Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 361 I think it's quite fair.

The Scepter: "With each body and soul it devours, the descending evil god grows larger. After devouring hundreds of people, the Mother Goddess's true form can even reach the height of a three- or four-story building, which is almost the limit of what humans can handle."

Scepter: "According to records, even the Empire's Royal Musketeers find it extremely difficult to deal with monsters of this size—it can even withstand volleys of musket fire and continue attacking and devouring; any firepower slightly weaker simply cannot withstand it."

French Fries: "So what did you do when you encountered these kinds of monsters before?"

The scepter: "Let the extraordinary fight against it."

The Scepter: "Investigators working together can control it and prevent it from continuing to devour others. The superhumans of the Silent Sanctuary can fight it head-on, and the Sleepless can tamper with its body. Superhumans from each pathway basically have a way to deal with this monster."

Scepter: "Its overall strength is still a bit weak. Even if it can grow, it won't be a big problem as long as it's interrupted in time."

French Fries: "I see. Looks like it's not too difficult to handle?"

The Scepter: "Yes, its growth rate isn't particularly fast either. Therefore, although it can theoretically be very strong, in reality it's just so-so. As a cult, the Church of the Mother of Life is not as dangerous as the Moth Chaser."

Author: "What if it grows up?"

Writer: "For example, it's about ten stories high."

Scepter: 『.』

Twenty floors, although only less than ten times the height of a three- or four-story building, the monster's size increases exponentially.

In other words, the monster in front of Zoe was dozens of times larger than Beatrice had described.

The difference in body size is already enormous.

What Zoe didn't know was that the size difference between creatures was not just a simple comparison of size. Giant creatures would have enhanced physiques in all aspects, from bone density to muscle mass, otherwise they simply could not support such a huge size.

If one's strength is insufficient, it would be extremely difficult to resist gravity, and the enormous evil god before Zoe was remarkably agile for its size.

Scepter: "This... I don't know."

The scepter: "Never before has a summoned mother goddess grown to this size. Generally, she should be discovered as soon as the summoning begins; to grow to this size is unheard of."

Scepter: "But according to records, with each increase in the size of the 'Mother of Compassion,' her strength increases dramatically. A height of three or four stories is already terrifying; even extraordinary beings would find it troublesome to deal with. Twenty stories..."

The link fell silent.

A twenty-story building is almost unimaginable for people of this era. Such a massive structure would be terrifying to even look at, let alone fight against it.
In other words, the Guardians of the Faith had experience in deep-sea warfare and had dealt with large monsters, so they could barely stall for time.

But with just them, let alone solving the problem, they would be considered elite enough to even buy some time.

Author: "Is there really no way to deal with a growing 'loving mother'?"

To be honest, Zoe was really in despair. If even the Guardians of the Church couldn't deal with this kind of monster, did they really have no choice but to give up on Bloodharbor?
Scepter: "Yes."

The scepter: "But it requires sacrifice, a great sacrifice."

The scepter: "The Church of the Mother Goddess's mission is to save lives; they will never intentionally kill believers, not even the 'Mother Goddess.'"

The Scepter: "The vessel for the [Mother of Compassion]'s descent must be one that actively consents to the transformation, and the believer being consumed must also be a willing sacrifice—a genuine act of free will. If there is any coercion involved, the [Mother of Compassion] will not descend."

The Scepter: "Even so, the [Mother of Compassion] will wait until they are dead before devouring them. Even if the [Mother of Compassion] is attacked to the point of near death, she will never devour a believer who is still alive."

French Fries: "Is there a reason, like swallowing living believers would weaken [Mother's] power?" Scepter: "No, the Candlelight Society once tried stuffing living believers into [Mother's] mouth, and it made no difference."

French fries: "That sounds like it."

The Scepter: "Yes, the 'Mother of Love' is the true Mother to believers, and that is the only way we can defeat Her."

The scepter: "No matter how much the 'Mother' grows, she will truly leave if the believers wish for her return."

The scepter: "According to the records, a person must be found who is willing to sacrifice themselves, harboring the hope of the [Mother's] return, and willingly allowed to be consumed by Her."

Captain: "If it's just one person, it doesn't sound difficult."

Jeremiah asked with some doubt, "Defeating the evil god only requires the sacrifice of one person? This is no longer a question of difficulty, but rather far too easy."

How many people would die from the destruction caused by the descent of the evil god? Now, only one person needs to die to solve everything.

Not only him, but everyone in the link felt relieved. For the prince, finding someone willing to sacrifice themselves was not a difficult task.

The scepter: "For every believer of the Mother Goddess who voluntarily sacrifices themselves, someone needs to be found."

The link fell silent.

Writer: 'You mean...'

The Scepter: "It's just as you think. For every believer in the Mother Goddess who willingly sacrifices, we need to find just as many people to volunteer. Only then can the appeal for the 'Mother's' return outweigh the believers' desire for Her to cleanse the world."

French Fries: "How is this possible? Aren't the number of Mother Goddess followers infinite?"

This time, the scepter fell silent. After a while, she chuckled softly, her tone somewhat strange: "You probably haven't seen the Mother Goddess's followers, or even witnessed a famine firsthand, have you?"

Ken paused for a moment. His family had fled to Castel. Old Ivan had taken them to the island. Although life was tough, they were far from famine and war. He had never really gone hungry as a child. The biggest problem he had to worry about was how many people in his family could go to school.

French Fries: "Uh, I've never seen it before."

The Scepter: "I once met the disaster victims with the Candlelight Vigil. They were a vast, dark mass, like locusts. Wherever they went, they brought disaster, devouring even the grass and trees along the way, leaving behind a trail of corpses."

The Scepter: "I've always felt a mix of fear and detached compassion, until one day I did something impulsive. I told the priests who followed me that I wanted to get closer and see these starving people."

The Scepter: "The priest led me to the ranks of the starving people. The priest was very strong; no one could harm me. But even today, I often dream of those starving people, and then I wake up from nightmares."

The Scepter: "To me, the starving people were merely a symbol, a noun, a distant representation that stirred my compassion. But when I approached them, I was astonished to discover that they were, in fact, human beings."

The scepter: "The endless followers of the Mother Goddess are also composed of living, breathing people, each with a name, parents, and who once had hopes and dreams."

The scepter: "Now some have driven them to the brink, willing to worship evil gods, willing to die so that their anger may ignite the world."

The scepter: "When they are in despair, only a loving mother responds to them, so it's no wonder they give everything."

Scepter: "So, I think—"

The scepter: "One life for another, it's fair."

(End of this chapter)