Though the distance was great, the voices carried clearly into the palace. Otherwise, Hestia would not have repeatedly channeled her divine power to shoot down every last one of these messengers.
Elise saw right through Hestia's embarrassment and helplessness, letting out a disdainful snort.
Every time her opponent wiped out the messengers, she immediately dispatched twice as many to apply pressure, relentlessly squeezing the Goddess's breathing room.
Although Lictors were precious, high-tier modified individuals, the Great Devourer colony's current production capacity was more than enough to mass-produce them.
Moreover, the resources fueling the colony's rapid reproduction and modification came entirely from the territories Hestia had once ruled.
“Do not pin your hopes on external support; it is entirely futile. Before any reinforcements can arrive, I will flatten all of your remaining territories.”
Lin Miao noticed that Hestia remained completely silent on the deity forum, showing an unusual level of restraint. This eerie calm put him on guard, prompting him to keep pressuring her through his vassals.
Right then, the hovering screen flared to life. Amidst a blinding holy light, Hestia's figure suddenly materialized.
“What exactly does the Outer God want?”
With the magnificent floating island and the majestic, solemn Palace of Sacred Radiance serving as her backdrop, the breathtakingly beautiful Goddess's face was filled with fury.
Her expression was cold and rigid as she glared down at the hive legion swarming the sky, her eyes burning with hostility. “As expected of a notoriously infamous Outer God. Instead of rushing to destroy all creation, you resort to mere wordplay and empty bluffs.”
Lin Miao sighed inwardly as he watched Hestia's reaction.
From the very beginning, she had been convinced that he was an invading Outer God.
To the native deities within the Divine Net, Outer Gods were invaders from beyond the established order—natural enemies with whom communication or reconciliation was impossible.
Lin Miao's active attempts to show goodwill and initiate a dialogue were highly anomalous. It was no wonder Hestia remained completely guarded and refused to let her guard down.
Yet, this also meant the stalemate between them was not entirely unbreakable.
“Even a high-tier deity should not cling to prejudice and treat their own assumptions as absolute truth.”
“Heh! A mere insect dares to preach to me?”
“I am offering you your only chance at survival.”
Lin Miao no longer had the patience to clear up her misunderstanding. He went straight to the point.
Speaking through Elise and the Lictors, he offered Hestia a final way out.
He shared no blood feud with Hestia; they were simply competitors in a planetary conquest, nothing more.
【Elise was puzzled】
Elise's original battle plan was to execute Hestia and completely wipe out the enemy faction. Lin Miao's command to offer surrender went entirely against her calculations, leaving her deeply confused.
However, Lin Miao's long-standing, rigorous guidance and absolute control over her were deeply ingrained. Despite her bewilderment, Elise did not show a shred of disobedience and strictly executed the oracle.
“Hestia, your vassals are bound together by faith and loyalty, willing to burn away their lives and souls for you until the very end. But now, their sacrifices can no longer secure even a sliver of victory.
Their physical bodies will eventually turn to dust and nutrients, and their souls will dissipate into nothingness. As a deity who rules over all living things, do you truly wish to let them make such a meaningless sacrifice?”
Lin Miao struck right where it hurt, using the lives of her countless vassals as bargaining chips to force Hestia to surrender.
His true objective was to force Hestia's complete submission. Only then could he cleanly absorb her divinity and her colonies without resorting to senseless massacres and purges.
“You Outer God, how dare you treat me like some low-tier deity you can manipulate at will?”
“I never said I was an Outer God.”
Seeing Hestia's shocked, heavily shaken expression, Lin Miao let out a helpless, bitter laugh in his heart.
By this point, it was only natural for her to be suspicious.
Lin Miao could not tell whether the Great Devourer's terrifying nature had completely shattered Hestia's worldview, or if she was simply in denial, refusing to accept reality.
“If you make the decision to sacrifice yourself, Goddess, then the countless people who still follow you will receive salvation and light through your sacrifice.”
Sacrificing for faith was never a duty reserved solely for vassals; a deity could also protect their subjects and sacrifice themselves for them.
Indeed, a deity's sacrifice carried ultimate value—the offering of a single god could save millions of lives.
This was the true, precious value of their symbiotic bond.
Lin Miao could not help but put himself in her shoes. If a powerful enemy ever forced him into such a desperate corner, would he be able to calmly sacrifice himself?
His answer was yes.
He had absolute trust in his vassals. He was certain that even if the Great Devourer colony, led by Elise, lost him, they would do everything in their power to gather strength, rise again, and eventually find a way to break his shackles.
“Never.”
However, Hestia's simple refusal caught Lin Miao completely off guard.
Hestia's lips curled into a grin as a near-manic, blazing light surged in her eyes. Her aura instantly turned freezing cold.
“This is my world!”
Hestia gritted her teeth, her gaze fiercely sweeping over her home planet of Arcadia below. Every word she spoke was like clanging iron.
“Those barren, ignorant lands, those foolish mortals who once offered young girls as living sacrifices to worship hollow gods, and everything nurtured by this soil—they were all redeemed by me, rewritten by me!”
Hestia spread her fingers, her body trembling slightly with sheer fury. Her long pink hair whipped wildly in the wind under the pressure of her surging divine power.
“Fifteen thousand years ago, I personally brought order to this chaotic, absurd world! I broke free from mortal shackles, rose above all living beings, and became the sole master of this realm!”
In Hestia's mind, she was the core of this world's endless cycle of life, the sole pillar driving civilization and maintaining its prosperity.
And that was indeed the truth. Starting as a mere mortal, Hestia had broken through her limits to ascend to the divine throne. She had single-handedly founded the Goddess of Light Association, leading her followers from the rank of a low-tier deity all the way up to a high-tier deity. Her capability was unquestionable.
“This world was born of me, and so it shall perish with me. That is the eternal doomsday prophecy of the Goddess of Light Association!”
The Goddess of Light had long since determined the ultimate end for both herself and her world.
She viewed herself as the very embodiment of this world's destiny, and she would never accept a one-sided sacrifice or surrender.
Rather than fall from her divine throne and hand over everything she had built, she would rather drag this land, its civilization, and all its living beings down into nothingness with her.
Lin Miao was temporarily left speechless. After all, he was just a half-baked deity who had awakened through unconventional means with an incomplete system. His worldview and values were worlds apart from those of orthodox deities.
In the eyes of these ancient deities, perhaps his concept of symbiosis and his methods were nothing more than an absurd fallacy.
This was why Hestia could not understand, let alone accept, his law of symbiosis.
“But that won't do, will it?”
Lin Miao frowned slightly.
Hestia had to surrender voluntarily.
She had to step down from her position as ruler and sacrifice herself to save her vassals.
Only then would Hestia's vassals feel moved by her sacrifice and purity, and in their quest to redeem their former ruler, be forced to cooperate with the Great Devourer.
If Hestia refused, the plan would fall apart.
【Elise said she would make the Goddess do just that】
“You have a way?”
Lin Miao looked at the screen, watching Elise slowly rise from her nest and look up at the sky.
“This is my duty.”
Elise's response was brief but firm, carrying unquestionable determination.
She requested Lin Miao to entrust the matter entirely to her, promising that she would carry out his sacred command.
She would make it happen, no matter what.
By any means necessary—that was Elise's way, and the way of the Great Devourer.
Although Lin Miao did not know Elise's exact plan, he was confident she could pull it off.
Elise was highly pleased. “A deity cannot be turned into a bio-battery or an egg-laying host, but... since things have come to this, doing something similar to that can't be helped.”
You made your choice; this is the price you must pay.
In Lin Miao's eyes, the value of Hestia alone was far less than that of her countless vassals and the rich heritage of her entire civilization.
In the end, Lin Miao sighed softly and granted Elise's request, turning his gaze back to the battlefield screen.
At this moment, Hestia likely still believed that her worst-case scenario was the complete destruction of her soul and the ruin of her world.
She had no inkling of her true fate. When the truth finally came to light, even if she regretted her choices and fell to her knees begging for mercy, Elise would show no mercy, and Lin Miao would not yield an inch.
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