There was no need to make a choice, Carol immediately gathered the refugees, now was not the time to hide—once the signal flare shot up into the sky, the Punisher brigades of the various churches would surely come at the first moment, and if the situation allowed, the City Guard Brigade would also join them, with Carol and the dozen or so Guards from the cult, they would likely not withstand even one volley of gunfire.
With this in mind, Carol even more resented this damned era—ever since firearms were discovered, they had profoundly changed the rules by which this world operated.
No longer were there days where Transcendents towered high above; the armies of Mortals could now contend with those lower-tier Transcendents using firepower, and even the once-noble owners of the Sequences had to admit that sometimes firearms were far more effective than Spell Formations, mutated limbs, or swords.
