"Ahh~~ I'm so full~"
Xiaohe leaned back in her chair, stroking her slightly rounded belly with a look of utter satisfaction.
Beside Xiaohe, Qingxin was also leaning back in her chair with the same expression. Amo felt helpless. The grown woman and the little girl were just like mother and daughter, even acting so similarly after a meal.
"All right, all right, I'll go wash the dishes. You two go out for a walk. Get some exercise after eating."
With that, Amo picked up the bowls and chopsticks and headed straight into the kitchen. Xiaohe watched him go in, then hurried after him.
"Amo, let me help you."
Watching the two of them busy themselves in the kitchen, Qingxin smiled, then got up and left.
"Elder Ge, stop struggling. Look at your brothers. Don't put up any more pointless resistance. It'll only lead to more casualties. Surrender and come over to our side now, and you'll still be the Garden's most respected elder. The Guard Corps will still be under your command!"
From the Garden's side, a ringing voice came through a loudspeaker and reached the Alliance Army. The Alliance Army heard the other side's earnest plea, and they all clenched their hands tightly, their bodies trembling slightly.
The fighting between the two sides had only begun less than two months ago, yet the Alliance Army had already suffered heavy losses. By contrast, the Garden's morale had only grown stronger.
As the battle gradually turned against them, quite a few people proposed artificially creating elite warriors as the Garden did. Elder Ge, the Alliance Army's commander-in-chief, rejected the proposal without hesitation.
In his view, they were followers of Existence, people who put the ideals of the goddess's Path into practice. He would never permit or tolerate any power other than that of Existence within his body. To him, that would be an insult to his spirit and a challenge to his loyalty to the goddess!
So... he would not agree. The Guard Corps under his command also declared their positions one after another: their sense of honor would not allow them to bend and accept the power of Abundance. To them, the power of any other Path was inferior to the power bestowed by the goddess.
Elder Ge stood up, his face grim, and brought his lips close to the microphone on the table. His voice was calm but resolute. "Impossible. I will not bow to those who have forsaken Existence, and I believe my brothers feel the same! There are only two possible ends for us: either we die fighting for the goddess, or we kill every last one of you heretical traitors!"
Elder Ge's resolute words spread across the battlefield through the loudspeaker. They instantly roused the other side's anger, and one after another, they clamored to sacrifice Elder Ge to consecrate their banner.
His own side's morale soared. They hurled insults and taunts at the enemy. They might be at a disadvantage now, but what about later? Dong Tian's actions had already angered many people, and the Xianzhou Daiyu, with an Emanator of Existence aboard, was already on its way to the Ayinai System. As long as they held out through this period, they would receive support from the Xianzhou.
Listening to the commotion outside, Elder Ge looked at the group seated around the table. Their morale had been low, but now they were full of spirit. Seeing this, Elder Ge breathed a sigh of relief.
Morale was the most important thing in war. If an army had no morale, it was certain to lose. That was how the Alliance Army had been before.
They had originally thought they could crush the enemy with superior numbers, but then the Garden's modified warriors had appeared on the battlefield, instantly reversing their advantage.
Now his words had restored the morale of the entire army. They absolutely could not let that morale slip, or they would truly be finished.
When he heard the horns sounding outside, he knew the enemy could no longer wait. They were preparing to chew through his force, the toughest bone of all.
Elder Ge took a deep breath and picked up his saber and firearm. He silently looked at everyone in the tent. The others stood up one after another, knowing that this was the battle that would decide victory or defeat. If they won, they would have morale and time to rest and regroup. If they lost, they would be wiped out.
Elder Ge led everyone out of the tent. At the front, the Guard Corps stood in the lead, forming a barrier to withstand the enemy's initial charge. The Alliance Army followed close behind them, having already formed a defensive line.
Elder Ge looked at the statue in the center of the camp. It was not very tall, standing only ten meters high, less than a tenth of the original's height, but it represented the resolve of all their comrades in the Alliance Army.
Looking at the statue, Elder Ge led everyone in kneeling on one knee in the open space before it, their right hands over their hearts.
"Goddess above, the odds are against us as we set out, but we cannot tolerate the actions of Dong Tian and his followers. This battle concerns the survival of the Alliance Army and the rise or fall of the Ayinai System. We will not retreat, even if we must give everything. Honored goddess, we will prove to you with our lives that the Garden has never betrayed Existence, and we have never betrayed you."
When Elder Ge finished, he stood up. His adjutant stood beside him, holding a helmet. A design was engraved on its brow: a house, with a garden in front and a pair of brand-new wings behind it. The marks showed that it had been carved only recently.
Seeing Elder Ge put on his helmet, the others followed suit. Their helmets bore the same garden and newly carved wings.
"Everyone, it's time to set out. For the goddess!"
Elder Ge struck his left breast hard with his right fist. The visor on his helmet fell, concealing his stern face and his eyes full of anger.
"For the goddess!"
Everyone spoke as one. Their visors fell, and they followed Elder Ge to the battlefield.
The Garden's forces soon clashed with the Alliance Army's vanguard. The green-armored soldiers at the front bore the brunt of the collision, but their full-body armor effectively held against the first wave. Then the Alliance Army behind them counterattacked.
Bullets and explosive rounds flew through the gaps in the Guard Corps' defense and landed among the Garden troops. The explosions cleared a small area in the blink of an eye, leaving a temporary gap in the Garden's ranks. Though it was quickly filled, it still gave the Guard Corps a chance to push back.
Elder Ge charged at the head of the troops, his long saber covered in a faint green glow. He swung, and a blade of light swept forward. Enemies fell in swaths in an instant, like straw before a scythe.
"Break through! Cut them to pieces!"
At the command, the Guard Corps plunged straight into the enemy like a sharp blade. Garden troops fell in swaths wherever that blade passed. The Guard Corps' god-of-war-like performance lifted the Alliance Army's morale, and they charged into the enemy ranks as if they had no regard for their lives.
The fighting between the two sides grew ever fiercer. Shells of all kinds exploded among the crowds, and screams, roars, and severed limbs were everywhere.
As the Guard Corps fought with all their might, the battle line pushed little by little toward the Garden army's rear.
Then, however, the enemy suddenly opened a broad passage. Elder Ge immediately grew serious. He had seen this scene too many times before. The enemy was about to deploy its trump card.
Monsters with strips of paper growing from their bodies and twisted faces came running down the passage, packed densely together, roughly ten thousand in number.
"Abundance-modified warriors."
These were the same kind of modified warriors Amo had killed. They were the Garden's trump card, while the warriors sent to purge planets had merely been defective products. Those deployed on the battlefield were the true elites.
It was because of these monstrous warriors that his Guard Corps, once eight hundred strong, now had only a little over five hundred left. But he could not retreat! If he did, the morale they had struggled to build would plunge to rock bottom again, and it might even cause the entire front to collapse.
Elder Ge watched the army of modified warriors draw closer, his gaze cold and resolute beneath his visor. He spun the long saber in his left hand, flinging the blood off it, while the bullets in the gun in his right hand had already been replaced with explosive rounds. He raised the explosive-round gun and fired without hesitation. The round, wrapped in the power of the Path of Existence, landed among the crowd and exploded, sending blood flying.