160: Chapter 160 Mission Change: Kill Olivia

“Damn it! Olivia has rebelled!”

This thought slithered through Anserwe's mind like a viper, cold and bone-chilling.

But she was, after all, the ace of the Fourth Mother Nest and the battle-hardened commander of the Queens Guard. She made her decision in a flash, though, of course, she had her own ulterior motives.

Without the slightest hesitation, her psionic power instantly connected to the Zerg Swarm's psychic network, transmitting this information along with her judgment, unaltered, to the leviathan mothership in the deepest depths of the Zerg Swarm's space fleet—

To the true ruler of the Fourth Mother Nest, Empress Oriana.

At the same time, her command exploded through the Queens Guard's psychic network, tinged with a hint of excitement:

“Orders adjusted! Target priority changed! Primary mission—completely destroy Olivia! Secondary mission—completely destroy all hostile targets on this planet! Leave none alive!”

Before she had even finished speaking, Anserwe struck back with her blade, a fierce arc of energy slicing a Corruptor that had lunged at her in two.

Dark green body fluid splattered, only to be easily blocked by her energy shield.

But she did not linger in the fight; these mindless biological weapons were merely used to deplete enemy resources, and having high-level units kill them was a complete waste.

A more effective solution existed—

Seize control.

As a Peak Fifth Tier Queen, Anserwe's status was far superior to ordinary Zerg Swarm units, second only to Empress Oriana within the entire Fourth Mother Nest.

No matter what happened, the Zerg Swarm should obey her command, and her psionic power was sufficient to cover the entire planet.

In fact, within the Zerg Swarm hierarchy, a Queen did indeed have the authority to override Cerebrates and take command of the Zerg biological weapon legions, but it was better to let the Cerebrates do such thankless drudgery.

But the situation was different now; she attempted to use her own will to forcibly suppress the “commands” in the minds of those rebellious Zerg, bringing them back under her control.

Even if she could only reclaim a portion, it would greatly alleviate the current pressure.

However, when her psionic tentacles probed into the depths of those Zerg's consciousness, she froze.

There, an entity of will existed.

A will more pure, and of a... higher order than her own.

That will was like a bright moon hanging high in the firmament—cold, vast, and unshakable—as if it were the very origin of the Zerg Swarm.

It sat quietly at the core of every Zerg biological weapon's consciousness, controlling everything in a way that Anserwe found both incredibly familiar and incredibly strange.

It was familiar because the feeling of “control” was extremely similar to facing Empress Oriana.

It was strange because the primal characteristics possessed by this will were not those of any Zerg she had ever known, but rather...

Anserwe couldn't put her finger on it. It was a fusion of the source of life, an existence of a higher order.

The status of this will was absurdly high. It was so high that Anserwe, a Peak Fifth Tier Queen, felt an urge to prostrate herself and worship when facing it directly.

This was suppression stemming from the level of life itself, an instinctual reaction engraved deep within her genes.

Anserwe gritted her teeth, forcibly suppressing the urge. Her psionic power surged wildly, attempting to shake the control of that will.

It did not budge.

That will did not even acknowledge her assault, simply “coiling” there quietly, like a towering, ancient mountain that could not be shaken in the slightest, no matter how the ants climbed or bit at it.

A storm raged in Anserwe's heart.

Olivia... wasn't she only Fourth Tier?

She clearly remembered that intelligence reports indicated this missing newborn Queen had only been Fourth Tier before being killed by humans and resurrected. Even if she had improved after resurrection, at most, she would only be at the peak of the Fourth Tier.

But how could a Fourth Tier origin be this strong?!

This kind of suppression of status... it was almost like facing the Empress herself!

Could it be... could it be that Olivia's primal status was essentially the same source as the Empress? Or even... higher? So, she was the future of the Fourth Hive...

Anserwe dared not think any further.

She abruptly withdrew her psionic power, ceasing the futile attempts. Since she couldn't seize control, she would change tactics—

Slaughter these traitors!

Thirty thousand Queens Guard—so what if all the Zerg on this planet had rebelled? In the face of absolute power, numbers were nothing more than digits!

However, she soon realized she had thought too simply.

These rebellious Zerg were indeed fragile.

Even behemoths like Ultralisks could not withstand a single slash from a Peak Fifth Tier Queen like Anserwe.

But the problem was—she couldn't hit them.

Under Olivia's control, these Zerg seemed to have been injected with some kind of “battlefield intelligence.” They no longer charged recklessly without fear of death as before, but instead began to play “guerrilla warfare.”

Whenever Anserwe locked onto a Zerg and prepared to unleash a ranged blade arc, that Zerg would dodge at an eerie angle or instantly hide behind another Zerg capable of withstanding the hit. The blade arc would either miss or be blocked by the bodies of other Zerg capable of resisting it.

Such as an Ultralisk in its “Wall of Sighs” formation.

And when Anserwe attempted to unleash area-of-effect attacks to clear the field, the surrounding Zerg would disperse in all directions with infuriating coordination in the split-second before the attack landed, leaving a huge empty zone.

The result was that with one strike, Anserwe would kill at most two or three unlucky ones that didn't manage to escape in time, with ninety-nine percent of her energy wasted on thin air.

“Have these bugs... become sentient?!”

Anserwe gritted her teeth in frustration.

She had tried giving up ranged attacks, charging in directly for close-quarters slashing. This was indeed effective—as long as she charged into the Zerg Swarm, every strike hit its mark.

But then another problem arose.

During her charge, all the Zerg along the way would attack her frantically. Corruptor acid, Hydralisk spines, Mutalisk plasma balls... although these attacks could not cause her substantial damage, they plastered her shield so densely that it severely affected her vision and flight posture.

The most disgusting part was that those Mutalisks and Corruptors would specifically target her wings and joints; although they couldn't break her defenses, every impact would cause her flight trajectory to slightly deviate.

A slight deviation meant she would have to spend more time reaching her target.

And during that time, the other Zerg would have long since run far away.

The more Anserwe fought, the angrier she became.

She, a dignified Peak Fifth Tier Queen and ace commander of the Fourth Mother Nest, had never been toyed with like this by a group of mindless, low-level biological weapons.

“Forget it!”

She gritted her teeth, gave up on continuing to clear out these annoying Zerg, and unleashed her full speed, transforming into a streak of black light as she charged straight toward the base.

As long as Olivia is killed, everything will end!