Chapter 42: I

A stretch of land deformed by a massive explosion.

Although the closer one gets to Heberia, the use of extinction weapons diminishes, the high‑power explosives still gradually reveal the horror of conventional arms.

Across the endless ground lie countless huge craters, and within those craters hide tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers in varied attire.

In the very central crater, there is even an armored squad composed of three Limanlus and two chimeras.

At the front of the armored squad, a group of officers, also in varied garb, quietly hunch down below, their gazes silently fixed on Xisi at the top.

Xisi peers out from the crater, the scanner on his helmet continuously sweeping the ground ahead.

Heberia lies ahead, and the Void Shield has shrunk considerably compared to before.

The outermost city wall is already in ruins, and even the second, taller wall erupts with violent explosions as more and more A-space Demons and cult troops surge upward.

Only farther back, tucked behind the Void Shield on the third high wall, the Imperial Army still unleashes indiscriminate projectile fire onto the fallen positions below.

Xisi shifts his gaze down from the third high wall.

He watches several members of the Star Realm Army standing on a gun platform, frantically pulling triggers behind them, but the lasers only leave small red dots on a Chaos Astat.

Then, amid the Star Realm Army's terror, the Chaos Astat casually hammers the few in front to death and forces the last one to leap off the towering gun platform.

The wall, hundreds of meters tall, sends the falling Star Realm soldiers into the raging rebel forces and demons below; aside from scattered limbs, they vanish in an instant.

Further down, in a corner of the outer trench that the Chaos Grand Army has temporarily ignored, a Star Realm soldier listens to his comrades' mournful screams behind him, his face full of terror as he points his sidearm upward toward his own throat.

He trembles all over, lacking the courage to pull the trigger, until a demon suddenly leaps into the trench; the hesitant Star Realm soldier's face turns pale, whether from intent or fright, and finally he pulls the trigger.

His dazed eyes slowly drop, but the grotesque Chaos demon still walks past.

A moment later, under Xisi's stare, an even more desperate, terrified illusory soul is ripped out by the demon's sneer......

Retracting his gaze, Xisi steps back half a pace, turning to look at the remnants of soldiers behind him who stare at him.

Seeing that many have not even a single firearm, Xisi silently turns his head and mutters a few curses at Kaerjia in a corner unseen by others.

Because this is the spot Kaerjia told him is the weakest point of Chaos's offensive in the entire Heberia Nest Area.

It is also where Xisi will launch his assault and ultimately retreat into the Imperial Control Zone.

But seeing the Chaos Grand Army opposite, overwhelming both in mass and number, Xisi feels he would be better off only bringing his Regiment.

After the muttering, he turns back to the lingering troops behind him, their eyes filled with expectation and even respect, and Xisi can only lower his gaze slightly, pondering what to do.

Yet as Xisi tries to contemplate, the Chaos Grand Army ahead simply does not waste time pondering such matters.

When fierce crossfire suddenly erupts on his flank, Xisi looks up in shock as an officer of the Planetary Defense Force runs over in terror:

"Our left wing has been discovered!"

Xisi's mouth twitches; although his over two hundred thousand troops are hidden behind the Chaos Grand Army and discovery was inevitable, Xisi never expected it to happen so quickly.

Especially as the crossfire spreads rapidly around his ears and reaches the center where he stands, Xisi puts away the chaotic strategies swirling in his mind.

He suddenly stands, facing the distant forces that have turned back, a deluge of excited troops surging toward his Chaos Grand Army, and Xisi turns his head backward.

He draws his Power Sword, raises his Explosive Gun, and points forward:

"I have nothing to give you; you can only follow behind me. I'll lead you forward!"

It may not even be inspiring, yet the remaining troops behind him instantly widen their eyes.

Not because Xisi's words are particularly stirring, but because they know it's now their turn to show courage to the Empire's enemy.

There is little to say; the first to respond to Xisi are several Krig who emerge silently, crawling soundlessly behind the crater, calmly preparing to charge onward.

Then, the Limanlus engines roar as the throttles are pushed to the maximum!

At the forefront, a Terror Bloodletting Demon brandishes a massive double‑handed SawtoothSword, sticking out a long tongue and shouting excitedly.

But when he jubilantly charges forward, a Limanlus bursts from the crater, its power so great that its front lifts up.

Under the Bloodletting Demon's stunned gaze, the massive tracks crush it to pieces.

Xisi sits in the driver's seat, not even noticing the Bloodletting Demon; he simply pulls the trigger while continuously swinging his Long Sword forward.

Behind him, countless ordinary soldiers pour out of the craters, covering the massive front line with two hundred thousand remnants.

The pressure on the front line eases instantly; when the Chaos Grand Army sees the ordinary troops behind Xisi spearheading forward, crushing their own positions, they almost immediately abandon the hard‑to‑take wall and turn toward Xisi's exposed legion in the open.

Thus the Imperial Army, gaining a reprieve, watches these suddenly appearing "reinforcements" with puzzled faces, yet immediately sends condolences.

Because this place is not the weakest at all, but the main thrust of Chaos!

"What? Chaos can't be stopped?"

In front of the third wall now, Kaerjia has a pair of power gauntlets on each side, while several Mechanical Church Priests continuously reload ammunition and set up shrines to soothe the Machine Soul.

Kaerjia himself, drenched in blood and wounds, looks in shock at the arriving Messenger Soldier.

The Messenger Soldier is also wide‑eyed with shock, his mouth open unsure what to say, while Kaerjia has already risen and walks straight to the very edge of the wall.

The wall rises higher toward the back, allowing Kaerjia to see the entire battlefield beneath his feet.

After that, not only the other Imperial guards, stunned into silence by the scene below, but even Kaerjia himself becomes a little dazed.

That unit, originally meant to distract the enemy and buy the main force a brief respite, unexpectedly, under a young Regiment Commander, surged forward repeatedly, breaking through the Chaos lines.

Watching the charge where dozens, even hundreds of ordinary men fall with each step, watching Chaos shift from excitement to bewilderment and then panic.

Kaerjia pauses only a heartbeat, then sharply turns back:

"Open the side gate and dispatch a team of Extreme Warriors as cover, letting Xisi and his regiment enter Heberia."

The officer below immediately turns to carry out the order, his gaze repeatedly shifting to the group of ordinary men behind him who have actually reached the front of Heberia.

At the same moment Kaerjia gives the command, more and more troops realize that this group is the Xisi and his Regiment constantly promoted by the Military Affairs Department, and the previously dismal morale is suddenly uplifted.

Any reinforcement in a dire situation boosts morale, especially when it's the Xisi, almost mythologized as an Alert Star legend.

Is Kaerjia protecting Xisi by sending the precious Astat as cover?

No, Kaerjia didn't expect the unit he publicized to actually appear before the main force, and to choose the bravest method to announce its presence.

At this moment, the only scene Kaerjia wishes to see is this legendary unit he himself publicized creating another legend, gracefully retreating into Heberia before the main force.

Otherwise, the hope he gives the troops below would be great, and the despair of Xisi's entire army being annihilated would be even greater!

And as the casualties of the troops Xisi gathered grew ever larger, his subordinate Limanlus also perished together with several Chaos heavy units "Demon Engine", and under the gaze of the masses the roar of explosive shells fired by the Extreme Warrior finally began to sound beside Xisi.

Xisi does not know how many people fell on the charge, nor does he know how many followed him into the safe zone.

Xisi only knows that when he brandishes the Power Sword that cuts a breach, his chest heaving wildly as he enters the city wall, he is surrounded by the city above and below, countless eyes staring at him.

And those eyes now hold only shock and silence!

Because even Xisi himself does not know that just now he, in front of everyone, led a group of stragglers…

…broke Chaos!