"We'll have to force our way through if we must..."
Bang!
Wallis's voice was still echoing through the spacious side hall when a piercing explosion rang out from the ceiling overhead and the surrounding walls.
Almost at the same moment, Wallis felt a numbing, burning sensation spread through his body.
Countless golden electrical sparks then flickered through the air, and the side hall was plunged into darkness, lit only by the faint red glow of a few Mechanical Eyes.
Listening to the cries of alarm coming from both outside the side hall and nearby, Wallis's expression darkened.
"What happened?"
Several priests around him instinctively shook their heads, then realized that the Bishop could not see their movements.
They hurriedly replied, "Bishop, we... don't know either."
"From the sound of it, it isn't just the side hall. Something seems to have gone wrong in the Church Main Hall too."
Wallis said nothing. He merely took heavy steps through the darkness in a familiar direction.
Amid a series of faint clatters, the tightly shut windows of the side hall were shoved open.
The blazing afternoon sunlight, carrying waves of heat, poured in through the windows like drawn swords, effortlessly tearing the darkness within the side hall into scattered fragments.
Using the sunlight, Wallis raised his head and examined the lighting fixtures installed on the side hall's ceiling.
When he saw unfamiliar charred marks staining them, confusion immediately rose in his heart.
This...
What the hell had happened?!
Ever since joining the Church, he had never encountered anything like this!
"My Lord..."
Wallis could not help letting out a long sigh filled with indescribable emotion.
The priests beside him exchanged uneasy glances, huddling in the corner of the side hall without daring to make a sound.
Before they knew it, as heavy footsteps