"What kind of monster are we guarding against here?"
The aging general stared mournfully at the devastated battlefield. However...
What he didn't realize was that this wasn't the end of the nightmare—it was just the beginning!
Blood seeped into the ground, absorbed by the Blood Pool. The liquid within began to churn more violently. If anyone were there to witness it, they would understand that the scarlet pool was incubating something far more terrifying.
A loud splash echoed through the air.
A monstrous creature, resembling an echidna with razor-sharp spines and a body stretching close to five meters, emerged from the pool. And it wasn't alone.
More and more creatures began crawling out of the pool—an endless stream of horrors.
Black metallic spheres, floating eerily, rose from the crimson water, followed by bat-like creatures with wingspans close to 20 meters, and even translucent feline monsters made entirely of ice-blue crystals.
The valley became the epicenter of a tidal wave of monsters, an unstoppable flood surging outward.
The soldiers who had just sighed in relief were caught off guard, witnessing this horrifying surge of beasts.
"Oh, damn! What on earth are these things?"
"This kind of war—this isn't something we should be part of!"
"I want to go home! I don't want to be food for these creatures!"
Faced with such terror, the troops of Kangaroo Nation quickly lost their morale.
In the rear, the general, seeing the monster horde, didn't hesitate for a moment—he chose to flee.
Under these circumstances, fleeing wasn't cowardly—it was survival.
A sudden whistling sound filled the air.
The floating black spheres emitted high-energy beams, vaporizing large groups of soldiers in an instant. The battlefield echoed with continuous, desperate screams.
Containment breach—Object 354, the Blood Pool—was now completely out of control!
"My lady! It's terrible! The Blood Pool has broken containment. Endless hordes of monsters are heading this way. You must evacuate immediately!" The butler burst in, his face pale with fear, shouting in desperation.
"What happened? Didn't we have our troops stationed there? How could these monsters have broken through the defense lines?" asked Countess Valentina, holding a glass of red wine, her brow furrowed.
"Madam, this is the footage from the satellite. Please, see for yourself! I've already prepared the escape plane for you; you must leave now, or it will be too late!" The butler handed over the tablet, shaking.
Upon seeing the images on the screen, Countess Valentina's face turned ashen. She dropped the tablet without even realizing it.
"This... how could this be possible?" she muttered in terror.
Recovering quickly, the Countess commanded, "Contact the Ministry of Defense immediately! Order them to send reinforcements. Those monsters must be stopped before they reach any city!"
The old butler continued to urge her, "Madam, we've already contacted them. Fighter jets are en route, but we need to leave quickly!"
"Yes, yes, we need to go!" The Countess, still in shock, allowed herself to be ushered toward the plane.
Sharon Carter and May, however, were stopped by the butler. "Apologies, ladies, but your plane is in the back."
Sharon's face turned ice-cold at the words. Being left behind during an evacuation? That was a death sentence. May's expression soured as well; no one would be pleased to hear such news.
Watching this, Ethan couldn't help but feel speechless. This butler certainly lacked tact—telling people they're being left to die? It was just cruel.
Realizing his blunder, the butler quickly explained, "You'll be coming with me on the helicopter. Your identities are unclear, and we cannot risk you being on the Countess's plane."
This explanation seemed to ease the tension slightly for the two women.
"You should go with the butler," Ethan suggested. He didn't force them to join the Countess's plane. The butler's concerns were valid.
Allowing two top-tier agents onto the private plane would mean handing over control to them. The Countess was no fool; she wouldn't allow such a thing.
As the group boarded their respective aircraft, Countess Valentina gazed blankly at the ever-shrinking castle below. The disaster had come too swiftly, like a tornado—she still hadn't fully processed it, even as she took off.
"How many troops did you leave outside the valley?" Ethan asked, curious.
"Twenty thousand..."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. From what I know, your Kangaroo Nation only has about 80,000 soldiers total, right? Fifty thousand in the army, and now twenty thousand are already dead..." Ethan said with a mocking smile, looking at the ambitious woman before him.
"How could this happen? Those were 20,000 elite soldiers!" The Countess stared below in disbelief.
Finally, Valentina saw it—the tide of monsters. Ethan, whose eyesight was sharper than hers, saw much more.
"If you had waited just a few minutes longer, we wouldn't have made it out," Ethan teased.
Ethan had heard a joke once about the Kangaroo Nation's military prowess: their combat strength depended on whether they were fighting armies or civilians. When facing an army, they surrendered the fastest; when facing civilians, they slaughtered the fastest.
Against a horde of monsters like this, the outcome was inevitable.
"Hmph! This was just a mistake!" Valentina retorted, her eyes red with anger, like a gambler on a losing streak.
"I've already called in the air force and ground troops. Once the full military power arrives, those damn monsters won't stand a chance!"
"We'll see about that," Ethan chuckled disdainfully.
If it had been 50,000 innocent civilians at risk, Ethan might have considered stepping in to help. But 50,000 Kangaroo Nation soldiers? He thought it was generous of him not to kick them while they were down. Helping them was out of the question.
Seeing more clearly than the Countess, Ethan fully grasped the horror of the monster horde. The creatures were varied and formidable.
There were giant bats with wingspans of over 20 meters, echidna-like creatures standing nearly 5 meters tall with bulletproof armor, black floating metal spheres that emitted high-energy beams with greater range than some artillery, humanoid reptiles nearly 4.6 meters tall that could burrow underground, and tentacled beasts resembling octopuses with tentacles stretching nearly 30 meters, their appendages as tough as steel.
The diverse array of creatures complemented each other perfectly.
Ethan suspected these monsters hailed from another dimension, brought here through the Blood Pool.
Using binoculars, Countess Valentina saw the monsters heading toward the nearest city—a metropolis with nearly ten million residents.
"Fuck! They're headed toward the city!" she cursed in panic.
"What do I do now?" she thought, wracked with anxiety. Though her power within HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. was substantial, her true stronghold was still the Kangaroo Nation.
If a city with nearly ten million people fell, the financial losses would start at hundreds of billions, possibly reaching trillions. Though she could absorb the blow, it would still be devastating.
"Where are the damn troops? Why aren't they here yet?" she raged.
Just then, a fighter jet streaked across the sky, followed by another, and then another. Seeing the jets arrive, the Countess breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally!"
At that moment, Ethan's satellite phone rang.
The Countess stared at Ethan in shock. How did he still have a satellite phone? Hadn't all of their devices been confiscated?
"Do you think I should answer?" Ethan asked, a playful grin on his face as he watched the Countess's jaw drop in astonishment.
"Answer it," she said, slumping back into her seat, resigned.
There was no point in hiding the situation anymore. Both HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. would have already noticed the chaos, and the Foundation certainly would too.
"Hello, how can I help?" Ethan said after answering.
"Report, Chairman! This is General Ace, Commander of the Foundation's 6th Army Group. We've detected a containment breach in York City, Kangaroo Nation, and I'm requesting authorization for a nuclear strike to eliminate the containment object."
A strong, confident voice rang out over the phone.
Hearing this, Countess Valentina turned ghostly pale. She had heard rumors of the Foundation's vast nuclear arsenal, but this was her first time hearing it confirmed. If she didn't intervene, a nuclear bomb could be dropped on her country.
"There's no need for that yet," Ethan replied. "The Kangaroo Nation still wants to put up a struggle. Let them try; after all, they won't truly understand despair until they've made an effort."
Hanging up, Ethan turned to the Countess with a smile.
"I've given you three chances. The first was when I entered the castle; I knew the attack on the plane was orchestrated by you and your backers, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt. The second was by the Blood Pool, when I warned you of the dangers of the containment object, but you refused to heed my advice. And now, for the third time, I'm asking: are you sure you don't want the Foundation's assistance? Miss this chance, and the price for Kangaroo Nation to earn my mercy will be beyond imagination."
Valentina clenched her hands, visibly torn, before biting her lip and declaring, "I trust my military! They will handle this crisis. And even if it becomes unmanageable, the United States will never stand idly