In a perfect world, you start by relying on your own strength.

The lighthouse came to an abrupt halt, and the massive floating fortress hovered steadily beneath the gray sky. The roar of the engines ceased abruptly, leaving only the deathly silence of the wind sweeping across the ship's metal exterior.

On the ground, countless Devouring Beasts surged and piled up, layer upon layer like rolling black hills, densely packed under the lighthouse.

A foul-smelling black mist surged and rose, deformed limbs twisted wildly, and sharp claws gleamed coldly. One after another, deformed monsters raised their heads and roared and bared their fangs at the lighthouse dozens of meters in the sky. The foul-smelling roars rose and fell, filled with extreme bloodlust and violence.

The crimson compound eyes were fixed on the human fortress high in the sky. Countless mutated bodies piled up in layers, trying to climb the outer wall of the lighthouse. The desolate wasteland was instantly shrouded by an endless horde of beasts. The oppressive sense of despair followed the gale and pressed against every inch of the lighthouse's defenses.

The ferocious roars of the beasts caused the outer walls of the lighthouse to tremble slightly. Layer upon layer of Devouring Beasts continued to climb and pile up, creating towering mounds of flesh and blood that drew ever closer to the defensive barrier at the base of the lighthouse.

The lighthouse was instantly filled with alarms, the scarlet warning lights flashed wildly, and the piercing alarm shattered the tranquility of the entire area.

In the passageways on each level, the people were in a panic. The commoners huddled in corners, trembling with fear, while the upper class also looked terrified. Everyone could hear the endless roars of monsters below and feel that the entire floating fortress was being besieged by an endless horde of beasts.

The command center was in complete chaos. The faces of the high-ranking officials were ashen. The monitoring screens were covered with a dense mass of surging red dots, representing an unprecedented number of Devouring Beasts.

"The power system has inexplicably locked up! All propulsion devices have failed!"

"The ground-based Devouring Beasts are still gathering."

Morgan stood on the high platform, his face ashen, his brows furrowed with an unyielding gravity.

The mechanical operation of the entire lighthouse was completely disrupted, all manual control was rendered ineffective, and the Kloto system silently took over the entire control system of the lighthouse, forcibly altered the navigation route, and dragged this last floating barrier of mankind to this desolate wasteland adjacent to the ecological core area.

Below, a horde of beasts surrounded the city, with Devouring Beasts piled up like mountains, their roars shaking the heavens—it was no coincidence.

His fingers clenched, a deep, cold question rising in his throat: "What exactly does Clotho want?"

The command center was deathly silent. All the operators were at a loss, repeatedly trying to unlock permissions and restart the main control terminal, but all their attempts were ruthlessly rejected by the system.

The cold data stream scrolled rapidly on the screen, without any command response, only absolute and forceful control.

Jing Nan, standing to the side, frowned and whispered tremblingly, "The power engine, the navigation compass... all of them have been locked down by Kloto. At the current rate at which the Devouring Beasts are gathering, they will be able to reach the Lighthouse in just a few hours."

Kloto calculated countless possible outcomes, abandoning the safe routes for humans and deliberately venturing into this densely populated ecological zone. Using all the creatures of the lighthouse as bait, he lured the entire area's Devouring Beasts to gather en masse.

Morgan frowned deeply, his gaze fixed on the ever-growing mountain of flesh and blood below, his expression growing increasingly grim.

The Devouring Beasts piled up in layers, their ascent far exceeding expectations. The dense, mutated bodies stretched as far as the eye could see, far exceeding the ecological limits that this wasteland was supposed to support.

New Devouring Beasts continued to rush from the depths of the wasteland in all directions, continuously joining the beast tide, covering the sky and blocking out the earth, as if all the Devouring Beasts on the entire continent had been forcibly conscripted by an invisible force and rushed to this place to besiege the Lighthouse.

The roars of the beasts below were deafening, and a foul-smelling wind howled upwards. One after another, mountains of flesh and blood rose higher and higher, their sharp claws almost touching the defensive armor of the lower level of the lighthouse, and the chilling aura of death pressed in step by step.

The hunter squad and the city defense forces have assembled, fully armed, and rushed to various defensive fortifications and outer walls. Guns and ammunition were quickly loaded, and heavy city defense weapons slowly turned their muzzles to aim at the dense horde of beasts below.

At this moment, the Devouring Beast Mountain on the ground is still growing wildly. The deformed bodies squeeze, climb, and pile up on each other, the dark red flesh twists and writhes, and the viscous body fluid drips continuously from the cracks of the beast mountain, corroding the parched wasteland.

Countless scarlet compound eyes locked onto the high-altitude lighthouse, their roars and howls blending together, causing the air to tremble slightly.

"Launch missiles to suppress the beast tide and stop them from piling up!"

Morgan roared in a deep voice and decisively issued the attack order.

In an instant, the hidden weapon bays surrounding the lighthouse suddenly popped open, and anti-aircraft and ground-attack missiles ignited one after another, their red tail flames shooting into the sky and whistling through the air as they crashed down on the layers of beast mountains below.

At the same time, heavy machine guns and pulse cannons on both sides roared in unison, and dense barrages poured down like a torrential rain, with deafening explosions one after another, completely shattering the deathly silence of the wasteland.

The scorching explosive bomb slammed into the densely packed swarm of Devouring Beasts. The violent explosions whipped up clouds of dust and mangled flesh, and terrifying shockwaves swept in all directions, causing the nearly formed mounds of flesh and blood to collapse with a deafening roar.

Exploded limbs and corrosive bodily fluids splattered everywhere, instantly shattering and burning large swathes of Devouring Beasts, briefly clearing out a vast open area.

With cannons roaring and firelight reflecting off the gray sky, the city's heavy defenses were fully engaged, temporarily suppressing the rising tide of beasts.

But this advantage lasted only a moment before it quickly crumbled.

The Devouring Beasts seemed to have lost all sense of fear and pain, becoming nothing more than killing puppets that knew only how to pounce and slaughter. The corpses of their own kind piled up in front of them, and the monsters behind them surged forward, stepping on the remains, layer upon layer, continuing to pile up, filling the gaps at an alarming speed.

No matter how the artillery fire reaped the harvest or how the missiles bombarded, endless streams of Devouring Beasts poured out from the desolate mist from all directions, one after another, relentlessly fighting to the death.

Ignoring pain and death, they only wanted to keep piling up their bodies to shorten the distance to the lighthouse. That bizarre collective madness was filled with a chilling eeriness and unease.

On the command platform, Morgan stared intently at the battlefield scene, his eyes filled with extreme seriousness.

The fierce artillery fire continued to pour down, constantly shattering the layers of flesh and blood. The collapsed beast mountain was scattered all over the ground. It seemed like a great victory, but it could not eradicate the scourge at all.

He was well aware of the strange characteristics of the Devouring Beasts: they were immortal and indestructible. Their flesh fragments would wriggle and coalesce as soon as they hit the ground, and their bodies would regenerate. Even if they were blown to pieces, they could get up again in no time and rejoin the beast tide.

Missile bombardments and heavy artillery barrages can at most tear their bodies apart and shatter the piled-up hills of flesh and blood, briefly slowing down the rise of the Beast Mountain and delaying the monsters' pace of climbing and approaching the lighthouse. That's all.

They can't be eradicated or stopped at all.

Morgan stared at the Devouring Beasts on the screen, which kept regenerating and gathering again. His face was extremely gloomy, and a chill ran through his heart.

Suppressing the enemy with conventional firepower is merely a temporary fix. Ammunition is being consumed at an alarming rate, and the defensive load on the lighthouse is constantly increasing, but the beast tide outside the city shows no signs of abating; on the contrary, it is growing ever larger.

Kloto locked down all flight paths and control permissions, trapping them here. Combined with the eerie life force of this area, he forced the Devouring Beasts of the entire continent into a collective frenzy.