“My god, it's the dwarves of the Great Mountains.”
Radan let out an involuntary gasp of admiration.
To the people here, the dwarves living in the Great Mountains, much like the grassland beastkin, were a race that existed only in ancient legends.
They were a race short in stature but robustly built, possessing Herculean strength.
Extremely isolationist and conservative by nature, they only lived clustered together with their own kind, never caring about the outside world, and almost never establishing diplomatic relations with any other faction.
Yet now, these legendary dwarves were marching this way, fully clad in gleaming heavy armor.
“Order the artillery to keep firing. Just as the Earth God said, ordinary cannonballs alone aren't enough to clean up these things.”
The dwarves used cannons of various calibers to unleash a fierce bombardment on the ant colony from a distance.
Among the shells were both pure iron balls and special magic shells infused with runic power.
The ant colony, which had held the absolute upper hand in the previous battles against the beastkin and humans, was completely unable to withstand such firepower.
Once hit, their thick exoskeletons—evolved through continuous devouring and combining the shells of crustaceans with the bones of vertebrates—as well as their relatively fragile legs, would snap and shatter without suspense.
【Kerrigan is shocked by the enemy's new weapon】
“Cannons?!”
It wasn't just the Queen Ant Kerrigan who saw this; even Lin Miao was greatly taken aback.
He had absolutely not expected such things to appear in that world.
“That's enough. Dispatch the guard unit!”
At the dwarven commander's order, the bombardment ceased.
The dwarven heavy infantry raised their spears in unison and advanced steadily toward the ants.
“What about those humans... and those beastkin? How do we handle them?”
“If they dare to make a reckless move, kill them immediately. If not, leave the humans alone for now and capture all the beastkin.”
The dumbfounded Campbell Duchy soldiers and the surviving beastkin could only freeze in place, watching all of this unfold.
But even though they had descended like saviors, the dwarves were by no means their allies.
For the duchy soldiers who had not yet been influenced by any deity, the dwarves temporarily reserved the right to deal with them later, but the beastkin warriors under Uria's command were, after all, the servants of a competitor.
【Kerrigan orders her forces to retreat】
Faced with a hostile force composed of an entirely new race and the unprecedented weapons they brought, Kerrigan, though deeply intrigued, decisively ordered her frontline units to retreat.
Unlike Elise, who favored building nests and expanding territory, Kerrigan liked to quickly resolve conflicts with frontal assaults and utterly detested wars of attrition.
She would avoid unnecessary casualties among her precious soldiers as much as possible.
This was the survival instinct of the migratory colony, which was starkly different from the main nest colony that constantly built nests and expanded its territory.
The dwarves defeated the demons with miraculous weapons, Radan thought to himself, staring blankly at the receding ants.
To the locals who did not know the truth, this was undoubtedly a dramatic, miracle-like rescue.
【Kerrigan finds the emergence of the new weapon troublesome. She believes that making huge sacrifices to conquer these enemies is not worth it】
【Elise has developed an interest in the new enemy】
The dwarven army coming down from the Great Mountains was a completely unexpected variable.
Kerrigan's migratory colony, which had been virtually unstoppable, felt helpless for the first time when facing these unseen dwarves.
This was because the entire colony possessed absolutely no data on them.
“To think they can generate such formidable power without relying on the force of magic...”
Naturally, all information was shared in real-time with every individual through the hive mind connecting each and every ant.
Celia, who was currently lurking in the Silver Twilight Secret Society to steal intelligence, also saw all of this within the intersecting torrent of consciousness between the two queens.
The cannons used by the dwarves brought a massive shock even to Celia, who was a mage herself.
【Elise determines that with the colony's current capabilities, they cannot withstand this kind of firepower】
This was almost identical to the situation they faced earlier against the advanced magitech civilization of the Lucadia Empire.
Elise, who had always relied on her own unique advantages to evolve, calmly concluded that with the colony's current strength, they could not defeat the enemy.
Is this... the limit of living beings?
Seeing this, Lin Miao let out a soft sigh.
No matter how many new materials he found for them, and no matter how many abilities Elise devoured to combine and create mutated species, there was ultimately an upper limit to the size and strength of a living organism.
This was the greatest limitation and weakness of the ant army, which was composed almost entirely of living organisms, when compared to the civilizations of hostile forces.
Although they had managed to scrape by so far by absorbing magic power and other special energies to break through their limits time and again, it now seemed as though this door was about to close.
This meant they needed a major event that would allow the entire race to achieve a qualitative leap. Lin Miao had already faintly sensed this a long time ago.
“...Leave it to me. I think I've found a breakthrough.”
And for this very moment, Celia, who had long since infiltrated the enemy camp, finally completed all her preparations after thoroughly studying every piece of documentation she could find.
If I stayed here a bit longer, I could certainly learn more and gain more. Honestly, it's a bit hard to leave.
Celia looked around the Silver Twilight Secret Society, where she had stayed for only a few short days.
Under the guidance of the god Astaroth, an advanced magitech civilization was developing here at an astonishing speed. For any mage, this place was a dream sanctuary.
But I must return. Back to where I belong.
Yet, she had never forgotten her mission.
Because right now, in the entire ant army, she was the only one who could use the knowledge she had acquired to create a new power truly suited for the colony.
To help the colony grow, allow them to defeat all other deities, and pacify this world.
Celia firmly believed that only by doing this could she ultimately save more people on this land. This was the brand-new mission she had set for herself.
Watching Celia's subsequent stealthy movements, Lin Miao couldn't help but marvel in his heart: So, you plan to blow up the Silver Twilight Secret Society.
After precisely stealing all the information she needed, Celia casually wandered around the facility, looking for weak points and quietly engraving explosive spells onto them.
The entire Empire believed this was the safest and most heavily guarded place in the nation, with powerful high-level defensive barriers set up on the outside, which made their internal security extremely lax.
Furthermore, the main structures of these underground facilities were, after all, built only by ordinary stonemasons and carpenters.
All these factors combined allowed Celia's sabotage from the inside to produce a devastating effect.
“W-What on earth is going on?!”
“There's a fire! Put it out quickly!”
“The emergency exit has collapsed!”
The simultaneous explosions instantly plunged the entire massive underground facility into paralysis and chaos.
What was even more fatal was that Celia's primary objective was to destroy the massive amount of research data and achievements stored here.
This was a lethal blow sufficient to set back the Empire's technological development by at least several months.
“This is impossible!”
The god Astaroth watched all of this, letting out a roar of despair.
Even in the end, he had failed to detect the presence of Celia, who had infiltrated the interior.
This sudden disaster was nothing short of a bolt from the blue for him, dealing him a severe blow.
After throwing the Lucadia Empire into utter chaos, Celia returned to the lands of the former Holy Kingdom and recounted what she had seen and heard to her assistant, Count Merlin:
“It's hard for me to explain clearly in words, but simply put, it involves using more efficient and advanced magic stone processing technology to turn magic stones into artificial organs. These organs can only be transplanted into the bodies of the Great Devourer.”
Hearing this, Count Merlin looked utterly dumbfounded, his eyes filled with disbelief as he asked, “...Can this really be done?”
Celia nodded with certainty, responding in a steady tone, “Absolutely. You might not believe it, but in the future, the Empire will also attempt to transplant these organs into human bodies. They believe this is the path to true evolution.”
This also included the Empire's future goal of creating new humans integrated with magic.
Pausing briefly, Celia continued in a deep voice, “The new humans born this way will certainly be several times stronger than current humans, capable of using a much more evolved form of magic power.”
Shocked, Count Merlin subconsciously muttered under his breath, “How is that possible...”
Celia directly pointed out the hidden danger, “But their purpose is by no means to bring peace and happiness to these new humans. They only want to throw them into yet another war between deities.”
Another crucial reason why Celia chose to side with the ant colony was that she had seen through a truth:
All the other deities, just like the Goddess Hestia, thought of nothing but expanding their territories and increasing their servants through war and competition.
Of course, perhaps there were indeed deities who genuinely cared for their servants. But at least, these deities who viewed Terra as a new world and wanted a piece of the pie were definitely not among them.
Rather than that, it is better to let the Great Devourer pacify this world. Once they drive all the deities' forces out of this land and then leave... the survivors can start their lives anew.
Having solidified her conviction, Celia took a deep breath and looked at the experimental equipment prepared before her.
Various magic experimental tools, and magic stones to serve as experimental materials.
As well as several worker ants that would soon serve as test subjects to undergo magic stone heart transplants.
“Let's begin.”
Watching the worker ants voluntarily climb onto the experimental table and roll over to expose their abdomens, Celia picked up a sharp carving knife.
【Elise watches and records Celia's every movement】
At this moment, with one of her eyes glowing red, Celia was unreservedly channeling the power of the hive mind. Right now, she alone could handle the workload of dozens of mages.
Elise was also observing her every move with absolute focus.
If Celia's research succeeded, it would be of paramount importance to the entire ant colony.
Entrusting such a critical task entirely to Celia alone was clearly inefficient.
Elise believed that as long as she, or the new mutated species she created, could master this technology, she could easily popularize magic hearts across the entire colony.
The logic is sound, but if that happens, Celia will lose her utility value again.
Reading Elise's thoughts, Lin Miao let out a bitter smile.
In Elise's mindset, where dedicating oneself to the colony was taken for granted, the concept of rewarding merit simply did not exist.
No matter how great the contribution, as soon as she deemed you useless, she would phase you out without hesitation. This was the code of conduct of the Queen Ant.
But in Lin Miao's eyes, Celia was an exceptionally rare talent.
If she fell into mortal danger again after making such a monumental contribution, she might feel disappointed and fearful, which would affect her work efficiency. If that happened, it would also be a loss for the entire colony.
【Designated Vassal Appointment: Allows the exclusive duty of conveying a deity's will to be granted to a specific servant】
For this reason, Lin Miao had long been prepared to employ an exclusive function of deities.
This was a decision he made to allow Celia to contribute to the colony's development with peace of mind.
“Right, it seems we'll also need a large quantity of magic stones.”
Just then, Lin Miao picked up his phone and saw a text message he had just received.
It was from Bai Zhantang, the boss of the Awakened company he had recently acquired, stating that he wanted to meet the new "proxy."
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