“Are you all clear on the operation—!!!”Her usual icy demeanor shattered.WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAH!!!“Excellent. That’s the spirit.”The thunderous, long-suppressed roar filled the heart of the catacomb.Yet just as Mother seemed ready to speak again, her voice fell silent for a moment.Her expression was strangely bitter.When her voice resumed it carried a hint of self-mockery.“Pre-battle speeches are empty — sugarcoated lies meant to blind soldiers marching toward death.”Her opening line cut sharper than anyone expected.“Consolation for the fallen is just as hollow. Hypocrisy won’t resurrect the dead.”Despite the words, the crowd held steady.Their time alongside her explained what her words meant.“I was the commander who drove you toward death, and in the end I remained the defeated leader. So my words may be meaningless.”With a sigh mixed into those words, Mergen drew a sharp breath.“Still, as your leader I will say one thing.”‘Is it starting now?’[Mother] — once the supreme commander of the Defense Force.The moment she took the stage, the very flow of the air changed.“Once war begins, it becomes a chain of choices — to retreat, to endure, or to strike back.”“A commander must constantly make the right choice at those crossroads.”The cold air began to stir with a strange, rising heat.“That way, even if you lose a small battle, you can win the war.”That rising heat coiled into a vortex, sweeping through the gathered crowd.“But sometimes you are forced to make an unreasonable choice.”“A place you cannot flee. A place you must hold at all costs.”“When you are backed into a corner with no way out, we call that place—”‘The critical front.’“The critical front.”A term born among the Defense Force during the [City War].“We sense, the moment we stand on that line, that it’s time to make a real choice.”Among those here, more would empathize with that word than not.“A moment when, even if the unit is annihilated, we must buy at least a little time.”“We have asked ourselves.”The crowd’s eyes turned to the past.“Why must we fight at all?”“Why should we be driven to our deaths?”Questions everyone had once asked.Mother was pulling that memory back to the surface.“Now is no different.”What was she trying to say?Would Mother—unlike herself—speak softly now?‘No.’Not the Mother he knew.From a stage like this, she would never let a soft word escape.She was the city’s greatest commander.“I ask: who are we?”No immediate answer came to the sudden question.Their identity wasn’t yet firm.But at that moment, a shout from under the stage rang like a heartbeat.“The Liberation Front—!!!”‘Khan.’Khan’s reply.Recovered, his eyes were more intense than ever.Mother answered his gaze with a faint smile.“Yes. We are the Liberation Front.”Her eyes drifted back into the air, as if remembering something.“Look closely—doesn’t this world suit us? Only after the world collapses once does it become closer to the world we want.”She asked at the end.“Why did the Liberation Front gather? Why did we seek to overturn this city? I ask again: why did we gather?”The crowd fell silent at a question nobody could answer easily.Mother looked at the Liberation Front and twisted the corner of her mouth into a smile.“We gathered to change our fate.”The Liberation Front.A group formed to stage a coup.Its backbone inevitably consisted of those who had fought through war beside Mother.“Now I feel it in my very bones.”“The flowers that blossomed in the age of war—”“—cannot survive in times of peace.”Many began to recall the same scene as Mother.“We are those who chose a march shrouded in disgrace, not toward an honorable retreat… Where did we bloom?”“On the battlefield.”“On… the battlefield.”“Battlefield—”The whispered words rippled outward, spreading like wildfire.“We chose not a beautiful silence but a filthy uproar. Where did we bloom?”““The battlefield—!!!!””Those who recognized the truth of the answer roared in unison, veins bulging.“We are stubborn fools who do not know how to retreat. Wanders who have lost everything because we do not know how to let go. Where did we bloom?”““The battlefield—!!!!!””“Right—but if the world were to collapse now, could you accept it? Could you accept that fate? Could you really turn back? I cannot.I’ve lived this way, and my inability to turn back has become my conviction.”Her voice grew, and her eyes began to blaze.That blaze became a spreading fire that caught among the crowd.“Now, I sense—!!”Her words rang like a declaration.“That the time for another choice has come!!”A resonance that could not be expressed in a few words.“I sense that we have arrived at the [critical front], where we are cornered and have nowhere to run.”The roar behind her accusation carried the scent of a desperate cry.“We may be wiped out!! But we must do it!!”“Isn’t turning the tide of battle the work of those who remain composed before that choice?”“We have done so until now.”“And we will do so going forward.”“That is a truth that cannot be broken!”“I will not blame you if you do not know the meaning of this battle!”“But what I intend to protect at this critical front is conviction!”“The fate of the Liberation Front!!! The belief that the Liberation Front decides its fate!!! The conviction not to flee nor to give up—!!!”“If I can’t bury what I won’t accept deep in my heart, I’ll take the world on.”““---!!!””“The flowers that bloomed in the age of war must face war again!!”She drove the knife in, as if cutting the beast’s throat.She pushed the dagger in little by ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) little.“My name is Erhi Mergen-!!!!!! I, Erhi Mergen, will stand at your vanguard-!!!!!!”The cold shiver vanished entirely and was replaced by something burning.Every member of the [Liberation Front] focused on her words and listened.“Today—!!! we will annihilate the enemies before us—!!!!”The final thrust of the dagger:“Rebuild the East-!!!!!!!”It pierced through the spirit of the Liberation Front.A shout loud enough to cover ears rolled out into the East.“““-----!!!!!!!”””The atmosphere changed in an instant.They no longer felt like a mere survivor group.They were unmistakably an elite force.Or perhaps something even greater mobilizing at once.It struck him deeply as well.But there was no time to indulge in that sight.He needed the Behemoth taken down just as badly as they did.Searching the scene, he found Mother’s shadow.Perhaps there had been no need to look—her eyes were already on him.“Let’s go, Kyle.”“All right.”Erhi Mergen’s voice had returned to its dry tone.Her expression was merciless.The captains of each unit arrayed behind her stood in neat rows, parting like in a send-off ceremony to let her pass.“Take care, Mother.”“Khan.”“There will be no second mistakes.”“Let your accomplishments outweigh any mistakes.”“Yes.”Their eyes met briefly, but no emotion showed.No hatred, no suspicion.Nor any warmth.Only the eyes of someone who had killed off all feelings before an operation.Passing him, he boarded the Black Wing.***The Black Wing raced through the sky.With Mother seated behind him, the city’s view still left a sour taste.“The mutants have started to move.”“The shouting thundered around us.”“Just so you know, we haven’t practiced coordination during battle. If it gets dangerous, disengage immediately.”“When I lure it, aim for its head or neck. That’s all.”“Is that really enough?”“That’s no easy feat to dismiss as ‘just that.’”“Let’s find out.”Because they were moving through the air, the scenery changed in real time.At some point they could see the high-rise residential complex designated as the kill zone.The high-rise, long prepared, was like a fortress.“The plague wave is the problem.”“Plague wave?”“Like a pack of rats.”“Well, their small size means they’ll slip into gaps and climb the buildings.”“Aren’t you worried?”“It’s a meaningless question. If I don’t trust my children, who will?”Her voice carried strong conviction.Her voice shed the last trace of doubt.‘They didn’t deploy troops immediately on purpose—looks like they plan to herd them.’He guessed why they hadn’t deployed troops immediately.“Are you going to divert the forces?”“You have a keen eye.”The so-called [herding].A baiting tactic.The Behemoth’s nest was scattered with mutants across a wide area.Launching an attack indiscriminately in the kill zone would leave you surrounded.If you lured the creatures along a guided path from a specific point, you could exterminate them far more effectively.The troops doing the herding would probably be…“They’ll use androids, I suppose.”Combat androids, no doubt.“We can’t waste precious lives.”His guess was correct.Using androids is an ideal way to minimize human casualties.From the mutants’ perspective, it’s a brutal exchange rate forced upon them—a perfect tactic.Still.‘Many will die.’A fight against tens or hundreds of millions of mutants.Even with white phosphorus, deaths are inevitable.Especially when there are special/evolved types mixed in.“If we can, let’s catch it as quickly as possible.”They drew closer to the riverbank.The Behemoth’s location was in a spot with unusually deep water.“There it is.”A stench stabbed their noses as they neared the riverbank.'Even in this deep water, the stench rises…'It was clear it had consumed everything alive to restore itself.The remnants drifted ashore, spreading a putrid stench.“How disgusting.”The riverbank, swarming with flies, made both of them frown.“Mother, lure it to that spot.”Surely.It would be watching them from the water.Once the operation began it would begin to show movement.The moment it revealed itself, Mother would attempt a snipe.They planned to lure it to a chosen point.To trap it in the nearby terraced erosion zone—[Banawa Terrace]—so it could never return to the water.Though the hollowed terrain made it not ideal for a fight…The opponent was the [Behemoth].An enemy they had to corner and annihilate.(TL note: Thank you for reading this far. 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