In Xiongzhanli, General Ivan—a man confirmed to have gone mad, a man who had left Azure more than a decade ago—reappeared beneath the skies he once guarded. With his bare arm, he severed Daie's sword-wielding left arm.
This was humanity's greatest wound dealt to Daie to date, and their most resounding battle achievement.
It was also a breakthrough update in humanity's understanding of their own peak combat power—when General Ivan ultimately cleaved off Daie's arm, he had not used a dead iron weapon, but his own arm.
At the same time, he was run through by the column sword.
At sunset on this day across the Winter Palace battlefield, tens of thousands of warriors of Azure's Xiongzhanli Front raised a silent salute together, bidding farewell to their former corps commander—the mightiest force in their nation's history.
"Maybe one day the general will come back," someone muttered unwillingly amidst the sorrowful, solemn ranks.
For when General Ivan departed with Christine and the others, he was not dead. Bearing that horrifying wound, he suppressed his condition, maintained his magma state, and walked away calmly on his own two feet.
This day was September 13, 1994.
The latest intelligence feedback from Azure reported: a battle to the death in Xiongzhanli; General Ivan near death; Daie had lost an arm and its column sword.
Yet two days later, on September 15.
A Daie suddenly appeared in the skies above the Antarctic battlefield, where Azure was preparing a full withdrawal. Its arms were completely intact, gripping a massive blue-light column sword.
With no top-tier combat powers left to hold the line, the forces in Antarctica had no choice but to hide and flee en masse.
There was not a single shred of intelligence that could help humanity determine: was this that same one, or another?
If it was that same one, what had happened to its arm?
On September 16, Daie appeared above the city of São Paulo in South America. After creating deterrence, it did not engage in actual combat with General Bochen.
On September 17, Daie appeared over two North American cities. Encountering reinforcements led by General Bochen once more, it did not actually strike.
Following that, on September 18, it appeared within a single day over Dongjing and Mangu; on September 19, over the European city of London...
Throughout this "guerrilla" process, Daie created immense deterrence and the illusion of launching a massive attack nearly every time, yet in the end, it never truly struck, nor did it do anything.
Until the afternoon of September 19, in the Mediterranean, over the city of Rome—which had not originally been blanketed by the Great Spike swarm.
This was the first time Daie had appeared over an uncovered city.
Beneath the lingering glow after five in the afternoon, Daie suddenly manifested alongside over a hundred black craft. Brandishing its sword like a descending demon god, it stood in midair... silently looking down upon the entire city.
Within a mere three minutes, Rome fell into massive panic and chaos. Across the city, citizens either hid in despair or fled screaming in all directions...
This continued for over an hour. Daie stood suspended in midair the entire time, calmly watching it all unfold.
During this time, Azure could not mobilize any high-end combat power capable of fighting—in other words, the citizens of Rome never saw a single sign of resistance.
"Fortunately," Daie ultimately did not strike either. An hour later, as the sun set, it prepared to leave... Before departing, for the first time during this global "guerrilla campaign," it spoke:
"Now, draw your final breaths, humans. The slaughter is about to begin. No one shall be spared."
Its callous tone and beast-like, rasping voice rippled across the sky, blanketing the whole city.
At this point, no matter how hard Azure tried to cover it up, panic spread once more—even more severe than during the initial arrival of the Great Spike swarm.
Because back then, when the Great Spikes arrived as an unforeseen shock, Azure had stepped forward as an equally unexpected revelation, lifting the shroud that had concealed them.
The existence of human source energy weaponry and formidable resistance had given the people of the ordinary world a massive psychological counter-shock—or rather, comfort.
Yet now, facing this Daie appearing everywhere... looking at Azure's performance, it seemed they could do nothing at all.
When a terrifying high-tier Great Spike could freely and brazenly appear above city after city, poised to launch an attack at any moment, slaughter countless humans, and ultimately issue a "proclamation of human extinction"—
Through it all, Azure had mounted no effective resistance whatsoever.
......
On this day, two vital pieces of information were transmitted by the opposing sides.
The first came from Azure's intelligence department. After continuous information collection, comparison, and analysis, the intelligence department issued their assessment:
[The one conducting guerrilla strikes across the globe is the same Daie.
Is it also the wounded one? There is a 70% probability it is not, and a 30% probability it is.
Therefore, among the Great Spikes' invasion forces, there is a high probability that two Daies exist simultaneously.]
The second was dispatched from the Great Spike swarm above London, entering the vast cosmos... The intelligence reported by Daie to the civilization fleet, roughly expressed in the logic of human language, stated:
[The vast majority of humans are far more fragile than anticipated, posing zero threat.
However, as our forebears stated, a portion of unawakened Yanxiu will is likely concealed among them, for our observations reveal that ordinary humans here are entirely indistinguishable in anatomical structure and essential characteristics from source energy combatants.
Extinction is therefore an inevitable necessity. Carrying it out on a massive scale, however, must await your arrival to ensure that the inheritance of the Yanxiu will following the slaughter falls entirely to our side, rather than onto those who have already mastered source energy combat.
The human combatant populace is generally weaker than our "tools."
Yet due to a strange new type of casket, they have recently been undergoing bizarre, bulk improvements.
They are making progress.
This is the part that concerns me.
Fortunately, humans who can truly be called powerhouses remain exceptionally few, exceedingly rare.
So few that only a handful can collectively oppose me.
Fewer still—only two or three—can pose a certain threat to me.
And as an individual lifeform capable of making me sense a threat to my life, there is currently only one.
Of course, these are not major concerns, as I consistently maintain absolute advantage and freedom of mobility.
Precisely because of the scarcity of powerhouses and the difficulty of gathering them, humanity's current dispersed state instead offers us immense convenience, as well as room to survive and maneuver.
I will make every effort to ensure they remain dispersed until our realm descends.
Finally, I eagerly await Miwang and your arrival... Congratulate our magnificent voyage; everything has been worth it.]
[By the way, they refer to us as "Great Spikes." I consider this an ignorant provocation and humiliation.]
......
The night of September 20, 1994.
The traditional Huaxian holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival. The sky was clear, and the moon was full.
Near Linzhou, at No. 15 Field Hospital.
Han Qingyu wore his Fluttering Moth combat suit, its chest insignia already dyed red. Carrying the column sword on his back, he cradled a huge armful of sweet osmanthus blossoms in his arms.
Unable to refuse the unanimous pleas of the doctors, nurses, and female wounded, Azure's former number-one flower-delivery boy was delivering flowers once again.
To save trouble, Han Qingyu had chopped down two sweet osmanthus trees directly, hauled them back, hacked them into branches, and delivered them office by office, ward by ward.
"Whew!" Finished at last. Stepping out through the hospital building's main entrance, Han Qingyu let out a long breath.
He still wasn't used to this sort of thing. To him, doing this seemed even harder than facing Daie.
Just as he was thinking of finding a place to dump the remaining osmanthus—pondering where best to discard it so the doctors, nurses, and wounded wouldn't find out and get upset—
"Major Qing, Major Qing..." a familiar young nurse called out as she jogged over. Stopping before him, she panted, "Down by the river! The people by the river said they want some too. Everyone's waiting for Major Qing's flowers."
"Come on, follow me." Grabbing Han Qingyu by the wrist, the young nurse pulled him all the way to the river behind the hill. Standing on the slope, she pointed down. "Look, they need some here too."
On the hillside beside the river, bathed in bright moonlight, groups of people sat scattered about, apparently gazing at the moon.
Wen Jifei, He Tangtang, Yang Qingbai, and the Little Prince were among them, chatting with the young nurses.
So they were likely the instigators... in all probability, this flower delivery business had been their deliberate setup from the very beginning.
"Thank you for your hard work." "Thank you for your hard work." Helpless, Han Qingyu could only mutter the phrase as he made the rounds, delivering branch after branch from group to group.
When he had delivered almost everything and only the final branch of sweet osmanthus remained in his hand, he walked toward an elderly woman.
Gauze remained wrapped around Grandma Yuemei's eyes; her sight could never be restored. Her physical condition, however, had improved significantly. She was there tonight as well, sitting in a chair not far from the river, listening to the young nurses describe tonight's moonlight to her.
"Uh, well..." As he approached, Han Qingyu faltered, not knowing quite how to begin since he knew she couldn't see. He fumbled for words and held out the sweet osmanthus first.
The fragrance of sweet osmanthus drifted over. Grandma Yuemei caught the scent, paused, and tilted her head... She reached into the empty air, grasping once, twice... and gripped the spray of flowers tightly in her hands.
"Do other people really give sweet osmanthus too?" Many, many years ago, young Yuemei had asked 1-95492 with a suspicious look.
That was the first time in her life she had ever received flowers from a man.
"Y-Yeah... I guess so," 1-95492, who was also giving flowers for the first time that year, had said with an awkward smile from his hospital bed as he looked at her.
Chapter 651