After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

They not only hoped that His Majesty Yang Hao, as the head of the United Nations, could help Eden overcome its difficulties.

They hoped that His Majesty Yang Hao could act as a "companion" and help Elena truly become a "person" rather than just a working machine.

That's why Alexander ordered Elena to protect Yang Hao. He absolutely had to protect him—it wasn't just about Eden's future, but also Elena's.

"...Let's begin."

Seawater submerged the top of the artificial magic reactor.

With a pale blue light emanating from its core, the reactor officially started. After emitting a sharp, piercing sound that was both ear-piercing and rising steadily, the artificial magic reactor fell silent with a loud "clang."

Seawater was broken down into particles in a transparent glass storage tank, and then transformed into artificial magic in the artificial core reactor. This concentrated artificial magic would gradually fill the entire reactor over the next half hour, and then begin to be transported after the magic network was automatically adjusted, until finally a stable magic circulation ecosystem was re-established on the floating continent.

Alexander nodded to Elena, then sat down on the ground, entering a dormant state along with most of the magical dolls.

Almost all artificial magic has now ceased operation. Apart from Elena and a few magical dolls responsible for security, all other Edenians have entered a state of hibernation to minimize the loss of artificial magic during the reactor restart.

Everyone was waiting for the final restart of the artificial reactor, while Elena, after ordering the remaining magical dolls that were still functional to guard this most important heart, left on foot.

She still remembered Alexander's advice—although she still couldn't understand why one of her "fathers" would think that way, Elena was willing to listen to their opinions if it were them.

Moreover, she was genuinely curious about Yang Hao—she didn't understand his true background and wanted to investigate the source of his knowledge. She wanted to see what the surface was like now, and more importantly, she wanted to ask Yang Hao privately where he was from.

Elena wants to learn more.

...But such a future can only be discussed after the war ends, right?

With this in mind, Elena left the underground area, searching for Yang Hao's whereabouts while also sorting out her thoughts.

Meanwhile, on the front lines of the United Nations, the people of the United Nations are using the fruits of their past development to fight against an ancient demon.

............

Two minutes after the artificial magic reactor was officially activated, the front lines of the United Nations, under the coordinated command of the two commanders, were launching a fierce attack on the demons.

The first line of defense consisted of about two thousand soldiers from the United Nations, of whom elves made up only one-fifth. A large number of cheap stone golems and barbed wire served as the vanguard to hold off the demons' attacks, while heavy machine guns and machine gun golems served as the mainstay. Behind them, a large number of grenade launcher golems provided fire support.

Under the almost seamless barrage of fire, the waves of demons, despite their overwhelming numerical advantage, paid an extremely heavy price for every step they took forward.

BOOM—!

Another grenade exploded on the devil's head.

The demons' anti-magic skin, which they evolved to fight against the Edens, is meaningless when faced with physical damage.

Their flesh and blood were blown to pieces. Even the high-ranking demons who had pulled out their air sacs and regained their special abilities were blasted into a sorry state, not to mention the demon larvae whose defenses were already weak.

Each grenade could create waves of shredded corpses in the tide of demons, and each incendiary bomb could make the demon horde scream in agony. But even so, the demons did not stop their advance.

"I strongly suspect that demons are actually a type of biological weapon that has been specifically researched..."

Standing on high ground, Yang Hao, with Fen's help, observed the distant battlefield with the others while muttering something to himself with a livid face.

"If the demons underground fought to the death because they had nowhere else to retreat, then aren't the demons of Eden's morale excessively high? Ignoring their own casualties, ignoring the enemy's firepower, ignoring the fear of their own death... They disregard all the emotions that living beings should have. Compared to being 'living beings,' most demons are more like 'machines'..."

Is this really a living organism? Even if it's a social structure like an ant colony, when faced with an almost impenetrable barrage of fire, wouldn't it choose a less casualty flanking maneuver to attack? Isn't this too strange?

If I had to make a comparison, they'd be like those in strategy games on Earth—soldiers who just follow orders and keep moving forward without any flexibility... Are they even normal creatures? Even golems seem more normal than them, right?

Yang Hao's confusion prompted Fen to nod thoughtfully. But before the little elf could say anything, the battlefield ahead underwent another change.

The primordial demons made contact with the foremost Stone Golem. Under the Stone Golem's iron fist, wave after wave of demonic larvae were crushed. The larvae tried various methods to destroy the cheap golems, but after discovering that destroying the golem's core would cause it to shatter, the demons began to destroy its limbs.

“They realized that if they could preserve those golems, they would have the space to advance further towards our positions through the cover.” Finn frowned. “A clever tactic… Look, some of the stronger larvae are even trying to push the golem remains forward—golems with only their bodies left can’t kill the larvae, and their massive bodies will prevent our soldiers from firing directly… This is bad.”

“But fortunately, our golems all have built-in [bombs], don’t they?” Yang Hao turned to look at Naruja, then glanced at the equally serious-looking black dragon Nia. “The Listeners can actively destroy the cores of the golems, turning them directly into dust… But ultimately, what we should worry about isn’t the golems being used as [shelter], but the demons’ rapidly evolving [mindset]—they’re evolving too fast. Just too fast.”

The demons are evolving at an incredibly fast pace.

For the first two minutes, they were passively taking hits, but by the third minute, they started using Golems as cover and deliberately only attacked the limbs without damaging the core. They even learned to use the tactic of jumping back and forth between cover to approach each other.

It's hard to imagine that just three minutes ago these demonic larvae were only charging headlong into the air, and even harder to imagine that they seemed to be subtly becoming more and more "intelligent"...

To prevent the golems from turning to dust due to core collapse, they began to actively reinforce the captured golems—although their actions became meaningless labor after the Listeners displayed their might, their rapid shift in thinking still sent chills down the spines of the few gathered together...

Fortunately, with the increase in [Intelligence], the bodies of most demon larvae have become weaker. If the larvae that could only charge forward at the beginning could withstand two 12.7*108mm standard rifle bullets, then the current demon larvae would die from just one bullet.

Their evolution can only choose one direction at this stage—which is a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.

Yang Hao was already considering whether to further adjust his team's research and tactical training regarding demons after the war. Judging from the current situation, the demons that were "well-fed" and the demons that Bayer Zans had "not been well-fed" were completely different creatures...

Based on their fearless weaponry, Yang Hao had reason to suspect that they were specially manufactured weapons—but before proving this conjecture, was it really necessary to capture a few living individuals for research?

As he pondered this, puffs of white smoke appeared on the screen that Finn had displayed—it seemed that demons had approached to within 300 meters, and the warriors of the United Nations had begun to carry out smoke siege warfare according to their previous orders.

At a distance where the dangerous demon might be "learning," use smoke to simultaneously block the vision of both sides, and then use your own firepower advantage to launch a barrage attack.

This is the tactic Yang Hao used to prevent the demons from learning it.

Whether this tactic will be effective depends on what countermeasures the demons will take...

They watched intently as the fierce battle raged in the distance, the grenades raining down from the golems, and the high-ranking demons waiting motionless in the direction of the Demon Mother's Nest. The higher-ups were observing the battlefield, and the soldiers on the front lines were naturally on high alert.

Under the cover of the elves, Bayerzans' soldiers were changing the ammunition belts for the Japa 1405 heavy machine gun—in a time when ammunition belts still needed to be manually loaded, each standard 100-round belt was especially precious. This was even more true when smoke screens were in place and fire support was needed.

After all, bolt-action rifles alone cannot cover all areas shrouded in smoke, so the soldiers on the front lines have never longed for more machine gun fire as much as they do now.

"If only our rifles could fire continuously..."

A Bayer Zans soldier muttered to himself as he applied damp wool to the barrel of his heavy machine gun to cool it down, his face dripping with sweat as he gazed at the distant smoke.

"The smoke screen is obstructing our vision, so we can only fire along the barbed wire lines... Honestly, is this really necessary to prevent demons from 'learning'?"

"Of course it's necessary! You see, the main reason we're able to almost crush the demons with no casualties right now is because they haven't learned how to use firearms!"

"But we still can't see it like that, right? But demons can evolve... who knows, maybe they've already evolved the ability to see through smoke!"

"If that happens, we'll use magic to disperse the smoke—but for now, let's just continue firing according to the original plan."

The elf urged the soldiers to finish loading their bullets, and once they had finished, the soldiers immediately joined the elf in firing their weapons at all the possible locations of demons in the smoke screen.

Amidst the firing of Japa 1404 rifles and Bayer Zinz rifles, and the suppressive fire of heavy machine guns and Gorems, the screams of demons echoed intermittently from the distant smoke screen—but for some reason, the frequency of these screams grew increasingly lower...

If you could hear dozens of piercing screams in the first ten seconds, now you can only hear a few insignificant shrieks in the next ten seconds.

It's not that the demon larvae have been reduced to a non-existent size, but rather that they seem to have realized the possibility of fighting within a smokescreen...

If the soldiers at the front line could get to the location of the demons and observe, they would see the demons using the corpses of their own kind as cover as they stealthily advanced.

They not only used the corpses of their own kind as cover, but they also turned them into stepping stones on the barbed wire defenses—while these weren't very effective against gunfire and machine gun bombardment, the losses of the demon larvae were decreasing with each passing moment...

In order to adapt to the environment of survival in the smoke, most demons chose to sacrifice their power on the spot and evolved eyes that could see through the smoke.

Accompanied by the red light representing temperature transmitted through their new eyes, they could clearly see that the humans in the distance seemed to be firing a strange tubular weapon. They huddled behind cover, observing, and finally, they began to try to replicate it.

At first, it was just an ordinary tube formed from ribs—but a tube is just a tube after all, with nothing inside and thin walls. More importantly, even the demon itself couldn't use that tube to launch acid or anything else.

Because the pipes were too fragile—realizing this, the demons began trying to increase their thickness. After increasing the pipe thickness enough to withstand the pressure from launching acid or bone fragments, they found that they couldn't seem to launch things as far as their enemies could, nor could they guarantee their lethality after traveling great distances.

This is how the same thing?

The demon larvae began to consider their surroundings. They reflected on their original method of spraying acid, realizing that air pressure might be key to propelling things faster and farther, but what exactly could be used to increase the air pressure within the pipes was another good question.

Some of the fire-breathing demon larvae murmured and finally vomited out small crystals—these crystals were byproducts of the fire-breathing demon larvae's flames, easily exploded, and were an important consumable for them to kill armored units at close range.

Conversely, something that can explode can blast rocks into the air—if placed in a pipe, could it shoot something out in one direction?

The demonic larvae, crouching behind rocks amidst a hail of bullets, began their attempts. And these attempts were destined to result in casualties.

Explosions and screams echoed from the demons' positions. The soldiers on the United Nations' positions thought they might have hit the right spot, so they fired even harder at the places they had previously aimed at.

After hundreds of experiments, the demons finally succeeded in evolving a new organ that could barely be considered practically useful in combat, eight minutes after the artificial magic reactor was activated: a hollow bone tube protruding from the throat. At the bottom of the bone tube, something called an "acid ball" was placed at the firing position. Then, underground at the firing position, an evolved air sac would serve as the main power source to spray the acid ball out.

How far this new type of demon can spray acid spheres remains unknown, but in order to evolve a structure that can spray sulfuric acid, they have had to concentrate almost all of their body's nutrients on their aiming [eyes], their [stomach] that generates ammunition, and their [body] that is used to create the projectiles.

These demonic larvae, later known as the "Spitters," were extremely fragile. They lost all their close-combat capabilities in order to gain the ability to shoot at longer ranges. It's hard to say whether this was good or bad, but it's certain that in this situation of being overwhelmed, the demons desperately needed equipment to retaliate against the Bayrjans.

After the demon larvae completed their preparations, they began targeting the red-glowing human figures behind the smoke screen. They unleashed a barrage of acid spheres, the recoil causing blood to gush from their bodies, but the acid spheres exploded out of thin air, either shattered by bullets or simply broken upon impact with barbed wire.

The Spitter Demons began to adjust their posture. They realized that direct firing was not a good idea—especially given the large size and explosive nature of the acid spheres. Perhaps firing into the sky and waiting for the acid spheres to fall naturally and kill the enemy was a better option.

Pfft! Pfft!

Another round of firing. The difference this time was that they launched themselves at an angle into the sky.

As the Jetpack Demon slumped to its feet, the faintly glowing acid spheres soared to their highest point before finally succumbing to gravity and crashing towards the United Nations' position.

The soldiers of the United Nations, obscured by the smoke, failed to notice the anomaly. They continued firing intently towards the demon, only to be dealt a harsh lesson by the acid raining down from the sky during their moment of lapse in concentration.

"Where the hell did this come from?!"

The elves reacted swiftly, using magic to stop the acid sphere from falling from the sky. Their faces turned ashen as they watched the sizzling acid pierce the magical barrier, while the unprotected Bayern soldiers cried out in unbearable pain from the corrosive acid.

"Stop yelling! I'm right here! I'm here to cast a healing spell on you... wait?! Why are you here again?!"

The elves were mostly soldiers who knew basic healing spells. They frantically tried to heal their comrades from the acid corrosion, but before they could even begin, green light began to flash in the sky again.

What on earth is going on?! The elves had to erect barriers again, and just before the second wave of attacks arrived, the soldiers of Bayrzan dragged their wounded comrades behind cover, and the losses they suffered due to carelessness were finally contained.

"Where did it come from?!" someone shouted. "I think it fell from the sky—are there flying demons in the air?!"

"No, that's impossible! The smoke didn't even reach the sky. Those things were definitely launched from the ground, just like the trajectories of our howitzer Golem!"

"Doesn't that mean the demons have evolved the ability to see us through the smoke?! Should we just blow the smoke away?"

Some cried out and ducked to avoid the third wave of acid bombardment. They were right; now that the demons had evolved organs better suited for observation within the smoke screen, maintaining it would only cause trouble for the warriors of the United Nations.

The commanders on the scene reacted decisively and swiftly. The instant they realized that the demons were using the smoke screen as cover to launch projectiles, they immediately ordered the elven mages waiting in the rear to unleash their magic, blowing away all the smoke on the battlefield.

As the smoke cleared, the people of the United Nations finally discovered the culprits who had launched them—a group of extremely deformed new demons who even needed the help of other demon larvae to move.

But it's too late to discover their existence now. After numerous launches, these new demons have gradually figured out the direction of evolution.

They began to evolve their pipes and ammunition to be larger and larger. In the end, these new demons even abandoned their individual existence and chose to become external organs that other demons could carry around at any time.

Just like the prosthetic limbs of demons, a large number of agile demons began to carry these acid-spraying creatures around, causing the United Nations soldiers who suffered losses to curse them, while also increasing the difficulty for the soldiers to carry out sniping.

Left with no other choice, the soldiers requested that the howitzer Golems unleash a salvo at the area where the new demons were located, attempting to use carpet bombardment to wipe them out in one fell swoop, thus buying time for the treatment and evacuation of the wounded.

"Understood, artillery support is on its way."

A calm voice came from the Listener, who was directing the howitzer Gorem to fire the shells from the rear.

"But then they need to cool the gun barrels, and I can't get them to provide support within five minutes—the shelling begins. Good luck."

With a thunderous roar, two rounds of artillery fire covered the area in front of the barbed wire where the demon larvae were huddled together seeking cover.

The demon larva's corpse was blown to pieces, and the soldiers on the front line finally had time to treat their wounded.