Chapter 168: Reinforcements Still Have Nine Hours

No sunlight can be seen in the sky.

The cloud layer has long dispersed with the great war.

Across the endless clear sky, only that massive beast that covers the stars drifts slowly, its body gliding over the heads of the crowd.

Then, in the boundless shadows, it brings infinite terror to the human garrison who have never seen such a beast.

The ancient vessel is several times larger than a normal insect hive mother ship; before it, the Empire's conventional battleships are like "shrimp beside a whale".

Its body is covered with chitin armor hundreds of meters thick, and beneath that armor are the insect swarm's usual plasma cannons, acid cannons, bio‑torpedoes, and predatory tentacles.

It even comes equipped with a hatchery that can mass‑produce carrier aircraft!

Combined with its massive size, this single bio‑ship can, at great speed, hatch billions of Terran biological war beasts.

If one had to name the beast's sole weakness, it is that, besides its formidable individual strength, it is also the will core of a particular Insect Tide tentacle.

Destroying a single ancient vessel would cause the entire hive fleet on that tentacle to collapse and lose mobility, delivering a truly strategic strike against the Terran insect swarm.

Although the ancient vessel is not appearing before human eyes for the first time, its silhouette has been seen near the Eye of Fear.

But the beast's origin remains a mystery; however, according to the latest research of the Mechanical Church and even the Alien Form Judgment Court, this beast is highly likely not from the galaxy, but from a neighboring system that the Terrans have completely devoured.

In other words, this ancient vessel came from beyond the galaxy, traversed the boundless void between two systems, and only then arrived at Terra.

Now, this very beast, whose mere appearance can generate infinite fear and despair, is using its unrivaled towering body to continuously circle the Earth.

Under the beast's shadow.

The soldiers curl up at their posts, either behind high walls or within fortresses.

Though their positions differ, almost everyone clutches a Rifle, hunching with their backs to the sky.

A pair of terror‑filled eyes, bloodshot, dare only stare fixedly at the ground.

At this moment on Terra's surface, the only forces still daring to face the sky are the Imperial Palace guard on the Himalayas and the Regiment Commander of the Empire's Fist, Laishande!

Without the Original Body, the Sun Lord is absent, and Turajun is forced to lead a large contingent of palace guards out to repel the insect swarm.

All these ultimately caused the capital's defense duties of the Empire to fall onto a Battalion Commander of the Astat.

But whether it's Turajun, Lyon Tusu who go into battle, or the high lords who stay behind on Terra.

Almost everyone placed unlimited trust in this Regiment Commander.

Except that this person explicitly refused to take the position of Warband Commander of the Empire's Fist, swearing to remain a Regiment Commander forever.

And also because of this person's exaggerated combat record.

Just as the earlier Lamenter Marajin thought when facing 101, Xisi's 101 is already outrageous, but in this damned galaxy, the Empire never lacks fierce warriors!

Laishande lost both parents at age 13, then alone traversed the long galaxy to reach sacred Terra.

He was later discovered and recruited by a priest of the Empire's Fist, and during a bloody battle fell into Subspace, where he alone endured nearly a thousand years of combat.

So the warband thought he was dead, erected a monument and began incense offerings, yet this man somehow emerged from Subspace again.

He then led fifteen members of the Empire's Fist to stubbornly resist a siege by three thousand Rebel Forces, even turning the tables to annihilate the rebels.

Eventually captured by the Steel Warriors, he was tortured for weeks without yielding, and with bare hands he cut a bloody escape from the Steel Warriors' prison.

After returning to Terra, he underwent successive inspections by the Judgment Court, warband priests, pharmacists, and think tanks, and the result was that the kid bore not even a trace of Subspace corruption.

Thus many believe the kid perfectly inherited the "tenacity" of his Original Body, Rogdoen, and cannot be shaken in the face of any strong enemy.

At this moment, as Laishande assumes Terra's defense duties, he is among the few who dare to look up all day and assess the Terran beast's presence.

At the top of a palace fortress high up.

Laishande wears yellow Empire's Fist Power Armor, and in his right hand grips Rogdoen's powered gauntlet, the "Fist of Doen".

He looks up at the beast overhead while publicly berating Kiriman for launching the unyielding expedition.

"If it weren't for Kiriman pulling a massive number of our troops, we wouldn't have to undertake this unyielding expedition."

"How could we possibly let these hateful Alien Forms threaten sacred Terra!"

Laishande is blunt toward Kiriman.

Besides the defensive difficulties in the Sun Sector, a large part of the cause is indeed Kiriman's diversion of a massive amount of living force.

It also includes some inherent reasons of the Empire's Fist; after all, during Terra's Great Celebration, Kiriman's "nine more hours" support truly strained the Empire's Fist.

Even now, many of the Empire's Fist believe that the departure of the Father of Genes was caused by Kiriman, who left them on Terra unattended to pursue some Second Empire.

Now the Terran forces have siphoned the Empire's core dry, making it impossible for the Empire's Fist, tasked with Terra's defense, not to blame Kiriman.

Especially Kiriman's attitude toward our pleas for aid makes Laishande and the Empire's Fist's anger gnaw at them.

After watching the ancient Terran vessel still sailing overhead, Laishande withdraws his gaze:

"Reinforcements..."

"These reinforcements won't also take just nine hours, will they?"

Laishande looks at the Empire's Fist comrades mocking nearby; the Astat soldiers whose shoulder plates bear a fist do not reply, yet they can't help glancing at the sky.

After all, according to Kiriman's comforting words, the reinforcements he mentioned should have arrived months ago!

Although this isn't Kiriman's fault, even Kiriman would be embarrassed to demand Xisi to forcefully dispatch troops under such a battered Alert Star.

If Xisi hadn't pulled the ancient legion out during the Great Celebration, perhaps Xisi wouldn't even be able to breach the Sun Sector now.

Let alone provide substantive support to Terra.

Only Laishande and his men don't know, and Kiriman wouldn't dare say that the reinforcements Xisi brought were the same batch that his predecessors had confronted in front of the palace.

Otherwise, when Laishande learns it, Xisi's first step might appear, but his second step would be met by an unyielding Empire's Fist, which would unleash a barrage without hesitation.

Laishande sighs helplessly in his heart after speaking, then looks at the sky again, though his sarcasm remains sarcasm.

But at this moment, across the entire galaxy, who most eagerly awaits Xisi? Probably only Laishande here.

Only that Laishande, countless times now, looks to the sky with hope, and is met solely by the beast's shadow and the empty, cold void.

In the sky, a new wave of Terran spore pods begins to fall.

The long‑silent orbital artillery fires again, and Terra, quiet only for a moment, plunges once more into booming warfare.

Laishande stared at the vastly increased number of Tairen, and could only finally grit his teeth, glance at the sky, then turn around and prepare to direct the battle.

But just as he turned around, an official from the High Lords Council came running over, holding a military report joyfully.

"Reinforcements! Reinforcements are about to arrive!"

Laishande, who had originally held no hope, was stunned, and then, acting in a manner completely opposite to his 'contemptuous' attitude, he snatched up the report.

But before hope could even rise on his face, faced with the arrival time given in the brief content, he froze momentarily, then instantly flew into a rage and tore it to pieces.

"How is it damn again......"

"Nine hours?!!!!!"