Holy power—to the vast majority of those present, it was an entirely unheard-of concept.
As a mage who had dedicated over a decade of her life to studying magic power and spells ever since she first awakened her magic power as a child, Celia was deeply curious about this new force, and her gaze was drawn to it almost magnetically.
However, Daniel was already surrounded by a dense crowd of people, including Count Roland, making it impossible to get close.
Although Celia was born a noble, she now possessed nothing, drifting like a kite with a severed string; she simply could not find an opportunity to step forward and speak with him.
Yet at that moment, to her surprise, Daniel smiled and walked straight toward her. “My lady, you seem to be quite different from the rest.”
“...Are you speaking to me?” Flustered by this unexpected approach, Celia took an involuntary step back.
Staring at the holy power radiating from Daniel's raised hand, Celia murmured in a daze, “This power indeed resembles magic power, yet it is fundamentally different.”
Unlike magic power, it possessed an incredible sense of expansiveness and fluidity.
When Daniel explained that the true value of this power shone when facing enemies with magic resistance, Celia couldn't help but nod.
“This is a power bestowed by the Goddess.”
Daniel's matter-of-fact statement sent a sudden shiver through Celia's body.
Of course, various religions had always existed in this world.
However, as a mage, Celia generally did not believe in gods whose existence could not be explained by magic power.
After all, most of what gods could do, magic power could replicate.
“Until recently, I held much the same view as you, but do we not have proof and witnesses now?”
Daniel gently placed his hand, now glowing with a golden light, onto Celia's shoulder.
For nobles, this was a highly insolent gesture, yet Celia did not push his hand away.
The moment they made contact, a warm energy began to seep into her body; it was a powerful healing force that instantly swept away her accumulated fatigue and minor muscle aches.
“So this is holy power...” Celia's eyes widened. Experiencing this power for the first time in her life, she couldn't help but tremble slightly.
“What do you think? Have you ever considered serving the great Goddess and receiving her teachings? If you join our Church of the Goddess of Light, perhaps that same grace will be bestowed upon you.”
Observing her reaction, Daniel grinned. He gently caressed her cheek, whispering in a low, seductive tone.
◆◆◆
During lunch on a regular workday, Lin Miao went up to the building's rooftop under the pretext of having a smoke. In the empty smoking room, he stared at the screen that only he could see.
【Your servants have discovered another abandoned village】
“Have all the residents in this area evacuated?”
On the screen, the scouts had found a deserted village. Many belongings that normally would have been taken along were left behind, clear evidence of a hasty evacuation.
Of course, those abandoned items were of little use to the ant colony.
The refugees seemed to have gathered in nearby fortresses or castles.
Those strongholds were heavily guarded by armed soldiers and fortified defenses; no matter how strong the ant colony was, a single hunting squad could not breach them.
They would need to amass several hunting squads to form a grand army of thousands of ants before they could even qualify to wage such a battle.
“Is the battlefront stretched too thin?”
Lin Miao frowned. Even a casual glance revealed that the ant colony's current battlefront was far too broad.
To the ants, it made absolutely no difference which territory or lord the villagers belonged to; as long as they were alive, they were all prey.
Consequently, the number of enemies they had to attack grew overwhelmingly large.
Furthermore, this wasn't a turn-based game; everything was unfolding rapidly in real-time on a very real battlefield.
【Under the leadership of the First Generation Queen Ant, your servants are reorganizing their formations】
Naturally, the ants possessed the ability to quickly perceive and adapt to changes.
The colony gathered countless pieces of information from all directions, redeploying their forces and reorganizing their hunting squads with maximum efficiency.
Logistics and supply lines were also critical components of an army.
Yet, the ants resolved these issues through their hive mind with a speed and accuracy that even Lin Miao, who monitored them through the Divine Net, could not match.
Moreover, this capability would only become more refined and rapid as they accumulated experience.
Barring any unexpected variables, the ant colony would likely succeed in conducting another large-scale hunt.
“Hmm?”
【Your servants are panicking. A new enemy has appeared】
Yet at that very moment, those potential variables manifested on one of the battlefields.
This sudden turn of events befell a hunting squad that was en route to a gathering point to merge with other units for an assault on a fortress.
【The ambushed hunting squad is panicking. The enemy detected them first and launched a sudden assault without hesitation】
Lin Miao hastily switched the display. The screen showed ants and humans locked in a fierce, chaotic battle.
The ant forces consisted of a hunting squad of about three hundred ants, while the human side was a troop of a similar size.
“Are they not ordinary adventurers?”
Lin Miao had been closely observing and recording the otherworld over the past few days, learning quite a bit in the process.
Discerning the identity of opponents based on their attire and combat style was one of the skills he had picked up.
Those who dressed relatively casually and fought in small skirmishes were known as adventurers.
Ever since the ant colony began its official invasion of the southern human territories, these adventurers had been their most common—and favorite—prey.
This was because many adventurers possessed magic power within their bodies, which could serve as material for the colony's evolution and individual growth.
However, the force currently battling the ants wore uniform metal armor, wielded standardized weapons, and even marched under flying banners.
This clearly indicated that they were a highly trained regular army.
“They're strong.”
Lin Miao's expression instantly grew solemn as he watched them clash with the ant colony.
They were indeed on a completely different level from any opponents the ants had faced before. Although there were powerful adventurers, they always fought in small numbers, utterly incomparable to the organized military before him.
【Your servants are bewildered by a new type of power】
“Behold! The power bestowed by the gods is purifying these evil monsters!”
And that was not all.
The knight in the center of the troop—the brave commander barking orders—swung a longsword coated in a brilliant golden light. With a single strike, he cleaved the heavy, venom-spiked mandible and head of a mutated soldier ant clean in two.
“How is this possible?”
Lin Miao's eyes widened in sheer astonishment.
The mutated soldier ants he had named "barbed venomous ants" possessed rock-hard exoskeletons and incredibly high magic resistance; they could emerge unscathed even after taking a direct hit from a spell powerful enough to blow up a small warehouse.
Yet now, a mutated soldier ant that had struck terror into countless adventurers and locals had been slain single-handedly by that knight.
“Kill them! Drive back the servants of the evil demon god!”
“The Goddess's divine protection is with us! Charge!”
Upon closer inspection, the knight was not the only one wielding this power.
A priest clad in robes like a mage raised his staff, casting down a brilliant golden light that enveloped the soldiers.
Lin Miao clearly saw that the moment the venom sprayed by the venomous ants touched that light, it hissed and evaporated into thin air.
Their morale soaring, the soldiers unleashed even greater strength, pushing the ant colony back.
Ants pierced by spears collapsed to the ground, while those blasted by holy magic were reduced to charred husks, rolling across the dirt.
The hunting squad, which had charged forward with absolute confidence, finally realized that the humans they were fighting this time were by no means simple prey.
Determining that victory was impossible, the ants turned and retreated without the slightest hesitation, leaving behind their dead and wounded companions.
“W-We won!”
“The monsters are fleeing!”
Cheers of victory from the human soldiers echoed behind them.
The colony's losses this time were relatively minor, perhaps because this was merely a skirmish that also served as reconnaissance.
More importantly, having already survived a crisis where their nest was nearly overrun by the formidable combat power of the beastkin, the colony had long since learned to retreat when they realized they were outmatched.
“Damn it, I shouldn't have been so complacent.”
Lin Miao felt the same way.
Earlier, he had been heavy-hearted over the ants' slaughter of humans, but now he realized this only proved they still had a very long way to go.
They themselves understood that in this vast world, they could still easily become the prey of some other hunting force.
【Your servants are reviewing their plans. The emergence of a new enemy has caused them to temporarily halt their attacks】
If the kind of people they had just encountered were also guarding the fortresses or cities they aimed to conquer, the losses the ant colony would suffer would certainly be far worse than just a single wiped-out hunting squad.
Now capable of performing calculations to this degree, the ant colony did not launch any reckless assaults. Instead, they held their ground for the time being, searching for a way to break the deadlock.
“Those people... they clearly called the ants the servants of an evil demon god. Was that just a coincidence?”
For the rest of the day, Lin Miao was deeply troubled, his mind constantly replaying that battle scene.
The righteous tone of the humans shouting as they struck down the ants suggested they possessed an incredibly powerful faith.
A divine protection bestowed by a god; a power granted by a deity.
In the past, he would have dismissed such claims, but things were different now.
When an ordinary guy like him could be deemed a deity and access a bizarre system, speculating that those humans might be the servants of other gods was entirely reasonable.
“But even if they are, what can I do about it?”
Lin Miao shook his head.
The core of the problem was that even if those humans were the servants of other deities, their destiny and the ant colony's were already locked in an inevitable conflict.
The ants still could not fully comprehend Lin Miao's words. They instinctively craved the expansion and evolution of their colony, which would bound to trigger clashes with surrounding factions.
Furthermore, his means of communicating with other deities had been cut off.
Despite his abnormal awakening, where the system should have assisted him in understanding the situation, it had instead restricted its core functions and outright blocked him from conversing with other gods.
“Sigh.”
Lin Miao let out a brief sigh and shook his head.
He couldn't afford to overcomplicate things right now. Since a formidable enemy they couldn't afford to underestimate had appeared, their primary objective was simply to fight and survive.
The only servants and territory he possessed were those ants and their nest.
In other words, if they were wiped out and their nest was destroyed, he would die too.
“No, we have to win. We must win, no matter what.”
Lin Miao hurriedly tore open a bag of food, dumped a large number of mealworms into the terrarium, and immediately grabbed his phone to search for the next species of ant to introduce.
Initially, Lin Miao's next step had been to introduce honeypot ants, which could store sweet nectar in their bodies, but he had to change his plans now.
As things stood, introducing ants that could grant the colony greater combat prowess and focus entirely on warfare was the correct choice.
“Just how much does the Queen Ant need to evolve before she can analyze the genes of other organisms?”
This was the first time Lin Miao felt the Queen Ant's growth was too slow, whereas before he had always marvelled at her astonishing speed.
This showed just how profound of an impact that recent battle had on him.
【The Queen Ant has discovered that the power wielded by certain humans has a potent effect on evolved individuals】
Lin Miao was not the only one racking his brains; the Queen Ant was also pushing her limits to make the colony stronger in order to counter this sudden, powerful adversary.
【The Queen Ant possesses information on all individuals. Those who suffered particularly severe damage were individuals with a higher proportion of magic power absorbed during their growth】
Magic power, as far as Lin Miao knew, was the same fundamental energy that permeated that otherworld.
He recalled that whenever the ants devoured goblins, beastkin, or magical beasts, the system would constantly display prompts indicating they had absorbed magic power.
“Could it be a power specifically designed to counter that kind of magic power?”
Lin Miao murmured blankly to himself, the most plausible theory flashing through his mind.
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