A young boy gritted his teeth in his mother's embrace.
Even without seeing the magic bombs blanketing the entire area with his own eyes, he could easily imagine their power from the deafening roar and the scorching heat pressing against his body.
“Huh?”
“W-we survived!”
Yet, the mother and son were not dead.
The ground was scorched pitch-black, and nearby houses had been vaporized by the blast. But in that critical split second, countless creatures had rushed forward recklessly, completely covering and protecting them.
“Did they save us?”
Gently shaken by his mother's rough, trembling hands as she checked him for injuries, the boy stared up blankly at the sky.
In that fleeting instant, hundreds of Great Devourers had swiftly woven their bodies together to form a massive dome. This shield had protected not only the mother and son but also the surrounding residents from the bombardment of magic bombs.
Regardless of their species, the creatures—including several Tyrant-grade individuals interspersed among them—had resonated their energy with one another to absorb the impact.
Because of this, starting from the worker ants and moving up from the weakest, a vast number of Great Devourers were incinerated. Nevertheless, they had successfully fulfilled their mission to shield the survivors from the bombardment.
“This is impossible... Those monsters actually saved us?”
“But why?”
As the heat dissipated over the scorched earth, the residents stared in utter disbelief and shock at the Great Devourers that had sacrificed themselves.
The Great Devourer was their sworn enemy.
These monsters had trampled and invaded their peaceful lives, slaughtered countless who resisted, and ultimately even forced the goddess they worshiped to surrender.
Yet, the very same Great Devourers that had been slaughtering them without hesitation not long ago had now chosen to sacrifice themselves just as resolutely.
“...”
Of course, the Great Devourers on the scene had by no means made this decision of their own free will.
It was Elise who had issued the command. At that moment, she was sitting in her nest on a throne woven from Great Devourers, crossing her legs and folding her arms in annoyance.
There was only one reason why Elise had sacrificed her Great Devourers to save these people.
Ultimately, her calculations showed that doing so was more beneficial to the colony.
Worker ants, and even common mutants or Tyrant-grade individuals, could be mass-produced from the nests endlessly whenever she wished.
But these early-awakened humans possessed the specialized expertise required to mine the Dorag mines. They were valuable ‘reared property’ that needed to be preserved.
“Indeed. You would never tolerate anyone stealing what is yours.”
Lin Miao remarked with emotion as he watched Elise.
Ever since her self-awareness had awakened, Elise's personality had consistently evolved in a single direction.
Though there were minor nuances and shifts, her core nature had never changed.
“Could it be that the goddess begged them...”
“O-of course. That must be it.”
“The goddess... for our sake, she begged those monsters!”
A single, innocent remark from the young boy swept the tense, highly emotional crowd into a massive misunderstanding.
They had been told that Hestia had voluntarily surrendered and chosen to cooperate with the Great Devourer.
In other words, the monsters protecting them might very well be due to Hestia's influence.
Such a thought was indeed typical of believers who had spent their entire lives loyal to their noble and beautiful goddess.
【Elise finds them incredibly lowly】
“Hmph.”
Elise snorted in disdain upon realizing this.
Yet, the reason she allowed this misunderstanding to persist ultimately served the same purpose as saving them.
Allowing them to believe this lie was simply far more efficient.
‘Indeed. To you, it must seem quite amusing.’
Lin Miao shifted his gaze, observing Elise's reaction.
On another screen, the goddess came into view.
Having had her body completely reconstructed by Elise, the goddess, who had awakened her godhood once more, no longer possessed her former power and prestige.
Her body was encased within a colossal heart and mass of flesh, leaving her unable to even blink of her own free will. Only her face and a portion of her upper body were exposed, pierced by an exoskeleton spear that had replaced her spine to serve as the central hub of her new nervous system.
With her glossy golden hair hanging down, it was impossible to read any expression on her dull, lifeless face.
Even accessing the Divine Net had become impossible for her.
The hive mind had completely taken over the goddess's entire nervous system, monitoring her every movement.
Strictly speaking, her consciousness had been stripped away, leaving only her physical body connected to the hive mind.
“...”
Every time the massive heart housing Hestia's body beat, the two tentacle conduits embedded in her chest would tremble, pumping out vast waves of divine power.
Lin Miao looked back and forth between the two screens. One displayed the survivors of the Goddess of Light Association praising and praying to their goddess, while the other showed the goddess herself, whose mind and body—or at least her physical form—had fallen completely under the colony's control.
Whenever the survivors prayed to the goddess, even more divine power was extracted from her body.
Hestia herself was likely aware of this.
Lin Miao sighed, closing both screens simultaneously.
Elise had long since come to view the survivors, and even the goddess herself, as nothing more than tools for the colony.
Using the new heart created from Hestia's body as a foundation, she had already begun constructing the fortress-class space weapon she had envisioned.
‘Ionia... I've definitely heard that name somewhere before.’
Lin Miao had to do what needed to be done as well.
The first thing he did was investigate the Ionian faction, realizing this unauthorized move was not the first time he had heard of them.
“We're bound to run into these guys sooner or later anyway.”
Lin Miao's eyes lit up when he learned that the master of Ionia was one of the early investors in the Awakened system who had their eyes on Earth, and that they had established a considerable amount of power in South America.
‘Being stubborn won't do anyone any good.’
Hestia's current state was indeed miserable.
But in truth, Lin Miao felt she was extremely fortunate to have it stop at this level.
If everything had gone according to the whims of a rampaging Elise, Hestia probably wouldn't even have this much of her form left.
Even so, Lin Miao did not think Elise was being particularly cruel.
To put it in perspective, it was like a young child who didn't understand the concept of cruelty, giggling as they pulled the legs off insects.
Furthermore, Elise wasn't doing this for fleeting amusement.
She simply wanted to make the absolute most of Hestia, a precious material that had fallen into her hands.
Even back when she was far more unstable and volatile than she was now, Elise had still found ways to keep Celia alive and make use of her.
Thus, while the ideal scenario would have been for Hestia to cooperate willingly, she clearly wouldn't. Elise was simply making the best of the situation.
“So, Celia, go and convince her. It will make things easier for everyone.”
Lin Miao gave Celia her instructions in private.
He ordered her to persuade Hestia to cooperate before she suffered an even worse fate.
Celia was the most reliable person to handle this.
“To make the goddess sincerely cooperate with us...”
Celia muttered blankly.
Indeed, among all the figures Celia had met so far, Hestia stood out as truly exceptional.
She had met nobles, emperors of empires, elven leaders, beastkin chiefs, and everyone else of note, but compared to a goddess, they were all insignificant.
[Supreme Will of the All-Devouring Hive: Elise, you must also know that the most effective way is to have Hestia willingly cooperate with the colony, right?]
This wasn't out of pity for Hestia, who was now a living battery in all but name, but for the sake of securing greater long-term benefits.
Lin Miao recalled the Legion Commanders.
Including Celia, they were all loyal to the colony in body and soul for their own respective reasons.
Of course, there was some coercion involved, but so far, they had all served the colony of their own volition.
Lin Miao believed their destructive power and efficiency had already been proven.
The fact that Elise supported the Legion Commanders instead of deposing them was proof of this.
The only reason she had forcibly taken control of Hestia's body was to construct the space nest she desired.
If Lin Miao hadn't stopped her, or if she hadn't been building something like a space nest, Elise certainly wouldn't have kept Hestia alive this long, let alone taken over her body to manipulate it.
“You are the only one who can accomplish this mission.”
Lin Miao offered Celia some encouragement.
If he had to put it in terms, it was a good cop, bad cop routine.
To Hestia, Elise was a monstrous queen driven by infinite madness who defied all common sense. Conversely, Celia would be perceived as a relatively reasonable and dignified individual.
If they had tried to reason with her from the start without doing anything else, Hestia would have surely refused out of her arrogant pride. But what about now?
Lin Miao was confident that now that Hestia fully realized the colony possessed the technology to turn even a deity into a living bio-battery, she would be much more inclined to listen.
“Since it is the command of the Great One, I will surely succeed.”
Celia, already deeply loyal to Lin Miao, bowed her head and accepted the task.
[Supreme Will of the All-Devouring Hive: Elise, once your plans for the first space nest are complete... we will draw up an attack plan.]
After confirming Celia's departure, Lin Miao immediately proceeded to his next plan.
Elise, who had been quietly watching Lin Miao issue orders to Celia, was now clinging to Lin Miao's finger as he reached into the terrarium.
Lin Miao gently stroked Elise's head with his fingertip.
This was a strange custom that had developed ever since Lin Miao had accidentally touched her with his finger in the past.
Touching her like this worked much better than verbal praise.
The only issue was that Elise was becoming increasingly forward in seeking his praise, leaning her head in for him to pet.
It seemed he would soon need to come up with some ‘higher-intensity praise.’
“Currently, the prisoners are being interrogated.”
Elise smiled as she looked up at the sky—or rather, the ceiling of the terrarium where Lin Miao's arm reached in.
The foolish plunderers had ultimately abandoned all their subordinates and fled. The colony had wiped out nearly seventy percent of the enemy and captured the remaining thirty percent.
Extracting information through prisoners was a time-honored tradition dating back to when they were just a simple Great Devourer colony.
With cruel biological torture that even a goddess could not withstand, it was impossible for mere servants to endure. Consequently, they had already blabbed everything they knew, half-voluntarily and half-coerced.
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