Persuasion

‘Indeed, something is forcibly controlling her body.’

After being assimilated by the Great Devourer, Celia possessed the Great Devourer's naturally sensitive detection abilities.

There was a clear unnaturalness in Lisette's actions and the manifestation of her power.

This unnaturalness would not have appeared if she were unleashing her power voluntarily, which was one of the bases of Celia's analysis.

“Seal!”

Celia injected her own power into Lisette's body, beginning to suppress her boiling power in turn.

Of course, Celia's power alone was not enough to calm this berserk state.

However, almost at the same time, the Great Devourers forming the massive ant tomb that covered the two of them began to exert their power collectively.

Celia borrowed the power of the individuals who possessed magic hearts and whose strength far exceeded the Tyrant grade, suppressing Lisette's berserk power and barely managing to seal it right before it erupted.

In the process, although the Great Devourers kept dying due to releasing power beyond their limits, they did not hesitate to sacrifice their lives.

For this was ultimately the law of their survival as a part of the colony.

“What do you want with me? This is utterly cruel. In the end, you are just trying to use me too!”

Lisette, whose berserk state had been stopped, spoke in a trembling voice.

To Lisette, those other Great Devourers who sacrificed their lives without hesitation did not seem any different from her own situation.

“I won't deny it, but I can give you a choice, and I will tell you the truth afterward.”

Celia took Lisette out of the ant tomb and hurriedly left before the enemy reinforcements could arrive.

Their destination was the nearest nest, where everything was already prepared.

【Elise sensed a special power residing within the enemy.】

Through the hive mind that shared everything, Elise sensed the unfamiliar power radiating from Lisette, whom Celia had brought back to the nest—namely, the divine protection from the opposing deity.

Just as Lin Miao had worried, trying to make a servant who had already received the divine protection of another god defect was an extremely difficult task.

Curious about what method Elise and the Great Devourers planned to use, he observed the scene with great interest.

“D-Don't modify me anymore!”

In the excavated underground nest, with her power sealed and her body tightly bound in spider webs, Lisette showed a look of terror in the face of the densely packed Great Devourers surrounding her.

Upon learning the fact that Lisette had been betrayed by her own kind and even modified to be used as a consumable, Celia shook her head with regret. “That depends on your choice.”

Lisette shrank back, fear hidden in the depths of her eyes, and whispered, “You won't let me go.”

Celia looked her straight in the eye and said, word by word, “That's right. The option of not fighting does not exist.”

However, Celia and the Great Devourer had no intention of granting Lisette complete freedom.

After all, their goal was to win Lisette over, crush the enemy, and win the war.

Celia hoped Lisette could showcase her abilities just as she had, and she hoped that through her and Lisette, the new rank of 【Legion Commander】 within the Great Devourer colony could be thoroughly stabilized.

“But Lisette, if there is something you want to protect, fighting for it is at least better than fighting pointlessly, isn't it?”

Celia emphasized that the past life Lisette yearned for could no longer be recreated on this land.

Terra had already been eyed by the deities and selected as a competitive zone.

The deities who coveted territories and servants could cross cosmic space to invade this land at any time; the inhabitants here would either become a part of them to be manipulated at will, or die.

There were only these two paths to take.

“So, I chose to help the Great Devourers and let them win. At least they won't use us for their own wars.”

Relying on the vast consciousness of the hive mind, all individuals of the Great Devourer existed for a common value, and no external entity could easily interfere with this massive consciousness.

This was precisely what set them apart from other divine factions, which absorbed local inhabitants to expand their territories and increase their servants.

This characteristic determined that they could never coexist with other races.

It was not impossible that the Great Devourer might wipe out all living creatures on this land and replace them.

But in other words, precisely because of this, the weak could survive.

Lin Miao and Celia had prevented that slaughter, so they were working hard to come up with other ways.

“Lisette, are you prepared to make a sacrifice? Not a forced, false sacrifice, but a sacrifice of your own choosing.”

Hearing Celia's words, Lisette's gaze wavered. “...My choice?”

Since the power forcing her into action was also sealed, and her betraying kin were not by her side, she was now completely alone.

“Does my choice even matter? Couldn't you just force me to do it?”

In truth, Lisette's heart was already leaning in that direction, but she still forced out another question.

“I'm sorry, but the Great Devourer does not need forced soldiers.”

Hearing her words, Celia answered decisively without the slightest hesitation.

Celia, and even Elise, wanted special individuals who could think and act of their own free will.

Just like the current Celia, who stood up for the Great Devourer, planning and accomplishing many things.

An existence incapable of creativity, who only passively obeyed, truly had no value to the current Great Devourer.

There were already countless loyal colony soldiers dedicating everything to the colony every second; there was absolutely no need to bring along a burden who only possessed self-awareness.

That was why Celia was persuading Lisette, wanting her to change her mind on her own.

'Demons... this is definitely a group that can be called demons.'

Lisette lowered her contemplative eyes, staring at the ground.

In her eyes, the Great Devourers were undoubtedly a group of terrifying monsters.

Wasn't the reason she was being persuaded also so she could be used as a tool to promote the colony's growth and victory in the war?

'But are others any different?'

The problem was that the entirety of Terra had already become a battlefield for deities.

To those who believed and accepted this power and intervention as the will of heaven, it was divine grace; but to those who refused to accept it and tried to reject it, it was nothing more than evil violence.

Lisette's heart burned with a desire for revenge.

Nothing else mattered, but she did not want to die alone for no reason.

The traitorous group that had betrayed her, put their own kin in danger, and forced them to sacrifice themselves—the new elves.

At this moment, Lisette felt a powerful desire to exact revenge on them.

“If I must join hands with demons to fight an evil god... very well.”

In the end, Lisette made up her mind.

Although revenge was a highly volatile emotion, it was undoubtedly a desire that could serve as a powerful driving force.

“Prepare for modification.”

After Celia signaled that the modification could begin, Elise, who had been observing everything from the original nest, immediately mobilized the nest forces she had prepared to remodel Lisette.

“How exactly are they going to do it?”

Lin Miao muttered curiously, zooming in on the screen to focus his gaze.

He had already done his best to search for relevant information through the Divine Net forum and other channels.

He learned that forcibly seizing the servant of an opposing deity was a far from simple "technical" task that required opening dimensional gates or conducting space travel, even among advanced civilizations.

The Great Devourer, led by Elise, attempted to solve this problem using their unique technology.

Because they had calculated that it was feasible, they intended to use Lisette as a test subject and try it themselves.

First, the Great Devourers firmly secured Lisette's body.

They bound her entire body tightly with tough spider silk and injected paralyzing venom, rendering her unable to move even a single finger.

“The pain is brief, but if you can endure it, you will feel as if you have been reborn.”

Celia whispered softly beside Lisette, who was trembling with fear at the impending modification, soothing her emotions.

“What on earth are you trying to do?”

“Our goal is to purge the evil god's power from your body and replace it with psionic energy. That way, the connection between you and the evil god will be severed, and you can merge with us.”

Celia caressed Lisette's cheek. At some point, a wriggling Gene Stealer had crawled up her leg and onto her arm, and Celia showed it to Lisette.

Lisette was too shocked to even scream, merely staring at the bizarre creature dripping with mucus.

'I was like this once too.'

Watching the mutated Gene Stealer burrow into Lisette's body, Celia felt a fondness born of gaining a companion. She couldn't help but smile as she watched Lisette twitch violently.

“Agh...”

The Gene Stealer did not merely parasitize the body.

It could dominate the host's body and control it at will.

But that alone was not enough.

For stripping away the divine protection of a deity within the body could not be accomplished merely by gaining control over the physical form.

Therefore, the Gene Stealer began to divide frantically inside Lisette's body.

Its massive body, which was originally comparable to a human arm, rapidly divided into thousands of much smaller parasites.

These parasites moved systematically like nanobots. They had only one purpose: to precisely locate the cells in Lisette's body containing the deity's power, devour them, and take their place.

The elven wings on Lisette's back, peeling off bit by bit, seemed to symbolize the gradual fading of her holy warrior's power.

"..."

Lin Miao, who was watching from the side, was dumbfounded.

The technology of countless microscopic parasites acting in concert as a single entity, as well as the exploration ability to detect and find the power contained within cells.

In fact, possessing all of this was something that even experienced deities would marvel at; it was something only the Great Devourer at its current level could achieve.

“If it's too painful, it might be better to go somewhere else for a while.”

During this process, Lisette foamed at the mouth from the intense pain, so Celia activated a new magic.

This magic was a necessary part of the process anyway—it was the very magic Celia had researched and used back when she was still ignorant, capable of temporarily connecting to the Great Devourer's hive mind.

“This place is...!”

The moment Celia's magic activated and her consciousness drifted away, Lisette, freed from her physical pain, grit her teeth and barely managed to stay conscious amidst the massive torrent of awareness.

Being able to maintain her sanity in a place that felt like being thrown into a violent storm was an amazing feat in itself.

Ordinary humans would not be able to bear it at all; their sense of self would collapse immediately.

If she were not a long-lived elf who had lived for over two hundred years, and an outstanding talent trusted by the elders, it would have been nearly impossible.

There, Lisette faced a colossal presence.

There was no up or down. Countless rustling sounds came from all directions. In the past, these sounds would have sounded like insects rubbing their bodies together, but now they seemed to whisper outside her consciousness, as if they were speaking.

Then, it drew closer.

At first, it only looked like a massive mountain range towering on the distant horizon.

But as it drew nearer, Lisette realized that the image was not a simple metaphor.

Thousands of eyes, wriggling sharp mandibles and mouths, limbs devouring one another, scaly antennae, and a terrifying yet beautiful female face.

It was Elise, with all of these features tangled together.

Elise had intentionally assumed this form to overwhelm her within the hive mind.

An image of a queen composed of alien senses, a highly concentrated symbol and form of the Great Devourer.

Lisette was indeed overwhelmed; it was the first time in her life she had witnessed the Queen's appearance.

“You... what are you?”

Lisette opened her mouth to speak, but the sound she made could not take shape, immediately dispersing like shards.

At the same time, a colossal will swept over her like a tidal wave.

Lisette froze instantly, feeling as though she was being disassembled.

Just moments ago, the Great Devourers had physically severed the connection to the deity within Lisette's body.

And now, they even detected and sought to purge the divine fragments remaining in her consciousness.

“Futile hope, proper devotion.”

Clearly, Elise did not make a sound.

Yet, the entire hive mind transformed into a nightmare, whispering in Lisette's ear.

Lisette tried to resist, but felt something snapping one by one in her subconscious.

It was precisely the divine connection protecting Lisette. In reality, the images of Lisette that the opposing deity could see were disappearing one by one.

This was by no means something to be taken lightly.

The bond between a deity and their servant, partially facilitated by the Divine Net system, was something that could never be easily severed.

Being able to use a hive mind grown to this level to create cracks in such a bond meant that her very existence posed a massive threat to the deities.

“You, too, are one of us.”

With the divine connection completely severed, Lisette was left all alone, a fact at which Elise sneered.

At that very moment, a part of Lisette's consciousness began to assimilate with the colony.