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Chapter 24: Blasphemy

  As they sped towards the church, Zhang Ge had already input the predetermined commands into the "voice module" and communicated his plan with Sister Amelia.

  In front of them, the land surrounding the church had been leveled, with all rocks, debris, and uneven terrain smoothed out. This was to create a clear isolation zone without any cover; any enemies attempting to cross this zone would face the dilemma of being exposed without any concealment.

  This circular isolation zone, centered around the church, had an estimated radius of about two thousand meters and was completely under the threat of three lines of fire from the church's parapet, main wall, and the main structure, all positioned from low to high. It’s easy to imagine the cost enemies lacking heavy weapons and siege equipment would pay when trying to cross this isolation zone.

  However, there were no bodies left on this isolation zone, nor were there any signs of a firefight.

  If the church were currently in a state of collapse, it likely meant that the enemy had employed some sort of direct and aggressive tactic to forcibly breach or bypass the church's external defenses, leaving the sisters no time to react—enemies capable of such tactics were typically very powerful.

  But Zhang Ge didn’t care. In this world, as part of the Astral Army, alongside comrades and under the watchful eye of the Emperor, with the sanctity of the sanctuary potentially at stake, it would be completely normal for him to rush in to face death, even if Abaddon were seated inside the church.

  Just like that mortal soldier who charged directly at Horus during the climactic battle between the Emperor and Horus, voluntarily rushing to his death was not necessarily illogical.

  And now, this reasonable logic had come into Zhang Ge's hands.

  The last time they dealt with the Chaos Interstellar Warriors, it was because the retreat order was issued before it was his turn. This time, no one was there to relay the command to him again.

  Lost in thought, as they entered the isolation zone, Zhang Ge... or rather, the vehicle itself had already reached the maximum speed of ground-hugging flight. At this speed, the vehicle's body experienced no bumps at all, and it only accelerated further upon hitting flat ground.

  Watching the rapidly approaching main gate, Zhang Ge spoke at a breakneck pace:

  "Now!"

  The doors on both sides of the vehicle were simultaneously flung open by Zhang Ge and Sister Amelia. In the fierce wind, the nun pushed the door open with sheer force, while Zhang Ge, prepared to exert all his strength to push out, found that the door opened unusually smoothly. It almost automatically settled into the angle where he stopped pushing, locking into place against the wind.

  There was no time to investigate the details; Zhang Ge focused on the quickly enlarging city gate.

  As expected, the gate was closed. Of course, he did not intend to crash the vehicle into it; that would only turn them into a meat patty at the steel gate.

  When they got close to the gate, the vehicle made a sharp right turn, and as its speed dropped suddenly, inertia flung Zhang Ge back toward the original forward direction.

  However, he had already firmly gripped one side of the vehicle's armored roof, using it as a lever to secure himself while leveraging the inertia to fling his body into a position nearly parallel to the roof. He then yanked himself up, pulling his upper body past his hand position to the roof.

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  In this way, Sister Amelia, who had already reached the roof, could wrap her arms around Zhang Ge's chest and, while pulling him up, pivoted her foot to aim at the parapet. With one push, she stepped out, and with her next foot, she applied force to the elevated barrel of the heavy explosive gun, leaping towards the top of the parapet.

  As the vehicle began to circle the city wall below, Sister Amelia had already brought Zhang Ge, who was hanging on, up to the wall of the parapet.

  However... there were still no signs of enemy counterattack, making this entire series of plans to minimize the time spent climbing the wall feel like a circus performance in the dark, unnoticed by anyone.

  In fact, to travel light, Zhang Ge only had the plasma pistol at his side and Ascalon. He could have brought an additional power sword, but his own sheath was unusable, as he needed it to help the nun who was pulling him up, leaving him to rely solely on the legendary Ascalon if they got too close.

  He pushed aside his chaotic thoughts and didn't dwell too much.

  Right now, since they had not been attacked yet, he needed to gather as much information as possible.

  As Zhang Ge thought this while entering the gate tower, he drew his sword and handed it to Sister Amelia, who was following behind him.

  But speaking of information, he lacked night vision, so after trying for a moment and finding he couldn't see any details, he turned his gaze back to her.

  The nun nodded and after scanning for a moment, shook her head.

  No enemies spotted? Were they hiding or had they retreated?

  In Zhang Ge's mind, the answer leaned more towards the latter. After all, if the enemy had the capability to take down the church with a small number of troops, they were likely elite Chaos warriors. If they hadn't happened to arrive just in time, they would hardly have the leisure to linger inside the church while the numerous cultists had not yet reached this place.

  After a moment's thought, Zhang Ge pointed to the city wall outside the gate tower, signaling that they could proceed with the plan.

  Sister Amelia nodded and turned to move.

  There was a certain height difference and distance between the parapet and the main wall, but the distance was only about fifteen meters.

  At this distance, even a mortal could throw a thermite bomb down onto the heads of the demons climbing up the parapet.

  However, for someone like Sister Amelia, this distance posed no obstacle.

  So, without the burden of Zhang Ge, she moved back to one side of the wall, took a running start, and leaped across the gap between the two, landing on top of the main wall and moving onto the gate of the main wall.

  With her familiarity with the church's defensive architecture, Sister Amelia quickly located the manual switch for the gate and opened the gates of both walls.

  Still no enemy attack.

  Zhang Ge descended from the parapet via the stairs and regrouped with Sister Amelia inside the main gate.

  A series of auxiliary buildings and mechanical vehicles outside lay silent in complete darkness, even the upper part of the church was the same.

  Only the first floor, seemingly the main hall, emitted bright light from within.

  The situation was extremely strange, but with no way to turn back, the two quickly and cautiously crossed the open area in front of the church and arrived at the door.

  Upon pushing the door open, the scene inside was unexpected.

  There was no chaos, nor any signs of corruption; over a hundred nuns were lined up, their backs to the two, kneeling towards the front where a curtain concealed the holy image, their heads bowed to their chests, hands holding something.

  Seeing this, Sister Amelia tightened her grip on her sword with her right hand and stepped into the church, while Zhang Ge was about to stop her but, seeing the expression on her face, he ultimately just raised his gun, ready to provide cover.

  Inside the church, she passed row after row of nuns until she reached the curtain, grabbing one corner and pulling it sharply.

  The giant curtain fell, revealing what had been concealed.

  The original head of the holy image had already rolled to the side, replaced by a disproportionately large head impaled by a long sword driven into the statue's neck... it was the head of the Grand Nun Mentor Teresa, her eyes streaming with blood tears that had long since solidified, extending down to the foot of the holy image, beside her headless body, which was also kneeling.

  Above, the blood-stained long sword was her own.

  Amelia looked back.

  Each of the hundreds of nuns had at least one fatal wound in front of them, with rusty nails clearly visible on their necks, used to secure their heads and severed necks, while the hands they held were filled with chaotic scriptures soaked in the blood flowing from the wounds.

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