"Marshal Windsor Bello asked me to inform you that the interstellar defense line has been tight lately, and it will be about a month or two before I am free to come." Colonel Berry said.

Alan was taken aback and said, "What's the matter, there's a war?" ”

"It's the Nirms, our old rivals." Colonel Berry didn't look nervous: "They are worried about our earth, and there will always be one or two times a year when they try to break through the Federation's defenses. It doesn't matter, it's hard for the marshal. ”

Alan nodded.

"Go ahead, remember, Major Kerges is stern, but his intentions are good, and I hope you don't resent him."

Alan grinned: "How so." ”

Shook his head and went.

Berry left the dormitory, and outside the door, Cojes was leaning against the wall. Shaking a tin wine bottle, Kerges said, "Drink a little?" ”

"You can't drink alcohol in the base!" Berry said in a deep voice.

Kirgeth shrugged, "So I'm going to take a walk outside the base." ”

"Come on." Berry laughed and patted Kergeth on the shoulder.

Moments later, the two drove away from the base. Coming out of the base and driving to a hill on the high ground, Berry jumped down, stepped on the reddish-brown ground under his feet and said, "Damn, it's hot." ”

Crouched down, reached out and touched the ground, felt the heat coming from his fingertips, and said, "This planet is almost finished." ”

"Anyway, I didn't expect to see the moment it turned into a supernova."

"Except for people like the marshal who have broken through the limits of life and greatly extended their lifespan, who can see the time when the Underworld Star is truly ruined." Korges jumped on the front of the car and sat down, reached into his glass, opened the lid of the tin wine bottle, took a sip and threw it to Berry: "That kind of person can be counted by five hands in the entire Federation, and it's not you and me anyway." ”

Berry took a sip and said, "I only wish I could see the abyss of the crucible in my lifetime." ”

That's where the King of the Blade Demons is.

"Isn't the Queen of Roses coming soon? I've heard that Admiral Merlin has young girls in his hands, so maybe we can have a sorority. Cockes said.

Berry laughed and said, "The boys in the base must be crazy with joy. ”

As he spoke, his face sank, and he said, "Just now, your brother and a few non-commissioned officers provoked Allen. ”

"Really?"

"But that's not the point." Berry snorted coldly: "Hubble actually insulted the marshal. ”

The gaze in Kejies's eyes suddenly turned cold: "Then I'm curious, why hasn't he died yet?" ”

"That's because Alan beat him."

"It's really cheap." Corgeth snorted, and said, "Do you need me to do anything?" ”

"Of course, you'll have to warn him not to get too close to the Stalin's non-commissioned officers." Berry handed the bottle back to the Major: "Their superior is Major Luda. ”

Cogis snorted and said, "Those people who spread death are nice, what is to help defend us, but it is not actually to spy on us. ”

"This is also something that cannot be helped, after all, Admiral Lussen and Marshal Capro are old acquaintances, so naturally they are not very comfortable with our new party. That's nothing, I'm afraid that behind this provocation, it is intentional, and it will not be simple. ”

Kejies frowned and said, "You mean, they want to use Hubble to provoke a dispute and take the opportunity to deal a heavy blow to Allen to hit the marshal?" This is too much, I think that at least on the Netherworld Star, in the face of a common enemy like the Sword Demon, the old party should let go of some prejudices? ”

"Do you think those old guys are so good at talking? In particular, the President's attitude is now somewhat on their side, and if I were Marshal Kapro, I would have taken this opportunity to strike at us, in order to restore the bad reputation that we had always weighed down on. Berry shook his head: "Don't talk about it, this thing is much more complicated than stepping forward to kill the enemy." Remind Hubble not to be taken advantage of. ”

Kirgeth nodded, "I'll give him a deep enough reminder." ”

As he spoke, he put the bottle in his mouth, only to find that no half drop of wine came out, and he shook his head and said, "Colonel, you drank a little hard." ”

Berry spread his hands, then frowned and said, "Look over there." ”

As he followed, he saw an undulating mountain field beneath the Blood Eagle, with a few low hills in the distance. Some busy figures are moving around the mountains, swarms of knife ants, all heading in the same direction, with a clear goal.

"Looks like we're going to have to start sweeping again, and I have to say, these things are multiplying really fast." Kirges said.

"The colony moves too regularly, is there a new queen appearing?" Berry shook his head and said, "Anyway, let's scout first, it's really terrible." There were traces of a medium-sized tribe at the beginning, and now it is possible to move an ant nest as a neighbor, so you can't relax at all. ”

"The internship period of those boys is coming, just let them practice their hands, they can't even get rid of an ant nest, how can they fight the knife demon." Kirgeth laughed.

Time passes in training and learning.

In the blink of an eye, Alan had been on the Netherworld for three months. On this day, all the recruits gathered in the tactical conference room. Kerges stood on the podium, behind him alternate images of the mountainous terrain near the Blood Eagle Heights.

"After our reconnaissance for this period of time, there is reason to believe that there is a nest of knife ants in this mountainous area. Often an ant nest will have a queen, the queen is the only female creature in the nest, and its duty is mainly to reproduce offspring. During the breeding period, the queen ant will continue to mate/mate with the male, laying at least 100 eggs each time, and after a month, 100 strong knife ants will appear in the nest. ”

"But now is not the breeding period for sword ants, and at this time, the queen ant is generally dormant. You've been in the Netherworld for three months, and now I'm going to give you one last test. It's very simple, take out this ant nest, and I will proctor the whole process and give a score according to the performance of each of your teams in the process. ”

"If you don't pass the score, then congratulations, you can leave the Underworld. Because if you can't do that, there's no need to push you into battle and die. Kerges said in a deep voice, "What's the problem?" ”

"No, sir!" The crowd replied in unison.

Half an hour later, the two lost soldier transport trucks drove out of the Blood Eagle base and walked along the mountain road to the assessment site. Upon arrival near the target mountain, the vehicle stops. If you keep going, the car engine will attract the attention of the ant colony. The soldiers got out of the car and lined up, and after checking it, Ke Ges inspected it, waved his hand, and the teams left one after another, and walked into the mountains.

When the team entered the mountains, they dispersed, flowing from one mountain to the next like an undercurrent. Cogis did not give the exact location of the nest, so how to find the nest is also an assessment of the soldier. Alan is experienced in finding prey, and he soon finds traces of knife ants. Because of its large size, the traces left by the knife ants are quite obvious, and it is not difficult to find as long as you have the intention to observe.

In particular, their sharp forefeet always leave distinctive marks on the ground, and it is not difficult to find the trail of the knife ants as long as you find these marks and determine the direction in which they are heading. Soon, Allen and the others were following a few knife ants. The knife ants were biting the limbs of some unknown beast and moving, whether it was the smell of the beast's corpse or the blood dripping on the ground, it was undoubtedly the most obvious indication.

Following these traces, at sunset, Allen's team stopped on a small slope. Eren lay on the ground, feeling the scorching breath of the ground rising from his chest and spreading to other places. Unmoved, he just looked ahead with a tactical telescope and handed it to Lucy next to him.

In the telescope is a low hill, only about 20 meters high. The mountain is steep on the left, and the slope on the right is gentle and meets the ground. There were a few strange black trees growing on the mountain, but there were no other embellishments. It is not difficult to see in the telescope that there are some deep caves at the foot of the mountain, including the mountains above, in which the knife ants enter and exit.

During the 15 minutes they observed, there were dozens of knife ants entering and leaving the caves at the foot of the mountain, and there were more than a dozen giant ants acting as sentinels scattered around.

"What do you think?" Alan asked.

Lucy said, "There is not enough information, we need to know what is going on in the nest before we can formulate a strategy." ”

Willik also said: "And we are obviously understaffed, and there will definitely not be less than three digits of ants in there." ”

Alan nodded, "That's it, I'll go into the nest to scout." Natsu, you go and leave a contact code, and have the rest of the team come and meet us and discuss how to take down this nest. ”

"Knife ants have poor eyesight, but they are sensitive to pheromones, and they can tell if they are friendly or foe by the vibrations of the ground, so you need to be careful." Lucy excelled in biology, reminded of the moment.

Alan used his fangs to dig out lime from the ground, let it cool down and apply it to his face, body, hands and feet. The earths of the Underworld have a very strong smell of scorched earth, and they can be used to disguise the original body odor when they are painted all over the body. Ready, Alan groped his fangs down the backlit side of the hillside, and Natsu turned around and left to inform the rest of the team.

A moment later, it was dark, and two strange moons were rising over the horizon. One was emitting purple light, and the other was near the purple moon. The moon had no light at all, and it followed like a black hole.

This makes the night light of the Underworld dim, and the sword ants with low vision return to their nests, while Alan walks in the night, taking cover from the undulating hills or some dark red shrubs. Heading towards the nest at a constant speed, Lucy was no longer in sight of Allen on the slope.

As night fell, a knife ant struggled to its nest. It had wounds on its body, and the second section of its body on the left side was shattered, and from time to time it was oozing blue-yellow insect fluid. Both of its identical limbs were also bitten off, making it difficult to crawl and unable to make it back to the nest before sunset. R1058