‘Just to be safe, I should keep Elise in the terrarium from now on.’
During those days filled with uncertainty, Lin Miao had imagined all sorts of scenarios.
What if the Great Devourer, led by Elise, escaped from the terrarium?
What if they grew to an enormous size after escaping and turned on him?
What if they discovered he was just an ordinary human and became utterly disappointed in him? The list of anxieties went on.
Feelings for Elise aside, the Great Devourer was still a highly volatile species with an unknown evolutionary path.
The smarter and stronger they became, the more their curiosity would inevitably grow.
Stories of humans challenging the gods out of sheer arrogance were common across countless civilizations.
In fact, on the Divine Net forum where deities gathered, there were endless complaints from gods who were losing their minds because they failed to manage their servants, leading to rebellions.
Perhaps this was fate. For intelligent life, curiosity and free will were things that could never be abandoned.
And so, Lin Miao handed down an order for Elise to remain inside the terrarium for the rest of her days.
【Elise thanked the Great One for his mercy】
Fortunately, Lin Miao's intentions seemed to have been perfectly conveyed to her through Celia.
Elise, who was currently repairing her damaged nest, quietly stared up at the ceiling that was slowly being filled back in with soil.
‘As long as she accepts it.’
Elise was deeply grateful that Lin Miao had not cast her out.
To be able to stay in the terrarium forever, at the closest possible distance to Lin Miao, was actually a wonderful thing for her.
For Elise, who wouldn't even permit Celia to visit her a second time, the terrarium was a cozy nest belonging solely to the First Generation Queen Ant. It was the very foundation of the colony—a sacred, deeply meaningful sanctuary.
Yet, looking at Elise's pure expression, Lin Miao could not bring himself to smile.
The reason he wanted to confine Elise to the terrarium was so that, if necessary, he could hold this Queen—who wielded immense influence over the entire colony—hostage.
Indeed, now that he had confirmed he could exert a powerful influence inside the terrarium, this place was not only the safest haven for the Great Devourer but also a domain under his absolute control.
“...Heh.”
Lin Miao suddenly let out a self-deprecating laugh.
Two conflicting emotions warred within his heart.
On one hand, he hoped that Elise, who was pure to the point of madness, could learn a bit more.
On the other hand, he wished she would never acquire the filthy human habit of manipulating and calculating against others.
【Elise is preparing an airstrike plan using the newly acquired forces】
While Elise was pure, she was by no means foolish.
Even if her spirits were dampened by the scolding, she would never neglect her duties as the Queen.
Long before she had bypassed everyone to transform the mages into a Cordyceps legion with lightning speed, she had already formulated her entire strategy.
By the looks of it, she intended to deploy this force to the front lines against the elves first.
‘So it was back then.’
Lin Miao had always wondered when Elise had devoured the Cordyceps. Now it seemed it must have happened when he brought her a large variety of insects as food.
Among those food sources, there must have been specimens infected with Cordyceps.
What she had been unable to analyze back then had now become something she could freely analyze and utilize as she grew.
This was undoubtedly a terrifying ability.
The ability to forcibly seize and manipulate another's body through Cordyceps infection offered a much broader scope of application and more instantaneous parasitism and control than the horsehair worm-based Gene Stealers.
Unlike the Gene Stealers, this method did not seem capable of retaining or regulating the host's self-awareness. But in truth, human self-awareness meant absolutely nothing to Elise.
“Achieving complete infection and control seems to require meeting several conditions, but even so, this is a highly formidable ability.”
Having calmed down slightly, Celia was also observing the infected Cordyceps legion and conducting her own analysis.
Hearing her words, Lin Miao realized that this ability was not as omnipotent as he had imagined.
The host had to possess a certain level of magic power, and producing the spores required a significant amount of time and resources.
Most importantly, because this involved forcibly controlling bodies that Elise had not yet fully analyzed, none of the abilities possessed by the Great Devourer—including rapid regeneration—could be applied to these hosts.
Celia reported, “In my estimation, after just a few battles, their magic circuits will completely burn out, and their irreparable bodies will no longer be able to fight.”
Lin Miao sighed. “Pure consumables, then.”
It seemed there was no need to worry about the infected Cordyceps legion sweeping across the entire world for the time being.
Even so, the Great Devourer had indeed gained a powerful trump card and a wild card.
Celia grabbed the leg of a flying tiger hornet ant and quietly flew toward the southern part of the Empire where they were fighting the elves, leading the mage legion, who were being carried one by one by Dragon Ants.
“They really are airtight.”
Lin Miao shifted his view away from the moving Celia and clicked his tongue as he stared at a screen that had suddenly gone black.
A scouting ant that had activated its invisibility and was moving stealthily had run straight into an automated turret set up by the elves, shot dead on the spot by a massive bolt.
The elves were extremely cautious.
Well aware of the importance of reconnaissance, they spared no effort to disrupt the colony's scouting. Furthermore, because the Great Devourer held air superiority, the elves were heavily investing in developing their anti-air capabilities.
This made it very difficult for Lin Miao to gather intelligence.
Moreover, the elven gods rarely posted on the forum.
Those deities who boasted loudly on the Divine Net, lowering their guard because they believed they were fighting Outer Gods, had practically handed Lin Miao plenty of vital information for free. But the current situation was proving to be a bit of a headache.
“The elves have been continuously reinforcing their firepower to halt our army's advance. The weapons they use don't quite seem like magic, but calling them a unique racial trait of the elves feels like a stretch as well.”
Just as Celia said, the elves seemed to be utilizing some form of technology passed down from their gods to combat the Great Devourer.
Aside from the complex runes engraved upon them, those weapons looked no different from artillery. They could fire incredibly powerful shells, and occasionally, they would discharge concentrated beams of light from massive, glowing gemstones.
Laser weapons with zero charge time? To Lin Miao, this was practically surpassing Earth's level of technology.
And as time went on, with access to more and more resources, they would undoubtedly develop even more terrifying armaments.
Celia continued her report, “In fact, the elven firepower has already reached a level that our forces find difficult to match. However, they have made one oversight—they believe our army lacks ultra-long-range bombardment capabilities.”
【Elise asked, "Is this your plan?"】
“Yes. I intend to use the magic corps to create a breach in the enemy's artillery positions with instantaneous magical firepower. Our army can then take the opportunity to charge, which will significantly increase our chances of victory. However...”
Celia nodded as she answered Elise's question.
She had originally been a mage herself and was highly proficient in magical combat.
Back when she was still Elise's mortal enemy, she had used this capability to infuriate her. After joining the colony, she served as practically the sole mage, playing a strategic-level role.
She had even fully absorbed the knowledge and legacy of the divine faction they had destroyed, which had developed a magitech civilization.
Without a doubt, Celia was the top magic expert in the colony.
【Elise said this is an inefficient method. The limits of the colony's newly acquired combat force go far beyond this】
But Elise scoffed at Celia's plan. Brimming with confidence, she told Celia to watch and learn how she would fight using these infected mages.
“...”
Celia did not say a word upon hearing Elise's response, but her expression looked rather subtle to Lin Miao.
Her lips were tightly pressed together and her brow was slightly furrowed, as if she were desperately holding back the question, “What kind of tricks could you possibly pull off with just magic?”
Celia, who was usually completely obedient to Elise and even harbored some fear of her to this day, possessed an unyielding pride when it came to magic.
“The Great Devourer is charging!”
“How annoying! When on earth is the follow-up unit coming to relieve us?!”
In the southern part of the Empire, war erupted as usual.
On this scorched-earth battlefield—a strategic location that had to be defended at all costs and seized by any means—the forces of the Elven Empire and the Great Devourer had already clashed dozens of times.
Lin Miao could understand the complaints of the enemy soldiers on his screen.
Although he was already accustomed to battles of this scale and usually didn't bother checking the notifications, today he opened multiple screens to observe with rapt attention.
Because today might be the day the balance of this tiresome front line was finally broken.
‘The enemy is indeed exhausted. If we can deal them a heavy blow here, we will gain a massive advantage.’
Though the front line remained stable, Lin Miao had seen this scenario far too many times.
These were enemies who, unable to breach the Great Devourer's defensive line, could only erect high walls and defend them to the death.
They concentrated all their strength on the walls. While the walls themselves remained sturdy and intact, the interior was gradually cracking under the daily accumulating strain.
The great famine currently sweeping through the Lucadia Empire was partly due to this.
The Great Devourer already had units that had infiltrated across the sea, establishing and expanding nests in one of their primary colonies, meaning the elves could not hold out indefinitely either.
“Fire!”
The only difference was that these enemies, who had survived to this point and continued to expand their forces, were indeed difficult to deal with.
Countless shells arced through the sky and rained down, causing the charging forces of the Great Devourer to explode and collapse one after another.
The colony had also deployed Spore Beasts capable of firing acid spore mines to retaliate, but they remained at a disadvantage in terms of raw firepower.
Thus, the Great Devourer launched simultaneous assaults from both the sky and the ground, trying every possible way to close the distance for melee combat.
Of course, even if they successfully closed in, it did not mean the enemies—equipped with mechanical treants and bio-enhanced soldiers—would fall like wheat. Still, melee combat was the bare minimum requirement for the colony's victory.
Just as the battle was about to play out according to the usual script—where the Great Devourer would push through the artillery fire, engage the enemy in close quarters, and both sides would retreat after suffering heavy casualties.
To break this cycle, the Great Devourer had prepared the mage legion.
“Look there. The enemy's artillery batteries are currently focusing entirely on the offensive, leaving their defensive preparations in a complete mess. If we construct magic artillery batteries right now to snipe them, we can destroy all of their large artillery in one fell swoop...”
Celia murmured to herself with a hint of regret.
No matter how she looked at it, she felt her method was the optimal solution.
Even Lin Miao, who didn't know much about magical combat, felt that Celia's plan was theoretically flawless.
【Elise emphasized, "Watch closely what should not exist in the present."】
Yet Elise remained obstinate in her own ideas.
She appeared unusually excited, seemingly filled with anticipation for the magical power she had finally grasped in her hands.
“...What is that?”
Right at that moment, the mages serving as Elise's hands and feet took to the sky together, unfolding a colossal magic circle.
The enemies locked in fierce combat, and even Celia herself, stared up at this scene in absolute shock.
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