Xyrin Empire
Chapter 596 I’m Terrified

Chapter 596: Chapter 596 I’m Terrified

My initial battle plan was as follows:

The Federation Fleet brazenly moved to high orbit, drawing the enemy space fleet into combat, using the advantage of Ghost Energy Mode to annihilate those ships. The Federation’s best ghost agent, Nova, infiltrated the control center of the space orbital guns. After the Federation secured air superiority in space, they turned those guns to bombard Crystal Peak, destroying the enemy’s low-orbit anti-aircraft bases. The final step would be a landing operation where three hundred thousand ravenous Marines, Templars, and Heroic Spirit Army would descend to plunder money, food, and territory. Two hours later, a celebration would be held, the ending credits would roll, and the enemy’s cast list would all feature black frames...

At least, that was the plan before the battle began.

But now there’s been a slight problem: After I ordered the orbital guns to be destroyed, I remembered what was supposed to come next.

Human Clan Battlecruisers do not possess the capability for orbital bombardment, and although the Protoss Fleet can "glass" under any circumstances, Crystal Peak could not withstand their high-energy fire. The Imperial Fleet does have this capability, but I’m not planning to allow the Shepherds to dispatch too many fleets to the Western Sky Zone before other military actions start.

I have seen the defense system planning map for Crystal Peak that Fina sent over. This military fortress was like a scarily fortified ciwei. On the ground-based defensive capability alone, its glistening earth’s crust was practically covered with giant anti-aircraft guns, apart from mines and power stations. Reynolds roughly calculated, and in the luckiest scenario, a single battlecruiser would need to endure over thirteen hundred hits from these guns before even seeing the horizon—Crystal Peak’s original garrison must have walked right out of a tower defense map; they spent over thirty years doing nothing but building gun towers.

Regrettably, these numerous defense towers were ultimately sabotaged by a few spies, so once again, hats off to the spies from the Gusta Church.

Without orbital bombardment to destroy those energy nodes of the defense towers, descending would be suicidal.

Fortunately, I still have a "Big Sister" whose DPS is fiercer than an orbital cannon.

A stack of white paper, one square meter in size, was spread out on the table. Big Sister held a whiteboard marker priced at fifty-one cents each and wrote with flamboyant strokes. Surrounded by a circle of curious Heroic Spirits and Federation Soldiers who had only heard of her but had never witnessed Big Sister’s real curse power, they couldn’t associate her, always smiling gently, with a weapon of mass destruction. However, the moment Big Sister fully unleashed her abilities, stimulated by a certain chilling aura, everyone suddenly realized one thing: never underestimate anyone associated with Xyrin, even the healing types.

"That’s enough, this will suffice."

We all knew, for some reason, Big Sister’s curse rune structure was... very simple, so in less than a minute, dozens of blank papers had been transformed into powerful objects. After rolling these papers into paper cylinders, Big Sister handed them over to Reynolds, who stood by. Curiously peering inside the cylinder, Big Sister chuckled softly, "Hehe, if you open it prematurely, it could bring disaster to your descendants for over twelve thousand generations~~~"

That was extremely ruthless... But as a replacement for orbital bombardment with curse beacons, it might actually be that fierce.

"With invisibility-enabled Banshee fighters dropping those things above the main energy stations of Crystal Peak and then crashing from the high altitude, it’s that simple," Big Sister stretched languidly, then leaned in slightly, her voice tinged with a hint of fatigue, "Ah Jun, Big Sister is a bit tired; this kind of curse that needs to change gravity rules really saps one’s strength."

The Federation Fleet, gaining the upper hand, quietly hovered outside the firing range of Crystal Peak’s ground defense guns. On the other hand, though equipped with countless anti-aircraft guns, the surface-based Gusta Invading Army must have been living on edge by now. Their entire space fleet had been annihilated within twenty minutes, the space orbital gun control center was blown up shortly after an invisible "ghost" was reported to have entered the space station, and now, high-frequency electromagnetic waves filling the entire star system were jamming all distress signals from Crystal Peak to Gusta territory. The psychological pressure was immense, so when a vast amount of space debris began to fall toward the surface, the entire planet of Crystal Peak exploded violently.

I had never seen such a sight, where countless laser guns were firing simultaneously from the surface of a planet. In an instant, Crystal Peak seemed to turn into a cactus, with densely packed laser guns firing from every inch of its land, quickly covering the entire low orbit. The fierce fire began furiously intercepting debris from outer space. At that moment, I thought the Federation Army was wise not to force a landing; such a formidable air defense network would likely cause damage even to Imperial Battleships, wouldn’t it?

Every civilization in the world, after all, must guard against the dangerous Shepherds. These targeted defense weapons, even if not very effective, are definitely not for show. As Fina said, Crystal Peak’s defensive cannons were enough to successfully counterattack in an attack by a regular-sized Shepherd Supervision Team. Now, it looks like that might be true.

What were the things falling from space?

Debris from two great wars had accumulated, countless warship wrecks, disintegrated space station fragments, orbital gun components, and massive amounts of metal fused beyond recognition. A thousand Free Kingdom aircraft carriers, three hundred Gustan mother ships, and tens of thousands of medium and small warships, along with the entire space orbital gun belt, formed a huge debris cluster. When the curse’s power converged on the energy nodes of Crystal Peak, the greatest disaster fell upon them, and there are only a few types of great disasters: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and material falling from the sky. Crystal Peak had no oceans or volcanoes and its geological structure was incredibly stable—in fact, due to its unique structure, it essentially had no crust movement, making the likelihood of an earthquake zero. But a disaster from the sky—the war debris floating in space—would inevitably fall to the ground. The curse power altered the falling probability of these fragments, causing the vast amount of debris, which should have fallen slowly over months to be dealt with one by one by ground anti-aircraft guns, to crash towards dozens of vital locations on the planetary surface in just ten minutes. True, Crystal Peak’s air defense firepower was strong, but it was ultimately limited. When millions of space debris bombarded simultaneously, the cannons were stretched to their limits, and there was something even worse: Crystal Peak’s surface lacked an atmosphere, so the shattered warship fragments couldn’t burn up due to friction in the atmosphere; they would only be melted by laser guns, and if in small quantities, these molten fragments were vaporized by subsequent gunfire, no longer posing a threat. But when the quantity reached a certain level, those hundreds of millions of tons of metal didn’t vaporize quickly enough, and something more terrifying than high-altitude falling objects occurred.

They transformed into huge clumps of semi-molten matter, tens of thousands of tons of molten iron in each.

Drops of metal solution and semi-melted steel debris, as hot as ten thousand degrees, splattered on the energy nodes of Crystal Peak. They were simply not something man-made structures could withstand. In an instant, Crystal Peak’s forty-six main military energy stations were enveloped in a rain of fire falling from the sky. The planet’s military facilities then lost power, which cut off energy, causing the dense laser fire to thin out visibly. From intercepted radio communications, Gusta’s ground defense forces had already started to abandon air defense firepower, withdrawing from the bases that were either showering sparks or had already turned to scrap, preparing to engage in guerrilla warfare.

"Prepare the landing forces!"

Reynolds took over the command of the fleet and loudly declared from the command seat, then looked at us with an inquiring gaze, "Your Majesty, do you really want to participate in the landing operation personally?"

"Do you doubt my combat effectiveness?"

"No, I think you’re bullying them..."

"...Cough, cough, I’m just going down to join in on the fun."

Uncle Stubble has learned some bad habits too. I mean, isn’t it good that I, with such advanced combat abilities, go down personally to fight and help reduce your losses?

It’s not just me planning to go down; Lilina is also coming along. At this point, facing a bunch of nearly broken-spirited wretches, it’s certainly not necessary for a Leader Level Xyrin Apostle to fight personally. We’re going down just for fun—you might not understand, but...

Sitting in a few tons of iron smashing down from outer space is truly exhilarating!

Inside the Atmospheric Outer Military Airdrop Orbital Module (A.A.O.M) temporarily loaded by Light of El, the Marine Corps soldiers preparing to participate in this battle had already entered their respective landing pods. Templar knights had also taken their places on the short-distance space teleporters, while only a group of high-end Heroic Spirit forces were still making quite the ruckus, excited by their first encounter with such a novel gadget like orbital airdrop.

Cu Chulainn was the most excited...

"Don’t fight me for it! I’m going down first! Leonidas, your landing pod is over there!!"

"Why is he so eager?"

Lilina watched the usually lazy Cu Chulainn exert himself so much and felt very strange.

"Probably wants revenge," I shrugged, grabbed Lilina, and stuffed her into the landing pod, "That guy got smashed by the same thing before, probably developed some psychological deficit... Hey, stop squirming, sit inside there, make some room for me."

"Warning, wrong operation, warning, wrong operation..."

I was just battling Lilina for a window seat when suddenly a series of alarms went off beside us. Cu Chulainn didn’t know what he had messed up inside his own pod, immediately triggering alarms. The pod was noisy like a house demolition, and a certain Gunman with nearly negative EX-level luck shouted loudly inside, "Hey, hey, hey! What’s going on here! Why can’t I touch anything... Whew, finally settled, can’t leave regrets on such an important first time."

"I think I’d rather change my landing pod," Red A emerged sweating from the pod, originally supposed to share one with Cu Chulainn, "Being with this guy, I’ve been struck by lightning over a dozen times."

"Attention, five minutes before landing pod deployment, please check your weapons and communication systems, press the green button in front of your seat to lock the cabin door and confirm your position."

The imminent announcement broadcast finally brought some sense of urgency to the disorganized and undisciplined Heroic Spirit troops, who hurriedly found their seats, and a final confirmation of the small teams’ assigned combat zones began.

"Crystal Peak’s anti-air firepower has been cleared, Pandora and General Visca are currently clearing resistance in zones A1 to B5, Templar troops as planned are clearing zones B6 to C5, Marine Corps as planned... Your landing will be in zone F2, all landing pods are in place, final countdown to deployment, 5,4,3..."

Hundreds of thousands of troops were launched from thousands of warships, rapidly descending towards the Crystal Peak Planet, which had already been occupied by one-third.

After several cycles of intense weightlessness and overwhelming acceleration, the Heroic Spirit + Templar mixed troops we personally led successfully reached the landing point. The moment the cabin door fell off, my Krypton gold eyes were dazzled blind.

Crystal Peak Planet—this thing is just too bright!

Everywhere I looked was draped in silver, just like an eternally frozen world. Milky, translucent crystalized quartz formed the ground beneath our feet, the distant mountains, and the stone forest around us, splendidly beautiful. The scorching sunlight from the twin stars above shone unobstructed on the crystal ore, reflecting dazzling brilliance everywhere. If Little Baobao were here, she would probably start digging holes excitedly right on the spot, all the way down to the Earth’s core, wouldn’t she?

"Landing successful," Lilina, sporting sunglasses that nearly covered half of her face, slid excitedly across the twinkling ground. "Is everyone... oops!"

"What happened?"

"We’ve lost some crew, a landing pod crashed!" Lilina, covering one ear and pretending to receive a report, spoke to me with a serious expression.

I immediately exclaimed in alarm, "Could it be that the enemy’s anti-aircraft guns are still operational?"

"No, Cu Chulainn’s deceleration engines weren’t activated."

...That guy was just randomly pressing buttons earlier!

"Wait... wait a minute! I... I’m here." As I lamented Cu Chulainn’s frustrating return to the Heroic Spirit Hall, a painful-sounding voice suddenly came from behind me. Turning towards it, I saw a Gunman, his armor tattered and his body covered in crystal fragments, bleeding profusely as he limped towards us with his Magic Spear, "Hey, I arrived twenty minutes before you guys..."

This unfortunate kid was still optimistic, probably used to it by now?

While our soy-sauce team was busy helping Cu Chulainn with his bones, troops that had landed in various parts of Crystal Peak had already begun their operations. The army of Gusta Church specialized in space combat, but their ground forces were a total mess, just like a bunch of Monks, easily defeated. Each of our action teams included several Heroic Spirits, who, as warriors of the Life Goddess, possessed brutal Perception for any form of life, making it impossible for any soldiers trying to hide in ruins or blend in with mine workers to escape.

"C8 sector, third squad reporting, target site cleared."

"C9 sector, third squad reporting, target site cleared."

"D5 sector, first squad reporting..."

Good news kept coming, and the entire planet was gradually falling into our hands.

"Wood, Wood, calling Wood!"

Huh? Did something strange get mixed into the communication link just now?

Busy listening to the ongoing good reports, my mind suddenly received the above message, and I was confused for a few seconds. Then I realized that it was a long-distance call from Shadow City.

"Miss Xue? What’s up? I’m in the middle of a battle here!"

"Oh, you’re probably just a background player anyway," Lin Xue said bluntly, almost unconsciously stating a fact that should not be stated, then she dropped a bombshell before I could erupt, "The Mercury Lamp has gone!"

"The Mercury Lamp... What?! What happened, how could she..."

"Her body was repaired, just bored at home all day," Lin Xue yawned, "The transmission coordinates are set near you, um, your location is a battlefield, that should be fine, right?"

"Don’t underestimate our strength," since the transmission had already begun, I found myself slightly eager to see that temperamental little doll. I confidently declared, "I’ll make sure to protect her."

"Alright, just don’t be scared by... those Mercury Lamps."

After dropping that cryptic remark, Lin Xue hung up the communication.

Did the Demi Immortal mention something subtle just now?

But there was no time to ask, as the space around had just vibrated significantly—I estimated that it was a radius of over twenty kilometers. Was it necessary to set up a twenty-kilometer-wide transmission zone just to teleport a doll that’s only 92.5cm tall?

The Heroic Spirit Army and the Templars had already scattered to search for the enemy’s life signs. Even Cu Chulainn had mostly recovered under the influence of Dingdang’s divine power and had forcefully set off to carry out the mission—the way he put it, he couldn’t afford to lose face here. Only Lili and I were left behind, looking around, two idle people began searching for the shadows of the Mercury Lamps, but to no avail.

At that moment, I felt like someone had tugged on my pants from behind twice. Turning around, I was completely stunned.

There stood a 60cm-tall Q-version Mercury Lamp, dressed in what looked like toy jungle combat gear and wielding a carbine gun, staring back at me with its enormously cartoonish eyes.

"Wowzers!!"

"What’s wrong, boss?" Lilina immediately turned around, and she too screamed, "Wowzers!!"

"Girls, mind your image," I flicked her on the head.

"You worry about my image when Mercury Lamps have turned into three-headed bodies?"

While we were still in shock, one of the three-headed Q-version Mercury Lamps dressed in jungle combat gear suddenly started shouting, "Soldier Mercury Lamp has spotted the target! Soldier Mercury Lamp has spotted the target!"

"Boss... what’s going on here?"

It was as if they had popped out of thin air. Out of nowhere, our surroundings had been filled with creatures that we should probably call Mercury Lamps. They all stood 60cm tall, with three-headed proportions, cute Q-version faces, and black hair ornaments just like the Mercury Lamps, but the equipment they were forcefully draped in was diverse: jungle combat gear plus carbine guns, ammunition boxes plus six-barreled machine guns, modified Jedi combat robes plus mini lightsabers, and even those with the left hand wielding a Thunder Light Battle Axe, the right hand clutching the Heart of the Sunrise, two mini cleavers on their backs, and faces marked with No. ⑨ in black ink...

There were at least hundreds of each type of equipped Mercury Lamp, and Lili and I were now surrounded by this weird mass of three-headed creatures.

Meanwhile, the air filled with noisy chatter.

"Soldier Mercury Lamp has spotted the target!"

"Terminator Mercury Lamp says Soldier Mercury Lamp is taking advantage because it landed closer!"

"Jedi Mercury Lamp remains silent, also, Sith Mercury Lamp, you’re holding your lightsaber backwards!"

"Magic Girl Mercury Lamp wants to know where the enemy is! When is Mother arriving?"

"Mother Mercury Lamp and Titan Mercury Lamp are together, they’ll take a while to get here," explained the Red and White Witch Mercury Lamp kindly... Ah! The Self-Destruction Truck Mercury Lamp is coming!"

Then almost a whole groundful of chattering Mercury Lamps parted to form a path, and Lili and I just stood there agape as dozens of small trucks ostentatiously styled like children’s toys came squeaking by, each one mounted with a three-headed body Mercury Lamp—literally mounted on!

...Damn, who’s going to kindly explain to me what in the world is happening here?? (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your vote for recommendation or monthly tickets, Your support is my greatest motivation.)