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

Neos clenched his fists. He knew that in this situation, he could only give everyone some buffs.

"I will give the soldiers martyrdom potions. You just need to make sure they are not affected by the power of hell."

"Tsk..." Neos grasped a corner of the map unwillingly. This was the first time he felt angry at his own incompetence.

Suddenly, the door of the command center was pushed open.

"Your Excellency! The reinforcements outside the city have ceased their attack. Chapter Master Ogsger claims that the heretics have deployed a large number of landships. They have lost tens of thousands of Crusaders outside the city and were forced to retreat to the west bank of the Danube. They have now reoccupied the western city of Mani."

"Mani City——"

Neos gestured to the scale of the map, then looked at the city of Mani on the map:

"This distance—Tech-Priest! Now tell me how long the steel cable in the city is and how heavy it is!"

The technical priest on call thought for a moment and said, "Budapest is an industrial city, and 9mm diameter steel core cables are the most common in the city! 32 kilograms per 100 meters, with a tensile strength of 180 MPa—"

"Does the oil pipeline pass through Mani City?" "Yes, it does."

Bishop Marburg's eyes lit up, and he shouted, "Quick! Calculate! Is the steel cable leading to Mani City strong enough?"

While the bishop was still calculating on his calculator, several technical priests had already mentally calculated the answer: "A length of 23 kilometers, accounting for redundancy, would weigh less than 7.5 tons. A tensile strength of 180 MPa allows this cable to withstand an ultimate tensile force of 11 tons!"

Everyone was delighted. A smile that had not been seen for many days finally appeared on the bishop's face. Neos and the bishop looked at each other and said, "We can do it!"

"Then I'll put on my protective suit and clear the pipe myself!"

Neos made a decisive decision. Just as he was about to leave, he was stopped by the bishop. Bishop Marburg had a smile on his face:

"Master, don't underestimate our technicians! The steel cable can be pushed in with a machine. We can connect a factory-made blower to the outside of the pipeline and have the expert wear a breathing mask with a rubber tube. We can blow air into the rubber tube from the outside to allow the expert to breathe normally.

You just need to stabilize the morale of the troops in the city, dispel the plague, and once the pipelines are cleared, our victory will come! Haha!

Even the wisdom of a mortal can tip the scales of war!"

Orders were issued one after another, and a hint of hope finally appeared on the faces of the generals and officers in the command center. Neos also put on the clothes prepared by the bishop and was about to give a speech to the soldiers in the city. Suddenly, deafening cannon fire was heard outside the city!

"Hello? Connect me to Dongcheng District—"

A general frowned and answered the phone. As time passed, the smile on his face gradually disappeared, and in the end he looked so gloomy that he seemed to be dripping with water.

PS: 240 votes, next update 4.5k...

In Flame: 1914: Chapter 33: Ebola

"Bombardment?" Bishop Marburg shook his head. "The bombs that can't kill us, we can't escape. If they can't kill us, there's no need to run. Mage Neos—"

A sharp whistling sound suddenly interrupted their conversation.

"Woo——————"

"Air strike!"

The general who answered the phone shouted instinctively, and almost at the same time, the air defense alarm rang throughout the city.

"Is it a leaflet or a bomb?!"

Neos rushed to the window and saw dozens of black spots appearing in the sky, but unlike conventional bombing, parachutes were deployed under these black spots.

"What is that? Supplies airdropped by the heretics? Thrown into the wrong place?" Bishop Marburg frowned.

"The heretics' supplies might have been misplaced," Neos said, staring intently at the slowly descending objects. "But it's unlikely that the heretics would have misplaced their supplies."

Bishop Marburg said, "Let's go over and take a look. Anyway, the people who dug the fuel pipeline have already been sent out. We can't do anything sitting here at the command center. We should go out on patrol more often to maintain morale."

"Okay." Neos put on his armor, took a pistol and left the command center.

The soldiers in the East District immediately sought shelter after hearing the alarm. Hunger and fatigue slowed their reaction, but their instinct for survival still drove them to run towards the nearby ruins and trenches.

"Plane! Plane! Get out of the way!" a sergeant shouted, pushing the recruits around him.

Young Levis stumbled as he ran. He had only eaten a fist-sized piece of bread and some snow water melted by his body temperature in two days. His legs felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead, and every step was torture.

He seriously doubted that the energy he gained from eating this little food wouldn't even be enough to melt the snow.

When the first bomb landed, Lewis fell behind a broken wall, closed his eyes tiredly, and clutched his helmet tightly, waiting for the familiar deafening explosion and the shock wave that followed.

"Blow it up, blow it up quickly...it would be better if you blow me to death here, then I can ascend to heaven."

However, the expected explosion did not occur.

Instead, there was a strange "pop" sound, like the sound of some kind of container being opened. Levis raised his head cautiously and saw a black shell had cracked on the street not far away, but there was no fire, no explosion, and even no smoke.

"Huh?" Collins, the soldier beside him, was a little confused.

More "bombs" landed across the city, each one exploding in the same bizarre way. Soldiers began to emerge from their bunkers, watching the scene in confusion.

"Is it poison gas?" someone shouted in horror.

"No, look over there!" Another soldier pointed to the nearest broken shell casing.

Lewis and several other soldiers approached cautiously. When they saw the contents of the shell, everyone was stunned.

The shells contained not explosives but a mass of shredded straw, blood-stained feathers, and—unbelievably—the bodies of dozens of dead rats and a small monkey, all of which were covered in blood and looked as if they had been killed recently.

"What kind of sick joke is this? Are the heretics playing a trick on us?!" the sergeant said in disgust.

But Levis couldn't hear anything anymore. His eyes were fixed on the corpses, and hunger surged like a tide, his stomach contracting like a spasm. His Adam's apple rolled up and down unconsciously, and saliva quickly accumulated in his mouth.

"Back off! Everyone back off!" an officer shouted, "This might be a trap!"

Just then, Lewis noticed some tiny black dots flying out of the bloodstain and quickly dispersing. They were mosquitoes and fleas, and in the cold January day, these insects seemed unusually active.

"Don't come near! That was sent by the Lord of Hell's troops. Look carefully at the markings on the shell!" the officer shouted again, but his voice had become insignificant in the ears of the hungry soldiers.

Levis saw more soldiers coming from all directions, their eyes flashing with the same hungry light. A young soldier suddenly rushed forward and grabbed a dead rat, and the others followed suit.

"Stop! This is an order!" The officer tried to stop him, but it was too late.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The officer fired warning shots, but it had the opposite effect. Most of the soldiers stopped when they heard the gunshots, but the civilians hiding in the rooms didn't listen to them at all!

You know, ordinary people only get 150 grams of food a day—150 grams! What a concept!

Hunger had destroyed their rationality. They scrambled and pushed, going crazy for things that would normally make them sick. Levis felt himself being pushed forward by the crowd. He wanted to resist, but his body moved forward involuntarily.

"We have food!" someone shouted ecstatically. "God bless us!"

"That's Beelzebub's trap! Don't fall for it!!" "Bang! Bang! Bang!" The officers emptied their pistol magazines but still couldn't stop the crowd from rushing in.

"Bullshit! It's Beelzebub who has surrendered to the might of God and is showing goodwill to us!" Some smart guy in the crowd shouted.

This statement seemed to give Yilin L an excuse to attract the crowd, sparking even greater commotion! More soldiers poured out of nearby buildings and swarmed towards the landing point. Soon, the situation was completely out of control.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! I'm being - Aaaah!" Levis heard someone shouting, but the sound was quickly drowned out by the chaos.

The crowd turned into an unstoppable torrent, soldiers and civilians trampling each other, desperate to grab the meager food. Levis was thrown to the ground and felt countless pairs of boots trampling over him. He tried to get up, but could only curl up and protect his head.

"You kid are trying to kill yourself! I promised your mother that I would bring you home alive!" The officer grabbed his boots and struggled to pull him out of the crowd. The two men gasped, looked at each other helplessly, and sighed together.

In the chaos, he saw a soldier had started a fire, and others found a large pot to cook the meat that had just "fallen from the sky".

Neos and the Bishop of Marburg led their guards on a street dotted with barricades and shelters. As they crossed the bridge over the Danube and entered the eastern part of the city, a strange smell of meat wafted into the car.

PS: Budapest is traversed by the Danube from north to south. The history of this city is very interesting. Strictly speaking, it is a combination of Buda and Pest. When the Mongols marched westward, they conquered this city and established Pest.

"What's that smell?" Neos frowned.

Bishop Marburg took a deep breath, his expression suddenly becoming serious. "Broth—this definitely tastes like meat, and it's not human flesh, I bet you that! But we haven't had any meat in our supplies for at least two weeks."

Without thinking about the horrific detail of why the Bishop of Marburg was so familiar with the smell of human flesh, Neos put the safety on his pistol and got ready.

When they arrived at the main square of Dongcheng District, the sight before them shocked them. Hundreds of soldiers gathered around several large cauldrons, scrambling to offer broken bowls and cans. The air was filled with a strange, meaty aroma, mixed with an indescribable stench.

"The taste of blood..." added an accompanying adjutant.

"What happened?" Bishop Marburg stepped forward and asked sharply.

A lieutenant immediately ran over and saluted: "Your Excellency, the heretics dropped some strange shells filled with animal carcasses. The soldiers... the soldiers are so hungry, they..."

Neos looked around and noticed several broken metal shell casings scattered on the ground. He approached one and crouched down to examine it more closely. Inside the shell, there were traces of blood and straw, as well as tiny black specks swimming in the blood.

"Bishop Marburg, come and look at this," Neos said, his voice wary. "This is not right."

"This mark belongs to the Black Grail Cult. The last Black Grail Plague killed nearly a third of the people on this continent. What could it be this time?"

Bishop Marburg had already made his way through the crowd toward another, more intact shell. He put on the protective mask and gloves he had brought with him and carefully examined the inside of the shell.

Neos hurried after him, his uneasiness growing stronger. As he approached, he saw Commander Marburg had already opened the bomb casing and was carefully examining the small pool of blood inside.

"It's full of mosquitoes and fleas - it's winter, and they are still so energetic!" said the Bishop of Marburg in surprise.

Just then, Neos noticed a mosquito flying through the gap in Marburg's armor and into his collar.

"Pah!" Marburg slapped his neck. "Damn little thing—it's okay. I've been vaccinated against the Black Death, so I'm not afraid of this."

"I haven't fought before." "Get a mosquito net for the mage!"

"No, I'll just kill them."

Neos cast a psychic spell, creating a small space around his body to isolate himself from the outside world. Then he threw out a ball of blue-white flame, killing all the fleas and mosquitoes in the dirty blood in the bullet shell.

Wait! He smelled a familiar smell——

"The stench of hell!! Damn it, this bomb must have been tampered with!"

Neos was horrified. He arrived too late. Quite a few soldiers had already come into contact with the bomb - damn it!

"Bishop, this bomb contains the power of Hell. It's not something a vaccine can cure—we must immediately quarantine all soldiers who have come into contact with these shells!" Neos said anxiously, "This is definitely the Black Grail—and it could be another one!"

Marburg looked at Neos, his expression a cross between confusion and suspicion. "Don't be so nervous, Master. If it really was the Black Grail, I should have begun to lose my human form the moment I approached the bomb.

According to historical records, all civilians within six kilometers of the Black Grail plague source were turned into a pool of pus. Look at all the civilians in this square—"

Neos wanted to retort, but Marburg had already turned and walked towards the crowd, ready to restore order. Neos stood there, watching the chaotic scene in the square as soldiers scrambled for questionable food, completely disregarding the potential danger. He noticed more mosquitoes and fleas flying among the crowd, a particularly strange sight in this cold winter day.

An ominous premonition enveloped Neos. He knew that the nightmare of the siege had just begun, and the most terrifying enemy might not be the heretics outside the city, but the invisible killers who had already sneaked into the city.

After the two finished their inspection, Neos hesitated several times on the way to speak, but was stopped by Marburg. When they returned to the West District Command Post and walked onto the bridge, the gentle smile on Bishop Marburg's face suddenly disappeared, becoming very ugly. He suddenly said:

"From today on, this bridge is closed. If personnel and supplies are to be transported, use ropes and frames. No one is allowed to cross this bridge to Dongcheng District without my approval! This information is strictly blocked and must not be disseminated."

The soldiers guarding the bridge saluted him.

Marburg whispered to Neos, "There were so many people in the square just now. As the pillar of this city, I can't panic at all. Otherwise, the entire city, 430,000 Crusaders and a million civilians, will be in chaos."

Neos blinked, a look of apology on his face. He had previously cursed Marburg several times in a low voice for his stupid decision, but now it seemed that at least his own IQ was up to par.

Yes, to be able to defend the city for so long despite having run out of ammunition and food under the attack of the heretics, how could it be possible without some skills?

"Please isolate me in the church. I should have been infected with the new Black Grail by now. We still don't know how this biological weapon spreads, the infected population, or how to treat it... We don't know anything—

There has to be a group of people to test it out. At my age, I won't live long. I'm about to meet God. To prevent me from dying due to force majeure, I left behind many books and plans. You and my adjutant will hand them over. This city depends on you, the saint! "

"But...but my ability might..." Neos was a little worried. He was well aware of the story that one incompetent general can lead to the destruction of the entire army.

"Then find someone capable!" Marburg obviously also expected that Neos would be more suitable to be a mascot.

"Let me think... Is Dominica okay?" "Paladin?! You actually know a Paladin! Oh my God—let her come, must, immediately, right now! You...you just go and do some propaganda to maintain the morale of the troops."

When Bishop Marburg heard that there was a paladin on Neos' side, his expression changed instantly in front of him.

"Let me calculate, it will take about two days?"

"Two days? Can't the Paladin come directly from the Lord's Kingdom?" asked Marburg.

"Um...actually, what I mean is...it will take two days for me to resurrect her—no, it will take two days for God to resurrect her. During these two days, I will take your place."

"?"

On the eve of Marburg's arrival at the church, escorted by fully armed medical personnel, he suddenly remembered something:

"If a plague breaks out in the city, don't call it the Black Grail. That word is more deadly than the plague itself. Let's call it... the Marburg Plague."

...

As night fell, the riots in East District finally subsided. The "food" that had fallen from the sky had been devoured, leaving only empty shell casings and a mess on the ground.

Neos, dressed in bishop's attire, stood at the command post window, gazing at the scattered fires in the distance. His thoughts went back to the scene of a few hours ago: starving soldiers scrambling for food like wild beasts, officers unable to maintain order, and human nature so fragile in the face of extreme hunger.

If the plague is added... I'm afraid this panic cannot be solved by simply changing the name of the Black Grail. The soldiers are very realistic and they must come up with something substantial to "refute" the doubts of the people.