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

Through the periscope, the lower half of the Hanseatic priest's body had vanished. He wriggled through the bloody mud, his intestines dragging him, and used his teeth to tear the safety pin of his martyrdom device. The surviving teenager screamed and threw his explosive pack at the tank, only to be torn to pieces by machine gun fire mid-air. As he crawled to the side of the tank, the priest suddenly raised his head, and Neos read his lips—he was calling a name.

"Detonate." Sister Anastasia pressed the detonator without hesitation.

The flames shot up into the sky and illuminated the blood droplets on the lens of her mask. Neos saw that drop of blood was slowly sliding down the curve of the gas mask, like a tear mark.

When the smoke cleared, the heretic tank's cast stone exterior peeled away like an eggshell, revealing the demonic metal hull beneath. A bituminous liquid oozed from the broken tracks, corroding the surrounding mud with a hissing sound. The demonic head atop the tank suddenly turned ninety degrees, its mandible blasted to pieces, spewing sulfurous smoke that formed an inverted cross above the battlefield.

"Damn it, how did these demons come up with composite armor? If the other side also has reactive armor and close defense systems, I suggest we surrender. The smart ones are already learning demon language!" Neos punched the mud wall.

"What on earth are our ordnance engineers doing? Where is the Renaissance? Can we help them?"

"Snapped!"

The nun suddenly threw down the key and slapped the clever Neos.

"Reverend Neos," her breath echoed softly in the canister, "Command requires battlefield survivors to submit suggestions for destroying it."

Valentine counted on his fingers. "From last night's battle, two tanks broke through the eastern defense line. We've destroyed... half of them. Unless we can get some orichalcum armor-piercing shells..."

"Its outer armor seems to be very vulnerable to impact. Once that damned iron shell is knocked off, without infantry cover, it will be a dead end! Ask the command if they have cannons larger than 88...100mm."

"We don't have any artillery." The communications sister paused. Just as Neos was about to suggest surrendering and seeing if the other side would take prisoners, she added, "But powerful weapons and equipment will be arriving soon. Reverend Neos, your blasphemous words just now are extremely serious. You will be subject to a purity examination by the Church later."

"Just survive first, sister!" Neos was a little desperate. The other side had even deployed heavy tanks and composite armor, but his own family was still fighting a war. They didn't have many cannons or guns!

How can he save humanity?

"The Hermits of the Shrine are arriving on the battlefield." The nun pulled a scroll of parchment from the bottom of the radio box and began typing a line of a special message. As her fingertips ran over the wax seal, Neos noticed that the seal was an inverted Catherine wheel - the symbol of the Redemption Trench Pilgrims.

"Hermit of the Shrine!" Valentine patted Neos's shoulder excitedly.

"What is that? European Superman?" Neos turned the periscope and looked back.

"Fuck, the European Iron Man!"

The ground suddenly began to tremble. A sound, something between a steam organ and the cry of a dying whale, rose from behind. Sister Anastasia abruptly stood up, her prayer board and gas mask clashing with a trembling sound. She pressed the parchment to her chest, her gray-blue eyes rippled.

A thirteen-foot (4-meter) tall metallic figure burst through the smoke. The shrine's armor was covered in barbs and penitential bands, each spike pierced with the dried head of a heretic. Its ribcage was inlaid with the image of a six-winged angel from the Old Testament.

Inside the armor, a blinded monk was being whipped with hooked chains, his blood flowing through tubes into a boiling pool of holy oil at his feet. As this living altar took steps, the roar of the diesel engine and the chanting formed an eerie polyphony, and Neos felt his molars rattle in the resonance.

The exterior of this massive armor is adorned with icons, sacred relics, and prayer scrolls, each in the tradition of the pilgrim order the hermit serves.

"Saint Methodius..." Valentine made the sign of the cross. "They've brought here the last hermit of the shrine at Velehrad..."

The minigun on the Hermit's shoulder began to roar, and the silver-plated bullets splashed green sparks on the tank armor.

"With holy fire, cleanse the filth! With iron and blood, forge a ladder to heaven!" "Today we shall die—tomorrow, the fire of judgment shall consume the abyss!"

"Every drop of blood is a hymn, every wound is a brand - the gate of heaven has been opened for the martyrs!"

The mechanical arm operating the Catherine wheel suddenly unfolded, and the two trench pilgrims cheered and jumped into the rotating teeth. Their flesh and blood turned into red mist amid the sound of metal collision, giving the weapons a scarlet glow.

Sister Anastasia emerged from the trench, and as the shadow of the hermit of the shrine fell over her, Neos saw her hand him a small box, her fingers brushing the edge of the gilded cross, as softly as if she were touching a lover's cheek.

"Delivered to St. Nicholas Church in Smiljan. Thank you for your perseverance."

After saying that, the nun walked up to the hermit in the shrine, took off her hood and gas mask, and revealed her pale cheeks.

"What...what..."

The monk's painful voice came from inside the armor.

"I wish to board this ship, not for glory, not for redemption, but simply to use my body to pave the way for God's wrath!"

"Can..."

Under the fanatical gazes of many believers, the nun hung herself on the rotating Catherine Wheel on the right arm of the armor. Even when the blade pierced her and her blood turned into lubricant that soaked the huge weapon, she still shouted:

"With my body, I will forge the blade of holy war! With my soul, I will ignite the eternal fire! Catherine Wheel - turn! Lead me through the flames of hell and straight to the gates of heaven! My flesh and blood will become a holy shield to protect the believers!"

"Prepare to charge! Neos! This should be the last reinforcement. If we lose again, this place will be abandoned!"

Valentine fixed the bayonet on his rifle, but found Neos staring at the nun who was screaming frantically. "What's wrong, priest? Are you scared by the hermit? Don't worry, those are our own weapons."

Neos rubbed the cross in his palm. The touch of metal sobered him up a little:

"I wonder, when faith becomes fuel, what's the difference between us and those demons?"

The nun turned her head suddenly, and Neos wasn't sure if she heard the blasphemy. The shrine hermit's whistle echoed across the battlefield, drowning his whisper in a symphony of chants and explosions.

PS: 100 recommendation votes are 4k!!! This wave of Beizhai is really burned out... I need to take a break...

In Flames: 1914: Chapter 7: Times Have Changed? No, They Haven't!

"Show me what this battle armor that looks like a church can do!"

The smoke outside the trench was filled with the stench of sulfur. Neos dug his fingers deep into the edge of the muddy bunker, holding the periscope in one hand.

In the distance, the tracks of the heretic tank had been blown off, but the black muzzle was still slowly turning like a venomous snake, aiming at the roaring metal behemoth in the center of the battlefield - the Shrine Hermit.

"Fuck! This thing can really fight?!"

Neos' pupils reflected the afterimage of the shrine hermit's leap. The four-meter-tall steel giant soared into the air with agility belying its size, its diesel engine roaring as it delivered power.

The shrine hermit swung the heavy flail with his left arm, making a sound of breaking wind, and smashed it hard at a charging plague knight!

"boom!"

The sound of metal clashing could be heard throughout the battlefield. The Plague Knight, clad in plate armor, was surrounded by a swarm of flies like a black mist, and the spear in his hand was dripping with blood.

"Smash it! Smash it!" Neos shouted subconsciously, as if he was the one swinging the hammer.

After all, who doesn’t like to pilot a mecha on the battlefield and dominate the enemy?

The moment the flail collided with the Plague Knight's chest, the air seemed to be torn apart. The Knight's plate armor dented like thin paper, and a mixture of rotten flesh and metal fragments sprayed out in a foul-smelling slurry!

"Awesome! So awesome!!" "Yeah! To be able to witness the unparalleled slaughter of such a powerful being in my lifetime, even if I'm hung up on the Catherine now, it's worth it!" "You bastard! Why did you get to sit on the sacred seat of the Catherine? Being able to witness the battle of the Shrine Hermit in person, isn't it a reward for you?"

The trench pilgrims watching behind him raised their weapons and celebrated another victory of this "moving castle".

The blood grooves attached to the flail glowed crimson, sending the knight's body flying dozens of meters, only stopping after collapsing half of the trench. Fragments of armor, clinging to them with maggots, clung to the spikes of the flail.

"Gah! That's fucking awesome!" Neos was so excited that he slammed his fist on the bunker. "Times have changed, but this hasn't changed at all!"

The shrine hermit didn't stop. The diamond Catherine wheel on its right arm spun at high speed. The nun hanging on the blade was already a bloody mess, but she still raised her broken arm and screamed:

"Judgment! Judgment Day is coming!"

Sparks from the friction of the axles fell like stigmata, and the trench pilgrims shouted in unison, the sound almost drowning out the artillery fire.

"Boom!" Flames suddenly erupted from the muzzle of the heretic tank. Neos' smile froze as he watched the shell tear through the air and strike the shrine's hermit in the chest. The shockwave of the explosion knocked over several pilgrims, and smoke and dust instantly engulfed the steel giant.

"Could it be...?" Sergeant Valentine's prayer abruptly ended. Neos stared at the smokescreen, his fingertips unconsciously digging into his palm. Suddenly, a sharp metallic grinding pierced the smoke—the Catherine was still spinning! When the smoke cleared, the remains of a cannonball were dented in the shrine hermit's breastplate. The carved seraph was unrecognizable, but its torso remained intact.

Even the lamb and bell hanging from the waist of the hermit in the shrine were unharmed!

The only thing that had changed was the nun hanging on the Catherine wheel. Though the shell had hit her chest, the nun had already been reduced to pulp, with only half her face clinging to the blade of the Catherine wheel, the corner of her mouth curled up strangely.

"Sacrifice! This is a sacrifice!" Valentine trembled and made the sign of the cross. "She exchanged her own flesh and blood for a miracle!"

"This...how is this possible?" Neos widened his eyes and looked at the scene in disbelief.

"This is a sacrifice..." Sergeant Valentine whispered, his tone filled with awe. He bowed his head and began to pray softly. Neos' heart surged when he heard his words.

"Sacrifice? Just grab a person and hang them on that spinning wheel and you're going to make this iron shell resistant to tank attacks? Is that even remotely scientific?"

Neos couldn't help but curse, his heart filled with a sense of absurdity. His hands clenched unconsciously, and a faint blue light flashed at his fingertips, but he didn't notice.

The shrine hermit was completely unaffected by the artillery shells. His mechanical arm grabbed the Plague Knight, who had been smashed beyond recognition by the heavy flail, and easily twisted off its head. He then hung the head on his shoulder, placing it alongside the previous trophies.

The Plague Knight's body was hung on the diamond Catherine Wheel, and the twisted plate armor was easily shattered by the rotation of the blade.

"Let judgment come!" The shrine hermit's voice was low and painful, like a judge from the depths of hell. Its diesel engine once again burst into powerful power, and its massive body moved swiftly across the battlefield like an unstoppable beast.

"Let me witness all this, my lord!" "Sacrifice me!" "My faith is the strongest, sacrifice me!!"

"Witness me!"

The pilgrims who had just howled in the trenches rushed to him, vying to be hung on the Catherine wheel. The hermit of the shrine randomly selected a lucky bloodthirsty spectator and impaled him on the Catherine wheel in front of the envious eyes of the crowd.

Then—“BOOM!”

The shrine hermit raised his heavy flail and slammed it down on the heretic tank. The collision of metal and metal made a deafening sound, and the heretic tank's outer cast stone armor peeled away under the impact of the flail. A huge dent was also smashed into the inner layer of demonic metal, and the twisted turret was smashed into the hull!

"This impact—how could a tank withstand it? Times haven't changed!" Neos couldn't help but exclaim, shocked by the power of the Shrine Hermit. However, just when everyone thought the heretic tank had been destroyed, the tank's barrel suddenly retracted and another shell was fired.

"Bang!" The shell struck the shrine hermit's left chest. This time, the shrine hermit's body couldn't withstand the impact. Its left chest was pierced through, and blood continued to flow from the black metal hole. Although the diesel engine continued to roar, the shrine hermit's body slowly fell to the ground.

"Sacrifice...did the sacrifice fail?!" Sergeant Valentine's eyes widened in disbelief, his voice filled with despair. The Catherine Wheel on the shrine hermit's right arm continued to spin, and the sacrificed believer continued to scream, as if nothing had happened.

"Why... why? No... this is impossible!" The trench pilgrims fell to their knees, shouting in despair. Their faith seemed to collapse at this moment. The fall of the shrine hermit made them feel more helpless than ever before.

"It must be that his faith is not firm enough. Let me do it!" A believer tore his hair and jumped into the rotating Catherine wheel and was beaten into a pulp. As if it had started a new journey, the team of trench pilgrims began to take the initiative to make collective sacrifices to the hermit in the shrine who had been knocked to his knees by the heretic tank.

But the hermit in the shrine still did not stand up.

"boom!"

The heavy armor fell.

Neos's hand still shone with a blue light, his heart filled with mixed emotions. He couldn't comprehend it all. The fall of the shrine hermit left him with a deep sense of powerlessness. However, at that moment, a blue light spread from his hand, covering the entire battlefield.

"What is this?" Neos looked down at his hands, his heart filled with confusion. He felt a powerful force surge within him, as if something long dormant was awakening.

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

On the battlefield, the Hermit's body remained slumped to the ground, the Catherine wheel still spinning, blood pouring from its chest. The trench pilgrims knelt on the ground, praying desperately. The Heretic tank's gun aimed once again at the Hermit, ready to deliver the final blow.

Seeing that the Trench Pilgrims seemed to have lost their will to fight, the few remaining heretic soldiers began to move in.

However, at this moment, a blue light covered the entire battlefield, and the heretic tank's gun suddenly stopped firing, as if some force had stopped its attack. The trench pilgrims looked up, their eyes filled with disbelief.

"Is this...is this a miracle?" Sergeant Valentine whispered, his voice full of awe.

At this moment, the world's focus is on him.

PS: 100 recommendation votes for the next 4k update...

Flames Rising: 1914: I believe everyone can guess the official female lead, right?

Of course, that's Luce, the mascot launched by our beloved Pope! But everyone knows that the style of the church in this world view is definitely a little crazy, so - quack! You crazy woman! Kill the devil violently!

Different worlds, same luce:

Updates will be posted in the evening.

Asking for a wave of recommendation votes...

Without the recommendation votes, Bei Zhai has no motivation to update.

Piaopiao meow (. 9 Ni: slip art? - sanliu....

Rising Flames: 1914: Chapter 8: The Legendary Burn-Resistant King

Gogogogogogogo (battlefield description with unknown meaning)

Smoke billowed across the battlefield, and the twisted remains of the shrine's hermit were still oozing black oil. When Neos stumbled out of the trench, his mud-covered appearance made all the pilgrims gasp.

The flickering blue light in his hand was devouring the twisted metal of the Hell Tank at a speed visible to the naked eye. The Hell Tank, whose turret was smashed into the vehicle's hull by the Shrine Hermit, quickly collapsed like a snowman exposed to the sun, and the barely recognizable shape of a tank was completely transformed into a pile of scrap metal.

Although the fallen shrine hermit was not greatly affected, its huge diamond Catherine wheel suddenly fell and broke into several pieces on the ground.

The few heretic soldiers left on the battlefield lost their will to fight after seeing the war machines made of the power of hell being easily destroyed by the divine power of the saints. The angry pilgrims, under the restraint of the priests accompanying the army, tied up the heretic soldiers and escorted them to the ruins of the hermit shrine.

PS: Even modern technology cannot produce diamonds weighing several tons at a time. The units of industrial manufacturing are grams, and the fact that this world can produce a wheel made of pure diamonds must have some supernatural power mixed in.