A quarter of an hour later, another tank squad arrived at the combat zone of the No. 12 and No. 9 crews.

"Aimi, Boshan, are you alright?" Yifei, the leader, shouted from afar.

Boshan waved to show she was fine, while Aimi shouted excitedly, "How did you get here? We took down a big guy!"

"I heard the cannons firing over here." Yifei was relieved to see them unharmed. She jumped out of her tank and quickly walked to the monster's corpse, which was riddled with grenade holes. She asked in surprise, "What is this?"

"It should be a Nest Mother, but to be honest, I'm not too sure," Boshan murmured.

The previous shot was clean and efficient, not only smashing its organs to pieces but also blasting its head into the sky. Of course, whether this monster had a head was another matter—after all, normally, creatures wouldn't run away backwards.

Its magic dissipated when it died, and its entire body instantly collapsed, turning into a pile of flesh. Only two rows of broken ribs remained standing.

"Are you sure this is a Nest Mother?" Yifei took out a manual and frowned as she compared it. "The skeleton is somewhat similar, but the size is smaller, and there aren't enough tentacles... By the way, did you see the eyes inside it?"

Giant compound eyes were one of the most prominent features of a Nest Mother. According to the manual, they were about the same size as the Nest Mother's organs, located in the center of the body, and almost impossible to miss.

Boshan shook her head. "I guessed it was a Nest Mother simply because it was carrying a large number of Blade Beasts. As for other details, I'm just as confused as you are. But..." she paused slightly, "forget Nest Mothers, none of the monsters here completely match the illustrations in the manual. Take a look at those dead Blade Beasts—"

Only then did Yifei notice something unusual about the Blade Beasts that had fallen in front of the Nest Mother. "These are...wings?"

"That's right," Boshan replied. "They look as thin as cicada wings, but they're much larger. Using these wings, they can even make long-distance pouncing movements, which we've never seen on Blade Beasts before."

"I can probably understand why the higher-ups want us to recover intact samples from the Endless Sea." Yifei sighed after a long silence. "Their rate of change is too alarming."

"That's a problem for those above to consider," Boshan climbed back onto the tank and gave Yifei a gesture to set off. "As for us—we just need to eliminate them."

...

The First Army's report on reclaiming the ruins of Taqila quickly reached Roland's office.

In this "urban warfare," Evil Beasts were no longer the main opponents. Creatures from the Endless Sea appeared in large numbers for the first time, and most of them were highly threatening Blade Beasts.

But compared to the past, when one or two Blade Beasts could invalidate the army's defenses, the result this time was completely different.

The newly formed armored regiment played a decisive role in this battle, not only locking onto the enemy's position but also securing most of the victories. The First Army finally annihilated all the creatures from the Endless Sea at a minimal cost, re-establishing its foothold on the Fertile Plains. Among them, the No. 12 and No. 9 crews worked together to eliminate a Nest Mother and more than a dozen Blade Beasts, and their unscathed performance completely changed the military's view. In addition to stating the battle, the report was full of requests to produce more tanks, even if there weren't enough witches, ordinary officers could serve as tank commanders.

Obviously, they had fully tasted the sweetness of this heavy equipment that integrated offense and defense.

Roland was not surprised by this result—the title of King of Land Warfare was established in two world-scale wars, and tanks were well-tested in every aspect. If it weren't for this, he wouldn't have drawn a group of people from the army to practice driving skills as early as when tractors were invented.

Compared to this mature weapon, he was more concerned about the monster corpses transported back by the train.

In the afternoon, Agatha from the Magic Tower called and said that the dissection had yielded preliminary conclusions.

...

Walking closer to the bottom of the Magic Tower, Roland immediately felt a gust of cold wind.

A pile of ice blocks was neatly placed in the huge basement. Anyone who didn't know better would think it was an ice storage, but he knew that those ice blocks contained samples from the Endless Sea transported back from the front line for the Witch Union to study.

The dissection area was in the center of the room. Agatha took off her gloves and gave him a Union Association hand salute.

"You seem happy," Roland said, tightening his collar.

"Because I can do my old job again." Agatha smiled. "Honestly, the cold laboratory is more suitable for me. Representing Taqila's expedition, attending political meetings, and the like are not my strengths."

When it came to ancient witch representatives, Pasha was obviously the most suitable, but the carrier's movement was too inconvenient, so Agatha naturally became the second choice.

Seeing the hesitant look on Roland's face, the Ice Witch took the initiative to wave her hand and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, everything is prioritized for the War of Divine Will. I understand this."

He nodded and turned to the main topic. "So, what did you find?"

"Your Majesty, please look here," Agatha conjured an ice blade from her fingertip and stabbed it into a large organ on the dissection table. "This was taken from the new Nest Mother. Inside it, I found obvious signs of aging. I haven't seen the same problem in any Blade Beast."

"Aging?" Roland raised an eyebrow. He noticed that there were indeed large areas of wrinkles and dark spots where the ice blade was pointing.

"That's right. Magic can strengthen the body of the magic user, which has been verified in witches and devils. The Endless Sea should naturally be no exception. The most obvious characteristic of this type of strengthening is longevity," Agatha explained in detail. "I have consulted the information provided by the devils, which does not mention how long a Nest Mother can live, but it does say that Blade Beasts and Foot Beasts have short lifespans. Even if they die, the Nest Mother can quickly hatch new species."

"Are you saying... the situation is exactly the opposite now?" Nightingale said, "Could it be that this Nest Mother is nearing the end of its life?"

"It would be difficult to judge if there was only one, but I found similar situations in all four bodies transported back from the front line, which would be too coincidental," Agatha said slowly. "Besides, you have fought Nest Mothers before and know how big they are—compared to their size, these monsters less than ten meters long don't seem like they're very old."

"That seems reasonable."

"Moreover, both the thin wings used for pouncing and the increasingly large scythe claws are contrary to their former habits." She turned to Roland. "Your Majesty, I don't think this thing can swim in the sea as it used to."

"So, what is your conclusion?" Roland asked with a solemn expression.

"The Nest Mother is probably transferring its magic to its servants in order to create more powerful soldiers," Agatha said word by word, "but their evolution is deviating from the sea, and it can even be said that they are sacrificing the future of the race."

Roland sighed. "But we have trouble."