Bishop Zakli stood quietly by the window, listening to the brutal sounds of slaughter drifting in from outside. It was not as though Bishop Zakli had never considered running.
But whenever he thought of how the Ecclesiarchy punished deserters, he could not help but tremble deeply. He could no longer wait for Imperium reinforcements to arrive, so he could only prove his faith in the Emperor through death.
At the very least, he would still be remembered as a hero within the Ecclesiarchy and admired by those who came after him. He would not be nailed to the pillar of shame, and perhaps his soul might return to the Golden Throne as well.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Massive explosions rang out on the streets outside the Ecclesiarchy cathedral. The Skitarii guarding the cathedral were slaughtered in great numbers. They had no time to evade before the dense barrage of shells killed them.
Whenever a siege shell struck the ground and exploded, it left scorched craters across the earth for hundreds of meters around it. Even ground built from sturdy, durable materials appeared utterly fragile before such massive shells.
The sound of countless tank treads crushing the earth rolled in. Enormous tanks emerged from every street, and all manner of buildings blocking their path were destroyed by siege shells fired from the barrels of Apocalypse Tanks.
With a single tank shell, the fortifications the Skitarii had spent so long preparing were effortlessly destroyed, along with the soldiers hiding inside them, who were blown to pieces before they could even scream.
At the same time came the thunderous roar of anti-aircraft machine guns mounted on the tanks. Solid walls were destroyed as easily as blocks of tofu beneath the anti-aircraft rounds, and the soldiers sheltering behind the fortifications were torn apart along