After opening her eyes, Amelia took a step forward, grasping the hilt of the silver-white longsword.

  The moment her palm made contact with the hilt, the longsword, which had been entirely featureless and monochromatic, underwent a transformation.

  From bottom to top, there was a hilt head composed of small golden crosses, a hilt made of black crystalline material, a guard shaped like golden eagle wings, and a pure white blade.

  Though there was no sheath, as soon as Amelia released her grip on the longsword, it floated behind her, following her movements and gently swaying.

  Witnessing this scene, Zhang Ge felt a sense of dread in his heart.

  This is bad; it’s causing a ruckus with the Emperor.

  And perhaps sensing Zhang Ge's presence, Sister Amelia walked toward him, the light in her eyes dimming slightly, though her golden irises remained bright.

  "The collapse of the defense line is inevitable. I plan to destroy this place to prevent it from being tainted by the cultists.

  Setting the explosives will take a few hours, so you can go do something else in the meantime."

  When she reached Zhang Ge, he noticed that her height had increased by nearly twenty centimeters, now standing over one meter ninety, taller than him.

  However, what was most striking was not this change. Zhang Ge opened his mouth, paused for a moment in silence:

  “...”

  Then he continued:

  “... It’s possible, but shouldn’t you find some clothes to wear first?”

  “No need. I’ll go find a usable power feedback exosuit later.”

  That’s not the point!

  After saying this, the nun turned sideways and passed through a narrow side door, returning Zhang Ge’s crucifix to him as she did so.

  They moved through the corridor, crossing over blood and corpses, heading deeper into the church, presumably toward a warehouse or something similar.

  As he watched her walk further into the church, Zhang Ge didn’t continue to stare.

  Shaking his head, he thought that since there were still a few hours left, he might as well fulfill his promise and go fix that vehicle outside.

  Without hesitation, after quickly crossing two city walls, Zhang Ge intercepted the vehicle still circling the walls and drove it toward the church's open area.

  Inside an annex filled with various vehicles parked on one side, Zhang Ge easily found the complete set of tools he needed.

  Though he didn’t understand the internal structure of that vehicle, washing it with holy water, sticking some scriptures on it, and saying a few kind words to the machine spirit was still maintenance, right? This church had plenty of those supplies.

  However, when he returned for the second trip to grab enough holy water, Zhang Ge noticed a muffled banging sound coming from a certain place.

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  Following the sound, he discovered that it was coming from a martyr mech deep inside.

  This seemingly golden, ornate bipedal mech was actually one of the Empire's most severe punishment machines, considered a plus version of the penance mech.

  Martyr mechs were generally used to punish nuns who committed the most serious crimes.

  Those sinners would be wrapped inside a protective shell resembling an iron maiden at the center of the mech, serving as both the mech's ornament and its pilot, enduring extreme suffering within.

  Due to the shell's excessive sturdiness, compared to the ordinary penance mech pilots who could wash away their sins through death, the sinners piloting martyr mechs often had to endure such agony for decades.

  Even the beasts of hell would have to admit that this was a bit too extreme.

  Now, the issue was that, as everyone knew, sound is transmitted through the vibration of a medium—yet the precious metal was too hard. It was difficult for most Imperial tools to process it, let alone strike it with a fist; even a mortal with a hammer couldn’t make it vibrate.

  Yet, the dull thuds still echoed clearly.

  Just as Zhang Ge was about to mind his own business and leave, the martyr mech suddenly moved, stepping forward as he took a step back.

  Oh, so this is how we’re playing?

  Zhang Ge didn’t mind taking control, but if he were to do so out of mere curiosity and ended up getting killed by whatever was inside, it wouldn’t count as a normal death.

  But now there was sufficient reason; that made it a different matter.

  After drawing his plasma pistol from his waist, Zhang Ge approached the martyr mech, feeling around until he found a way to open its protective shell: a sizable valve.

  He tried it out; it wasn’t as difficult to turn as it looked.

  With just a slight effort, he made it rotate. After turning it about a hundred times, the protective shell slowly opened, popping to the side.

  A figure resembling a novice nun tumbled out of the pilot’s seat, which should have restrained a sinner.

  Since Zhang Ge had no intention of catching her and instead cautiously stepped back while holding his plasma pistol, she fell face-first to the ground.

  Blood streamed from her nose upon impact, mixing with the dust on the ground and the tears flowing down her face as she cried, painting her features with a blend of all three.

  But she herself seemed indifferent to it, curled up in extreme sorrow, as if wanting to howl but only opening her mouth with barely a sound escaping, her intermittent tones filled with tears.

  Zhang Ge pondered for a moment and asked:

  "Deserter?"

  The mention of this word finally elicited a reaction from her, her head drooping lower as she buried it between her knees in her tears.

  A novice nun, facing a Terminator that had dispatched over a hundred nuns, asking her to win was akin to sending someone to eliminate the Tang Monk and his disciples.

  And hiding inside the precious metal shell of a martyr's mech, considering the tight schedule and heavy tasks of the Terminators, even if they detected a novice nun, they would likely be too lazy to pry open such a hard shell.

  Additionally, not wanting to risk being targeted in an open area by vehicles contributed to her survival, which was understandable.

  But at least in this world, that couldn't serve as an excuse for her.

  Of course, on the other hand, since the martyr's machine spirit had taken her in and now allowed Zhang Ge to rescue her, he had no intention of acting as a judge; he simply wanted to extract some information from her.

  Moreover, he had just arrived and, while not opposed to it, was not particularly interested in the Empire's extreme measures.

  Reaching for his waist, he pulled out a crucifix and tossed it at her face, then casually opened a few bottles of holy water and poured them over her head and body to prevent any demonic disguise. Once her body convulsed slightly less, Zhang Ge asked:

  "Tell me, how many attackers were there?"

  She did not respond and continued to cry.

  Helpless, Zhang Ge could only use a method more suitable for a nun to calm her down.

  He half-squatted, grasped her slender neck, applying pressure and lifting her up, her voice gradually drowned out as she instinctively struggled in the suffocation.

  After a while, just as she was about to lose consciousness, Zhang Ge finally released his grip, letting her collapse weakly in front of him, gasping for air.

  Immediately, Zhang Ge removed the sword sheath from his waist, approached the novice nun from behind, and mercilessly struck her back, causing her suppressed cries to replace her previous sobbing. However, she never resisted or dodged;

  instead, she cried, her hands clasped tightly as she closed her eyes in prayer.

  After a short while, it seemed that the relentless pain had somewhat alleviated the novice nun's overwhelming guilt, and she began to speak in broken phrases, having to bite her lip and pause every half-word to prevent herself from crying out in pain during the next lash:

  "Three..."