Chapter 60
"Your Highness—" the female insect guard exclaimed.
“Hill—” Bright instinctively reached out to grab it, but the male insect had no wings and could only watch helplessly as Hill fell toward the water’s surface.
Sirius, also wingless, could only watch helplessly, while Nathaniel shouted, "Hessen—"
As one of the guardian insects, Hessen certainly had reason to participate in blocking these damned, impolite female insects who should all be sent to the punishment room for whipping.
Hesen's light brown eyes flickered slightly, as if he had thought of something, and he lowered his head and said, "My lord, don't worry, I'll go right away."
His voice immediately turned cold: "Brandon—"
"What? Lord Hesen is also involved in the interception?"
"His Excellency Hessen is a general in the Second Army, and he also has his adjutant, Major General Brandon."
"The Second Army is also involved; these female insects are in trouble."
"What are you afraid of? Marshal Celtic is here, isn't he?"
A heated discussion immediately erupted on the StarNet. The last time Admiral Hessen and Marshal Celt fought was five years ago in the Marshal's Battle. These two female insects had not fought for many years, especially since it was being broadcast live across the entire StarNet.
As Hill fell, the female insects with exceptional jumping ability leaped out of the water, while others plunged straight down from mid-air, with countless gusts of wind and dazzling wings unfolding before their eyes.
Hill only saw a pale blue sky divided by gaps in the trees, and soon the female insect's wings burst through the gaps, and thousands upon thousands of hands reached out to him.
The closer you get to the male insect, the more intense the heat in the female's eyes becomes. Some even lose their perfect form. Various pheromones intertwine, creating a pungent insect smell.
The sounds of shrieks, fighting, shouts, and splashing as people fell into the water, along with the flapping of wings, mingled in my ears, both incredibly clear and incredibly noisy.
Just as a hand was about to grab Hill, a worm claw immediately stretched out from the side to block him at all costs. In just a moment, Hill's falling speed had increased, and he missed the female worm that was just passing by him.
The female insect, unable to catch him in time or even fight with the obstacle, immediately continues chasing the male insect.
The densely packed figures completely blocked out the sky.
Time stretched out indefinitely, and for a fleeting moment, Hill felt that he would truly be torn apart and dismembered in the struggle of these millions of insect claws. He knew this was an extremely irrational thought, yet he could not suppress it.
Perhaps he was also waiting for death, waiting for death to dissolve all his secrets and pain.
What will happen to these female insects who are so fervent in their pursuit of him when they discover that he failed to advance and never became an S-class male?
Hill's lips slowly curled up, instantly bringing his usually cool and aloof features to life, and the female insect pheromones he was staring at became even more frenzied, almost like a surging volcano.
The last ray of light in the sky was being obscured by the dense swarms of female insects. There were so many female insects that even the bright daylight was about to be completely blocked.
Hill stretched out a pale arm in mid-air, as if trying to grasp the last glimmer of light that was about to disappear.
He knew very well that he couldn't grasp it; it was only the fear of the darkness that drove him to this action. He wanted to sink into the darkness once again, to sink into the endless quagmire.
Just as darkness was about to engulf them, the obscured sky was forcefully cleaved open by a sliver of light, and the sudden sunlight caused Hill's long eyelashes to tremble involuntarily.
Immediately following was a downpour of sunlight, and a female insect suddenly grasped his thin hand.
What kind of hand was that?
Its bones protrude, strong and powerful, and its temperature is scorching. It yanked him out of the claws of countless greedy insects, just as it had taken him away from the clutches of the star beasts on Nuka Star six years ago.
Hot, powerful insect claws swept him up around the waist, the entire insect enveloped in a thick pheromone of gunpowder smoke. Its jet-black, bony wings, covered in sharp spurs, suddenly unfurled nearby. Hill didn't close his eyes, but the insect armor covered his eyelids.
Celt's insect armor was cold, a chill unlike the scorching heat of the female insect's exterior. Hill didn't close his eyes; he heard wailing cries and a dripping sound—no, not a dripping sound, but the sound of rain falling.
But it didn't rain, at least not enough to wet his fingertips—it was blood, a torrent of blood.
He suddenly realized.
The female insect with jet-black bone wings, carrying a snow-white male insect, fought its way out from the encirclement of countless female insects. Every bone spike of his left countless drops of blood. The female insects that rushed forward were just stepping stones under his military boots, allowing him to take advantage of the momentum and soar into the sky from the underwater forest.
However, breaking through the encirclement was not the end. Hesen stood gracefully on the ruins, his light brown bone wings fluttering in the wind. He first glanced at Nathaniel, and then said in a classical, almost operatic manner, "If you want to take away the male insect, you must first get past me!"
As he finished speaking, hundreds of female guardian insects emerged from behind him and attacked Celt's direction. Behind Marshal Celt were female insect contestants who were frantically pursuing him.
"Is Marshal Celtic preparing to fight against multiple opponents? Is he that arrogant?"
"Too arrogant +1"
"Why does Lord Hesen sound so strange?"
"Are you all only paying attention to Prince Hilgard and not even reading the story synopsis?"
"What introduction?"
"This is the story of a helpless male insect who was kidnapped during an interstellar trip. The space pirates who kidnapped him imprisoned him on a backward planet, constantly extracting his pheromones for sale. Countless female insects came to his rescue, but were all defeated by the space pirates, until one female insect knight defeated the powerful space pirate—"
"The plot sounds familiar. Isn't it from a popular opera from a couple of years ago?"
"Who came up with this idea? It's so cliché!"
"Who else could it be? Isn't Prince Nathaniel just a worm who likes to watch opera?"
Everyone instantly became somewhat speechless, unable to look Lord Hesen in the eye: "No wonder..."
The heated discussion on the StarNet was, in reality, only a moment for all the female insects present, before they were caught in a pincer attack.
In that instant, Celt rose to a greater height again, shooting up like an arrow released from a bow. The female insects, who had lost their minds, and the guarding female insects that were blocking their way collided violently due to inertia. Some of the female insects tried to stop, but the female insects behind them, who were eager for male insects, did not give them that chance.
"Bang--"
"roar--"
The brutal impact caused some of the female insects to scream in agony, while the rest swarmed forward again, determined to seize the male insect. Faced with a real male insect and pheromones, the female insects lost their rationality, misjudged the situation, and their awe of Celt vanished.
Marshal Celtic was very strong, but so what?
Could one insect be stronger than thousands of female insects? One after another, they would be exhausted eventually, even if it was a war of attrition. Perhaps then they would be able to make contact with Prince Hilgard.
"Is Celt going to run away?" Bright, who had no wings, could only anxiously stick half of his body out of the aircraft and look out at the battlefield.
It was terrifying. The female insects were like a swarm of locusts, so frenzied that he would develop a psychological trauma from them.
“No,” Sirius stared intently at the pale spot among the hundreds of female insects, his voice hoarse, “Even if Celt is fast enough, he’s still carrying Hill. Too much speed will make Hill uncomfortable.”
He's too weak right now; the speed of the 3S-class female insect will overwhelm his body. If Celt chooses to run away, they'll immediately halt the selection process, since nothing is more important than Hill's health.
But now it seems unnecessary.
Because, "he never even considered running away—"
He chose to confront the challenge head-on!
He lifted Hilgard with one arm, and with the other hand completely transformed into an insect, he faced all the female insects!
That was a day that countless insects of the Empire would never forget. Unlike the video clips taken and edited during the war, this was the first time they had seen Marshal Celt's strength directly and without any exaggeration.
From dawn till dusk, for dozens of star-hours, the battle never ceased.
The female insects participating in the selection were irrational, and the female insects guarding the area were commanded by General Hessen. As the second-ranked insect in the Empire's military, Hessen's tactics were well-executed, his commands were clear and precise, and even the female insect guards were able to get a certain amount of rest.
But it was no use; in the face of absolute power, all struggles were futile.
Only the ending was clear and straightforward: they couldn't stop Celt from leaving with Prince Hilgard.
Hill felt the wind brush against his face.
The blood-red setting sun spilled across the entire sky and into the entire river, inevitably splattering bloodstains onto Hill's white robes, like red plum blossoms blooming on the snow.
His cold fingers touched the insect carapace covering his eyelids, and after a moment the carapace slowly disappeared.
He saw Celt, a Celt far more insane and powerful than the Zerg general he had imagined in his youth, with countless bone spikes aimed at him, keeping him constantly on the verge of death.
His cold, gray eyes did not lose control due to his berserk state, but instead fell into absolute rationality and coldness, with a mechanical hardness. Blood splattered on his cold eyes and deep features, and the sound of female insects falling into the water was like splashing.
Was the battle over? He didn't know. Celt stepped into the knee-deep water and carried him step by step into the depths of the river.
Where he walked, blood stained the ground, making it impossible to tell whether it was his blood or the blood splattered by his enemies.
Hill watched him quietly, seeing him as a hero from her childhood dream, both clear and distant, as the setting sun faded and the artificial moonlight fell in a hazy mist.
Until Celts went ashore and into the forest.
There was a hammock suspended in the air, with large clusters of luminous animals imprisoned in the trees on both sides by the flower buds of some kind of transparent plant.
He was gently placed in the hammock, and the bloodthirsty, cruel, god-like female insect spoke to him.
"Get some sleep." His voice was hoarse and low, as if he wanted to cover his eyes with his palm but ultimately gave up because of the strong smell of his own blood.
"I will stay here and watch over you."
Hill noticed that he had spread calming night-blooming jasmine on his hammock.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com