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

Dominicana watched the plumes of smoke rising from the city, gripping his greatsword tightly. The dark purple plumes grew larger and larger, filling every corner of the city. A vortex slowly formed in the sky. In the distance, the horns of the Black Grail Cult rose and fell, accompanied by the roars of hellish creatures, the sound growing ever louder.

"Kill that thing quickly. I guess this is Hell's final test for us. As long as... as long as we can survive this 'hard meal', they won't be able to figure out our strength, and we can rest for a while..."

Neos leaned back in the passenger seat, closed his eyes and spoke softly.

"Go, my Warmaster. I trust you to do the work."

Dominica gave Neos a deep look and nodded solemnly. She could see the slight trembling in his fingertips, the beads of sweat on his forehead, and even more, she could sense the almost burning aura around him. But she said nothing, simply performing a standard knight's salute.

Turning to face the chaotic battlefield, Dominic cast a psychic spell to amplify his voice and attract the attention of all the soldiers.

"The land of Budapest, Qi Yi II, die, warriors!" Her voice was like thunder. "Look behind us! This is our hope! This is our reinforcement! This is fate's response to our loyalty and courage!"

The soldiers turned their heads and saw reinforcements pouring down from the sky. Vienna's air force, mobilizing all available supplies in a short period of time, dropped all the supplies they could. Cheers began to rise one after another. But Dominica keenly noticed that these cheers were mingled with fatigue and worry.

These soldiers had fought for too long, suffered from plague and hunger, and were exhausted both physically and mentally.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, the soldiers of the Black Grail Order were gathering. Their numbers were greater than ever, their fervor greater than ever. Citizens infected by the plague stumbled into their ranks, eerie smiles plastered on their swollen faces.

Dominica watched all this, his voice becoming even more powerful: "I know you've been fighting for too long! I know you're exhausted! I know many of you have lost family, friends, and comrades!"

She paused, looking around. Every weary face was filled with pain and determination.

"But I also know that within each of you there burns an unquenchable flame! It is the love for your homeland, the love for your compatriots, and the longing for freedom! It is humanity's unyielding resistance to hell!"

She raised her greatsword, blue-white flames dancing on the blade. "Look at the power our majesty has bestowed upon me! This is our hope! This is our weapon! This is our light against darkness!"

The soldiers' eyes began to gleam, and some even shed tears. An invisible power was flowing through this exhausted army.

"We have given so much and lost so much, but we will not let these sacrifices be in vain! We will not let down our fallen brothers and sisters!"

Dominicana pointed to the vortex forming above the city. "Look there! Hell wants to summon their most powerful demons! They want to break our wills and take our souls!"

Her voice became low and cold: “But they are wrong!

They don't know that the human will is stronger than steel! They don't know that the human soul is hotter than the sun! They don't know that when humans unite, even hell will tremble!

The soldiers straightened their backs and gripped their weapons tightly, and their once exhausted faces began to glow with new energy.

“Today, we will prove to Hell that humans are not prey they can toy with at will!

Today, we will prove to the Lord of the Flies that the plague will not break our will!

Today, we will prove to the world that Budapest will not fall! Humanity will prevail!"

The soldiers began to shout in response, their voices growing louder and louder, and more orderly.

"Humanity will win!"

Dominica felt a surge of warmth as she gazed at these rejuvenated warriors. She knew they were ready to fight again. She turned to look at Neos and saw he had straightened up. Though his face was pale, his eyes gleamed with pride and relief.

Dominica raised his greatsword and pointed it at the vortex above the city: "Warriors! Now is the time to exact revenge from Hell! Follow me, for humanity! For Neos! Charge!"

"charge!"

Thousands of soldiers shouted in unison, their voices shaking heaven and earth. At this moment, even the vortex in the sky seemed to pause for a moment.

Dominica turned around and glanced at Neos, then whispered, "Your Majesty, leave the rest to us."

Neos nodded slightly, a look of relief finally appearing on his face.

Dominica took a deep breath, brandished his greatsword, and led his soldiers, now re-energized, toward the dark vortex. Behind him, Neos watched the army march forward, his hands clasped, praying for these fearless warriors.

------------

"attack!!"

Dominica's command echoed across the battlefield like a bolt of lightning. The roar of the S-1 Inquisitor's engines resounded through the air as these steel behemoths, bearing crosses blazing with blue and white flames, charged towards the battlefront. The Crusader infantry followed closely behind, their faces etched with determination as they charged forward with furious roars.

East City had long been ravaged by war. The former park had become a quagmire riddled with craters, the former square a slaughterhouse strewn with corpses. Amidst the rubble, the warriors of the Black Grail Order formed a battle formation, their skin covered in plague-infested pustules, howling as they fought.

"For Neos! For humanity!" a Crusader captain named Coleman shouted as he led the Third Battalion toward the enemy lines. They had barely made it ten meters when a hail of bullets from the Heretic's heavy machine guns poured down. Soldiers around Coleman fell one after another, but no one retreated.

"Keep going! Don't stop!" Coleman roared. "For our fallen brothers and sisters!"

A shell exploded in front of them, sending dirt and debris flying. Coleman was thrown overboard by the blast. As he struggled to his feet, he found his right arm was a bloody mess. But he didn't hesitate to pick up the fallen pistol and continued to charge forward.

In the sky, fighter planes from the Vienna Air Force roared and dived, strafing the Black Grail cultists on the ground with machine guns. But at the same time, thousands of Hell Locusts rose from the horizon, their wings emitting a creepy buzzing sound, their mouthparts dripping with corrosive venom.

"Wolf Squadron, maintain altitude! Falcon Squadron, cover the bombers!" The commander's voice rang out over the radio, "Destroy that vortex at all costs!"

A Crusader fighter was bitten by three locusts. The pilot Martin tried his best to make the plane make a sharp turn, but the creatures seemed to be controlled by some will and kept biting it tightly.

"Damn bugs!" Martin cursed, lowering the fighter to its limit, then suddenly climbing. A locust couldn't keep up in time and crashed to the ground, then was crushed into a ball of green slime by the tracks of an Inquisitor. But the other two continued to pursue.

Martin glanced at the fuel gauge and saw that it was approaching the warning line.

"Command, this is Wolf Three. I'm out of ammunition and low on fuel. I'm going to crash into the center of that vortex."

"No, Martin! Retreat—no, abandon the plane, and go to Xicheng District to parachute out! This is an order!"

"I'm sorry, sir. If that thing gets out of hell, what's the point of me staying alive? It's just going to kill me sooner or later. Tell my wife I love her."

Martin turned off the communication and aimed the fighter plane at the center of the black and purple vortex. "Humanity will win!"

The fighter plane roared towards the purple-black vortex, followed closely by the locusts emitting a sharp hiss. A dazzling explosion erupted at the edge of the vortex, but the strange vortex only fluctuated slightly and continued to rotate.

On the ground, the fighting was even more brutal.

A formation of S-1 Inquisitor tanks charged into the enemy positions, their 86mm main guns roaring relentlessly, destroying the Black Grail Order's weapon positions one by one. An S1-07 tank led the charge, and its commander, Lieutenant Gregory, peered through the observation port to spot a heretic land craft fifty meters ahead, turning its guns.

"Full speed ahead! Don't give him a chance to fire!" Gregory ordered.

Driver Pavel slammed on the accelerator, and the S1-07 roared towards the enemy vehicle. The heretic landspeeder opened fire, but the shells actually grazed the gun shield, which was more than ten millimeters thick, and bounced off!

Pavel continued to advance at full speed until the two tanks were almost touching.

"Fire!" Gregory shouted.

Gunner Vladimir pulled the rope, and the S1-07's main gun slammed directly into the Heretic's frontal armor at point-blank range. The shockwave from the explosion shook the tank violently, deforming its armor, but it remained standing.

"Reload! Reload!" Gregory ordered, but suddenly heard the loader's scream.

A sharp metal fragment penetrated the side armor of the tank and pierced directly into the chest of the loader. Pavel looked back and found that the gunner was also bleeding profusely. Only Grigory was still holding on.

"Sir, we need to retreat and regroup the crew!" Pavel shouted.

Gregory looked ahead and saw that although the heretic tank was hit, its turret was still turning.

"No, let's keep going," Gregory said firmly. "Fuck Beelzebub's horse, Pavel, hit it! Full speed!"

S1-07 roared forward again, slamming directly into the Heretic Land Cruiser. With a resounding metal-on-metal clashing, the Heretic tank was pushed from its original position and crashed into the building behind it. Gregory grabbed his machine gun and fired wildly into the cracks in the Heretic tank.

Suddenly, a barbed tentacle emerged from the Heretic Tank and pierced Pavel's head. Gregory roared, grabbed the flare launcher, aimed it at the base of the tentacle, and pulled the trigger. In a blinding white flash, the tentacle burned off, but more began to pour out from the cracks in the Heretic Tank.

Gregory knew he couldn't escape, so he took a grenade from his belt and placed it on the ammunition box.

"Let's be brothers in the next life." He pulled the safety pin and closed his eyes.

A huge explosion engulfed S1-07 and the Heretic Landship, and flames shot into the sky.

On the other side of the battlefield, a battered S-1 Inquisitor remained in action. Its crew had been killed, but the tank's engine roared as it surged forward like a wounded beast, smashing through barbed wire and overcoming obstacles, its main gun still firing automatically at the enemy. It seemed as if the spirits of the fallen crew still drove this steel behemoth to fight to the bitter end.

The infantrymen fought even more brutally.

Adolf Hill, a corporal in the 7th Infantry Regiment of the Kingdom of Austria, fought three Black Grail cultists in the ruins. His rifle was out of bullets, and his grenades were all gone. He picked up his dagger from the ground and faced the first enemy.

The dagger pierced the enemy's throat, but the enemy seemed to feel no pain and continued to rush forward. Adolf stabbed again until the enemy finally fell. But he didn't have a chance to breathe, because the second enemy had already pounced on him.

Adolf struggled with the second enemy, and his dagger was bent and deformed in the fight, and finally broke. He grabbed a stone from the ground and smashed it on the enemy's head, but the enemy only staggered and continued to attack.

Adolf was forced into a corner. He saw his comrades falling not far away, saw the enemy's fierce grin, and saw the ever-expanding vortex in the sky. An unprecedented anger burned in his heart.

"You took away my home, killed my family, and destroyed my childhood dreams, but you can't take away my soul!" Adolf roared, drew his bayonet, and rushed towards the enemy.

The bayonet stabbed into the enemy's chest, but the enemy's poisonous claws filled with plague also scratched Adolf's uniform, leaving deep scars on his skin. Adolf pulled out the bayonet with pain and chopped at the third enemy.

After several fierce battles, the bayonet had become bent and deformed, almost unusable, but Adolf continued to fight, using his fists, stones, and anything else he could use to fight the enemy.

When the third enemy fell, a Hell Knight in black armor stepped out from the shadows, the blood of the Crusader flowing from the axe in its hand.

Adolf knew he was no match for his opponent, but he did not back down. He picked up a steel bar on the ground, gritted his teeth, and rushed towards the enemy.

The Hell Knight easily blocked his attack and knocked him away with a punch. Adolf fell heavily to the ground, feeling the sharp pain of several broken ribs. He struggled to his feet:

"Die, you damned demon!"

The steel bars broke, and Adolf could barely lift his arms, but he continued to fight. When the Hell Knight grabbed his throat, ready to deliver a fatal blow, Adolf saw a gap in the Knight's neck armor. In desperation, he used up his last bit of strength and opened his mouth to bite the enemy's throat.

His teeth pierced the enemy's skin, and the sulfur-smelling and stinking demon blood rushed into his mouth. The pain almost made him faint. But Adolf did not let go. He bit deeper and harder until the Hell Knight roared in pain and tried to shake him off.

Adolf's vision began to blur and consciousness gradually faded, but his teeth were still tightly gripping his enemy's throat. Even on the verge of coma, he refused to let go.

The battle in the sky was equally fierce.

The pilots of the Vienna Air Force fought bravely against the vastly outnumbered Hell Locusts. Plane after plane was shot down, but they refused to retreat. As their ammunition and fuel ran low, more and more pilots chose Martin's path—straight into the core of the Black Chalice.

"This is Eagle Squadron. We've run out of ammunition." A squadron leader said in a remarkably calm voice over the comms. "We'll carry out one final attack. See you in heaven!"

Six fighters formed a wedge formation and rushed directly towards the center of the black vortex. The locust swarm tried to intercept them, but the pilots cleverly evaded them and continued to advance.

"Humanity will win!"

Several fighter planes crashed into the vortex at the same time, and the light of the explosion illuminated the entire battlefield. This time, the vortex was obviously affected, its rotation became unstable, and its edges began to collapse.

In the center of the battlefield, Dominica was dueling with the Black Grail Overlord.

Its nearly three-meter-tall body was clad in blood-red plate armor, venom seeping from the crevices of the armor. Every step it took left a mark of corrosion on the ground. Its face couldn't be seen beneath its helmet, only two faint green lights flickered, as if staring down from the depths of hell.

"Ding--!"

Dominica's greatsword danced like the wind, blue-white flames dancing on the blade. She had been fighting for hours, her armor was damaged, and her body was wounded in many places, but her eyes remained firm and her movements were still swift.

"Where is your master, human?" The Black Grail Overlord's voice was like the simultaneous fluttering of a thousand flies' wings. "Why did he hide, leaving an ant like you to face me?"

Dominica didn't answer, simply continuing to fight. Her greatsword swung in a beautiful arc, slashing towards the Overlord's knees. The Black Grail Overlord dodged sideways, swinging his sword across. Dominica took a step back, the blade's edge glancing off her armor, sending a tingling sensation through her chest.

"The Lord of Flies is tired of this game," the Black Grail Overlord continued, "your resistance will only make your death more painful."

"I don't know when Neos will burn Beelzebub to ashes," Dominica finally spoke calmly, "but I know you will definitely explore the way for your master today."

She suddenly accelerated, thrusting her greatsword straight into the Overlord's chest. The Black Grail Overlord swung his sword to block, sparks flying. Without pausing, Dominica spun and struck horizontally, but the Overlord blocked it again. Their weapons collided with such force that the surrounding ground began to crack.

"You are strong, human," said the Black Grail Overlord, "but you are no match for me."

It suddenly spewed a cloud of poisonous mist from its mouth. Dominica had no time to dodge and could only block it with her sword. The poisonous mist made contact with the blue-white flames on the blade, making a hissing sound, but some of it still penetrated the gaps in her armor and entered her lungs.

The sharp pain made Dominica stumble back. She felt as if her lungs were burning with fire, and every breath was torture. But she did not fall down. Instead, she gripped the greatsword tightly and rushed towards the enemy again.

"For humanity... For all the innocent people who have died at the hands of Hell over the past few hundred years! I—will kill you!"

Her greatsword swung in a perfect arc, slashing towards the Black Grail Overlord's head. The Overlord reacted with remarkable speed, blocking, but Dominica had anticipated this. Using the force of the Overlord's attack, she retreated, creating distance. Then, suddenly leaping, she thrust her greatsword downward, piercing the Overlord's helmet with all her might.

It hastily blocked, but Dominicana's attack was too fierce, and the tip of the sword pierced the helmet, just missing the vital part. The Overlord roared angrily and lashed out with a claw, hitting Dominicana's shoulder.

The excruciating pain nearly brought Dominica to her knees, but she gritted her teeth and stood firm. She knew she couldn't fall, not only for Budapest, for humanity, but even more so for Neos.

"Your master is watching you die," the Black Grail Overlord taunted. "When you die, he will be next."

"My lord does not need to fight," Dominic replied, his voice trembling with pain but still firm, "because he has us. He gives us hope and strength, and we will win the victory for him."

She raised the greatsword again, and this time, the blue-white flames grew even brighter, illuminating almost the entire battlefield. Dominica felt an unprecedented surge of strength coursing through her body, the pain subsided, and the fatigue was swept away.

"This is the final blow, demon," she said calmly.

The Black Grail Overlord seemed to sense the threat as well, and it prepared for defense. But at that moment, a crack appeared in the clouds at the horizon, and dusk fell.

Dominicana's greatsword arced, leaving a dazzling trail of blue-white flames in the air. The Black Grail Overlord raised his sword to meet the blow, and the two weapons met in mid-air.

"boom----!!!"

With a deafening roar, the Black Grail Overlord's weapon shattered. Dominicana's greatsword continued its advance, severing its arm. The Black Grail Overlord roared in pain, but Dominicana didn't pause, spinning his greatsword and striking the Overlord's neck again.

This time, there was no resistance. The giant sword pierced its neck and completely severed its head.

Dark purple blood gushed out, but upon contact with the blue-white flames of the Dominican sword, it instantly turned to ash. The Black Holy Grail Overlord's body stiffened for a moment, then collapsed to the ground with a thud, stirring up a cloud of dust.

With the fall of the Qi'er III Cage-like (IX) Qi'er IV Overlord, the vortex in the sky began to collapse, and the purple-black smoke columns across the city began to dissipate. The soldiers of the Black Grail Cult seemed to have suddenly lost confidence and began to flee.

The Crusaders, upon seeing this, erupted in unprecedented fighting spirit. They pursued the enemy like mad dogs, giving them no chance to breathe. The chariot formations broke through the last line of defense.

In the last rays of light of dusk, the eastern part of Budapest was finally liberated.