Chapter 149: What Are You Waiting For

Few surface dwellers notice that the morning, noon, and dusk of the Underworld actually feature distinct changes in scenery.

Besides its primary light sources, various glowing mosses change color at different times, and this also stems from the biological instincts of the various plants and animals throughout the entire ecological chain.

Sentient beings have actually always been one link in this fragile ecological chain.

In dark elf cities like Mordorilka, the city walls seep a faint glow in the morning; that is the blessing of the gods, as well as the spiritual light generated by the gathering of believers.

And by noon, when the matriarchs' halls of the various families ring their bells, the exhausted slaves and male laborers also get some time to catch their breath.

At this time, the noble ladies of the family will pray, and also allow the slaves under their command to rest a while.

They can eat a meal, then nap for ten minutes, and must then continue their hard labor. The time the dark elves grant for rest is not out of care for them, but merely to extend the lifespan of their tools.

But today, that urgent bell toll is a summons to war.

"Clang-clang-clang!"

The assault by the mind flayer legions has grown increasingly fierce; on this battlefield, one can even vaguely see the figures of nearly a hundred mind flayers, which also implies the assembly of thousands of throng soldiers.

Considering the fragile ecological structure of the Underworld, this is certainly a combat force group composed of external reinforcements.

After all, a single mind flayer needs to eat one sentient brain at minimum per month; if they eat freely, they need one per week. A slightly larger mind flayer clan can easily turn the Underworld into a true "no-man's-land."

"Are they planning to reorganize the kingdom?" This scale is far too abnormal.

The matriarchs are not fools; or rather, even if a fool happens to become a matriarch, she will not live long.

As holders of knowledge, they knew merely from the scale of the mind flayers that coexistence between the two sides was impossible.

All previous agreements and private pacts can be torn up directly.

The mind flayer brain as the community manager controls the scale of the mind flayer society; generally, once there are more than thirty mind flayers, they become too "harmful" in the Underworld.

And now, the visible mind flayers on the battlefield exceed a hundred; the entire clan may already number over two or three hundred. A mind flayer society of this scale, the entire Mordorilka might not be enough for them to eat.

After all, they are not only gluttonous but also picky; sentient beings often take over twenty years to mature (to be edible by mind flayers), while a mind flayer can digest one in a week.

"They are serious; abandon your illusions." One matriarch spoke the reality.

"I will go awaken the Ancestor Warriors and Mummy Warriors immediately; will your family's Arachne Elf legion also be summoned?" One matriarch was willing to commit true combat power, yet still demanded other families match her contribution.

"Martial Arts Masters, where are those stupid male Martial Arts Masters?" Finally, they began to deploy their family's private assets and elite forces.

The matriarchs argued on the city walls, gazing at the mind flayer army swelling in numbers, with not a shred of hope left.

Regarded as the "cockroaches" of the multiverse, when they have only one community, they can coexist with you and even become quite useful tools; but when they begin to call their kin on a large scale and form legions, being conquered by them also means becoming reserve rations.

Mind flayers eating brains is destined by their own defective physiological structure; they require "pheromones," "psionic energy," and "brain tissue" from the brains of other races.

The smarter the brain, the higher the mental power, the more delighted they are. These matriarchs, every single one of them, will be the main course at the banquet!

Finally, Mordorilka's war machine truly began to operate at full capacity.

This is the problem of the "family" system: all armed forces are actually private property of the families; only when their own interests are damaged will they go all out; otherwise, they are happy to see the First Family collapse under pressure.

"Boom!"

But accompanied by an earthquake and a deafening roar, when that familiar yet strange giant beast appeared, the faces of all the matriarchs instantly turned very ugly.

The situation had gotten worse.

Compared to yesterday, it had grown by at least one-third and could now look down upon the city walls!

But the greater change was the massive horns that had already extended from the sides of its brain.

This in itself was nothing, but once a deer grows horns, it also means it has entered adulthood! This Beast Prince has already begun to enter the quasi-adult stage!

"It is floating."

Someone with eagle eyes saw the most terrible reality.

That mountain-like giant beast was actually hovering on all four hooves.

This meant it had completely mastered the authority of its own gravity, able to apply it to itself, which also meant

"... the walls empowered by divine power are meaningless to it."

The cruel reality gave all the matriarchs a hard slap in the face.

We mind flayers were waiting for reinforcements, waiting for the catalytic maturation of the Beast Son.

Sisters, what are you dark elves waiting for?!

"If we had used all our power on the first day"—this thought flashed through the minds of all the matriarchs.

But in the next moment, they did not need to consider it further; even if it happened ten more times, they would still have held back their power, waiting for this day.

Perhaps this is the root reason why the dark elves, despite their individual strength and magical civilization not being poor, have always only been able to scrape by in the Underworld.

This, perhaps, is the true systemic problem; even at this moment, the matriarchs have begun to consider escape routes.

Ride the wind when it's favorable, hide when it's a draw, run when it's unfavorable; in terms of having idiot teammates, dark elf society is perfect.

"Clang!"

On the city wall, a sudden noise attracted everyone's attention.

The Divine Maiden Verna slowly floated up; one by one, black swords unfurled with the wind, and shadows and divine fire transformed into her wings.

She was still here.

From beginning to end, she had given her all; and her figure now, along with the divine power surging from her body, stabilized the wavering morale of the army.

In the next moment, her calm words echoed across the entire city wall.

"The gods are watching us."

When the words fell, cheers rose from the city wall; the ordinary soldiers were encouraged, while the dark elf matriarchs received a warning.

She knew how to encourage the combat power of this bunch of trash.

Talking about "if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold" is useless; do they really think that when the city falls, they can just move to another city and start over?

But if they lose divine favor, become deserters on a battlefield watched by the gods, and are viewed as useless trash and garbage

"Boom!" Explosions occurred in succession, and multicolored divine spell halos rose and fell one after another.

Various summoned creatures, secret treasures, and magical artifacts were all deployed onto the battlefield.

This time, the Dark Elf matrons finally stopped arguing and retreating; they had to fight for their lives.

The Goddess Verna did not rush forward; she silently watched the swelling beast, knowing this was destined to be a protracted war.

"Sister..." Her thoughts were already with the squad outside the city.

"... At least, she can escape." She no longer held much expectation for the situation outside.

It was obvious that the Mind Flayer clans outside would only be larger, and the defenses around the Brain would only be more thorough.

"Mother, if you cannot protect me, then protect Tarabar." It seemed that as a Goddess, she could only pray to the Deities.

Perhaps at this moment, she had little confidence in surviving this calamity.

After all, the crisis still stood before them, yet the new Divine Prophecy had not arrived.

In her view, it might be that even the Deities could not see through it, or more likely, the fate of destruction was already destined.

"If everything is destined to be destroyed, then at the very last moment, let everything burn fiercely..." Waving the black sword in her hand, the Goddess once again faced the beast.

—

Verna's calculations were not wrong; the expansion speed of the Mind Flayer society far exceeded expectations, and these "interstellar cockroaches" were rapidly clustering and increasing.

With the strength of the "Dark Elf squad" outside right now, even if all gathered together, it would not be enough to break through the Brain's lair.

Moreover, expecting the Dark Elves to cooperate? Perhaps letting a single family execute this task alone, without hindering each other, would yield a higher success rate.

But reality always surpasses imagination; just as the Mind Flayers were about to succeed, a group of people, or rather a group of beasts, were more anxious than the elves of Morodilka!

"The battle of Morodilka has begun; let us begin too, to save our Prince."

One by one, the Great Horn Priests scattered from all directions converged; they were the ones least able to accept the enslavement of the Beast Prince.

Countless small beasts transformed into beast-men; unknowingly, they had already approached the area where the Brain resided.

And Li En's group would never have thought that among these "reinforcements" on their own side, there were actually numerous Dark Elf nobles. These scattered hunting squads, as prey, had not killed a single Mind Flayer, yet had quietly mixed with the Beast Cult again.

They, along with their servant armies, became the main force of the true battlefield.

"Boom!"

When the pure-white magical girl descended, that was the greatest reliance of this battlefield.

And she was not the only one.

Another girl with half-black and half-white hair also stepped onto the battlefield, her ancient-wood-like deer-antler staff nearly identical to that of her predecessor.

And the appearance of the two magical girls meant that two Beast Princes had arrived at the battlefield to save their own kind.

Thus, after the first Beast Prince was captured, the four Beast Princes hunted by the Mind Flayers had all appeared.

For survival, the various races of the Underworld had staked everything.

And in a corner of the battlefield, Li En's group of surface-dwellers also arrived at the edge of the battlefield as scheduled.

(End of Chapter)