The night was thick.
Sea wind carrying salt and rot slammed into their faces, whipping the loose strands of hair across Ella’s cheeks.
She stood on the cold concrete floor, her gaze locked dead on the colossal creature in the center of the warehouse.
“Hurry up and grow…”
The ground beneath her feet trembled faintly.
It was not from the waves outside, but from every swallow the creature before her made.
The remains of the Abyssal Worm had long been gnawed clean.
Only a few shattered pieces of dark-purple carapace still scattered in the corners.
The Pathstrider she had poured her heart into raising had already stretched to twenty meters in length.
Limbs thick as steel pillars supported its massive body.
Simply standing there, it radiated a suffocating pressure.
Against that red-skinned beastman, a body of this size could already tear the other apart like a toy.
But to face the steel warships docked in the harbor, to contend with elves who commanded the elements of heaven and earth and unleashed brilliant magic, to confront angels clad in radiant feathers and raising divine arts—twenty meters was nothing more than a hollow giant with an empty reputation.
From the very first design blueprint, the Pathstrider had been one of the ultimate weapons in Ella’s hands.
Once fully developed, its body would exceed a hundred meters.
Merely advancing would bring catastrophe-level destruction.
And according to Ella’s original plan, when the Pathstrider reached its complete form, the anti-magic furnace inside its body would activate and begin to operate continuously, drawing in mana until a thick anti-magic shield spread across its surface.
At that point, the Alliance army’s conventional firearms would be unable to pierce its fully developed hard carapace.
Whether elven elemental magic or angelic sacred arts, all would be completely isolated and dissolved by the shield, unable to harm it in the slightest.
Once it entered that stage, Ella had absolute confidence that this single Pathstrider alone could trample the entire transfer station flat.
Even an Alliance fleet formation would be unable to stop its rampaging steps.
Yet between ideal and reality stretched an insurmountable gulf: severe food shortage.
Ella had ultimately underestimated the Pathstrider’s terrifying appetite.
This swarm creation’s growth rate was directly proportional to its food intake.
Every additional unit of size demanded energy that increased geometrically.
The two twenty-meter deep-sea monsters they had previously hunted had been thought enough to support a stage of metamorphosis.
Now it was clear they had been nothing more than a drop in the bucket.
That flesh had only pushed it to twenty meters—still far from complete form, let alone awakening the anti-magic furnace within.
Without reaching complete form, without activating the anti-magic furnace, no matter how massive the Pathstrider’s body, it would remain nothing more than a moving target.
Ella furrowed her brows.
Her fingertips unconsciously rubbed her chin as anxiety rose in her chest.
“Where am I supposed to find more food…”
On the other side of the warehouse, the enormous corpse of a young Kraken lay sprawled across the floor, occupying nearly half the space.
The Pathstrider, already nearly pressing against the warehouse ceiling, had its head buried and was eating with terrifying efficiency.
Its thick mouthparts rolled up the Kraken’s tentacles and sucked them in the same way a human slurped noodles.
The Pathstrider had no habit of chewing, nor any need for it.
Its body contained extremely corrosive gastric fluid.
The Kraken’s corpse shrank at a visible rate, yet even with such a terrifying feeding speed, it still could not catch up to Ella’s expectations.
Just then, light footsteps approached the warehouse entrance.
A slender figure hurried in, dropped to one knee, and spoke in a respectful voice that could not entirely hide its excitement.
“Your Majesty, I found a warehouse next door storing a large amount of expired, rotten fish.”
It was Shuang Ling.
When her gaze swept over the Pathstrider that was frantically feeding, fanatical light instantly surged in her eyes.
Toward this Majesty who had personally cultivated such a terrifying creation, Shuang Ling held only extreme worship and loyalty.
Every bit of the Pathstrider’s growth only strengthened her conviction that following Ella would lead to the supreme peak.
“In this kind of chaos, no one will specially check the cargo in remote warehouses. These rotten fish must have been forgotten here and left untreated for a long time. Although they have already spoiled and stink, and may even have maggots breeding in them, in any case…”
Shuang Ling was about to continue her report when Ella raised a hand and cut her off.
“No need to say more, Shuang Ling. I know.”
For humans, eating expired, spoiled food would only cause vomiting and diarrhea, or even endanger life.
But for a creation like the Pathstrider, its powerful digestive organs were enough to handle everything.
Those stinking fish and the maggots breeding within them were nothing more than high-quality nourishment rich in protein, and would cause it no negative effects whatsoever.
Ella closed her eyes and, through the most direct neural connection, issued a command to the Pathstrider.
It would head to the other warehouse after finishing the young Kraken.
At that exact moment, another figure hurriedly rushed into the warehouse.
The arriving Yiwen looked unusual.
The red-haired older sister was now extremely tense.
Her hands were unnaturally twisted together, and even her breathing had become rapid.
“Your Majesty… Your Majesty…”
“Yiwen? What is it this time?”
“The Alliance’s main force arrived early. They did not act according to the estimated schedule. They have already sealed the entire harbor and begun searching sector by sector. This place… this place is about to become unsafe.”
Arrived early?
Ella’s pupils contracted sharply.
She instinctively turned her head toward the young Kraken’s corpse, of which more than half still remained.
The Pathstrider’s feeding speed was already pushed to the extreme, yet even so, it was impossible to completely digest the remaining flesh in a short time, let alone go on to devour the rotten fish in the neighboring warehouse.
There was not enough time.
Ella stood in place, staring at the Pathstrider that was still frantically feeding.
Her fingertips clenched tightly.
The anxiety in her heart instantly climbed to its peak.
She looked toward one of the warehouse walls.
Beyond it lay the direction of the harbor.
A voice sounded in her mind.
“Outside… isn’t all of that food?”
Time no longer allowed even half a moment of hesitation.
Ella raised her head and looked up at the colossal creature that was nearly punching through the warehouse roof, then issued her final command.
“Go, little one. From here on, I can no longer help you.”
She paused, her voice pressed very low.
“Dive into the sea. Treat every living thing as food. How much prey you can find, and whether you end up becoming someone else’s prey instead, will depend on you alone.”
At this point, Ella could only trust the Pathstrider’s own predatory instincts.
She hoped it was clever enough to choose prey within its capability.
“Your Majesty! If we don’t leave now it will be too late! The Alliance troops have already searched into the inner harbor!”
Yiwen’s voice carried rapid gasps.
Her red hair was blown into disarray by the wind as she guarded the warehouse entrance, constantly glancing outward in vigilance.
The originally remote and empty alleys and corners were now continuously filled with panicked figures.
There were ragged refugees, armed pirates, and deserters who had abandoned their posts.
Everyone’s goal was remarkably the same: avoid the arrogant searching Alliance troops and seize a ship to escape from the harbor.
They were destined to be disappointed.
Ella followed the direction Yiwen indicated and looked out over the sea.
Under the night sky, large amounts of shattered wooden planks, broken masts, and lingering traces of gunpowder smoke floated on the water’s surface.
Those were the ships that had attempted to sail out privately, blown apart without mercy by a single shot from the Alliance fleet.
Cannon fire had sealed the entire waterway, leaving not even a single small boat that had slipped through the net.
“Live.”
Ella whispered the word.
In the next moment, the twenty-meter-tall colossus slowly shifted its body.
Heavy yet steady, it moved toward the seaside.
Every step made the ground tremble faintly.
It did not look back.
It charged straight into the surging dark waves.
A massive black shadow flashed beneath the surface and completely merged into the deep sea, vanishing without a trace.
Ella silently prayed in her heart that this would not be a final farewell.
Just as she turned to prepare for withdrawal, a muffled thud suddenly came from behind her.
“Ugh!”
The familiar pained grunt instantly tightened every nerve in Ella’s body.
She whipped her head around and saw Dieyi as if she had been fiercely slapped away by an invisible giant hand.
Her entire body slammed into the cold stone wall and slid to the ground, unable to get up for the moment.
The corner of Ella’s mouth twitched.
She almost habitually complained that no matter what happened, this one was always the first to suffer.
But the sense of crisis did not allow her to be distracted.
Ella almost instinctively took a step back and hid behind Shuang Ling.
She reached out and tightly hugged the blue-haired older sister’s thigh that was wrapped in black stockings, only poking half her head out as she warily watched the entrance.
Two figures slowly stepped out from the shadows.
Their auras were sharp enough to make it hard to breathe.
One unfurled bat wings from his back, his skin a pale gray—a male demon.
The other was clad in pure white feathered wings, golden hair tied up, her face coldly beautiful—clearly a female angel.
“There really were a few little bugs hiding here. Lucky us.”
The angel spoke, her voice clear and cold, carrying undisguised killing intent.
“Hey, don’t fight me for the credit, or I’ll kill you.”
“Got it, got it. Whatever you say.”
Unexpectedly, it was the demon whose attitude was casual.
From the moment she appeared, the angel’s gaze had been sweeping back and forth over Ella’s group like she was examining prey, making no attempt to hide her greed and contempt.
Shuang Ling’s expression was ice-cold.
The air around her began to condense.
Tiny ice shards quietly spread across the ground.
She wasted not a single second and spoke directly.
“Your Majesty, I propose we leave those failures behind to cover us. From the auras of these two, they are Alliance elites. While protecting you, I can barely handle one. If both attack together, I cannot stop them.”
As always, in Shuang Ling’s logic, discarding the three failures as secondary combat power in order to protect Her Majesty was the natural choice, without the slightest hesitation.
Ella immediately shook her head.
“No. We must take them with us. As long as they undergo further adjustment, they can become the same as you. They are combat power we cannot abandon right now.”
“Then discard one,” Shuang Ling said without hesitation.
“For example, the pink-haired one. I hate the way she talks. She shows not the slightest proper respect toward you.”
Ella choked.
She had to admit the other had a point, yet still forced herself to refuse.
“That won’t work either! No matter how much she deserves a beating, we can’t leave her here.”
Shuang Ling fell silent for a moment, apparently understanding Her Majesty’s insistence.
She said nothing more and only turned her head to issue an order toward Zhuluo not far away.
“Understood. Failures, come over. Protect Her Majesty.”
The moment the words fell, the spider limbs behind Zhuluo instantly extended.
With a flexible sweep, they gently lifted Ella and fixed her securely on her back as if carrying a rag doll.
Ella lay against Zhuluo’s hard yet not particularly uncomfortable carapace.
Her gaze passed over Shuang Ling’s shoulder and locked onto the approaching angel and demon.
Shuang Ling stepped forward.
Cold air erupted in an instant.
Centered on her, a layer of crystalline hard ice rapidly condensed on the ground and spread outward in a frenzy.