Glamoth and the Black Cat

This was... the dream of a certain Glamoth Iron Cavalry...

The air was thick with gunpowder and the sour stench of countless crushed insects mixed together.

The sky was a frozen dark red, the earth torn apart and littered with craters hundreds of meters wide.

Twisted alloy armor wreckage jutted from the cracked ground like tombstones erected for the defeated.

This war had lasted far too long—so long that this land was already filled with regret.

But unfortunately, as creations of Propagation, the insect tide could not be exterminated.

Suddenly, a woman's voice, so calm it carried not a trace of emotion, rang through the shared channel of every Iron Cavalry unit.

"The 'Scorched Earth Operation' protocol has been activated. Coordinates locked. One hundred and twenty seconds remaining. For the glory of the Empire."

There was no response, no questioning.

Every Iron Cavalry soldier still locked in fierce battle with the swarm paused for one ten-thousandth of a second.

Then, as one, they abandoned all defense and overloaded every last bit of energy into their thrusters.

One mech after another became silver meteors, charging without hesitation toward the densest core of the insect tide.

That was not a charge. It was a march toward death.

"For Her Majesty the Empress!"

Amid quiet murmurs, countless units detonated in the heart of the swarm.

Miniaturized antimatter annihilation cores unleashed devastating energy. Pure white spheres of light silently expanded, devouring everything within several kilometers.

One after another.

White spheres of light flared in succession amid the black tide of insects, like a magnificent yet tragic display of fireworks.

In the end, only the last Glamoth Iron Cavalry soldier remained, crawling up from the ground.

She looked blankly at the scorched earth around her, and at her fallen comrades.

The communication channel was deathly