As they sped toward the church, Zhang Ge had already preloaded the "voice module" with the predetermined commands and communicated his plan with Sister Amilia.
Ahead of them, the land surrounding the church had been leveled, with all rocks, debris, and uneven terrain flattened. This was to create a no-cover isolation zone, forcing any enemy attempting to cross it to face the challenge of having no concealment.
This circular isolation zone, centered on the church, had a radius of approximately two kilometers. The entire perimeter was under the threat of the church's three-tiered defensive lines—the parapet, main wall, and the main structure's low to high firing positions. It was easy to imagine the heavy cost enemies lacking heavy weaponry or siege equipment would pay when trying to cross this zone.
However, there were no corpses or signs of combat on this isolation zone.
If the church had fallen, it likely meant the enemy had employed some direct and overwhelming method to breach or bypass the church's external defenses, leaving the sisters no time to react—such enemies were usually extremely formidable.
But Zhang Ge didn't care. In this world, as a member of the Astra Militarum, with his comrades by his side, possibly under the watch of the Emperor, and with the sanctity of the holy site potentially being violated, it was entirely normal for him to charge toward the church even if someone like Abaddon was inside.
Just like the mortal soldier who charged at Horus during the Emperor's decisive battle with him, choosing to face death head-on was not necessarily illogical.
And now, this logical reasoning fell into Zhang Ge's hands.
The last time they fought the Chaos Space Marines, the retreat order was issued before it was his turn, but this time, no one would issue such an order for him again.
Lost in these thoughts, after entering the isolation zone, Zhang Ge—or rather, the vehicle itself—had already accelerated to a speed akin to skimming the ground. At this extreme velocity, the vehicle not only showed no signs of shaking but also became increasingly faster after entering the flat terrain.
Watching the main gate draw closer, Zhang Ge spoke at an incredibly rapid pace:
"Now!"
Both car doors were simultaneously opened by Zhang Ge and Sister Amilia. Amid the high-speed gale, the sister forced the door open with sheer brute strength, while Zhang Ge, though prepared to exert all his might to push it open, found that it opened surprisingly smoothly. The door seemed to automatically adjust to the angle where he stopped pushing and locked into place, cutting through the wind.
There was no time to dwell on these details as Zhang Ge watched the rapidly approaching city gate.
As expected, the gate was closed. Of course, he had no intention of driving straight into it, as that would only result in being crushed into a metallic pancake against the adamantium gate.
As they neared the gate, the vehicle instantly turned sharply to the right, its speed dropping abruptly. The inertia flung Zhang Ge toward the original forward direction.
But at this moment, he had already firmly gripped the side of the grille armor on the car roof, using it as a pull bar to anchor himself to the vehicle. Leveraging the inertia, he swung his body into a straight line perpendicular to the ground and almost parallel to the roof. Then, with a sharp tug, he pulled his upper body past his hand position and onto the roof.
Thus, Sister Amilia, who had already reached the roof, could just wrap her arms around Zhang Ge's chest. As she pulled him up, she turned her foot toward the parapet, took a step to gain momentum, and then stepped onto the raised barrel of the heavy bolter to exert force, leaping up to the top of the parapet.
By the time the vehicle began to circle the city wall below, Sister Amilia had already brought Zhang Ge, who was essentially a human accessory, onto the parapet.
However... there was still no sign of any enemy counterattack, turning this series of plans designed to minimize the time spent scaling the wall into an unappreciated circus performance in the night.
To travel light, Zhang Ge's only weapons were the plasma pistol and Ascalon he carried. He could have brought a power sword as well, but his own scabbard was unusable—it had to be used to carry the sword for the sister who needed a free hand to pull him up. So, if he got into close combat, he could only hope that Ascalon was indeed the legendary genuine article.
He pushed aside his scattered thoughts and didn't dwell on it too much.
For now, since there was no immediate attack, he needed to gather as much information as possible.
As Zhang Ge ducked into the gatehouse, he drew his sword and handed it to Sister Amilia, who followed closely behind.
But when it came to information, he lacked night vision capabilities. After trying for a moment and realizing he couldn't see any details, he turned his gaze back to the latter.
The nun nodded, "scanned" for a moment, and then shook her head.
No enemies detected—were they hiding, or had they withdrawn?
In Zhang Ge's mind, the answer leaned more toward the latter. After all, if the enemy had the ability to overwhelm the church with a small number of troops, they were likely elite Chaos forces. If they weren't caught in the act, it was unlikely they would linger inside the church during an ongoing battle. Moreover, the numerous cultists hadn't reached this point yet.
After this brief consideration, Zhang Ge pointed to the city wall outside the gate tower, signaling that they could proceed with the plan.
Sister Amelia nodded and turned around.
There was a height difference and some distance between the parapet and the main wall, but the gap was only about fifteen meters.
At this distance, even an ordinary person could throw a thermal bomb from above onto the demons climbing the parapet.
However, for someone like Sister Amelia, such a distance posed no obstacle.
Thus, without the burden of carrying Zhang Ge, she moved to the side of the wall, took a running start, and leaped across the gap, landing on the main wall. She then moved into the gatehouse above the main gate.
Familiar with the church's defensive structures, Sister Amelia quickly located the manual switch for the gate and opened the doors of both walls.
Still, there was no enemy attack.
Zhang Ge descended the parapet via the stairs and met up with Sister Amelia inside the main gate.
The surrounding auxiliary structures and vehicle machinery outside were silent, shrouded in darkness, even the area above the main church building was pitch black.
Only the first floor, seemingly the main hall, emitted bright light from within.
The situation was extremely eerie, but since they had come this far, there was no turning back. The two cautiously crossed the open area in front of the church and approached the door.
Upon pushing the door open, the scene inside was unexpected.
There was no chaos, nor any signs of corruption. Hundreds of nuns were lined up in rows, their backs turned to the two, kneeling toward the front where a curtain concealed the holy statue. Their heads were bowed to their chests, and their hands held something.
Seeing this, Sister Amelia clenched the sword in her right hand and walked into the church. Zhang Ge wanted 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. She grabbed a corner of it and yanked it down.
The large curtain fell, revealing the hidden scene.
The original head of the holy statue had rolled to the side, replaced by a disproportionately small head impaled by a longsword on the statue's neck, which had a massive gash. It was the head of the Grand Sister Mentor Theresa. Blood tears, long dried, streamed from her eyes down to the base of the statue, where her headless body knelt beside it.
The blood-stained longsword above was her own.
Amelia looked back.
Each of the hundreds of nuns had at least one fatal wound. Rusted nails used to pin their heads to their severed necks were clearly visible. In their hands, they held blood-soaked chaotic scriptures, drenched in the blood from their severed necks.