Kelvin ignored the devil's advocate and returned to cutting down trees.
Without the elves actively attacking them, the activities of the soldiers could return to normal. There was only the constant fungal attack and acid rain barrage. These were things that the force field protected them from.
But there were some changes in the situation due to Command. Command had decided not to allow the elves to have free control over the situation anymore. So they set up atmosphere coolers at the edge of the barrier.
These atmosphere coolers came in pairs. One pair were pillars containing powerful heat sinks that absorbed heat from the surrounding. The second pair expelled liquid gas created through compression of the atmosphere.
The next thing Command did was to scatter some dust into the clouds above the human, which caused them to darken and become opaque. So they cast a vast shadow over the human army and the surroundings.
The lack of light worked together with the two pairs of atmosphere coolers to reduce the temperature of the surroundings drastically. The acid rain increased their effect because it had increased the humidity in the air.
Their plan worked so well that ice began to form and snow began to fall. With many of the atmosphere coolers and the opaque cloud working together, the surroundings of the barrier quickly turned into a frozen tundra.
The giant worms were still producing acid rain, but it had been effectively neutralized by the cold. Anything else that would attack the barrier next time would also need to overcome the cold now.
The only weakness in the situation was that atmosphere coolers were outside the barrier. So they were vulnerable and needed to be protected by the army.
Meanwhile, the other soldiers were still within the barrier fighting the constantly growing trees. It was a war that Command didn't have any intention of winning. All they wanted was a draw.
They wanted to destroy trees from the comfort of their barrier, so they allowed the edge of the forest within the barrier to keep growing. They would then cut them down and repeat.
They maintained this delicate balance between cutting down trees and allowing them to regrow. It is only when the army needed more space and needed to expand that they would cut down trees, destroy their roots, and contaminate the ground with herbicides to prevent future growth.
Command wanted the fight to drag on because they needed more time to set up every one of the tools. One of those many tools was their satellites.
They assembled them in the fourth month of the invasion. Most of their parts had been created from raw materials from Lignum using their refiners and 3D printers.
But it took until the fifth month before they could succeed in launching them because of certain complications in the engines used in the propulsion.
This complication was mainly due to the erratic nature of the magnetic field of the planet. It was affecting the electricity-powered engines. It caused instabilities in the propulsion system that caused explosions during launch.
The first successful launch was a momentous occasion for the human army. It meant that they would be able to put satellites for surveillance and communication up in the skies.
According to Wrath, it also meant that they would be able to put the spear of glory in the sky too. With it and the surveillance satellites there in the sky, Command would be able to perform targeted strikes on enemy assets whenever they wanted.
Maybe the elven king sensed the danger, or maybe they were just being paranoid and didn't want the invaders to put anything above them; they chose to attack the rockets and destroy them.
This caused another round of fighting to ensue. It was mostly limited to the elven kings and the human demigods.
The elven kings wanted to destroy the rockets while the human demigods wanted to protect them. Both sides refused to back down on the matter, so they clashed many times over a period of weeks.
Command launched many rockets, most of which were duds carrying nothing important. The duds looked exactly like the ones carrying satellites and the spear of glory, but they were just there to make the divide the manpower of the elven kings and make them waste their time.
But this was just a temporary stopgap, as it didn't matter if a rocket escaped the initial attack and managed to reach low orbit with its payload. The elven kings didn't give up just because it was high in the sky. They would fly up to destroy it.
So the human demigods had to defend constantly. The hammer of dawn of the mothership and the numerous spears of glory that had been prepared during the first four months were used together to protect the payload.
Even divine combat bots made of a nearly indestructible metal were released by Command to join the fight and assist the two human demigods.
This clash caused rockets to explode, filling the sky with fire and light. Demigods clashed and fought, constantly shaking the earth and dyeing the sky with different shades of their might.
The fight was constant. It never stopped for five weeks. Two elven kings died, and many divine combats were destroyed. Apparently, they were not truly indestructible.
Eventually the elven kings couldn't hold back anymore and gave the order for their mortal troops to attack the human army. This caused an army almost a billion in number to clash with the meager 7 million human soldiers still alive.
Wrath saw the advancing enemy army and shook his head. "I doubt a third of us will survive this fight."
Wrath only became more excited. "Yeah. Give me more carnage, more death. Let's do this."
Above in the sky were flashing lights, explosions, and the frequent booms of thunder. The darkness of the day caused by the artificial dark clouds above made these flashes of light and explosions especially clear both day and night.