Chapter 1452: The Deviating Sky-sea Realm
A minute later, another tank squadron reached the intersection where Convoy 12 and Convoy 9 had fought.
“Amy! Balshan! Are you alright?” The leader, Iffy, called from a distance.
Balshan raised her hand. Amy shouted back with something close to glee: “Why are you here? We just brought down a big one!”
“Wasn’t it obvious from the cannon fire.” Iffy relaxed visibly once she confirmed they were unharmed. She dropped from her tank and walked to the wreckage — the monster that had received a high-explosive shell at point-blank range into its ribs. What remained wasn’t a body so much as a problem. “What is this?”
“Probably a Nest Mother.” Balshan studied the ruins. “Though I’m not entirely certain.”
The discharge had been clean, if that word applied. Internal organs obliterated, head blasted free of the body — assuming the thing had possessed a head in any conventional sense, which remained questionable, given that it had attempted to flee in reverse. The magic power within it dissipated in the aftermath and the body collapsed into meat pulp in seconds. Only the two rows of shattered ribs remained standing, like the hull of a wrecked ship.
“You’re sure it’s a Nest Mother?” Iffy produced her manual and frowned at the illustration. “The bone structure’s similar, but the size is off — smaller than the diagrams. And the tentacles… Where are the compound eyes? According to the manual, the compound eye is enormous. It sits at the center of the body. You can’t miss it.”
Balshan shook her head. “I identified it as a Nest Mother because it was carrying blade beasts. Beyond that, I’m as confused as you are.” She paused. “But setting the Nest Mother aside — look at the blade beast corpses. Every single one of them differs from what the manual describes. Don’t believe me? Look at the dead ones by the Nest Mother’s flank.”
Iffy finally noticed the peculiarities. “Are those… wings?”
“Correct.” Balshan turned one of the corpses with her boot. “Light as cicada wings, but far larger. They used them to leap across enormous distances. That’s unprecedented.”
Iffy stared at the wreckage for a long moment, then exhaled. “I begin to understand why the higher-ups want intact Sky-sea Realm specimens. Their rate of evolution is astonishing.”
“That’s a question for the higher-ups.” Balshan climbed back onto her tank and waved Iffy toward hers. “For us — we just have to destroy them.”
The First Army’s report on reclaiming the Taquila Ruins reached Roland’s office quickly.
In this city battle, demonic beasts had ceased to be the primary threat. The Sky-sea Realm’s blade beasts constituted the bulk of the danger, and their first large-scale appearance had proven decisive in shaping how the engagement unfolded.
But the outcome bore no resemblance to the last time a blade beast or two had been enough to fracture a defensive line. The newly commissioned armor units had displayed their worth: locking down enemy positions, winning engagements, and sustaining the advance at minimal cost. The First Army paid a small price for the Fertile Plains foothold. Among the tallies, Convoys 12 and 9 had eliminated a Nest Mother and more than ten blade beasts without a single casualty — a result that reshaped how the army thought about armored warfare entirely. The remainder of the report was largely a request for increased tank production; the army was willing to accept ordinary officers at the controls when witches were unavailable.
They had tasted what heavy armor could do. The appetite wouldn’t diminish.
Roland had not been surprised. The tank’s designation as king of ground combat had been earned across two World Wars, and he had understood its potential long before the first one rolled off the line. That was why he had arranged pilot training in parallel with tractor production. The matured weapon had performed as expected.
What occupied him more now were the monster corpses being shipped back by train.
At noon, Agatha’s call came. A preliminary verdict on the dissection.
The lower levels of the Magic Tower met Roland with a wave of cold air.
Large ice cubes were stacked in orderly rows throughout the basement — a stranger walking in might have mistaken the place for cold storage. Roland knew better. The ice cubes were frozen Sky-sea Realm specimens, transported from the front lines for the Witch Union’s examination.
The dissecting area occupied the center of the room. Agatha removed her gloves and performed the union salute as he entered.
“You seem pleased,” Roland said, tugging his collar higher.
“Because I’m back to my proper work.” She smiled. “To be honest, the cold laboratory suits me far better than representing Taquila at political meetings and conferences.”
The most suitable representative for the ancient witches was Pasha — but moving a carrier’s bulk was rarely practical, which had made Agatha the obvious second choice. Roland had felt some compunction about it, and started to say so.
Agatha waved him off before he managed it. “Your Majesty, the Battle of Divine Will takes precedence. I understand that.”
He nodded and turned to the matter at hand. “What did you find?”
“Here.” Agatha condensed an ice blade at her fingertips and pressed it into a large organ on the dissection surface. “This was recovered from the new Nest Mother. I found clear signs of age inside. I’ve seen nothing like it in any of the blade beasts.”
“Signs of age?” Roland leaned in. A dark blotch of creases marked the tissue where the blade had entered.
“Magic power strengthens the body — that’s been established for witches and demons both, so the Sky-sea Realm would be no exception. The clearest physical marker of that enhancement is extended life span.” Agatha withdrew the blade and straightened. “I reviewed the reports provided by the demons. There’s no clear record of Nest Mother longevity — on the contrary, the records note that blade beasts and similar creatures have short life spans. They die quickly, but the Nest Mothers breed replacements at speed.”
“You’re saying the situation here is reversed?” Nightingale spoke up from beside Roland. “This Nest Mother was old?”
“If I’d seen a single case, I couldn’t be certain. But four corpses arrived from the front lines, and every one of them showed the same indicators. That’s not coincidence.” Agatha gestured toward the remains. “And you’ve encountered a Nest Mother yourself — you know the scale they reach. None of these specimens exceeded ten meters. They have not yet reached their prime.”
“True.”
“The wings for leaping. The increasingly large scythes. Everything about these creatures runs contrary to prior records.” She turned to face Roland directly. “Your Majesty, I do not believe these are the same organisms as their counterparts in the sea.”
“Your conclusion?”
Agatha chose her words carefully, with the weight of someone who has tested them first. “I believe the Nest Mothers are transferring their own magic power to their servants — building stronger troops at cost to themselves. Their evolution is diverging from the ocean. More than diverging.” She held his gaze. “They are sacrificing the future of their species.”
Roland exhaled slowly. “That means we are in trouble.”
Chapter 1452 - The Deviating Skysea Realm
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
A minute later, another tank squadron rushed over to the intersection of Convoy 12’s and Convoy 9’s battlefield.
“Amy, Balshan, are you guys alright?” The leader, Iffy, shouted from afar.
Balshan waved her hand to indicate that she was fine, while Amy shouted back excitedly. “Why are you here? We just got rid of a large fella!”
“Wasn’t it because of the loud cannon booms.” Iffy finally relaxed after seeing that the two were unharmed. She jumped down the tank and quickly walked over to the monster’s body that had experienced having a high explosive shell tear through its body, and asked in shock. “What is this?”
“It should be a Nest Mother, but honestly, I’m not too sure,” Balshan muttered.
It could be said that the discharge had been delivered cleanly, not only were the internal organs completely destroyed, even the head had been blasted off. Of course, whether or not the monster had a head was a different question altogether—since according to logic, living creatures would not flee while running backwards.
The magic power within the monster dissipated subsequently, causing it to turn into its meat pulp state the instant the body collapsed. The only thing left standing were the two rows of completely damaged ribs.
“Are you sure this is a Nest Mother?” Iffy fished out her manual and compared them with a frown. “The bone structure seems similar, but it seems smaller, and there aren’t many tentacles… Right, have you seen the eyes inside its body?”
The enormous compound eye was the Nest Mother’s most prominent feature. According to the manual, it was more or less the same size as the Nest Mother’s internal organs and situated right in the center. It was impossible to miss.
Balshan shook her head. “I guessed that she was the Nest Mother, only because it was able to carry many blade beasts. As for everything else, I’m as confused as you are. But…” She paused for a moment. “Ignoring the Nest Mother, all the monsters here differ slightly from all the ones stated in the manual. If you don’t believe me, look at that dead blade beasts—”
Iffy then realized that the peculiarities on the blade beast corpses around the Nest Mother. “Are those… wings?”
“That’s right,” Balshan answered. “It looks as light and thin as a cicada’s wings, but much larger in size. Using these wings, they were able to pounce across large distances, that is something unprecedented.”
“I sort of understand why the higher ups wants us to retrieve intact Sky-sea Realm specimens.” Iffy sighed after staring at the corpses for a long time. “Their rate of evolution and variation is too astonishing.”
“That is a question the higher ups have to consider.” Balshan climbed up her tank and gestured to Iffy. “As for us—we just have to destroy them.”
…
The report of the First Army reclaiming the Taquila Ruins quickly arrived at Roland’s office.
In this “city battle”, the demonic beasts were no longer the main enemies. This was the first large-scale appearance of the Sky-sea Realm and the majority of the threat were from the blade beasts.
But compared to the previous time when a single or two blade beasts were enough to thwart the troops’ defense line, the outcome could be said to be completely different.
The newly commissioned armor unit displayed its decisive effectiveness in battle, not only by locking down the enemy’s position but also winning most of the battles. The First Army paid an extremely small price to eliminate most of the Sky-sea Realm’s presence, and gained a stable foothold on the Fertile Plains. Amongst the achievements, Convoys 12 and 9 had eliminated a Nest Mother as well as over ten blade beasts together while coming out unscathed, which completely overhauled how the army perceived battles. Aside from asserting details of the battle, the remaining report were related to applying for an increase in production of the tanks. Even with insufficient witches, the army was willing to allow ordinary officers to take command of the vehicles.
Obviously, they had tasted the benefits of having the heavy armor with allencompassing offense and defense capabilities.
Roland was not surprised by the outcome—the title of being the king of ground battles was established from the two World Wars, declaring the importance and weight of tanks in battles. If not for that, he would not had transferred a team to specially learn how to pilot the vehicles during the early phase of producing the tractors.
Compared to this matured weapon, Roland was more concerned over the monster corpses being delivered back by trains.
At noon time, Agatha’s phone call came. It was regarding the preliminary verdict on the dissection and analysis of the corpses.
…
Upon entering the Magic Tower’s lower levels, a cold breeze welcomed Roland.
A pile of large ice cubes were arranged in an orderly manner inside the large basement. People unaware would assume that the place was an ice storage, but Roland knew that the ice cubes were frozen Sky-sea Realm corpses transported back from the front lines for the Witch Union to research.
The dissecting area was located in the center of the room, where Agatha removed her gloves and performed the union’s hand salute to him.
“You seem happy,” Roland tightened his collar and commented.
“Because I’m back to my old job again.” Agatha smiled. “To be honest, the ice-cold laboratory still suits me best. Representing Taquila’s expeditions, all those political meets and conferences aren’t my strengths.”
With regards to the best representative of the ancient witches, Pasha was obviously the most suitable, but moving the carrier’s large body was mostly inconvenient, thus Agatha was rationally chosen as the second best candidate.
Seeing Roland’s desire to express himself but at a loss for words, the Ice Witch took the initiative and waved her hand. “Relax, your Majesty, the Battle of Divine Will takes precedence, I understand that.”
He nodded and focused on the pressing issues at hand. “What did you discover?”
“Your Majesty, please take a look here.” Agatha condensed an ice blade at her fingertips, and pricked into a large organ. “This was retrieved from the new Nest Mother, I found distinct signs of age in its interior. Likewise, I haven’t seen such a thing on any of the blade beasts.”
“Signs of age?” Roland frowned. He noticed that there was a clear dark blotch of creases at where the ice blade was.
“That’s right. Magic Power is capable of strengthening the magic user’s body, something proven on witches and demons, so naturally the Sky-sea Realm will not be an exception. And the most obvious indicator of the physical enhancement is an increased life expectancy,” Agatha explained in detail. “I have consulted the reports supplied by the demons, and there are no clear mentions of how long Nest Mothers can survive. On the contrary, it does state that blade beasts and the other beasts do not have long life expectancy. Even though they die fast, the Nest Mothers are able to breed new beasts quickly.”
“You mean to say… that the situation here is reversed?” Nightingale spoke up. “Could it be that this Nest Mother is old?”
“If it was a single case, it would be hard to tell. But we received four corpses from the frontlines, and I found similarities in all cases. This cannot be a coincidence,” Agatha replied. “And you’ve come across a Nest Mother yourself and know how big they are. In terms of size, all of these monsters that are less than 10 meters long do not look as though they’ve hit their prime.”
“That’s true.”
“And regardless of the wings they use to pounce or the increasingly larger scythes, everything is going against their past characteristics.” She turned and looked at Roland. “Your Majesty, I do not think that these things are the same as their old counterparts, those that reside freely in the water.”
“So your conclusion is?” Roland’s expression became solemn.
“I’m afraid that the Nest Mothers are moving their own magic power onto their servants to create even stronger sources of troops.” Agatha enunciated each and every word. “It is just that their evolution is deviating away from the ocean, to the extent that I can say that they are sacrificing the future of their species.”
Roland sighed. “But that means we are in trouble.”