"Clear the way!" Lambert commanded.

A shadow flashed by, and as a surviving insect corpse half-leaped into the air, it was pinned through the eye socket by a slender sword and crushed underfoot by a Heavy Armor Soldier.

"Three o'clock on the left, approaching fast!"

Another Knight reacted instantly, drawing his sword in a reverse grip. In a flash of cold light, an insect shadow was cut apart, its severed limbs falling into the flames, turning to charcoal in an instant.

Advance!

The remaining insect corpses lunged from the shadows like sharks drawn by blood, but were all crushed in the symphony of iron and fire.

A Fiery Bottle traced an arc, landing amid a group of writhing insect corpses.

"Ignite."

Bang—!

The flames exploded, and the insect corpses shrieked and rolled in the fire, their writhing limbs beating the ground as if playing music for Hell.

Their skin ruptured, bodily fluids spurted out, and the air was thick with an acrid stench.

Yet the assault team ignored this, pushing ever forward.

It was not because they were fearless, but because they knew they were the sharpest blade, meant to stab straight into the enemy's heart.

Eventually, they stepped into the depths of the Insect Nest.

The air was like coagulated mucus, weighing down their breaths.

Flames couldn't fully illuminate the path ahead, their light seeming swallowed by some invisible substance in this area, barely showing a few steps ahead.

The walls were neither stone nor earth, but some kind of dark red, moist, warm material.

Like the innards of a giant beast, they pulsed gently, as if slowly breathing.

Irregular folds squirmed around them, hinting at flowing shadows and... faces.

It wasn't an illusion but appeared clearly on the surface of the "meat wall," blurred, distorted, and even familiar.

Their eyes were closed, lips moving as if whispering softly.

In the next moment, they opened their eyes, looking at the Knights.

"Did you see that?" a Knight suddenly whispered, his voice trembling, "That's… my brother's face..."

"Shut up!" Lambert roared, cutting him off, "Everyone stay alert, the Insect Nest manipulates your perception! Don't look! Don't listen!"

But how could humans completely shut off their senses?

Some heard their mothers calling them home, others heard their comrades' dying murmurs.

Even more heard their own deceased voices, low and hoarse, calling their names.

"Charge forward, don't look back." Lambert repeated, his tone icy.

Ahead was the heart of the Insect Nest.

A vast hollow cavity opened up, like a temple that should not exist in the world.

The cavity's walls were filled with soft tendrils and spiral "incubation layers," with thousands of insect eggs floating inside like bubbles in putrid slurry.

In the center of the cavity hung the "sac nucleus."

It did not belong to this world.

The semi-transparent organic structure pulsed gently, like a heart, or some ancient god's unopened eye.

With each pulse, the surrounding walls gently throbbed, breathing, pulsating, resonating...

The entire Insect Nest seemed an extension of this sac nucleus.

"There it is." The Archer whispered.

His voice felt trapped at the back of his throat, an instinctive resistance and fear kept him from speaking louder.

Then "it" opened.

A hole slowly split open at the center of the sac nucleus, revealing a rolling eerie red glow inside.

This wasn't light, but some pure mental contamination, like a pupil staring, like Hell opening its bloody maw.

The Knights held their breath for a moment.

Someone's knees trembled, another stiffened, sweat soaking through their undergarments.

But none retreated.

Their armor scorched, hearts pounding violently, breaths heavy as hammers, yet they still raised their weapons, lowered their bodies, and charged forward.

They were the protectors of the Red Tide Territory, the only blade capable of cutting through chaos amid the fire.

"Red Platinum Bullet—fire!!" Lambert's order boomed like thunder.

The assault team hesitated not a second.

Boom!!

Dozens of Red Platinum Magic Explosion Bullets sliced through the air almost simultaneously, trailing long, blinding trails of fire, precisely aimed at the sac nucleus.

"Retreat!" Lambert shouted.

Nobody waited for the result; the next second, they had already turned, retreating at full speed!

They didn't need to confirm a hit, just getting close was enough.

A series of explosions erupted behind them!

The heat was like a scorching sun falling, the Magic Burst like an invisible hammer shattering the entire cavity's structure from its foundation.

Seething flames roared through the incubation layers, igniting, carbonizing, and consuming all those writhing egg sacs and tender parasite lines into fire clouds!

Within the explosive blaze, the sac nucleus twisted and struggled, dozens of black tendrils hanging from the top of the cavity, frantically trying to intercept the Red Platinum Bullets.

But they lasted not even a second under the intense heat, like straw meeting the Purgatory flame, igniting in a touch, charring within an instant.

The gigantic "heart"-like structure seemed to sense its doom.

It shivered, convulsed, its wide-open "eye" filled with terror and hatred, and then collapsed entirely within flames and shockwaves.

Like a beast at its last moment, the Nest plunged into madness just before death.

The remaining insect corpses, driven by some unknown will, howled like mad dogs, self-destructing, biting, burning, turning themselves into the final sacrifice!

They were no longer an army but a horde of uncontrollable curses.

Each decaying body groaned and exploded, merely to drag the retreating assault team into that shared dark extinction.

"Hold it off!"

Lambert roared angrily, slicing an attacking insect corpse in two, black blood splattering.

The vice-captain followed closely, a spinning slash repelling another explosive insect corpse.

In the next moment, with a boom, acid sprayed out like molten iron!

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