“Yuno repelled the Captain of the Empyrean Star Guard... but there is more than one captain-level figure. Although they aren't as strong as the Empyrean Star Guard, elite forces are still being continuously reinforced,” Celia said with a grave expression after reviewing all the shared battle reports in real-time.
Meliodas had come to stop Yuno. His companions had been deployed elsewhere, fighting fiercely and slaying Great Devourers. Corpses from both sides piled up on the ground.
Broken architectural remains rolled across the earth, and the number of ruined cities and villages steadily grew. The Goddess of Light Association didn't seem intent on giving up, continuously sending more troops. Meanwhile, the Great Devourers desperately performed warps, expanding their nests and summoning even more forces.
“On the fronts of Tatooine and Icathia, the lines are retreating step by step.”
They were being pushed back little by little. No matter how powerful the Lictors became, or how much the Legion Commanders’ symbiotic carapace ants were enhanced, this gap was unavoidable.
The true history of the Goddess of Light Association easily exceeded a thousand years. The power and resources accumulated during that time were difficult for even the Great Devourers to surpass in a short period.
The number of paladins and priests still outnumbered the Lictors, and there were more Commander-grade experts who had survived bloodbaths—like Yuno and Meliodas—than there were Legion Commanders. Moreover, the Great Devourers had not concentrated all their forces in the three high-tier territories.
It was far too greedy to expect a victory here as well. Even Elise, who used greed as her driving force, hadn't expected to win from the start.
...
But even so, Elise was not in a good mood. She sat there sullenly, watching silently. Even if the defeat was expected, a loss was still a loss. Being pushed back by the enemy was inherently unpleasant to her.
Elise hadn't originally been like this. In fact, during the past war with the Holy Kingdom, she had suppressed her anger and intentionally lost battles to eventually annihilate the enemy.
However, as her self-awareness continued to grow and strengthen, the pleasure she felt in victory intensified in proportion to the sense of loss and revulsion she felt in defeat.
“Do not fear failure.”
Lin Miao comforted Elise as he looked at her. Sensing his will, Elise’s eyes widened.
“We are simply proceeding step by step with our preparations, exactly as we designed.”
Lin Miao knew what the Great Devourers’ plan was. They would pin down the enemy’s forces in three important territories and then seize other territories and Pioneering Zones.
Considering the buried resources, population size, and long-developed infrastructure, those three territories were undoubtedly precious to the enemy. This applied not only to the Goddess of Light Association but to most civilizations. Choice and concentration were always crucial.
But to the Great Devourers, all Pioneering Zones were more or less the same. That was why they had devised this plan. Rather than fighting for the three territories the enemy valued most, they would take the opportunity to seize a vast amount of other land.
With the Great Devourers’ talent for building from scratch, those places would be thoroughly developed. It wouldn't be long before the entire planet belonged to them, continuously producing energy and troops.
“Calculate it. How many more planets do we need to occupy to close the gap with the Goddess of Light’s achievements and defeat her?”
Lin Miao suggested that Elise stop wasting her emotions and instead perform a hopeful calculation for the future. Elise faithfully carried out this command.
She utilized her massive brain, the sea of information shared in real-time through the hive mind, and the vast accumulation of experience she had never forgotten. Since the results of a calculation changed based on the data provided, the calculation she performed now was the most up-to-date.
“Five.”
The result came quickly. Just five planets. As long as they could achieve that, Elise was certain she could catch up to the Goddess of Light Association and reclaim all the time they had suppressed.
“Then isn't it already over?”
Lin Miao’s lips curled upward upon hearing this. Out of the seventeen planets, the enemy had already given up resistance and declared defeat on seven of them.
【Gaia beginning world observation...】
【Gaia beginning world observation...】
【Gaia beginning world observation...】
There were no obstacles and no resistance. Those territories, abandoned by the Goddess and the home planet simply because they were barren and sparsely populated, were falling one by one into the hands of those who truly understood their value.
“What is that monster...?”
In Noxus, a Pioneering Zone of the Goddess of Light Association. Although it wasn't as developed as a high-tier territory, its development had been successful enough to be fully recognized as a territory of the association.
However, at this moment, the survivors there stared blankly at a massive, unidentified object in the distance. Beneath the dark clouds, a giant monster’s main trunk towered into the sky, its branch-like feelers and sensory organs reaching toward the heavens.
Gaia had begun to intervene, directly or indirectly, in the planet’s energy flow. The work of Tuning had fully commenced.
“Noxus, Tuning beginning.”
Gaia revealed her upper body and began sharing the information she had gathered. Everything was a resource—from what was buried underground to everything living upon it.
The Goddess of Light Association categorized Noxus as a mid-tier territory. They assessed its investment value based on the population of residents and the various usable resources. Of course, there were limits.
After all, the way the Goddess of Light Association utilized resources was fixed. According to the system of a sacred civilization, the types and efficiency of resources that could be utilized varied.
“Estimated Source Energy resources are mid-to-high-tier or above. Planet Divine Status adjusted to mid-tier.”
Gaia adjusted the Divine Status of Noxus, which she had roughly grasped, to mid-tier. Although the Great Devourers evaluated things in a similar way, they were much more flexible in their methods.
The Great Devourers absorbed technologies from various civilizations and reshaped them into their own, allowing them to squeeze more energy out of the same planet. Therefore, what the Great Devourers called "mid-tier" differed significantly from what the Goddess of Light Association called "mid-tier."
By current Great Devourer standards, a mid-tier planet’s total energy output was equivalent to a high-tier planet under the association’s standards.
“Resource extraction, beginning.”
Elise ordered the rapid erosion and development of the planets that had been successfully occupied and had begun Tuning. The Goddess of Light Association still had its eyes fixed on the high-tier territories.
The association might have abandoned these places, cutting their losses with a heavy heart, but the Great Devourers intended to swallow them and use them as nourishment to crush the association.
“Source Energy currently acquired exceeds twenty percent.”
Gaia steadily proceeded with planetary erosion and nest deployment according to the established steps. Massive nests were built across wide areas, equipped with production facilities.
Organic matter near the nests was gathered as food, as if in an extinction event, and combined with planetary energy absorbed through root systems to produce more troops.
“Beginning production of resonance spindles.”
They used both physical methods to collect Source Energy and methods to extract it. They harvested Source Energy from organic matter or collected it from the magic stones Lin Miao placed in the terrarium.
Furthermore, generators and resonance spindles capable of autonomously synthesizing the Source Energy contained within the planet grew and writhed atop the nests.
The energy gushing out was immense, as was the energy required to expand the nests and mass-produce troops. In the less than one month since this planet had been eroded, the total energy increased by the Great Devourers finally surpassed the total energy the Goddess of Light Association had ever used—a turning point.
Consequently, the erosion speed was far faster than expected.
“Do you see? Those monsters are taking root in this land! They are going to completely devour this land, our home!”
Even those who knew nothing about the Great Devourers could understand their intentions by seeing the nests expand day by day. They wanted to occupy the planet and would stop at nothing to do so.
The number of swarming Great Devourers grew, defense lines retreated, and more cities were captured.
“The Stargate has finally closed. Everyone knows what that means, right?”
The head of the Noxus provisional government sighed. He had been resisting the Great Devourers pouring in from all directions. He had shouted himself hoarse requesting reinforcements, but sufficient aid never arrived.
Although no Legion Commander-grade individuals had appeared, that was exactly why high-level figures like Commander-grade or Bishop-grade individuals hadn't provided support either. When the combat power was equal, the Great Devourers—born for war and battle—would inevitably gain the upper hand.
Eventually, Gaia grew rapidly and began Tuning. Under the Great Devourers’ assault, the Celestial Pillars collapsed one by one, and they lost their dominance over world observation.
“The Goddess has abandoned us.”
Someone finally spoke those words. For those who believed in the Goddess, these words should never have been uttered. However, no one present could deny them.
“I know, of course. Other places are in chaos too! It was my choice to stay and protect this place instead of retreating to the home planet or some other safe location!”
A young priest looked at the gathered people and sighed, pouring out his heart like water being spilled.
“But even so, we can't just abandon our home and leave.”
The priest’s words represented the feelings of everyone present. Ultimately, at the moment when the Great Devourers’ dominance became a certainty, the Goddess of Light Association had commanded a large-scale evacuation to save as many citizens as possible, but people couldn't simply embark on a path of flight.
This world was the land where their ancestors and parents had lived; it was their hometown. At least for those who remained, their home was as important as the religion they believed in.
Rate on N.U.
