Granting power to the numerous native Yordles and having them fight the Goddess of Light Association.
This way, the Yordles would fall into chaos, either descending into infighting or seeking revenge against the Goddess of Light Association.
The Great Devourer could then seize the opportunity to complete the planetary erosion and suppress the remaining forces of the Goddess of Light Association.
To Elise, this indeed sounded like a feasible method.
As the Queen of the colony, if she could reduce the colony's losses and win the war, there was no reason to refuse.
However, what Elise understood was slightly different from what Celia had said.
Compared to diplomacy and negotiations through dialogue, she judged that "forcibly" granting them power and causing them to go berserk was much more efficient and convenient.
To achieve this goal, what she intended to use was precisely the newly improved Cordyceps spores.
The old Cordyceps was a consumable that would infect the target, putting them under the colony's control while draining all of their strength, ultimately leading to death.
But Elise had made some improvements to this.
While weakening its potency, she improved the part that originally burned through life force and caused them to go berserk.
This was not because she pitied the exploited Yordles, but because only by surviving as long as possible could they act on a significant scale and serve as allies to attack the enemy.
“This...”
Celia, sensing Elise's plan, was slightly flustered.
Elise's actions went a step further than she had imagined. It was a shocking, cold, and ruthless approach entirely for the benefit of the colony.
However, Celia could not oppose this either.
After all, the Yordles would be spared from indiscriminate slaughter, and they could at least retain their sanity and keep their lives. She could only resign herself to this situation.
If Lin Miao intervened, it might be a different story, but Lin Miao had no intention of going out of his way to obstruct Elise's ideas right now.
“Gaia, use your ability to spread this everywhere.”
Aside from Lin Miao, there was no existence in the colony who could stop Elise, who ranked first among the Queens.
Without any hesitation, Elise handed over the information on the newly modified Cordyceps spores to Gaia and instructed Gaia, who was already tuning the world, to spread them.
“Spore sacs generated.”
The obedient Gaia faithfully executed Elise's command.
Based on the genetic information provided by Elise, she used her own immense energy and Universal Cells to immediately manufacture Cordyceps spores.
Then, she dispersed them everywhere through the root-like tentacles spreading in all directions and the antennas growing on those roots.
“Infection in progress.”
As a result, a vast number of Yordles were suddenly infected with Cordyceps on a massive scale.
Gaia shared all of this through the hive mind.
...
“Hmm, what is this smell?”
A male Yordle who was hunting as usual suddenly sniffed the air while dissecting a beast he had run through with a spear.
He smelled a strange scent, but failed to notice a black antenna that had broken through the soil from the depths of the dense forest.
At the end of that antenna grew a walnut-sized eyeball, and along with the eyeball, there were several bulging, tumor-like growths.
Right then, those tumors popped open one by one with a soft pop, dispersing tiny spores into the air.
The spores drifting through the air entered the Yordles' bodies through their respiratory tracts or took root through wounds on their skin, beginning to rapidly infect their bodies.
Using the Yordles' blood and bodily tissues as nutrients, they rapidly divided and forcibly eroded their bodies.
“Ah... Aaaaaah!”
A Yordle Awakened screamed and threw down the knife in his hand, running around in panic, terrified by the mutation gradually spreading from a tiny wound on his arm.
The cells mutated by the spores either swelled hideously or twisted and deformed, completely losing their original appearance.
“Urgh...”
Their roots also extended toward the nervous system and the brain, taking control of the body. Foaming at the mouth, the hunter collapsed to the ground, his body twitching uncontrollably.
However, they did not lose their sanity and spiral out of control as Elise had originally guided.
They simply became highly emotional and gained the power to unleash their uncontrollable feelings.
The Awakened who stumbled to his feet had already undergone a massive change in appearance.
Certain parts of his body were abnormally swollen, and portions of his skin had keratinized, becoming extremely hard.
However, the greatest change was that his emotions had become incredibly difficult to control.
The infection caused his body to mutate rapidly. The moment he felt hunger, he could not bear it, immediately pouncing on the prey he had caught and was dissecting, greedily tearing and eating it raw.
Such occurrences were beginning near Gaia and happening to countless Yordles across an extremely vast region.
“Kill them all! Tear them apart and eat them alive!”
“Kill those humans! And those bastards who joined them and sold out our own kind!”
When there were companions around, the emotional loss of control erupted even more easily and violently.
The Yordles of small frontier borderlands tribes infected by the Cordyceps gathered in the center of their villages, howling in unison.
They seemed completely unbothered by their hideously transformed appearances, roaring about killing the Goddess of Light Association and the traitors they usually held grudges against.
Losing control of their emotions, their bodies filled with hot blood vitality, leaving no room for fear or hesitation.
There were no complex negotiations or mutual testing of waters.
They all picked up their weapons and charged straight toward the nearest enemy.
The city where the enemy resided was one built and managed under the direction of the Goddess of Light Association.
Living there were mostly Yordle residents who had embraced the changes brought by the Goddess of Light Association and sought to conform to the new order.
“W-what's going on?”
“Those guys have gone mad!”
The city residents were terrified when they saw the frontier tribe members charging toward them in a rage, infected with the Cordyceps.
However, there were simply too many frontier tribe members infected by the Cordyceps.
The city residents only numbered around ten thousand, while all the surrounding tribes had been infected and were rushing over in a frenzy, numbering in the tens of thousands.
【Elise judged that she had very effectively conserved her strength.】
A horrific fratricide, a surging torrent of emotion.
Ultimately, the riot of tens of thousands of Yordles led to the fall of the city. The city residents and members of the Goddess of Light Association, who were viewed as traitors, were torn apart alive or beaten to death.
Elise was very pleased to see this.
The improved Cordyceps obtained their required nutrients and energy from their hosts.
They didn't require individual commands, which would waste processing power; instead, they acted based on their own emotions and thoughts.
It was only due to hormonal imbalances that they couldn't properly control their feelings, leading to emotional outbursts. This could truly be described as achieving several times the benefits with minimal investment.
‘Are emotions really something so insignificant?’
Celia looked at all this and sighed softly.
Although she knew that the body and mind were closely intertwined, she was quite shocked that emotions could crumble or spiral out of control so easily by merely touching the body's hormonal system.
At the same time, she also felt fear.
Once the symbiotic carapace ant clinging to her right now, as well as the Gene Stealer inside her body, acted according to the Queen's commands...
Would she also lose her sanity like those Yordles?
“Enemy movements observed.”
At this moment, Gaia shared a new piece of information.
Upon hearing the news of the Cordyceps causing the Yordles to lose control and go berserk, the Goddess of Light Association had already begun to move.
“Is there no antidote or purification method?”
As soon as Yuno's voice fell, a High Priest looked at the Yordle female before him with a troubled expression.
“We succeeded in purging the unknown organisms attempting to erode the body by continuously injecting holy power, but...”
This female, whose entire body was bound by powerful chains, was slowly returning to her original state after being infected with Cordyceps.
The Cordyceps eroding her body ultimately could not withstand the holy power continuously regenerating her body, causing it to fall off.
“To treat just one person, it requires two priests to exert all their effort to inject holy power. If they possess a certain level of magic power, they might be able to endure or resist it. But those without magic power are completely helpless.”
The High Priest shook his head.
This transaction was simply not worth it.
Pouring a massive amount of holy power just to save one Cordyceps-infected Yordle was something the Goddess of Light Association in the Pioneering Zone could not afford to do, especially while fighting the Great Devourer with limited resources.
“High-grade Goddess Holy Water also showed some effect, but for the same reason. Even if we were to distribute it to our knights, the quantity is severely lacking.”
“In that case, mobilizing the Yordles to sweep those guys away is practically impossible.”
Delta sighed, and Yuno muttered in a low voice.
Currently, the Great Devourer was taking over the strategic strongholds of the Pioneering Zone one by one, with the migratory colony led by Kerrigan acting as the vanguard.
Under these circumstances, with the Yordles also infected by the Cordyceps, blocking the Great Devourer became even more difficult.
“Change the original defensive line construction plan. Shrink the defense zones and shift to building sturdier defensive lines.”
“Vice Commander, if we do that, we must clear out the infected who are currently gathering in the thousands.”
Hearing Yuno's words, a paladin said in a trembling voice.
Currently, there were reports that Yordles infected with Cordyceps were gathering in the thousands and wandering around, attacking and killing anything they saw, including Goddess of Light Association facilities and their turncoat kin.
Three of these massive hordes had already been discovered.
If they couldn't deal with these groups, which were still growing in number at this very moment, they wouldn't be able to carry out any proper operations.
“If those guys have herding habits, we'll use one of our few remaining Heavenly Thunderbolts to purify them all at once. There's no other choice; we must use it now.”
Yet, Yuno issued the command without a shred of concern.
Her meaning was clear: if they gathered in massive hordes of thousands, then they would purify the entire horde all at once.
The reason the people around her were surprised was not because this was impossible.
Rather, they wondered if it was truly acceptable to erase hundreds of thousands of potential servants from this world.
“Since the Goddess has already permitted it, quickly prepare to launch the Heavenly Thunderbolt.”
However, Hestia, who had been observing from the side, instructed them to execute it immediately.
Receiving the oracle, the High Cleric nodded with a tense expression.
“Heavenly Thunderbolt, fire!”
That was a secret weapon the Goddess of Light Association had urgently airlifted in before the Stargate closed. Comparable in size to a large truck, it was a colossal weapon.
Dozens of priests formed a magic circle with their bodies, working together at the designated location to raise their holy power, injecting the amplified holy power into the massive pillar that resembled a giant spear.
Next, the holy core inside the device caused the absorbed holy power to run wild, launching the massive projectile into the sky.
“What is that?”
When Lin Miao saw that thing for the first time, his eyes widened as it flew high into the air, turning into a thunderbolt that tore through the sky.
Celia, Elise, and the others reacted similarly.
Flying through the overcast sky like a judgment descending from the heavens, the object gradually tilted toward the ground after traveling hundreds of kilometers.
The Heavenly Thunderbolt was a holy power version of a ballistic missile, symbolizing the Goddess's judgment.
At an astonishing speed, it landed precisely atop the densely packed Yordles, instantly releasing its accumulated energy and triggering a massive explosion.
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