The snow was falling, as if the entire Northern Territory had been frozen into a silent coffin.

Yet the slumbering Frost Halberd City had awakened.

"Boom——!!"

With a thud like a heartbeat, the Cold Flame Reactor in the city's heart operated at maximum efficiency, spouting out energy beams like ice-blue lightning.

It pulled the temperature down to the extreme, with icy veins snaking out from the reactor core, spreading like blood vessels throughout the city.

Seventeen magic fortresses activated in succession, igniting the cold crystal demon patterns in the earth's veins. Ice-blue runes shot up, intertwining in the air to form layers of an icy mist barrier, repelling the onslaught of the spore-like insect mist.

The city's defensive arrays of Frost Halberd City also commenced their attack.

"Catapults—load Cold Crystal Magic Explosion Bullets! Coordinates... Nest Number Two Colony!"

"Fire!!!"

A series of thunderous roars sounded as over a dozen colossal cold crystal throwers exerted their force upon the snowy ground. The "magic explosion bullets" infused with cold energy drew trails of white-blue flames, descending like meteors into the packed lines of insect bodies and nests.

"Sizzle!!!"

Several unformed ordinary nests burst open, their eggs and larvae instantly freezing in the extreme cold, forming a sea of ice-blue petals, like the judgment of death.

Meanwhile, the densely packed insect bodies crumbled in the shock wave, like a field of grain severed by a scythe, layer upon layer.

Victory... seemed to draw a little closer at this moment.

But only for a moment.

"What is...?"

In the distance, over the snowfield, the air began to warp, and the Magic Crystal Screen trembled violently.

As if the curtain twisting time and space had been torn open, a colossal behemoth emerged slowly from the snow fog.

The Doomsday Nest had manifested.

It was a twisted entity akin to a holy mother statue, wholly composed of writhing insect flesh fused with humanoid body parts, arms raised high as if bestowing grace, but in reality delivering death.

With each step it took, the earth turned to the color of decaying flesh. With each undulation, tentacles spewed forth a milky-white poisonous insect mist, spreading towards the sky.

"Ugh... what is that smell..."

"Quick, put on your helmets! All troops, don sealed magic silver masks!"

Members of the Knight Order hurriedly pulled down their helmet visors, yet still felt the disturbance within their minds.

After all, what the Doomsday Nest released was no ordinary toxic gas but corrosive spores with a psychic inducement wave.

The battlefield descended into chaos, as the insect bodies continued their relentless approach.

Some drilled out from beneath the snow, others sprinted out of the fog, with more surging forth like a tide from beneath the feet of the Doomsday Nest, like sacrifices erupting from the altar of a malevolent god.

On the outer battlefield, where the icefield had not been entirely swallowed by the insect mist, the sudden snow flew thickly, and a heavily armored legion pushed forth like a mountain range, slowly advancing to clear surrounding threats.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

This was the march of the Cold Iron Legion.

Heavy, orderly, seeming to force the entire battlefield's rhythm under their iron discipline.

They were known as the "Northern Territory's Strongest Shield," with every member being the creme de la creme among elite knights, clad in blue silver heavy armor, their steps steady as an ice rock. The epaulettes on their shoulders symbolized their unshakeable elite status within the Imperial Army ranks.

In the armor's seams flowed pale blue fighting energy, like an undercurrent beneath a winter glacier, stable, lethal, and unyielding.

On the frozen slope below, hundreds of insect corpses surged in a frenzy, their screams echoing, with the vanguard already leaping onto the crest, ready to swoop down.

The Cold Iron Legion did not retreat.

"Front row, shield formation, arc formation to face the enemy."

"Reserve team, draw out magic explosion spears, aim for the eye sockets!"

The commander's voice was as steady as a cold iron bell.

The knights responded silently, half-moon shields closing with a "clang" into a wave-like shield wall on the icefield, while heavy spears were raised uniformly, a flash of blue light!

"Frost Flame Piercing!"

Boom!!!

The entire row of thrown spears, triggered by fighting energy, transformed into a swift cold current through the insect swarm, piercing through the front row of insect bodies instantly, their splattered blood freezing into ice shards before touching the ground.

Three seconds later, the insect bodies on the hilltop were cleared one by one.

But this was just a warm-up.

In the next instant, an earth-shattering roar came from the eastern side of the battlefield, as a massive Tier Two Nest forced its way through, its hideous insect legs shattering the ice shell, the hatching sac on its back swelling and pulsating, ready to release a new wave of insect tide.

"Target confirmed, a Tier Two Hatching Nest!"

"Teams 13 to 15, encircle from the rear; Catapult Team 6, load 'Cold Crystal Bursting Bag'!" Deputy Commander Lix swiftly ordered.

In merely seconds, three teams cut through the nest's flanks like sharp blades, fighting energy shadows streaked the snowfield, precisely striking down the guardian insect bodies surrounding the nest.

Simultaneously, the catapult team's "Cold Crystal Magic Explosion Bullet" launched three white-blue spheres, hitting the nest's back precisely.

Boom!!!

The nest let out an ear-piercing roar as the hatching sac froze instantly, exploding, and scattering countless unformed insect embryos.

And in the next moment, the Extraordinary Knight Altan, who had already leaped onto its back, slashed down with a sword!

"Ice Ridge Shattering——!"

With one stroke, even the central nervous layer of the nest was thoroughly shattered!

The nest collapsed, cold flames splattering, its body descending like a caving altar.

The entire hunt, from identification to execution, took only fifty-seven seconds.

A young knight gazed at the frozen shards of the nest, taking a deep breath, only to be kicked awake by an old soldier beside him.

"Don't get distracted! This is the sixth nest we've taken down!"

"We are the Cold Iron. We do not retreat."

"Our blood can freeze, our bones can break, but until the Duke orders, we shall not retreat!"

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