Chapter 348: Chapter 312: Plague

The embers of war had not yet completely cooled, and above the void and the earth, the creations of the Wizards had already begun to efficiently “clean up” the battlefield.

These new cannon fodder units, designed specifically for the Giant Spirit Realm battlefield, surged towards scattered battleship debris, mechanical fragments, and the corpses of the native inhabitants of the Giant Spirit Realm like hungry locusts.

They were not there to destroy, but to use these as nourishment, devouring them wholly.

Metal was melted and reorganized, biological tissue was decomposed and absorbed, and the dissipating Energy was completely absorbed.

More astonishingly, when the material and Energy accumulated within these cannon fodder units reached a certain critical point, they would split on the spot, dividing into two!

And the newly born individuals would immediately join the devouring army.

Thus, these cannon fodder units, like self-replicating gray tides, rapidly spread out from the center of the battlefield, expanding the frontline.

These war machines were devouring the territory and resources of the Giant Spirit Realm at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The retreat of the Giant Spirit Realm was utterly chaotic, to the point of almost being a rout.

Under the highly targeted covering strikes of the Wizards, formations were already in disarray.

Many units, in their hasty retreat, were inadvertently injured by friendly fire, out-of-control Energy, or panicked collisions, silently falling on their way back.

Endi felt he was lucky.

He was a Third Level Ship Captain, commanding a nimble medium-sized assault ship.

In that last devastating covering strike, he maneuvered the battleship through the gaps of the Energy Storm with outstanding intuition and a bit of luck.

He finally returned to the rear defensive line, battered and with crew members still shaken.

Detaching from the neural symbiosis with the battleship, Endi felt his semi-fluid body go limp with a wave of exhaustion.

Walking down the gangway with his team, seeing the somber scene within the base and the tents filled with wounded, they all couldn’t help but feel a sense of lingering fear and disbelief—a small ship like theirs had miraculously not lost a single crew member, though the battleship itself was heavily damaged.

Endi felt his core slightly warm, an unusual sense of excitement lingering around.

He attributed it to the emotional upheaval from narrowly escaping death and didn’t think much of it.

The wounded were too many, and the medical department was already overwhelmed.

After a cursory medical check-up, a medic handed him a vial of bio-gel for rapid Energy supplementation and minor tissue repair, and waved him off to rest, reserving limited resources for more severely injured patients.

As soon as he returned to his small dormitory, Endi couldn’t wait to immerse himself in the nutrient-filled recuperation pool.

A strong sense of fatigue washed over him, and he almost instantly fell into a deep sleep.

Over the next few days, Endi noticed a change in the atmosphere within the camp.

Previously, though they had suffered defeats, morale still remained.

Now, however, an overwhelming depression pervaded, as if something heavy weighed on every soldier’s heart.

Even the high-ranking officers carried a subtle unease during inspections, and the soldiers dared not express their frustration.

After two more days, Endi started to feel something was off.

The excitement after the battle had long faded, replaced by an all-consuming, persistent fatigue.

At first, he thought it was a normal reaction to excessive mental strain, but the exhaustion grew daily, even impacting his daily recovery training and Spiritual Power meditation.

With no other choice, he headed back to the medical department.

“Doctor, I’m feeling very tired, extremely tired. It’s not mental, it’s physical…” Endi described his symptoms to the duty medical officer.

The medical officer seemed impatient, interrupting without looking up: “Fatigue again? I’ve heard over a hundred such excuses in the past few days! Does everyone want to avoid training and patrol duties for this reason?”

Endi was slightly irritated: “I’m not trying to slack off! I really feel something is wrong!”

“Alright, alright!” The medic waved him off, clearly not wanting to listen further, “Everyone says the same thing. We’ll do a basic scan, and if nothing’s wrong, head back and stop occupying resources!”

After a quick scan, the medic frowned at the results: “Cell activity is abnormally high… Energy metabolism rate is higher than normal.”

“Looks like the battlefield stress has indeed affected you significantly, causing a sustained stress response. It’s a psychosomatic symptom caused by psychological stress. I’ll give you a three-day leave to relax, go out for a while, and stop overthinking here in the camp!”

Although being diagnosed as a “psychological issue” left Endi somewhat frustrated, getting time off to leave the oppressive camp was a relief.

He took the electronic leave form without saying much.

On the way out of the camp, Endi noticed many soldiers appearing listless and stumbling as they walked.

He felt a flash of doubt but quickly found his own explanation: “After such a significant defeat, it’s normal for morale to drop and spirits to feel low.”

As a Third Level Ship Captain, he had the right to request a dedicated transport, but Endi had his own thoughts.

As he had done many times during past leaves, he headed to the public airship station near the military camp, quietly boarding a civilian airship destined for the nearby city.

Aboard the airship, nearby civilians sensed the residual energy waves and subtle Evil Qi from Endi, honed on the battlefield, and cast looks of awe or envy towards him.

Feeling the gazes upon him, Endi’s heart, weighed down by defeat and inexplicable fatigue, seemed to receive a silent comfort.

In an army filled with strong individuals, he was merely a small figure, but in the eyes of these ordinary people, he was a powerful figure to be admired.

The feeling of being admired by everyone was something he couldn’t get enough of.

This unique way of “relaxation” always served him well.

The airship reached its destination, and Endi disembarked reluctantly, then casually boarded another airship heading to an unknown destination, continuing his aimless “relaxation” journey.

He didn’t notice that after he left, the passengers on the previous airship gradually felt unexplained fatigue and drowsiness.

The three-day vacation passed in an instant.

When Endi returned to the barracks, he was shocked by the scene before him—the entrance to the barracks was reinforced with multiple checkpoints, the Energy Shield was fully activated, the patrol had increased several times, and the atmosphere was extremely tense!

“Could it be… those wizards have attacked?!”

Endi’s heart tightened, and he hurriedly presented his identification, rushing back to his dormitory.

The deputy, who had been anxiously waiting inside the dormitory, visibly relaxed upon seeing him return.

“Captain! You’re finally back!”

“What happened? Is it martial law? Has the enemy attacked?” Endi hurriedly asked.

The deputy shook his head in fear: “It’s not the enemy… it’s a plague! A bizarre disease has broken out in the camp!”

Endi breathed a sigh of relief, thankful it wasn’t those terrifying wizards.

The deputy’s voice trembled: “The symptoms of the disease are horrifying! Captain, you’ve never seen anything like it, their bodies… twist! They lose control and form symbiotic relationships with everything they touch, turning into… indescribable monsters!”

“Some have removed their mechanical symbiotes, but soon after, their bodies started forming eerie symbiotic reactions with clothes, beds, even dust in the air, eventually twisting into a mass… not even a whole corpse left!”

Endi felt chills down his spine, a cold fear rising from deep within, and instinctively touched his own still slightly weak body.

Back at the dormitory, a vague unease lingered in his heart, but he forced himself to sleep deeply.

However, in the following days, the situation in the camp not only failed to improve but worsened!

At first, only a few showed severe fatigue, and the military doctors did not pay much attention.

But soon, more and more people fell ill, the symptoms becoming stranger, and medications proving almost ineffective.

The camp’s leadership initially tried to order the isolation of all patients, but as the infected increased, they couldn’t even gather enough healthy soldiers to maintain order.

Weakened, Endi was awakened by a knock at the door; he weakly opened it to see the deputy’s fearful face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Sir, we must escape!” The deputy’s voice carried despair, “The quarantine zone is out of control, management has completely collapsed, and many are fleeing desperately…”

“What?!” Endi couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

He managed to leap from the nutrient pool and rushed outside the dormitory building, where he witnessed a scene of devastation and horror.

Soldiers lay dead by the roadside, bodies twisted beyond recognition; officers, locked in their rooms, still underwent horrifying mutations; and some, driven totally insane, attacked any moving object indiscriminately…

Occasionally, a few survivors could be seen, cautiously sticking to the shadows, wriggling away to escape the camp.

Endi stared blankly at the hellish scene in front of him.

Suddenly, a broken limb was blown by the wind in front of him, causing him to shiver and snap back to reality:

“Quick! Gather the rest of the fleet!”

“There’s no one left, I already checked, now we’re the only ones left in the dorm!” The deputy’s voice trembled with tears.

“What?!!” Endi’s body couldn’t help but shudder violently.

But as a seasoned veteran, he quickly calmed down: “Then we’d better get out of here fast!”

The two of them barely took any belongings, cautiously running towards the camp gate.

“…Captain?”

As they were about to reach the gate, a voice suddenly called out to them.

Following the sound, they saw a figure, fused with the ground, body twisted.

Endi forced down his nausea to take a closer look, realizing it was one of his fleet members.

“You…”

Endi instinctively wanted to help, but was stopped by the deputy: “Sir, this disease is highly contagious…”

Endi instinctively halted his steps.

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