MTLNOVEL Chapter 8: The Tide
At 6:40 in the morning, Pauli Kishir lay prone on the front line of the Outer World, gripping a steel gun. Snowflakes came crashing down on his skin like branding irons, so intense that he couldn't feel the cold, only a sharp, biting pain.
The Frost Plated 105th Synthesist unit he belonged to maintained absolute silence for the past four hours. Without guidance, maps, or communication, they crossed through the heart of the apocalyptic storm, maneuvering between blizzard and white sand like an undead army.
Their opponents, however, were the true undead.
The Apostle of Entropy — Cain Shigode, who was once the Supreme Commander of Zhengxu's Third Army Group, was consumed by Lord Entropy's storm during a military exercise five years ago, together with his subordinates.
Since then, Azure Star lost a heroic general, and Lord Entropy gained a detestable lackey.
They were positioned on a plateau at an altitude of 6,400 meters, less than a thousand meters from the Ersha in the sky, where the air was thin, and the erosion speed of the Ersha was much higher than elsewhere.
However, this would be the battlefield that decides the fate of Azure Star.
Pauli lay motionless in the snow, chrome-plated veins hidden beneath the camouflage net. He couldn't distinguish between hot and cold, nor could he tell east from west. The self-heating food was in his arms, but he dared not take it out and eat.
Flocks of birds formed by Ersha constantly flew across the sky. Once, they were the free creations, some called eagles, symbols of freedom and bravery, some known as falcons, swift and agile, and others were eagles, powerful and fierce beyond compare.
However, when the Ersha swept across Azure Star hundreds of years ago, they devoured them all, taking away their freedom and spirituality, turning them into mere walking dead and slaves.
Pauli held the rifle, the sights locked firmly on the gorge below. According to the intel, Cain Shigode's troops would descend here and then push westward to attack Sky Ring.
On the battlefield of Azure Star, Sky Ring had already become a strategic location. The Red Arrow Empire's primary target for revenge was Sky Ring, while for the Frost Plated, the 'Stellar Path' of Sky Ring was the key to completing the plan to eliminate Lord Entropy.
Judging by the attack trends of the Apostles of Entropy, charging down from Zhengxu's plateau, Sky Ring was the first to bear the brunt, followed by Red Arrow, and finally Frost Plated.
In the face of this unprecedented catastrophe, no one could stay out of it.
Pauli Kishir's arm began to tingle slightly, but he dared not move. The outcome of this ambush would directly affect the ensuing battle situation.
The people of Sky Ring had not yet completed mobilization; deploying the particle accelerator underground still required several hours. If Lord Entropy's troops broke through at this time, the entire world would have no chance of fighting back.
There was no dawn here; the Ersha clouds concealed the light. Nor was it silent; the gray-white storm roared and howled in the darkness, as if scolding the ants' feeble resistance.
Yet even ants have their will.
When the dim blue-purple aurora rose again on the horizon, a voice immediately sounded from the internal radio of the 105th Synthesist:
"Operation begins!"
No one knew who fired the first shot. The projectile from a Gauss Rifle accurately penetrated the forehead of an Apostle of Entropy, a force deadly enough for a Gamma Rank powerhouse, but it only made the Apostle shake its head.
However, war has never been the stage for personal heroism.
In an instant, bullets poured down like torrential rain. The Apostles of Entropy had just been projected from the aurora when they were immediately wiped out in large numbers.
Artillery is the god of war. Sixty percent of casualties in heated wars are caused by various types of artillery. Frost Plated Soldiers loaded the indifference of the Outer World into the scorching cannon barrels, then pulled the cannon latches, spewing forth a rage that illuminated the heavens and the earth.
This noble rage rolled like a wave.
"Drive them off this planet!"
A roar from the commander came through the channel, but immediately afterwards, the aurora projected one formidable, despair-inducing figure after another — these were Zhengxu's 'Hailaibo' mecha, adhering to the consistent strong trunk and weak branch design philosophy, looking like a sprouting potato with armed claws and six arms wielding various weapons, constantly pouring firepower on them.
Their artillery was born from science and factories, flames forged by mortals.
But the counterattack of the Apostles of Entropy was a miracle bestowed by the oldest Lord Entropy, greater than any deities.
The canopy of Ersha hung low, red-black flowers blooming on the plateau.
The regiment Pauli Kishir was with quickly became engulfed in the dense tide of Ersha artillery, unable to breathe, unable to struggle, only able to watch helplessly as his comrades' armored suits rusted, shattered under the violent kinetic pulses, followed by flesh. The chaotic entropy accelerated the living into old age, then further decayed them into skeletons, leaving not even ashes, completely dissolving into primal quarks—throughout this process, there wasn't even any sensation of energy flow.
It wasn't death, but a silence more terrifying than death.
No scream could be unleashed, for even sound is a vibration; as long as it remains within the bounds of 'energy,' there is no escape from Ersha's blockade.
It's over.
Pauli Kishir's squad held fast to their position on the hill. Comrades were consumed and dissolved before his eyes, people powerless to resist—it was perhaps this very sight, centuries ago, when a great calamity swept the globe with the Ersha plague.
For four hundred years, they've never escaped Lord Entropy's shadow.
They were mercilessly crushed, even the most advanced mecha were powerless against the corrupted, fallen entities of the Apostles of Entropy.
Under the restrictions of this planet, the Angel Envoys often manage to surpass the regular capabilities of Gamma (3).
Pauli Kishir and his comrades fired silently, knowing that shouts and battle cries were useless, and even unnecessary movements were not needed. Even knowing the consequences of a failed ambush, they resolutely held their ground.
Even if they only consumed a little more of the Lord Entropy's firepower, even if the battle loss ratio was only 70:1, they would continue to fight.
Behind them lay the Sky Ring Plains; if the Apostle of Entropy pushed through and combined with the armored flood of the Red Arrow, the entire Sky Ring Republic would be completely destroyed by a pincer attack, bringing the Stellar Path to an end, and the plan to create a black hole at Earth's Core would be utterly destroyed.
Keep fighting.
The machine guns continued to blaze, the pale blue gun flames seemed far more advanced than forty years ago, but no matter how much progress they made, the gap between them and the Ancient God remained as vast as ever.
'If I had one more life, I could take down another Apostle of Entropy.'
Pauli Kishir thought.
But it wasn't long before Pauli Kishir was engulfed in the tide of Ersha, his body shattered by the waves of Ersha, his thoughts mixed in with the tide, leaping and transmitting, surging down the plateau with the tide, racing recklessly through the riverbeds of the old era, turning into an endless river of red-black death, advancing towards the plains of the Sky Ring Republic.
Countless Frost Plated Soldiers' lives were crushed and torn apart, thrown into the torrent, and no one knew how many martyrs' souls would scatter across this land.
The Frost Plated support troops were as fragile as paper in front of the Lord Entropy.
Thus, thousands of sheets of paper fluttered down like snowflakes, converging on the riverbed's path, using their bodies to resist the tide of Lord Entropy.
Those who did not have time to make a sound, who couldn't remember their names, were easily and cheaply devoured by the Ersha tide, the command center at the back could not even tally the data, and the weavings on the front line unraveled one after another.
"The plateau front failed..."
"The conscripted troops of Aylian Island have collapsed."
"The entire Frost Plated 18 Youth Guard is missing."
"401 forward cities have lost contact."
This is the might of Lord Entropy.
No matter how elite the troops, in the face of the Supreme Lord Entropy, it is meaningless.
There is no room for surrender, no chance for struggle, whether coward or hero, all are utterly defeated at this moment.
Tragic battle reports flew in like snowflakes, and Gretto remained silent within the Phantom Palace.
Facing millions of casualties, he could do nothing.
On his own soil, allied troops were buying them time with their lives.
Yet, this was not what pained him the most.
What truly made Gretto clench his fist was the forward cities that chose to stay behind voluntarily and refused to retreat.
They willingly severed communications with the Outer World, using all their resources to support barriers, trying to delay the Ersha tide's sweep of the world for a few more seconds.
The people he had strived to protect all his life through revolution and development, at this moment, were using their lives to express their support for him—for humanity's fate.
To be sure, this was because there was no room for surrender against Lord Entropy.
To be sure, there was a ruthless hatred of Lord Entropy.
To be sure, there were many reasons to explain why they did this.
But in Gretto's view, the people were simply reiterating one sentence:
'We believe in you, comrade.'
"——Continue the operations."
With red-rimmed eyes, Gretto said solemnly:
"We must not waste anyone's sacrifice."
"Accelerate the progress of the Stellar Path, not a single mistake can be made."
"Lord Entropy brings us decay, and we will send a black hole to Lord Entropy!"