It was no coincidence that Murphy had appeared at the critical moment of the battle.
In fact, after reaching Baphomet's dungeon and discovering that Triss and the others hadn't come back up, Murphy had decisively summoned George. Relying on the Astral Wolf's incredible sense of smell, he'd followed him deeper into the dungeon. He hadn't just arrived at the last possible moment; he'd already slipped into the church when Triss was under the control of the Fallen Edict. But as he'd said, a hero had to make a dramatic entrance at the crucial moment to turn defeat into victory.
So the vampire lord had taken a little time to pick the perfect moment to appear.
Finding their way through the maze hadn't been easy, but fortunately, Miss Winnie had summoned a minotaur. Minotaurs had a distinctive scent, which made it easy for George to track them.
It was a good thing Murphy had arrived in time. With the concentration of subspace corruption in this church and the evil god's monstrous offspring, Baphomet, interfering, even if Palanno had managed to slay the blasphemous priest, it would probably have been a costly victory.
As Triss had said, once these true "fallen" were blessed by the shadows of the subspace, the difference in their power levels no longer determined victory or defeat. The worst possible outcome would be for Palanno to kill the blasphemous priest but have a seed of corruption planted in him in the process. That would be a complete disaster.
Murphy really didn't want to use Omega's power to execute this neurotic Rose Knight, whom he actually rather admired. Even less did he want to stand before Lord Paine and explain why his First Lord had inexplicably died in an evil goatman dungeon.
"I've seen that power in you once