Tempest of the Battlefield

Chapter 463: New World Order

Translator: Oneshotwonder Editor: Hitesh_

2570 AD, the tide of the battle shifted again. After years of gathering strength and careful planning, the humans gained an advantage over the Zergs again.

However, that didn't last long either. Mid-year, Patroclus challenged Einherjar Li Zhedao and defeated the master of House Li with ease. The event was later called the "Great Fall." After the backbone of the human society was bested, the morale of the army took a toll. After a few defeats, the confederation lost its edge and was forced to the defensive side again.

After a few battles, humans learned that the percentage of hybrid Zergs in the Zerg population was very small. It could be further grouped into two categories. One type was like Patroclus, who had retained a lot of his host's features, and the other was a newer generation. The new generation not only had a lower rate of birth, but was also inferior in many aspects compared to the original hybrid Zergs.

Patroclus was the sole ruler of the hybrid monsters and their minions, calling himself the God of Immortals. Meanwhile, the real Zergs worshiped someone else, their dark lord Moye.

Moye and Patroclus held a fragile alliance to work against the confederation army.

Although Patroclus had eliminated two of the most powerful Zerg warlords who used to work for Moye, Moye was still the de facto ruler of all Zergs. It was Moye who was behind the plan of converting Patroclus into a hybrid Zerg in the first place.

When Patroclus faced fierce resistance on a Zerg Planet, he finally made up his mind to lead the Zergs into a new direction: Co-existence with the humans.

As a former human, Patroclus knew the human nature better than any other Zergs. He knew that the human army would only become stronger the more desperate they grew.

There were three types of immortal Zergs in terms of degrees of mixture of the two races. The first type consisted of those who had been completely overtaken by the parasite. They were nothing but a walking husk, fulfilling the wills of the Zerg masters nestled in their brain. The second type of the Zergs were those whose host body didn't resist the parasitic growth to a full extent, but still retained some human feature. The third group, the most chaotic one, was of those who had resisted the parasite taking over and succeeded. These hybrids were not that much different from humans, except for their nearly indestructible bodies. Despite their affinity with humans, the small part of Zerg that remained inside them would initiate self-destruction should it sense its host's thoughts of betrayal of the common good of the Zerg race.

All three groups of Zergs were called the Immortals, and they gathered under Patroclus's banner. Patroclus's strength and power quickly caught the attention of the Mastermind. He had quickly risen to power and become the second in command of the Zerg army right after the Dark Lord. Although Patroclus was the least likely to be called a Zerg, he had become the second most powerful individual in all hives across the universe.

The heaviest blow to the human race was the betrayal of Einherjar Lee Moshan. The Einherjar turned his cloak right in the midst of a battle and accepted Patroclus' "blessing." The turn of event devastated the entire human race.

2571 AD, Patroclus murdered his own father, Einherjar Andres Dower, and marked the downward spiral of the Dower family. With two Einherjars murdered and the other two betraying their own race, the confederation was finally forced into a tight corner, their hands tied. The extinction of the human race seemed imminent.

After the fight with his father, Patroclus was gravely injured. However, with his incredible healing ability, a full recovery was only a matter of time. During the time of his recuperation, he had left all of his responsibility to four of his most trusted advisers, and Lee Moshan was one of them.

Patroclus' jurisdiction was the Earth and the Moon, while the Dark lord resided near the Mars, overseeing the ongoing war.

One year later, the divine master Constantine led a small army and assaulted Moye's main camp, severely injuring the Dark Lord. Although the Divine Master died during the assault, he had saved millions of lives on Mars.

Despite the fierce resistance in the Solar System, the Andromeda Galaxy had been completely subjugated by the Zerg, turning into its weapon manufacturing base.

However desperate the situation was, the humans had never given up their hope. The frequent and intense combat had improved the human's METAL combat and Mastery skills by leaps and bounds.

Five years later, in a small town called Malunsa on Mars...

"Balls! Lun Duo, are you high or something? I told you many times that we can't afford to save everyone out there!" Tan Bu complained.

"He was dying, and he wanted a sip of water—it was a dying man's last wish, man. What was I suppose to do?"

"I just want you to be careful! If he turns out to be a Zerg, Boss is going to skin you alive!" Tan Bu refuted.

"I know what you are thinking; you are afraid that this dude is going to take your precious little lover away from you. Don't worry! I don't think he is that charming. Plus, he doesn't seem to have any soul energy. " Lun Duo patted Tan Bu's shoulder and said. The "precious lover" he was talking about was the medic in his squad.

"Boss is preparing us for an assault against the enemies in Malunsa. We need to be extra careful. Anyways, I will let the matter slide since he turned out to be a human. "

"Thank you! He is better here than being picked off by the Zergs and turned into one of them."

"I doubt the Zergs will even care to convert him. He has no soul energy, and therefore, Zergs have no use for him. Well, not like he is that useful for us."

"You are really a prick, you know that, right? We can't just let a human die!"

"Yes, yes, whatever! Now, are you going to drink with me or not?"

The two METAL warriors walked off the city wall; their shift was over, and soon, another pair would come to take their post.

The lack of communication had become one of the biggest struggles the confederation had to face on a day to day basis. On the first couple weeks after the Ark incident, Patroclus had ordered his army to destroy the skynet system. Without it, planets could no longer form an alliance, and were forced to fight on their own.

In the Zerg-occupied areas of the planet, many guerrilla forces were formed to resist the Zergs. Most of these guerrilla forces were from the great houses or influential sects. On Mars, the Divine Master sect and House Lie had joined forces. While the members of House Lie fought on the frontline, the sect members took on the role of medics and stood right behind House Lie, healing their wounds. After years of struggle, the situation seemed to have turned around as the guerrilla forces slowly regained control in a few large cities. This was not possible without the sacrifice that the Divine Master Constantine had made. In addition, Einherjar Lie Jintian was still alive, and was leading the resistance; his son, Lie Jian, was also very close to becoming an Einherjar.

Besides the joint forces of House Lie and the Divine Master sect, there were a few other resistance groups led by other factions scattered around Mars. Divine Master Sect had offered generous aid to all the other groups in the form of sending field medics to them.

The City of Malunsa used to be a bustling metropolitan before the age of bloodshed had arrived. But by now, it was under the ruthless control of Lord Luoerda, one of the three generals of Moye. Lord Luoerda was well known for his outrageous brutality. Dead human bodies piled up like hills wherever his dark legion passed. He loathed humans, but he loathed the hybrid Zergs even more, and therefore, his army never took live captives.

Ever since the Zergs laid their claws on the human technology, their equipment had become increasingly advanced, and was almost impossible to defeat. Just a few years ago, a METAL fighter would be able to fend off at least a dozen average-sized Zergs. However, the Zergs had quickly learned to equip themselves with METAL, particularly the hybrid Zergs, and severely disrupted the balance of power.

Humans' life on Moon and the Earth was relatively better than that on Mars. Not only Patroclus had given his human subjects a considerable degree of freedom, but he had also made an effort to improve people's living standards during the war in an attempt to convince more humans to join forces with him. Meanwhile, on Mars, Moye's method of assimilation was much more direct and brutal. The humans were treated as either food or blood bags.

Although Zergs had gained many advantages by mimicking the human race, they had also lost many of their original traits. As they grew more like the humans, backstabbing became more frequent, and divisions among Zergs formed. All the internal conflicts eventually amounted to the schism and power struggle between Patroclus and Moye.

The real puppet master behind the scene, the Zerg's Mastermind, would play a key role in determining the outcome of this competition. So far, the omnipresent Mastermind seemed to favor Patroclus.