Chapter 1309 — A Regional Victory

Bertrem turned and left, rapidly withdrawing deeper into the wasteland under the protection of his guard units. He abandoned half his troops, leaving them to draw the Cecilian artillery fire. After retreating some distance further into the wasteland, he finally felt his nervous system gradually begin to recover—that continuous stinging began to weaken.

This phenomenon immediately eased his heart: although that living forest looked terrifying, her power could indeed only be maintained within a fixed area like a plant's. Despite the forest's obvious ability to spread, her rate of spread was limited by biomass reserves and her own structure; she could not run into the wasteland to pursue him.

An enemy that could not move was no strong enemy.

At this moment, Bertrem truly relaxed somewhat, even deliberately letting himself relax excessively. It was as if he wanted to use this method to temporarily forget the horror of that living forest, to forget the suffering reported by the frontline aberrations—torn apart by the teeth beneath the earth, continuously dissolved by the living forest's stomach sacs—and, most importantly... to forget the terrible failure of losing half his vanguard legion.

He stopped in a low-lying hollow. The towering, jagged rocks around him blocked the cold wind of the wasteland. He seemed still able to hear faint sounds—the boom of shells striking the ground and the chewing of the living forest. And amid these sounds, like lingering phantom pain in his nervous system, he heard a broken, already very faint murmur coming invisibly—

"Flee all you like... crawl back to your old nest... but we will find you in the end, Bertrem... My distant limbs still lack an after-dinner dessert, and there is a corner in my stomach sac still reserved for you and Bolken..."

...

Before the half-buried communications bunker, Fendir stared dumbfounded at the astonishing turn of events on the battlefield. He looked toward the Dark Mountains and saw a lush, dense jungle standing in the wind—so flourishing that it was impossible to imagine that not long ago that land had been barren, scorched earth. In the dim shadows deep within the jungle, he could also see some still-twisting, writhing roots and vines moving swiftly; even as they smoothed the surrounding land, they were rapidly transforming through organized conversion into shrubs, flowers, and berry thickets within the forest.

Fendir recognized those berry thickets and shrubs. He had once visited Solin Fort; in that land of miracles, similar berries and shrubs could be seen everywhere, and they were important local economic products.

The young northern marquis had already roughly guessed a great deal. He glanced down at the emerald-green vine on the ground near the fortification gate and the few small flowers that had just bloomed beside it, and could not help muttering softly: "This really is... quite the grand gesture."

He could not guess the full scope of His Imperial Majesty's plans, but he could guess that this must be a trump card—and one that had been forced to be revealed ahead of time. The aberration army's attack on the Sentinel Tower was an unexpected development, and the extinguishing of the Grand Wall was even less part of the plan. Therefore, this "living forest" that had suddenly risen to plug the breach was probably not originally meant to deal with this moment; this card should have had another use, but now...

The extinguishing of the Grand Wall had forced Lady Beiyila, who had been secretly spreading deeper into the wasteland, to emerge ahead of schedule and expose herself before the enemy in the form of a living forest.

Fendir shook his head and did not let his thoughts go further. This was not something he could consider right now.

The excited impulse he had felt when he first joined the army had already been cooled by reality. This vast, hard-to-control battlefield, which exceeded everything taught in school, made the young man clearly realize that the true frontline of this era was different from what he had imagined.

Just then, a buzzing sound came from inside the bunker, mixed with the static crackle of signal interference.

Fendir and the signal soldiers he led exchanged a quick glance and ran back into the bunker.

The magic-net terminal, which had been urgently repaired, was emitting a blurry, intermittent broadcast. The voice from the frontline command center was speaking to every soldier along the entire defense line.

The broadcast instructed the soldiers to seize the brief respite to rest and reorganize, for each unit to report losses, transport the wounded, and reform their ranks; to abandon the Grand Wall, which had gone completely dark and could not possibly be restarted; and to rebuild the defense line relying on the newly appeared "greenwood barrier."

The general did not issue orders for a reckless counterattack or an advance into the wasteland amid this sudden "victory," which made Fendir breathe a sigh of relief.

The aberration legion's rout was only a local phenomenon. Hidden beneath that local phenomenon was the possibility that, apart from the Cecilian defense line, the entire Grand Wall was on the verge of total loss of control. Moreover... that living forest could not simply pick up and leave like an ordinary military unit.

Stabilizing and reinforcing the defense line was the immediate priority; a victorious counterattack was a matter for the next step.

"Sir..." A soldier's voice came from beside him, interrupting Fendir's thoughts. The soldier looked somewhat nervously at the "forest" swaying slightly in the wind not far away, and muttered cautiously, "This forest... is it really our ally?"

"...The Imperial army changes with each passing day. Sometimes some unexpected friendly units do suddenly appear," Fendir said, not knowing how to explain to the soldier what he had deduced, and could only force out the words with a strange expression. "You will get used to it. I even learned stranger things in the noncommissioned officers' school..."

"Really?" The soldier's mouth twitched, but he still could not help turning his head to glance at the forest nearby, muttering softly, "But this is still a bit too strange..."

"Stop muttering. The orders from above have already come down," Fendir shook his head helplessly and said with a sigh. "We should first report back to the main base... I have a feeling this is only the beginning."

...

The "living forest" that had suddenly appeared near Sentinel Tower No. 98 was not visible only to the Cecilian people and the aberrations.

Its scale was so great, its range so vast, that it even reached the vicinity of the Typhon defense line.

At the eastern end of the "Greenwood Barrier," atop a steep and treacherous mountain ridge, Anluo Wendell stood wrapped in her greatcloak against the biting wind, the corner of her eye twitching as she stared at that "forest" which had plugged the gap in the barrier.

"Cecil's people... what in the world have they cooked up this time?"

She suddenly felt that the changes in this world had grown a little beyond her ability to comprehend.

(End of this chapter)