“To break through the enemy's anti-air defenses, most of the Chronos formations will concentrate at a single point to execute an air drop. If our losses remain under forty percent during this process, this surprise attack will be deemed a success.”
Celia thought this battle would be an easy victory, but Elise's brow furrowed.
“...The Chronos is still too small.”
After observing them closely, she couldn't help but feel that the Chronos—currently the largest and most resource-intensive space unit in the colony—was simply too small.
When the Chronos was first developed, its current scale was the absolute limit of what they could achieve.
Back then, they simply lacked the resources to support the creation of even more massive, powerful space monsters.
But now, a steady, endless stream of massive energy was flowing through her hands.
While numerical superiority was certainly an advantage, Elise had always yearned to breed stronger combat units that had undergone complete morphological evolution.
“For now, let's proceed according to the original simulation...”
A flustered Celia quickly spoke up to dissuade her.
Elise had no intention of immediately developing and testing such high-tier units anyway, so she did not press the matter.
Yet, through the billions of sensory receptors she had spread across the cosmos, she had already gathered a massive amount of intelligence.
She knew of giant space battleships that dwarfed the Chronos, and of factions that went as far as retrofitting entire asteroids into space weapons for the battlefield.
Sooner or later, the colony would inevitably clash with these powers.
Ultimately, the Chronos was merely a transitional form designed to lay the foundation for breeding high-tier mutated space units in the future.
Just as their ground forces had progressed from the swarming Great Devourers to stronger, more specialized units like the Gladiator Bugs and Razorclaw Ravagers, their space forces would also undergo a new wave of evolution in the near future.
A space nest...
As Elise's imagination ran wild, she controlled a worker ant to casually sketch a simple diagram on the muddy ground.
Though the drawing made by the worker ant's front leg was crooked and messy, it was enough as long as she could understand it.
What would happen if they built a giant nest directly in space and used it to mass-produce combat units on-site?
If spatial transit methods like Stargates were ever blocked, they wouldn't have to expend massive amounts of energy on space warps to transport their armies.
“By the way, we should decide what to do with the Goddess of Light,” Celia said, interrupting Elise's thoughts with a solemn tone.
“Absorbing the remaining members of the Goddess of Light Association completely will be no easy task.”
Since the moment she merged with the colony, Celia's original intention had never wavered.
She wanted to save as many lives as possible, at all costs.
She wanted to allow living beings to survive in peace and pass down their legacy.
She could not allow mindless, non-autonomous Great Devourers to simply devour and destroy the entire world.
Even if it meant bowing down to the Great Devourer, Celia was willing to do it.
Even if the entire universe were to be conquered, with thousands of planets falling under the Great Devourer's domain, there were still very few queens and Legion Commanders who possessed true sentience.
What would be the point of such a future? As a Saintess, Celia firmly believed that Lin Miao, the god she served, would never wish to see a universe so utterly devastated.
“Thanks to the persuasion of Kane and the other clergy, many have already chosen to submit to our side,” Celia explained. “However, there is still a massive number of die-hard believers who follow the Goddess, viewing her as the sole truth and faith in the universe. Even if she acts in ways that disappoint them, they will never betray her. Stripping them of the divine protection she bestowed upon them will achieve nothing.”
Elise said coldly, “We have no use for useless people. Not a single one shall remain.”
Sensing Elise's displeasure, Celia swallowed hard. “They are indeed useless, rigid, and highly inefficient. But if you want billions of people to submit to us, there is a relatively safe and simple way to do it.”
Elise held the highest authority among the Legion Commanders. Even Gaia, the youngest of them, treated Celia as a close elder.
In fact, within the colony, no one outranked Celia besides Elise and Kerrigan.
Yet, despite her high status, Celia remained extremely cautious.
The shadow cast by her first meeting with Elise—who had been filled with nothing but hostility and hatred back then—still lingered in her mind.
Today, Elise had grown and transformed into an entity that could slaughter billions of lives without batting an eye.
In the eyes of the colony and Lin Miao, any alien lifeforms that brought no benefits were merely resources to be utilized.
If they chose to resist and refused to submit, there was no reason to show mercy. They would simply be slaughtered and processed into biomass.
“We must not eliminate the Goddess,” Celia gently advised Elise, her tone like that of someone soothing an upset child. “No matter what it takes, we must subdue her and bring her under the colony's control. Only then will her devoted followers naturally submit to us. The vast holy power surging within her is the foundation of their civilization, and that power will eventually be ours to control.”
Special energy like holy power could only be properly harnessed by those who understood how to refine source energy.
To Elise, who desired to control every form of energy in existence, this was an incredibly tempting proposition.
“But I really don't want to let those believers off so easily...”
Elise fell into deep thought.
From the bottom of her heart, she loathed the idea of Hestia maintaining her divine status.
Those believers—who would eventually serve as the colony's energy source and act as "holy power containers"—had to direct their absolute faith and reverence to Lin Miao. They could not be allowed to worship a goddess who existed in name only.
"..."
Suddenly, Elise's gaze fell on the sketch she had just scribbled on the ground.
The giant space nest she envisioned was far beyond any ordinary mothership.
In her mind, the space nest would drift through the cosmos as an ultra-large core base, continuously mass-producing armies as a frontline strategic fortress for galactic conquest.
Given their current limitations, the necessary technology and rare resources were extremely scarce. Even if they forced its construction, they would only end up with an inefficient, resource-draining monstrosity.
But Elise knew that if she could acquire the finest rare materials in the universe, building it was not entirely out of the question.
For example, a living Goddess of Light.
If this space nest could house an army of planetary proportions, its creator's status in the colony would transcend that of a queen or Legion Commander. They would gain a brand-new identity, and their authority would soar accordingly.
If the other deities ever found out about this plan, they would surely be far more terrified than if they were facing a simple massacre by an invading force.
But Elise didn't care about any of that. She merely chuckled softly, increasingly convinced that this was a brilliant plan.
Rate on N.U.
