The news that the Stargate, which needed to be protected, had been destroyed quickly spread throughout the Great Mountains.
All communication had been cut off with the members of the central research laboratory, who had been constantly staying in touch, announcing that the Stargate was nearing completion, and working hard to boost morale.
“Has it finally ended like this?”
All contact with the high-ranking officials, including the dwarven king, was also completely cut off. Those fighting on the front lines could only understand what this meant, falling into despair.
They had failed, completely defeated.
“It's useless! Fighting on like this is just throwing our lives away. At least let's see if the rumors are true!”
At that moment, some soldiers fighting desperately on the front lines threw down their weapons, disarmed themselves, and expressed their willingness to surrender to the Great Devourers.
Their shocked companions tried to stop them, but it was too late.
They threw themselves toward the Great Devourers, closing their eyes and trembling.
For them, this was a gamble with their lives. If they died, they died; if they survived, it would be a miracle.
Then, the Great Devourers probed their bodies with their antennae.
This was to confirm whether they were truly servants who had received divine protection, or if they were merely ordinary civilians of that faction.
“Uh?”
“No, why me?! No, help!”
In the end, some survived, while others were ruthlessly killed.
The survivors trembled in fear as they watched those who were torn apart alive, while the onlookers fell into a chaotic commotion.
But one thing was certain: they could no longer hold out or fight.
“We cannot surrender! Have we forgotten the grace bestowed upon us by the Earth God?!”
“Enough! We can survive!”
The joint coalition army could not hold, beginning to splinter from within.
Those who believed they would die sooner or later anyway without divine protection decided to fight to the end.
Meanwhile, those who thought they could find a way to live among the terrifying Great Devourers quickly lost their will to fight, throwing away their weapons to surrender. However, this was merely an illusion.
“A crack in their resolve...”
Elise observed this phenomenon with great interest.
She learned that sometimes, a sliver of mercy and hope could also be an efficient and powerful weapon, capable of openly dividing the enemy's colony.
The Great Devourers, connected through the hive mind, never exhibited differing behaviors, so she had not understood this before.
Of course, not everyone who felt they could survive chose to surrender.
There were also those like Radan, who fought for a different value rather than loyalty to a god.
For family, friends, and comrades. Everyone's purpose in fighting was different.
“I will fight to the end. This is the belief I hold dear.”
Hearing Radan say he would fight to the end alongside him, his dwarven superior, Torban, shook his head. “Don't talk nonsense. Fighting to the end and dying together isn't everything.”
Torban dissuaded Radan as he watched countless Great Devourers approach the fortress they were defending.
This fortress was not only meant to hold the pass; it also housed many non-combatants, such as the elderly and children.
“Radan, surviving to protect them is also a duty. Are you going to abandon them?”
Torban pointed at them, his words leaving Radan speechless.
Leaving the slumped Radan behind, Torban walked forward with his spear. “Don't follow me. I'm going to kill a few more monsters before I go.”
Torban opened the fortress gates together with the suicide squad.
If they fought inside the fortress, it would inevitably lead to others being injured or killed.
Radan stared blankly at the shouting men being devoured by the Great Devourers, and the explosions that went off with a loud bang, sweeping away the Great Devourers' corpses along with them.
After the explosions, only charred scorch marks remained on the ground.
◆◆◆
With the Stargate destroyed, the large-scale purge was also complete.
Elise, sitting in her nest, felt a tremor of excitement.
After the brutal slaughter and screening, the enemy's divine forces were nearly wiped out. The entirety of Terra now belonged to the Great Devourers—or more accurately, to Lin Miao, the god above them.
This was a grand achievement.
Conquering a world was by no means easy, yet the Great Devourers, crawling out from a remote corner, had ultimately accomplished it through continuous growth and evolution.
Now, the land, sky, and sea of this planet belonged to them.
The survivors could only live at the mercy of the Great Devourers, hiding and scraping by on the scattered remnants of land.
“The true god has sent the Apostles of doom to cleanse the world. Now, a new era is about to begin!”
Among the survivors, there were also those who were moved by the overwhelming power of the Great Devourers and began to follow and worship them.
They thanked the Great Devourers for their mercy, even actively helping them, or simply wanting to merge with them.
“Damned demons...”
“No matter where we go, there are only disgusting monsters. To think we are going to be stripped of everything by these things.”
Conversely, there were also those who hated the Great Devourers, their hearts burning with the flames of revenge.
But other than harboring anger in their hearts, they could no longer resist the Great Devourers.
After all, they lacked the most crucial power.
The deities who had once aided them could never return to this world.
‘...A deep age of chaos and darkness will shroud the world.’
With her back to the setting sun, Celia stood on the spire of a ruined, abandoned city in the Dwarven Alliance territory, sighing as she watched the scenes transmitted through the hive mind.
It was clear that leaving the seeds of life in this world was her wish.
To save just one more person, she had scurried around in a panic and taken action herself.
But that seed still had to undergo many trials. It had to divide, struggle, compete, and forge a new path of its own.
As a member of the Great Devourer colony, this was the limit of what she could do for this world.
Whether the seed sprouted and grew was entirely up to itself.
“You have already done enough.”
Lisette offered Celia sincere comfort.
The elves, including Lisette herself, who had replanted the World Tree on new soil and continued their lives, all owed it to Celia.
Lisette had been struck down in a single blow by an unknown higher-world warrior who emerged from the Stargate, but she had completed her regeneration in a cocoon in just one day and was now fully recovered.
“In the true natural world, even this level of mercy is hard to find. Nature is inherently much more brutal and terrifying.”
Begrun added.
He was also watching the people of his beloved homeland, whom he had wanted to protect, forging a new home alongside Grimgor.
Having turned into a monster, he could no longer go back and speak with them, but he was content with this.
“Just as you all said, I have done my best. It is time to leave the past behind and think about the future.”
The simple assessments of the others eventually brought her back to reality.
Although this war had ended, Celia and the others still had countless things to do.
Through the unfinished Stargate, they had already tasted a fraction of another world's power.
Now, their goal was to catch up to that power.
【Elise and Kerrigan are filled with anticipation. They believe that their great achievements will surely earn them a massive reward from the Great One】
“...If you expect too much, I'll feel pressured.”
While the legion commanders expressed their thoughts, immersed in the lingering warmth of their achievements yet worrying about the upcoming struggles.
At the apex of the colony, the two queens, Elise and Kerrigan, were waiting with sparkling eyes, like puppies staring at a master holding a treat box.
This was because Lin Miao had been hinting through their connection that he would reward them.
After all, what the queens desired most was his recognition and rewards.
Naturally, they were full of anticipation.
[Little Sage Equal to Heaven: Is bestowing titles on servants really that important?]
[Goddess of Wisdom: Of course it is. It's not just about the power and status of those obedient and clever servants. Ultimately, as the bond with the deity deepens, the resources required to bestow divine protection or convey divine will decrease, and efficiency increases.]
Lin Miao had already conducted his own research through the Divine Net forum.
To the queens who possessed the special power of the hive mind, factors like status or authority might not matter, but the fact that a deeper connection allowed for more divine protection was something even Lin Miao could not ignore.
‘What title should I give them?’
Lin Miao fell into deep thought.
It was fine back when they couldn't even understand words, but now, both queens had grown to the point where they could comprehend the meaning of the titles they received.
If they misunderstood a title containing his will and walked down the wrong path, then casually giving a title was out of the question.
【Queen of Origin and Devouring】
The title that Lin Miao bestowed after careful consideration attached itself to Elise.
Elise, in her nest, felt this, her eyes widening in deep emotion.
This was not just a cool-sounding title.
It was a form of recognition bestowed by the god they believed in and followed, a symbol engraved into the entire colony.
Just as Lin Miao thought, Elise now possessed the intelligence and self-awareness to decipher the meaning and intent behind these words.
‘Origin, devouring, and queen.’
Elise analyzed each word of the title, feeling a tremor of excitement.
She was the beginning, the origin of the colony that had now grown so massive.
When Lin Miao took his first steps as a deity, she had accompanied him as the queen of an ordinary ant colony.
Throughout the rapidly changing and continuous process of evolution, Elise had never stepped away from the center of the colony for a single moment.
Furthermore, what allowed her to evolve the colony and keep it at the center was greed and devouring.
With her innate greed, Elise devoured prey endlessly.
The flames of that desire were the fuel and material for her growth and foundation. With Lin Miao's help, she had devoured countless prey, evolving herself and the colony through them.
And queen.
This was not simply treatment she received due to her role and actions, but a recognition of her as the ruler of the colony, personally acknowledged by the god Lin Miao.
Through this recognition, Elise, as both the queen and a member of the colony, became even more special.
She became a complete higher-tier species, reigning as the ruler in the truest sense.
【Queen of Blades】
Lin Miao's second daughter, Kerrigan, also received a title.
Kerrigan also received the title of queen, a symbol of the journey she had traveled and her very self.
Unlike Elise, the strongest in the army, the one who personally went to the battlefield to defeat enemies and enjoyed combat, was a warlord who brought pure violence, endless action, and victory to the colony.
‘As long as they like it.’
Lin Miao smiled as he watched the two queens bow to the heavens in gratitude, deeply moved.
Lin Miao did not deny that these two queens, who had started as insignificant creatures and grown under his influence, were like his own daughters.
And he, who had already become the master of a world, did not stop there. Now, he was going to take his two daughters with him to possess even more.
The first goal was to master the Stargate technology.
The Stargate technology that the dwarven god had passed down to the dwarves remained perfectly preserved in Terra.
Elise had intentionally spared and controlled many dwarven technicians, preparing various methods to extract the technology.
‘Once the Stargate is built, where should we go first?’
Lin Miao searched the Divine Net forum.
If the Great Devourers were to devour and grow their power little by little through war as before, they would inevitably need suitable prey.
“L-Lord Proxy! Is it convenient for you to take a call right now?”
At that moment, Bai Zhantang's call came in.
The call was about an Awakened belonging to their group who had gone missing during an enemy attack.
◆◆◆
“Captain, is it really okay to do this...”
“Just do as you're told, stop talking nonsense. To be honest, I'm not too sure either.”
Lin Qiye, an Awakened from the Penguin Company who had been absorbed into the human colony by Ye Yunshang after their defeat, had been kidnapped by those who operated openly under the name of the Iron Ravens.
These people claimed on the surface to abide by the law and fight monsters to save humanity, but they were also servants who followed the instructions of a deity.
In the dark, they not only fought monsters but were also keen on competing with other servants.
Especially their deity, who not only engaged in formal competition through the Awakened system but also did not mind operating in the shadows beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
“We are just following that lord's instructions.”
The captain, Ding Sanshi, anxiously lit a cigarette in his mouth with a lighter.
The price of doing dirty work was immense—hard-to-obtain power, huge rewards, and so on.
He tried hard to suppress the slight unease in his conscience with the thought: “This is for the goddess we believe in.”
“Begin.”
Ding Sanshi looked at Lin Qiye and nodded to his subordinate beside him.
The young woman walked up to the panicked Lin Qiye, opened her hands, and activated her trait.
“Give up. The power you possess is miraculous, but it cannot be used here.”
She spoke to Lin Qiye, who was panicking because his hive mind connection was blocked, unable to penetrate the translucent barrier surrounding his body.
This was part of her mental-type ability.
His hive mind connection, which was a copy of Elise's and only inherited half of it, was blocked by a higher-level mental ability.
“—!”
She placed her hand on the head of the struggling Lin Qiye.
Then, Lin Qiye's body went limp, and he lost consciousness.
“Eliminating the troublesome ability and completely recruiting him as one of our own is expected to take some time.”
“Mm, that's enough. It'll only take a few days.”
Ding Sanshi nodded at her words.
Holding him for a few days was not difficult.
Even if a missing person report was filed and the media reported it, Lin Qiye would return to the world safe and sound a few days later, continuing his activities as if nothing had happened.
In exchange, by then, Lin Qiye would no longer be a member of the human colony managed by Lin Miao, but would continue his life as a thoroughly brainwashed part of the Iron Raven organization.
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