Insufficient Firepower

【Elise felt the insufficiency of her firepower once again】

In accordance with the decision of the Central Council of the Elven Empire, the scale of the all-out war was constantly expanding.

Not only the main force of the Great Devourer and the Second Legion confronting each other in the south of the Lucadia Empire, but even Celia's invasive Great Devourer forces, which had occupied part of the Kingdom of Bartonia and established nests, had to face the Elven Empire's grand army surging from all directions.

In this process, Elise felt the insufficiency of her firepower once again.

Although the emergence of Spore Beasts gave the Great Devourer long-range artillery capabilities, firepower battles were ultimately not the Great Devourer's forte.

Meanwhile, the elves' Spirit-Tech was a complete system of civilization bestowed by their deity, merging magic, spirit arts, and mechanical power.

Unlike the God of War, who relied on a few elites, it was dedicated to developing the entire system itself, which was very similar to the deities of the Lucadia Empire.

However, unlike the Empire's mages whose development had slowed down due to fighting the Great Devourer, the elves' technological level was rapidly advancing even as they steadily conquered surrounding forces.

Realizing this, the elves were also working harder to enhance their firepower.

“It can't be helped. We walk different paths, and in the end, we can only prove whose path is correct through sheer strength.”

Celia sighed, accepting this reality.

Absorbing and imitating a technology or civilization was completely different from Elise preying on new organisms and absorbing their genetic information.

Even for the Great Devourer, which had evolved to its current level, it would still take a long time to achieve.

The development of technology had its inevitable stages; it could not be accomplished overnight.

Although they had eliminated Astaroth's forces and acquired a vast amount of advanced magical knowledge, turning this knowledge into actual combat power required far more than just a few lines of code.

‘...Which is why we must first cut off their maritime supply lines. After all, our advantage at sea is unquestionable.’

Understanding this, Lin Miao watched a legion of the Great Devourer units move through the ocean.

If one path was blocked, immediately changing to another was the rational and efficient way of thinking.

Elise decided to resolve other issues first.

Her target was the island nation across the sea from the Kingdom of Bartonia—the Kingdom of Zahar.

To be precise, it was not to land and attack the Kingdom of Zahar, but to cut off maritime traffic so that the elves on the island could not return to the mainland.

Currently, the Elven First Legion had already conquered the Kingdom of Zahar and accepted the local surrender.

If left unchecked, the First Legion could cross the sea at any time and attack the invasive Great Devourer stationed in the Kingdom of Bartonia from behind.

Thus, utilizing her advantage at sea, Elise deployed forces to blockade the strait.

“W-What is that! There are monsters in the sea!”

With this single move, an entire elven legion was completely trapped on the island.

‘The ocean is also very important.’

Lin Miao had already personally taught them the importance of the sky.

Elise, shaking her antennae, took her thinking a step further.

Since the sky was important, the ocean was naturally important as well.

“Sound the alarm quickly!”

“Abandon ship! Get to land first!”

Under the joint attack of underwater combat mutated species like diving ants and Leviathans loaded with flying mutants, the Great Devourer instantly seized command of the sea.

The Bartonians responsible for transporting the First Legion did not dare engage the Great Devourer at all, abandoning their ships and fleeing toward the land one after another.

“W-We survived...”

“Why aren't those monsters coming ashore?”

Having barely escaped to the shore, they watched in confusion as the Great Devourer did not pursue them.

Forget the underwater mutants, even the flying species capable of soaring freely in the air did not attack them.

“They are destroying the ships! No, not that...”

Instead, the Great Devourer used their powerful mandibles, claws, and every means at their disposal to utterly destroy the abandoned vessels.

They could only watch helplessly as their ships were torn to pieces and sunk into the sea, powerless to do anything.

They were merely guards responsible for defense; the main force was still on the island.

“What are you whining about! We're lucky just to escape with our lives!”

The captain of the Elven Empire's foreign auxiliary forces snapped at his sighing subordinates.

At least in the captain's eyes, abandoning the ship to save their lives was a win.

His thought might have been correct—until the Great Devourer began patrolling the coastline, thoroughly destroying everything and not even sparing a single small fishing boat.

【Elise intends to turn this sea into her territory】

Relying on their precise, extensive, and omnipresent hive mind, the Great Devourer executed an indiscriminate sinking campaign across this strait.

No vessel could hope to pass through this strait.

Whether they were merchant ships sailing from distant continents, communication or transport ships of the Elven Empire, or even small fishing boats of commoners heading out to sea, none were spared.

And this strait was precisely the vital shipping lane that had made the Kingdom of Bartonia a maritime power.

With this place blockaded, the entire region would be affected.

“The First Legion is trapped on the island? An army of a hundred thousand was actually trapped by monsters that look to be less than half their number?!”

This news naturally reached the upper echelons of the Elven Empire.

◆◆◆

[Lord of Iron: I really want to descend in person and annihilate those disobedient fools. It's truly incomprehensible.]

[Eternal Gravekeeper: Foolish. Governing internal affairs well so that the servants have no complaints is the most important virtue of a deity.]

[Lord of Iron: Why are you picking a fight with me?]

Every time Lin Miao lurked on the Divine Net forum, he could always see deities complaining about how difficult their servants were to manage.

Conquest and expansion were not everything. How to make servants willingly follow them, thereby saving more interference force, was the key.

Forcible suppression through military might was the lowest method, a fact that had already been proven countless times.

The deities of the Divine Net even treated who was better at ruling their servants as a way to show off, considering it an essential quality for a deity.

It was also for this reason that they despised Outer Gods who did not use servants but instead formed armies of their own creations to control everything single-handedly.

‘How interesting. I used to think deities were all-knowing, all-powerful, transcendent beings.’

Lin Miao could not help but smile as he watched this.

Of course, they were indeed powerful, transcendent beings.

But even high-tier or even transcendent deities would get headaches over managing their servants, which was no different from ordinary people.

This was exactly like how things were in the human world.

This made him realize that no matter how powerful the strength the deities obtained, their essence had once been ordinary existences just like him.

Everyone had their own way of ruling.

There was no absolute right or wrong. In the end, the one who survived was the correct one.

In fact, on the Divine Net forum, it had become a consensus for lower-tier deities to copy the methods of high-tier deities.

“No! My child cannot go!”

“There's no choice! The mandatory conscription order has already been issued! Who knows when those demons will march here!”

Inside the Elven Empire that had declared an all-out war, those former kingdoms, duchies, and tribes were now part of the Elven Empire.

All of this was the masterpiece of the Central Council, but the non-elven people did not understand that this was the will of their deity.

Now, these places were undergoing ruthless conscription and requisitioning of supplies.

The Elven Empire's strength to contend with the Great Devourer was never infinite, nor was it without cost.

“Lord Governor, must it really be like this? All the men fit for war have been conscripted, and the livestock has been plundered. Who will farm the land?”

“How should I know? We can only pray for the war to end quickly.”

The city governor responsible for overseeing the work wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and spoke to his lieutenant.

Although he was among the first to surrender to the elves, thereby becoming a governor and receiving a reinforcement formula to obtain greater power.

He, too, had once been an ordinary knight of this land.

At first, he thought that surrendering early to the powerful elves would preserve more things at the cost of a small sacrifice. But now, he had fallen into deep panic.

“Marco! You liar! I curse you!”

Watching her only young son about to be sent to the battlefield, an old woman's angry and desperate wails made him tremble all over.

The governor suppressed his expression, feeling full of grievances inside: ‘Why am I the one getting cursed at when I'm not even the one giving the orders!’

The elves were scarce in number and rarely made personal appearances.

Therefore, those standing at the forefront to rule the occupied territories were all surrenderers like him.

The governor had thus become a second-class citizen, enjoying power and status.

But this power and status were not free.

They were destined to bear the infamy of betraying their own race and exploiting their compatriots forever.

“Time... seems to be on our side,” Celia, who had successfully gathered this intelligence, said softly, as if seeing the dawn of victory.

In fact, the Great Devourer was not afraid of dragging out the war at all.

For the Great Devourer, a war that required huge costs and effort was nothing more than a natural part of their existence.

Of course, Celia also hoped to end the war before more people died, but the final decision-making power always rested in the hands of Elise, the Great Devourer Queen, and Lin Miao, who watched over everything.

The elves, who originally thought they could easily defeat the Great Devourer, had paid a heavy price in just a few weeks and had to change their perspective.

“Speaker, shouldn't we contact them? The ones coming from the west. There are already so many monsters before us, yet they are still dawdling on the plains. While we are giving all our effort here, they are sitting back and reaping the benefits.”

“...It can't be helped. If the Elven God has no instructions, I will go urge them.”

Sarel sent out a communication in the name of the Elven Empire.

The targets of the communication were precisely the Beastkin Kingdom and the Dwarven Alliance.

That is, the forces currently confronting the migratory colony and advancing slowly.

In the end, the Elven Empire also took the same path as Astaroth: admitting their limits and requesting cooperation from all surrounding forces.

“Those pointy-eared fellas were actually telling the truth...”

“How ridiculous. Even more annoying than those disgusting beastkin.”

However, upon receiving the message, the Beastkin Kingdom and the Dwarven Alliance both sneered.

“Do you think we don't want to get over there faster?”

Putting down the communication device, the beastkin leader stared forward expressionlessly.

The once-vast plains had been turned into a poison-filled land of death by the migratory colony, blocking their path.

Giant mutated ants that looked like a combination of earthworms and snakes tunneled through the ground, spraying venom;

The groundwater was contaminated, turning into highly toxic swamps.

In the sky, there were also Skimmer Bugs, newly developed by Elise, launching occasional surprise attacks;

In the distance, there were also scaled-down versions of Spore Beasts, executing hit-and-run tactics in a mobile guerrilla war.

【Kerrigan urged Elise, asking when on earth she would come to help】

【Elise told her to hold on a bit longer】

The migratory colony was waging the most grueling guerrilla and stalling war in the history of the Great Devourer.

With the strength of the migratory colony alone, it was impossible to withstand the offensive of both forces at the same time.

Elise was not completely without support; they shared data on new mutated species and tactics, and Lin Miao would also allocate some magic stones to them, but this was far from enough.

Even if they devoted all their strength to stalling for time, it was difficult to stop the slowly advancing enemy.

Consequently, Kerrigan, who loved slaughter and violence the most, could now only command from the rear, harboring a belly full of frustration and growing increasingly short-tempered.