The Eighth World Collision - Part 3

At first, the dimensional gate could only let a handful of beings cross. But as time passed, the gate grew larger, opened more frequently, and eventually became a permanent dimensional passage. The later the stage of the dimensional gate, the easier it became to open one.

From nearly the very beginning, Biin had taken Wahando’s advice and crammed the Dessert Legion’s vanguard into the gate at maximum capacity.

“The core of your Dessert Legion is that they handle their own logistics. Your legion’s supply line is, in itself, an attack on the enemy world. If everything they devour causes the opponent’s entire ecosystem to collapse, there’s no need to send soldiers in any conventional military formation.”

In other words, Wahando had divided the Dessert Legion’s vanguard into three distinct categories.

First. The “monsters” — massive creatures like Dark Lim, Bisyakheet, and Caramel Camels capable of directly destroying civilization. They could even stand against armies. The downside was that raising them required an enormous amount of resources even for the Dessert Legion.

Second. The “beasts” — carnivorous puddings, candies, and breads that could hunt humans. Individually, they were only as strong as ordinary wild animals, but they were lethal against civilians. Most importantly, they were jelly-type lifeforms. Their growth and death cycles were absurdly short, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and their reproductive rates were off the charts. Once scattered across an enemy world, they would multiply like crazy.

Third. The “marine creatures” — organisms with almost no offensive ability that simply ate a massive amount of the enemy world’s lifeforms. These included the relatively non-aggressive Magic Sugar Lumps, Gamchi that ate fruit or grain, and leaf-munching insects.

“Your main plan is fascinating. You’re gnawing away at the enemy’s combat sustainability — in other words, their logistical capacity… And if the monsters are nothing more than shields meant to draw attacks, then the key is mixing these three types appropriately. In military terms, it’s the vanguard of the vanguard.”

In short, when the “monsters” directly destroyed the enemy civilization, the opponent would naturally prioritize hunting them down first. That was a hundred-to-one certainty.

Next, when the “beasts” began hunting the enemy world’s civilians and livestock, the opponent — having already dealt with the monsters — would then turn their attention to eradicating the beasts.

And only when both monsters and beasts had been eliminated and the enemy finally let their guard down would the unnoticed “marine creatures,” having quietly multiplied in the shadows, spread throughout the enemy ecosystem and begin their slow consumption.

“The peculiarity of this military deployment is that even if the enemy realizes what’s happening, dealing with it is extremely difficult. If they figure out that the ‘marine creatures’ are actually the main plan, then during the early dimensional gate stages when their numbers are still low, they could be wiped out in an instant. That’s why, as a smokescreen, it’s better to release slow, inconspicuous, and seemingly harmless lifeforms as the ‘marine creatures.’”

Because the monsters were so conspicuous, the beasts were pushed down the priority list.

And once the beasts were exterminated, the enemy had to be made to feel “relieved.” In other words, they must not even recognize the existence of the marine creatures.

That was why the deployment order had been further subdivided — monsters to send first, monsters to send next, beasts to insert in between, and so on.

Ogolraeot was completely overwhelmed by the Dessert Legion’s successive waves of monster deployment.

“Kyaaaaaaaah!”

“A demon has entered the city! Summon the knight order!!!”

“Th-this thing is just a single creature, yet its toughness—call the superhumans!!!”

And at the center of that impactful monster legion was, of course, the Bisyakheet.

Originally, these demons could not be defeated by cold weapons of the pre-modern era, and thanks to the symbiotic parasites living inside their bodies, their mystery resistance was monstrous. With Mihun’s consulting, they had evolved into the strongest lifeforms currently existing in the game.

“A Yo-su-gong-bop method that can actually be used on powerful creatures like the Bisyakheet! Of course it can be taught, but making it compatible with an ecosystem is extremely difficult. Because if a creature that powerful grows even stronger, it will inevitably distort the balance.

However, do not worry. This immortal has a solution. Instead of teaching the method to the Bisyakheet itself, simply change the subject that learns the technique to another lifeform.”

“For example?”

“Simply pass the method on to the parasites that live inside the Bisyakheet.”

The parasites that lived inside the Bisyakheet — calm and docile while feeding on nectar, but when the nectar supply was cut off, they would go berserk and drive their host into even greater ferocity — were given Mihun’s Yo-su-gong-bop.

Now, when the parasites could not eat nectar, they no longer simply released magic power and drove their host into a frenzy. They went further, transforming the host’s very body into a form specialized for hunting.

“It is like a Gu that plants a kind of madness in the host and mutates its flesh. However, since your lifeforms are far more resilient, the mutation can be made incomparably more powerful.”

A Bisyakheet driven mad from lack of nectar would now undergo bodily mutation under the parasites’ influence the moment it crossed into the enemy world.

Its body would specialize in eating meat instead of nectar. Its skin and membranes would become incomparably tougher, its bones heavier and sturdier, its muscles tougher and more powerful.

In extreme cases, it would even lose its flight capability.

Wasn’t flight a superior ability to walking? Perhaps. But no matter how strong a Bisyakheet was, a body that could fly could not become too heavy. In other words, losing flight capability meant it could become heavier.

And in nature, heavier usually meant stronger. Though it was called “walking,” it could now sprint at speeds comparable to large feline predators.

Not only that, the Bisyakheet’s new role was now that of a “cannon shell.” Once it crashed into the target area, what was the point of launching another shell?

Of course, Biin did not stop at that advice. He diversified the parasite species living inside the Bisyakheets. Some parasites caused them to lose flight capability and become stronger, while others preserved flight and instead made them fly around like absolute lunatics.

And eventually, it appeared. The strongest Bisyakheet among all Bisyakheets.

Among those that built their own nests, performed courtship rituals, and even engaged in some form of cultural life, this one had reached the pinnacle of its pack and ascended to a higher entity…!

“You are no longer a Bisyakheet. From now on, you are a Cracker — the one who crushes civilizations.”

A hero-grade entity. Originally, a normal Bisyakheet possessed combat power around level 3, rising to level 4 when berserk. This one’s combat power reached a staggering level 7 when berserk.

Total score of 100,000 points! Of that, Health alone was 20,000 points! Combat was 40,000 points! Just judging by the strength of a single entity, it would require roughly one-fifth of Ogolraeot’s entire army to raid it.

“N-no way! How can such a monstrous creature cross over at this stage of the dimensional gate?!”

Because, by the rules, there was no problem.

In short, Yogur-tosoth and Shuc-rimmurath were “unique creations.” Beings with no limit to their strength ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that could grow endlessly. Such entities could not cross into the opponent’s world. They completely overwhelmed ordinary lifeforms in every category.

But the “Cracker” was simply a creature that was strong on its own. In other words, it was not much different from a narrative-grade entity like Haina, the knight commander sent to the enemy world, who had trained and grown powerful through personal effort…!

The only difference was that Haina was a narrative-grade entity of the horned dwarf race with a base level of 1, while the Cracker was a hero-grade entity of the Bisyakheet — a monstrous creature stronger than a Quetzalcoatlus.

The Bisyakheet legion, including the Cracker, showed zero regard for “air superiority.” They flew straight into the enemy’s cities and fortresses, slaughtering countless civilians and even soldiers.

Ogolraeot had no choice but to station the strongest knight orders he possessed directly inside the cities to confront those demons.

Moving knight orders across a fairly large territory would normally be difficult, but Ogolraeot countered this with an absolutely outlandish method.

“The terrain manipulation ability of World Shaping is literally mythic-grade.”

What this meant was that he could line up an army on a specific piece of terrain, then literally “tear” that terrain off and move it to the target location.

It was teleportation. Normally such an act would consume an insane amount of divinity, but World Shaping had extremely low divinity consumption for terrain manipulation, and its modification limit was also very high.

Originally it would have been impossible to “rip” an area of ten square kilometers, but Ogolraeot could tear out only the exact patch of ground where his army stood and relocate it elsewhere in his world. And the smaller the piece he tore, the more drastically the divinity cost decreased rather than increasing.

In other words, within his own world, Ogolraeot could perform instant teleportation.

When he learned that Bisyakheets were flying into his cities from the sky, he even enlarged the “sky” several times over to buy time, twisted the sky’s position to temporarily stall the Bisyakheet invasion, gathered his citizens inside the city, and teleported them away — minimizing civilian casualties as much as possible.

The Bisyakheets were bewildered. No matter how much they flew, the distance never seemed to close. By the time they arrived, all the people had vanished. What was this?

“Knights! Slay those demon birds!”

And within his world, there were an absurd number of high-ranking entities.

Twenty-five hero-grade entities. Fifteen narrative-grade entities. Two legendary-grade entities. Of course, about half were non-combat creations, and even the combat types were mostly “racial apex individuals,” so their individual specs were somewhat lacking.

But the numbers were there. At this point, Ogolraeot’s army was still larger than the madly charging Dessert Legion.

Ogolraeot minimized damage by teleporting his citizens and soldiers around within his world, trained them in unity with his lesser gods, and endured.

He even sent reinforcements to the enemy world during this time, which showed just how deep his world’s foundation was.

However, after about a month of the dimensional gate stage, his thoughts began to change.

“Did I send too many to the enemy world?”

Nearly three thousand of Ogolraeot’s soldiers were now trapped inside Biin’s ecosystem.

Ogolraeot’s Life score exceeded 300,000 points. Excluding livestock and farmland, his pure population was around 150,000. Considering his standing army numbered roughly ten thousand, that meant fully one-third of his elite troops were stuck inside the insane Dessert Desert.

Yet Ogolraeot could not abandon the soldiers who had crossed into the Dessert Desert, so he had no choice but to keep sending more troops.

In the end, the conclusion was additional conscription.

“Conscript every adult male who can walk! Any woman who is not pregnant and can shoot a bow or handle mystery, gather in the army! This is an emergency — a super emergency!”

After all, this was still the dimensional gate stage. A phase where both sides sent out scattered scouts. The fact that Biin had an absurd amount of divinity and was pouring out legions was already an abnormal situation, and Ogolraeot, who was twisting his world’s very terrain to block them all, was hardly normal either.

Normally, if both sides fought with full force from the early stages like this, they would eventually run out of divinity and reach a lull where neither could open dimensional gates anymore, or run out of terrain editing capacity.

But neither Ogolraeot nor Biin had that problem. Both sides had completely different reasons for it.

“O God! O great Ogolraeot and all the gods of the pantheon! You who protect us! We believe you will surely prevail!”

First, Ogolraeot’s citizens were frantically holding rituals, falling into frenzied ceremonies, and squeezing out every last drop of civilian will and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠magic power to convert it all into divinity.

Since the nation was large, the Faith gathered from civilians alone was enough. In fact, this was how Faith points were supposed to be gathered. Ogolraeot’s Faith score had actually risen during the war and now approached 300,000 points.

And Biin — the attacker, who needed even more divinity — countered in a completely different way.

It was a method Sesaisa had taught him.

“Beautiful! After you taught me how to create flows using living creatures, I researched it extensively. As a result, I was able to find a way to improve your Syrup.

It’s simple. Convert life energy directly into flow, then condense that flow again and transform it into magic power.”

And the magic power dwelling within a god was called Faith. In short, even in the Dessert Desert — a place completely devoid of religious faith — it was possible to extract Faith through biological means.

“Abhojuth. Begin.”

After Sesaisa’s simple consultation, Creamland and the Syrup Rivers that now covered Biin’s entire world began to operate. Abhojuth, having madly devoured nectar from the Nectar Well, transmitted that energy through the Syrup across the entire world.

It was like a heart pumping blood. Although it consumed nearly half the nectar stored in the lake, that tremendous life energy was temporarily converted into Faith.

Biin’s Faith score temporarily exceeded 520,000 points. The enemy would never have expected such a method. He had deliberately hidden it instead of using it immediately.

Although the numerical value dropped quickly afterward, once a level was raised in the game’s mechanics, it did not fall.

520,000 points equated to level 12. Multiplied by thirteen times through the power of Deity-World Oneness, Biin could effectively wield 6.76 million points’ worth of divinity.

With what felt like infinite divinity, Biin continued opening dimensional gates without pause and pouring out his offensive, despite the disadvantage of being the attacker.

“Do not yield! The protection of the great bison is with us!”

And Ogolraeot had blocked all of it during the dimensional gate stage.

He had slaughtered every invading monster and beast, protected his farmlands, protected his livestock, and even minimized civilian casualties. He had succeeded in holding out by devouring the Dessert Legion, processing their corpses, and turning them into equipment.

While everyone was distracted by the monsters and beasts, they had completely failed to notice that the “marine creatures” were slowly infiltrating.

And among those marine creatures, the one they should have been most wary of was the slow, tiny, herbivorous lifeform called the Lazy Sugar Lump. They had no idea.

In the third year since the war began, the Lazy Sugar Lumps — whose numbers had been slowly increasing — gathered somewhere outside a fortress. They muttered among themselves, seemingly performing some kind of ritual.

Someone had actually observed it.

“Should we stop those things from gathering over there?”

“It’s fine. They’re using magic, aren’t they? As long as we don’t touch them, they’re harmless. Leave them be.”

Understood. The conscripted soldier followed the non-commissioned officer’s instructions and watched for a moment. Then, suddenly, the space above the Lazy Sugar Lumps began to distort.

“?”

The Lazy Sugar Lumps prostrated themselves flat on the ground, gazing up at their ruler in reverence. This was their primitive form of play and religion.

And for a brief moment, a dimensional gate opened. The ruler of the Nectar Desert. The first Dessert Legion Commander, Yogur-tosoth, revealed himself in the middle of the city.

The Dignity ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of Yogur-tosoth, which completely shattered the spiritual realm and flows installed in the original world. And the storm magic that followed.

A single city was annihilated simply because it had not bothered to chase away the monkeys idling outside its walls.