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

"...That's settled then. We need to be prepared for both possibilities."

Surprisingly, Yang Hao and his women showed no sign of anger whatsoever—aside from the black dragon's envious and jealous gaze, he merely nodded casually and immediately ordered Naruja to command several grenade launcher golems to come over. Two machine gun golems even accompanied them.

...Aren't you worried that if we gain the advantage of the modern Golem, you will lose the ability to earn a living?

Elena looked at Yang Hao with confusion, while Yang Hao was also worried about the problem of "going hungry after passing on his life's skills to others".

But then he thought, if he didn't even have this kind of courage, how would he possibly withstand the attacks of even more terrifying waves of demons in the future?

(If Benjamin were here, he'd probably do the same.) Yang Hao pondered his sworn brother's past. (Although we're engaged in a civil war on this planet... in the end, aside from the Roman barbarians, we need to unite against a common enemy... In this situation, what does it matter if technology is leaked? As long as we can maintain our current pace of progress and bring the countries that acquire our technology into the Federation... then everything will be fine.)

He took a deep breath. Turning around, he saw Elena looking at him with a puzzled expression. He nodded and explained to the doll-like girl in front of him:

"Don't misunderstand, Elena—we must first confront our common enemy, and only then can we deal with our internal problems. Besides, our two countries will likely be inseparable allies in the future, so why should we be preoccupied with the issue of technology leaks right now?"

"...I understand. You're right."

She gave a surprised reply, and a hint of tenderness was visible in her otherwise emotionless eyes.

Under the control of the Edenians, the grenade launcher golems and machine gun golems were quickly broken down into the most basic elements.

Subsequently, the Edenians attempted to reconstruct the two types of golem based on the records in the magic network. What finally appeared before Yang Hao and the others was an extremely luxurious golem made purely of magical materials.

If placed on the ground, a single Golem from the Kingdom of Eden could buy a town in the Roman Empire—Yang Hao remarked with awe. In the next instant, several 500-kilogram bombs appeared on the ground, and Yang Hao nodded to the Eagle Knights waiting in the sky.

The war on the floating continent is drawing to a close. The remaining question is whether our side can destroy the demons faster or the demons can evolve faster.

Chapter Thirteen: The Colossi of Both Sides - 5/6 8K

The golems created in the Land of Eden are referred to by Elena as "magical puppets." According to Elena, magical puppets are far more powerful and advanced than regular golems. To use an analogy that anyone can understand, the relationship between magical puppets and golems is like that of a college student and his not-so-educated father.

The former possesses greater capabilities, but requires a significantly larger investment—the latter, while possessing only mediocre abilities, is indeed the cornerstone upon which the former was created. However, in general, they both originate from the same golem structure.

These magical golems are very powerful. But that's the price of their power.

Their production does indeed consume too many resources.

"Helpless: The production of the magical puppets consumed a large amount of artificial magic power... In order to avoid the artificial magic power reactor shutting down again, and also to avoid damaging the pipelines by drawing too much seawater from the surface in a short period of time, we have to give up after producing 200 magical puppets and prepare for the final battle."

Elena sighed.

Yang Hao and the others remained silent with strange expressions.

Elena sighed that the Kingdom of Eden could only produce 200 magical golems at present because the artificial magic reactor was not yet fully operational. 200 luxurious magical golems that did not consume material projectiles but instead fired concentrated magic orbs. In Isgard, just one of these would be equivalent to the monthly GDP of a city.

Yang Hao and the others remained silent: You can produce 200 of these in two minutes, and the only cost is the disruption of magic on the floating continent and the consumption of a large amount of seawater? Are you Edenians really the kind of people we understand living in this world? And you monsters actually think this production capacity isn't enough?!

Thank goodness I didn't plan to take advantage of the chaos! At this moment, Yang Hao and the others felt incredibly lucky, while Black Dragon was even more determined to make Yang Hao a core figure in Ysgard.

After all, Yang Hao's relationship with Elena was progressing incredibly fast in Black Dragon's eyes... Nia wasn't sure if Yang Hao's relationships with other women were also progressing so quickly, but Black Dragon's intuition told her that the synthetic doll, who was gradually becoming more human, probably wouldn't let Yang Hao go...

Considering that the Kingdom of Eden might also join the United Nations in the future due to its own problems...

...

"Indeed, it's better to rush things," the black dragon muttered. After a brief confirmation that the magical puppet was functioning properly, Elena said they could proceed.

"Tense: We must act swiftly to obtain the secret. Therefore, Mr. Yang Hao, please advance under our protection—after all, even if the magical golems perish outside the magic network, they will not suffer any substantial damage, and we have already modified the magical golems' feet. Each of them is now a small magic network node, which can ensure the safety of us Edenites."

"Does that mean the Edenians should be at the forefront?"

"affim."

Elena nodded, ordering the magical puppets and dolls to advance in a mixed formation, and thoughtfully providing enough gaps for the United Nations' army to provide support fire.

The Magic Network appears to be a system that allows movement through nodes—as long as one is within the coverage area of ​​a node, the Edenians can download resources they need from a distance to their location at any time.

This technology is so convenient! Yang Hao sighed. With this technology, besides the maintenance workers and loaders, the most important department in the logistics department will probably be the cooks in charge of meals.

"We absolutely must have the magic network technology in our hands..." he muttered to himself. After instructing the commanders of the United Nations to order their troops to follow, he and Finn once again rode on the back of the black dragon, intending to observe the final offensive of the entire battlefield from a high vantage point in the air.

Before that, Elena used the remaining portion of artificial magic to prepare the items the Eagle Knights would soon need.

Ten heavy 500-kilogram magic bombs—the outer shells appear to be made of metal, and the impact fuses at the ends are thoughtfully marked with red mineral markings.

“Explanation: With ten bombs, one Eagle Knight can handle one, and we have a large number of Eagle Knights as mobile escorts, making this our best plan.” Elena jumped onto the black dragon's back to explain. “Furthermore, considering that the bombs only explode on the surface and won't pose a threat to the demon colossus and reactor, I adjusted them to [delayed fuse]... Any questions?”

"No. That's fine then—let's go."

"affim."

With Yang Hao's nod, the black dragon of Isgard carried important personnel from the United Nations and the Kingdom of Eden into the sky.

After landing, the Eagle Knights had ten of them unload all their heavy equipment. Then, they had the eagles laboriously fish the bombs into the sky, and thus they followed the armies of the Kingdom of Eden and the United Kingdom toward the Demon's Lair.

Now that the roles have reversed, the demons have completely lost their will to attack. They are holed up in the land around the mother nest, which has been transformed by demonic roots, hiding behind various fortifications, quietly waiting for the allied forces to attack.

But neither Yang Hao nor Elena were foolish enough to decide to step into the devil's trap—although they were indeed in a hurry, they still maintained a cautious approach to their actions.

First, the magical puppets displayed their might—with one muffled thud after another, the magical puppets launched beams of energy into the sky at an angle, then let them fall to the ground, where no demons could be seen.

Elena and the Edenians seem to be taking this opportunity to learn the United Nations' projectile tactics—they learn very quickly, not only because they are good at data calculation and processing, but more importantly because Elena herself is a mechanical life form.

Mechanical life forms have a natural advantage in calculating data—just as Yang Hao was pondering this, a ball of magic launched by a magical puppet struck the back slope behind the small hill in front of him.

Accompanied by the sizzling of magic, came the wailing of a demon. A demon larva burst forth from the cover of the slope, its swollen, burned body covered in pustules.

"Its power is somewhat lower than our Gorem howitzer," Yang Hao said thoughtfully, "but its kill radius seems to be larger?"

Because the elemental orbs launched by the magical golem have no physical form, they can only cause limited damage to the surrounding area when they do not directly hit the target.

However, as compensation, its damage radius is larger than that of the Golem's explosive ore grenade, and it can also cause great damage to the hit unit when it hits directly - at least according to Yang Hao and others' observation, those high-level demons who would not die immediately if their weak points were hit directly by grenades would die miserably after being hit directly by the magic puppet.

However, as a price to pay for the expanded kill radius and greater direct impact... every time the magical golem launches an elemental cluster, even the most magic-sensitive mortal can feel the magic power of the entire area being eroded piece by piece...

In general, if they are to be considered the mainstay of the golems, then their use is limited to large-scale deployments in magically rich regions like the Land of Eden—on the surface, they can only serve as a supplement to other golems. They are, in a sense, a new unit with terrain limitations.

As Yang Hao pondered, the demons on the ground, after suffering repeated blows, gave up on continuing their ambush.

They are buying time for the mother hive to charge the colossus weapons—but the only way for them to buy time is to expose themselves to the coalition's firepower and use their own flesh and blood to stop the coalition's attack!

Without a doubt, this is worthless.

Because the soldiers of the United Nations have already proven with their machine guns that demons without evolved armor can only die tragically in the face of a hail of bullets.

Even if demons evolve armor, the magical weapons in the hands of the Edens can easily cut through their armor and annihilate them at an even faster speed.

In this situation, the demons were left with only two choices—either be shot or killed by magical weapons. It wasn't impossible for them to rush to combat range alongside the demon larvae, but the special abilities of the high-ranking demons were utterly ineffective against the magical technology of the Edenians.

The flames spewed by the fire-breathing demon were directly neutralized and used by the Edenians using artificial magic. The petrifying demon opened its eyes in desperation, but before it could even petrify its enemy, its eyes were blinded by a blade generated by artificial magic.

Only a very few rare high-ranking demons who can summon magical meteors can cause some trouble for the allied forces, but those demons are either shot down by the machine guns of the magical puppets or are countered by Elena on the back of the black dragon halfway through summoning the meteors.

Elena said that the first baptism every Edenite receives after birth is to become familiar with artificial magic—every Edenite is born a master of magical technology, and naturally, the primitive applications of magic by demons and elves are insignificant in their eyes... but still very worthy of study.

"Confusion: The demon's [concept] ability seems to be essentially a product of purified magic... By [granting] certain objects specific attributes and then attacking those attributes, the demon can [petrify] stones, and can also [die] things that originally had no concept of death."

Their application of magic, though still primitive, has evolved a general structural framework that can clarify new directions for our future development... It's a pity. We wanted to capture some demons for live research, but now, the demons must be exterminated.

The demon's "concept" ability, in essence, seems to be a further application of magic—but overall it is still very primitive. In terms that earthlings can understand, it is a spiral cup of pleasure made with an electric drill.

Although it looks like a high-end, rechargeable, rotating Happy Cup with more than twenty modes, its essence is actually just a rotating electric drill drilled into the bottom of the cup—but even so, the magical application framework evolved by the demons still gave Elena a lot of inspiration.

After using the artificial magic provided by the magic network to disperse the magic meteor summoned by the high-ranking demons, she fell into deep thought as she watched the petrified demons fighting chaotically with the Edenites.

Not all petrified demons were attacked the moment they appeared. The allied forces were advancing in the direction of the demons' ambush zone. Apart from a few high-ranking demons who couldn't resist their desires and left the ambush zone and were immediately targeted and killed, the remaining high-ranking demons who were patient enough to remain hidden in various places, waiting for a more suitable opportunity.

Some of the petrifying demons had even buried themselves underground—and now, when they emerged with their eyes open, they caught the Edenians completely off guard. Under Elena's watchful gaze, the magical golems, originally a mixture of minerals and magic, gradually turned into hard stone. This ability to forcibly imbue magical golems with "life" in a conceptual sense, and then cover that "life" with "petrification"... if it could be applied to Eden's future magical industry, it should offer many advantages.

She watched as the petrified demons were annihilated once again, but the magical puppets were also left with several stone statues. She then looked up at Yang Hao and said:

"Puzzling: The demons' ambush doesn't seem to have inflicted much damage on us... If this continues, we can enter the artillery position at the designated time and launch a barrage against the demon mother's lair—we've already killed over 40 high-ranking demons, and there shouldn't be many high-ranking demons protecting the demon mother's lair. What are they preparing?"

"Perhaps they are hoping that the demon's colossus weapon will deal us a heavy blow."

Yang Hao started it.

"After all, that fireball looked like it had a huge destructive area. If it was really aimed at our troops, then it's almost certain that our army would be wiped out in one fell swoop..."

Fen picked up the conversation.

"...That's terrifying...but thinking about it carefully, it seems more likely they'll attack the Great Library area, right?"

Then came Naruja's unease.

"Instead of worrying about the library and the troops below that are unlikely to be targeted by artillery, why not worry about us flying in the air being directly shot at?"

Finally, there was the gurgling sound of a black dragon flapping its wings, whether to relieve stress or because it was genuinely worried about what was going to happen.

"Suspicion: Perhaps the demons intend to destroy the Great Library in one fell swoop... so they can take us down with them, or even destroy our artificial magic reactor...?"

And Elena's suspicions.

No one knows what the Demon Mother's Nest is planning to do. After all, based on current observations, the number of ambush troops sent out by the Mother's Nest is rather large, and their lair certainly lacks high-quality protectors. In a sense, after the Eagle Knights fly over, they can even continue to provoke the immobilized demons on the Demon Mother's body after dropping bombs without being countered.

But why would the demons do that?

Everyone fell into thought. Meanwhile, below, after clearing out the last of the demons, the allied forces continued their advance.

They soon arrived at a place about 10 kilometers away from the Demon Mother's Nest—the soldiers of the United Kingdom had already put a considerable distance between themselves and the Edenites, an order deliberately given by Elena.

"Explanation: In this way, even if our army is ambushed, the soldiers of the United Nations, who are made of flesh and blood, will not suffer any losses."

Elena rationally judged that the Edenites were not as important as the United Nations, at least in this war.

After all, even if the Edenians' physical bodies are destroyed, as long as the magic network nodes are not destroyed, they can upload their consciousness back into the magic network at any time and then use another body to complete the "resurrection" - in a sense, the Edenians will never die, so it is reasonable to let them do the most dangerous work.

No matter how strong the soldiers of the United Nations are, they are still flesh and blood. As flesh and blood, they are bound to die. As people who can die, they are naturally more important than the Edenites.

But there was one thing Elena didn't mention... she noticed Yang Hao's care for his soldiers. She realized that if they wanted to improve relations between the Kingdom of Eden and the United Nations, minimizing casualties among the United Nations in this war would be key to their future diplomatic efforts.

Although Elena still doesn't quite understand how politics and diplomacy work in the surface world right now, one thing is certain: the Kingdom of Eden will be unable to operate without the help of the United Nations for a long time.

Not only because the Kingdom of Eden still needs a large amount of land-based resources besides seawater and the production of artificial magic, but more importantly, the Kingdom of Eden has been suffering from a severe population shortage for a very long time...

Although 400 "seeds" were left behind, to be frank, these "seeds" were almost all female because the selection process took into account the possibility of artificial insemination... Unfortunately, with only the Great Library, the core building of the entire kingdom, remaining intact, the crucial "male gene seed bank" had long been lost or contaminated due to years of war, or had lost its storage space and thus "deteriorated" due to the previous "shutdown" of the artificial magic reactor.

In this situation, if the Kingdom of Eden wants to increase its biological population back to its original hundreds of thousands, then the inevitable day will come when it begins to intermarry with the people of the surface world...

Therefore, cultivating good relations with the United Nations is not only about acquiring surface resources—more importantly, the Kingdom of Eden needs the healthy, mature men from the United Nations to contribute to the reconstruction of the nation...

(Furthermore, the total number of intact consciousnesses among the magical dolls is actually less than ten thousand... and the vast majority of them are scientists. We can't possibly stop the next demonic disaster alone... so we must maintain good relations with the United Nations.)

Elena watched as the magical golems on the ground took their positions, raised their guns high, aimed at the sky, and then fired wave after wave of elemental orbs toward the valley where the demon mother's lair was located.

(The path involves acquiring resources through friendly relations with the United Nations, followed by technological exchanges, then commercial alliances, and finally, allies to gain access to the best adult males within their countries... The starting point of this path is to ensure that the casualty rate of the United Nations' soldiers is not too high. The next key point lies with Mr. Yang Hao...)