Someone had to carry out the mission to delay the Great Devourer as much as possible, so the people here gladly accepted it, believing that the goddess would lend a hand.
“...Let us fight. In the end, only our own strength remains.”
The leader heading them grit his teeth, resolving to make one final stand.
Although they were destined to be slaughtered in an instant by the terrifying monsters, they did not want to die a pathetic death.
What exactly is faith?
The priest was shaken, his heart on the verge of collapse.
A faith accustomed to receiving rewards might be strong because of it, but once those rewards vanished, it shattered even more easily.
For a long time, the goddess’s aid and protection had seemed like a given.
Yet, at the most critical and vital moment, their trust in those rewards had collapsed.
The more devout their faith had been, the greater the shock of its collapse.
To fight against the massive black wave surging from beyond the horizon, the only thing they could rely on in the end was their own strength.
The priest stared blankly at them.
On the ground, dense swarms of mutants of various shapes and sizes surged forward with crackling sounds, some on two legs, some on six, and some on even more.
The sky was filled with colossal beasts. Some had membranous wings, some had feathered wings, and some had thin, transparent wings. There were even some without wings at all, approaching through the air as if swimming by utilizing fins and floating organs.
The movements of the Great Devourer differed greatly from those of typical intelligent beings’ armies, which were strictly trained and controlled through commands and signals, demonstrating perfect coordination and orderly formations.
At first glance, the Great Devourer’s movements seemed extremely chaotic, complex, and noisy, making “a disorganized pack of wild beasts” the most fitting description.
However, anyone with keen observation would immediately notice.
Although thousands, even hundreds of thousands of individuals slowly approached as a single entity, they never once became tangled or fell into disarray.
The priest felt his skin crawl.
The massive horde of monsters approaching in the distance felt like a single living organism.
Formations or drills that an army used to fight as one? They had absolutely no need to follow or practice such things.
“They’re here!”
“Pull yourselves together! Fi—”
His ears buzzed as voices urging them to fight echoed around him.
The priest blankly controlled his holy golem, unconsciously channeling his holy power, but his eyes remained glued to the movements of the Great Devourer.
It was like a tsunami.
Whether it was falling artillery shells or the fists of the golems striking, the massive tsunami simply swallowed their resistance with contempt.
The priest watched as the holy golem he controlled lost in a contest of strength against a giant heavy-armored ant, ultimately being brought down by the countless enemies swarming over it.
“What on earth is our faith?”
He mumbled blankly, watching a flying venomous stinger pierce the skull of someone beside him, while a decapitating ant charging forward instantly severed a comrade’s body with its claws.
The giant wave had already swallowed even him, who was positioned in the rear.
Only screams and the terrifying hissing of exoskeletons rubbing against each other echoed from all directions.
Sensing his impending doom, he felt something powerful emanating from the Great Devourer.
It sounded like madness, but it felt like an unshakeable faith.
Just like how he used to pray to the goddess.
“Foolish faith.”
“We are not like you.”
“That lord belongs only to us.”
“We belong only to that lord.”
Harsh and terrifying voices echoed from all directions, as if in response to his words. For a moment, he even thought it was a hallucination.
Panic-stricken, the priest hesitantly looked around.
He was already in the midst of the Great Devourer’s massive wave, able to see only countless Great Devourers passing by him, surging continuously forward.
“Hiss!”
The priest recognized the source of the voice.
A terrifying monster stood before him. It looked as if a human upper body had been grafted onto the massive body of a scorpion.
It was using the only organ on its face—its mouth—to produce the voice that had been speaking.
The other voices echoing around were also coming from the mouths of the Lictors passing nearby.
“Human who has lost faith... do not fear.”
The Lictor slowly walked forward, passing by the priest who had collapsed to his knees with a thud.
“Thanks to the complete loss of your faith, you have actually saved your life, unknown priest. If any trace of the goddess’s divine protection still lingered on you, you would have been ruthlessly slaughtered long ago.”
“You...”
Before the priest, another person appeared.
The priest’s eyes widened as he saw Kane, who was wearing a Great Devourer mask.
“There is a faith here that will never be betrayed... Are you willing to start anew?”
The priest stared blankly at Kane’s outstretched hand.
Although he did not understand the details, the person before him was clearly a human just like himself.
...
“...Is teasing a pitiful soul really that amusing?”
Lin Miao sat in the nest, watching Elise, who was smiling with deep satisfaction.
In this massive colony, there were actually very few individuals with complete self-awareness.
And among those few individuals, the only one who possessed the highest authority and was recognized by Lin Miao as the Great Queen was Elise.
Speaking nonsense through the mouths of the Lictors was a privilege unique to Elise.
【Elise is certain that the complete occupation of Noxus is imminent.】
In any case, the reason Elise was so happy was ultimately because they had completely occupied another planet.
Once developed, this planet, which could produce a massive amount of resources and energy, would undoubtedly become the colony’s new production base, greatly enhancing their combat power.
Now, it is only a matter of time.
The Great Devourer had already gathered everything it needed, piece by piece.
All that remained was to buy time and wait.
No matter how fast development and production were, the fact that it required time could not be denied.
Still, it won't take too long.
The Great Devourer’s rate of pioneering was so fast that other civilizations could not compare.
They had been designed and modified for this very purpose from the beginning.
If there was no interference along the way, and as long as the goddess did not use some unpredictable method, the Great Devourer would become powerful enough to swallow an entire higher civilization in the coming months.
“Is it close?”
At this moment, Lin Miao felt the changes surging within his body and let out a satisfied smile.
It was about time for his Divine Status to rise once again.
Once his Divine Status was high enough and the Great Devourer grew even stronger than it was now, he would finally be able to eliminate those gods who had intruded upon Earth, one by one.
Rate on N.U.
