[If Her Majesty permits, we will lead the Plumera Kingdom's army and seize new territories from the Puppet Soldiers for our kingdom! We shall expand the borders of Plumera!]
When Elara received several letters like this from the frontier cities, even she was slightly stunned.
The Puppet Soldiers' sudden attack had already lasted for more than a month.
In this month, countless nations across the entire Central Continent had already fallen to the Puppet Soldiers' invasion.
Even strong second-tier nations had locked their gates, guarding with everything they had, afraid that the Puppet Soldiers might break in.
But the generals stationed on the Plumera Kingdom's border were not only unafraid, they were eager to open their gates and launch counterattacks against Puppet Soldiers occupying nearby foreign cities.
They wanted to take this moment of worldwide chaos to help expand Plumera's territory.
Elara held the letter in silence for a few seconds, then opened the System map and examined the cities just outside Plumera's borders.
In just a short month, almost all the nations in the western region of the Central Continent had already collapsed.
Only a few were still hanging on by a thread, desperately holding their borders.
Because of the special pills and steel weapons Elara had given them in advance, the Gladiolus and Dahlia Kingdoms had managed to hold on to most of their border cities, though they had also lost a few.
Due to interference with her earring device, Elara couldn't know Prince Yu and Prince Leland's exact situations.
She could only use the System map to estimate that the Gladiolus and Dahlia Kingdoms were also in a passive defensive state under the Puppet Soldiers' attack.
As for the other countries in the southwest corner of the continent, their condition was even more tragic.
About sixty percent of third-tier nations had already been invaded, with most of their territory occupied.
The rest were barely resisting, but their conditions were on the verge of collapse.
The Carnation Kingdom had also lost nearly half of its territory.
Just a few days ago, they sent word via black hawk to Elara, stating that to avoid being wiped out by the Puppet Soldiers, they might send some of their key officials to Plumera for asylum.
After surveying the surrounding nations' conditions, Elara looked back at the letters from the generals at the Plumera Kingdom's borders, eager to fight.
She thought for a moment but did not want to dampen their morale.
Instead, she took out some of the latest letters from the battlefield and checked through the System that the Puppet Soldier eggs outside the border remained in the same state.
As long as the special pills created by Oswyn were taken and enough firepower brought along, the situation was manageable.
After staring at the letters for a few seconds, Elara finally picked up her pen:
[Approved. But everyone must remember, your lives and the army's safety are the top priority. If you can drive away the Puppet Soldiers and expand our Plumera Kingdom, it will be a great merit. But if your safety is compromised, do not force it. I will not hold you accountable. If you take a city, the first thing to do is to reinforce the city walls and purify the water source. Visit the Ministry of Works and Medicine to get what you need. Safety above all else.]
As long as safety wasn't an issue, Elara saw their eagerness to expand the kingdom as a good thing.
Also, with Plumera's weapons and machines advancing so far, Elara wanted to test how effective these machines and weapons were against the Puppet Soldiers.
After writing the reply, Elara returned to studying the Eternal Tower.
The border generals, having received Elara's approval, were all overjoyed.
That very day, the border troops began preparing their cavalry, equipping themselves with special pills and wearing the Ministry of Works' latest steel armor and weapons.
They also collected from the Ministry of Beasts several squads of fully trained war elephants, each clad in steel armor and carrying several hundred pounds of heavy crossbow mechanisms on their backs.
The entire army was fully prepared to depart.
In the next half month, while Elara stayed in Plumera City to manage the nation's affairs and continue studying the Eternal Tower and other sacred artifacts, reports of victories began pouring in from all of Plumera's borders.
With the heavy mechanized crossbow war elephants covering them, the Plumera forces boldly opened city gates and charged out to engage the Puppet Soldiers.
Their firepower was overwhelming.
Additionally, under Elara's directive, the Ministry of Engineering had upgraded almost all weapons and armor in the military to better steel equipment.
Soldiers' blades were even coated with a toxic agent developed by the Ministry of Medicine, specifically targeting the Puppet Soldiers' eggs.
With so many buffs stacked together, the Puppet Soldiers were torn apart even with their tough hides.
Compared to the early days of the Puppet Soldier invasion, where Plumera's troops could only defend passively, the tables had completely turned.
Under such circumstances, with their morale high and momentum strong, the Plumera soldiers became increasingly fierce and fearless.
Only a few days after Elara's approval letter, the border troops had already recaptured one or two cities each, and the competition to outdo each other pushed the frontlines dozens or even hundreds of kilometers outward.
The kingdom's overall territory grew larger, inching closer to the scale of a top-tier power.
This string of triumphs stood in sharp contrast to the miserable conditions of other nations collapsing under the Puppet Soldiers' invasion.
A few days later, people from other countries saw for themselves that Plumera's army not only left their cities to fight but even won.
They beat those strange and terrifying creatures so hard that they fled, reclaiming one human city after another.
Rumors started spreading: "Plumera's army is invincible. Plumera has the power to defeat the Puppet Soldiers. Plumera is the nemesis of the Puppet Soldiers."
Several days after that, Elara's research on the Eternal Tower finally bore fruit.
She successfully linked the energy block into the Eternal Tower and tested how much area it could protect if expanded wirelessly.
The result shocked her.
Under her control, the golden dome of the Eternal Tower suddenly expanded, just like a divine artifact in myths, spreading out across the sky like a huge golden veil descending from above.
It rapidly expanded and enveloped all of Plumera City.
The golden light continued expanding rapidly even after covering Plumera City. In just a few minutes, under Elara's stunned gaze, it had spread like a divine shield, covering the entire Plumera Kingdom from the frozen Northern Frontier to the southern coastal cities by the Sea of Despair.
Even though she had already guessed this might happen, seeing it with her own eyes still shocked Elara. The source of the divine vein truly came from a higher civilization.
Now that the entire Plumera Kingdom was under its protection, and thanks to the support of energy blocks, the energy consumption of the Eternal Tower became extremely slow. According to the System, it could last at least five months.
Seeing this result, Elara stayed silent for a long time again. The shock in her heart deepened. Very good. No matter what happens, Plumera Kingdom now has a real safety line at the bottom.
Compared to her and the Plumera Kingdom's officials and people who witnessed it directly, the foreign powers outside the country were even more shocked. They too were facing Puppet Soldiers invasions and had seen the same divine scene appear in the Plumera Kingdom.
From that day on, stories and rumors about Plumera Kingdom spread wildly among the various nations and powers of the world.
They said the Plumera Kingdom, located in the western part of the continent, had received the true inheritance of the divine vein, along with the blessing and protection of a god.
The entire country was now covered in divine light. The people within Plumera Kingdom became brave and fearless under this light. The army of Plumera could directly face and defeat Puppet Soldiers returning from hell, reclaiming human territory. Plumera Kingdom's future was said to be the strongest and safest in this terrifying, invaded world.
With these layered rumors spreading fast, even those who had doubted them began to believe after seeing the light piercing the sky, covering Plumera Kingdom like a divine realm.
Many who had already believed in the divine vein's god began forming their own groups. In this horrifying world under Puppet Soldiers attack, they rushed toward the western Plumera Kingdom, begging for entry and the god's protection, hoping to survive safely.
In a short time, Plumera Kingdom's reputation soared in every way. Its national status rose to nearly surpass that of the three first-class nations in the Central Continent.
Those three first-class countries had also used all kinds of divine tools during the Puppet Soldiers attack to defend most of their territory.
But being at the top of the world for so long, they had long set complex rules for foreigners entering their land. Especially during this crisis, they instinctively guarded against outsiders.
Besides, even those three nations were not completely safe during the outbreak. Despite having many divine tools, perhaps because their lands were too large to fully protect, some of their border cities still fell to the Puppet Soldiers.
As for other countries, if not for the Temple of Divine Attendants providing aid in time, many second-class countries in the Central Continent would have lost large portions of their land despite having strong armies.
In contrast, Plumera Kingdom not only lost no land, it even opened its gates, fought back, and reclaimed fallen areas from the Puppet Soldiers. And divine light now covered and protected the entire country and its people.
Compared like this, the people of the continent naturally preferred to go to Plumera Kingdom. The sense of safety Plumera provided in this global disaster was unmatched.
As more divine rumors about Plumera spread wider, the western region of the continent, once nearly forgotten by the major powers, returned to people's attention.
Under the invasion of Puppet Soldiers, countless people from various nations now saw Plumera Kingdom as the last safe haven, fleeing toward it every day with desperate hope.
It was as if stepping into Plumera Kingdom meant escaping this nightmare world and returning to peace and comfort.
While powers and nations across the continent moved openly and secretly toward Plumera Kingdom, it had already begun to show signs of catching up to and surpassing the Central Continent's nations, becoming the new core region and central power of the world.