They left the western border that same day, the whole army teleporting straight to the north. Laia spent the whole ride counting her gold, already daydreaming about what she'd do with the twenty million bonus. She could buy a whole planet, she could eat cheese sandwiches every day for the rest of her life, she could even... wait, did she even need to work anymore? She had so much money coming in from tax every month, she could retire right now! She glanced over at the overlords, who were all going over their battle plans, grinning. Wow, they were really excited about this mission. That was good, meant they'd finish it fast.
When they arrived at the northern border, Orien was there, pacing back and forth, nervous. The Void army had already broken through the first line of defenses, and he was worried they'd get through before Laia arrived. But when he saw Laia's army—this time, it was even bigger, 300 million soldiers, 20,000 starships, all the overlords, the Chaos Lord, Kaelen the War God all lined up ready to fight—he let out a huge sigh of relief. "You're here! Perfect! They're right over there, they just crossed the border!"
Just as he said that, the sky turned deep purple, and the Void army appeared, covering the entire horizon. The Void Emperor stepped out, a tall man with purple skin, glowing eyes, a giant void sword in his hand, grinning like he'd been waiting for this for years. "There you are, Laia Hayes. I've been waiting for you. I heard you defeated Kaelen and the Chaos Lord. Finally, someone who can give me a real fight. Let's see what you've got."
The overlords' faces went dark instantly. He dared to invade their Overgod's realm? He dared to threaten their god?
Kane didn't even wait for a signal, he immediately ordered all the starships to open fire, the star-core cannons charging to maximum power. "All weapons, fire! Wipe them out before they can take another step!"
Torin shifted into his full ancient dragon form, roaring so loud the purple sky shook, and charged forward. "You dare come here, to our god's border?!"
All the overlords charged with him, Elara weaving her life purification array to burn away the void energy, Mephis pouring out his abyss power to hold the Void soldiers down, Borin throwing his legendary star-metal hammer, the Chaos Lord pouring out his own power to devour the void monsters.
The Void Emperor's grin froze on his face.
Wait.
What?
His whole Void army, the one that had conquered a dozen galaxies, the one that had beaten the pantheon's army a hundred times... it was gone? In five seconds?
He stared at the starships in the sky, the thousand-foot dragon, the overlords walking toward him, and his eyes went wide. Wait, these were the Overlords of the Races! All of them! Working for that little girl?
Oh. Oh right! That was the hidden Overgod! The one who'd cleared the Chaos Sea, tamed the Chaos Lord, defeated the War God!
He couldn't win. He couldn't even run.
He immediately dropped his sword, put his hands up, yelling as loud as he could.
"I SURRENDER! I SURRENDER! DON'T KILL ME! I'LL JOIN YOU! I'LL BE YOUR FOLLOWER! I'LL PAY YOU TAX! ANYTHING!"
Laia blinked, staring at him. Wow, that was even faster than Kaelen! She nodded, grinning. "Sure! You can join! Welcome to the realm!" The Void Emperor let out a huge sigh of relief, collapsing to the ground. Thank the stars. He wasn't dead.
Orien stared, his mouth dropping open so far he could catch flies. He'd been worried about the Void invasion for ten thousand years! And Laia defeated them in five seconds? He hurried over, scrambling to shove the twenty million gold into Laia's hands, then he bowed deeply, so deep his head touched the ground.
"Miss Hayes. I... I just realized. The ancient prophecy. It said that when all the overlords of the races gather under one god, that god will be the Supreme Overgod, the one who will bring eternal peace to the pantheon. That's you. I... I want to step down. You can be the new Supreme Overgod. All of the pantheon is yours. All the resources, all the land, everything. All of us will follow you."
Laia blinked. New Supreme Overgod? Wait, that meant even more people paying her tax? Even more money every month? She nodded immediately, grinning so wide her cheeks hurt. "Sure! That sounds great!"
The entire pantheon bowed, yelling in unison. "LONG LIVE THE OVERGOD!"
Laia's realm panel pinged nonstop, so fast it almost broke. New population: 1 billion followers! Realm size increased by the entire pantheon! Productivity increased by 1000000%!
She stared at the panel, then at all the gods bowing to her, then at the overlords, who were already planning their next move.
"Next, we can clear the rest of the Void galaxies! Bring all the refugees there to the realm! Protect the Overgod for good!"
Laia grinned, doing the math in her head. More refugees? More tax?
Wow.
This was the best job she'd ever had.