“Hestia is concentrating her main forces to defend the core planets while summoning mercenaries and reinforcements to block us, but she has still miscalculated.”
Lin Miao calmly reviewed the state of the war. At the very least, the Great Devourers led by Elise relied solely on established data to complete their deductions, meaning they never made mistakes.
Every calculation they performed was synchronized in real-time through the Hive Mind. There were no inefficient operations, and certainly no personal biases or subjective judgments mixed in.
But the enemy was completely different, from the gods down to their servants, without exception. No matter how much they denied it or tried to comfort themselves, their self-awareness would eventually interfere with objective strategic deductions and distort the established results.
Vain hopes that the situation would improve on its own, mental obsessions that they could win just by gritting their teeth, and self-delusion that there was always a way out of a desperate situation—all sorts of mindsets emerged constantly.
Even if someone placed precise calculation results right before their eyes, whether they ultimately believed them or faced the reality of defeat still depended on the individuals themselves. This was exactly what the Great Devourer, naturally adapted for war, exploited to gain a crushing, albeit narrow, advantage.
They precisely captured the enemy's lagging strategic judgments and decision-making loopholes, which were constantly interfered with by subjective emotions. Through this, they achieved victory after victory, advancing with irresistible force.
“Captain! We’ve completely lost contact with the frontline units!”
“Enemy forces are also pouring in from the rear without end! When on earth are the reinforcements going to arrive?!”
Warwick and his mercenary squad had initially thought this was a war where profit was guaranteed. They had jumped in recklessly, only to find themselves trapped in a giant basin, being gradually consumed and surrounded by the enemy.
If they were still capable of conducting precise aerial reconnaissance at this moment, they would only see an even more desperate picture. The entire region had long been completely occupied by the dense Great Devourer legions.
With the earth-shaking Tank Bugs as the vanguard, the Great Devourer army finally tore through the defensive lines, initiating a cruel and indiscriminate melee. Even the high-firepower weaponry capable of destroying a nest's giant resonance spindle struggled to pierce the defenses of the super-large assault units.
This type of Great Devourer would pull in all its bodily functions and internal energy, condensing them to the extreme to construct an impregnable defensive barrier.
“The small insectoids are rushing in!”
After the assault units tore open the lines and cleared a path, countless Razorclaw Ravagers and Lictors followed closely behind. They swung their sharp claws and snapped their hideous jaws, biting and slaughtering frantically, leaving no chance for survival.
Even veteran soldiers clad in reinforced power suits struggled to withstand these Great Devourers, who were unafraid of death. They poured the colony's entire combat strength into the charge without hesitation, fighting with extreme ferocity and completely abandoning any thought of survival or retreat.
On the battlefield, a single person would often face one Great Devourer, only for two or three more to pounce from the sides instantly. Blades pierced and claws slashed, taking lives in the blink of an eye.
The mercenary groups, already lacking in numbers, saw their lines collapse in an instant, falling into total disarray.
Thunder from the Heavenly Wrath Bio-Thunder struck down from the sky, and the Hammer of Thunder, a giant siege weapon used by the heavens for breakthroughs, crashed to the ground. However, the falling wreckage instead landed among the mercenary ranks, completely shredding what remained of their defensive formation.
Taking advantage of the collapse of the enemy's combat power, high-tier Great Devourers like Behemoths and Brood Lords descended from the sky to seize total air superiority. They began a heartless bombardment of the remaining ground forces.
“Aaaah...”
Warwick watched the hellish scene before him, falling into total despair. The sheer tragedy crushed his empty reputation as the “strongest warrior.”
Most Great Devourers lacked redundant organs like vocal cords. Across the entire battlefield, the only sound was the constant, faint rustling of their bodies rubbing together.
Consequently, in this horrific slaughter, all the wails, terror, and screams came from the routed human mercenaries. This scene created a strange illusion—it looked like a one-sided massacre with no suspense, but in reality, both sides were constantly fighting with their lives on the line.
“Where will this war go from here?” Lin Miao murmured softly as he quietly looked down at the battlefield.
He had already occupied a territory far exceeding his expectations and successfully completed nesting in multiple regions. In this battle against Hestia, his win rate was already extremely high.
But is merely winning enough? He had already glimpsed the most fundamental problem of this conflict.
...
“The current win rate for the war against the Goddess of Light Association has surpassed eighty percent.”
Elise's eyes sparkled. The morale of the enemy reinforcements had been completely crushed by them. Lin Miao's predictions were not off by even a fraction.
Their ambition had never been limited to winning just this one war. Swallowing a high-tier civilization might be a shocking achievement for others, but for the Great Devourer, it was merely a stepping stone on the path of expansion.
They needed to find new opponents. After wiping out the goddess and her association, they would continue to devour the next target. They would turn more star systems into nests, extracting resources and nutrients from more civilized worlds to constantly expand their population and strengthen their legions.
Growing through war and evolving through hunting, they were the literal embodiment of apocalypse and destruction.
“Expansion targets must be chosen carefully. A single mistake could lead to a coalition of gods surrounding us, which is our greatest hidden danger.”
Lin Miao was the only one who could restrain the queens and hit the brakes on their fanatical expansion. He had already thoroughly absorbed all kinds of information from the Divine Net forum and knew that the foundations of the divine races were far beyond what his own servants could match. The gap was immense.
He was not against indiscriminate expansion or initiating wars, but choosing an opponent required caution at every step.
“I have discovered through investigation that the divine faction is split into many sub-factions and plagued by internal strife; they are not a monolithic entity. Some of those forces have already intervened in this war for their own purposes.”
Combining the gathered intelligence, Lin Miao precisely pointed out the future strategic direction. His core idea was to use their own strength against them, exploiting the factional conflicts and power struggles among the gods.
This was far safer than blindly starting wars and making enemies in all directions, only to be eventually surrounded and wiped out by a united front of all divine powers.
The optimal move Hestia had made for her own survival had, in the end, turned into the perfect opportunity for the Great Devourer to expand into outer star systems.
“We follow the Supreme Oracle. The current primary task is to capture enemy personnel and pry the coordinates of major civilized star systems from their mouths.”
Once Lin Miao set the core strategy, the various vassals began to refine the plan and offer suggestions for implementation. Celia was among them.
Currently restraining the main force of the Goddess of Light Association in Icathia, she submitted her suggestion to Elise: the primary task was to completely suppress and purge all forces of the Goddess of Light Association.
“As long as we completely annex all of the goddess's forces and stabilize the occupied areas, we can advance toward the next target with no openings.”
“The logic is sound, the evidence is sufficient, and the deduction results are flawless.”
Elise determined that there were no operational loopholes in Advisor Celia's tactical plan. In fact, the outcome of the war had already been decided.
The goddess's final counterattack—summoning reinforcements and hiring mercenaries—had already been crushed by the Great Devourer's massive troop numbers. More than half of the territory under the goddess's command had been devoured and occupied.
This struggle was like futilely pouring water into a poison bottle that had long since lost its bottom; it was ultimately useless. Now, the enemy only had their capital and a small surrounding area left. Only one final blow was needed to completely sever their life force.
“Icathia, Tatooine, Midra. As long as we hold and reclaim these three key strongholds, we can ignite the spark for a full-scale counteroffensive.”
Archbishop Rabiel of the home planet, along with a large number of church troops who had rushed to the front, gripped this last thread of hope tightly. Their desperate defense and counterattack, which involved pouring in massive resources and all their elite forces, finally yielded results.
Even with Queen Kerrigan and all the Legion Commanders participating in the battle, the Great Devourer's lines were slowly being pushed back. Countless lives fell in the chaos of the star systems. They also paid a tragic price of several thousand troops to reclaim lost ground and cities inch by inch.
“Once our main forces are fully assembled, we can win every battle! This proves that the enemy only knows how to sneak attack our weak points. Once we confront them with our full strength, they are simply unable to win!”
Rabiel was certain that the enemy's advantage lay only in guerrilla tactics and ambushes. As long as they concentrated their full combat power for a head-on clash, victory was certain.
This was indeed the case. In the high-tier territories where troop density was high, the church had secured successive victories, so this judgment was not based on blind confidence.
They only needed one last moment of desperate defense and one more round of bitter fighting, and it seemed they could completely expel the insectoids, reclaim their entire territory, and sound the horn for a full-scale counteroffensive.
But at the same time, the Great Devourer had already completed full nesting in more than a dozen territories, completely organizing their racial system. Their troop numbers were exploding at a terrifying speed.
“Is our choice really correct?”
“...I don't know.”
As the high-level video conference ended, Meliodas, Captain of the Empyrean Star Guard, stepped out of the command building and met another paladin and fellow captain, Alvaro. The two shared a silent understanding as they lit cigarettes and gazed blankly at the gray horizon in the distance.
“On paper, we can win. By exhausting all the combat power of the home planet, we can indeed push the enemy back. Even the ambushes in space are being steadily blocked by us every time. But... reclaiming lost land has never meant the end of the war.”
Alvaro looked around. The headquarters they were currently in was located in Rune City, the most prosperous city on Tatooine. But now, most of the buildings in the entire city were destroyed, leaving behind a landscape of ruins and rubble.
Whether it was the devastation during the Great Devourer's occupation or the bloody battles to forcibly reclaim it, the city had been completely ruined. Even with the most advanced technology, it would take at least ten years to fully repair these ruins.
Even more cruel was the fact that the thousands of soldiers and civilians who had perished would never return.
“On the other hand, those Great Devourers are like an immortal plague—impossible to kill off or wipe out completely. No matter how many nest forces we annihilate, the moment an egg hatches, a batch of soldiers with mature combat power is born.
They are husks without souls, killing puppets without a sense of self. Countless knights and warriors have perished at the hands of these despicable creations.”
“This is undoubtedly the ultimate catastrophe since the church's inception. If we are lucky enough to survive this crisis, the goddess will surely record this event in the church's annals to be passed down forever.”
Meliodas remained silent, tacitly agreeing with those words. Their territory had long been defiled by the invaders. Even if they ultimately won, it would not count as a true victory.
The glory and prestige accumulated by the church over a thousand years had long been muddied by the fires of war. They had to give everything to purge the filth and reshape order.
“We are the last hope.”
All the foundations and combat power accumulated by the Goddess of Light Association over generations had been thrown onto the battlefield. Even if they had nothing left, and even if the land they reclaimed was nothing but ruins, they had to fight to the end.
Only by doing so could the order maintained by the goddess survive, and only then could the billions of people who relied on that order be preserved.
“First unit has broken through the enemy line! Follow up with fire support immediately!”
“Prepare the Heavenly Thunderbolt! The enemy often wanders in space waiting for an opportunity to ambush. Everyone stay alert and be ready to counterattack at any time!”
The church had already squeezed out the last of its manpower, launching a general offensive with all its might to put pressure on the Great Devourer's lines. The land they were reclaiming now had already lost its strategic resources and population value, yet they still held onto the obsession of not yielding an inch, burning nests and fighting the remaining colony forces to the death.
This war itself was the only consolation in the hearts of the people, the foundation of their resistance against fear. Every victory won by the soldiers was barely maintaining hope in the world. They could not afford to lose, and they certainly could not retreat without a fight. Even if they were down to the last man, they had to stand their ground until death.
“High-tier Great Devourers spotted ahead! It's the Beast of Destruction and the Black Spear!”
“All units on alert! Immediately assemble paladins at the Vice Commander-grade and above to the battlefield!”
The enemy was also unwilling to sit by and watch their lines collapse, deploying their top combat units to desperately block the church's counteroffensive. Upon hearing the news of Begrun and Yuno's appearance, the frontline commander urgently dispatched elites to confront them.
“Target locked! The enemy is right ahead!”
A church unit that had been advancing deep to clear out nests was instantly crushed by the elite squad led by Begrun and Yuno. In a flash, the Empyrean Star Guard, clad in Holy Light Winged Armor, formed their ranks to face the two Great Devourer Legion Commanders.
“After our last encounter, it seems you don't dare to face me alone anymore. How boring,” Yuno said with a disdainful sneer as she looked at Meliodas, Alvaro, and the other paladins arriving together.
The last time they met, the two of them were still master and apprentice with their own stances; that was also the last time they had faced each other with any warmth. Now, one was a Great Devourer Legion Commander slaughtering civilizations, and the other was a leader of the paladins protecting order. There was no other path but a fight to the death.
However, after a long and fierce battle, the outcome remained undecided. Under the increasingly powerful combat pressure from Begrun and Yuno, even top-tier paladins at the Commander-grade could only grit their teeth and hold on, retreating step by step.
Their strength has increased again! Feeling the terrifying power erupting from Yuno, Meliodas's pupils shrank, his heart filled with disbelief.
As the entire race continued to evolve, Yuno, as a high-tier Legion Commander, naturally benefited immensely. Her increasingly powerful and resilient body brought about a comprehensive leap in combat power.
Human warriors spent years of bitter cultivation and exhausted their life's accumulation to reach a certain realm, yet Yuno easily surpassed them simply through bodily modification, racial evolution, and the absorption of new combat traits.
“Yuno, retreat!”
“By my count, is it now one win, twenty-five draws, and six hundred and twenty-seven losses?”
This kind of entanglement was never going to produce a definitive winner. Begrun and Yuno's core objective had never been a decisive victory; they were only there to restrain and delay, exhausting the enemy's combat power. Every time they clashed for a while, they would decisively pull back and retreat, never lingering in the fight.
The Empyrean Star Guard had clashed with the two Legion Commanders dozens of times, but in the end, all that remained were damaged generals, shattered terrain, and a series of meaningless draws.
“These pests that won't go away!” The captains were filled with resentment but were helpless, forced to watch the other side repeatedly pull them along and restrain them at will.
“This is bad! A massive enemy cluster has appeared in space!”
In the interval while the Great Devourer Legion Commanders held down the church's main forces and the battle continued to drain them, the most fatal moment finally arrived.
The Goddess of Light Association had already reached its limit after exhausting all its combat power for the counteroffensive, with only a few remnants struggling to hold on. Meanwhile, the massive troop numbers accumulated by the Great Devourer had already finished gathering and began to pour into every corner of the high-tier territories.
“...”
Meliodas stiffly raised his eyes toward the vast sky. Above the horizon, dozens of Chronos giant warships arrived in formation, their hulls packed with endless Great Devourers. They broke through the atmosphere in a grand procession, diving toward the surface.
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