The plan

The princess's laughter went on for a long time. She was simply too happy. After putting in so much effort, she had finally seen hope.

There had indeed been high-level magical beasts in history that could control other magical beasts through their oppressive presence alone. Every one of them had been exceptionally powerful.

But a magical beast with such an ability before it had even hatched was unheard of. Still, this was the Death Forest, home to far too many powerful magical beasts. Anything was possible.

The question now was how to capture this egg-or cocoon-and then form a Mental Contract with the being inside.

Its guards were powerful. Ymir estimated that it would take two fully armed knights to deal with one of the fast-moving magical beasts carrying the carcasses. The armored magical beasts that resembled giant beetles would probably require four knights and a high-ranking knight to contend with.

As for the largest, most terrifying-looking magical beast, which had the strongest attacks and could shoot steel needles, only a combined force of knights and mages could confidently claim they could defeat it.

Against enemies like these, forty-odd knights were far too few. Chloe glanced at Ymir. If they had another dozen or so knights, their situation would be much better.

As for returning to camp for reinforcements, there was not quite enough time. Judging by the intelligence the scouting knights had brought back, that mysterious magical beast could break out of its shell at any moment.

Prophecies were not unchangeable. The future was full of variables.

While studying history, many scholars had discovered that numerous prophecies proven wrong had actually had some chance of coming true. If the subjects of those prophecies had seized certain opportunities, those failed prophecies might well have reached the foretold outcome.

The Astrologers' Association had also said that a prophecy was merely one possible future. That possibility could grow or shrink. If someone prophesied to become rich made no effort to earn money, wealth would certainly not fall from the sky.

At that thought, Chloe immediately ordered, "Gather all the knights and prepare to attack the Monster Lair."

After the astrologer's prophecy and the scouting knights' intelligence, Ymir's impression of Princess Chloe had changed greatly.

Before, he had never believed that Chloe, as she was, could become an empress, let alone one who united the human kingdoms. Now he was seventy or eighty percent convinced.

So he offered his advice. "With our current forces, our chances of winning a direct confrontation with the magical beasts are too low. But we're very lucky. The beasts are all busy transporting their hunting spoils and are scattered."

As he spoke, Ymir picked up a branch and began drawing a map on the ground. "If we follow this path and launch a surprise attack on the Monster Lair without being detected, we'll only have to face a few of the weakest, small magical beasts. As long as we eliminate them quickly, we can take direct control of the high-level magical beast before it hatches."

"Then we can use the high-level magical beast to subdue the entire pack." With that, he punched the center of the map.

In Chloe's eyes, Ymir had always been loyal to her mother. Even before they entered the Death Forest, he had constantly opposed her. Had she not kept using her status and position to force him to obey, the party could never have made it this far.

She had originally intended to strip him of his position as Grand Knight Commander once they returned, regardless of whether this venture into the Death Forest succeeded or failed.

Yet she had not expected him to begin considering her interests at this critical moment, even taking the initiative to devise a battle plan. Sure enough, as long as she drew ever closer to her prophesied position, everyone would bow at her feet and pledge loyalty to her as empress.

"Grand Knight Commander Ymir, you possess great strength and extensive command experience. I will therefore give you full command of this battle. Do not disappoint me. If I ascend the imperial throne one day, I certainly won't be stingy with rewards."

After speaking, Chloe handed her sword to Ymir as a sign of her trust.

Ymir respectfully raised both hands to accept the sword. At that moment, a flame burned in his heart. He had not supported Chloe's actions before because they had been far too unreasonable. How could someone's future depend on an elusive prophecy?

But things were different now. He had seen hope. Though he was already in his fifties, he too hoped to achieve success and fame and establish an illustrious family.

Ambition swelled in his heart.

As Zhang Han slept, his mind was a muddled haze. He still had dreams, and they seemed to contain memories of the entire history of the Zerg.

The Zerg in this dream were completely different from those in StarCraft. Their unit types, systems, and appearances all differed considerably. It seemed the Hive Mind had been telling the truth when it said it had reshaped the Swarm through his memories.

The scene Zhang Han saw most often in the dream was countless Zerg of varying shapes and sizes crawling out of eggs that covered the ground, rushing to battlefields and flying into space.

The enemies the Zerg faced were different each time. Most were technological civilizations like the Little Blue Men and the Antilians, traveling the universe primarily in steel warships.

Aside from them, there were also some strange races.

For instance, there were those who built their warships primarily from plants. Their own bodies resembled treefolk that could move. Even their warships were grown, growing in space like plants.

Besides plants, there were also stone life-forms-stone people whose warships were giant stone people. A peculiar energy bonded stones together to form life.

The Swarm loathed these life-forms. It could not plunder any of the genes or biomass it needed from them. Surely the Swarm could not evolve toward becoming plants and stones.

The benefit, however, was that the energy bonding them together was a highly efficient, high-grade energy. This form of energy offered considerable benefits to the Swarm's evolution.

The strangest were the pure-energy life-forms, which were the rarest. They seemed less like a civilization and more like a peculiar natural phenomenon of the universe.

They were immensely powerful and varied in size. The small ones were like fireflies, while the large ones could rival stars.

Fighting them cost too much and offered limited benefits. Under normal circumstances, if the Swarm discovered them, it would give them a wide berth. They were among the few beings even the Swarm was unwilling to provoke.

While Zhang Han was immersed in his dreams, the squad of knights under Ymir's command had already taken up concealed positions outside the lair.

The party consisted of twenty people in total, all elites, including all the high-ranking knights and two battle mages.

Chloe was also among them. She had prepared quite a few items and materials to enhance her mental power. Her task was to form a Mental Contract with the high-level magical beast as soon as the lair was subdued.

Through the mage's Clairvoyance, they saw two small magical beasts put down the prey they were carrying, then leave the lair to continue their hauling work. Once they were far away, the lair would be at its weakest.

Only one armored magical beast and four small magical beasts remained inside the lair. The squad of knights had an overwhelming numerical advantage.

After briefly going over the battle plan once more, Ymir waved his hand and ordered, "Attack according to plan. Eliminate the magical beasts guarding the lair as quickly as possible. Don't worry about our rear. The other squad will buy us enough time."