Chapter 238: Crushing Across Eras
Although Shana ultimately didn’t satisfy Roger’s curiosity, the story she told was absolutely good news for the empire and a great shock:
What the empire was doing was not alone, and it was grand. Even the gods who had lived for a long time were shocked by the empire’s pioneering feat.
Mortals could not compare to the power of gods, but their lives were not impossible without gods. They could defeat the countless difficulties of nature with their own hands, protect themselves, and thus get rid of such parasites.
The Azurevine Empire taught Nalinel a lesson with the happy lives of its people and their spontaneous efforts.
Although she was a time shepherd, due to her background, experiences, and the mission she had to complete, she could never practice what she learned in class.
After making this clear, she was happy that the problem that had been troubling her finally had an answer, but also sad that the answer had nothing to do with her.
At the same time, compared to the entire Universe, it was so small and weak, and could be extinguished by a great charge from the gods at any moment…
Nalinel decided to contribute her strength to protect this tiny, precious spark that might eventually spread throughout the Universe.
Even if she didn’t know what she had done, with her understanding of the Seven Gods, it would definitely anger the God of Knowledge, right?
As long as the enemy could be made uncomfortable, it would be good news for the empire, even though their strength was definitely much weaker than the Seven Gods.
The resistance of the Chosen of the System seemed like a fierce battle, and the plan of the Seven Gods to deploy throughout the Multiverse was hindered, but the root cause of all this was not the weakness of the gods—
It was because they were greedy, wanted to fight but not pay the price, and due to their disagreements, they had not yet unleashed their true strength.
In other words, mortals at this stage did not have the qualifications to make the gods take them seriously and deal with them with all their might.
The Seven Gods’ new strategy still involved letting mortals resolve the trouble caused by the Chosen of the System internally, and then they would pick up the fruits of victory, thus further reducing their own losses.
Of course, the empire’s countermeasure was also very simple. Thanks to Shana’s development of the divine power conversion device, both newly born and old gods were a precious resource for the current empire.
As long as it was used properly, it could become capital for further strengthening themselves.
After Shana finished telling what she knew, she quietly wriggled out of Roger’s embrace. In her opinion, this was a rather bashful posture:
She wouldn’t rely on this guy. Her previous intimate contact didn’t mean anything. Hey, it was just for fun!
For the Little Angel, although she was no longer Nalinel at the moment of her birth, she had made up for many past events, and it indeed explained many of her views and personality traits.
Too many shadows of Nalinel remained on her. Even if she didn’t admit it, with these memories added, she finally had a sense of weight that matched her strength.
Roger could also feel that she had changed and asked:
“Now that you know your origin, where do you plan to go next?”
“I haven’t decided yet. I plan to use my eyes to see more Worlds, and then think slowly.”
“The empire has just started its external wars, so you can visit on the way.”
“That seems like a good idea?”
Shana was indeed interested.
Nalinel did not want to become her, but the memories she gave were hundreds of times longer than Shana’s own life. The vast amount of information would inevitably reshape many of her perceptions.
Under this strong impact, although she was no longer a rootless duckweed, it would still take a long time and more experiences to get rid of the influence of that information.
Even if she became Nalinel the Second and served as a time shepherd for the empire, perhaps it would be a good development?
Nalinel’s past attempts had indeed failed, but a failed path did not mean it was meaningless. At least it could rule out a large number of wrong options, right?
Besides, driving a broken car for tens of thousands of years was definitely skilled driving. This vast management experience was given to Shana. Without surpassing that Empress, she was more than capable of being a governor.
The empire’s research and development capabilities were excellent, and there were many mages who brought continuous technological progress, but truly independent administrative officials were scarce talents!
The prosperity of magic civilization and the exploration of the road ahead had too much attraction for the most outstanding talents.
The empire also greatly emphasized the good things of magic discovery and technological progress, absorbing a large number of talents.
And the reforms in this country had only been carried out for five years. Before that, under the empire’s inefficient and low-level management, the current officials had greatly improved, bringing obvious progress, but in Roger’s eyes, their level was just so-so.
With technological dividends and demographic dividends, private individuals did not have heavy burdens, and as long as they worked honestly, there would always be a satisfactory answer.
If one were to say that those officials had any original actions, or explored an imperial model of their own, that was truly nonexistent.
As time went by, Roger had slowly become accustomed to the thinking of a manager: everything had two sides. Any change could be used to find opportunities for exploitation…
Shana did not notice Roger’s ulterior motives. His suggestion was indeed very attractive. All she could provide for the divine power conversion research project was the direction, and the specific operations still needed to be carried out by those truly theoretical and research-oriented mages.
In the final analysis, she was still a priest. Her role for them was to provide conceptual expansion from another perspective, which would make it easier to break out of the mages’ original thought constraints, thus bringing about faster progress.
Before, she didn’t know where to go and lived her life drifting with the current.
Now that she had inherited Nalinel’s memories, she didn’t necessarily have to become her, but traveling thousands of miles was indeed a direction she was willing to try.
With the past, she looked forward to the future even more.
This was the strength people drew from their own past. The correctness told by others was ultimately superficial. If one walked in that direction for too long, they would slowly feel tired and lost.
Only by pursuing what one yearned for, and wanting to build a small world of one’s own, would one persevere through hardships and failures because of love.
—Roger understood this feeling very well. This was his “lying flat.” *(*slang for going with the flow/taking it easy)*
Because it was a path he recognized, just like practicing favorite hero skills in a game. The boredom in training camps and being abused by others in the early stages was like doing homework and taking practice tests.
But that process was easier to stick to than school learning, and more acceptable than being scolded by superiors at work.
Even if teammates cursed and opponents laughed while playing games, there were still people who persisted with their main characters. After hundreds of thousands of efforts, they would firmly believe that they could not handle this type of skill-based gameplay and give up completely…
Uh!
So “lying flat” was not necessarily passive, and hard work was not necessarily exploitation. The main thing was whether it was one’s own desire or a direction imposed by others.
Shana tidied up her chaotic emotions and glanced back at this void World that no longer held any special significance. In the Multiverse, such Worlds that lacked even a past existence were becoming more and more numerous, indistinguishable, their differences accumulated over countless years smoothed over.
“Even if there is no eternity, I will try my best to leave my own colors within my limited time.”
The Little Angel withdrew her gaze and revealed a very faint, shallow, but incredibly firm smile.
…
…
Multiverse, target Beta Plane.
The empire’s First Fleet, under the command of the Empress of Eternal Night, appeared above the capital of a vast kingdom. The main cathedral of the God of War Church erected a sturdy rain cover.
The Pope stood on a high platform, organizing millions of believers in prayer and supplication, resisting the evil Invaders from another Plane.
“Evil? Supervillain? I quite like those titles!”
On board the *Eternal Night*, the bridge, the Empress of Eternal Night revealed a proud and arrogant smile. The war desire suppressed for five years returned to her.
At this moment, her eyes were bright, no longer lazy, and sharp as a drawn blade, daring to face any enemy head-on in a death match, no matter what kind of enemy it was.
The imperial soldiers who accompanied her on the expedition were also very excited and enthusiastic, happy for their successive victories.
They were unstoppable and successfully carried out a lightning strike on target Alpha Plane, a World whose formal name was unknown and only had a codename.
Its only characteristic was that there were as many as one billion Believers of Thaibera there. Thus, the empire uprooted the church spreading the faith of the Goddess of War and immediately moved on to the next Plane.
The empire only dispatched a single fleet, proving that the combat power of the mixed fleet completely surpassed the magic troops of the past era, and its siege capability was unmatched.
However, their numbers were limited, and they could not occupy the enemy’s territory.
But there was no need for the Empress of Eternal Night to do anything. Without the power of the church, other surrounding churches would carve up those Believers.
The Seven Gods appeared to be united, but when it came to faith, they immediately turned into plastic sisters. When they encountered something ownerless, they all became rabid dogs, and they didn’t care that it was once Thaibera’s personal property.
If you can’t defend it yourself and put it on the street, it becomes public resources, and whoever grabs it first deserves to own it.
The God of Knowledge even extorted the Sea God, and Thaibera had taken advantage of the God of Nature more than once. They were all bad people, so there was no point in accusing each other. This was a matter of individual ability.
With such “tacit” cooperation, the empire only needed to break through the church of the Goddess of War, and others would naturally complete the subsequent tasks, greatly enhancing the efficiency of the war.
The imperial military also operated in this way for the first time and felt it was simply wonderful!
Real wars were not like games where you clicked “next level” repeatedly, constantly fighting powerful enemies and enjoying the joy of victory. There were a lot of swamp-like troubles before and after that could make even war fanatics develop procrastination towards war while still looking forward to it.
Preliminary preparations, arguments with civilian officials, occupation in the later stage, various resistance forces, and thoroughly stabilizing the management of a place were all much more boring than actual combat.
The empire’s past wars were also like this. For example, sweeping through seventeen countries, or attacking the beastmen. Even with tight coordination, there were still tasks before and after that needed to be completed.
Just the movement of troops and transportation of supplies required the cooperation of a large number of staff officers and laborers to ensure the smooth operation of the entire system.
But these problems were no longer problems for the Empire’s First Fleet. The *Eternal Night* was a mobile super fortress, carrying enough supplies for the entire fleet’s half-year consumption and several large-scale battles.
There were also specialized transport ships and troop carriers, greatly enhancing overall mobility. The supply of materials also had a dedicated logistics system.
Angelina would always try to dissuade the Empress of Eternal Night from initiating hostilities, but she was not an anti-war advocate. When planning the empire’s overall transportation, military supplies were naturally considered, and special channels were reserved to ensure smooth overall operation.
And in the current stage, the empire’s operations did not need to consider preliminary propaganda and finding excuses, nor the later stage occupation and mopping up small enemy forces. They only needed to completely dismantle the enemy’s resistance forces, and then they could move on to the next round.
“It’s like simulating training in the Fearless Space!” Rommel, who had a similarly cautious personality, couldn’t help but joke with everyone. The Empress of Eternal Night sat in the captain’s chair, her jade legs crossed, and nodded.
Indeed, it felt like madly clicking “next level,” and the enemy’s resistance was not strong enough.
They were all unsatisfied with the clash of war and enemies.
After a few rounds of magic crystal heavy artillery from the flagship class, the magic power and Faith Power accumulated in the enemy’s temples were almost depleted, and the city-class defenses were on the verge of collapse.
The empire did not rely on brute force. The magic brain computer—a modified computer that connected to the vast resources of the Fearless Space and was semi-biological—would perform real-time calculations to crack the principle and process of the enemy’s shields, lock onto and track weak points.
The seemingly mindless firepower coverage was a comprehensive manifestation of the empire’s new arcane achievements, crushing the enemy in terms of equipment and supplies, as well as possessing absolute advantages in technology and computing power.
After the defenses were dismantled, the escort ships covered the aircraft carriers and began to deploy aerial and ground mobile combat units:
The entire series of magic crystal mechs, such as the fifth-generation Pink Bunny, were war machines that could run and fly.
Although they also helped during the busy farming season, as controllable magic puppets, their true stage was battlefield killing machines.
Other series of controllable magic puppets for close combat, artillery fire, stealth operations, and intelligence gathering had also been fully tested through the empire’s proxy wars and were quite mature.
The mechanical army also included modified magic creature knights, special informatized front-line interaction platforms, firepower weapons specifically for siege, and mobile magic power load ships providing virtual divine magic.
The imperial military was not lacking in equipment. Various research institutions at home competed fiercely, and to compete for orders, they brought them increasingly useful new armaments every day.
Then came the battle of unparalleled dimensionality in this Universe, bringing despair to the enemy’s most elite holy heavy cavalry regiment.
It was a promised cavalry charge showdown, but the opposite brought a round of firepower coverage without saying a word, followed by aerial mobile troops harassing them, and then cavalry riding giant spiders with rocket launchers on their shoulders continued to bombard them…
Damn it, what’s the use of my Holy Punisher +12?
Goddess of War, look at the opposite side. There are really giant robots!
Of course, the God of War Church in this Plane still had considerable accumulation. Various strange divine artifacts and magic allies also brought great disturbance to the First Fleet.
However, under the powerful technical capabilities of the magic advisory group, methods were quickly found for even the strangest law-based equipment.
In just two days, the Holy See, which controlled a group of countries and claimed to have 1.5 billion Believers, was left with only its headquarters stubbornly resisting.
“If I can’t have it, no one else will!” the Pope’s expression was ferocious. The crystal ball in his hand vaguely connected to the souls of those Believers.
“It seems we’ve arrived at just the right time~”
A lazy voice suddenly echoed from outside the door.
