Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 214 The Lord Tossed a Sun

As Rock watched the colossal creature writhe in the mountain path, its flesh churning and its corpses falling like a tide, his lips trembled slightly, and a chill ran through him.

He glanced furtively at Louis, trying to discern even the slightest hint of panic or hesitation on the lord's face.

But what he saw was a... smile.

“You’re here.” Louis’s lips slowly curled up as he said in a low voice, “I’m not afraid of you coming out, I’m afraid you’ll hide and refuse to come out.”

"Now that you're willing to hatch, things will be much simpler."

He raised his hand and waved it decisively. The sound wasn't loud, but it pierced through the wind and snow, reaching the eyes of each team on the defensive line:
"Heavy magic explosive bomb, prepare."

"Yes!" the knight squad in the distance responded in unison.

The artillerymen, who had been lying in ambush behind the earthen wall on the hillside, quickly took action, and the heavy tripod landed with a "click," as stable as a rock.

Immediately, a large, black magic explosive bomb was lifted into the loading slot and loaded, its outer shell gleaming with a cold, eerie light.

That was Hilko's proudest invention.

At this moment, he stood by the fourth-floor window of the main earthen castle, his elbows resting on the windowsill, gazing at the colossal body of the mother nest slowly emerging from the forest valley.

It was a horrifying monstrosity, a huge mass of rotting flesh, insect shells, and venom glands stitched together, with slime and insect carcasses constantly pouring out of its body, making the entire mountain path seem like it was covered by a moving plague.

But Hilko showed no fear whatsoever.

Instead, he laughed, his eyes flashing wildly, and muttered, "Only an opponent like this is worthy of my Demon Bomb. Today, let me see your true power."

High above, Louis kept a close eye on the movement of the mother hive, judging the wind direction, terrain, elevation difference, and enemy density.

After mentally calculating, he raised his right hand, slowly pointing his fingers together like a knife, directly at the swollen, still-wriggling sac between the mother nest's chest and abdomen.

"emission."

As soon as Louis finished speaking, the Cavaliers pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"boom--!"

The demon burst projectile roared, spewing out a violently trembling ball of blue-white incandescent light.

The tripod suddenly tilted back, the heavy recoil causing snow and ice to fly everywhere, and the ground to tremble slightly.

Unlike traditional magic explosions, this magic explosion bomb is a massive energy condensation that emits a captivating, scorching low hum as it flies, like a thunderbolt falling from the sky.

The mother nest has noticed.

It doesn't rely on the eyes; it doesn't have true vision.

Rather, it is instinct, a perception etched deep within the primitive genes of a living being, which is only activated in the moment before death.

At that moment, it paused.

The massive arthropod body trembled slightly in the snow, all its tentacles were still, and even the parasitic corpses seemed to have sensed the change in the mastermind and stopped moving.

The ball of blazing light falling from the sky made no sound, yet it was more oppressive than a storm and more destructive than a volcano.

A strange emotion arose within its will.

It wasn't anger, it wasn't alertness, it wasn't the hunger of predation, but fear.

Real fear.

It cannot understand what this is, cannot name it, and cannot even find a reference point in its instincts.

All it knew was that if it didn't escape, this thing would make it disappear.

But it was too late...

In the midst of confused hesitation, the fire had already arrived.

"Boom!!!"

The explosion instantly engulfed the mountain path, and within a core diameter of about fifty meters, the surface rocks melted into flowing, reddish magma under the high temperature.

All the insect corpses, whether weak or enhanced, were vaporized before they could even utter a wail, leaving not even a trace.

Beyond the epicenter, a high-temperature shockwave swept across an 80-meter-high hillside in a blazing inferno.

The shockwave crashed down like a giant burning wall, hurling and engulfing the insect carcasses, soil, and rubble.

Those swarms of insects that were not destroyed at the epicenter also burst into flames in the shockwave, their bodies charred, writhing and collapsing, emitting a series of cracking sounds.

Meanwhile, the massive mother nest's sensory system struggled to decipher the ball of light that descended from the sky.

However, it can only capture countless fragmented signals between nerve pathways: high temperature, distortion, heterogeneity, and lethality.

Its shell was ultimately no match for the ultimate firepower that combined alchemy and magical energy.

The heart sac between the chest and abdomen was precisely hit, and in the high temperature, the swollen internal organs burst, the insect fluid boiled, and black smoke rose like a poisonous cloud above the valley.

The shell surface developed multiple deep cracks, and the tentacles were torn apart and scattered by the shock wave, like broken branches.

Those supposedly non-renewable enhanced insect corpses lost their last resort in this attack. Their bone armor melted, their venom sacs exploded, and there was no possibility of them rebuilding.

The fire had not yet died down, and in the scorched pit, only a burning remains of a body struggled, trembled, and disintegrated between the flames and the cold snow.

This is civilization's condemnation of savagery; it cannot comprehend the malice of humanity's endless evolution.

A few minutes later, at the edge of the scorched pit, the flames had not yet died down, and the mountain wind, carrying the scorching heat and black smoke, howled through the mountain path.

The mother nest no longer exists, only a charred remains, constantly collapsing and disintegrating on the ground, like sins turned to dust after being burned away, carried away by the wind.

Hilko stood on the high platform of the Tulou castle, the wind blowing his disheveled hair, and the firelight reflected the flickering flames in his eyes.

“Ah…this is art!” he murmured, almost dedicating an aria to the magic bomb he had designed, “Precise, intense, utter purification…perfect. So perfect it makes you want to cry.”

At the very moment of the explosion, the entire earthen building shook violently.

It wasn't a shaking, but an impact that erupted from the ground, a thunderous tremor like a mountain roaring.

The wooden planks on the walls groaned, dust was shaken out of the window frames, and the oil lamps hanging from the beams swayed violently. Some people lost their balance and squatted down with cries of alarm.

Rock was leaning over the window, ready to yell "Stay calm, don't panic!", when the next second— "BOOM—!"

The tremors suddenly intensified, and a thunderous explosion came from outside the mountain, as if the air itself had been ignited.

At that moment, it felt as if the earth had been punched hard from the sky.

He felt as if his soul had been ripped out; his legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground with a thud, his bottom aching from the fall. But he paid no heed to the pain, because he had seen it.

He witnessed the sun-like magic bomb fall from the sky, land above the heart sac of the mother nest, and then explode.

That wasn't an explosion; that was the end of the world.

The mother hive was like a huge lump of flesh thrown into purgatory, rapidly decaying, disintegrating, and burning into charcoal in the flames.

The boiling insect slurry and burning tissue exploded together, and black smoke billowed up like a poisonous dragon emerging from the abyss, rising into the sky.

The entire valley looked as if it had been crushed by a giant's punch, the terrain was instantly reshaped, flames surged, scorched pits overflowed, and tentacles scattered.

Rock stared blankly, his eyes glazed over, his mouth opened and closed, but he couldn't utter a single word.

Only one thought remained in his mind:
The sun crashed down.

Rock finally couldn't hold back any longer. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground, muttering, "...The sun...the sun burned that giant monster to death..."

"Huh? What sun?" The crowd stirred.

"What did you say? The monster is really dead?"

"Explain yourself clearly! Explain yourself clearly now!!"

Someone pulled him up from the ground, and he sat up abruptly like a startled pigeon, his eyes wide, panting, and he shouted, word by word:

"It's true! The lord threw... a sun! It crashed down from the sky! It burned that mountain-sized monster to ashes in one go!"

He was so excited he was incoherent: "It...it was howling, struggling, rolling down the mountain in flames, and then 'poof,' it exploded!! Do you understand? It turned to ashes!!"

He waved his arms, like a madman or a prophet witnessing a miracle: "I saw with my own eyes its shell crack! Its tentacles broke off! Its insect sludge exploded out! The whole mountain road was burning!"

That wasn't fire at all, it was the wrath of the gods! Believe me—Lord, he is the master of the sun!!!

Inside the Tulou, after a brief silence, something was ignited.

With a deafening roar, cheers erupted like a flood.

"Sun! Sun!! The lord threw a sun!!"

"We're saved!!"

"The sun has returned to the red tide!!!"

The crowd shouted, knelt, yelled, and wept with excitement, as if the flames had burned into their hearts.

They couldn't see the battlefield; they could only piece together the terrifying yet sacred blow in their minds through the words of Rock, the temporary commentator.

But they knew one thing: they had won the battle.

They survived.

Their lord really did throw down a sun.

On the other side, Louis stood on the high ground, his expression calm as still water.

A cold wind, carrying the smell of scorched earth from the explosion, blew from the depths of the valley, lifting his cloak.

The black smoke continued to swirl in the sky, refusing to dissipate.

He didn't look at the charred remains.

The boiling insect scum, the twisted carapace, and the bursting tentacles were meaningless to him.

What really mattered was that the mother nest heart was completely destroyed in the flames.

He slowly raised one hand, bringing his index and middle fingers together and drawing them forward.

"Begin clearing the area."

He spoke softly, but the knights around him immediately sprang into action.

They emerged from the snow, clad in fireproof, cold-resistant iron armor, carrying flamethrowers on their shoulders, the nozzles making a soft hum.

Orange-red demonic flames, brimming with suppressed rage, burst forth from the long tube, trailing tongues of fire as they surged out, like fiery serpents leaping from the tube's opening and lunging at the remaining insect corpses on both sides of the hillside.

Those deformed creatures, still alive but injured, were engulfed by the blazing flames as soon as they began to writhe and struggle.

Flames quickly seeped into their bodies through their shells and joint gaps, churning beneath their armor. They twisted and convulsed, before exploding into charred chunks of flesh and tar.

The snowfield, licked by the flames, rose in mist and a burnt stench, the mud mingling with insect scum and melting snow, gradually being scorched into a desolate battlefield.

Louis watched quietly, and finally let out a slow breath.

He rarely showed his emotions in battle, especially in front of the knights.

But at this moment, he did feel a sense of relief from the bottom of his heart.

They preserved the Red Tide Territory.

The most stubborn cancer in the mother nest has been eradicated in one fell swoop.

It didn't even have a chance to fight back before it collapsed in the flames.

The threat to Xuefeng County was halved at this moment.

what does this mean?
This means that his most important foundation is now secure.

This means that he can now free up more troops and resources to rescue other territories in Snow Peak County.

He even heard bursts of cheers coming from the Tulou castle in the distance behind him, which made him smile.

(End of this chapter)