Harem Legion: Queens of the Apocalypse-Chapter 55 Hijack the Army, Rule the Chaos

a.m., the sun still rose, shining down on a world broken, barren, and silent as ever.

Magnus drove his Mongoose off-road vehicle against the flow of the fleeing crowd, heading towards Springvale City. He got off the highway at the city toll station, avoiding the chaos inside, his destination set further west - Coldmere Town. Just beside it was Twinforest Village, the old home of Emma.

The villages flanking the western highway were scattered with meteorites. Centipedes and spiders basked lazily on their surfaces, like sunbathing monsters. Magnus’s hands itched just looking - those crystals were worth a fortune.

Back in the last life, the Emberleaf Legion would trade three crystals for a young, pretty wife. Now? Cliff might offer even more - maybe one crystal for an attractive female Awakened. All because Magnus’s crew had swiped the crystals from Dunwich Hollow that should’ve gone to him.

The further he drove, the denser the meteorites. Every mile made his heart throb with greed, but he wasn’t foolish - no way he could gather them up alone. All he could do was glare as he passed them by.

Two and a half hours ticked by. A worn road sign told him Coldmere Town was 10 kilometers ahead. Twinforest Village - another five past that.

As he neared Coldmere, gunfire cracked through the air - intense and close. Thick black smoke rose in the distance. Magnus tensed, slowing down. To the left was the off-ramp to Coldmere, straight ahead would lead him toward Salem City.

But the shots weren’t coming from the town itself - they echoed from the highway linking Salem City to Coldmere. That smoke was rising from there too.

So, he figured - it had to be an organized squad. Too many guns, too much action, couldn’t be just bandits. Most likely soldiers sent to reinforce the chaos in Salem City. And there were a lot of them.

The centipedes and spiders were already on the move, swarming toward the noise. Magnus slammed the Mongoose into reverse. He wasn’t about to help take those things on for anyone’s benefit.

The swarm crawled out for over an hour before thinning out. Magnus stayed put, watching through binoculars. Then he saw it - tanks, infantry carriers, and at least two full regiments - over two thousand troops.

His stomach twisted. That wasn’t a rebel force. They had to be loyal soldiers, disrupted by the uprising, pulling back to Springvale to regroup with Cliff.

"Damn..." he muttered. The words kept spinning in his head - "Regroup... Loyal force... No way to contact them?"

Then it hit him. Hard. He slammed his palm onto the steering wheel and spun the Mongoose around in a screeching turn, gunning it hard back toward Springvale.

He had a plan. A wild one.

Whatever it was he needed - he had to get it before nightfall.

As he sped down the highway, his mind raced with the math. He was about two and a half hours from Springvale. It was 12:04. If he drove flat-out, maybe two hours to reach the city - get there by 2 p.m.

It’d be dark around 7 p.m., meaning he’d have to leave Springvale by 5 p.m. to make it back. That gave him a slim three-hour window to do what needed to be done.

Even if the Salem City troops didn’t move tonight, they might send a scout convoy to Springvale looking for support. If that happened, he’d be out of time. Three hours. Magnus had only three damn hours.

From the western edge of Springvale City to Lightwater Residences alone would take him forty minutes - if the roads were clear. If they weren’t, he’d be lucky to make it in an hour.

Getting there and back meant two hours on the road. That left only one hour to get things done.

Just one hour... Could he pull it off?

At 2:03 PM, his Mongoose roared into Springvale. The good news? Someone had cleared the western roads. The abandoned cars were nothing but charred husks now. Magnus’s vehicle, armored with two salvaged doors welded to the front, barreled through like a beast.

After twenty-odd minutes of sharp turns and weaving past ruins, he rounded a corner and spotted a small convoy ahead - an infantry fighting vehicle in the lead, followed by a fire truck and two cargo trucks.

They saw him as well.

The IFV was an armored vehicle, equipped with its own mounted cannon - meant to fight alongside tanks. And yeah, technically, tanks were armored vehicles too. What mattered was, there was no way in hell he could go up against that thing with just rifles or grenades. That’d be suicide.

Magnus hit the brake, then activated his Metal Crystal Armor for a flash of defense. He got out with his hands behind his head, making sure they saw he wasn’t a threat.

The convoy stopped too. The back hatch of the IFV opened, and six soldiers jumped out, engaging a few of the mutated freaks on the way as they approached him.

But something made them pause.

The guy standing there - Magnus - was wrapped in four massive centipedes, and he didn’t even flinch.

He just stood there, calm as stone, hands behind his head, eyes watching them close in.

He knew he couldn’t kill them. Not yet. There were at least three more inside the IFV - an officer, the driver, and the gunner.

So he figured it was time to put on a show.

With his hands still laced behind his head, Magnus quietly deactivated the Metal Crystal Armor and switched to the Fire Crystal Armor. Instantly, the centipedes coiled on him shrieked, burning up and collapsing to the ground.

The soldiers froze. Even the officer watching from inside the vehicle looked stunned.

Someone who wasn’t afraid of these creatures? Who could stand amid them and not get torn apart?

If the IFV had a horn, it’d probably be blaring like mad, telling the team outside not to harm this guy - get him alive no matter what!

And to think, just before this, the officer had issued a shoot-on-sight order if anyone resisted.

"I’m unarmed!" Magnus shouted, slowly walking toward them, hands still behind his head. "I just want to join the army! I want to fight for the country!"

"Don’t move!"

"Hands where we can see them! One more step and we’ll shoot!"

Clearly, the six soldiers were jittery, didn’t quite know what to make of him.

Magnus sighed. Come on, what more do you want?

He lay down on the ground, hands still on his head. Thought maybe that would help.

And it did.

Moments later, two soldiers grabbed him under the arms and started hauling him toward the IFV in a rush.

Magnus let out a quiet breath. As long as they brought him aboard, everything else could be handled later.