Fifth Hundred and Seventeenth Chapter Nameless Dead

"Magic reaction?" Earl Delta turned his head. "What's that?"

"Tell your knights to get out of the way!" Brian disregarded etiquette and roared at him.

Before the words finished, a group of believers wearing indigo robes rushed out from the street corner and plunged into the leading knights. The impact of the attackers was so great that even the horses were knocked to the ground. Several knights hadn't reacted before they were crushed under the horses, their legs broken. The others immediately drew their swords and fought with the believers.

The people on the street scattered, many being knocked down in the chaos. Cries and calls for help rose and fell, and the scene was a mess.

"They... they've really rebelled!" The Earl was surprised for a moment, then roared in anger, "Damn it, kill all these rebels!"

But a flying paving stone shut him up.

It was part of the street pavement. The stone slab rose into the air and slammed heavily into the knight. The speed was so fast that only a green blur could be seen. The armor of the person who was hit caved in a section, and blood spurted out from the visor and joint gaps. It was clear that he wouldn't survive.

Then more stone slabs flew out, even including the believers. Those who were hit vertically had their bones shattered, while those who were hit horizontally were cut in two.

Before Earl Delta could express his shock, Brian pulled him to the side of the street.

"Fire!" Iron Axe ordered.

The continuous sound of gunfire instantly echoed through the street.

The people who were still standing fell like wheat being cut. A brief emptiness appeared in front of the chaotic crowd. When the smoke cleared, only knights and believers lay on the ground. Some were not yet dead, curled up on the ground, moaning in pain.

"Where's the enemy?" Brian stared at the street corner, his expression as if facing a formidable enemy.

"The enemy... aren't they all down?" The Earl was shocked and puzzled. Obviously, he didn't expect His Majesty's army to be so powerful. More than a dozen silver-armored knights had lost their ability to fight in the blink of an eye.

"Here they come!" Sylvie said sharply.

As if echoing her warning, a woman walked out of the street corner. The stone slabs on the street rolled up like a carpet, floating in the air one after another.

Dense gunfire rang out again. The newly erected stone slabs were shattered, but still a slab completed the flip, sweeping towards the crowd like a thick-bladed giant sword.

"Crap!" Brian thought with dread. Judging from the scene he just saw, firearms would never be able to accurately smash a flipped stone slab at such a short distance. He hardly dared to imagine the scene of the soldiers being hit – they didn't even have iron armor, and the casualties would only be more severe than the knights. But at this time, they could only resist it.

Almost at the same time, a purple light flashed from the front of the formation.

The magic-constructed cage completely covered the incoming stone slab and quickly contracted, forcefully stopping it.

"The enemy... is a witch?" Earl Delta finally realized.

The First Army stopped firing only when all the standing stone slabs had fallen to the ground.

Thick smoke blocked the view, and the air was filled with the choking smell of sulfur. But no one dared to rub their eyes or cough. Apart from the sound of reloading bullets, the scene was eerily quiet.

"Sylvie xiaojie?" Iron Axe asked.

"The magic... has disappeared," she said slowly.

The disappearance of magic meant that the enemy had left the battlefield or was already dead.

When the smoke cleared, Brian saw the result.

A woman lay in a pool of blood, her dark green curly hair appearing even darker as it soaked in the blood.

Brian released the Earl, who was still in shock, and walked to her side—the red and white priest's robe revealed her identity.

The Pure One had two palm-sized wounds on her chest and abdomen, still flowing with reddish-brown blood clots. Presumably, the bullets had penetrated the stone slab and, with undiminished force, directly pierced her body. Her arms and legs had multiple wounds, probably caused by the flying gravel.

Rolling up the stone slabs on the street as a shield, and using the extra stone slabs as weapons to attack the enemy, even if the opponent had God's Stone of Retaliation, it would be difficult to get close in the face of such attacks. Originally, this was the right approach, but she hadn't anticipated the power of firearms.

Looking back now, she was probably hit by the dense rain of bullets in the first volley, but she still insisted on flipping and throwing a stone slab, which showed her willpower.

"She really is a witch from the church?" Delta cautiously approached.

"Didn't His Majesty make it clear in the propaganda in the royal capital?" Brian replied unhappily, "The church not only uses berserk pills to poison ordinary people, but also secretly cultivates witches to serve them. And those innocent women who are framed by the church are the ones who stand on our side. Haven't you heard any news?"

"I've heard some, but it's really unbelievable..."

"What's this? The church has done far more despicable things." Of course, the nobles aren't any better. Brian thought to himself, but didn't say anything more.

Edith was also shocked by this brief conflict.

It was the first time she had seen the combat method of the firearm troops. From discovering the target to defeating the enemy, the whole process was like a storm, and the soldiers only needed to stand still. Just in terms of physical exertion, His Majesty's army already had an overwhelming advantage. It was conceivable that the larger the scale of the battle, the more obvious the advantage of using firearms would be.

Undoubtedly, the war in the form of competing with heavy armor and sharp blades has been completely changed.

Thinking of the machines roaring all night in the Western Region that are constantly producing such weapons, she knew how terrifying the war potential His Majesty's territory possessed.

It wasn't until Iron Axe ordered the team to continue moving forward that Edith came back to her senses.

But the belief in her heart became even stronger—her choice was the right one.

The First Army turned the corner and soon arrived at the entrance of the church. Many corpses were already lying on the ground, dressed mainly as patrol teams.

The reason for the incident was quickly found out. Just as the patrol team was following orders to block the church, more than two hundred berserkers suddenly rushed out, scattering the lord's people. Some believers stayed behind to entangle with the patrol team and create chaos in the outer city, while some directly broke through towards the city gate. Fortunately, the First Army was less than a hundred meters away from the church at the time, and happened to run into the Pure One. If it had been a quarter of an hour later, the Pure One would probably have escaped in the chaos.

Brian took the lead and rushed into the church, quickly clearing out the remaining resistance inside.

Next was the plundering time. According to His Majesty's requirements, the church's documents, letters, and materials had to be scavenged clean, leaving nothing behind.

Under Sylvie's instructions, the soldiers used small packs of zhàyào to blow open the heavy iron door of the basement. When the door slowly fell, the people present couldn't help but widen their eyes.

More than a dozen boxes of God's Stone of Retaliation were neatly arranged, and the ground was piled with glittering gold coins.