Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 231 The End of the Mother Nest
After the death of the Witch of Despair, the Endbringer finally descended into utter madness.

The colossal nest that had once dominated the northern border and was as unshakeable as a god let out a mournful howl after its core was severed, refusing to fall even as it lay dying.

It began its final struggle.

Flesh and blood surged like waves, and the corrupted wall of flesh suddenly closed, attempting to devour all remaining invaders.

Countless surviving, pieced-together corpse monsters convulsed wildly, rampaging and counterattacking like puppets whose nerves had been severed.

Even with its body cavity torn and brainstem ulcerated, it still lunges at the nearest human, biting, scratching, and howling with its mangled body!
The spore storm rose from all directions, swirling with waves of high temperature, high toxicity, and high corrosiveness.

The knight, vomiting violently, rolled and convulsed on the ground. Someone raised a shield to block him, but even his battle aura began to be corroded and eroded away!

The ground bulged, the cavity walls burst, and the entire nest raged like a mad beast, crashing against its inner tissues.

In this final madness, logic is no longer paramount; the sole aim is to drag the enemy down with them into the abyss!
The ovary ruptured, and the cytoplasm overflowed, spurting out a column of blood tens of meters high like a volcanic eruption.
The fleshy wall shattered and collapsed, like the skin of a giant beast peeling off, with gushing blood mixed with bone fragments surging wildly in the cave.

At the end of the collapsed passage, a figure still knelt upright, as majestic and solemn as a statue, his crimson armor burning silently amidst the shattered light and dust.

Gaius Calvin.

To protect Arthur's path of light, he activated "Bloodline Talent: Undying Charge" four times in a row!
Every charge is a self-destructive inferno.

Blood boils, nerves tear, and the sound of bones shattering echoes like thunder within the body.

His eyes were already bloodshot, like molten gold; his eardrums were ruptured; blood was flowing from his mouth and nose; every part of his body was screaming—but he never retreated a single step.

He roared and laughed wildly, using his own body as a battering ram and shield wall, crashing into the abyss four times.

And at the moment of landing after the fourth charge,

The moment he saw that light with his own eyes, the moment Arthur severed the Heart of the End.

He finally knelt down.

It's not about falling down, but about kneeling with the solemnity of having completed one's mission.

The crimson iron heavy armor dimmed inch by inch, and the fighting spirit slowly subsided like a extinguished furnace.

His armor was still facing forward, the direction Arthur had charged towards, the hope he held onto.

The wind blew across the ruins of blood and spores, reflecting his lingering image.

But fate still wouldn't let go of his last warmth.

“Guda…”

The swarm of tentacles from inside the End Nest suddenly went berserk!
A writhing nerve whip, as thick as a stone pillar, suddenly fell from the dome-like ceiling, carrying several tons of pressure, extremely toxic spores, and corrosive nerve pulses, striking directly at Gaius's motionless figure.

Arthur turned around abruptly.

At that moment, his pupils contracted sharply, and he had no time to think.

He barely managed to hold on to his depleted fighting spirit, instinctively breaking through the flames and the aftershocks. His light blade transformed into a blur as he lunged at Gaius!
[Bloodline Talent - Light Chaser Style] Fully Activated!
Every meridian in his body was burning, his battle qi speed was breaking through the limit, and his body could barely withstand it—

But he still stood in front of Gaius!

Let's hear "BOOM!!!"

The tentacles slammed down, shattering the ground, and the splattered putrid liquid rained down like fire.

Because his fighting spirit was exhausted, his defense failed, and his light blade did not return.

Although the tentacle was severed with a single strike, the corrosive spore toxins had already rushed into Arthur's right arm along the wound!

"Uhhhhhhhh-!"

His right arm turned from flesh and blood to charcoal ash in just a few seconds.

The entire arm, along with the light blade, shattered and fell to the ground, leaving only a piece of bone and armor dripping blood.

"My lord!" a knight cried out from afar.

Arthur did not respond, but simply hoisted Gaius onto his shoulder and charged toward the exit.

At the same time, a figure appeared on the edge of the collapse.

Duke Edmund braced himself with one hand on his broken shield, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, while several survivors dragged behind him.

"Don't stop... Everyone, retreat!" Boom! Another piece of cavity wall fell, corpse fluid gushed out, and rotting flesh collapsed like a mountain.

The passage has collapsed; time is of the essence.

"Everyone—evacuate!"

Edmund's roar echoed through the collapsed cavity, shaking the rock walls and sending dust flying.

Holding Gaius in one arm, Arthur led the charge into the not-yet-fully-closed tunnel of flesh and blood. The remaining survivors followed closely behind, stumbling and falling through the blood and spore-filled dust, with the ever-collapsed, crumbling, and writhing hell behind them!

They are fleeing.

No one fought anymore. They had long since fought to the point of exhaustion.

Some lost a leg but were carried forward by their comrades; some lost an eye but still clung to their comrades and kept going; some bit their lips until they bled and choked with sobs, but refused to stop.

Those who survive must go out in place of the dead.

The inside of the mother nest is collapsing, and the spore waterfall is pouring back into the cavity, as if it is devouring the last scars of battle.

Duke Edmund, bringing up the rear, desperately held onto the last piece of crumbling wall, roaring hoarsely, "Quickly—move!!"

Finally, before the core of the Mother Nest completely collapsed, the last knight tumbled out of that bloody inferno.

Team 10, consisting of 103 members, set out on the expedition, but only 42 returned.

They were once the empire's proudest and sharpest weapon.

They are high-ranking extraordinary individuals, the most promising group among the noble knights.

Many of them were the sole heirs of their families, sons of generals, and all were pillars of the empire's future.

Now, most of their names will forever remain on that road leading to the Mother Nest of the End.

After everyone fled, the terrifying being that had once crushed the North finally came to an end.

After a final frenzy, the End Nest finally collapsed.

The spore membrane burst open, the cavity walls collapsed, the control core shattered, the central nerve snapped, and the assembled corpse monsters fell to the ground one after another, like puppets with broken strings, turning into corpse fluid and putrid mud.

The nest that once teemed with eerie vitality is now a disemboweled corpse, overflowing with endless spores, bits of flesh, and a sea of ​​blood.

The black fog dissipated, the earth trembled, and a storm echoed in the sky.

The entire End Nest collapsed into the abyss of the earth amidst flames and gravity.

Like a fallen temple, it has sunk into the depths of history and oblivion.

And almost at the same instant...

The Mother Nests, scattered throughout the North, also collapsed.

The small mother nests hidden beneath the mountains, in glacial crevasses, and in the depths of dead lakes echoed with violent tremors and structural collapses.

The countless insect corpses crawling across the wasteland and city ruins suddenly stiffened.

They seemed to have lost their will to control themselves, and in the next second they all collapsed to the ground, their limbs twitching, festering, and disintegrating, turning into black spores and foul-smelling sludge, flowing like an avalanche among the ruins.

Without a roar, without a cry of despair, the swarm died.

Without any transition, as if some indescribable central consciousness had been completely extinguished, billions of alien species fell silent along with it.

At the bottom of the collapsed End Nest, a black insect shell slowly emerged.

It was a palm-sized, insect-shaped parasite, like an incubation sac for a soul.

It did not die.

This was the final will of the Despair Witch, and this calamity was quietly sliding into the depths of the earth's fissure, instinctively fleeing into the distance.

Once it reached a safe place, it remained silent and still, enveloping itself like an infant sleeping in its placenta.

Waiting for the next... hatching.

(End of this chapter)