# Chapter 5: External Armor Defense Rank +2 (Can be triggered when enemies exceed 50,000).
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Skill 14, Annihilation Cannon (Ultimate Ability, Lv.45): Kara stabilizes in place, opens the front armor, and can extend the Annihilation Cannon. Consumes over 30% of its own body energy to complete the cannon's firing (requires body energy above 40,000 points to activate this ability).
Tip: The cooldown time for the Annihilation Cannon is 24 hours.
Skill 15, World-Devouring Evil (Abyss Passive, X): An existence whose mind is gradually eroded by Nether power.
Erosion Degree: 2.75%.
Warning: When this unit's erosion degree exceeds 52~55%, a massive mutation will occur, resulting in a mutational "Abyss Spawn Growth."
...
Kara's information isn't extensive, but it's clear that its ability composition is simple. Yet this simplicity and brutality are what make it most terrifying.
Kara seems to have only four moves: a large number of living missiles to clear out minor enemies, Crystallization Ray as a wide-range control ability, Biological Heavy Cannon to eliminate elite units, and the final Annihilation Cannon for fortress-breaking assaults.
These four methods perfectly solve the problem of Kara's large, seemingly clumsy size.
If it were only this, Kara wouldn't be hard to deal with. The problem is, after becoming a World-Class creature, Kara gained the favor of this world. When it's besieged, it receives boosts from World Force.
Before the number of enemies reaches 500, Kara at most increases its missile attack power and enhances all attributes. Although this is bad news, it's not to the point of being unbeatable.
When the number of enemies exceeds 500, the situation changes. At that point, Kara only needs a little over a minute to recover from severe injuries to full condition.
When enemies exceed 10,000, that disgusting wide-range control ability has its usage interval cut by more than half.
The most terrifying is when enemies exceed 100,000. Kara's "External Armor Defense Rank +2," combined with its original ability bonuses, becomes "External Armor Defense Rank +4." This is no longer a matter of defense strength being strong or weak—it's simply impossible to damage.
After seeing this ability, Su Xiao figured something out. Previously, the Empire's investigation revealed that this world has a massive consciousness entity. If large-scale lethal weapons were used within this world, it would anger this consciousness.
So, regarding the impending Nether invasion, can this massive consciousness know about it, or even predict it?
If it can, what method would it use to respond? It seems... Kara evolving to this extent is the work of this massive consciousness.
To be more precise, Kara was chosen as the savior. At least among its various abilities, the first fourteen all convey this information.
The problem is, Kara's Skill 15 is an ability called "World-Devouring Evil," which is actually an Abyss Passive.
The moment he saw this ability, Su Xiao's first thought was to retreat immediately. It wasn't a retreat in the face of an Abyss Spawn, but rather that Kara's situation must hide some conspiracy behind it.
A savior chosen by the World Consciousness, yet eroded by Nether power—the amount of information in this is explosive.
A gust of wind pressure hit. A completely crimson Death Wyvern flew over, with the Crimson Empress standing on its back.
"Let's join forces to deal with—"
"See you later."
Su Xiao controlled the Sun Flame Dragon beneath him to turn around and retreat, while looking down and saying loudly, "Let's go."
Hearing this, the Spider Queen ordered her wolf spiders to disperse.
"Spider."
The Crimson Empress stared at the Spider Queen. Normally, the Spider Queen would have to consider the authority of this Insect Race faction leader. But now, with 22 contracts binding her, which side she stands on is obvious.
Death Wyverns circled overhead. The Crimson Empress knew things couldn't be done, and since the giant monster Kara seemed to be in a less-than-clear state, the Crimson Empress made a move to retreat.
Boom! Boom! Boom!...
Living missiles rained down toward the Crimson Empress's direction. Kara was indeed somewhat dazed at the moment, but facing its former nemesis, the Crimson Empress, Kara decided to crush this annoying little bug.
...
The wind whistled past his ears. Su Xiao sat on the back of the Sun Flame Dragon. This siege was neither successful nor a failure. His goal in eliminating Kara was to obtain the Life Ore vein beneath its nest. Given Kara's current state, it probably no longer had the ability to continue mining—it was evolving in a different direction.
As for joining forces with the Crimson Empress to deal with Kara, that would be very unwise. Kara is the type that becomes more unstoppable the more people besiege it.
Su Xiao's idea was to use the most elite forces to deal with this giant monster. The ideal lineup would be: himself + Baha + Bubu Wang + a few hundred Sun Flame Dragons + the leader-level Demon Flame Dragon, Barbatos.
Barbatos had followed Su Xiao through three world progressions and was Su Xiao's strongest dragon mount, without exception.
Given Kara's size of over 300 meters, Su Xiao had to fight it in dragon-riding state. First, Barbatos had unmatched agility for its large size—among all large dragon types, Barbatos was definitely the pinnacle of flight ability at the same rank.
Moreover, Barbatos's dragonflame had a strong effect in suppressing life force recovery, which would be decisive in the battle against Kara.
Also, in dragon-riding state, Su Xiao could have Barbatos share the backlash of World Thunder with him, allowing him to wield the "World Thunder Spear" in combat. The "World Thunder Spear" was a weapon specifically designed for dealing with large enemies.
During the decisive battle against the Vassal Alliance on Ser Star, Su Xiao had entered dragon-riding state riding a Storm Dragon. Compared to Barbatos, the Storm Dragon's endurance was much weaker. Riding Barbatos, Su Xiao could rely on Barbatos's powerful endurance to condense an even stronger "World Thunder Spear."
Just as Su Xiao was thinking this, a loud crash came from behind. This puzzled him—given Kara's mental state, it shouldn't be intercepting. It was in the stage of being eroded by Nether power.
A Death Wyvern with bloodstains scattered on its body flew past in the distance, carrying the Crimson Empress's avatar on its back. If this avatar died, the Crimson Empress, whose main body had just been assassinated, would definitely be in a bad state. It might even damage her origin. If that kind of injury occurred, the Crimson Empress's situation would be very grim. To recover from such an injury, there were two methods within this world: 1. Go to the Company, 2. Come to Su Xiao. The former's treatment cost was unbearably high, while the latter's was merely expensive. As for the experience during treatment...
The Crimson Empress, riding the Death Wyvern, also noticed Su Xiao's side. She didn't know why Kara was chasing her specifically, but at this moment, she understood the importance of having teammates. When being chased by an enemy, sometimes you don't need to run faster than the enemy—just faster than your teammates is enough.
At this moment, the Crimson Empress comprehended the "Good Teammate Spirit."
Behind the Crimson Empress, although Kara was large, it was now moving at full speed. Its lower body, surrounded by over a dozen giant leg-like appendages, moved so that even at full speed, it was like walking on flat ground. Its speed was not much slower than the Crimson Empress riding the Death Wyvern.
This was another state of Kara. When it wasn't deploying its cannon platform, its speed was fully unleashed, but it could only use small tracking living missiles for attack. Biological Heavy Cannon, Crystallization Ray, etc., were temporarily unavailable.
Although the Sun Flame Dragon's flight speed wasn't weak, it couldn't match the Death Wyvern, a highly mobile flying unit. The Crimson Empress, riding an elite Death Wyvern, broke the sound barrier and rushed past Su Xiao.
As the two sides passed each other, a faint smile appeared on the Crimson Empress's face. Her lips moved, and through lip-reading, Su Xiao saw her say: 'Tough luck, don't blame me.'
The Crimson Empress's meaning was simple: use her flight speed advantage to overtake Su Xiao, lure Kara into fighting Su Xiao, and then take the opportunity to retreat.
Seeing this, Su Xiao ordered the surrounding Sun Flame Dragons to scatter, flying as far away as possible. He took out a mask and held it in his hand.
Wind pressure came from behind, followed by a loud crash from diagonally below. The ground seemed to have been hit by a cannonball, with broken stones flying everywhere and smoke rising high.
Kara looked up with its single eye, but after just a glance, it ignored Su Xiao's side and continued chasing the Crimson Empress.
The Crimson Empress, witnessing all this ahead, was stunned. She couldn't understand why Kara didn't attack Su Xiao.
The reason was simple. Kara was in a state of being eroded by Nether power. The source of Nether power was Abyss Force. The "Primordial Mask" Su Xiao had taken out was related to the Abyss in many ways, belonging to a candidate "Daddy-level" artifact.
Kara, in its blurred state of consciousness, felt that the Primordial Mask was somewhat similar to itself but a different type of existence, so it couldn't be bothered to deal with it.
Things in the Primordial World were always changing rapidly. Originally, it was thought that a big battle would be needed to take Kara's ore vein, but now it was like picking it up for free.
Even more unexpected was that the plan to raid the Crimson Empress after the battle had also fallen through. Looking at the direction Kara was chasing, it clearly wasn't going after the Crimson Empress's avatar but heading straight for the Crimson Empress's main base.
Given Kara's current level of ferocity, Su Xiao estimated that the Crimson Empress's main base had over a 90% chance of not holding out. Even if it wasn't destroyed by Kara, it would be forced to retreat.
Thus, the ore veins of the Peace Faction Gai, the Spider Queen, the Brutal Kara, and the Crimson Empress would all be taken by their side. Of the five Insect Race mother entities, only the "Low-Key Aiseya" remained unarranged.
The unexpected pleasant surprise came suddenly. If branch nests were established in all these places, the daily production of Life Ore would exceed 800,000 units. Advancing to the Dominator rank wouldn't be a problem at all.
However, bad news also appeared simultaneously. Kara, who was supposed to be the savior, was gradually being eroded by Nether power. When the erosion degree exceeded 50%, Kara would likely become a war weapon for the Nether forces, even accelerating the Nether's invasion of this world.
Moreover, Kara's fortress-breaking assault ability was too strong. It must be completely killed before it mutated due to Nether power.
To kill a super-large enemy like Kara, Barbatos was essential. Whether for flight ability or life force recovery suppression, the leader-level Demon Flame Dragon Barbatos had to be brought out.
Only after Jila advanced to the Dominator rank and the Mother Nest completed an evolution could Barbatos be awakened and a powerful dragon body matching it be cultivated.
Su Xiao didn't return to the Mother Nest immediately. The Crimson Empress should be able to hold off Kara for a few hours. Under this premise, Su Xiao had Jila start frantically producing Worker Scorpions.
These Worker Scorpions would be temporarily controlled by the Spider Queen to establish branch nests on the ore vein that originally belonged to Kara and start mining.
Not only the original site of Kara's tribe, but also the super-large Life Ore vein owned by the Spider Queen needed to be excavated. Previously, the Spider Queen had seen the Worker Scorpions' high-wear mining method for efficiency and had been secretly showing resistance.
This sudden change in Kara made the Spider Queen realize that if she continued to make excuses, she would likely be dealt with. Knowing Su Xiao, she knew he was capable of such things.
Thus, their side now had three super-large ore veins under excavation. As for the safety of the branch nests? Su Xiao wasn't too concerned. Small to medium-scale Insect Races wouldn't dare provoke them, and the Empire and Company wouldn't attack during this time.
Except for the possibility of Kara attacking these three branch nests, the likelihood of other parties attacking was extremely low. Even if Kara attacked a branch nest, the losses would be within acceptable limits.
For now, the only unknown party was the "Low-Key Aiseya." Aiseya's situation was too mysterious. Among Su Xiao, the Crimson Empress, and Kara, they were either at war, getting beaten, or preparing big moves. Even the Spider Queen and the Peace Faction Gai had jumped out to lend at high interest.
Only Aiseya, also an Insect Race Mother Queen, had no sound at all, as if everything happening had nothing to do with her.
Su Xiao didn't immediately return to the Mother Nest because he wanted to check on Aiseya's situation. If the timing was right, he would eliminate her. He now had 1,300 Sun Flame Dragons. Using this force to eliminate Aiseya might result in heavy losses, but for subsequent development, it was worth it.
The Sun Flame Dragon flew through the wind. As the sky darkened, Su Xiao arrived above Aiseya's tribe. Looking down, within this area of Insect Race buildings, the central Mother Nest was about 30 meters tall, looking somewhat shriveled. The surrounding Insect Race buildings were also wilted. More absurdly, some buildings were made of logs rather than biological tissue.
The defense towers around Aiseya's tribe were all withered, turned into bone-white chitin coordinate-type buildings with no attack capability.
Su Xiao controlled his Sun Flame Dragon to land. He signaled Bubu Wang to blend into the environment and hide behind him. Something was off about this place.
Tap, tap, tap~
Knocking sounds came. Su Xiao followed the sound to a wooden house without a door. Inside sat an Insect Race that was humanoid overall, with a beard like octopus tentacles and gray-white skin. This Insect Race was in its elderly stage, using a chisel made from iron ore to carve a wooden statue.
"After the war ended, there are still visitors."
The old Insect Race smiled and continued carving his work. No matter how you looked at it, this was an Insect Race with independent thinking, completely free. The ruler here, Aiseya, hadn't even left a spiritual connection on her subordinate Insect Race.
"Where is Aiseya."
Su Xiao placed his hand on the sword hilt at his waist, ready for any unexpected变故.
"So, you're looking for our king. He's in his palace."
The old Insect Race pointed toward the direction of the nest and then continued indulging in his carving.
Su Xiao walked toward the slightly shriveled nest ahead. Along the way, he saw many Insect Race individuals, all in a free state. Some were lying around sleeping soundly, while others watched him.
Not to mention anything else, these guys were all elite individuals on average, with even leader-level individuals among them. If these combat forces were gathered together, they would definitely not be weak.
This was completely different from the previous Aiseya tribe. During the war with the Empire, Aiseya's overall war strength could definitely rank in the top two among the Insect Race Alliance. It was said that Aiseya was an anomaly among the Insect Race.
Su Xiao entered the nest. The light inside was dim, smaller than expected—an open space of over a thousand square meters. Dust particles floated in the air, and there was a grassy smell in the air.
In the dim light, a proud flesh throne stood ahead. This flesh throne was dry and old. A figure sat on it, with a pair of brown vertical pupils that made people's hearts tremble, instinctively wanting to avoid eye contact.
Su Xiao stared at Aiseya sitting on the flesh throne. Unlike the imagined Insect Race Mother Queen, Aiseya was bare-chested, with a form identical to a human, and specifically a human male's form. Her muscles were sharply defined but not overly muscular, exuding a pure kind of strength.
"So it was you who defeated Gai?"
Aiseya spoke, her voice leaning toward androgynous. She had medium-length golden hair, a red mark on her forehead like a trident, and beast tooth pendants hanging from her earlobes.
"As expected, the path I chose was right. Individual strength can also reach the peak."
Aiseya smiled. This was the path she had chosen—advancing toward the peak of individual combat power, meaning no longer developing the army stream.
"Did you come to take the ore vein beneath our feet?"
Aiseya rested her chin on her hand, her tone calm.
"Yes."
"It's yours. But there's a condition."
"Speak."
"Let my subordinates leave. You must not enslave them."
"Fine."
"Fate willing, we'll meet again. I have a feeling we'll see each other again soon."
After saying this, Aiseya disappeared from her spot. The next moment, she appeared before the nest's exit. She glanced toward where Bubu Wang was, seemed to sense something, frowned and stared for a moment, then stepped out of the nest.
As soon as Aiseya left, the Insect Race in the tribe also left one after another, following the direction Aiseya had gone.
In no time, only Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, and Baha remained in the tribe. Quite unexpectedly, Aiseya had given up this super-large ore vein so easily. From another perspective, Aiseya, who had chosen individual strength, no longer needed this kind of resource.
Su Xiao sat on top of the shriveled nest. This world was truly full of strong individuals. Previously meeting the Empire's Hand, Rhine God, was already surprising. Now encountering the Insect Race powerhouse Aiseya, her strength was on par with Rhine God.
Su Xiao suspected that Aiseya had probably hit some upper limit long ago. For many years, she had been accumulating but couldn't break through this limit. However, after he, Shenfu, the Undead Girl, and Kaisa entered this world, the three super-doublings and Kaisa's nuclear bomb had temporarily made the world's "upper limit" less absolute. Therefore, Aiseya took the opportunity to break through to her current level. This guy hadn't only changed his evolution method—it seemed even his gender had changed.
Putting aside Aiseya for now, Su Xiao wanted to figure out one thing: how could Kara, chosen by this world's World Consciousness, fall to being eroded by the Nether, transforming from a savior to a world-destroyer?
Using the simplest elimination method, Su Xiao reasoned. First, explanations similar to going berserk were too far-fetched. Based on Su Xiao's own experience, if something went wrong during a breakthrough, the high probability was dying on the spot.
From another perspective, was Kara's situation the result of being schemed against by someone? The forces capable of scheming against Kara to this extent were few—basically a choice between the Empire and the Company. The Crimson Empress wasn't even qualified.
Logically, the Empire and the Company chose Kara as the world's third party and shouldn't have schemed against her. The Empire even had the Valhalla assassinate the Crimson Empress to help Kara become the Insect Race leader...
Suddenly, another possibility appeared in Su Xiao's mind: was there someone who didn't want a third party to appear? In the current situation, if both Kara and the Crimson Empress were destroyed, there would be no third party. Their side was qualified to become the third party, but other forces didn't know this.
If a third party didn't appear, after the Nether invasion, the pressure on the Empire and Company would increase sharply. This didn't align with both sides' interests, unless there were traitors inside both sides who had defected to the Nether forces. Moreover, these traitors were either among the Company's top executives or the Third Fleet's generals. Otherwise, there was no way to trap Kara this badly.
Su Xiao believed that eliminating Kara and finding the traitor were equally important. The three-party coexistence was particularly important, possibly even key to surviving this calamity.
For now, the clues were basically non-existent. Su Xiao jumped onto the dragon's back, brought Bubu Wang and Baha, and headed toward the Mother Nest.
An hour later, under the starry night sky, the wooden building at the Mother Nest base camp was brightly lit on the second floor.
Bubu Wang lay lazily on the floor. Beside him, Baha browsed the forum, supplementing his vocabulary. Amu was shelling pine nuts, planning to eat them all at once after saving enough. But after saving a small pile, Su Xiao, who was reading ancient texts, grabbed a handful and ate them.
"Moo~"
Amu looked wronged. The moment he turned his head, the remaining pine nuts were all gone. Bubu Wang and Baha both remained expressionless, their mouths full, not chewing.
Su Xiao was waiting for news from the Crimson Empress's side. The situation was different from expected. Kara's consciousness was very unclear. After attacking the Crimson Empress's territory for a while, it suddenly turned and left. After a while, as if remembering something, it came back to attack.
This shows how deep Kara's hatred for the Crimson Empress was. Even eroded to this state, it still didn't forget to beat up the Crimson Empress.
Bang! The door downstairs was pushed open, followed by the sound of footsteps thumping up the stairs. The sulking Undead Girl sat down, taking off her large hat with several small holes.
"What happened to you? You didn't run into Kara, did you?"
Baha said with a slightly teasing tone.
"How do you know?"
The Undead Girl looked slightly surprised. Yes, she had encountered Kara by chance earlier. After receiving the prompt and learning that Kara was a World-Class creature, the Undead Girl trembled—with excitement. In her view, World-Class creature = powerful = a pile of Soul Coins.
Although she couldn't detect the World-Class creature's information, the Undead Girl decided to act. The result was that she faced her ultimate nemesis.