Chapter 591: Chapter 343, Creeping City_2
Under the cover of various types of firepower, the soldiers in the advancing camp finally retreated.
Though they suffered significant losses, they still managed to bring back valuable intelligence.
Just as Li Kexi had seen from a distance, the entire city had come to life.
The architectural skin, once made of steel and concrete, began to writhe like a living organism and started to be enveloped by a layer resembling flesh and organic tissue.
This was very bad news, but for the moment, no one knew what these changes would lead to.
Li Kexi was called by General Hans to attend a military meeting while, at the same time, the Star Realm Army continued to dispatch reconnaissance units to closely observe the transformation of the Nest Capital.
In the following days, various pieces of intelligence kept coming in.
Buildings turned into irregular, pus-filled flesh; a multitude of twisted limbs, Plague Demons, undead, and Plague Fly Swarms wriggled and fluttered about in the cavities.
The entire Nest Capital had ‘come alive’!
They didn’t lack the will to change the situation, but even when there had been no change, they could hardly penetrate Fino City, let alone now. The plague creatures were furiously violent, becoming more aggressive and even more powerful.
Moving the artillery into range to fire at the awakening Nest Capital proved ineffective. The enemy barely bothered to activate their Void Shield at first—after all, what does the bombardment from heavy howitzer shells amount to against an entire Nest Capital?
It wasn’t until later, after much bombardment, that they lazily turned on the shield as a token of respect, completely crushing any hopes harbored by the Star Realm forces.
Then something even more terrifying happened: the living Nest Capital started to move.
It largely maintained the appearance of a city or Nest Capital, with many buildings connected by original pipes, roads, foundations, and subterranean structures, forming a huge mass of flesh resembling a city-monster.
‘Living’ things are able to move—it seems like the natural order of things, right?
But when all of this truly unfolded before them, they still felt their scalps tingle.
When an enormous Nest Capital capable of housing a billion people began to advance toward the Star Realm forces with the momentum of a mountain bearing down on them, only the thought of ‘fear’ remained in their hearts.
The Nest Capital slithered forward on the ground, and the observed speed wasn’t fast—just a little over two kilometers an hour, even slower than a walking pace.
But what was terrifying was that it never stopped, day or night!
In just one day, ‘Fino City’ had inched forward almost thirty kilometers!
Even the elite Star Realm Army started to show signs of unrest, not to mention the ordinary Planetary Defense Force.
The main force was stationed dozens of kilometers away from the Nest Capital, which seemed quite far, but just one day later, it was almost within reach.
And in that moment, the leaders of the Star Realm Army had yet to come to any conclusion in their meeting.
Some insisted on holding the line, arguing there was no reason to retreat due to the difficulty of the battle. If they retreated, what else on this planet could possibly stand against such a crawling city?
But more people felt they couldn’t hold it off—what were they to use? The flesh and blood of millions of people? That wouldn’t be enough for the crawling Nest Capital to swallow in one bite!
And after the chaos of the first day passed without achieving a consensus, the commanders of the Star Realm Army didn’t have to continue their discussions.
The rank-and-file soldiers had already made the decision for them.
The first to collapse were the Planetary Defense Forces from Korolya itself. When the crawling city was less than twenty kilometers away, slowly but relentlessly pressing forward, they instinctively began to run backwards.
At first, before fleeing, they managed to gather their belongings, but before they could finish, an hour passed and the monstrous shadow had approached significantly closer. Who would dare continue packing? Time to run for it!
This was almost a mutiny, the kind not even the military police could control,
Furthermore, were the military police not afraid themselves?
They were just as scared.
After the collapse of the Planetary Defense Force, the Star Realm Army fell apart as well.
Involuntarily, out of sheer necessity.
The Star Realm Army could fight a desperate battle against a vicious enemy under a sky filled with artillery fire, and on a microscopic level, many soldiers harbored thoughts of fighting to the death, even if it meant undertaking a suicide mission, it was not out of the question.
But the current situation was too extraordinary.
One dares to die because there’s hope, clinging to the sacrifice of one for the victory of the greater good.
But now?
Nobody knew how to achieve victory, let alone entertain the thought of taking the enemy down with them before dying.
Take who down?
This was simply not something human strength could contend with!
In such an overwhelming situation, what was the point in holding military meetings?
General Hans had thrown quite a temper tantrum, but in the end, he could only sigh and order a full retreat of the troops.
But… retreat, how easy could that be?
Humans could move faster than ‘Fino City’, but they couldn’t march continuously for 24 hours without sleep.
Humans needed to sleep, to rest, to eat.
At the level of an army, the troops needed to be organized, there had to be logistical support…
Chased by the creeping Nest Capital that moved thirty kilometers a day, leave alone the possibility of being caught up, just running like this would scatter the entire army’s structure.
Under such compelling circumstances, General Hans made two decisions.
The troops began to scatter and flee to both sides, avoiding the march route of ‘Fino City’. It couldn’t possibly chase after individuals, could it? Even if it did chase, it could only pursue in one direction.
Secondly, a few platoons were organized into daredevil teams, attempting to counterattack the city.
Those who dared to go against the current were undoubtedly brave.
Then, they saw two platoons, just as they were approaching, the ‘skin’ of the creeping Nest Capital cracked open, and dark green heavy artillery covered the sky above them.
The troops were vigilant and brave enough; facing the artillery fire, they accelerated their vehicles in a charge and tried to retaliate against those protruding gun muzzles with some vehicle-mounted weapons.
Subsequently, the not inconsiderable losses of the troops burst into the city at once.
The creeping Nest Capital maintained the general shape of the city, but every inch of ‘ground’ was like a meat carpet that dragged the Nest Capital along, gnawing out a huge scar that was several hundred meters deep on the Earth’s surface, continuously creeping forward.
They stepped onto what was once a road but was now just a writhing flesh carpet, and continued to charge into the ‘city’.
Then, a plethora of monsters surged out of the oozing flesh buildings of Neili, and soon they could no longer keep advancing, fighting a bitter battle with the hoards of Plague Demons in the midst of the Nest Capital.
“We’re about to… los, los, los… lose everything… we will activ… bombs… For the Empire!”
The communication signal, which should have been maintained with the command center at all times, became extremely unstable upon their entry into the Nest Capital. The statement above was the last message transmitted back from one platoon.
Then, the commanders, observing from a distance with military binoculars, saw a shallow area of the Nest Capital explode. Several flesh buildings burst open with massive gaps, and the flames violently surged for a moment.
Since they were already on a doomed mission, each platoon carried powerful bombs—thermite bombs, nuclear incendiary bombs, they used them all.
The destructive power was significant, but not enough to destroy a city.
Not to mention, this was no ordinary city.
The flames were quickly extinguished, the damaged parts resembled massive pus-filled sores, not repaired but also not affecting much.
And the creeping Nest Capital only slightly slowed its pace, pausing for about twenty minutes, before continuing its march once again.