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

"Communication?" Neos, who had been listening silently, finally spoke, his voice full of inquiry. "You said... they were even forced to appear on the front lines?"

"Yes, Saint." The Witch Hunter General nodded slightly. "Although their language isn't any of the common languages ​​we're familiar with, either human or Hell, it's a communication method... more akin to pheromones and complex vibrational frequencies. Our New Antiochian tech-priests and some special psykers have successfully deciphered some of their messages. They possess a clear sense of self and a complex social structure."

"Were they really once human?" "Yes, because I have personally executed several civilians who were infected by the eggs they released."

He paused, as if recalling something, then spoke in a deeper voice, "According to the intelligence we've intercepted and deciphered, the beings worshipped and worshipped by the Church of Transfiguration are far older than the seven Hell Lords we know of today, or even Christ himself. They can almost be considered an outlier among the forces of Hell... a fringe sect not fully accepted by the mainstream demons of Hell, yet able to exist due to their uniqueness."

There was silence in the conference hall, and everyone was shocked by this unprecedented information.

"This Church of the Transfiguration," Neos demanded, "what is their purpose?"

The Witch Hunter General shook her head. "No one knows for sure what they ultimately want. But one thing is clear—they display an almost pathological, fanatical worship and thirst for 'knowledge.'"

"Knowledge?" A European Association official quickly recorded his words.

"Yes, any form of knowledge," the general affirmed, "whether it's sacred texts, profane grimoires, ancient history, emerging technology, or even meaningless graffiti and children's songs, all fall within the scope of their collection and research.

Our reconnaissance teams have repeatedly witnessed them carefully excavating and carrying various stone tablets, parchments, book fragments, and even fragments of weapons inscribed with symbols from the ruins of war. It's as if they are undergoing some kind of 'evolution' or 'pilgrimage' beyond our comprehension through this endless collection, organization, understanding, and storage of all kinds of knowledge, as if... as if through this method, they can eventually ascend to godhood.

As the witch hunter general finished speaking, the entire command center fell into a deeper silence. A hellish sect dedicated to collecting and understanding all knowledge, a strange being that could communicate and seemed not to be keen on killing...

"Very good. I now have two questions. First - does God's power have any effect on them? Does my power have any effect on them?"

Neos hoped to rule out the possibility that this sect worshipped a native human deity.

"Yes, but not much. As for whether your power is effective, Saint—there are currently no relevant reports from our front lines, but from what we understand, their bodies are much more fragile than their souls."

"Well, second question—can they be killed by a gun? I mean, the soul will die along with the body."

"Yes, if their faith causes their bodies to become deformed and chrysalis, their souls twisted, their skins cocooned and their bodies deformed. Some nuns would have their brains spilled out by a single shotgun blast if they didn't cast spells of protection."

"What are you waiting for? I'm very interested in their god!" Neos made a decision.

"elbow!"

PS: So far, the official has only released a few short stories and pictures related to the Church of Transfiguration. In addition to the Church of Transfiguration, which is not even in the rule book, the forces of Hell also have a faction called "Way of Beasts". The young form of the Beast King created by the Way of Beasts destroyed the city of Antioch, and the new Antioch was rebuilt on the ruins of the old city.

PS2: Refresh after five minutes, and you will see several pictures of units in the Transformed Church. In the end, the six-winged pupa angel killed the Paladin Dominicana in the setting.

Red Tide: 1921: The only information about the Transfiguration Church that has appeared so far

constantinople

This ancient capital, a bridge between the East and the West, has long since lost its former glory under the iron hoof of hell. Within its walls, the ancient Monastery of St. Venditus has now changed its gates.

As the first converts, those who succumbed to the teachings of the Black Grail Order and rose from the dead, flocked to the front lines of New Antioch, a new force quietly occupied this war-torn holy land.

They are the Church of the Transfiguration.

They used a mixture of local soil, gravel, and their own sticky saliva to repair the monastery's towers that were broken in previous battles and its walls that were collapsed by artillery shells.

This restoration, rather than construction, is a biological "nesting" transformation. Under their "renovation," the monastery's originally sacred geometric lines began to take on a disturbing, non-Euclidean distortion.

Soon, the monastery's churches and once-silent corridors began to echo day and night with a new "chants" - a continuous buzzing, sharp clicking, and rustling of membranous wings made by countless insect-like monks, and occasionally interspersed with broken spells that were forcibly compressed into prayers, like the sound of crushed bones.

A huge and terrifying "Doorway" (official text) was dragged here from their home monastery on the Upside-Down Mountain in Hell, and was finally erected in the center of the long-desecrated cathedral of the Monastery of St. Venditus.

The portal is less a physical entity than a shifting rift. The brothers and sisters of the Transfiguration Church—if that term can still be used—gather regularly there, their countless, multifaceted compound eyes gazing upon the eternal, nameless horrors unfolding within, from distant worlds or the depths of the Warp.

The pungent smell of stale parchment and specially crafted ink filled the scriptorium. A newborn acolyte of the membranes stumbled in. Its lower body was a bloated, segmented abdomen like a giant beetle, supported by dozens of pairs of tiny, sharp limbs. As it walked, it made a teeth-grinding "crackling" sound.

Its upper body still vaguely retained some human outlines, but it was more like a poor imitation, with a layer of translucent, fetal membrane-like slimy tissue covering the twisted muscles and exposed bones.

On the shapeless body's head and back hung a few tattered wisps of skin that were clearly human. These were the last traces of it that had not been completely shed after it had recently undergone "reshaping" - a terrible ritual that completely transformed the inner flesh and blood of a human into the form required by the sect.

In the scriptorium, many of its equally bizarre "brothers and sisters" were bent over a huge stone table, using their fingers or mandibles, which were specialized like insect mouthparts, to write furiously on a special parchment tanned from the skin of voluntary sacrifices.

What they write are propaganda articles of the Transfiguration Church, as well as some "revelations" they have spied from portals, which are intended to pollute and transform the minds of hellish creatures/humans, and these will be distributed throughout the provinces controlled by the heresy.

PS: Yes, the Transfiguration Church's mission is not limited to humans, but also preaches to the creatures of Hell, transforming them into insect forms.

At its mentor's beckoning, the newly born acolyte of the membranes came to an empty stone table. It lowered its head and dipped its chin into the inkwell. Then, it began to quickly sketch on the new parchment.

It had just "seen" some new signs and omens in the portal, and these transcendental perceptions were now being transformed into symbols through its appendages. These symbols were not simple words, but contained some kind of active memetic virus capable of self-replication and dissemination.

Any mortal who dares to read these parchments will have his or her brain unknowingly infected by these symbols, planting the seeds of "transformation", and eventually, in madness and distortion, become the new "material" of the Transfiguration Church.

PS: Bei Zhai couldn't hold back after seeing this setting. No matter whether it is human or hell creature, they will be infected and transformed as long as they see it. It's too supermodel.

Deep beneath the monastery, in the crisscrossing temples and cells dug directly out of the solid rock, another more direct work was underway.

Several "Transcendent Chrysalis Sisters" were surrounding a humanoid figure suspended in mid-air by chains. These Chrysalis Sisters were even more advanced than the Acolytes of the Membranes. They had almost completely abandoned their human form, transforming into giant, upright silkworm-like creatures, each two meters tall.

Their bloated bodies were covered in a pulsating, translucent white membrane, through which the complex organs and nerve cords within were faintly visible. Their heads were completely covered by this membrane, forming a smooth, featureless sphere, with only a few slender sensory organs, like insect antennae, trembling slightly.

Surrounded by them was a captured Crusader general. He belonged to a legion that had recently arrived at the trenches outside New Antioch. The general was covered in blood, his mouth a blur. It was clear that upon his capture, he had bitten off his tongue with incredible determination to prevent the Transfiguration Church from extracting any information through torture.

But these chrysalis nuns have no need for speech. In fact, their heads, completely covered by membranes, lack any hearing. They are diviners skilled in vivisection.

At that moment, they were using appendages as precise as scalpels to carefully and slowly pry open the general's skull. Their movements were gentle and focused. Once the skull was completely removed, they would use their specialized sensory tentacles to directly penetrate the still-pulsating brain, carefully "reading" and recording every coil and neuronal connection in the cerebral cortex, extracting all the information they could about the defense deployment of New Antioch, the deployment of troops, the focus of firepower, and even the commander's personality weaknesses.

Elsewhere in the monastery, in a larger, more central incubation chamber, a comparatively "petite" abbot prostrated herself before the "Mother Abbess." The Mother Abbess's form completely transcended any known biological boundaries, more like a living factory haphazardly constructed from countless proliferating tumors, shells, mucus glands, and reproductive organs. At this moment, her caldera-like reproductive sac continuously and rhythmically excreted piles of sticky, sweet-smelling insect eggs.

PS: The design drawings of the Mother Abbess and the Abbess have not been released yet. Bei Zhai speculates that their appearance should be similar to that of a termite queen.

Day and night, the little abbot supervised a group of lower-level "prayerers" with extremely short life cycles. These prayerers were like worker ants, using their knife-like mouthparts to carve runes on the soft eggshells, thereby "fertilizing" the eggs and infusing them with the will of the Transfiguration Church.

These "consecrated" eggs are then carefully packed into specially constructed crates and transported to an abandoned flying field south of the monastery, where they have already been taken over. There, the eggs are attached to captured and modified pigeons. These cursed carrier pigeons, like messengers of plague, will fly over New Antioch, scattering the eggs throughout the city.

Every now and then, out of the thousand tiny maggots that burst from these eggs, only one is lucky enough to find a "willing" host with a sufficiently fragile mind or a sufficiently compatible body.

But, just one is enough.

Through the eyes of this parasitic victim, the "prophets" hidden in the deepest part of the monastery and wrapped in a huge mucus cocoon (they may be the final form of "church monks", motionless, with only their brains working frantically) can personally experience the scene, search and understand every weakness in the city of New Antioch.

However, all these seemingly busy and evil activities - whether it is the spread of polluted propaganda, cruel living intelligence gathering, or large-scale biological infiltration, for the core members of the Transfiguration Church, are merely "trivial tasks" that they have to perform in order to maintain necessary isolation from other more warlike and chaotic Hell Cults and avoid excessive interference from them.

They have never been an order bent on outright conquest and destruction.

Founded for the sole purpose of monitoring and studying the mysterious artifact known as the "Gateway," brought from the depths of Hell, they dedicate their lives to studying "things beyond" that transcend human understanding, even beyond the boundaries of Hell and Heaven themselves.

In their teachings, there is no fate more glorious than to be completely "emptied" by the visions that peek through the "portal."

When a member's soul is completely distorted by indescribable knowledge and visions and expands to the point where no material body can contain even one ten-thousandth of it, its life reaches the pinnacle of "sublimation".

PS: What does Bei Zhai understand by Qun Er 1鏾污前端锍鏾II mean "explosion of knowledge"?

The hollow, unconscious husks left behind by those "transcendents" after their ascension are carefully stored as the most sacred relics in the monastery's deepest library. Their shimmering, strangely radiant shells are devoured bit by bit, reverently, by those in their "chrysalis" stage, guided by their mentors, to help them better understand and endure the "transformation" they are undergoing.

Other Hell Cults often mocked the members of the Transfiguration Church for being too immersed in those vague thoughts and indifferent to the actual interests of the outside world. They even ridiculed them as nerds and freaks who only knew how to nitpick and nitpick.

What outsiders perceive as endless, meaningless noise and chatter—those hums, clicks, and crushed spells—is actually a constantly flowing, self-reorganizing, and optimizing system of knowledge. Once broken down into its smallest constituent elements in their own unique way, this system can organize and coordinate the entire Hell war machine in a way that mortals, even ordinary demons, cannot comprehend, down to the precise timing of every attack, the deployment of every resource, and even the ultimate destination of every soul.

PS: Does it feel like a biological computer version of artificial intelligence?

Bit by bit, seemingly unrelated fragments of knowledge were constantly collected, analyzed, and then slowly but surely pieced together within the Transfiguration Church. They were all preparing for that fateful day—

On that day, the "portal" will be completely opened, and true "sublimation" will come like a tide, illuminating all those things in this universe that were once considered "completely meaningless" with its absolute light that transcends all logic and rationality.

Crimson Tide: 1921: Chapter 93 We Walked into Hell with Both Feet!

Kyiv, Russian Empire

According to intelligence from the New Antioch, the Church of the Transfiguration's headquarters on earth was in Constantinople, which had long since fallen.

After the Principality of Antioch was completely destroyed by the Young Beast King in 1545, the heretics continued their northward advance, forcing the Byzantine Empire into retreat and the loss of the Apennine Peninsula. Finally, in 1562, another sect of Hell, the Way of the Beast, unleashed the Young Beast King once again to destroy this most important bastion of the East.

Even as a juvenile, this behemoth looked almost like a mountain, and it was hard to imagine how powerful it would be as an adult - fortunately, human history only gave heretics one chance to give birth to such a behemoth.

The Crusaders sent a Paladin to fight a decisive battle here, and ended up killing it with the Paladin and the young Beast King dying together.

After the Beast King was slain, the Transfiguration Church took over from the Beast Path and continued their assault on Constantinople, where most of the city had been reduced to ruins. This was their first direct appearance on the battlefield, intent on capturing the bodies of the fallen Paladins and studying their knowledge. Without their Paladins, the Crusaders' fighting spirit had reached its limit, and they began a slow retreat, carrying the bodies with them.

However, the Church of the Transfiguration, through unknown means, had been able to monitor the location of the Paladin's corpse and continuously dispatched large numbers of birds and beasts carrying insect eggs and plague to release the plague from high altitudes beyond the range of arrows, hindering the Crusaders' retreat. The desperate commander, constantly hunted, couldn't understand why his coordinates were constantly being leaked despite his team being filled with loyal fanatics - had humanity been abandoned by God?

The desperate Crusader commander finally decided to destroy the Paladin's body. He poured the propellant and holy oil in the cannon on the Paladin's body, blowing it to pieces.

He then ordered his adjutant to take over his post, and then, with a guilty heart, he rushed to the front line shouting the name of Christ, launching a lone charge against the heretics in the name of God.

Suicide is considered blasphemous in Christianity, but martyrdom for the name of Christ is the highest honor.

It wasn't until over a hundred years later that the Crusaders in New Antioch discovered that the insect eggs released by the Church of Transfiguration could transform their victims into the "eyes" of the nuns. The commander, whose stigma was cleared, was posthumously canonized as a saint by the Pope.

After the destruction of Constantinople, the Path of the Beast, suffering heavy losses, made a request to the Seven-Headed Serpent Court. To appease the sect's members, the Seven-Headed Serpent Court decided to grant the sacred fortress to the Path of the Beast as their own property. At the same time, to curb the Path of the Beast, the Church of the Transfiguration also obtained nearly one-fifth of Constantinople's land.

In 1573, the Order of the Holy Dragon stopped the heresy after the fall of Byzantium, and one million heretics were crucified in the mountains of Wallachia in Romania.

(Walachia is a region in Romania in the current worldline. In the Middle Ages, Wallachia was a principality. In the mid-15th century, its ruler was the famous Vlad III the Impaler.)

Bad news continued to come. In 1595, the city wall of the new Principality of Antioch was completed. This frontline fortress, which had withstood more than three hundred years of war, was reborn on the ruins of the old city. The Seven-Headed Hydra Royal Court had to transfer more troops back to the Arabian Peninsula to destroy the fortress again.

Then the heretics were slapped hard in the face by the united soldiers and civilians of New Antioch. Facts proved that in the era of cold weapons, the defenders did have more advantages than the attackers.

The Royal Court, suffering heavy losses from its main forces, granted more land to appease other sects, allowing the Way of the Beast and the Church of Transfiguration to transfer troops from Hell to the front lines to defend their fiefdoms "too close to the front lines." Within this complex political landscape, the jockeying for power among various factions left Constantinople's armed forces very limited.

This gave the Crusaders their opportunity.

There were two directions for a surprise attack on Constantinople. One was to take off from Ukraine in the north, cross the Black Sea, and land on Mount Ararat (part of the Kocaeli Mountains) northeast of Constantinople to carry out the mission; the other was to take off from Cyprus Island west of New Antioch, cross the Greek archipelago and the Aegean Sea, pass through the Çanakkale Strait and the Sea of ​​Marmara, and then land on the plains south of Constantinople.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows which direction has a higher chance of success. Now all we need to do is discuss cooperation with those "Orthodox heretics" - uh, they should be Orthodox Christians.

The plan has been initially explained to them. The European Union wants to develop the Americas for bloodsucking, but they must eliminate the heretic submarines. The European Union currently has the heretic's "telegraph machine," but they need experts who can decipher the "code book." Our Crusaders' experts have long been burned, so we can only go to Constantinople to seize the heretic's experts.

"We will take off from Sevastopol, which is within reach of Constantinople. The main force of the Russian Empire's Black Sea Fleet in the Sea of ​​Azov will help us attract the attention of the heretics."

Colin Binges, the head of the European Association's Special Operations Department, said to those present: "The mountains to the north and east of Constantinople are very suitable for us to infiltrate. After the kidnapping, we will evacuate from the north, and our seaplane will meet us on the shore."

"We don't need too many people. We are conducting a special operation this time. We will first airdrop several experienced commandos there and disguise them with their faith. After these commandos arrive near Constantinople and make the corresponding preparations, we will send a commando team to meet them by glider." Neos said on the side.

"We need to select special forces who are good at mountain warfare to complete the task. Here I recommend the Alba Regiment. They are from the Highlands of Scotland and have rich combat experience. Whether it is fighting on the coast, fighting trench warfare in the city, or fighting in the uninhabited area, they are all very good at it," said Dominica.

"So powerful?! Oh my God." Neos was very happy. "How did you come up with the idea of ​​establishing a special operations regiment?"

All the English people present showed embarrassed expressions on their faces.

"Because England's fleet and mobile fortresses only protected their own territory, completely ignoring their northern neighbors, Scotland was constantly harassed by heretics, whose coastline was harassed and whose people were abducted. Scotland had no choice but to send men to the front lines of New Antioch for training, to return and defend their homeland. However, the ships returning to Scotland were often sunk, forcing these soldiers to swim ashore and survive in the occupied areas and uninhabited wilderness, relying on faith and experience to fight."

"So this belief is very firm?" Neos was very impressed and then said:

"Then we'll send the elite scouts of the Alba Regiment to explore the way first. Afterwards, Dominica, I, and several elite soldiers will land and capture the enemy. As for the action plan... let's call it a thunderstorm, with loud thunder and little rain."

Compared to last year, Neos's face had become more weathered. Without the high-quality tobacco from America, he had to smoke low-quality yellow flower tobacco to relieve stress, which made him look even more weathered. After all, he was not the Immortal Emperor.

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

The thunderstorm operation plan will begin soon.

The Dga-15 Owl is a small and flexible single-engine aircraft. Its advantage is that it is equipped with the quiet R-985 "Hornet" engine. The aerodynamic shape of the entire aircraft has been optimized, allowing it to glide in the air and start the engine at any time.

Its radar reflection area is much smaller than that of a normal glider, and the heretic's radar level is much worse than that of the Crusader. Once this plane starts to glide at ultra-low altitude, not only will the radar not be able to see it, even people on the ground may not be able to hear that there is an extra plane above their heads.

Because these features make it very suitable for performing special missions at night, this model of aircraft was named Owl by the Crusaders.

Now, when this plane took off from Ukraine, it was already night time.

On this moonlit night, the moon is bright and the stars are sparse, which is perfect weather for flying!

The cabin is not big and can accommodate five people, including the pilot and four passengers.

Bjorn Erik, a Scotsman, had lived in the Alba region since childhood, a source of recruits for the Alba Legion. This time, in Operation Swallow, he signed up without hesitation and became the captain of the first squad to enter.

The other three men around him were also Scots. After several years of training on the New Antioch front, they had also been transformed by the Church and became full members of the Alba Legion. Now, accompanied by saints and paladins, they would carry out a major mission!

This is the highest honor for any devout Christian!

Eric was very excited. He closed his eyes and thought about his task again. It seemed to be a very simple task to him.