Boom—
On the sea surface where the aftershock had not yet fully faded, the pungent smell of gunpowder mixed with the salty stench of seawater rushed at their faces.
Floating battleship wreckage was still sizzling and burning.
Oil pollution spread large patches of hideous black across the azure sea.
Broken masts, melted metal plates, and charred scraps of cloth rose and fell slowly with the waves.
Occasionally unburned sparks would pop and then be instantly extinguished by the cold spray.
This was the battlefield where a bitter slaughter had just ended, and also the shared grave of the Alliance fleet and Transfer Station No. 29.
Countless fragmented images slammed wildly against her mind—the sky-blotting giant beast, the purple light columns shooting toward the heavens, the battleships that had melted and sunk, the elf’s face carrying contempt and coldness, and the sharp, piercing agony that had come through her forehead…
What happened?
What occurred? My head hurts so much…
It felt as if countless fine needles were viciously stabbing her temples, or as if she had been struck hard by a heavy object.
It was so heavy she could barely lift it.
Every attempt to recall was accompanied by a tearing dizziness.
Ella labored to furrow her brows.
Her lashes trembled lightly.
Her scarlet eyes slowly opened a crack.
Dazzling daylight spilled down through the clouds.
The coolness of the sea wind brushed across her cheeks.
In her ears was the rhythmic and heavy sound of waves striking, along with a low hum like the breathing of a giant beast that continuously came from beneath her feet, making her entire body feel faintly numb.
I remember… the Pathstrider just responded to my command…
Then? And then? What happened after that? Why don’t I have any impression at all?
The chaotic memories were like a scroll that had been forcibly cut short.
The latter half was a complete blank, leaving only scattered intense pain and mad killing intent that faintly ached deep in her consciousness.
She blankly moved her eyes and examined the surroundings.
Where is this?
What entered her sight was the familiar boundless ocean.
The blue waves stretched all the way to the horizon and met the pale-blue sky.
Black smoke from the battlefield still lingered on the distant sea surface.
And at this moment she was not lying on cold ruins or a blood-soaked deck, but lying on a hard, cold place that carried rough textures.
The sensation was icy and hard, faintly gleaming with metallic cold light.
Pitch-black.
Scales layered one upon another, each the size of half a person.
“Pathstrider?!”
She abruptly propped herself up, ignoring the successive sharp pains from her forehead, and looked down at what was beneath her.
A body as massive as a mountain range coiled across the sea surface, steadily supporting everything.
That giant beast Pathstrider that had just swept through the coalition and destroyed heaven and earth had now become the new land beneath her feet.
Its pitch-black outer skeletal carapace gleamed with a cold, hard luster under the sunlight.
The enormous body cut through the waves, barely stirring large waves as it advanced, only a low hum accompanying every movement.
What astonished her even more was that it was not only herself—those four who had previously been tightly shielded beneath her and remained unconscious had all also appeared on the Pathstrider’s back.
“Uh… you four… this posture…”
Ella’s gaze swept across the four.
She first froze, then the corners of her mouth rose uncontrollably.
The four seemed to have been casually fixed between the huge raised black scales on the Pathstrider’s back.
Their bodies were firmly stuck in the gaps of the scale armor, limbs slightly curled, completely unconscious and motionless—exactly like strings of sausages hung up to dry.
They were clearly wounded soldiers who had just experienced a life-and-death battle and were covered in injuries, companions who had nearly been buried in a sea of fire and tsunami.
Yet their current appearance was truly both comical and bizarre.
Ella knew that most likely, during the period when she had lost consciousness, the Pathstrider or other swarm units had used this crude yet effective method to fix them in place in order to prevent them from falling into the sea.
This intention of preserving their lives was beyond criticism, yet the scene before her eyes truly made it difficult to maintain seriousness.
“Heh~”
A soft laugh finally spilled from her lips, carrying a bit of relief along with a trace of helpless mockery.
On this dead silent battlefield, that laugh appeared especially abrupt.
She braced herself against the cold scale armor and moved her still somewhat soft legs, climbing step by step with difficulty toward the Pathstrider’s head.
The huge scale armor rose and fell like rugged mountainous terrain.
Every step required careful attention.
The silver-haired shorty finally managed to climb to the giant beast’s broad head.
Ella held onto a raised ridge and looked out.
The entire battlefield came into view.
As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but the wreckage of Alliance warships.
Fragments of all sizes floated on the sea surface.
The burning flames gradually weakened, leaving only black smoke.
In the distance, an especially huge and severely damaged metal ruin half-sank in the sea.
The broken structure was twisted and deformed.
Cabins gaped open.
Seawater poured in madly.
Transfer Station No. 29 had now completely become underwater ruins.
This battlefield still had too many good things left behind.
People would probably come to salvage them soon after hearing the news.
Those people would come in groups, and over time a new Transfer Station No. 29 might rise on the spot.
“Is the battle really over?”
Ella murmured to herself, her voice hoarse and carrying a trace of disbelief.
Those arrogant Alliance coalition forces that had attempted to bury her together with all the refugees, those angels and demons waving sacred light and burning hellfire, that vast fleet… at this moment had all turned into wreckage and floating corpses on the sea surface, no longer posing the slightest threat.
In the end, one thing had gone exactly as she predicted.
Just as she had thought, the fully developed Pathstrider had crushed these hypocritical mongrel dogs with an unstoppable posture.
The battle… the battle had truly ended…
Uh!
At that moment, a familiar sharp stabbing pain suddenly came from Ella’s forehead.
She grunted and subconsciously raised a hand to cover her forehead.
Her fingertips touched a patch of bloodstain that had already begun to coagulate.
The fragmented images all flooded into her mind…
Golden hair, long pointed ears—an elf drawing a longbow.
A green mana light arrow carrying lethal killing intent.
The arrow piercing through her right forehead.
Warm blood spraying out and dyeing her right eye red.
Her body stiffening uncontrollably, and then…
Swarm units receiving orders and launching out.
The Assassin and the Angel Tyrant facing the enemies head-on.
The elf and the demon dying one after another in misery.
One after another cold commands issuing from her mouth, carrying not the slightest emotion.
So that was it.
She had been pierced through the head by an elf’s arrow and should have died on the spot.
It was the nest will that had taken over her body at the critical moment, controlling her to issue commands, annihilate the enemies, and stabilize the battle situation.
Her body’s self-healing ability had then restored her brain now.
Ella slowly lowered her hand and looked at the bloodstains staining her fingertips.
She turned her head toward both sides of the Pathstrider’s shoulders and indeed saw two familiar figures.
The Angel Tyrant had unfurled its semi-transparent wings.
Its silver carapace fit tightly.
Six compound eyes were tightly closed.
Its sharp forelimbs were folded in front of its body.
The Assassin was curled up to the side.
Its strange purple outer skeleton had merged with the giant beast’s carapace, perfectly concealing its form.
The two swarm elites had wedged their own limbs into the gaps of the Pathstrider’s carapace and entered a low-energy standby state.
“That thing… actually didn’t take the chance to completely occupy my body? And let me wake up again?”
It had only temporarily taken control, and after resolving the crisis, had returned the body to her.
Why on earth was that?
This question circled in her mind for a moment but ultimately had no answer.
She knew that thinking more about it would only be futile.
Ella shook her head and decided to selectively forget it for now.
Perhaps because the distance was close enough, this connection to the Pathstrider was far easier than before.
Previously when she had manually controlled the Pathstrider to fight at full power, she had felt as if she had gone ten consecutive days without sleep, her brain aching as if about to explode.
But now it only felt like staying up for one day and one night without sleep.
The difference was not great, though—she was still exhausted enough that she wanted to collapse on the spot and sleep.
“I need… the Insect Nest…”
Ella bit her lower lip and forced herself to stay awake.
The current situation was not optimistic.
The four companions beneath her remained unconscious, carrying injuries of varying degrees, and urgently needed treatment.
The Pathstrider’s body was enormous and its consumption astonishing.
The large fish in this stretch of sea had already been completely devoured during its growth.
If it went without energy replenishment for a long time, this giant beast would eventually fall into weakness as well.
She had no choice.
Even though she clearly knew that establishing a complete Insect Nest and continuously expanding the swarm’s power might only make the nest will grow stronger and stronger, and the risk of herself being eroded and completely swallowed would also grow larger and larger.
But only by establishing a complete Insect Nest could she treat the four.
Only by building enough geothermal charging stations and extracting geothermal energy could she maintain the Pathstrider’s enormous consumption.
“Alright… at least now we have a ship.”
Ella lightly patted the cold scale armor beneath her feet.
Using a hundred-meter-tall giant beast as a vehicle? Truly bizarre to the point of being terrifying.
But then again, it seemed rather romantic as well…
“Pathstrider, advance first. We have to leave this place.”
Ella drew a deep breath and issued the command to the giant beast beneath her feet.
She did not believe this was the full extent of the Alliance’s strength.
A grand Alliance could not possibly have sent only this one fleet and hastily concluded matters.
This time they had merely been caught off guard and taken by surprise by the Pathstrider’s power.
Once the Alliance reacted, they would certainly dispatch even stronger forces to encircle them again.
As long as the enemy was not completely eliminated, danger would forever exist.
This battlefield could no longer be lingered in.
They had to leave as soon as possible, head to a remote and safe place, take root, establish the Insect Nest, and recover their strength.
Ella did not finely control every movement of the Pathstrider as she had before.
She only issued a vague forward command.
She discovered that although this kind of vague command was not as precise and efficient as manual control, it could greatly reduce the mental pressure.
A low hum sounded once more.
The Pathstrider’s enormous body slowly turned direction, broke through layer after layer of waves, and headed away from the battlefield.
Ella sat on the Pathstrider’s head, swinging her short little legs.
She tried wiping the blood from her head, but only ended up making the smell of blood on her body even stronger.
“Wait… maybe that wasn’t the nest will?”
She suddenly had a thought.
Since she remembered the memories of issuing those commands, and those commands, though seemingly cold, were actually the most suitable commands from her own perspective…
Could it be that the arrow really hadn’t killed her?
It had only destroyed part of her brain and altered her thinking, ultimately causing her to become like that?
“Alright. I suppose I’ll never get a definite answer in this lifetime.”