Chapter 76: How the Hell Could This Even Be Cut Up?

Like a range of mountains crushing the sea of clouds.

The damaged hull spewed boiling flames everywhere, thick smoke merging with dark clouds, and it "slowly" slammed onto the ground.

At this moment, the ground was covered by an insect swarm that spanned the entire earth, along with a line of ten biological Titans. Confronted with the massive hull that suddenly fell from above, the swarm roared angrily at the sky, the Titans shifted their terrifying forelimbs over the skyscrapers, trying to speed forward to evade, but in the end one became a cushion, pressed beneath the battle cruiser.

The massive arthropod raised its limbs, bringing a sky‑filled plume of dust that crushed a row of skyscrapers ahead, then its limbs strained to support its dying struggle, which instead offset the descending kinetic energy of the battle cruiser.

Without further self‑destruction, the "soft‑landing" ground was flooded by the advancing Insect Tide, which turned its body toward our fallen Titan.

They roared in fury, endless waves of blade insects surged forward, followed by countless gun insects, and tall warrior insects intermingled within the ranks.

At this moment, these insect swarms, far larger and higher‑quality than before, were sweeping back toward the battle cruiser.

Around the periphery of this Insect Tide, the line of biological Titans carried even more tide, continuing to shift their massive limbs, trembling the ground as they moved forward.

Around the battle cruiser now, survivors who hadn't had time to form a line were pouring fire outward wildly.

Even some surviving close‑range cannons on the warship kept spewing flames at the surrounding insect swarm.

But as Xisi left the warship to command the ground battle, the few remaining close‑range cannons, now without Hundredfold Amplification, could only barely provide cover.

Xisi lifted the Explosive Gun with one hand, pulling the trigger repeatedly, cutting down a dozen or so warrior insects that charged in packs under the cover of gun‑insect fire.

Temporarily easing the frontal pressure, Xisi refocused, looking at Daiweiluo who kept flipping the map at his feet, while Fanluosi stood aside, repeatedly using the secret Communicator to try contacting the Empire's high command at Ustali.

Seeing Fanluosi howl at the Communicator for ages with no response, Xisi merely glanced and threw all his attention onto Daiweiluo.

Soon, after Daiweiluo's finger traced and doodled on the map for a while, he finally pointed to a fortress not far from the crash site.

After Daiweiluo indicated this spot, Xisi immediately looked in that direction.

The fortress, built atop a massive factory, still barely held together on the outside, but now, faced with the Insect Tide spreading beneath like an ocean, it had no retaliatory firepower left.

"This is the closest fortress to us; I surveyed it, and only this one remains relatively intact,"

Daiweiluo also stood up hurriedly, glancing sideways as he spoke; Xisi, meanwhile, slowly looked back along the fortress, seeing a road stretching dozens of kilometers that they'd have to charge across through the entire Insect Tide and the city, his eyelids involuntarily flickering.

Especially the almost reflexive raise of his gun again, firing a shot that struck a unit that had rushed into our ranks, killing the insect swarm tyrant that had just lifted a massive mass of limbs; Xisi looked at the position, realizing that merely holding it was already extremely hard, let alone cutting a path through it.

Beside him, Fanluosi, still clutching the Communicator, stormed back in fury, his hands gripping so hard that the Communicator became deformed.

"I don't know what's happening; I still can't reach the Empire's high command here,"

Ustali is not only the most crucial forging world on the unbroken front line, but also the command hub of the entire unbroken front line.

Fanluosi, these Judges, along with the Imperial Navy Admirals and Star Realm Army Commanders on the unbroken front line, have all gathered at Ustali.

This is why Ustali fights so fiercely; as the deepest and most vital production hub of the unbroken front line, Ustali offers humanity no possibility of surrender.

But at this moment Fanluosi is desperate to summon Imperial Army support here, yet seeing the situation, he can't even get a person on the line.

Xisi gave no reply to Fanluosi; he merely glanced again at the distant, mountain‑like endless road, and at the front legs returning from Virolia while the rear legs sank into Ustali's Insect Tide, internally muttering about where the Empire gets its endless wars, and helplessly turned and walked forward.

"Hope I can still see you all at the fortress,"

Daiweiluo and Fanluosi twitched the corners of their mouths; faced with Xisi's words that were unclear whether blessing or farewell, both stared at the mountain‑like road, inhaling deeply.

Then they turned, and the two began rallying their troops, following behind Xisi.

As for the fire points on the warship, the mortal soldiers there pulled the triggers even more zealously, staying in place to cover their comrades.

This squad that escaped death in Virolia began to slowly push through the Insect Sea again; the fire points behind, having lost the front defenders, were quickly swallowed by the Insect Sea.

Finally, accompanied by several bursts of bright flame and exploding insects, a fleeting hint of sorrow flashed in the eyes of those following Xisi.

The fire points would not self‑destruct; this was the mortal soldiers inside detonating themselves, providing the last cover for Xisi and the others.

But the survivors now lacked any extra strength or time to mourn those comrades; they pressed tightly behind Xisi, charging toward the fortress whose fall was uncertain.

During this, the outermost defensive force of the whole squad turned out not to be Astarte, but that group of Black Watch.

Staring at these black soldiers each resembling a TM sword saint, the mortal soldiers could only repeatedly size them up, then wonder if these folks were just mortals like themselves?

Compared to the ordinary soldiers' shock, as the insect swarm grew too large, the Black Watch, forced to switch to melee, displayed their close‑combat ability publicly for the first time; this unit, born from Regiment and rooted in melee slashing, also left the Astarte behind them utterly stunned.

Indeed, it's the Astarte behind.

Because after being rescued by these mortals repeatedly, the remaining Astarte resigned to stay behind, serving as the humanoid remote firepower for the Black Watch.

Meanwhile, each time an explosive round was fired, they had to watch these mortal sword saints, with exaggerated forms, pierce the weak eyes of one warrior insect after another!

Even as they watched the Black Watch slash their way through, the only casualty was someone who simply collapsed from exhaustion; Astarte subconsciously calculated that if those mortals were equipped with Power Armor to solve their bodily weaknesses, and Power Swords to address weapon damage…

Astarte shivered at the thought, not out of fear, but wondering whether such mortals would be… too illegal?

Even if there were more of those mortals…

Astarte's face froze at the thought, then his eyes dropped, and he couldn't continue speaking!

Isn't that equivalent to an unlimited supply of Super Astarte???

The squad, shaken by the average sword‑saint level of the Black Watch, began to ramble in their thoughts, so when Xisi in front started hacking down buildings and climbing straight toward the fortress, they didn't even react.

Only the squad remained unresponsive; deep within the fortress, a group of frightened Star Realm Army soldiers hidden in the darkness looked up as their commander hurriedly ran toward the observation hatch.

Until the tightly shut window opened again, sunlight streamed into the dark fortress; a group stared at the commander, who stared blankly at the boundless Insect Sea below that had been raging for months, and after a stunned half‑minute, they turned to look at the scouting soldier who had rushed in with the report.

Pointing to the Terran Sea outside the window, the commander asked with a puzzled look:

"How the hell could this even be chopped up???"