Beyond the Apocalypse
Chapter 438: Taking the offensive (I)

Chapter 438: Taking the offensive (I)

A massive swarm of Leviathans coursed through the Keny Country, their dark shells casting an ominous glow across the ground. It was as if a colossal shadow was moving over the earth, a dark wave swallowing everything in its path. They were packed so tightly together that not even an inch of the ground beneath their countless pincers could be seen. The swarm was immense—over six million strong—and if that number wasn’t terrifying enough, among them were hundreds of insect-humanoid hybrids and hundreds of thousands of aerial units.

The aerial units took turns, tens of thousands at a time, constantly surveying the sky and the path ahead to respond to any attack that might arise. Their multifaceted eyes scanned the horizons, wings buzzing in a relentless drone that filled the air. And that was just the beginning. The ground beneath the swarm trembled continuously, signaling the presence of Armored Leviathans burrowing beneath the earth. These subterranean units scouted for any signs of hidden danger below and were ready to emerge behind enemy lines if required.

It was clear that the hive mind would not allow any threat to appear on the swarm’s path without it noticing it. More than once, it had suffered casualties due to sneak attacks, and it did not want the pattern to repeat itself.

Up to this point, all these forces were ones the hive mind had deployed before. But while the size of this swarm was larger than any previous one, it was clear that the enemy had also become stronger. The hive mind was not insane; it would not repeat the same tactics and expect different results. That was why, among the swarm, there were new units.

At the rear of the procession loomed a new type of Leviathan—a towering creature standing twenty meters tall. It resembled a grotesque biological catapult, a living siege weapon. Its massive frame was composed of interlocking chitinous plates, pulsing with veins that glowed a sickly green. Long, spindly legs supported its weight, digging deep into the earth with clawed appendages. From its hunched back protruded a large, organic launcher, oozing with corrosive slime. The creature’s head was devoid of eyes, instead featuring a gaping maw that emitted low-frequency vibrations, communicating with the swarm. This Siege Leviathan exuded an aura of dread, its presence harbinger of destruction.

It was clear to the hive mind that one of the fortes of the human forces was their ability to use their surroundings and strongholds to fight back against the massive swarms. Its first attempt to overcome that obstacle had been the Behemoth, but it became evident that close-range assaults were not effective. The humans had too many powerful entities capable of eliminating any threat that ventured away from the protection of the swarm. The key was distance, which was why it designed the Siege Leviathans to strip that advantage away.

The goal was simple: destroy any form of fortification the humans might have from a safe distance. Once their walls and bulwarks were reduced to rubble, the full might of the Leviathan swarm would be unleashed upon them, leveraging their overwhelming numbers to drain the stamina of the defenders before delivering the final blow. Each Siege Leviathan cost a massive amount of biomass to create, as the biological energy required to unleash barrages capable of leveling fortresses was immense. Thirty Elite Units surrounded them to protect these valuable assets—most likely the survivors from the Kylen Country’s shore and others the hive mind had deemed worthy to send into the army.

As the massive swarm advanced, the eyes of the Leviathans glowed with a strange light, reflecting the complex calculations of the hive mind as it processed the losses it had just suffered in the Kylen Country and Rand Country. The more than four million units spread around the two countries were supposed to silently join this massive swarm, generating a force ten million strong, but the humans had butchered all those units. The hive mind could not understand how they knew of the attack and how they found and killed the clusters of Leviathans spread across the two countries so quickly. But there was nothing it could do about it now; not only had it lost the element of surprise, but also a significant portion of its war power.

The hive mind calculated that the human forces must have retreated back to Kuro Mountain and were currently fortifying their defenses, just as they had in all previous encounters. Even with the Siege Leviathans, it knew that assaulting such a stronghold would not be easy. However, the truth was that the hive mind was about to face something much worse than an enemy in a strong defensive position.

The massive swarm was just reaching a critical point in the Keny Country—a path that resembled an enormous ’L’ shape. To their right lay a massive canyon, its sheer walls dropping into darkness. To their left towered a rugged mountain range, its peaks piercing the sky. The geography forced them to take this route, but the passage was wide enough for tens of thousands of Leviathans to march side by side, so it was not considered an inconvenience.

As they progressed, the swarm moved along the vertical stretch of the path before making a sharp turn into the horizontal section. Half of the swarm was now within the vertical part, while the other half stretched along the horizontal route. They advanced confidently, the sound of millions of legs and wings creating a deafening roar that echoed off the canyon walls.

Then it happened.

High in the sky, at an altitude beyond the reach and perception of the aerial units, a blinding red light appeared. The air ignited, flames dancing across the clouds as the sound of lightning echoed through the heavens. The atmosphere seemed to crackle with energy, a palpable tension that descended upon the swarm.

The Leviathans gazed upward, their eyes widening as the hive mind recognized that ominous light. It was the same phenomenon it had witnessed before, when more than one hundred and fifty thousand of its units had perished in the Rand Country.