Giant Spirit Realm at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The retreat of the Giant Spirit Realm could be described as wretched, even bordering on a rout.

Under the wizards' highly targeted coverage strikes, their formation had long since fallen into chaos.

Many units, in their panicked retreat, were accidentally hit by friendly fire, out-of-control energy, or even panicked collisions, falling silently on their way back.

Endi felt he was lucky.

He was the captain of a Tier 3 warship, commanding a flexible medium-sized assault ship.

In that final destructive coverage strike, he relied on his excellent intuition and a bit of luck to maneuver the warship through the gaps in the energy storm.

Finally, with a body full of scars and a crew still in shock, he successfully retreated to the rear defensive line.

Detaching from the neural symbiotic connection with the warship, Endi felt a sense of exhaustion-like weakness in his semi-fluid body.

Walking down the gangway with his crew, looking at the bleak and wounded-filled scene inside the base, they couldn't help but feel a lingering fear, as well as a trace of unbelievable relief—their small warship had miraculously suffered no casualties, only the warship itself was severely damaged.

Endi felt his core burning slightly, a strange sense of excitement lingering.

He attributed it to the mental agitation of surviving a disaster and didn't think much of it.

There were too many wounded, and the medical department was already overwhelmed.

After a perfunctory physical examination, the medic handed him a tube of biological gel used for rapidly replenishing energy and repairing minor tissue damage, then waved him back to the camp to rest, leaving limited resources for more severely wounded soldiers.

As soon as he returned to his own small dormitory, Endi couldn't wait to throw himself into the recuperation pool filled with nutrient solution.

An intense sense of fatigue washed over him, and he fell into a deep sleep almost instantly.

Over the next few days, Endi clearly felt that the atmosphere in the camp had changed.

Although they had suffered a defeat before, morale still existed.

Now, however, it was permeated with a sense of depression pushed to the extreme, as if something heavy was pressing on the heart of every soldier.

Even high-ranking officers patrolled with a hidden sense of unease, and the soldiers dared not speak out despite their anger.

Two days later, Endi began to feel that something was wrong.

That excitement after the battle had long since faded, replaced by a persistent fatigue that seeped into his bones.

At first, he thought it was a normal reaction after extreme mental tension, but the fatigue increased day by day, even affecting his daily recovery training and mental meditation.

Helpless, he could only go to the medical department again.

"Doctor, I feel very tired, extremely tired, not mentally, but physically..." Endi described his symptoms to the duty medic.

The medic appeared very impatient and interrupted him without looking up: "Fatigue again? I've heard no fewer than a hundred such excuses in the last few days! Are you all trying to use this reason to avoid training and patrol missions?"

Endi was a bit annoyed: "I'm not trying to be lazy! I really feel like something is wrong!"

"Alright, alright!" The medic waved his hand, clearly not wanting to listen anymore: "Everyone who comes says that. I'll give you a basic scan; if there's no problem, hurry back, don't occupy resources!"

After a quick scan, the medic looked at the results and frowned: "Cell activity is abnormally high—energy metabolism rate is also higher than normal values."

"It seems the stimulation on the battlefield really had a big impact on you, leading to a persistent stress state; this is a somatization symptom caused by psychological pressure. I'll give you a three-day leave to go out and relax; go out for a walk, don't stay in the camp and let your imagination run wild!"

Although being diagnosed with a "psychological problem" made Endi feel a bit stifled, being able to get leave and leave this depressing camp was always good.

He took the electronic leave pass and didn't say anything more.

On the way out of the camp, Endi noticed that many soldiers looked lethargic and were walking with a limp.

A trace of doubt flashed in his heart, but he quickly found an explanation for himself: "Just experienced such a big defeat, low morale, mental lethargy is normal, right."

As a Tier 3 captain, he had the right to apply for dedicated transportation, but Endi had his own ideas.

Like many times on leave in the past, he came to the public airship station near the military camp and quietly boarded a civilian airship heading to a nearby city.

Inside the airship, the surrounding ordinary people felt the energy fluctuations and hidden murderous aura on Endi, tempered by the battlefield and not yet fully restrained, and cast looks of awe or envy.

Feeling these gazes, Endi's heart, suppressed by defeat and inexplicable fatigue, seemed to be silently comforted.

In the army where powerhouses were as common as trees, he was just a small figure, but in the eyes of these ordinary people, he was a powerhouse to be looked up to.

The feeling of being looked up to by everyone made him unable to stop.

This unique "way of relaxing" had always been very useful to him.

The airship reached the terminal, Endi got off the vehicle with lingering interest, then casually boarded another airship that didn't know where it was going, continuing his aimless "relaxing" journey.

He didn't notice that after he left, the passengers on the previous airship felt inexplicably lacking in energy and sleepy one after another in the following time.

The three-day holiday passed in a flash.

When Endi returned to the military camp, he was stunned by the scene before him—multiple checkpoints were set up at the entrance of the military camp, energy shields were fully open, the number of patrol teams had increased several times, and the atmosphere was murderous to the extreme!

"Could it be—those wizards have attacked?!"

Endi's heart tightened, he hurriedly showed his identification and rushed back to his dormitory.

The adjutant, who had been waiting anxiously in the dormitory, was visibly relieved to see him return.

"Captain! You're finally back!"

"What happened? Martial law? Did the enemy attack?" Endi asked hurriedly.

The adjutant had fear on his face and shook his head: "It's not an enemy attack—it's, it's a plague! A strange disease has broken out in the camp!"

Hearing this, Endi first breathed a sigh of relief; it was good that it wasn't those terrifying wizards.

The adjutant's voice trembled: "The symptoms of the disease are too terrifying! Captain, you haven't seen it, their bodies—will twist! They will uncontrollably symbiosis with whatever they touch, becoming—becoming indescribable monsters!"

"Some people removed their own mechanical symbionts, but not long after, their bodies started to have strange symbiotic reactions with clothes, with beds,"

"and even with the dust in the air, eventually twisting their bodies into a ball... they didn't even have a whole corpse when they died!"

Endi felt his scalp tingle, a chill rising from the depths of his core; he subconsciously touched his body, which was still a bit weak.

Returning to the dormitory, he felt inexplicable unease in his heart, but still forced himself to fall into a deep sleep.

But in the following days, the situation in the camp not only didn't ease, but even became worse and worse!

At first, only a few people showed severe fatigue, and the medic didn't pay attention.

But soon, more and more people got sick, the symptoms became stranger and stranger, and drug treatment was almost ineffective.

The high-ranking officials of the military camp initially tried to order all patients to be concentrated and isolated, but as more and more people became infected, they soon couldn't even gather enough healthy soldiers to maintain order.

The weak Endi was awakened by the knocking on the door; he opened the door weakly and saw the terrified adjutant.

"What's wrong?"

"Sir, let's run too!" The adjutant's voice was filled with despair: "Now the isolation area is out of control, management is completely paralyzed, many people are desperately running out—"

"What?!" Endi couldn't help but widen his three pairs of eyes.

Then he forced himself to jump up from the nutrient pool, rushed out of the dormitory building, and then saw a dilapidated and horrifying scene.

Soldiers dead on the side of the road with twisted, shapeless bodies; officers who locked themselves in their rooms but still underwent terrible deformities;

and some completely insane twisted monsters attacking any moving object indiscriminately—only occasionally would survivors carefully stick to the shadows, squirming away from the camp.

Endi stared blankly at the hellish scene before him.

Suddenly, a broken limb was blown in front of him by the wind, making him shiver and wake up:

"Quick! Call the others from the fleet!"

"There's no one left, I've already checked, now only we are left in the dormitory!" The adjutant's voice was filled with sobbing.

"What?!!" Endi's body couldn't help but fluctuate violently.

However, as a veteran of many battles, he quickly calmed down: "Then let's leave here quickly!"

The two of them didn't bring much luggage and carefully ran toward the gate of the military camp.

"—Captain?"

Just as they were about to approach the gate, the two were suddenly called out by a voice.

The two looked for the voice and saw a guy next to the military camp gate who was symbiotic with the ground, his body becoming twisted.

Endi endured the nausea and carefully identified it, only to find that the other party was actually a crew member on his fleet.

"You—"

Endi subconsciously wanted to help him, but was stopped by the adjutant: "Sir, this disease is highly contagious—"

Endi subconsciously stopped his steps.

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