Umbrella, The Light of Humanity

Dead...dead.

do not know…

Looking at the elite lying on the ground with wounds burned by plasma, the Gulu people still spoke with lingering fear.

Shorts stay out of the way!

Get out of the way!

But the jackal didn't care about it, he pushed the Grunt away and ran towards the fortification.

But before the group of jackals ran away, the elite, who was supposed to be dead, twisted his joints and quickly crawled towards a jackal.

what!

With a scream, the jackal was crushed by the elite.

Immediately afterwards, the skins of the two of them seemed to stick together, and their tentacles intertwined, forming a twisted creature with a larger body.

Help...help me... the jackal called for help with an accent.

But where did the Covenant soldiers have time to care about it?

Fire! Fire!

Don't eat me! Don't eat me... Ahh!

Run!

The scene was in chaos.

More and more distorted and deformed elites and ghost beasts completely surrounded this group of covenant soldiers.

At the same time, there is also a creature that makes a grunt~ gagging sound and looks like a bubble octopus, hitting from all directions like an uncontrollable flood.

The Grunts and Jackals were slaughtered in an instant.

Roar!

The remaining four ghost-faced beasts lasted only a few seconds longer than the weaker races, then let out an unwilling roar, and then fell into the flood wave.

All resistances to be resolved.

Elite and Ghost Beast turned their directions together and began to attack the fortifications that were still guarded by fresh life.

On the other hand, those bubbly octopuses that make humans suffer from dense phobia, use their slender and sharp tentacles to cut through the skin of the corpse, and then use the cut gap to drill into the inside of the corpse.

One of the ghost-faced beast corpses eroded by the bubble octopus suddenly twitched, and then deformed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Not for a moment.

This corpse also became a member of the flood army.

However, the physical fitness was deviated. Although the smaller Grunts and Jackals were also parasitized, they were still lying on the ground, their heads and upper bodies gradually swelled, and their deformation speed was relatively slow.

In this way, it seems that the bubble octopuses use their carcasses as breeding grounds for their own species.

at this time.

The formation composed of large transport boats and Viking fighter planes slowed down, kept a height of 100 meters above the ground, and flew over the base at low altitude.

In the cabin of the transport boat, there are thirty paladins and the same number of Sekhmets, as well as two Primarchs with closed helmets.

The crew shared the real-time images captured by the transport boat to the helmet screen, so that the Primarch and the Glory Guards could observe various situations on the surface.

under the helmet.

...

Magnus frowned, and his expression was extremely dignified.

Through the real-time screen on the left side of the screen, the moment he saw the bubble octopus burrowing into and twisting the corpse, he was sure that the creature wreaking havoc on the surface was the Flood that his father had mentioned to him and Leon.

Bubble octopuses are the most basic form of infestation, or infestation spores, the Flood's most important component.

The existence of infection spores can make the Flood infect and absorb other races more smoothly.

Once the infected spores successfully drill into the living body, they will quickly expand their tentacles, go straight to the spine, attack the host physiologically and neurologically, until they completely assimilate the host.

Even if it is a corpse, as long as it is not corrupted to the point of severe festering, the spores can still complete the infection and transformation.

At the same time, the spores will derive infection forms responsible for different positions according to the host's physique and quality.

For example, races such as elites and ghost-faced beasts will be distorted into combat bodies that are responsible for fighting, and his father also specifically mentioned to him that humans also belong to this category.

On the other hand, hosts such as Grunts and Jackals, only a few cases will be deformed into combatants, and usually they will become mothers that specialize in incubating more infected spores.

As for the memory and thinking of the host...

Even the soul may be taken by the Flood Demon, thus condensing into one body.

As for why Sui Bian knew the information about the Flood Demon, Magnus would not delve too deeply into it. After all, his father had too many secrets.

Take it easy.

He opened the internal communication and said to his brother in a deep voice: Leon, it seems that we have drawn a lottery. What the Jiralhani tribe released are not weapons, but floods that can sweep the entire galaxy.

Brainless things. Leon agreed with a little displeasure.

Between the two Primarchs talking.

The last fortification of the covenant base was easily captured by the flood army, and the covenant soldiers hiding inside will also become one of them.

At this time.

The screen showed a large number of Flood fighters holding guns, raising their muzzles one after another, and firing plasma cannon balls at the transport boats and Viking fighters with unsightly accuracy.

The engine room tilted slightly, indicating that the crew was maneuvering the transport boat for evasion.

Da da da!

The escorting Viking fighters used Gauss cannons to carry out a wave of scrubbing.

No matter how tenacious the vitality of the Flood Demon was, it could not resist the physical destruction of the 25mm spike bullets, completely losing the fighting ability of the fighting body.

Crack~! Crack~! The infected spores were like balloons, bursting crisply one after another.

All pilots cease fire.

However, Magnus turned on the communication, stopped the escort pilots from scrubbing the ground, and ordered: Continue to the target, to the center of the earth.

Yes, sir. The pilots responded.

The reason why Magnus stopped the attack was because the pilots did not cause any substantial damage to the Flood army except for wasting aerial bombs.

I saw that the infected spores spliced ​​the corpses that had been bombarded into pieces by machine guns, thus evolving into a reptile type, or a sturdy tank type.

After giving the order.

Magnus also used the repeater on the Teutonic Knight to send information about the Flood in the shield world to the Anthem of Courage.

Immediately afterwards, through the helmet screen, he watched the flight formation accelerate away from the covenant base, and then entered the abyss-like entrance. After flying for a while, the Hymn of Courage, which had a communication delay, gave an audio reply.

Only listening to the audio, Sui Bian's voice said: Try to recover the information, technology or weapons related to the forerunner, and then ignite the core of the shield world as soon as possible to destroy it, and curb the flood from the initial stage.

heard the words.

Understood, father. Magnus and Leon replied habitually.

Although it was a pity decision to destroy the Shield World, according to the information provided by Walsa, at least six hours have passed since the Flood was unintentionally released by the Brutes.

According to another key point provided by the intelligence, the total number of Covenant Empire troops deployed in the Shield World, including the elite family, is close to four million to infer...

The Flood should have left the unorganized wild stage, and is, or has already formed, the initial gravemind, and entered the mutual aid stage.

Once the Gravemind evolves to a complete body, it will absorb the memories, thoughts and souls of four million intelligent beings.

Magnus dare not say that it is the most intelligent thing in the galaxy, but it is definitely among the most cunning.

The current shield world is already in an irreparable infection stage, and the flood demon they are facing makes Magnus very uncomfortable, and it seems that he has a very strong restraint on spiritual energy.

restraint…

Thinking of this, as a long-term scholar who has studied psychics and other worlds, Magnus expressed his analysis to his brother:

Leon, if the Forerunners really created the Flood Demon, then the Flood Demon may be a weapon aimed at a different space, and something happened in the middle, causing the Forerunners to be backlashed by the Flood Demon, and finally annihilated in the long river of history.

Ah, maybe. Leon agreed indifferently.

For this primarch known as the master of swordsmanship, he doesn't care about the past of the Forerunner and the Flood at all, he only cares about how to complete the tasks assigned to them by his father.

outside the cabin.

The flying formation is in the spacious and gloomy tunnel, slanting down to the inner world of the earth.

during the voyage.

The pilots sitting in the cockpit can also observe many automatic turrets surrounded by Forerunner technology, releasing high-temperature rays of orange-red light to burn the infection spores that are constantly rushing to the surface.

But all actions are in vain. The reason why they are called floods is that once they flood, they will be as difficult to contain as a flood.

After a few minutes of sailing.

The light at the end of the tunnel became more dazzling, until the flight formation rushed out of the tunnel, the light gradually softened, and the pilots also experienced for the first time what Xanadu is.

However, it also made the pilots unable to distinguish the direction for a while, because no matter where they looked, they could see green forests and grasslands, beautiful mountains and lakes.

Even if they looked up to the sky, there was actually a clear ocean at the other end of the sky. It seemed that it was a special gravity device that prevented the sea water from pouring on their heads.

And equivalent to the position where the core of the terrestrial planet is, an artificial star with a diameter of about 30 kilometers is suspended, providing warm light for this paradise and energy for the entire shield world.

Of course, many areas have become quite unsightly due to the encroachment of the Flood.

Some lakes that were supposed to be crystal clear are now sticky, cloudy, and even rotten swamps.

Nearby vegetation, centered around the swamp, is dead, replaced by a wriggling, earthy green rhizome.

The net-like rhizomes entangle the soil and pile up at intervals to form mushroom-like aggregates.

These aggregates are covered with holes of different sizes, and from time to time they will spew out turbid gas with fine particle-like gas, continuously polluting the surroundings.

It's just that Magnus under the helmet at this moment opened his eyes wide and opened his mouth slightly, focusing his gaze on the artificial star.

Can't help sighing: Just looking at the technology displayed in the shield world, it is not difficult to understand why the covenant people regard the forerunners as gods.

With the current technology of our human beings, even the transformation of planets has very strict conditions and restrictions, but they can independently build habitable planets...

God? Huh. Leon expressed disdain.

Sensing his brother's mood swings, Magnus just smiled lightly and continued to observe with restraint.

soon.

There is no need to search carefully, a conspicuous three-sided pyramid building is located directly below the artificial star.

At the same time, psionic perception also told Magnus that the pyramid disgusted him greatly.

It shows that this is the area where the flood demons gather, it may be the place where they were first released, or it may be the main control facility of the shield world.

Immediately, he marked the pyramid and ordered the pilot: Take us there.

To understanding.

finished.

The flying formation carried them and quickly headed for the pyramid.

Wait for the formation to approach.

The four Viking fighters in charge of escort stood out, deployed the magazines in the belly of the aircraft, and fired more than a dozen ground-to-ground missiles towards the bottom of the pyramid.

Shua~——!

Boom! Boom~!

The missiles trailed white tail flames, and landed at the entrance of the flood pile one by one, and the violent explosion instantly cleared a fairly clean landing area.

Afterwards, the four Vikings quickly turned left and right, circled around and adjusted the angle of the nose at a slower speed, and then fired a wave of machine guns to stabilize the created landing area.

The transport boat also took this opportunity to lower its altitude and quickly flew to the mid-air of the landing area.

Hover without touching the ground, unfold the tail hatch, and unload the long-awaited Primarch and Glory Guard.

Then the transport boat closed the hatch and moved away from the ground. The four Viking fighters also ended their ground attack, and the escort transport boat returned to high altitude.

Look at the land area again.

Magnus unleashed a psychic barrier of reddish light that completely enveloped the crowd, trying to keep them from contact with the Flood.

howl!!

Gulu~.

Surrounding the crowd, the combat body and the infected spores, which let out a strange roar, are trying to hit the barrier.

Crack~! Crack~!

As long as the infection spores touch the barrier, they will break apart one after another unstoppably.

But the combat body with extremely tenacious vitality kept hammering at the barrier, and soon...

Crack...crack~!

The barrier, which can resist most physical attacks, was hit by a seemingly ordinary smash, and it produced extremely insignificant lines that looked like glass cracks.

The sixty honor guards were not idle either.

Hey! Hey! Hey!

While Magnus maintained the barrier to protect everyone from heading towards the interior of the pyramid, the Glory Guards used parallel or heavy bolt guns to continuously spit out fire snakes towards the flood wave.

And different from the result of the plasma attack, the bolt bombs that can tear and collapse the body can truly flood the combat body and temporarily lose the ability to move.

From this point of view, it would be more effective to use live ammunition weapons to deal with the Flood Demon.

And several Sekhmets who are good at using psychic energy control the parallel bolt gun with their left hand, and wave their right hand forward, releasing a dazzling red light lightning.

Crack! several times.

Even though the power of the psychic lightning was suppressed, it still burned dozens of fighting body flood demons.

The next group of people marched against the current against the flood and went deep into the interior of the pyramid facility.