The tip of the bone spear still bore the marks of being polished with his mother's saliva before departure; it was a spike he had meticulously ground on hard rock for three days and nights.
The secretions from his mother's antennae, remaining on the spear tip, emitted a faint luminescence in the night, as if it were his mother's gentle gaze guiding him in the darkness.
Ke Si was born in the lowest breeding zone of Hive Forty, and the dim, damp nest was his entire childhood memory.
The deepest memory was his mother, in the dim nest, pushing half a piece of moldy nutrient paste towards him with her antennae.
The edges of that nutrient paste had already grown green mold, yet it was three days' worth of rations his mother had saved.
Yesterday, when the conscription envoy riding a giant bird was speaking, Ke Si stared at the seven-tailed emblem on the other party's shoulder armor, his heart filled with longing.
In the Iron-Blood World, only those who achieved seven tails or more were qualified to become companions of giant birds.
He imagined the exhilaration of the wind blowing through his antennae as he swooped down on a giant bird.
At the same time, he was also very puzzled and could not believe that any outsider could pose a threat to their powerful Ironblood race.
In the Ironblood race's understanding, how could a race that had conquered the entire world be defeated by outsiders?
"Do you smell what's ahead?" The six-tailed veteran beside him nudged Ke Si's shoulder armor with his antennae, the olfactory receptors at the tips of his antennae still trembling slightly.
"Those are our brothers from three hives, gnawed upon by those monsters from another dimension."
The veteran's compound eyes reflected the increasingly thick black smoke in the distance, like an expanding ink stain, with occasional flashes of blue-white lightning at the top of the smoke column, which was the signal of a Flying Thunder Centipede launching an attack.
Ke Si nodded vigorously, his blood boiling in his chest, almost bursting through his throat.
He recalled his mother's admonition at the entrance of the nest before departure, and the envious gazes of his companions in the same area, and his steps involuntarily quickened.
The wind on the wasteland stirred up grit, rustling against his still not fully hardened carapace, like countless tiny blades cutting his skin.
The thick smoke on the distant horizon grew denser, like a giant black hand covering the sky, with muffled explosions faintly audible from its palm, as if the alarm bell of fate was tolling.
When the team stepped onto the edge of the battlefield, Ke Si's steps suddenly froze.
The ground ahead was cracked like a spiderweb, with countless shattered corpses scattered on the black scorched earth.
There were broken limbs of Ironblood Bugmen, with unfallen carapaces still clinging to their joints, the battle patterns on the carapaces clearly visible, as if narrating their bravery in life;
There were also strange bodies covered in metallic luster, the joints on those bodies gleaming with cold light like precision machinery, and what was exposed at the breaks was not blood, but some kind of silver fluid, exuding a mysterious and dangerous aura.
The stench permeating the air made his stomach churn, and acid nearly burst through his mouthparts.
It was a mixture of charred protein and decaying body fluids, like the smell of rotten nutrient paste left to bake in the sun for three days and then thrown into a sewage pond, nauseating.
Not far away, a colossal black insect with wings as wide as a castle was tearing open the chest of an Ironblood Alpha Bug with its sharp claws, green brain matter splattering across the blue rings on its back.
Each flap of its wings brought a rain of blood, and the blood droplets landed on the charred ground with a sizzling sound, like grease dripping onto a hot pan, emitting pungent smoke.
"Is that... is that the monster the conscription envoy spoke of?"
Ke Si's voice was caught in his throat, his antennae trembling uncontrollably, the receptors at their tips contracting violently in fear, like startled snail antennae.
He saw the vein-like patterns on the giant insect's wings flickering with eerie blue electricity, each flap stirring up a hurricane, sweeping nearby rubble and insect corpses into the air, forming small tornadoes.
Flickering metallic fragments were faintly visible in the center of the tornadoes, as if it were a death vortex devouring everything.
The veteran's antennae shook violently, his compound eyes reflecting the silhouette of a Flying Thunder Centipede rising into the sky again in the distance: "Hurry up! Our defensive line is ahead!"
The veteran's voice carried an imperceptible tremor, and he brandished his bone knife, trying to urge Ke Si forward, but his own steps were retreating.
Each step landed on the sticky, bloody ground with a squelching sound, as if the earth itself was weeping for this war.
Ke Si mechanically moved his feet, but his gaze could not leave that Hell.
He saw the giant bird of a Flying Knight split in half by lightning, green smoke still rising from the break, and the food remaining in the bird's beak—half an Ironblood Bugman cub—fell to the ground, that tiny body still bearing its un-faded tenderness, yet already a casualty of this war;
He saw the corpses of his fellow soldiers crushed into a pulp by the giant jaws of the colossal insect, with undigested nutrient paste particles still visible in the pulp, those particles shimmering with an eerie glow in the sunlight, as if mocking the fragility of life;
He saw green blood forming streams on the charred earth, with the heads of Ironblood Bugmen floating in the streams, those heads' compound eyes still wide open in terror, reflecting the burning hive in their pupils.
That was their last attachment to this world.
The wind stirred up the blood mist from the ground, carrying a nauseatingly sweet fishy smell that hit Ke Si's face.
In the distance, a Five-Rank Sky Thunder Centipede flapped its wings again, and a bolt of lightning that pierced the heavens descended, turning another hive into burning ashes.
In the firelight, he clearly saw a Four Fiends Insect Soldier piercing its companion's chest with its segmented limb, green blood splattering on its metallic carapace, like some strange pattern.
The pattern flowed with the insect soldier's movements, like living Texture, narrating the cruelty of war and the distortion of humanity.
Ke Si suddenly remembered what his mother had said: "In the Iron-Blood World, the weak are either devoured or become devourers."
And now, they seemed to be the devoured ones.
Terrified roars came from the front of the team; it was the sound of the vanguard colliding with the Bug Clan Family's defensive line, mixed with the sounds of bones shattering and carapaces bursting, like countless broken drums being beaten simultaneously, deafening and terrifying.
He subconsciously touched the pouch at his waist, which contained half a piece of nutrient paste his mother had given him; its hard touch made his fingertips cold, as if he were holding a piece of ice.
The surface of the nutrient paste still bore the imprints of his mother's antennae, which was the food she had prepared for him with her last strength in the dim nest, his only warmth and concern in this cruel world.
Suddenly, a Tenth-Order Zhu Yan Devil Insects rushed out of the smoke and dust ahead, the venomous needles on its wings gleaming with an eerie green light.
The six-tailed veteran beside Ke Si roared and raised his bone knife, but was instantly pierced through the throat by a venomous needle.
Green venom spread along the needle hole, the veteran's antennae curled into a spiral in convulsions, and his body twitched as he fell, his compound eyes still fixed on Ke Si before he died, as if he wanted to say something, his gaze filled with unwillingness and concern.