novelraw Chapter 222 - 182: Seven Days of Preparation, The War Has Begun
Chapter 222 - 182: Seven Days of Preparation, The War Has Begun
’I just wonder how much power a big guy like this actually has.’
’Theoretically, for a 400-kilometer vertical launch, one shot from this thing shouldn’t take any longer than the one to three minutes mentioned in the old era, right?’
’Ten kilometers a second? Can it really do that?’
Lince was intrigued, but that was all.
Using his powerful stealth Ability, Lince took a close, detailed look at the device—which wasn’t even as large as one of his own Dragon Claws—and then quickly departed.
Lince’s reason for appearing in outer space this time was actually quite simple.
He wanted to use the superior vantage point of outer space to observe the entire situation on Blue Star.
He was checking to see if there were any other weak points in the fabric of Space around Blue Star.
He even checked to see if the Insect People had any Star Gates in outer space.
After a thorough observation, Lince left, satisfied.
There were none.
Besides the Star Gate in the Arctic Circle, he found no other spatial nodes in any other region of Blue Star or in outer space.
And so, after a quiet wait, the seven days that had felt like an eternity for most of Blue Star’s citizens were finally coming to an end.
Meanwhile, beneath the iridescent Light Gate in the Arctic Circle.
The Human Alliance was fully prepared.
And in the Otherworld, the Insect People were long past impatient.
——————
「Green Saturn, The Desert」
The entire desert was swarming with densely packed Insect People.
These Insect People came in all shapes and sizes—tall and short, stout and lean.
The most typical and numerous among them were the Mantis People, who resembled giant mantises.
These Mantis People were members of the lowest caste in the Taven Insect Civilization.
They were known for their rapid reproduction and enormous numbers.
However, rapid reproduction had its downsides.
Namely, the average lifespan of these Mantis People was very short.
Standing five to five and a half feet tall, their average lifespan was barely over twelve years.
The main characteristics of their race were rapid growth and a short lifespan.
This meant that the Mantis People generally could not receive much in the way of widespread education.
Therefore, aside from the Mantis People of the Extraordinary Tier, nearly ninety-nine percent of the one-billion-strong Mantis People population were of low intelligence.
Low intelligence usually leads to chaos, and the Mantis People were already filled with belligerent tendencies.
It was no wonder, given they were born with a pair of forelimbs as sharp as blades.
Thus, this race was a race of natural-born bladed warriors.
But their low intelligence had its advantages.
Specifically, they made for very useful low-level laborers within the Taven Insect Race’s civilization.
The price, of course, was that the primary Insect People of Taven had to cultivate more Extraordinary Mantis People.
They would then use these Extraordinary Mantis People to control the generally low-intelligence Mantis population.
Thus, in the Taven Insect Civilization, the status of the Mantis People was effectively no different from that of slaves.
And when war broke out, they naturally made for the most useful cannon fodder.
The Taven Insect Race didn’t even need to give them any equipment for battle. The sight of blood was enough to send them into a Frenzy, charging headlong into enemy formations.
For the upcoming war, the Taven Insect People had therefore conscripted an initial force of over ten million Mantis People to serve as cannon fodder.
Once the Star Gate opened, these creatures would pour endlessly into the Otherworld.
Of course, at the same time, the core races of the Taven Insect People—that is, the Warriors from the thirty-odd other Insect Races—would also surge into the world on the other side, equipped with jetpacks and firearms.
These Insect People Warriors were the backbone of the Taven Civilization.
Many of them possessed incredibly powerful bodies.
The tallest among them exceeded sixteen feet, while even the shortest stood between six and six-and-a-half feet tall.
They were all outfitted with powerful Magic Protection Armor and wielded highly lethal, multi-functional Magic Firearms.
The moment the tens of millions of Mantis People surged into the world on the other side, more than a million of these elite Insect People soldiers would follow.
Of course, following them would be the Insect People’s reserve forces: the Magic Cannon Soldiers and the Aerospace Fighter squadrons.
At this moment, in this vast desert, over ten spires, each over three hundred feet tall, were converging powerful beams of light.
These beams converged on a massive, ring-shaped Star Gate that had materialized low in the sky, its diameter exceeding ninety miles.
At this very moment.
Surrounding the Star Gate as it rapidly stabilized and took its final form, a dense swarm of Flying Mantises stared intently at it, their expressions fervent and their blood-red eyes fixed upon it.
In the sky and on the ground, an army of nearly twenty million Insect People of all types covered almost every inch of the desert.
"At last, the time of the Oracle is upon us!"
"Brave Warriors of the Deities! For our great Deities, for the great Taven Civilization, go! Go and slaughter every living being from the Otherworld you see!"
"The time has come to show your courage and the Power of the great Taven Civilization!"
High above, a terrifying figure resembling a giant centipede floated in the sky.
Its terrifying body stretched for nearly two miles, and its fanatical voice boomed out a declaration of war to all the surrounding Insect People via Spiritual Transmission.
At the same time, countless tall, humanoid figures at its side added their own roars:
"Warriors!! Know this: we fight not only for our great Deities but also for more land!"
"Brave Warriors! With more land, you can reproduce freely, without restriction!"
"So go! For the future of your clans, and for the more prosperous future of the Taven Civilization! Slaughter! Conquer! Only then can our civilization secure a true future!"
"WAR!!!"
"WAR!!!"
"...."
The Mantis People, it must be said, didn’t understand complex reasoning.
But when it came to land and unrestricted reproduction, they were overjoyed.
As such, the Mantis People, destined to be cannon fodder, grew even more fanatical and excited.
And so.
Amidst the earth-shaking war cries, after the dozen or so towers slowly retracted their beams of light, the Star Realm Gate, which had been unstable in the sky, finally solidified!
The solidified Star Gate no longer required any external Power to sustain it!
The very next moment it fully formed!
The Flying Mantises, long in waiting, howled madly and charged for the gate.
Simultaneously, the next moment.
On the ground below, massive cannons roared to life!
These cannons didn’t fire shells, but rather massive balls of insects.
Each of these insect balls was about six and a half feet in diameter.
Inside, each one was densely packed with centipede-like creatures.
The primary purpose of these creatures was poison and parasitism!
That’s right.
As another wave of cannon fodder, at the same time the Mantis People surged toward the Star Gate, the Taven Insect People also launched hordes of cultivated, parasitic Insect Beasts.
The goal was to leverage the parasitic Insect Beasts’ minuscule size and overwhelming numbers to crush the Otherworld’s conventional combat units right from the start.
The war had begun!