Chapter 418: The Immediate Counterattack |
Not long after the action team withdrew, a large number of people in black robes from the Disciples swarmed in from the streets in all directions.
They gathered before the cathedral, now reduced to ruins, each holding a copy of *The Word of God* in silent stillness.
Then, the crowd parted to create a path down the middle. As three figures walked through this passage, the Disciples uniformly knelt on one knee in greeting.
This was a courtesy reserved only for the arrival of Your Holiness.
The three walked to the edge of the cathedral ruins. The young man on the left wore an expression of bitter resentment and unwillingness; it was Bishop Bake.
On the right stood a man over two meters tall, his entire body knotted with muscles, looking like a solid wall. His suit jacket seemed on the verge of bursting at the seams.
Standing between these two was Your Holiness, a seemingly ordinary young man wearing black-framed glasses without lenses.
He looked at the church ruins before him, thought for a moment, and asked, "Why did this plan fail?"
"It was 'Shadow', Your Holiness," Bake said in a low voice. "We didn't expect him to be in the action team too... If it weren't for him, all those heretics would have died in the magic array we prepared in advance!"
"That's correct. They teleported directly inside the church, likely on purpose. But if it weren't for 'Shadow', with Hess and I eliminating the main force, plus Peter's sudden ambush, wiping out the Suroma Team led by Adam would have been no problem either... Now Hess is dead, Peter is dead too. We've lost two bishops in one go..."
"Enough," Your Holiness cut Bake off, turning to look at the suit-clad giant who stood like a wall on the right. "Khan, take some people and prepare to teleport to the Black Flag Country."
The priest named "Khan" nodded without a word, turned, and left.
"Khan is going to the Black Flag Country?" Bake was unaware of this arrangement. "Your Holiness, do we have some operation over there?"
"The Prophet on the parasitized side informed me they are about to counterattack the Joint Force. I'm sending Khan to lend a hand. Bake, I also have an arrangement for you."
"Please give your order, Your Holiness!"
Your Holiness looked at Bake and slowly said, "Since your identity and abilities have already been exposed, from now on you will only serve as a target for enemy reconnaissance and assassination. Rather than die at the hands of heretics, it's better you accompany my great cathedral in its burial."
"Yes!"
As if enchanted, Bake found nothing wrong with this command at all.
With a completely calm expression, he walked into the ruins, picked up a sharp piece of brick, and violently thrust it into his own throat.
As gurgling crimson flowed out, his body slowly collapsed.
Your Holiness turned to face the kneeling disciples and declared loudly, "Those who destroyed our church must pay a price in blood. Do you possess sufficient courage to let the enemy witness our resolve?"
"We do!" the disciples chorused.
"Then let the counterattack begin from today, from this very moment."
...
After the action team withdrew, they collectively used teleportation-type items to return to the Human Consortium's office in Suroma.
Everyone entered the operations room seething with anger, only to find that the Suroma Senator was nowhere to be seen. The room contained only the other several team leaders.
The team leaders proceeded to brief their respective team members on the situation.
Li Meng said, "That Senator was summoned by the Suroma King for questioning. The nature of this incident is extremely serious. The Suroma King is probably furious right now."
"Definitely," Silver Fox said. "Their own team of four people: one traitor, one sacrificed, one ran off, only one returned. That's absolutely unacceptable."
Of the Suroma Team's four members, only Moon Key returned. Adam, however, had taken Amanda's corpse and gone who knows where. The others in the action team weren't surprised; from the moment they saw Adam crush his communication earpiece, they had a premonition he would leave.
"That Diviner isn't here now either, probably taken away for investigation too, right?" Yang Ran said. "What do you think, could she also be a traitor? Otherwise, isn't her ability to predict the future? Why didn't she predict Peter was a traitor, didn't predict we'd be ambushed, didn't predict her teammate Amanda would be sacrificed?"
Although Guan Tong and the others didn't believe Moon Key could be a traitor, Yang Ran's words weren't without reason.
Before the operation, hadn't she used her ability to see anything?
Normally, if one possessed precognitive abilities, wouldn't one definitely use them right before embarking on a dangerous mission?
"Don't worry about the investigation; results will come out soon... Regardless, this was indeed incredibly perilous. If not for you breaking the array, Guan Tong, the consequences would have been unthinkable," Li Meng said, his face full of lingering fear.
Silver Fox added, "Yeah, the combined Mind Power of the rest of us probably couldn't match several hundred cultists. With that numerical advantage, that magic array was indeed nearly unsolvable—lucky we had our super-god Shadow here~"
"Hmph, how could a bunch of cultists be a match for Brother Guan."
"Truly worthy of being our captain!"
Several teammates strongly agreed with Li Meng's assessment. Even Bai Xuewu, who initially had some friction with Guan Tong, had witnessed firsthand the terrifying scale of Guan Tong's Mind Power reserves this time. After all, in that situation, her mecha was utterly incapable of breaking the deadlock.
Silver Fox then asked, "Section Chief Li, if there's no follow-up to this operation, should we also return to our country?"
"It's hard to say right now. The Human Consortium is currently in a meeting discussing it. If there's no follow-up action, we should be able to return tomorrow. You all go rest first. I'll wait here for the results."
Even though no one in the Beixing squad was injured, actual combat was a significant drain on both physical stamina and mental energy. Moreover, they had experienced betrayal and ambush—events that exhaust both body and mind.
Everyone returned to their respective rooms to rest. After Guan Tong returned to his room, he lay on the bed and sorted through the sequence of events.
First, the Suroma Team's teleportation location was inside the church. Peter, the traitor, was unaware of this, so the two bishops, Bake and Hess, who set up the ambush outside, also didn't know.
As for Adam and the others, since they didn't know Peter was a traitor, they also didn't know the other teams teleporting to the originally designated location had fallen into a trap and were in dire straits.
"It seems I misunderstood somewhat earlier," Guan Tong thought.
At the time, he bombarded the building regardless of Adam and the others being inside, believing Adam's team had betrayed them first, so even killing them wouldn't be wrong.
Since Adam and the other two were unaware of the ambush outside, not rushing out to rescue immediately was somewhat understandable... But regardless, the fact they concealed the discrepancy in teleportation coordinates was undeniable.
"Adam told Amanda 'we shouldn't have carried out the King's mission'... What mission did the Suroma King give him? Wasn't it to decapitate the Fire Thief Worship Cult's leadership?"
Guan Tong pondered for a moment when he suddenly heard a commotion erupting outside his door.
He immediately got up and went out, seeing several Ascendants from other countries' action teams speaking with looks of terror on their faces.
"What happened?" he asked.
"The cultists! The cultists are attacking! Just received word, a large number of cultists have breached the Suroma border! Their target is this very city we're in!"
Hearing this, Guan Tong frowned. "Have they gone mad? Isn't this suicide?"
Suroma's war robots killing ordinary cultists is no different from cutting grass. Could it be that Your Holiness, in his rage, can't even distinguish the power disparity between the two sides? After that devastating defeat last time, they still dare to launch a large-scale ground assault?
"No! They're exploiting the current Doomsday Rule!" another person urgently exclaimed. "Every single disciple is plastered with high-definition photos of 'Scarlet Terra'! They're a complete bunch of lunatics!"