“What is that...”
【Elise marvels at the enemy's new weapon.】
The colossal Sky Island was impossible to hide.
Through Gaia's tuning and scouts' reconnaissance, Elise confirmed its existence and was filled with genuine awe.
The Heavenly Thunderbolts—no, even just starting from the equipment worn by the paladins—made the opponents they faced in the Pioneering Zone of Cadia vastly different from those they had encountered on Terra.
As if to prove the might of a higher civilization, they consistently deployed technologies that Elise could neither imagine nor predict.
This was an inevitable reality.
After all, the Great Devourer colony had only just conquered a single world.
And even that world was merely a lower world selected as a competition zone.
Although the Great Devourer could not obtain technological assistance from Lin Miao, it had been seizing and absorbing technology and civilization from the enemies it defeated and slaughtered.
However, the enemies they had faced on Terra were, in the end, only at a level suited for a lower-tier competition zone.
Compared to opponents whose civilization and technology were several tiers higher, the Great Devourer was undoubtedly still in its infancy.
“We must obtain it.”
Thus, to Elise, the current situation was actually an exciting and thrilling opportunity.
It was a chance to analyze and absorb the technology of a higher civilization she had never even imagined.
By absorbing these technologies, the colony would once again evolve and transform.
The more the Great Devourer fought powerful enemies, the stronger it became. The root of this trait lay precisely in Elise's own characteristics and desires.
How exhilarating.
As Elise contemplated how to battle that massive Sky Island, a sinister grin played on her lips. She felt a deep, genuine sense of pleasure and excitement.
Kerrigan was not the only one who derived pleasure from fighting formidable foes.
Elise, who had now evolved into the supreme queen of a complete colony, was equally thrilled to wage war against enemies possessing superior civilizations and advanced technologies.
“While it is indeed a means of levitation, its speed is ultimately slow, and there seems to be a limit to the supplies it can carry.”
Unlike Elise, Celia felt pressure rather than pleasure when facing difficult and powerful opponents. She muttered in a slightly weary voice.
At first glance, the slow-moving, artificial Sky Island seemed to be riddled with weaknesses.
But judging solely by appearances would be foolish.
Although their connection to their home planet had been severed, the enemies the Great Devourer currently faced were indeed troops dispatched directly from a higher world.
With the Great Devourer's current intelligence level, it was impossible to predict what kind of defensive preparations they had made.
“However, they shouldn't have much strength to spare.”
“Do you mean they have exhausted the remaining resources and manpower in the Pioneering Zone?”
“Exactly. The Stargate has only been open for about a day. No matter how efficient they are, the amount of supplies that can be transferred in a single day is limited.”
Celia had obtained this missing intelligence from captives like Kane, learning that the enemy was also pouring almost all of their strength into the assault launched from the Sky Island.
A large-scale aerial battle?
Seeing Elise begin to mobilize the colony after receiving this intelligence, Celia realized she was preparing for a massive aerial clash.
While forces continued to pour in from the Stargate, the nests established across this land had also begun operating one after another, churning out units.
Upward of tens of thousands of flying species tore through their cocoons and broke from their shells all at once, spreading their wings in unison and taking to the sky.
“How is this possible...”
Kane stared in sheer shock at the trembling ground and the colossal shadows cast across the sky.
The Great Devourer's aerial transport-type, super-large mutant, the Behemoth.
On Terra, a single one of these giant biological weapons had brought an end to the Dwarven Alliance. Now, more than ten of them were ascending into the sky. The planetary energy absorbed and converted by Gaia had once again sparked a nutritional revolution for the Great Devourer.
Under these circumstances, there was no reason to give the enemy an opportunity to fire their Heavenly Thunderbolts.
Elise intended to end the battle in the air before the Goddess of Light Association's aerial carrier could even get within range.
“Kerrigan.”
As Elise prepared for the aerial battle against the Sky Island, she called out to her second sister, Kerrigan, through the hive mind.
Kerrigan was currently leading the migratory colony to battle the enemy's defensive lines.
“While the enemy's forces are depleted, continue to attack their core territory.”
Elise instructed Kerrigan to take advantage of the enemy concentrating their forces on the Sky Island. She was to execute a single-point breakthrough, bypass the defensive lines, and strike the enemy's core territory—the location where the Goddess of Light Association's governor's office had temporarily evacuated.
Elise was certain that once they captured and destroyed or dismantled this area—which was effectively the enemy's final stronghold on this planet—victory would be theirs.
The era of fighting while only considering the prey right in front of them was long gone.
“Understood.”
Kerrigan grinned and accepted the command.
As long as she could fight, nothing else mattered. Elise understood her sisters' personalities and roles so precisely that she was able to utilize their strengths to perfection.
Once we win, this place will be ours.
Elise smiled as she pictured winning the war and reaping the spoils.
Although fighting powerful enemies and allowing the colony to grow and evolve was deeply satisfying, all of these actions were ultimately for her deity, Lin Miao.
Elise looked forward to what reward he would bestow upon her this time. Thinking of conquering this world to present to him, she happily shifted the legs of her physical body inside the terrarium nest.
...
The battle about to erupt between the forces of the two deities for the fate of the Pioneering Zone of Cadia had nothing to do with the perspective of the native Yordles, who had lived on this world all their lives.
Even though Lin Miao knew exactly what calculations and reasoning his servants were basing their actions on, as a bystander, he could not help but feel anxious and tense.
This was not the first or second time; it had always been this way.
They were existences whose lives were bound to his, and they were precious to him—beings he could no longer view as strangers.
The opponent is just as tense.
However, his state of mind was slightly better now compared to before, when his anxiety had kept him awake at night.
The reason was that Lin Miao could see the Goddess Hestia making a massive fuss, frantically active on the Divine Net forum.
She was running all over the place, either rallying supporting factions or desperately seeking ways to deal with the Great Devourer.
This was proof enough that even an experienced, established deity could not help but panic in such a situation.
When they were first hit by a weapon like the Heavenly Thunderbolt, Lin Miao had felt surprised and tense. However, once he realized the enemy had very few of them left, he began to believe the Great Devourer could achieve a total victory.
“Not only is the Iron Raven on guard against us, but their operations have also come to a complete standstill.”
“I investigated the companies you mentioned, and they happened to cease their activities at the exact same time the Iron Raven halted theirs. Although they were highly active externally before, they are now only conducting the bare minimum of operations.”
This influence was bound to ripple across all the worlds and factions controlled by Hestia.
The same went for the corporations they had acquired on Earth.
Through the reports from Ye Yunshang and Bai Zhantang, Lin Miao used this incident to fully confirm that even high-tier deities could not manage their external reach once their own strongholds were under attack.
This confirmed that the plan to let the Great Devourer grow and thereby drive away the deities coveting Earth was entirely feasible.
Furthermore, if they could plunge the strongholds of other deities into absolute crisis, those deities would not only halt their operations but might even abandon everything and leave entirely.
“Didn't your servants say they were going to float a Sky Island and bomb the nests of those bugs? Wouldn't that work?”
“No, it won't... Those bastards also possess an immense number of flying bugs. They will definitely launch an attack.”
Lin Miao secretly logged into the section known for discussions among goddesses, eavesdropping on the chat between Hestia and several other goddesses who appeared to be her acquaintances.
Having already fought the Great Devourer on Terra and witnessed firsthand how the planet was overrun, Hestia indeed possessed a solid understanding of her enemy.
How will this turn out?
The corners of Lin Miao's mouth curled upward. At this moment, he gazed up at the countless flying species filling the sky above Cadia, painting the heavens pitch black.
Just how many were there? A rough estimate easily put them at over tens of thousands. Perhaps even hundreds of thousands.
At this moment, the massive forces—either crossing over through the permanently open Stargate from Terra or freshly produced from the newly constructed nests on Cadia—all flew toward the colossal Sky Island approaching in the sky.
Rate on N.U.
