Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 188 The Mad Mother Nest

The mountain wind whistled through the dense forest, carrying with it a pungent stench of decay.

Will held his breath for a long time before finally lowering his voice and saying, "My God, is that the Mother Nest... It's so disgusting."

He spoke softly, but his voice trembled uncontrollably, as if afraid of disturbing the silent yet writhing world below the valley:
Below the hillside lies a gaping hole in the valley floor, seemingly torn open by the earth.

Sunlight could not penetrate the tree canopy, leaving only a dim, deathly light that outlined a huge, writhing black shadow.

The mother nest is located in the deepest part of that shadow.

It resembled some kind of giant beehive or festering organ, perched on the mud, its surface covered with a pale, resinous shell, each slight movement producing a sticky, wet sound.

The shell was studded with the afterimages of human faces, mostly adult men, their expressions twisted and struggling, as if they were frozen in pain forever, sealed in a nightmare-like amber.

On the open ground near him, rows of insect corpses were slowly moving.

Some of those insect corpses were once humans, some were once magical beasts, and some could vaguely be identified as having once been knights.

Their eyes were vacant, their steps were synchronized, as if they were being pulled by an invisible thread, and they lifted up the corpses one by one and threw them into the open cracks of the mother nest in perfect unison.

It was like a ritual for the dead.

Silent, repetitive, and without end.

That wasn't a battlefield; it was more like a stage for sacrifice.

No one could speak.

Even the Duke of Edmund, a veteran of many battles and accustomed to bloodshed, frowned slightly. Standing beside Louis, he gazed at the illogical scene with an unusually somber expression in his eyes.

He patted Louis on the shoulder, as if to advise him: "I don't think this is something you should be dealing with."

The Duke's tone was not reprimanding, but advising. He had already approved of the young man before him, and in most cases, he regarded him as a pillar of the future.

However, since he had never seen it before, he didn't know if his peak knight strength was enough to contend with it, let alone the knights under Louis's command.

He wanted to say a few more words of persuasion, and even considered forcing a retreat.

But turning his head, he saw that when Louis looked at the Mother Nest, there was not a trace of hesitation in his eyes; rather, it was as if he were examining a city waiting to be attacked.

The young man's focused expression and burning gaze were the light only those who were certain of victory possessed.

Edmund wanted to say something more to persuade him to abandon this dangerous gamble, but he ultimately remained silent.

It's not a bad thing to let this spirited young man suffer a little.

Who hasn't been slapped in the face by reality a few times when they were young before learning true caution and maturity?

Besides... he's already ridiculously stronger than most people.

Louis and his group were located on a secluded hillside about two miles from the mother nest, surrounded by trees on three sides.

In order to ascertain the size of the mother hive before it spreads, Louis led his assault team on a journey that began at noon and continued day and night until this evening.

Only then did they finally arrive at this "heart" built of corruption and fear.

"Prepare."

The wind was still howling on the hillside, stirring up fallen leaves and dust.

But Louis's voice remained as steady as a rock, without the slightest fluctuation. He squinted at the enormous nest surrounded by the corpses of insects, his right hand slightly raised, his fingertips twitching.

The knights hidden in the forest held their breath, gripping their specially made javelins tightly. These were weapons bound with magic explosion crystal cores, powerful enough to tear through rocks and incinerate iron armor.

Louis waved his hand.

"put!"

The next moment, several cold lights roared out from the shadows, tearing through the sky and heading straight for the mother nest!

The air seemed to be torn apart, and a shrill sound pierced the eardrums.

The spear, trailing a dazzling red light, shot towards the massive, black and red nest like a fiery meteor falling from the sky.

however.

"Snapped!"

A thick, jet-black tentacle suddenly sprang from the surface of the mother nest, striking the flying spear heavily and knocking it to the ground along with the exploding light.

Bang! Flames erupted, but only burned a shallow pit at the outer edge of the valley entrance.

Immediately afterwards, a second, a third... countless tentacles covered in foul-smelling slime burst forth from the surface of the mother nest.

Like a disturbed deep-sea monster, it danced wildly, forming a suffocating defensive line that blocked all the incoming spears.

“Tsk.” Louis squinted and murmured.

Even as the echoes of the explosion faded, a nauseating noise came from the bottom of the valley.

"Giggle...giggle giggle...gaa—"

A corpse of an insect, which was originally lined up neatly and placed into the corpse box, suddenly stopped moving.

Their heads suddenly tilted to the side, and a creaking, wriggling sound came from the unnaturally joined bones in their necks.

Then, it began to convulse like a puppet out of control, uttering a kind of whisper that imitated human language but was completely incomprehensible.

"Muttering...back...gurgling...mother..."

Its fingers twisted and trembled, its feet retreated and spun, as if struggling, or as if obeying some irresistible call.

In the next instant, as if a chain reaction had been triggered, hundreds and thousands of insect corpses convulsed violently at the same time.

The humanoid insect corpse began to howl, its voice a mixture of screams and cheers.

The monster-shaped insect corpses began to kneel on the ground, their tongues drooping and wriggling.

Even more astonishingly, some of the half-rotted remains of knights raised their broken swords high and turned their heads in unison towards the hillside. Pairs of cloudy, white-meshed eyes unexpectedly focused on these distant observers.

That was neither a roar nor a call, but an echo of some kind of collective command.

They suddenly became agitated, pushing and biting each other, rushing up the slope from the bottom of the valley without regard for anything else.

Their formations were chaotic, their movements distorted, yet they possessed a chilling fervor.

A pure, insane urge to kill in a mass slaughter!
"Disruptive Knights, advance!"

Louis's command was calm and firm, like an ice stone thrown into an abyss.

As the command flags were waved, several squads of knights emerged from both sides of the forest, five men per squad.

Burning with red battle aura, he rode his warhorse like a crimson meteor, charging along both sides of the valley floor, instantly disrupting the swarm of writhing, black-mist-like insect corpses.

"Distract the enemy as much as possible, no direct confrontation allowed!" the forward captain roared, issuing the order.

Horse hooves flew, and dirt billowed everywhere.

The Crimson Tide Knights skillfully circled the outer ring of the insect corpses, each approach accompanied by sweeping javelins, hurling oil bottles, and piercing spears.

Each strike tore through a chaotic mass of corpses and pus, yet they never sought personal glory, retreating swiftly in their entirety. But unexpected events always occurred.

"Ugh!"

A low growl suddenly rang out, and a young knight in the front ranks was a beat too slow. He was struck on the shoulder by a heavy sword swung by a zombie insect, and he and his horse fell to the ground and rolled into the mud.

That was no ordinary corpse.

It was once a knight of the Northern Elite Legion, and after its death it was devoured by the Mother Nest, but it still retains the muscle memory from its march.

Its body is as stiff as iron, yet it can wield its sword with precision to kill, and it pounces and bites like a wild beast with immense strength.

"Sven!" a teammate shouted, but the man remained silent.

As soon as he fell to the ground, the insect corpses swarmed over him, engulfing him, biting through his armor, and tearing his flesh apart.

What is shocking, however, is that the severed insect corpse, after its legs were cut off, was crawling on its two broken forearms.

With its teeth gripping the ground, it darted out like a snake and pounced on the hind legs of another knight's warhorse.

"Damn it!" Another knight quickly flipped backward and leaped, throwing his short spear to pin the man to the ground, barely avoiding the fatal blow.

But what's even more terrifying is yet to come.

Suddenly, a gurgling popping sound came from the slain insect corpse, and a swollen sac-like tissue burst out from its abdomen.

Large splatter of greenish-black corrosive liquid sprayed onto the ground, causing even the rocks to hiss.

At the same time, hundreds of translucent parasites poured out of the burst body cavity, rising like smoke, and wriggling wildly as they burrowed outwards.

"Face armor! Fully enclosed!"

"Hold your breath! Don't expose your breathing hole!"

The commander, who was well-prepared, roared the order, and all the knights continued to swing their spears while pulling down their sealed masks.

Their armor was corroded by the insects, and they growled, but their eyes remained resolute and clear; none of them were controlled by the swarm.

No one ran away.

Everyone roared as they charged on horseback again and again, circling around, retreating, and then charging again!

Their fighting spirit burned wildly, transforming into raging red flames on the bodies of every Crimson Tide Knight!
Fear pressed down the moment each javelin was thrown.

Anger burned with each fallen comrade.

The corpses of insects surged like a tide, and the Crimson Tide Knights burned like fire.

The constant disturbance, pulling, and harassment forced the insect corpses around the mother nest to gather towards the outer edge.

It was a "luring the enemy" operation that brought death close at hand.

But they succeeded.

As the first rays of the setting sun pierced through the mountains and forests and shone into the valley, the shadows in front of the distant mother nest had already thinned out.

A large number of insect corpses were lured to the outer circle by the Crimson Tide Knights, who chased and roared around them mindlessly, but could not extinguish this elite force of fire.

Duke Edmund stood on the edge of the rock, his gaze fixed on the column of red-clad knights moving through the black tide in the valley.

He didn't speak, but the tremor in his eyes was almost impossible to hide.

This is not a training exercise, nor is it a show.

It was a daring battle, a war of luring the enemy to the brink of hell.

And they did it so cleanly and efficiently.

Precise coordination, unwavering formation, and calm execution that allowed them to navigate life-or-death situations...

Even among the "official knights," not a single one fled, and not a single one was consumed by fear!

Even as their comrades fell, even as the insect corpses relentlessly pursued and bit them, those knights only roared, gritted their teeth, and charged forward again!

Edmund was astonished by the discipline of Louis's knights.

Even though the leadership has only been established for less than two years, with just that little foundation... how could they have already forged such a team?
He glanced back at Louis, who stood silently beside him. The boy wore a deep red cloak, stood ramrod straight, and had no expression on his face.

It was as if those charging forward were not soldiers, but chess pieces on his chessboard, steadily advancing the game he had set up.

Louis stood firmly in the wind, gazing ahead with a calm and composed expression.

“Very good,” he said in a low voice, “Continue, prepare for the second phase.”

(End of this chapter)