Whoosh!!—
Several corrosive missiles streaked across the sky, locking directly onto their targets on the ground.
Hum... Boom!!—
The missiles were intercepted by the barrier. Gravitational waves blossomed in the air into several spherical, dark-red vacuum fields, but failed to harm the targets below.
"An invasion! We're under attack!!"
The Elves in the forest jumped in fright and scattered in every direction.
Hearing the commotion, Potimas abandoned his attempts to press Filimøs for more details. He rushed out of the palace and looked up.
A silver-white starship was flying in from beyond the opposite horizon.
It was not particularly large, merely a small craft used by the advance team for planetary combat and transportation, equipped with several conventional weapons.
Bang, bang, bang—
Another barrage of high-energy weapons mixed with missiles slammed into the barrier, shaking the surrounding earth and mountains.
"What is that?"
Potimas was stunned.
Even though it was only a small spacecraft, it looked impossibly advanced through the eyes of this world's natives.
It reminded him of records from the civilization of the previous era. Only at the height of the last epoch had such an inconceivable behemoth existed.
Then he saw Ariel and a group of strangers standing outside the ship, their cloaks fluttering behind them.
"Who are you?..."
"Oh, so you're Potimas?"
Jibril looked the Elf King up and down.
He was the chief of the Fairies and had survived from the moment the System was created until the present day. In pursuit of eternal youth and immortality, he had conducted a series of inhumane experiments, making him the culprit who had driven the planet to the brink of destruction.
He had originally been human, but through technological means, he had transformed himself into a new species known as Fairies, then continued conducting further research.
Ariel, Filimøs, and the others were all products of his experiments.
Against a villain of this caliber, they could skip even the formality of demanding his surrender.
Clack!—
With a wave of Jibril's hand, the Angeloids flew out of the cabins and joined the starship in bombarding the ground below.
Boom, boom, boom—
A massive torrent of firepower poured down onto the barrier above the Elf Village, causing the shield to twist and deform under the impact.
"Stop! Wait!"
"You're from the Starsea Empire? Are the reincarnators with you?"
Rather than fearing these otherworlders, Potimas developed an unprecedented interest in them and wanted to extract more information.
He tried reading their data, only to find that every one of them was an incomprehensible wall of question marks.
"There isn't any bad blood between us, is there? Can we talk?"
"Were you deceived by a god or someone else into coming here to subjugate me?..."
He shouted toward the sky, attempting to avoid a confrontation.
"Have every member of the Elf race surrender to us and accept judgment. Otherwise, there is nothing to discuss."
Jibril thought for a moment.
Beside her, Ariel's gaze turned especially dark the moment she saw Potimas.
She extended a hand, and an enormous magic circle appeared behind her, constructing an intricate abyssal spell.
A torrent of magic crashed into the barrier, scattering streams of light in every direction.
Yet the emerald-green screen stood like an impassable wall of lamentation, isolating everything within from all external attacks.
"Tch—"
Realizing that the newcomers were hostile and had no intention of negotiating, Potimas immediately prepared to counterattack.
Clack, clack—
Hundreds of bizarre combat robots marched out in formation from the depths of the Elf Village.
They stood on two legs, with all manner of weapons mounted across their upper bodies, and were constructed entirely from metal.
Unlike Elves in ordinary fantasy worlds, who specialized in archery and forest magic, the "Fairies" here were fundamentally the products of Potimas' biological modifications.
He extracted energy from the planet to develop technology, creating a vast number of mechanical constructs and even manufacturing several mechanical bodies for himself.
"Eek—"
Spider casually swept her gaze across them. Even an ordinary combat robot in the Elf Village possessed attributes numbering in the thousands or even tens of thousands.
She would have no trouble defeating one, but if they all swarmed her at once, these things would probably bury her alive.
Huh? We have to fight things like those? If they all attack together, they're going to be really hard to deal with, aren't they?
I can probably handle three at once. No, four! Four is definitely the limit!
Spider's various brain ministers held a meeting and assessed the relative strength of both sides.
"The higher their level, the more experience they give."
"If you take down enough enemies, gaining a few more levels and evolving straight into your ultimate form shouldn't be difficult, right?"
Silver Wolf summed it up succinctly.
"Ooooooh!!—"
Spider was instantly filled with fighting spirit. She leaped forward from the rear, eager to begin.
Bang—Boom!—
Another barrage struck, only to be blocked once again by the green barrier overhead.
"Heh."
Potimas snorted.
He had initially been uncertain and suspicious, but after seeing that the other side lacked the ability to break through the barrier, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
With a wave of his hand, he ordered the Elves and combat machines to form ranks and return fire.
Bang, bang, bang—
Magic mixed with a chaotic assortment of high-energy weapons struck the ship's shields, sending ripple after ripple across their surface.
"Come, then, if you have the ability."
Arrogance colored his expression.
Ever since the barrier had been created, no one had ever managed to force their way into the Elf Village through brute strength.
Although maintaining the barrier consumed tremendous amounts of energy and accelerated the planet's destruction, he did not care.
The Elves did not regard the humans outside as people in the first place. In their eyes, humans and demons alike were nothing more than inferior life-forms.
"The barrier around the Elf Village is powered by the planet's life force."
Ariel frowned as she spoke.
Even the Demon Lord, whose attributes stood at the absolute peak, could do nothing against the Elf Village's barrier.
Unless they attacked it with a weapon capable of operating on the System level, conventional methods would have no effect whatsoever.
Her hated enemy was right before her eyes, yet she could not reach him. The frustration made her grind her teeth.
"Uh, the simplest method would be to overwhelm it with Heavenly Smite or planet-destroying weaponry, but that would wipe out the planet too, and rebuilding it would be troublesome."
"Let's use a more elegant method... Silver Wolf!"
Jibril called out.
"Okay."
Silver Wolf sat on the ground as countless intricate holographic interfaces appeared before her.
Her fingers flew across a virtual keyboard at a dizzying speed, entering command after command and line after line of code.
"Tch, I've seen plenty of Elves who use magic or bows, but this is my first time seeing ones who research advanced technology."
"Still... that makes things much easier. You don't even have a firewall?"
In the blink of an eye, she hacked into Potimas' database and seized control of every electronic device in the Elf Village.
For a top-tier hacker, even a language barrier could be overcome through extraordinary hacking expertise and aether editing.
"Done!"
"What?..."
Crack!
The barrier surrounding the Elf Village disintegrated in an instant.
The next moment.
Whoosh!!—
The Trailblaze team descended with over a thousand Angeloids, Ariel and Spider following close behind.
The area below immediately erupted into chaos.
"Poison Synthesis!" "Dark Bullet!" "...Dark Arrow!!"
"Confirmed. Executing extermination protocol."
"!!!"
Potimas was horrified as Ariel charged toward him.
He commanded the combat machines to intercept her and prepared to engage her directly.
His right arm unfolded, revealing the intricate mechanical structures and weapon systems within.
Bzzt, bzzzt—
Suddenly, his body froze. At the same time, hundreds upon hundreds of combat machines throughout the Elf Village also stopped moving.
Every mechanical construct broke free of his control in an instant, their primary control systems failing simultaneously.
"Attack!! Attack!!!"
Potimas shouted, only to discover that every machine had slipped beyond his control.
Then countless error reports, spanning thousands of pages, appeared before him. The dense code and complex data were enough to make anyone's head spin.
"Seriously, using mechanical constructs in front of me? Mm... You've got quite an imagination. Your skills just aren't up to the task."
Silver Wolf spoke while chewing gum.
"Study information warfare properly in your next life."
Boom!—
"???"
Potimas had no time to contemplate or savor her words.
Without the support of the combat robots, the battle became a one-sided slaughter from the moment the two sides made contact.
After the first wave of bombardment, the Angeloids and the Trailblaze team pursued the fleeing enemy, capturing Elves wherever they ran.
Spider followed behind the Angeloid forces, stealing kills and finishing off the wounded. After evolving, she possessed considerable combat strength herself, and every finishing blow rewarded her with a massive amount of experience.
Ooooooh, the experience really is amazing!!
I leveled up! I leveled up again!!! I'm almost ready to evolve!!
...Arachne? Yes!! Uh, maybe I should wait until the battle is over before evolving. I'm really busy right now, aren't I?!
Spider bounced around after the Angeloid army. In her eyes, the Elves and combat machines were nothing more than walking bundles of experience points.
"Hmph."
Ariel showed no mercy. Every enemy who entered her field of vision was killed without exception.
Once she locked onto her target, she charged straight for Potimas.
Bang—
The Elf King had only just attempted to counterattack when Silver Wolf's interference caused his body to stiffen, slowing him by a fraction of a second. Ariel seized him by the head and slammed him into the ground.
Crash!—
A deep crater formed beneath him, leaving him completely unable to move.
"Everyone, obey my command! Capture the Elves!"
Jibril erected another barrier around the Elf Village, but this time it was not meant to repel attacks. It was there to prevent anyone from escaping.
"Do not let a single one get away. Take them all. Then ask the Commander which ones he wants and sort out how each of them should be handled."
"...Why does raiding a village to capture Elves feel so much like the plot of an erotic anime?"