Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 364 Feeding the Evil God with One's Body
"shooting!"

"Scatter! Quickly! Quickly!!"

Kyle called out loudly, leading his Guardians forward as he ran, panting as he looked up at the Mother.

He needed to estimate where the "Mother's" limbs would smash into so that he could lead his squad to take cover in advance, or take advantage of the gaps in the attack to shoot at the mountain of flesh.

Would shooting be effective? Kyle didn't have time to observe, but he had a vague feeling that it was probably not.

Only by standing in front of this monster can one feel how big it is; it's almost as if the Castel Cathedral were standing up and attacking them!

Fortunately, the church couldn't actually stand up; after all, there were many machine gun bunkers on it, Kyle thought to himself.

Their battle was not easy; at first, they were quite disheveled. Fortunately, their mother-in-law was there to support them. Whenever their coordination faltered, a large group of guardians would suddenly appear, drawing away the attention of the "Mother of Mercy," and then be crushed by Her.

Kyle knew that it was his mother-in-law's extraordinary ability.

The Guardians had fought alongside the superhumans in the Deep Sea War, but this was the first time they had witnessed a superhuman personally taking action on the battlefield. Previously, the Fire Moth's nymphs had only assisted in command, since there were too many enemies at that time, and their personal involvement would not have been very effective.

Seizing an opening, Kyle shouted, "Grandma, what should we do next? We can't kill Him with just a rifle!"

Kyle was the leader of this friars, but what he was facing was a supernatural monster, so he chose to trust his mother-in-law's judgment.

Sure enough, her mother-in-law's voice rang in her ears: "I have contacted Josh and the prince. The secret society is already taking action. If we buy some more time, they will be able to evacuate. The prince's port guards will also be here to support us soon!"

Upon hearing this, Kyle couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Although he was tall and strong, he was actually quite timid and extremely cautious in commanding battles, which meant he was a coward.

Being cowardly isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially in a battle like this where time is being spent. The Christian Guard he leads fights not for merit, but for avoiding mistakes, and so far there have been no casualties.

Dealing with the evil god before him was like dancing on a sword; Kyle's heart had been trembling the whole time. Now that he heard it would be over soon, he felt much more alert.

But then he thought about it again and suddenly frowned: "The prince's port guards? What use are they?"

The old woman shook her head: "I don't think they can confront [Mother of Compassion] head-on either. No one in Blood Harbor has the power to deal with her. The only way to defeat her is probably through sacrifice."

The mother-in-law immediately informed the Guardians of the Faith about the specific details of the "Mother Goddess." Kyle was shocked upon hearing this: "Do we really have to find someone to sacrifice? With so many followers of the Mother Goddess, the prince can't possibly find that many suicide soldiers, can he? Are we going to send superhumans to fill the gaps?"

The will of a superhuman can overcome that of a large number of mortals, and the prince does indeed have superhumans under his command. Given his ruthless and decisive style, he might really push Galahad to the top.

Galahad's loyalty is beyond question. Even after witnessing such a terrifying disparity in strength in Castel, he showed no sign of wavering. Perhaps he really would sacrifice himself for the prince.
Which is more important, loyal subordinates or a city? What will the prince choose?

"Let's try to get as close to the sea as possible," the mother-in-law said.

Kyle nodded. He understood what his mother-in-law meant—to evacuate to the coast towards Castel. Whether Blood Harbor could be saved depended on the prince. Their small force of the Guardians could only hold off the monsters, not resolve the crisis. They weren't Superman.

It seems the mother-in-law doesn't think much of the prince. Kyle sighed inwardly and turned his attention back to commanding the battlefield.

Under Kyle's command, the Guardians of the Faith subsequently adopted a more conservative fighting style, with counterattacks becoming rare, focusing primarily on containment and self-preservation. However, this allowed the Mother's power to continue to grow unchecked, and before long, Her physique had increased even further.

How could He have grown so big? A question crossed Kyle's mind.

After leaving the upper city, they headed straight for the Secret Order without hesitation, only to be suddenly blocked by this enormous evil god.

Fortunately, the Guardians of the Faith were used to seeing large monsters in the Deep Sea Wars, and they had even seen evil gods before, with one still burning in the furnace. Otherwise, if they had suddenly encountered such a terrifying mountain of flesh, they would probably have been scared out of their wits, resulting in heavy casualties in the battle.

You should know that when the "loving mother" appeared, she was already so overwhelming that she blotted out the sky!
Logically speaking, they should have been able to see a monster of this size directly in the upper city. After all, houses in this era are very low, and there are basically no three-story buildings. With [Mother's] physique, she could have seen almost half of Blood Harbor.

My mother-in-law said that it should grow little by little, but this one seems to have been born this big.

Kyle led the Guardians into an alley, only to find a group of Mother Goddess believers. The Guardians raised their guns, then lowered them slightly before firing.

Blood spurted from the cultists' legs as they lay calmly on the ground.

The defenders did not choose to kill them, but merely wounded them before ignoring the group of Mother Goddess believers and running past them into the alley.

This is not merely out of sympathy for the starving people, but also out of practical considerations.

According to the information brought by the mother-in-law, the "Compassionate Mother" will only devour dead believers, not kill living believers.

So as long as we try not to kill the Mother Goddess's followers, the "Mother Goddess" will have no followers to eat, and without the replenishment of her body and soul, she will be unable to continue to grow stronger. Meanwhile, the Guardians of the Faith are constantly firing at her. With this ebb and flow, sooner or later they will wear her down.

However, the speed at which the [Mother of Compassion] grew stronger did not slow down at all, and even seemed to be intensifying. Since there were no other forces nearby killing the Mother Goddess's followers, Kyle once suspected that there might be something wrong with the information his mother-in-law had.

Until he brought his soldiers back to the alley.

When Kyle led the Guardians past the site again, they were astonished to find only corpses scattered on the ground.

Kyle's eyes widened. They had just wounded, not killed, the followers of the Mother Goddess.

Perhaps someone was unlucky and got hit in a major artery. Even then, they should have bled for a while before dying, right? How come there wasn't a single living person passing by again?
"Captain!"

One of the guards suddenly exclaimed and pointed a trembling finger at the pile of corpses.

Kyle followed the gaze and noticed that the wounds on the corpses didn't just appear to be on their legs; many of them had their necks slashed open.

They were all carrying daggers, knives, or even just sharp pieces of tile.

"Captain Kyle, they... they committed suicide!"

(End of this chapter)