At night, under the moonlight, in a certain desert area of Buserite, the scene at this moment was one of utter chaos. The large expanse of soft, flowing sand was now reflecting and refracting countless tiny, shattered crystals, shimmering with starlight. Upon closer inspection, these were indeed countless broken crystal fragments, reflecting the moonlight from the sky. The crystalline outer shells of the sand dunes, which had been melted and solidified by the high temperatures, were shattered into fine fragments by the aftershocks of the heavy artillery bombardment, mixing with the vast desert sand to form a spectacular and strange landscape.
At the center of this crystal-clear desert was a giant pit nearly a thousand meters in diameter and three to four hundred meters deep. The desert, mixed with translucent crystal fragments, was now flowing in several streams of quicksand, pouring into the deep giant pit. On the bottom and walls of the giant pit, there were still many glowing red marks, which were rocks melted into a molten state by the high temperature of the shells and had not yet had time to cool. The entire interior of the giant pit was still filled with high-temperature heat.
Thousands of meters above the giant pit, the Church's Saint Steel Ship, the Nun of Annihilation, which had stopped shelling, was quietly parked there. White smoke was still drifting from the countless downward-sloping muzzles on its body, as if indicating that the destruction below was caused by itself.
'In such a short time, just using the secondary weapons caused this level of destruction... Is this the Church's cutting-edge war weapon? What astonishing firepower...'
Observing this scene in the desert through her Corpse Puppet, Dorothy couldn't help but exclaim in her heart. She had witnessed the destructive power of the Scarlet standard-bearer in frontal combat, the Skyfire Saint. Although powerful, it was still a considerable distance behind Awei's performance just now. In terms of pure destructive power, Awei was roughly several times that of an ordinary Skyfire Saint. The combat capability of the Saint Steel Ship far exceeded that of conventional Scarlets.
Although Amuyaba's ability as a Scarlet was already extraordinary enough, it was completely inadequate in front of the Saint Steel Ship. A head-on confrontation was impossible. If it weren't for the Plague Path's ability to be overly cautious, its strong ability to escape and survive, and the combat objective being limited to capturing and annihilating, Awei wouldn't have needed Dorothy's help to deal with Amuyaba.
'As expected of the world's largest power, in addition to conventional Extraordinary combat power, they also possess such powerful war weapons. I wonder how many Saint Steel Ships like Awei the Church has... It's truly attentive of Amanda to specially dispatch one to escort Vanya's promotion...'
'I heard that the Saint Steel Ship was jointly built by the Church and the Craftsmen's Guild. The Church paid a sky-high reward and resources for the Craftsmen's Guild to undertake the main forging work... I wonder if I can also have the Craftsmen's Guild build one for me if I get rich...' Dorothy thought this, seeing Awei's powerful firepower, and honestly, she felt a bit envious. However, these thoughts were unrealistic at this stage, so Dorothy didn't dwell on them, instead focusing her attention on the task at hand.
Dorothy's current task was actually to capture the weakened Amuyaba, who was at the end of her rope. At this moment, Dorothy's cloaked Corpse Puppets had already landed on the ground one after another. Dorothy used the materialized spirit threads extending from them, using a few insects still barely surviving in secluded crevices underground as stepping stones, to extend the materialized spirit threads all the way down to over five hundred meters underground, firmly controlling Amuyaba's last escape insect.
After the vast majority of her insect swarm was destroyed, Amuyaba was now in a state of absolute weakness, completely depleted of resources and supplies, and was almost unable to resist Dorothy's control. Soon, Dorothy had her basically subdued.
Just as Dorothy was capturing the underground insect, Awei's projected phantom suddenly appeared on the desert, next to the Corpse Puppets controlled by Dorothy. Looking at the several mysterious individuals who had helped her in the previous battle, Awei spoke directly and asked.
"How is the situation now?"
"We have subdued her and are now controlling her to dig herself up. Please wait a moment..."
One of Dorothy's Corpse Puppets responded to Awei. After hearing this reply, Awei didn't say anything further, quietly letting her phantom stand still and wait silently.
Finally, after several minutes, a bulge appeared on the quicksand ground mixed with crystal fragments. After the bulge burst open, a large insect crawled out.
This large insect was about half a meter long, covered in a carapace all over, its head and body were connected and indistinguishable, and it had scorpion-like auxiliary limbs and a pair of large pincer-like forelimbs resembling drills. It was clear at a glance that it was very good at burrowing.
"She's here..."
Looking at the large insect that appeared on the sandy ground, Dorothy's Corpse Puppet said calmly. After hearing this, Awei also began to carefully examine the large insect in front of her, only to see that it was very quiet and submissive, showing no hostility, except for occasional slight trembling.
"Spiritual threads that can directly control living beings? Interesting... To be able to catch an insect that has burrowed so deep, the control ability of 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) has some similarities with the soul attachment of'Silence'..."
Awei commented, and then she noticed the occasional trembling of Amuyaba's large insect, so she said curiously.
"She's still trembling, is she resisting your control? Are you unable to completely suppress her?"
"Yes, she hasn't completely given up resisting yet and is still fighting our control. If we relax even a little, she can immediately break free," one of Dorothy's Corpse Puppets said to Awei. After he finished speaking, Dorothy had another Corpse Puppet add.
"It's not that we are unable to completely suppress her in her current damaged state. There is an external force constantly helping this guy. External Spirituality, which doesn't belong to her, is continuously appearing within her body. She is rapidly recovering by relying on this external Spirituality to resist our control."
"There is a continuous supply of external Spirituality..." Hearing the Corpse Puppet's answer, Awei frowned slightly and said. This phenomenon was perhaps the reason why Amuyaba displayed extraordinary combat power in the previous battle.
"Now if she has uninterrupted external Spirituality support, won't she quickly recover to a point where you can't control her?" Suddenly, after thinking of something, Awei said to the Corpse Puppet, and the Corpse Puppet she was talking to also nodded in agreement.
"That's right, her recovery speed is very fast now, and we will soon be unable to suppress her... But it doesn't matter, there's a way to deal with it."
Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet respond in this way, and then she directly manipulated Amuyaba's insect to act, using its large chelae to drill off all of its other auxiliary limbs and peel off a large piece of tissue from its body. After the insect completed all of this in agony, Dorothy had it painfully roll to the side.
Afterward, Dorothy had the Corpse Puppets move away and then threw a Church hand grenade at the peeled tissue and auxiliary limbs on the ground. The hand grenade erupted in intense flames and light, burning all the continuously wriggling insect flesh piled there clean in one go. After doing all of this, Dorothy felt that Amuyaba's resistance to her had significantly decreased.
"That's it, as long as we continuously peel off and destroy this guy's body and constantly cause damage to her, then the Spirituality supported from the outside will only be used on the latest damage," Dorothy's Corpse Puppet said, and then she looked at Awei next to her and continued to add.
"We don't have many direct damage methods on our side, so the task of preventing her recovery is up to you. Your Spirituality and weapon inventory should be sufficient, right?"
Listening to the Corpse Puppet's words, the phantom Awei looked at Amuyaba, who was struggling desperately but whose wounds were rapidly healing, with interest, and said.
"Okay... I'll hang her under my ship's hull and keep burning her. It just so happens that we also need some way to pry things out of her mouth. This can be considered a form of torture... Her recovery ability is so strong that it's convenient for me to be heavy-handed during the torture..."
Awei said this, she had enough weapons and ammunition storage to slowly wear down Amuyaba. Their purpose was originally to torture information about the Wasting Decay from Amuyaba's mouth. If her vitality was stronger, the torture methods could be more intense, and there was no need to worry about accidentally killing her.
After this, Dorothy's Corpse Puppets would also participate in the interrogation of Amuyaba. Dorothy wanted to try if she could accumulate profiling progress through the forced "communication" of torture. If she could, as long as the interrogation time was long enough, she wouldn't have to worry about not getting information, because one day Dorothy would be able to profile Amuyaba.
Dorothy and Awei were discussing how to deal with Amuyaba, while Amuyaba on the other side, after hearing their conversation, couldn't help but struggle more fiercely. She was now desperately flailing her broken limbs and making ear-piercing sounds.
Although Amuyaba's voice at this moment completely lacked the pattern of human language, it could still be heard as extremely mournful, like wailing, like calling for help. This mournful cry spread far away, reaching places it shouldn't have reached.
Bastis Oasis, within the camp at night, countless refugees who had just experienced the earthquake were still standing in the night, looking at the direction from which the loud rumbling had just continuously sounded, constantly praying and worshiping.
And at this moment, on a small hill in the oasis, a phantom dressed in a black nun's habit was standing here, looking in the same direction as the refugees.
She was the Sister who called herself Faith.
"A Temple-grade Saint Steel Ship... They really value that little Sister, Olivia..." Looking at the night sky in the distance, Faith whispered, her words seemingly present and yet not, seemingly real and yet not. After a moment of slight thought, she continued to speak.
"Vania Chafilun, let me see how much foundation the Church and that ancient heritage have prepared for you... Since you truly want to solve this plague, then I will let you face it directly..."
Faith said this, then slightly closed her eyes. When her eyes opened again, a strange light, faintly green and red, shone within them.
"Now, the entire chain of the HU3 Holy Plague is handed over to you, plus my blessing, Amyaba, draw the lives of three million people and bring trials to the Saints of the New Era of Light..."
Faith continued to whisper, then she smiled and fell silent. In this silence, a great change was quietly happening.
...
"—!!!!"
Above the distant desert, the originally extremely weak Amyaba worm suddenly let out an extremely sharp and piercing cry. The sharp sound, enough to pierce human eardrums, instantly echoed in the night sky, causing Awei and Dorothy to become vigilant.
"What happened?"
"Please be careful! A very high Spirituality reaction suddenly appeared within that worm's body!" Inside the chapel of the Holy Steel Ship, Vanya, who was still kneeling on the ground in a praying posture and continuously operating the life radar, suddenly opened her eyes in panic and shouted loudly. The moment Vanya's voice fell, Dorothy felt an extremely powerful resistance from Amyaba, breaking through her control.
"What..."
Dorothy's eyes widened. Just now, she felt the external Spirituality flow within Amyaba's body suddenly increase by dozens of times, instantly expanding from a small water pipe directly to the level of a fire hose. The powerful Spirituality gave Amyaba powerful vitality, and Dorothy suddenly felt a bit unable to control it.
Under the infusion of powerful Spirituality, Amyaba worm's body began to undergo great changes. Its entire worm body began to rapidly expand, and the originally sturdy and thick exoskeleton directly burst, revealing the milky white, plump worm flesh that was growing wildly behind it. Then Amyaba began to grow rapidly like a balloon, instantly becoming larger than several people combined.
At this moment, Dorothy felt the Spirituality flow within Amyaba's body continue to grow wildly, expanding so quickly that it was about to reach the level of a floodgate. Under such a huge influx of Spirituality, Amyaba's resistance ability began to improve by leaps and bounds. The control cost that Dorothy had to pay immediately began to increase dramatically. Out of necessity, Dorothy could only immediately give up control of Amyaba and withdraw her spiritual threads.
"The external Spirituality injected into this guy has suddenly increased significantly! It's out of control now!" Dorothy had her Corpse Puppet say this, and at the same time, they threw Church grenades at the rapidly growing Amyaba. These grenades exploded around Amyaba, and the resulting flames enveloped and ignited Amyaba.
However, even so, Amyaba still did not stop moving. Burning all over, it continued to grow. The growing milky white flesh ball had now expanded to be larger than an elephant. Its burning charred flesh was quickly replaced by newly grown flesh, and the fire on its body was extinguished by this growth.
'Damn... This regeneration ability is so exaggerated?!' Seeing the scene before her, Dorothy couldn't help but think in astonishment, while at this moment, Awei's projection above the desert said coldly.
"Step back."
Listening to Awei's words, Dorothy immediately manipulated her Corpse Puppet to fly back. Then Awei mobilized her steel body in the sky, turned several secondary cannons towards the expanding Amyaba, and fired two shells.
"Boom!!"
Amidst a violent roar, the giant flesh ball-shaped Amyaba was accurately hit, and the fierce explosion swept across a large area of land around it. The entire surrounding area was enveloped in billowing sand smoke. After realizing that Amyaba's situation was wrong, Awei decisively chose to shell it directly, even if it meant destroying it directly to prevent the malignant event from continuing to develop.
"Life signs still exist! And they're still huge! It's not dead yet, and it's still growing after repairing the damage!" At this time, Vanya, the biological radar in the warship, continued to remind, and upon hearing Vanya's words, even Awei couldn't help but show a look of surprise.
"What..."
Although Awei was extremely surprised that a life form could survive after taking two of her shots, her actions were still quick. More muzzles were adjusted to aim below, and they began to fire shells simultaneously. However, before these cannons could fire, a rapidly moving shadow had already shot out from the thick smoke at high speed, dodging the huge explosions created by the countless falling shells.
It was a giant worm, a strange giant worm about ten meters long, with countless spiked appendages on both sides, a milky white body, and a huge human face at the front. The face displayed was precisely Amyaba's face. At this moment, it was moving at high speed using its countless appendages while laughing and shouting with an exaggerated expression.
"Thank you, cup mother! Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Captain! Thank you for the power you bestowed! Thank you for the new life you granted! I will not disappoint you! Watch! I will turn these followers of the evil light into sacrifices and offer them to you and all the exalted ones!"
Amyaba ran at high speed on the sand while shouting frantically as if mentally deranged, and Awei in the sky was not ambiguous. She directly aimed countless muzzles at the rapidly moving monstrous worm Amyaba and continuously launched shelling. As countless shells hit the ground, huge explosions erupted one after another on the ground, causing rounds of earthquakes while also affecting the constantly fleeing Amyaba, constantly shattering its body inch by inch.
Almost every time Awei shelled, she could successfully cause great damage to Amyaba, even destroying more than half of its body in one go. However, Amyaba regenerated and recovered at an extremely high speed after being damaged, and it also grew larger and larger during the continuous regeneration process. From the initial length of over ten meters, it grew rapidly to over thirty meters. The speed at which Awei destroyed Amyaba's flesh was even unable to keep up with Amyaba's regeneration and growth speed for a time.
The parts of Amyaba's body that were blown apart by shelling would even squirm and combine into various small worms. After these small worms devoured each other to become larger worms, they would quickly grow wings, fly back to Amyaba's main body, and re-merge back into it.
"I won't be afraid of you anymore, iron bitch!"
Amyaba said this while fleeing. When its main body grew to over forty meters long, countless pustules began to grow on its back. After these pustules burst one after another, large areas of green fungal mist were sprayed out, covering the entire land.
In one go, Amyaba released several times more rust iron fungal mist than the total amount released before, instantly turning the entire desert ground into an ocean of green fungal mist. Awei's countless projected physical shells entered this ridiculously large green mist, and then completely failed, becoming duds.
After the physical shells failed, Awei stopped using them and immediately switched to using a large number of energy shells to continue pouring firepower on Amyaba's position within the fungal mist. However, due to the weakening of firepower caused by using only energy shells, Amyaba, hidden in the fungal mist, got a A breathing space (breathing space). The fifty-meter-long Amyaba even launched a counterattack against Awei while running and hiding.
Amyaba hatched countless plump flying insects carrying rust iron fungus from its body and sent them flying towards the warship in the sky. At the same time, Amyaba also grew several circular launch ports on its back, forcefully spraying out sharp and solid keratinous objects from them, shooting towards Awei. Although Awei easily defended against the incoming insects and keratinous spikes using close defense, the facial expression of her human-shaped projection was extremely solemn.
"This guy... is evolving... It is rapidly strengthening and evolving with the help of powerful external Spirituality supplements and some kind of power. It's hard to deal with it easily now... Where does it get so much Spirituality from?"
Hovering in the night sky, Awei's projected image said with furrowed brows, and at this moment, the Corpse Puppet beside her responded.
"I think... the vitality lost by the millions of people infected with the Wasting Decay in Buserite is now being sent to it..."
Dorothy thought this way, and Awei responded. Her words were not groundless. At this moment, her Corpse Puppet in Bastis was witnessing such a scene.
At this moment in Bastis, almost all the residents in the city and the refugees outside the city had fallen to the ground, moaning in pain.
The symptoms of these Wasting Decay patients with different symptoms all worsened simultaneously at the moment Amyaba began to erupt. It was clear that there was a significant connection between the two.
Dorothy strongly suspected that the Spirituality of all Wasting Decay patients in Bastis, the entire Buserite, and the entire North Wu was being plundered and sent to Amyaba in real-time. With the Spirituality of millions of people as a backing, killing Amyaba was simply as difficult as ascending to heaven.