Crushing Under Holy Light

The counterattack advanced to within twenty meters of the cave entrance.

Boer led his men forward, the sounds of bronze swords slashing and burning intertwined, each strike trailing a golden flame.

Lu Yuan provided pinpoint fire from the rear, responsible for clearing out any stragglers that managed to escape on the flanks.

But he noticed something.

The golden light membrane covering his body was thinning.

Not everyone is getting thinner.

The golden light emanating from Boer remained thick and even, as did that from the other Night Watcher.

Only the blessings within myself are gradually dissipating.

The difference wasn't noticeable when they were first attached, but as the battle progressed, the gap became increasingly apparent.

Others' bronze swords gleamed with a bright gold, while his Revolver was covered with only a faint layer of paint.

It felt like something was repelling it from within.

[Note: Angel's Blessing have a slight repulsion effect on the Host's own special attributes... the efficiency of the Blessing continues to decrease...]

When the nun raised her hand to Blessing, the three members of the Ascension Society were directly repelled; the two Born and the gray-haired woman couldn't even touch the golden light.

And now I am also being rejected by the Holy Light. It is clear that there is a certain conflict between my own path, or rather, the Transcendence Path, and the Blessing of the Angel and believers.

Lu Yuan remained silent.

However, the combat strategy was adjusted. Instead of relying on the extra damage from the Holy Light, the team now utilizes precise shooting combined with the burning effect of the copper-cased bullets.

Just be careful with your playing.

On the front, the two Born are still guarding the very front.

The Born, with its right arm severed and only a short thorn remaining on its stump, and its left arm completely deformed, stood blocking the pile of corpses, refusing to budge an inch.

Its condition is worse than before the counterattack began.

The black robe around his waist had long been torn apart, revealing twisted Gear and connecting rods underneath, some of which had come off and were dangling outside his body.

The shoulder armor was covered with bite marks and scratches, and the metal frame at the right collarbone was exposed.

But it's still fighting.

A Ghoul lunged forward, its short spikes piercing its jaw from below and going through its head.

The second one immediately followed and bit the back of the Born.

The metal was instantly bitten through.

The sharp teeth pierced the internal structure and bit off a metal shaft responsible for transmission.

The Born's left side was instantly paralyzed.

The deformed left arm drooped down, no longer under control.

But the short thorns on his right arm were still moving.

The moment the Ghoul saw its target was injured, it lunged forward.

The Born was instantly pushed to the ground.

The metal frame emitted a series of cracking sounds under heavy pressure.

It fell to the ground, its short thorns still throbbing mechanically, but no longer able to reach any target.

It's just futile poking at the air.

It's getting slower and slower.

Lu Yuan glanced at the far left of the position.

The woman with gray hair was still there.

She had already made her move before the counterattack began.

With a slight movement of his hand, the three Ghoul shattered from the inside, leaving nothing behind.

After that, Lu Yuan stopped paying attention to her. The pressure from the front and the flanks was too great, and he didn't have the energy to pay attention to someone who didn't need his attention.

But now that the counterattack has advanced to the front, the pressure on the rear has decreased sharply, and Lu Yuan finally has time to see things clearly.

She stood there.

They were less than fifteen meters from the battle against the Born.

Hands behind the back.

No action was taken.

She acted without hesitation when clearing the left wing, but now that the Born are being torn apart, she stands still.

Clearly, she didn't care about the life or death of the Born; she was simply observing.

Watching the one-armed Born being torn apart by Ghoul.

Watching the Gear burst out of the crack.

It's getting slower and slower.

He remained expressionless.

It seemed to be observing something, until the Born was completely destroyed.

The metal skeleton was torn to shreds by the Ghoul horde, its limbs scattered at impossible angles, and half of the bird-beak mask was ripped off, revealing what lay beneath...

Lu Yuan only glanced at it.

The Born has no face.

There was nothing underneath the mask.

It has only a single layer of black metal lining and a dense array of tiny Gear.

The Ghoul were still tearing at the fragments, as if they were fighting over something.

The woman with gray hair only moved when she saw this.

She took a few steps forward, squatted down, and picked something up from the shards.

A metal component the size of a fist, still connected to several broken copper wires.

She looked through it carefully for a while.

I put it in my pocket.

As she stood up, she frowned slightly, and her lips moved as if she were saying something.

Just then, three Ghoul surged in from the gap in the ruins on the left, less than ten meters away from her.

She didn't even look at her directly.

He simply raised his hand.

Just like before. The three bodies froze simultaneously, then shattered from the inside, turning into powder.

Clean and tidy.

[Detection Target: Ascension Society - Great Augmenter (?)]

[A mutant modified starting from the brain. It retains the complete human physical appearance but discards everything else about humanity. The modification is extremely profound; no mechanical traces are visible externally. The method of modification is unknown.]

[Forbidden Studies - Seeker: +0.2...12.2/100]

The experience bar jumped slightly.

The transformation begins in the brain.

Lu Yuan thought of Marcus, the man whose face was half mechanical, whose transformation began with his torso and proceeded from the outside in.

This woman, however, was quite the opposite.

From the inside out.

The exterior was intact, but the inside had been replaced with who knows what.

It retained the human body, but discarded everything else about humanity.

What is it?

A Great Ghoul in its semi-transformation stage leaped down from the roof and pounced straight at her.

She stepped aside to let her pass.

He put two fingers of his right hand together and placed them on the back of the Great Ghoul's neck.

Laugh.

A very soft sound.

The Great Ghoul's entire back of the head exploded from the inside. Keratin shattered, and brain matter splattered everywhere.

It remained in its pouncing posture, then fell straight to the ground, twitched twice, and remained still.

She withdrew her hand.

Expressionless.

It was like crushing an ant.

Boer witnessed this from a distance of about ten meters.

The bronze sword was still stuck in the head of a Ghoul.

He pulled it out forcefully and shook off the debris.

They didn't say anything.

He silently withdrew his defensive range from the left flank.

They don't need him over there.

The battle continues.

But the pressure is dropping sharply.

Fewer and fewer Ghoul were emerging from the cave entrance. Clearly, the entity directing things below the collapse had noticed this and knew that continuing to do so would only lead to the Ghoul' pointless deaths.

But the surviving Ghoul still let out unwilling roars, and finally retreated impatiently towards the bottom of the cave.

The remaining Born stood guard in front of the pile of corpses. Its bird-beak mask had three deep claw marks, and its left arm was completely deformed, but it still stood there, motionless.

Lu Yuan felt the golden light membrane around his body thinning even further.

He glanced down at the Revolver.

The golden sheen on the gun barrel was almost completely gone.

The Blessing upon Boer and his companions was still very bright.

Only his is experiencing an accelerated decline.

Lu Yuan did not hesitate.

"Retreat to the Defense Line!"

Boer was chopping away with practiced ease when he heard the order and paused for a moment.

But he didn't ask why.

He pulled the knife out of the Ghoul's skull, turned around, and ran back.

The others followed suit and retreated.

"Repair the barricades! Lay copper wire mesh! Cover the entire front line with Copper Powder!"

Lu Yuan's voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear.

While the Blessing are still present, rebuild the depth of our defenses.

If it dissipates and is washed away again, there will be no second nun on the roof.

The Night Watcher carried it out quickly.

Three men rushed to the front line to reinforce the barricades, while two others re-layed the copper wire mesh.

Boer personally sprinkled the last Copper Powder onto the open ground between the barricades and the bunkers, leaving a thick layer.

He has learned not to ask why.

The Blessing gradually faded away.

The golden light faded.

The bronze sword turned back into ordinary bronze.

The bullets no longer gleamed.

The golden light covering his body vanished silently, like a thin mist blown away by the wind.

A faint warmth lingered in the air.

But it was quiet in the direction of the cave entrance.

Only occasional roars echoed from the farthest reaches and deepest depths.

No one spoke on the position.

Everyone gripped their weapons, staring straight ahead.

But no new Ghoul have emerged.

The distant roars were also weakening, as if they were retreating into deeper places.

Lu Yuan slowly lowered the Revolver.

The thumb was removed from the hammer.

My fingers are a little stiff.

Having gripped the gun all night, his five fingers were bent into the shape of a trigger puller, and he couldn't straighten them for a moment.

He moved around a few times, and his joints made a slight clicking sound.

Four nuns jumped from the roof.

The lead nun was pale, but her steps were steady; the Scripture was already closed and held in her hand.

Her eyes have returned to normal; clearly, the Angel's Eye is over.

Three other nuns followed behind her.

She walked across the position.

His gaze swept over the Night Watcher, over the Born still standing, and over the gray-haired woman on the left wing.

The gray-haired woman returned her gaze.

Neither of them spoke.

The nun continued walking.

She paused for a moment as she passed Lu Yuan.

It seemed to have smelled something.

She looked at Lu Yuan.

His brows furrowed slightly.

But there was no hostility involved; rather, it was like catching something out of place amidst a normal atmosphere.

Her lips moved.

In the end, he didn't say anything.

Look away and keep moving forward.

But his expression didn't change at all.

The nun took a few steps forward.

He didn't look back.

"Angel protect those who have gone astray, and they also scrutinize each one they protect."

The sound wasn't loud.

After saying that, she continued forward, her white-robed figure gradually disappearing into the night.

Boer leaned closer and lowered his voice.

"Captain, do you know that nun?"

"I don't know him."

Boer looked suspicious, but seeing that Lu Yuan didn't intend to continue, he didn't press the matter.

He turned back to his position, stuck the bronze sword next to the sandbag, and sat down against the cover.

Silence followed immediately on the front lines.

No one knows when the next wave of Ghoul will arrive, even though tonight's battle hasn't lasted long.

However, after the intense emotional fluctuations, everyone felt an unprecedented level of exhaustion.

Sporadic gunfire could be heard from other positions in the distance; it was unclear whether fighting was still ongoing in some direction or if it was just clearing out the remaining enemy positions.

Lu Yuan also sat down.

With his back against the sandbag and his Revolver resting on his knees, he slightly relaxed his mind while calculating when to drink the next vial.

Boer leaned closer, took the water bottle from his waist, and tilted his head back to take a big gulp.

Water streamed down his chin, mixing with the black blood on his face, and trickled down his neck into his collar.

He wiped his mouth.

"Two nights already."

Boer's voice was much hoarseer. "Two nights guarding this godforsaken place, we're almost out of bullets. I've been stationed in Bronze City for too long, I feel like my body is rusting."

He paused.

"But brothers, surprisingly, not a single one of them died."

After finishing his sentence, Boer cursed.

He laughed.

It wasn't the ecstatic joy of surviving a disaster.

It's something indescribable, a mixture of exhaustion and absurdity.

He placed the bronze sword on his lap, touched the blade, hissed, and cut a bloody gash on his fingertip.

"They were cutting down the enemies so quickly during the Blessing ceremony, one after another."

He grinned.

"It's a pity the Blessing time was too short; it became difficult to cut through later, and the blade even warped."

He put down his sword and said nothing more.

"What will we do tomorrow?"

"Let's talk about it tomorrow."

Boer nodded.

I let out a breath and lay there halfway down.

At this moment, he had a shallow abrasion on his left arm. He didn't know when he had been injured, but the blood had dried and a thin, dark red scab had formed.

He leaned against the sandbags, his gaze passing over the Defense Line and looking towards the cave entrance.

It was quiet there; no more Ghoul peeked out.

The sky was beginning to brighten.

The first ray of light shone through the eastern city wall, illuminating the scorched battlefield in front of the cave entrance.

The white smoke slowly dissipated in the morning light.

The bronze saddle still had charred fragments of the corpse hanging on it, which gleamed with a dark red luster in the sunlight.

The ground was covered in Copper Powder, spent cartridges, and black bloodstains.

The ground was covered with grayish-white powder left behind by the shattered Ghoul.

The remains of the fallen Born were scattered near the front Defense Line.

Various twisted metal skeletons were mixed together with Ghoul corpses.

As the light intensified, the sour, putrid smell emanating from underground diminished.

Sunlight acts as a natural barrier.

It's safe at least during the day.

At the edge of my field of vision, the gray-white text danced quietly.

[Forbidden Studies - Seeker: 12.4/100]

That final 0.2 was accumulated by him while observing the gray-haired woman during the battle.

Overnight, including observations of the Holy Light rejection reaction, the total was 0.4.

That's not a lot.

But it's better than grinding medicine in Alchemy Workshop.

Moreover, judging from the current situation, Bronze City has mobilized a significant number of people to deal with this wave of Ghoul.

If it were only this strong, the Ghoul would never be able to break through the defenses of Bronze City.

Unless it collapses in several places.

Most importantly, this time he instructed the Night Watcher squad to deliberately preserve several Great Ghoul corpses.

Whether my Forbidden Studies can be upgraded depends entirely on this.

Lu Yuan put away his Revolver and tucked it back into his waistband.

Stand up.

In the distance, the gunfire from other positions had completely ceased.

There was someone shouting something from the direction of the Alchemy Workshop; I couldn't quite make it out, but it was probably a battle report.

Boer stood up and dusted himself off.

Let's go check out what's going on with Glock.

Lu Yuan nodded.

The two walked towards the Alchemy Workshop.

Behind him, the Night Watcher on the position began packing up their belongings.

Shell casings, empty ammunition boxes, empty Sandworm Oil.

There was also the corpse of the Great Ghoul that Lu Yuan had ordered to be preserved.

The Born was still able to move, remained standing in the same spot.

Three deep scratches appeared on the bird-beak mask, and the left arm was completely deformed.

But it still stood there.

Facing towards the cave entrance.

Motionless.

The woman with gray hair is no longer there.

I don't know when they left.

Lu Yuan glanced back at the spot where she had stood.

"As expected of the Ascension Society..."