249: Outrage! This is no longer war, it's a massacre!

Following Lu Chen's cold command, "Kill them for me," the previously silent universe seemed to ignite instantly.

"Rumble—"

Although sound cannot travel in a vacuum, everyone present seemed to hear a terrifying roar in their minds, like the earth's crust splitting. This was the spatial tremor caused by hundreds of millions of Star Devourer soldier ants simultaneously exiting hibernation and overloading their engines to full power!

The star field on the holographic screen, which had been marked as "ruins," had now completely transformed into a boiling red ocean.

The soldier ants disguised as debris tore off their camouflage shells. Their appearance was hideous and ugly, like deep-sea arthropods magnified countless times, covered in pitch-black chitinous armor, with dark red plasma streams spurting from every joint.

They had no formation, no tactics, and not even fear.

Driven by the hive mind, they had only one instinct—feeding.

"Screech—!!!"

A sharp mental shriek penetrated the spaceship's shields and stabbed directly into everyone's cerebral cortex. It was the greedy cry of countless soldier ants upon finding prey, carrying an intense craving for flesh and energy, instantly sweeping through the entire fleet like a mental plague.

"Damn it! Mental contamination?!"

"Zhan Lang" grunted, but he was a Super Soldier with an iron will. He only staggered for a moment, and the red light in his eyes intensified. "Do these beasts think we're takeout?!"

"Everyone, listen up! Don't spare the ammo! Hit them hard!"

"Send these man-eating monsters back to the womb!"

"Yes!!!"

A heaven-shaking roar erupted through the communication channel.

The next second, the expedition Legion's formation unleashed a thousand cannons simultaneously!

The one thousand Dawn-class Battleships positioned at the vanguard were the first to bare their fangs. The massive dragon gall Star Destroyer Cannon on the bow, after several seconds of charging, sprayed forth a blinding white light that was impossible to look at directly!

"Sizzle—"

That was the sound of space being forcefully vaporized by high-energy beams.

One thousand thick light pillars, like the whip of purification in God's hand, fiercely lashed into the densely packed sea of bugs!

There was no suspense.

There was no resistance.

The soldier ants, whose size rivaled small asteroids, were instantly atomized into basic particle streams the moment they touched the beams, without even having time to explode!

Wherever the beams passed, the previously congested bug sea was instantly ploughed into one thousand death vacuum zones, each hundreds of kilometers wide!

Just one volley vaporized millions of soldier ants!

"Good!!!"

On the bridge, the staff officers couldn't help but pump their fists and cheer.

But this was just the beginning.

Facing the instantaneous vaporization of their comrades, the remaining soldier ants not only didn't retreat but were instead provoked into even greater ferocity. They trampled over the corpses (particle clouds) of their fellows, rushing towards the human fleet like a heedless black landslide!

Their numbers were too vast.

So vast it induced despair, vast enough to fill the entire field of view. Even though countless numbers were dying every second, their speed of advance remained astonishing!

"Is this the swarm tactic?"

Su Qingying looked at the horrifying screen display, her face pale. "They don't care about casualties. They want to pile up their corpses to bury us!"

"Bury us?"

Lu Chen, who had been sitting in the command chair watching with cold eyes, suddenly let out a disdainful scoff.

He slowly stood up and walked to the holographic star map, looking at the red area spreading like cancer cells. The light in his eyes was as cold as ten thousand years of unmelting ice.

"Qingying, you are wrong."

"This is not a tactic; this is instinct. The only ineffective struggle low-level life forms can make against a high-level civilization."

"They think quantity can make up for the dimensional gap?"

Lu Chen abruptly raised his hand, spread his five fingers, and then fiercely clenched his fist!

"heavenly craft!"

[Present, Master!]

"Activate the 'Dimensional Cutting' matrix!"

"Since they like to crowd together, let them stick together forever!"

[Understood!]

Following heavenly craft's clear, cold voice, the ten pangu Dimensional Strike Ships positioned at the rear of the fleet finally revealed their true fangs.

They didn't fire beams, nor did they launch missiles.

They merely trembled slightly, and the space around their hulls began to twist strangely. Immediately afterward, countless invisible ripples spread toward the bug sea ahead like ripples on water.

Those were not energy waves—those were spatial rifts!

"Crack—"

A sound like shattering glass echoed deep within everyone's soul.

Immediately afterward, a terrifying scene unfolded.

The hundreds of millions of soldier ants charging at the front suddenly found that the space around them had changed. The continuous cosmic space was being sliced up by countless invisible knives!

Some soldier ants were still charging forward, but their heads remained in place while their bodies appeared thousands of meters away; other soldier ants opened their large mouths, intending to devour a warship, only to find that their mouths were misaligned with their bodies, causing them to swallow themselves!

Spatial dislocation! Dimensional Cutting!

This star field instantly turned into a gigantic meat grinder!

Countless soldier ants were torn apart, folded, and flattened in agony! Black blood (coolant) and shattered limbs burst open in the vacuum, forming a gruesome Asura field!

But this was not the most terrifying part.

The most terrifying part was that this cutting was not just physical, but dimensional.

Some soldier ants were cut into a two-dimensional plane, becoming thin "photographs" floating in the void; others were dragged into four-dimensional fragments, starting infinite proliferation from the inside out, finally exploding like popcorn!

This was a massacre!

A thorough and absolute massacre!

Facing this kind of dimensionality reduction strike, quantity was meaningless. It was like a swarm of ants trying to surround a human holding a flamethrower—no matter how many charged forward, the result was only one: turning into ashes!

"This... this..."

Queen Alia stood aside, already dumbfounded. Her beautiful eyes now held nothing but profound fear, aside from shock.

She recalled worrying earlier that the human fleet might not withstand this attack. Now, that worry seemed ridiculous.

How could this be called war?

This was clearly a god cleaning their backyard!

"Too... too cruel," she murmured. Although these were the enemies who destroyed her home, the hellish scene still caused her physical discomfort.

"Cruel?"

Lu Chen heard her whisper, turned his head, and his dark eyes showed not a hint of pity.

He pointed to the corner of the screen, where the remnant of a planet, gnawed down to its core by the Star Devourer, was visible.

"Alia, what do you see there?"

Alia followed his finger, and her pupils suddenly contracted.

On the planetary remnant, countless frozen corpses could vaguely be seen. They were the planet's natives, who, in their last moments before death, were still desperately reaching out to the sky, begging for salvation from the gods.

But the gods did not come. Demons did.

"Did they feel cruel when they were eating people?"

Lu Chen's voice was soft, yet it pierced Alia's heart like a knife.

"Did they feel cruel when they uprooted civilizations, leaving not a single trace behind?"

"Against this cancer of the universe, mercy is the greatest cruelty to oneself!"

Lu Chen abruptly turned around, looking at the now utterly routed bug sea on the screen, his eyes bursting with astonishing killing intent!

"Zhan Lang!"

"Present!"

"Dimensional lockdown is complete. Not a single one of these beasts can escape!"

"Now, take your fleet and the Winged Human Race's vengeance corps, and press forward!"

"Use the shortest distance, use the fiercest firepower, and for me, you must..."

"Crush them!!!"

"Yes!!!"

Zhan Lang let out a heaven-shaking roar, the red light in his eyes practically overflowing!

After holding back for so long, after fearing for so long, it was finally his turn to vent!

"Brothers! Commander Lu has given the order!"

"Full assault!"

"Blast these damn bugs into dust for me! Don't leave a single atom!"

"Kill!!!"

The expedition Legion moved.

No longer engaging in long-range bombardment, they launched a direct charge!

Tens of thousands of human warships, like a torrent of steel, violently smashed into the chaotic sea of bugs!

This was a one-sided massacre.

Human warships possessed Dragon Bone Armor and Dimensional Shields; the soldier ants' attacks couldn't even splash a spark upon impact. Meanwhile, every human counterattack took away the lives of a large swath of enemies!

Lasers, particle cannons, anti-matter missiles, gravity wave bombs—

All kinds of dazzling weapons bloomed wildly in this star field, turning it into a gorgeous yet cruel fireworks show!

The Winged Human Race warships followed behind. Although their firepower was not as fierce as the humans', their high flexibility allowed them to specialize in finishing off enemies and cleaning up stragglers.

The thrill of revenge filled the chests of every Winged People warrior. They screamed and cheered, firing deadly beams at the demons who had once been so arrogant!

Ten minutes.

Only ten minutes.

The Star Devourer reconnaissance fleet, numbering over a hundred million and capable of sweeping aside any Level 2 civilization, completely vanished.

The star field returned to peace.

Aside from debris scattered everywhere and lingering fires, it was as if nothing had happened.

Lu Chen stood on the bridge, looking at the starscape stained with blood (though the bugs had no blood) before him, and slowly let out a breath.

There was no joy of victory on his face, only a deeper sense of gravity.

"Is it over?" Alia asked cautiously.

"No."

Lu Chen shook his head, his gaze piercing through the debris toward the deeper reaches of the distant galaxy.

There, a pair of even larger eyes, filled with greed and malice, was slowly opening.

"This is just the beginning."

Lu Chen straightened his collar, turned, and walked toward the command chair, his voice terrifyingly calm.

"You have to consider the master when beating the dog."

"What we just killed were merely the watchdogs kept by that fellow."

"Now,"

Lu Chen sat back down, a cold arc curving his lips.

"The dogs are dead."

"The master should come out now."

"heavenly craft, send the signal."

"Tell that old tortoise hiding in the black hole..."

"We have arrived!"