This heretic cannot be burned, he must be hung up and whipped!

"What is your battle plan? How do you need us to cooperate with you and the elite soldiers of your regiment?"

The veteran leading Luce also made the sign of the cross and saluted:

"We are from the Tenth Plague Procession Chapter. We received an order from the Pope and specially organized these mortal soldiers to rescue you. The Pope is very worried about the Dominican Sword Master and that Saint."

As soon as he finished speaking, the pilgrims pouring out of the church said happily:

"As expected! The great and almighty Lord already knew everything. The Pope must have received a revelation from the Lord to send you to rescue Saint Neos and the Dominican Swordsman!"

"Nyos....Hmph."

The observer is like a puppet VII. What is the intention? 児巴是飼巴 came limping over, holding the spear tightly in his hand. The submachine gun on his back gradually slipped from his shoulder and hung on his stiff arm.

"Wow---"

The observer seemed to have no idea how to carry the gun, and he swung the gun belt around randomly. The submachine gun kept knocking against his plate armor, and the dull collision sound attracted the attention of everyone present.

"Observer! Your gun is about to fall!"

Seeing this, a pilgrim trotted over and respectfully put the gun belt back on the observer's back.

"Let me—see him."

The observer's mechanical vocal cords were somewhat overwhelmed and kept making crackling sounds of electricity. Luce realized that the sound did not seem to come from the speaker, but from the observer's body as the center.

"Yes, nothing can be hidden from the Almighty Lord—Saint! Saint! Come quickly, the Observer wants to see you!"

Neos had just come down from the church tower, accompanied by Dominica, who seemed hesitant to speak. She was dragging the greatsword with great effort. Ever since the supreme being of the ether sea no longer provided her with strength, she had lost most of her fighting ability. The greatsword that she once swung with great vigor, now had to be held tightly with both hands to barely drag it.

"Who?"

When Neos saw the reinforcements arriving, he smiled and waved the Crusader flag. Just as he was about to welcome them, he suddenly noticed a discordant figure in the opposite team.

The space around the crimson figure in heavy armor seemed to be rippling, and the yellow-green gas in the air was swirling around him, preventing anyone from getting close to him.

"This guy is so impressive. Even poison gas can't get close to him. He must be a fanatical believer in God, don't you think, Dominican..."

Neos didn't notice that Dominica, who was dragging a large sword behind him, had turned pale and continued to walk forward.

"Bang!" "Dominican—?"

Dominica threw the sword to the ground, took a step forward and grabbed Neos' shoulders, his lips trembling and his face pale.

"What on earth is that..."

Dominica gasped for breath. After a long battle and without the protection of God's power, she was already covered in wounds. She most hoped to see reinforcements, but the thing that appeared before her made her heart sink into an ice cave.

That's not an observer at all!

To ordinary people without any extraordinary powers, the only person in the fog was an observer wearing plate armor and walking with a limp. To those with potential powers who had established connections with the creatures of the warp, such as Luce, they noticed that something was wrong with the observer.

But for Dominica, who had a long-term connection with this subspace creature and even most of her power once belonged to it, what she saw was a completely different monster.

The enormous black shadow slowly emerged from the mist, like a god descending from the sky. It was tall, wrapped in a wide black robe, and its wings spread out on either side like the Grim Reaper's scythe, ready to reap lives at any moment.

The most disturbing thing is its head - a huge halo shrouds it, making it look both sacred and terrifying, because where the head should be...

It was a swirling black shadow.

"Bang!" "Bang!"

The voices of everyone on the battlefield drifted away from her. The distant sounds of artillery fire, shouts of killing, and the noisy conversations of her comrades around her were suddenly silenced. Space seemed to solidify around her. Just by standing there, the pressure from the ether sea almost destroyed Dominica's essence.

"We meet again, traitor."

Despite the distance, the distorted voice instantly rang in her ears. She didn't dare, nor did she want to, use her power to escape into the etheric sea. The trembling in her soul told her: the power of that thing in the etheric sea had completely surrounded her.

"You—how did you come—"

No! No! This is fake. This thing is definitely not the supreme being of the etheric sea. Its size is too huge, and it hasn't yet surfaced to the mortal world. This must be just a small monster in the etheric sea. Yes, it must be like this!

"Ah."

The Supreme Being's ironic chuckle echoed around her.

"Who am I? You know it best, traitor."

The thing held a spear, the tip of which gleamed ominously. She felt a chill run down her spine, realizing that this was a far more formidable foe than any she had encountered before.

"Nyos...Run...He...He...!"

Like a prey encountering its natural enemy, although her will was still struggling to maintain, her body had already succumbed to this supreme being. She tried to speak, but only a few creaky, incoherent words came from her throat.

"Dominica? Dominica? What's wrong with you?" She could faintly hear an anxious cry in her ears, but she couldn't even turn around.

“Pah.” “Pah.”

The thing's real body finally began to move. Its face was pitch black under the halo, like a bottomless black hole, swallowing up all the light around it.

"Dominica, what are you looking at?"

Neos's voice grew louder and louder, but for mortals who had not awakened the essence of the ether sea, what they saw and what Dominica saw were completely different things.

“Him…I saw…”

"What did you see?! Tell me quickly—No, you are the observer, right? Look how scared you made her. Someone come and let..."

Neos's voice faded away. Dominica tried to see its face, but she could only feel a suffocating pressure. Those eyes, hidden in the darkness, seemed to see through everything, stripping her soul naked.

She had faced countless powerful enemies before, but in front of this monster, she felt her own insignificance and vulnerability for the first time. She realized that no matter how powerful she had been, in front of this creature, she was no different from an ordinary person.

"squeak----"

The harsh sound of rusting plate armor joints finally pierced the silence of the battlefield. The sound of artillery fire, the anxious shouts of comrades, and Neos' angry voice finally reached her ears.

"What are you doing, asshole! Protect Dominica!"

The monster slowly raised its spear, and Dominica's heart nearly stopped. Her mind frantically searched for a way to escape, but her rational mind told her that any resistance was futile against this monster. The fighting skills and courage she had once prided herself on seemed so pale and powerless in this moment.

"call out--"

It lightly threw out the spear, a spear that could not be dodged, the thread of fate pulling it straight towards the target.

"Puff——" Wife 2 Rei (Four) Jiu Qiqi IV "Uh ah——"

The spearhead easily pierced through the pilgrim standing in front of Dominicana, whose flesh and plate armor were as fragile as tofu.

"Woo..."

The spear pierced Dominic's body and suddenly stopped when it was about to hit Neos and fell to the ground.

“You—you—!”

Neos watched it all in disbelief. It was so fast, everything happened so quickly! He only remembered that Dominica behind him put down his sword and tried to grab him. Then he greeted the soldier holding the short spear. Dominica stared at the soldier and froze there, then did not move.

In the time it took him to blink a few times, the soldier raised his hand and threw the spear at her!

Everyone was stunned.

Shock and confusion spread throughout the crowd. No one could have imagined that a Roman clergyman, an observer of the Strategic Prophecy Committee who claimed to be closest to God, would actually attack a Paladin!

"This..." The company commander who led the reinforcements was at a loss, his mind in a mess. He didn't know who to trust and who was the real heretic.

"Heretic! He is a heretic!" roared a pilgrim, his voice filled with fear and anger.

"Revenge for Dominica!!"

"Protect the Saints! Kill that monster!" another echoed, and the pilgrims raised their weapons, pointing their guns at the observers.

"Bang! Bang bang bang!!"

The gunshots were deafening, and bullets rained down on the observer, but were all deflected by the invisible barrier surrounding him, unable to cause any harm.

The observer grabbed the spear from the air, and it flew back into his hand. He tilted his head and stared at Neos, his eyes filled with a faint curiosity, as if he were examining an unknown creature.

He was a monster from the etheric sea, utterly unlike humans. He had no interest in human life or emotions, but only in Neos—he explored the etheric sea, but was unable to perceive Neos's true nature, as if he had never existed in this world. This was an unprecedented experience for him.

"dominican!!"

Neos rushed towards Dominica, kneeling beside her, his hands trembling as he tried to cover the wound on her chest. Blood gushed out like a flood, mixed with fragments of internal organs, soaking his hands and splattering his angry and desperate face. He pressed hard, but to no avail, blood leaking from between his fingers, staining the ground red.

"Hurry up and save him! Kill that heretic! He's a spy from hell!" "Bang!" "Bang bang bang!!"

At this moment, in addition to the pilgrims following Neos, the reinforcements also raised their guns, pointed them at the observers, and pulled the trigger! The pilgrims who knew how to heal quickly reached for the medical kit, hoping to plug Dominicana's wound.

Dominica's consciousness was fading, the light of life was receding from her body, and she could clearly feel her body gradually becoming cold.

"No! Dominicana, you can't die!"

His voice was filled with tears, and tears mixed with blood dripped onto her pale face.

Dominica opened his eyes with difficulty, his vision blurry.

"Don't worry about me..." She said weakly, "He...He is..."

The observer watched with a cold gaze, devoid of any human emotion, only a cold emptiness. Unmoved by Neos's struggle, it grew increasingly curious about his existence.

"Interesting..." it whispered, its voice as cold and hard as metal, echoing in the air.

"You—are very much like these ants."

Bullets and bombs kept exploding around Him, but they couldn't hurt Him at all.

Dominica felt her life slipping away quickly, her consciousness gradually becoming hazy, and she knew she didn't have much time left.

"Damn... monster..."

Her ethereal essence began to dissipate, and her century-long mission of fighting for humanity seemed to have come to an end. Regardless of what the future held for humanity, she had done her best.

It's time to rest...

"But our God... no, Neos... what about him?!"

"Do not..."

Her mission was over, she had served her best.

But is this enough?

"No! Humanity's hope cannot be destroyed here!"

She suddenly remembered the hope of mankind—that Neos, who existed in the real world and not in the illusory void. Whether he admitted it or not, he was her, the hope of mankind.

"Nyos... you must know... the essence..."

With her last breath, she whispered, "The Aether Sea... your essence... you must enter..."

"And then—what should I do then?" Neos asked anxiously, but she was no longer able to answer.

Dominica closed her eyes and breathed weakly. She no longer had the strength to breathe, let alone utter even a hint.

"No... I must... for humanity... for Neos..."

"For Neos!"

A remaining force of the ether sea surged out from her heart, and she decided to use this last bit of strength to break the barrier between the ether sea and reality, allowing Neos to enter it, awaken his essence, and fight against the monster.

She understood clearly that although Neos could make the monster's power fade away, he was still a mortal. His real body would be injured, and if hit by bullets, he would wail, scream, and bleed like a mortal.

Then let’s determine who’s the winner in the Ether Sea.

"Nyos... get ready..."

She whispered, then gathered the remaining essence of the ether sea into a ball and slammed it into the barrier between reality and the ether sea.

"Clap!"

A crisp, cracking sound echoed, and Neos felt an invisible force envelop him. The temperature plummeted, the light dimmed, and space began to distort and ripple. He saw a crack appear, and a strange light shone through the gap—a twisted, strange shadow, and a faint point of light rushing towards Dominicana's body.

And a sun that radiates a cold light.

As Neos was sucked into the crack, the barrier began to close. The observer's eyes flashed with excitement:

"Finally... I can contact that unknown existence..."

Its figure also became illusory, as if it were about to follow Neos into the aether sea. Everyone present was stunned. From the mortals' perspective, they almost disappeared into thin air at the same time, shock and fear written all over their faces.

"The Saint...where did he go?" a pilgrim asked tremblingly.

"The Dominican Sword Master...she..." Another person looked at her body, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Quick! Report to the Pope!" The reinforcement company commander came back to his senses and gave a hurried order.

PS: Too sleepy kids, I'll code 4.5k first, and update more tomorrow, I'm really too sleepy...

PS2: 220 votes, next update starts at 4.5k...