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”Corral them in! Push them into the killing zone!" Wisdom shouted while Valor forced a giant insectoid creature back with a push of his shield. As soon as the insectoid stumbled backwards due to a show of force by Valor's heavily buffed though much smaller frame, it was Wisdom's turn to act. He released a spell he had been holding at a ready for a while now, and every insectoid and plant monster within the designated zone was vaporized. Even the immortal ones couldn't hold against his charged-up spell, which cut down thousands of enemies.

Still, even with so many dead elites, the battle was far from over. Millions more were marching towards them, and slowly collapsing the magical defenses that funneled them into the death zones where the defensively oriented warriors held them at bay, while mages and those that had destructive abilities with enough reach executed them. Behind them stood one of the larger population centers of this sector of Divine Realm, so they had no intention of stepping back a single step, as that would allow the fighting to spill into the city.

“How long is Indra going to take?” Valor asked, his almost constant smile shadowed by his obviously tired visage. Even immortals with supportive spells had limits to their stamina, and Valor had been fighting almost constantly for weeks now.

Almost as an answer to his words, the clouds above them rumbled and a forest of golden lightning fell on the enemy. Each bolt was thicker than most trees, and they formed a forest of deadly energy as the divine judgement fell on the insectoid enemy. Normal lightning could’ve been resisted, but this was not normal lightning. This was the divine power of one of the more powerful True Gods, which simply happened to take the form of lightning. Resistance to heat and electricity was no help here.

"My apologies, but it takes time to prepare a battlefield-wide attack like that with the necessary precision." The God said with an equally exhausted tone as he walked towards them. "I have no idea how Ynnead makes it look so easy."

“Experience.” Wisdom muttered to himself with a voice that was quiet enough to not be heard by anyone besides Valor. He cleared his throat before speaking more loudly. “What about the other fronts?”

“We managed to draw most of the pressure here as we planned. The fight still continues elsewhere, but the core of the enemy force is dead.” The god grimaced a bit. “Which means, this is where the real work begins.”

"We need to find and eradicate all their hives and biological factories. Preferably soon enough that they can't produce too much more in the way of enemies." Valor agreed with an exhausted voice. The mop-up always took longer than the actual battle. At least when Karna wasn't around, and this time she was with another group. “This is going to take days…”

“At least we don’t have too many immortal enemies to deal with.” Wisdom tried to inject some levity. Despite the time the Growth had spent spreading their tendrils across the Divine Planes, they lacked the time to create truly powerful beings. Mostly that was because such strong individuals were much harder to hide than slumbering forces that were much weaker. The growth also had some trouble creating individuals at the very upper range of the power scale, as such beings were hard to just create. Those had to be trained and honed over long periods of time. “Any word from the other groups?”

"Apparently The group lead by the Grand Marshall managed to liberate the last of the titan-affiliated worlds and is now leading the fourth group to other worlds," Valor replied, after sitting down to lean against his shield, which he'd placed against a nearby rock. "Wrath and Envy are continuing their two-woman rampage through the most vulnerable civilian centers, and apparently the two of them are being hailed as quite the pair of saviors, even with the few slip-ups Wrath's had. Hope, Arjuna, and Tsumi are handling the second group, and apparently, they've joined up with the dragons. Shiva and the third group are still stagnated against the main enemy concentration near Golconda. It would appear that the most powerful wing of the Growth tried to get access to the bridge connecting to the divine realms of the gods. Despite the large presence of the Host, they've been unable to push the enemy back."

"Probably because a large portion of the Host in the area is still made up of just trainees." Wisdom pointed out. It was where the training center was located after all. “We can’t expect them to hold to our standards. Besides, Shiva got the largest force, but also the one with the least heavy hitters.”

“In summary, we are winning, but slowly. The victory is coming at a cost though. We could use a better solution.” Valor said firmly, before picking up his shield again. There was still more fighting to do, and the Growth wasn’t going to wait for him to take a breather.

-------

“Hope wants to do what?” Karna asked in confusion while she swung her hand down theatrically.

At her gesture, dark spears reminiscent of her newest form started falling into the battleground below. Every time they hit a living being, the being started turning to ash and disappeared. A single wave of such spears wouldn't have been enough, but the spears kept falling like torrential rain. This was her solution to using her new powers safely after she lost control for a single moment and destroyed an entire city by accident. If she wasn't in the form, she could only access some of the powers, just like her other forms, but she didn't risk losing control either.

“She wants to contact Selendil and ask if the creatures she has on her ship could help against the Growth. I think they were called Shinzen or something? They were remarkably similar to the Growth. They are a hive mind of creatures that are somewhat plantlike and insectoid, and they’re psionically very powerful. They might be able to help. At least that’s the theory.” Envy explained while a spear of darkness struck one of the shields she was maintaining, making both disappear. “You missed one again.”

She was forming a defensive field of magic around the city built inside the mountain they were trying to protect. Karna’s new attacks were very effective, but they could be a little indiscriminate when it came to targeting, and Envy had already learned that multiple layered shields were much better at stopping any such attacks than a single powerful shield.

“Dammit! I’m getting better at this, but it’s still too hard to control while covering such a huge area.” Karna cursed. She was usually better at control, but this new form seemed to defy the concept of control. She was quickly learning that instead of trying to control the power, it was better to simply direct it in the desired direction. That way it could rage free without harming things she didn’t want to harm. The downside was that sometimes a bit slipped through, and a town might end up destroyed. “If Hope’s plan works, it’s going to be one of those inspired genius things, but if it fails, she'll just look like an idiot. I like it. Tell her she can go ahead if she thinks it'll work, but we won't be able to detach forces to clear her a path to Selendil's ship."

“Yeah, apparently that won’t be a problem. It seems the Growth didn’t really focus on that area, instead focusing on the more populated worlds Besides, that’s mostly Expansion territory anyway, so the Growth hasn’t had the chance to get their tendrils into that part of the Divine Planes.” Envy replied happily while using a gigantic magical hand to swat down one of the faster enemy immortals that had somehow managed to avoid most of the rain of death.

“Makes sense I suppose. On a less happy note, I just got news from the Grand Marshall. We're starting to get reports of worlds that were unable to resist the Growth. On the flip side, we're not the only ones that are moving around saving people. It seems Lust and the Mount Celestis have mobilized fully, as have the Golden Order and many others. It would seem our idea about leading with example works. Most of those we liberated also tend to go on to help others. The Emperor has also ordered the Imperial Guard to act, and they’re making a short work of the Growth.” Karna looked around herself and grimaced at the devastated surroundings. It was pretty much impossible to defeat the Growth without wiping out the local flora and fauna as well. “Though it seems they’re even less discriminate in their use of force.”

“The rebuilding after all this will be a real bitch.” Envy nodded in agreement. They were several weeks into this sudden war and they’d already realized many things. They were going to win this. That wasn’t up to question. The problem was, how much would that victory cost in lives and destruction, and how bad the recovery would be. They were also approaching a critical point. The forces of the Divine Planes were starting to truly push the Growth back, but the Growth was also starting to push through the defenses of the less defended worlds, annihilating everyone caught. Instead of simple stragglers outside the defenses dying, entire worlds would start falling. The two of them had already found a pair of devastated worlds, which Karna had cleansed afterwards.

-----

“Nothing’s happening.” Hope pointed out as she and Selendil were watching over a small group of the Shinzen Queens trying to influence the Growth. The Queens had their appendages spread wide, as if they were embracing the Growth swarming below them.

“Give it a moment.” Selendil seemed more patient in her response. The voice seemed to be generated out of nowhere, as she had no visible mouth, which might have weirded out some non-reincarnators. “Ah, see.” She pointed a single long digit at a part of the swarm that had suddenly frozen.

“That’s…perhaps less impressive than I was hoping. Useful, but…” She’d been so happy with her plans that she’d gotten her hopes up. Not too difficult considering her Name.

Her words were followed by a flurry of emotions sent her way, apparently by the Shinzen. The whole thing was a little jumbled, but the gist of it was telling her to be patient. The Shinzen were only just starting, and most importantly, they were learning. They seemed to put heavy emphasis on learning. The rest of it suggested that once they learned, they'd be able to do this much faster because when one Shinzen learned how to do something, all of them did.

Piece by piece, parts of the swarm froze, and the parts that had frozen first started turning against their allies and tearing them apart. “Huh.” Selendil suddenly made a sound.

“What?” Hope asked, now getting more and more eager.

“Well, the Shinzen Queens claimed that the parts of the Growth that they take over are effectively Shinzen now. Apparently very simple and stupid Shinzen, but still. I suppose back where we come from, the majority of their forces were the stupid kind. I only brought along Queens though.” The extremely powerful psion seemed just as surprised at the idea. Of course, she could’ve dealt with the enemy by herself, but that wasn’t the point of this exercise.

“Don’t tell me the Queens are refusing to have them killed now?” Hope wasn’t sure if she wanted to just replace the Growth with the Shinzen, even if the latter were more willing to cooperate.

“What? No, of course not. The Shinzen don’t really care. They don’t really see value in individual lives, as long as the losses improve their kind as a whole. No, they’re suggesting that outright killing the Growth might simply be a bit of a waste. Even if they are, and I’m quoting here, inferior versions of the real Shinzen, given enough time, the Queens could turn the Growth’s Hives to their own use, and produce more Queens. That way they can help more worlds. I think they might be on to something in this case, since this world’s population already fled. We could wipe out the Growth on other worlds while keeping this world for the Shinzen.” Selendil was merely translating for the Shinzen and not weighing in one way or another.

“Can the Queens retain control? My worry is that the Growth will find a way to escape the Queens’ grasp.” Hope wasn’t dismissing the idea outright, even though it might create some issues down the line. The idea of simply replacing one threat with a potentially more dangerous one had some downsides.

Selendil seemed to be conversing with the Shinzen Queens for a short time before replying. “They’re telling me that the Growth’s hive mind is more powerful, but that power comes at a cost. It’s relatively simple and isn’t very good at adjusting to complex changes. It can react to danger and outside stimuli very quickly, like adapting to standard attacks used against it, but threats like the Shinzen taking over is not something it has any experience in, while the Shinzen are much faster at adapting. The Growth might be able to grab back some individual units if it makes enough of an effort, but in general, it can't reassert control that has already been lost. It frankly doesn't know how to fight another hive mind, especially a psionic one. At all. The only reason it's taking the Shinzen this long is because of the power the Growth has, and they're learning to work around it. They're quite confident that should the Growth learn and adapt, they'll be much faster at adapting further. It's a game they have an unsurmountable advantage in."

“Hmm, let’s use this world as a testbed then. If something goes wrong, then at least we can have Wrath cleanse it pretty quickly. Could the Shinzen absorb the entire Growth hive mind directly?” Hope suggested.

“That’s not how it works apparently.” Selendil shook her head.

“Oh well. Worth the suggestion at least.” Hope shrugged.

"Well, I think it should be positive news because it also works the other way. The Growth won't be able to affect the Shinzen Queens either." The rank 14 psion pointed out.

"Let's get this show on the road then. The sooner we're done here, the sooner we can turn thing situation around. And that means fewer lives lost." Hope decided firmly.

------

As much as Karna hated to admit it, the return of Greed and the crusading army made things easier. Or at least the return of what was left of the army after being surrounded and ambushed by two scourges. A decent chunk of the army had been lost, and Hoeth was among those lost. Greed had reported that he’d had to make a choice between bringing his forces back to help the Divine Planes or going to search and assist Hoeth, who’d been surrounded by the Inferno. He’d obviously chosen to go back. His arrival had been well-timed to save a large number of beleaguered worlds, or at least that’s the way it seemed to many.

Hope’s solution of utilizing the Shinzen had already started bearing fruit and the number of worlds that were actually in danger of falling had reduced drastically, but many of the worlds the Shinzen had already saved weren’t actually even aware of it yet. The Shinzen didn’t bother announcing to the populace of any saved world that they had been saved. The only thing the people under siege noticed was the enemy pulling back, which they assumed was to regroup for another large offensive.

Still, Hope’s plan had worked well, and the direction of the fight had shifted. Many worlds were still infested with the Growth, and even the Shinzen Queens couldn’t take over all of the Growth’s forces. The good thing was that the battle was now focused mostly on worlds that could actually deal with the fighting, and where the heaviest forces of the Growth were concentrated, like Golconda, which Shiva was still assisting after multiple weeks of battle.

“You may have a problem.” The Harpy stated to Karna, as she was taking a well-earned moment of rest at the currently safest place in the Divine Planes, the Grand Assembly.

“I have several. Which one are you referring to?” She asked with a weary voice.

The Harpy allowed a small smile to grace his lips. “You are currently being hailed as the hero and savior of many worlds.”

“Doesn’t sound like a problem to me.” She quipped.

“As I was saying, you are being hailed as a hero for a reason. However, it seems someone is spreading rumors. Remember how we talked about you joining Hoeth’s and Eldrazor’s crusade before this whole debacle? You refused to join, which was expected. However, you also did mention that you wanted to stay behind to protect the Divine Planes in case of another threat used the chance to attack. Now, you were obviously referring to the Netherworld, and to a lesser extent to the Underworld. However, it could also be interpreted to mean the Growth. Which would mean you knew about the attack and didn’t say anything. Or at least that’s the narrative someone is putting forward. It hasn’t found much purchase yet, but it might eventually. And it doesn’t help that one of your allies has found a way to control parts of the Growth pretty quickly. That idea saved countless lives, and continues to do so, but it also does look a bit suspect if spun the right way.” The Harpy pointed out. “Just thought you should know.”

Karna realized that the man was right. She had some suspicions about the source of the rumors, but no proof yet. She would need to move aggressively to counter such rumors before they became a real threat. “Thank you for the heads up.” She nodded appreciatively.

"No problem. I thought you deserved the heads-up after working so hard to save so many lives." The Harpy stated before leaving her alone again. It seems she was managing to get the man on her side to some extent at least.