Information on the Elves

Lin Miao fell into deep thought.

Up until now, thanks to the gods who treated him as an Outer God from outside the system and clamored on the Divine Net forum, he had been able to gather all kinds of intelligence effortlessly.

But the god of the elves rarely showed their face on the forum.

After all, Terra was a world of free competition, so they had absolutely no need to exchange information through the forum.

[God of Knowledge: Show yourself this instant! It's one thing for you to capture the Outer God's vassals, but you actually dared to capture mine as well?! Who gave you the audacity?!]

Even when Astaroth, who had witnessed the elves capturing the citizens of the Lucadia Empire to use as slaves, threw a massive tantrum on the forum, the other party remained completely silent.

“We need more information on the elves.”

Fortunately, within the Great Devourer colony, there was now someone who could not only understand Lin Miao's will but also think in a similar way to him.

Celia also wanted to learn more about the elves, so she ordered the ant colony to capture some prisoners.

“Based on the observations of the scouts, it is confirmed that the elves are using other races from the south as their subordinates.”

Celia identified her target based on the information shared through the hive mind.

Among the massive army crossing the border, actual elves were in the minority.

Most of them were humans who had established kingdoms and tribes in the southern part of the continent.

There were even green-skinned southern beastkin, as well as creatures that looked like goblins.

Celia decided to target these individuals.

Unlike the fully armed elves stationed in the safest zones, these subordinates bore all the dangerous and grueling tasks, such as clearing paths, scouting, and construction.

【Elise ordered an attack】

Upon hearing Celia's words, Elise immediately mobilized her forces, and the ant colony swiftly navigated the rugged forest paths.

At that moment, a group of humans was digging and paving roads there, preparing for the army's passage.

“A-An attack!”

The ant colony, having already locked onto their position through scouts, pounced without hesitation.

Jumping ants charged into the position before they could react, disrupting their formation. Then, gladiator ants and predatory ants swarmed in, biting with their mandibles and striking with their forelimbs.

Although they took up arms to resist, they were either torn apart by the hard, strong jaws of the predatory ants or crushed along with their armor, blood splattering everywhere.

“Aaargh!”

Right then, the spider ants shot tentacles from their abdomens at designated targets.

Once these tentacles made contact, they would automatically split and entangle the target. The one caught was none other than the leader who had been barking orders and monitoring the others.

He struggled and resisted desperately, but amidst the chaos of his companions being slaughtered and the ground being stained red with blood, he was dragged before the hideous-looking spider ants.

“Urgh...”

A far cry from his previous commanding posture, he was thrown onto the ground in a pathetic state and brought to the nearest nest.

“Ugh...”

He coughed incessantly in the dense venomous gas, which made even strong knights struggle to breathe.

Bound tightly and unable to move, his eyes were filled with terror as his body curled into a ball.

He had no idea why the Great Devourers spared his life.

All he knew about the ants came from the rumors spread by the elves: that the Great Devourers were demons that ate humans alive and plotted to destroy the world.

And the attack just now indeed confirmed those rumors.

“...Hm?”

Just then, a figure walked through the heavy venomous mist, taking one step after another toward him.

She was covered in the same black exoskeleton as the surrounding Great Devourers, emitting a red glow, but her physical form was distinctly different.

The graceful curves of her body and her long silver hair made it obvious at a glance that she was female.

He had never heard of Celia's existence, so his eyes were filled with shock and confusion at this moment.

“P-Please, spare me.”

Dragging his bound body, he instinctively crawled toward Celia, begging pitifully.

Unlike those Great Devourers who seemed completely impossible to communicate with, this witch, who bore some resemblance to a human, might still possess a shred of mercy.

【Elise decided to use a Gene Stealer for rapid information extraction】

“...”

However, contrary to his expectations, Celia did not speak to interrogate him.

She merely looked down at him through her mask, opened her palm, and produced a mutant approved for use by the Queen.

“N-No! Stop! Please, no!”

Seeing the giant wriggling parasite in Celia's hand, he instinctively felt terror and let out a piercing scream.

After the interrogation, Celia shared the acquired knowledge with Lin Miao through prayer.

“While we were developing and growing, the elves also received aid from their god, rapidly rising from the center of the Great Forest. They call the god dwelling within the World Tree the Great Ancient Elven God. The new technology they learned from the Elven God—which combines elven magic with mechanical structures—is called Spirit-Tech.”

The captured scouting captain, Aldin, was now bleeding from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, his body twitching uncontrollably.

The Gene Stealer that had burrowed into his body controlled his nervous system and internal organs according to Elise's command, linking part of his consciousness to the hive mind and extracting every single piece of information, which he dared not hide.

This was very similar to when Celia was first parasitized by a Gene Stealer, but the difference was that Celia had preserved her sense of self through her own adaptability and Lin Miao's divine protection, whereas Aldin's mind was being destroyed in real time.

“He originated from the southern Kingdom of Babel, where he was originally a knight. After the kingdom was invaded and annexed by the elves, he willingly joined them, acting as their lackey and serving as the captain of the Third Scouting Squad.”

The elves, reborn as the god's vassals, had turned into a race completely opposite to the legends.

They were no longer the noble, peaceful race that upheld tradition and defended their homeland and the sacred Great Forest to the death; instead, they were conquerors bent on trampling the entire world underfoot through large-scale expansion and dominion.

“I see. So they gathered their strength in the Great Forest first, and then gradually annexed the surrounding factions.”

Learning the truth, Lin Miao clicked his tongue in spite of himself.

Celia continued her report: “The elves have currently deployed two legions to intervene in the Empire's internal conflicts, and they are now planning to redirect their expansion elsewhere.”

Having conquered and merged numerous factions, the elves were planning their next expansion even as they ruled over these territories.

All the reasonably powerful factions on the southern continent had already fallen into the hands of the elves, centered around the Great Forest.

Now, it was the turn of the northern Lucadia Empire.

“Including Aldin, most of the colonized inhabitants are already serving the elves.”

Celia sighed as she looked at Aldin's state.

Aldin's eyes rolled back, his veins bulged, and his body twitched incessantly. There was a clear brand on his shoulder.

It was not a brand meant for slaves.

Instead, it was a form of life-modification technology utilizing the elves' bio-fusion techniques, with tiny magic stones embedded in the skin acting as the core.

With this brand, Aldin had gained power far greater than before.

Precisely because of this, many people coveted this power and willingly swore fealty to the elves. They, too, became the god's vassals.

Celia let out a soft sigh.

As long as they were people who pledged loyalty to the gods, the Great Devourer had to kill them.

【Elise became interested in the technology of the elves】

While everyone was lost in their own thoughts during a brief silence...

...the greedy Elise noticed something else: the technology possessed by the elves.

【Elise began to molt】

In the terrarium, an endless queue of worker ants was feeding Elise.

The worker ants continuously fed the nutrient solution into her mouth.

Now, she no longer had to act according to the whims of the colony.

Having successfully designed the energy-converting worms with Lin Miao's help and obtained massive amounts of nutrients from magic stones, Elise allocated even more nutrients to herself.

Her purpose was to stimulate her own evolution.

Absorbing all the immense energy contained within the nutrient solution, Elise finally achieved explosive growth once again, breaking through her limits.

【Bloodline Regulation Lv. 7: Can utilize information obtained through Predation to regulate production units and create new classes】

【Universal Cells Lv. 3: The power of the hive mind can act on a cellular level】

【Energy Conversion Lv. 3: Can convert absorbed energy into other types of energy】

Her growth meant that the abilities she possessed became even more powerful.

And the first thing the strengthened Elise did was to frantically enhance her own brain.

This brain fused the abilities of all creatures devoured and absorbed so far, transcending limits with the help of magic power.

Lin Miao looked at the massive brain connected to Elise via tentacles, which had doubled in size, and whispered in admiration.

But size was not what mattered.

Rather, it was the processing speed, cellular performance, and structural efficiency it possessed within.

And what this brain, which had never existed in the world before, would receive and learn in the future was what Lin Miao cared about the most.

【The vassals are preparing for a decisive battle】

Having roughly figured out the elves' background, Elise mobilized her northern legion instead.

Originally, their mission was merely to pin down the Imperial soldiers guarding the high wall so they couldn't leave, with no real need to initiate open warfare.

Seeing this decision, Lin Miao was certain that Elise had already completed her calculations using her highly developed brain.

In fact, the Empire had been beset by troubles both at home and abroad during this period, leaving them utterly overwhelmed.

No matter how massive a nation was, it could not wage war normally when caught in such a pincer attack from within and without.

The Imperial army at the high wall felt true terror when they saw the massive ant army surging toward them, blotting out the sky.

“They're coming! This time is different! Quick, spread the word!”

With rear support already dwindling and panic spreading internally, this was undoubtedly a devastating blow.

Meanwhile, the units that encountered the elves in the southern part of the Empire avoided combat to stall for time, following Celia's instructions: “We will continue to move according to plan on our end, avoiding conflicts with the elves as much as possible.”

Faced with their old rival, the Lucadia Empire, and the newly emerged enemy, the elves, Elise chose to concentrate her forces on defeating the Empire first.

Celia watched with a heavy gaze as the ant colony abandoned their nests, carrying cocoons and nutrient solutions to begin their relocation.