"..."
The Emperor's Blades unconsciously took a step back.
That appearance, that shape!
No, impossible!
It wasn't time yet. The watchtowers planted along the very edge of the tundra had sent no warning!
Unlike the Ursus soldiers on the tundra, who lied as easily as breathing, the soldiers stationed in those watchtowers were all elites.
If a Catastrophe descended—
They would be the first to face those bugs' fangs!
Only warriors with unshakable resolve would guard the Empire's borders with the determination to die.
Why were these bugs appearing in the tundra?!
They were not veteran Emperor's Blades who had faced the Swarm Tide Catastrophe firsthand, but they still remembered what these bugs looked like!
It was a description passed down through generations—
"When you see one bug, there are surely hundreds, thousands... no, infinitely many bugs behind it."
"At that moment, the best thing to do is give yourself a dignified end—if you don't want to be bitten to death alive."
"If possible, give these bugs a little national shock."
"Emperor's Blades are never cowards!"
"Ura! For Ursus!"
This was a record left behind by an Emperor's Blade.
Before becoming a Blade, he had probably been a somewhat talented painter, which was why he had drawn the bugs' appearance—
The drawings were incredibly lifelike, enough to make one feel the bloodthirsty terror of those bugs.
As for that Blade's final fate—
Just as the book recorded, he gave the bugs a little national shock.
He self-destructed amid the endless Swarm Tide, buying... a tiny bit of time.
According to accounts from some surviving veteran Emperor's Blades, those bugs possessed an innate and extremely high resistance to attacks created with Demon Fragments. Only physical weapons could inflict more effective damage.
And what was even more unsettling was—
Generation after generation,