Chapter 404 - 401: The Vanished Frontline

Chapter 404: Chapter 401: The Vanished Frontline

"WHIRRR...""WHIRRR..."

The roar of vehicle engines was the dominant sound as wheeled and tracked vehicles, both armored and unarmored, shuttled along the border transport line.

The surrounding high-intensity lights illuminated the area, turning night into day.

Squad after squad of soldiers with high morale sat in troop carriers. Most had experienced frontline combat; they were all veterans.

They were dressed in neat, cold-weather mountain camouflage, holding rugged new-model weapons.

CLOMP... CLOMP... CLOMP...

Even in the mountainous environment, the sound of footsteps throughout the camps and along the front lines remained perfectly synchronized.

The border was at a high altitude, but the soldiers’ physical conditioning had improved so drastically that altitude sickness was virtually nonexistent.

In the mountains and forests beyond the front line, large numbers of combat engineers had already completed their tasks and were now returning to the border in groups.

On the ridgeline, the sound of cranes hoisting massive components RUMBLED.

A heavily armored module was being precisely hoisted onto the top of a behemoth.

"Module in position! Initiating mechanical docking!"

Inside the behemoth, an operator inserted and turned a security key. The indicators for both manual and automatic docking lit up. The operator pressed the automatic docking button, and a series of muffled, heavy mechanical sounds echoed from within.

KACHUNK... KACHUNK...

All the joints of the Armed Defense Station locked tightly into place. It utilized a dual-redundancy system, secured by both its structural design and high-strength mechanical fasteners. The design was so robust that the station would not come apart even if its entire frame were deformed by a violent impact.

A dozen seconds later, the entire station blazed with searchlights, and an armored weapons turret rose hydraulically, emerging on top.

The roar of machinery was everywhere. As far as the eye could see, the mobile Armed Defense Stations, originally designed to be spaced one kilometer apart, were now deployed at a density of one every 200 meters.

Many of the newer defense stations had their main armaments upgraded to 30mm point-defense cannons with a rate of fire exceeding 10,000 rounds per minute.

Besides these menacing, medium-sized steel behemoths, the 200-meter gaps between them were densely packed with countless firing positions, from concealed tanks and armored vehicles to fortified infantry emplacements.

Many of these defensive points were arranged in a staggered formation at varying elevations, creating an even denser web of overlapping fire.

Behind them, on the mountain front, massive rocket and missile launchers were already in position. Batteries of self-propelled howitzers, with a minimum caliber of 122mm, awaited deployment orders from headquarters, while an even greater number of artillery pieces were already deployed along the various lines.

Military camps dotted the entire warzone, with countless soldiers and officers moving in and out. A steady stream of reinforcements continued to arrive on high-speed transport lines.

On the airfield, which had been constructed six months prior, large transport planes took off and landed nonstop. A constant stream of weapons, equipment, and supplies arrived by both land and air.

High-powered Radar installations were mounted on the mountainsides, their dishes like giant eyes scanning the horizon.

At airfields a hundred kilometers to the rear, including those within several massive underground bases, fighters were constantly taking off and landing. For now, it was mainly early-warning aircraft and interceptors, while fully-loaded bombers and fighter-bombers sat motionless in their hangars, imposing and still.

Qin Xiaoxia stood on a ridgetop watchtower, goosebumps rising on his skin. Accompanying him were a major general from the military staff and Liu Yue—a senior agent from the Special Security Team and a friend of Jiutian.

"Mr. Yan... do you think there’s anything else we need to be aware of?"

Liu Yue stared grimly into the darkness to the south, asking the question with utmost seriousness as he turned to the Dawn Member beside him—a familiar face to the Special Security Team.

Qin Xiaoxia was taken aback by the question...

’Be aware of?’

’Looking at the deployment of firepower both within and beyond my Perception, the sheer number of weapons is enough to make my teeth ache. I can’t even count them all. It feels like these guys are getting ready to destroy the world.’

"I don’t think any Demon could possibly break through this line of death," he said.

He noticed that at roughly two-kilometer intervals, there was a particularly unique type of Armed Defense Station. It was a full size larger than the standard ones, which were already behemoths in their own right.

On these larger stations, besides the usual gatling-style fire control systems, the high-precision smoothbore cannons on the very top had been replaced by a strange component.

To Qin Xiaoxia, it looked like a large, specialized searchlight.

"Colonel Liu, may I ask what that is?"

Liu Yue looked in the direction Mr. Yan was pointing. As an Evolver, his eyesight was excellent. Amidst the forest of weaponry, he knew there was likely only one thing unique enough to warrant Mr. Yan’s attention.

"The LW-3 Prism Cannon. It’s an ultra-high-power Laser Weapon of incredible strength. Even the latest J-series fighter jet would be destroyed within seconds of being targeted. Its only limitation is the weather, and I imagine with you here, that won’t be an issue!"

"Oh, and it fires in a non-visible spectrum. Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that some Demons might be able to see it."

’Holy shit!! Holy shit!! Holy shit!!’

Qin Xiaoxia’s heart hammered in his chest as a string of curses exploded in his mind.

’Even though I knew Laser Weapons had reached the practical application stage years ago, this still feels like something out of science fiction. Just hearing about it is a rush.’

"By the way, Mr. Yan, we’ve never tested this weapon against Yin Spirits. You know how much the frontline troops detest those things. They won’t be able to stand up to this, will they?"

’Stand up to it?’

’What a joke. This thing is the ultimate counter to Spiritual Species. No, unless it’s a Demon of incredible power, few creatures could possibly survive being caught in that beam.’

’And unlike the colorful laser beams in sci-fi movies and games, this weapon fires an invisible beam of light. Most monsters probably won’t even know what hit them when they die.’

Down below the ridge, numerous high-ranking military officers were gathered inside a unique building in one of the camps.

In the room was a large sand table model and a whiteboard covered in strategic plans.

A middle-aged man with a ramrod-straight posture held a pointer.

TAP. TAP.

Chu Jianfeng jabbed the pointer at the red and green markers on the sand table and the circled areas on the map representing the enemy’s advance.

"I don’t want them pushed back! We absolutely cannot allow this many Demons to remain on Earth! What I want is total annihilation!"

"Hundreds of thousands of battle-hardened elite soldiers! 3,600 artillery pieces! 400 aircraft! Over 200 attack helicopters! Rocket and missile launchers and every kind of advanced weapon... plus the line of Armed Defense Stations stretching across the entire front!"

"That’s not even mentioning our own Evolvers and the Dawn Guardian fighting alongside us... You tell me, if we can’t annihilate these monsters from the Otherworld, how can we possibly live with the disgrace?"

"WE! CANNOT!"

The officers’ roar was like thunder.

"Good! I’ve already given my word to Central Command. You all remember the lure-and-annihilate tactic from the ’Cell Immunity Plan’ in Kyoto, right? When the time comes, I need every single one of you to keep your composure. Don’t let your soldiers get trigger-happy and open fire prematurely, or I’ll hold you personally responsible. Understood?"

"Understood!"

Chu Jianfeng stared at the sand table, his knuckles cracking as his hand tightened around the pointer.

Nearly half of Nippon Country had been overrun by this Demon Tide. The death toll was unknown. No soldier of the Republic would ever allow such a tragedy to happen in their homeland.

...

Amira and her companions grew increasingly nervous and apprehensive. There were too many monsters; they had no idea how many were actually in this tidal wave of creatures.

’All we know is that more and more of them keep joining the horde,’ she thought. ’Does it stretch for ten kilometers? Dozens of kilometers? Or is it just... endless?’

They were starting to worry whether Hua Country’s army could hold the line. But then they remembered the terrifying weapons and the sheer number of aircraft they had seen, and their confidence was slightly restored.

The night gradually passed, and the eastern sky began to pale.

Amira and her companions, who had been marching with the Demon Tide, had bloodshot eyes. They forced themselves to stuff bread into their mouths and chug down drinks, needing to conserve what little energy they had for the moment of truth.

They could already smell the acrid scent of explosives in the air, and they occasionally spotted craters as they moved with the Demons.

This must have been from Hua Country’s defenders picking off stragglers. It also meant they had reached the very edge of the military’s defensive perimeter.

"The ridge you spoke of, is that it over there? And there are more humans on the other side, correct?"

The Great Faceless Ghost suddenly spoke. At the same time, Amira’s vision brightened—they had emerged from the tree line.

The sun had risen in the east, bathing the distant ridge in brilliant light. But the Demon Tide, still in the mountain’s shadow, remained a gloomy, dark mass.

From a distance, the ridge seemed to form a stark dividing line between the forces of light and darkness.

"H-How is this possible?! How can this be..."

Amira cried out. Her two companions were frozen in place, the bread and water they were holding slipping from their grasp.

They looked up at the jets streaking across the sky, then back toward the distant ridge.

’Where was Hua Country’s army? Where was their famous border defense line? Where were their Armed Defense Stations, the ones said to be walls of steel?’

There was nothing.

As far as they could see, the ridge was completely bare. There was nothing but sun-drenched rock!

A chill seized the three of them, as if they’d been plunged into an icy lake, and all warmth fled their bodies.

’Could it be? Had Hua Country’s defensive line already collapsed? Did they abandon this place...?’

Amira shuddered violently.

’Are the Huaguo People planning to use nuclear weapons?’

But she vaguely recalled the words of one of her former commanding officers.

Nuclear weapons are humanity’s ultimate trump card. The major world powers would never use them lightly unless the situation was completely out of control.

Once that line was crossed, there would be no going back. Even if the war was won, Earth itself would be left scarred and broken.

Even so-called "clean" nukes like the neutron bomb weren’t truly clean; they just produced far less fallout than conventional nuclear weapons. Their kill radius of a few hundred meters was only effective for destroying key targets in wars between humans. Against Demons, it was more cost-effective to just drop conventional bombs.

Even the Yin Country’s military, while claiming to have the "situation under control," had no plans to use nuclear weapons. Why would Hua Country be the first to cross that line?

Amira was at a complete loss. It seemed far more likely that Hua Country had simply abandoned the area.

"Did you not hear my question?"

The bone-chilling voice sounded again, jolting Amira from her stupor.

"Y-Yes..."

Her voice was faint and listless, filled with the ashes of dead hope.

Throughout their exchange, the Demon Tide never paused. The ground trembled continuously as the oppressive black mass of monsters advanced slowly toward the mountains.

The sun climbed higher, and the light slanting over the ridgeline grew slightly glaring.

WHOOO... WHOOO... WHOOO...

The sky was a vast, cloudless blue, and the roar of entire formations of aircraft began to fill the upper atmosphere.