Chapter 42 - Herald of the End

Upon arrival, Adam can see the Infected Grimms congregated in the city. Sensing the arrival of the fleet, the Mutated Grimms howled and roared to summon hordes of Zombified Grimms which swarmed out from underground and from the forest surrounding the city.

"Begin saturation bombardments!" Agent ordered to the whole fleet.

"Beginning saturated bombardment!" The crews scramble to prepare the Airship for firing.

In the next moment, the laser batteries shot out from each airships and also missiles. The armaments lay waste to the Infected belows before the hangar open up for the fleet of dropship and Manta to be released. The dropship transport troops and mechs into the warzone while the Manta gunship provide aerial supports for the ground units.

Adam watched with a dissatisfied expression. The Atlesian Airship is a large vessel around 400 meters long and their only armaments is laser batteries and a couple missiles pods. The firepower is lacking… he is thinking about slapping a few Jupiter Cannon on the ship or even the particle cannon of Typhon tank of KCCO. He won't be satisfied until he have enough firepower to glass his enemy.

Anyway.

Once the troops landed, they quickly seized control of the city and made use of the pre-existing wall surrounding the city to barricade themselves in and mount an attack against the pouring horde from the forest. Meanwhile another half of the troops are still trying to clear out the city from any Infected.

"Let's go, it's time for us to join." Adam said as he stood up from his seat and walked toward the hangar. The girls nod and follow behind him.

They board a dropship and the pilot quickly delivers them to the area with the most heated battle. They pulled all stops and unleashed their whole firepower. Each original T-Doll is equipped with a miniature Jupiter Cannon and they easily rip through hordes that even Manticore mechs have difficulty with.

Facing a relentless horde of powerful Zombified Grimms led by a few Mutated Grimms, Adam equipped The Coffin and dropped an attack no less powerful than tactical nukes, evaporating everything, not even a speck of dust behind.

"Orahh! Fight harder! Aren't you ashamed to let the President do all the work!" The leaders leading the soldiers shouted invigorating speeches to rouse the soldier's fighting spirits.

Honestly, it's futile to ask common soldiers, even those with Aura, to match the power of the T-Dolls, much less himself. However, that didn't matter as due to their pride at risk, the soldiers fought with even greater passion. Some even try to charge head on into melee battle but Agent order them to fall back and stop being suicidal as surviving is even more important than scoring a kill.

Many whined and bitched about the order. But order is order and good soldiers always follow order.

Just as they almost captured the city, the ground crack open as loud beastial roars come from underneath.

Mutated Grimms! Hundreds. Thousands of them crawl out from below.

"Enemies from underneath!"

The formation fell apart when the enemies suddenly attacked from below. They pop up from all over the place and many soldiers become isolated as they are being surrounded from all sides. However, this isn't unexpected.

"Everyone fall back and regroup!" The team leaders immediately ordered.

Airships and gunships provide aerial support and clear up paths for everyone to regroup.

Adam swaps his modified Jupiter Cannon for his ol' buddy, Ronson 5x5 before he jumps down from the top of an apartment, cracking the concrete ground while taking literally no injury.

"Nii-san, there is one team to your left that needs help." Tina informed him through the comms and helped guide him to the team of soldiers pinned on a crossroads with only a few mechs as wall against the claws and jaws of the Infected.

"Alright!" Adam replied and quickly ran according to the direction given by Tina before he arrived.

A few breath later, Adam arrived at the crossroads and instantly start shooting and taunting those Grimms as Mutated Grimms have intelligence unlike the inferior Zombified Grimms.

"Come at me you ugly ass bitch!" Adam roared as he charged at them with his gun blazing.

Shinzou wo sasageyo!

Tatakae!

"Huh? Captain Erwin?" Adam swears he heard someone shouting Captain Erwin speech. He shrugs it off as him being high and focused on the battle.

Adam turned around and looked to see if the soldiers evacuated already or not. But it turns out they were also fighting.

"Fuck! Leave immediately and regroup, not continue fighting! Did you not hear the order?" Adam felt very angry that he was trying hard to hold the enemies attention while those idiots were throwing their lives away.

Perhaps, trusting militiamen to be proper soldiers without sufficient training and conditioning is an idiotic move on his side. At least the team leader snapped out of his battle lust and knocked sense into his subordinates before ordering a retreat.

Just as Adam about to return his attention back to the enemies, one Mutated Boarbatusk try rush at him and impaled Adam with it's tusk but a loud crack that resulted in a bloody hole piercing through the bone mask and scored a clean headshot that killed the swinular bastard before it had the chance.

"Thanks, Tina. You saved me from being impaled." Adam remembers to thank her for the assist before he summons Reinforcement to assist the clean up.

"He he. You're welcome, nii-san." Tina continued to snipe a few more Mutated Grimms before this area was cleared with their combined effort.

He gives the dissipating operators a high five before he leaves and runs into another team that needs help.

Once the soldiers regrouped, they launched another attack. However, the Mutated Grimms are more durable that Dust Infused ammunition have difficulty pierce them. But, with enough firepower. They cleared out the enemies anyway although it took significantly more time and resources to do so along with the help of laser batteries and missile salvos.

The enemies start to decrease in number, the Mutated Grimms no longer charge up to the ground in large numbers and the Zombified Grimms shrink down in horde size.

[Counterattack]

- Due to the increasing suspicious activities on Mount Glenn, you suspect the possibility of the Awakened Human is plotting something there and you have decided to conduct an operation to address this suspicious activity.

Objective;

Main - Investigate the destroyed settlement on Mount Glenn.

Side - Eliminate all Infected in the area. (Complete)

Reward - ???

Adam verified their success with the help of his System. He conveyed it to Agent and she immediately ordered the soldiers to divert their attention to the wall and secured the city.

Moments later, everyone gathered in the center of the city.

"Master, I already sent a few dozen Prowlers ahead of us to scout the subway and underground caverns. I'm afraid it is as you expected." Agent hands Adam a data pad that shows an image of pods. Red and green pods filled the underground space. Adam looked grim as he looked over all the footage.

"I also send in the mechs to destroy the pods." Agent added.

"Great work, Agent. But, we still need to get down there. I'm afraid this is not the end of it. There is still something else." Adam said as his System hinted there is something to investigate down there through the objectives. He guessed it's a boss, looking from the pattern in the game and what happened in Ansel Town. There will definitely be a giant pod cultivating a Boss. Last time it was Cyclops Grimm. This time… Adam just hopes it's something killable.

"Enough talking. Let's go." Adam returns the data pad and walks into the hole on the ground.

Thankfully they aren't walking in blind. Agent have the layout of the subway and the cave system from the data collected from the construction of this city. They ignored the upper level areas which the Prowlers already explored.

The area is relatively secured with mechs already scouting the path ahead of them. So, they were a little relaxed especially after an hours long exhausting battle.

"What are these pod things anyway?" Tina curiously asked as she saw a few destroyed pods.

"These pods are incubating or making the Mutated Grimms. Normal Grimms are put inside the pod filled with the concentrated virus solutions and mutate the Grimm's flesh." Adam explained as they walked while being surrounded by Alices asking for praise and headpat that left none for Tina as she pout a little and pretend to not care. "The red one incubates and the green collects nutrients and creates more virus."

"Oh…" Tina mutters and her eyes turn to her back after sensing a stare at herself.

Destroyer was looking at Tina and once their eyes met, they immediately understood what each other was conveying without the need of words as they nod. Both approach Adam and cut into the Alices that surround Adam.

"Nii-san, I did well in the battle too, right?" Tina asked and approached one of the Alice who is being petted before she glared competitively at the confused Alice and turned to Adam with an angelic looking smile. Destroyer did the same too. "Me too! I killed a lot of Infected Grimms too."

The Alices were too innocent to really understand the glare and desperation shown by the two to steal Adam's attention from her and simply tilt her heads in confusion.

"Yes. You two did well too…" Adam wasn't paying much attention to the little fight that took place before him as his attention was elsewhere and sort of autopilot the whole conversation.

When the two allies finally secured a win and defeated Alices. They smiled smugly and gloated at Alice as they basked on the headpats. Alice could only tilt further as she remained confused and waited for her turn again.

As for Agent, Executioner and Winter. Agent only sighed at the two disappointedly, especially the Destroyer. Executioner laughed a little on how desperate Destroyer were but cheered that they secured a win against the Griffin Doll all while stealing a few swigs of alcohol from her flask while Agent wasn't looking. As for Winter, she turns her eyes away with a light blush on her cheek. She wonder how would it felt to receive headpat from Adam too. But the last shred of her crumbling dignity as the older sister prevented her from asking for the same treatment.

I don't need it… I don't need it… Winter chant in her mind but the thought of being showered with Adam's attention made her body quivers in anticipation.

Agent, who is the only competent one in the team, observes everything without fail and sighed at why can't there be more reliable people around her Master.

Destroyer, Alice and Tina aside. Executioner being laid back unlike her former self which is due to the lack of stern leader keeping her on the line. Mastermind does not tolerate failure and she would immediately be punished harshly if she dared to be this laid back back at SF.

As for Winter… Agent wouldn't rely much on her except when it involves Adam's safety. That is the only thing Agent can rely on Winter.

———

After almost half an hour, one group of Prowlers finally found what Adam was looking for. A giant red pod. However, they had bad news.

Deep in the Mountain Glenn, there is a hollow space in it. It's possible that Mountain Glenn is a dormant volcano. Inside the hollow space is a massive red pod, almost a hundred meters tall and half as wide. It pulsates and thrumming low and deep like a drum that echoes the space.

From the semi transparent shell of the pod, a vague outline of the monster it contains can be seen. The 9 meters long white bone mask with bony spike protrusions on the end, three red glowing eyes on each side glows up as it stares down at the man standing in front of the pod fearlessly as he grins gleefully.

"Who had thought the information was really true. A Dragon Grimm. Truly, I wonder why the Witch wouldn't call you to battle. But regardless, you are now mine." The man said as he placed one hand on the pod as he marvelled at the majestic creature.

*Grrr*

"Hmn, you have consciousness of your own? Indeed, Grimm gains intelligence as they grow older. You must have lived thousands of years or perhaps even older." The man retracted his hand and slashed his palm before plunging his bleeding hand into the pod as his blood mixed with the virus fluid inside the pod. "However, I can't have disobedient tools. It's a shame I have to lower your intelligence. But it's a worthwhile sacrifice."

"Heed my words. Once you are awakened, wreck havoc to the world. Destroy the failed humanity. I will usher in a new age and I will be God!"

"Hehehahaha!"

"I will recreate the world and bring an end to all suffering and tragedy made by the folly of man!" He roared but immediately clutched his head as if sobering up. "Hngh! Just a little bit longer, Lily, Anne, Henry. Just a little bit more. After this, we will be together again like we always used to. Happily ever after in this world I will create." The man mutters in a daze as he walks away as if being guided by an unseen force, moments before a group of Prowlers arrives at the location.

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