Infinity: Kill your way through the movie world.

A mixed legion of the Barthimus faction, numbering between 1,200 and 1,500, including about 300 light assault angels, 50 heavy shield angels, and at least 20 high-ranking angels capable of ranged holy light strikes.

Their goal was to break through the Parisian defenses, join forces with their own troops on the right bank of the Seine, and completely transform Île-de-France into Angel's territory.

“Ten kilometers away.” The observer’s voice was tense.

"Artillery crews, prepare." Renault didn't turn around. "Cannons one through four, load armor-piercing shotgun shells; cannons five through seven, load holy light jamming thermobaric shells. First phase objective: disperse air units and tear apart the enemy's front-line formation."

"9.8 kilometers away."

The charging hum gradually increased, changing from low-frequency vibration to a sharp whistling sound.

The runes on the cannon barrel lit up one by one, turning from dark gold to blazing white, and the energy reading jumped to the warning line.

"9.5 kilometers away."

"put."

Seven cannons fired simultaneously, followed by a sudden, heavy explosion.

Seven beams of blazing white light shot from the cannons, tearing through the night sky and exploding above the angelic army.

The armor-piercing shrapnel shells shattered in mid-air into thousands of fingertip-sized metal fragments, their borax coating scorching hot, raining down like a storm of steel.

The Holy Light Interference Cloud Bomb exploded in the center of the army formation, creating clouds of milky white mist that quickly spread, riddling the area within 300 meters with holes.

The angels' charging formation was broken in an instant.

The angels in the front row raised their light shields to defend against the rain of debris, but the suppressive particles in the interference clouds seeped into the shield's energy structure, causing the edges of the light shield to flicker and disintegrate.

The rear-row assault angels attempted to take off to evade, but were hit head-on by the second round of artillery fire.

"Third round, rapid fire! Block their retreat!"

Renault's voice drowned out the roar of the battlefield.

The artillery operators no longer needed to aim; the entire forest ahead was woven into a web of death by holy light and artillery fire. Pine trees were set ablaze, deer herds were scattered, and the surface of the soil vitrified under the high temperature, reflecting distorted battlefield images.

The angelic legion attempted to organize a counterattack.

The high-ranking angels erected a massive shield ten meters in diameter, protecting the heavily armored angels as they advanced. With each step they took, the shield flashed violently, and blood began to seep from the corners of the eyes of the angels supporting it.

"Fourth round, focus fire on that big shield!"

All six cannons turned simultaneously, locking onto that exceptionally bright blue light.

Armor-piercing rounds repeatedly struck the same point; the shield cracked with the first shot, the cracks spread into a network with the second, and so on with the third.
The crisp sound of shattering glass echoed across the battlefield.

The moment the shield collapsed, five beams of holy light interference missiles poured in through the gap, exploding into pale white flowers among the heavy infantry.

The angel's screams were drowned out by the artillery fire.

The battle lasted forty-seven minutes.

As the last remnant of the angels retreated from the battlefield and fled northeast, Renault remained standing on the command platform, gazing at the unrecognizable woodland before him.

What was once a forest is now nothing but charred tree stumps and still-smoking bomb craters.

The corpses of angels and humans lay intertwined on the vitrified soil, indistinguishable from one another. The residual energy of holy light drifted like will-o'-the-wisps in the sky above the battlefield, lingering for a long time.

“Casualty report.” Renault’s voice was like sandpaper.

"Our side suffered 217 dead, 158 seriously wounded, and 75 slightly wounded. Three rune cannons need to have their barrels replaced, and two energy cores are overloaded and need to be returned to the factory for repair."

Renault remained silent for a few seconds.

"Battle results." "Approximately 850 angels killed, countless wounded, zero prisoners."

Zero, no one surrendered.

No angel wants to be captured, because being captured means being escorted back to the guild by witchers, put on trial, and then having their grace extracted in some unknown place to be used to brew the next batch of enhancement potions.

They would rather die on the battlefield.

Renault stepped off the platform, his boots making a soft crackling sound as they hit the vitrified ground. He walked to a runic cannon whose barrel was still smoking and reached out to touch the hot metal surface.

How long will the repair take?

"Two hours for the barrel, at least twelve hours for the core."

“Twelve hours.” Reno repeated the word, looking up in the northeast in the direction where the remnants of the angels had retreated. “They will be able to regroup in twelve hours, receive reinforcements, and then make a comeback.”

No one responded.

"Continue the battle." Renault withdrew his hand. "All personnel, take two hours of rest, then rebuild the positions."

He paused.

"We have nowhere to retreat."

The southern slopes of the Himalayas, at an altitude of 4,300 meters.

Liz lay down behind a rock ridge eroded into a blade shape by the wind and handed the binoculars to her deputy.

Her back wound reopened three days earlier during the clearing of the Kashmir Valley; the blue burn marks under the bandage resembled crackled porcelain, a fact she hadn't told anyone.

“The canyon entrance is 500 meters away, and the vertical drop between the two cliffs is more than 300 meters.” She pointed to the deep rift valley carved out by the glacier in front of her. “The mountain-sealing formation is set up at two high points, and it requires at least six people to activate the rune nodes at the same time.”

Martin, her second-in-command and a veteran who had followed her since the time of Purgatory, looked at the narrow chasm that was almost bottomless: "There really are angels in there? I haven't detected a single energy signal."

“They’re not releasing any energy.” Liz put down her binoculars. “They’re all hiding. Only when they’re hiding will angels disguise themselves as stones.”

She turned around and looked at the twenty-three team members who had spread out and concealed themselves behind her. This was the most elite hunting squad in the Asian theater; three days ago, there were forty-nine of them.

"The spell array team of six, carrying the energy core, will circle around from the eastern ridge." Liz began assigning tasks. "The sniper team of four, on the western cliff, will occupy the high ground with a good view. The rest of you will follow me to guard the canyon entrance and cut off our retreat."

"Shouldn't we do some reconnaissance?" Martin lowered his voice. "In case the intelligence is wrong..."

“There’s no chance.” Liz interrupted him, her voice as calm as the surface of a frozen lake. “Those 529 angels have been hiding in this canyon for four days. They dare not release holy light to keep warm, dare not move in large numbers, and dare not emit any energy fluctuations that we can detect. They think they are hiding very well.”

She paused for a moment, gazing at the silent, snow-covered black rock walls deep within the canyon.

"They don't know that we can sense their fear."

The mountain-sealing formation was set up thirty minutes before sunset.

The six team members embedded the energy cores into the preset positions, and the moment the runes were activated, the entire canyon seemed to be gripped tightly by an invisible giant hand.

A deep, muffled sound came from deep within the mountain; it was the sound of rocks being stitched together at regular intervals.

The two main passages leading into and out of the canyon gradually shrank and twisted under the influence of the magic array, eventually turning into a narrow gap that only allowed one person to squeeze through sideways.

Moreover, this narrow gap itself is continuously closing at a speed visible to the naked eye under the continuous effect of the magic array's force field.

The angels in the canyon finally noticed.

The first ray of holy light shone from the bottom of the valley, like a candle lit in the darkness; then came the second, the third… Within ten seconds, the entire canyon was illuminated by blue and white light. (End of Chapter)