“Holy power...”
Hestia looked at her hands, which had begun to tremble.
As a veteran deity who had existed for a very long time, she could even feel her Divine Status fluctuating up and down in real-time.
Whenever her vassals strengthened their resolve to fight against the Great Devourer from the outer universe, her Divine Status would rise.
But whenever those wicked, terrifying monsters brutally slaughtered her vassals, her Divine Status would fall.
On the screen before her, that tragic scene was repeating itself over and over.
Her vassals displayed touching loyalty, only to die tragic deaths.
[Goddess of Light: May my blessings be with you!]
Although she stirred up trouble everywhere on the deity forum like an immature child, she knew she absolutely could not miss this opportunity.
Since her vassals were laying down their lives, she had to unleash her power without any hesitation.
She handed down oracles to all of her vassals, encouraging them.
This was the greatest strength a goddess possessed, an ability that other deities deeply envied.
With just a single word and without any extra resources, she could draw out the absolute loyalty of her people.
“New Angel Gabriel, you must lead everyone to victory.”
Of course, Hestia also knew that words alone could not win a war.
Solve problems through sheer willpower? A deity who relied on such things would never have been able to climb to this Divine Status in the first place.
She invested a massive amount of power, bestowing her divine protection upon the vassals who performed exceptionally well.
Some of them were even bestowed with names, becoming official angels and establishing a much closer connection with her.
'This part isn't too bad.'
Hestia felt somewhat helpless about this all-out war-level campaign, the likes of which she had not seen in hundreds of years.
Not long ago, she was still complaining about her lack of talented subordinates, but now it seemed that was not the case.
Those countless talents had simply been obscured by an era of peace.
Since the start of the all-out war against the Great Devourer, heroic traits that only emerged in times of chaos were now surfacing one by one across various regions.
【Divine Status demoted: High-Tier, Grade III → High-Tier, Grade II.】
“Ugh...”
Great investments and sacrifices always came with a corresponding price.
Hestia's Divine Status, which she had raised with great difficulty, had now dropped by a grade. She grit her teeth, enduring the pain.
Whenever one's Divine Status rose, the immense rush of excitement and stimulation was enough to captivate even a deity, leaving them breathless.
Conversely, the sensation of one's very existence becoming 'insignificant' when their status fell was a terrifying torment that only deities could understand—one they never wished to experience.
...
Cold sweat poured down Hestia's beautiful face as she bit her lip.
At High-Tier, Grade II, she was still a noble high-tier deity.
Conversely, this also meant that depending on the outcome of the ongoing war, she still had plenty of room to fall further.
Normally, it was only natural to make up for losses after winning a war by plundering spoils and taking captives.
But looking at those densely packed Great Devourers, was it even possible to capture and civilize them, or extract 'faith' from them?
Hestia, a goddess categorized as a high-tier deity, willingly endured the cost of her falling Divine Status and desperately unleashed her power.
This was enough to become a variable.
The battlefield balance calculated by the Great Devourer was disrupted, and the gap in combat strength between the two sides vanished.
“The enemy's resistance is more stubborn than expected,” Celia muttered softly, gazing into the distance where a paladin awakened, accompanied by a pillar of holy light descending from the sky.
At that moment, the face of her vassal Daniel flashed before her eyes.
Daniel had once been chosen by the goddess when she attempted to expand her influence in Terra. He had willingly sacrificed his life for her, unleashing his power to sweep away the Great Devourers.
“Adjusting calculations.”
Elise sat in her nest with her legs crossed, resting her elbow on the armrest and her chin in her hand. She saw the state of the battle at a glance, yet she remained completely unfazed.
Her mood had simply soured a bit.
She could have gained so much more, but due to the enemy's stubborn resistance, her profits were shrinking.
This was the exact opposite of Hestia's situation.
Regardless of whether they lived or died, the Great Devourer already knew how to squeeze resources out of them.
As long as they won, the Great Devourer could find something to extract from even a single remaining inch of land or a shred of flesh.
“All twenty territories are important, but as expected, they want to focus on reclaiming the three high-level territories near Icathia.”
Celia sent out a large number of scouts and confirmed that the forces of the Goddess of Light Association were gradually increasing, closing in on the nest under her control.
The reinforcements sent from their home planet, combined with the locally conscripted forces, already outnumbered the Great Devourers that had infiltrated via the Chronos warp.
The goddess, the order, and the residents were of one mind, burning with a fierce desire to slay the foreign invaders and reclaim their homeland.
'It could only be this way. The three high-level territories, including Icathia, are precious, fertile lands that were pioneered long ago.'
Even Lin Miao could see why at a glance; it was glaringly obvious.
Frankly, just looking at their appearance, the difference was massive.
A place like Icathia was already filled with grand buildings made of white stone in the style of the Goddess of Light Association, and the residents living there were loyal vassals completely assimilated into the order.
In contrast, the other seventeen territories were either not fully developed or lacked development in some way.
While they weren't in the extremely early stages of pioneering like Cadia or Cradion, where even managing the local population was a problem, their value was still somewhat diminished.
'Should we yield?'
Regarding this fact, the thoughts of Lin Miao, Celia, and Elise Group instantly aligned.
Come to think of it, territories like Icathia were only precious by the standards of the Goddess of Light Association.
To the Great Devourer, they were all planets of roughly the same size anyway. Having slightly more things to feed on just made it a much more troublesome place.
What the Great Devourer wanted, in the end, was new land.
A land where Gaia could take root, and where their nests could blanket the entire world.
For the Great Devourer, the most important thing was to devour the energy there, cause their numbers to skyrocket, and create even stronger mutants.
“Deceive, then delay.”
After confirming Lin Miao's wishes, the Queen made her decision.
Since the enemy desired it so much, she might as well just give it to them.
In exchange, she intended to obtain far more.
Seventeen to three—this was a concept Elise could understand even when she was still crawling on the ground in her ant form.
But she couldn't just hand it over so easily either.
Instead, Elise dispatched even more troops to the upper territories of Icathia, sending out all her elite forces, including her sister Kerrigan.
Their task was simple: resist stubbornly and drag this war out.
While the enemy mistakenly believed they were defending their home, Elise planned to start from the peripheral territories—which the enemy would comfort themselves by calling 'unavoidable sacrifices'—and devour them one by one.
Rate on N.U.
