What exactly happened?

Lightning only felt the world spinning. When she regained her senses, she realized that she was surrounded by black needles as thick as fingers – these non-reflective crystal stones were like sharp, dark blades, evenly distributed around the track.

After that, several more identical explosions came from the direction of the camp, completely breaking the silence of the night.

This is... an attack!

The enemy is launching a surprise attack on the expeditionary force with Spider Demons!

As she realized this, the second wave of rumbling appeared, but this time the sound was noticeably duller, and it didn't come from the sky, but was transmitted to her feet through the vibration of the ground, as if something heavy had slammed into the earth.

"Oh, oh no..." Luo Jia groaned, "That's the location of the fortress artillery positions."

In the dark of night, without any guiding lights, to accurately identify the location of the camp and start by attacking the artillery, is this something only a demon could do?

And why hasn't the alarm been raised yet?

"We have to warn everyone!" Because she had sneaked out to relax, Lightning wasn't wearing her special flight suit, and the sigil for communication wasn't with her, so flying over was the only way – even though the sound of explosions in the camp area was clearly much denser now. She grabbed Luo Jia, but couldn't pull her up from the ground.

"You..." Lightning turned around, only to be surprised to find that the latter had been pinned in the leg by a long needle, and blood was trickling from the wound, staining half of her pants red.

She immediately felt a tightening in her chest.

If Luo Jia hadn't saved her...

"What are you thinking about?" Luo Jia grinned. "Even if I hadn't met you, I would have been attacked anyway, maybe even worse – at least the stone needles on the periphery didn't have demon blood on them, so this is just a scratch."

What a scratch, the bone is obviously broken, and with this amount of bleeding, it's hard to know if a major blood vessel has been damaged. If it has, she can't easily pull out the long needle. But should she leave her here to find Nana Wawa? If the Spider Demon attacks again, Luo Jia is practically a sitting duck on the ground!

Lightning felt countless thoughts rushing into her head, and she didn't know what to do for a moment.

"Listen to me," Luo Jia held her shoulder. "You have to contact that big guy running on the railway..."

"You mean the Black River?" Lightning was slightly stunned. "But..."

"Even without an alarm, anyone who isn't deaf should have heard the attack," the wolf girl gasped, enduring the pain. "The key is the counterattack – if I'm not mistaken, at least half of the enemy's attacks are aimed at the fortress artillery, and it doesn't sound like simple stone needle projections. I don't know what the situation is there now, but if... if the enemy succeeds, we won't have any weapons to suppress them. You know what that means, right?"

It means that the Spider Demons can indiscriminately shower the camp with black needles, and there will be no safe place in the entire defense line.

Lightning nodded.

"Huff... then go quickly..." Luo Jia pushed her. "Don't think this is the first place to be attacked, it's actually not that dangerous... that attack wasn't aimed at us. Look there..."

Lightning looked in the direction she was pointing, and saw that only half of the wooden watchtower at the end of the track remained, as if swallowed by darkness.

"So don't worry about me, go find the Black River –" the wolf girl gritted her teeth and shouted, "Only you can do it now!"

She was right, there was no faster way to notify the armored train patrolling between the front line and Zero Station than to fly there.

Lightning clenched her fists, took one last look at her, forced herself to turn around, took off, and flew towards the camp area.

And at this time, sporadic gunshots had already appeared.

Just as Luo Jia said, the entire camp had been awakened. Although they didn't know where the enemy was coming from, no one would sit idly by and wait for death.

The witches' camp was the same.

God's Punishment

Witches were the fastest to react among the warriors. Not only did they not sleep long, but they didn't even have to take off their armor when they fell asleep. Now, in twos and threes, they were rushing to the battlefield. She rushed into the room and saw Macy, who was anxiously pacing back and forth.

"Where did you go, goo!" The latter, seeing that it was her, rushed over and gave her a hug. "Why didn't you tell me when you went out, goo!"

"Sorry," Lightning immediately felt a pang of guilt. She had thought that Macy was careless and didn't know what fear was, but that wasn't the case – Macy wouldn't keep the fear of high-level demons in her mind for too long, but that didn't mean she would forget her companions. "We'll talk about this later, I have to go to the Black River now!"

"I'll go with you, goo!"

"No, you're needed here." Although she wanted to agree, Lightning finally refused. "It's hard for Sylvie to take care of the entire camp alone, the more people who can scout the demons' movements, the better!"

Cheer up! She couldn't hold everyone back any longer.

"Also, before that, I need you to do something." Lightning put on her flight suit as quickly as possible, then parted Macy's long hair, held her face, "You must promise me that you must do it – this is the most important entrustment of the exploration team."

"Goo?" Macy blinked.

"Find Nana Wawa, take her to the end of the railway. Luo Jia is seriously injured and lying in that area. Bring her back safely, understand?"

Macy nodded vigorously, "Goo!"

"Then I'll leave it to you." Lightning touched her forehead lightly with her own, then turned around and flew straight out of the house.

As her altitude continued to rise, she also noticed the reason why the alarm hadn't been raised.

None of the five watchtowers set up on the outer circle of the defense line were left – obviously the enemy's first wave of attacks was aimed at the guard posts. Originally, these guard points should have been solid concrete bunkers, but Tower One Station had just been put into construction. Not to mention complete defense works, even the barbed wire outside the trenches hadn't been hung yet.

What made Lightning even more uneasy was that the gunshots were coming from inside the camp, which meant that the soldiers were fighting the enemy in the camp. But so far, there was no sign that the entire defense line had been breached – although the enemy's attacks were still continuing, they were all long-range strikes. Who were they fighting?

But the more this was the case, the more clearly she understood the importance of her responsibility.

I'm a coward, that's right.

I lost to a high-level demon, that's right too.

But I still have something I can do –

That's flight!

Let fear be afraid.

I just won't look north.

I don't even need to face ordinary demons myself.

Now, as long as I focus on flying along the railway, there's no reason to escape anymore!

Lightning accelerated all the way along the "Black River" towards the forest.

Faster, faster!

She kept urging her magic in her heart, and gradually, a long-lost feeling welled up in her heart – when the long-silent barrier was broken through, the whole world became quiet.

She had finally entered the silent realm after awakening once again!