After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

It seemed as if an angel was falling shakily from the sky, and then began to dive over the airship!

Yang Hao and the others just watched as it swooped down, as it narrowly passed the airship's railing, and as it flew toward the heavy machine gun position set up by the ground soldiers—and then, unsurprisingly, it was stopped by a Golem made of stone and earth.

With a burst of golden light, the golem crumbled into the most basic stones and dirt under the effect of the divine magic. Watching all this, Yang Hao patted Naruja's head, whose eyes were wide open, and said:

“It seems these angels know how to use divine magic—but that makes sense, for clergy, how much divine power they possess is actually irrelevant... They unleash divine magic based on the faith provided by the believers around them... This is a lesson, Naruja.”

"Yes..."

The Ling Clan Chief slumped against the fence, somewhat dejected. Theresa, standing nearby, added seriously, "This is actually partly due to the technical improvements the [God of Light] made when creating the angels—if those angels were truly replicas of golems, they would have already collapsed from divine magic. Why would they continue flying high into the sky to observe after dealing with a golem?"

"In other words, the God of Light is actually quite capable... after all, he's the evil god who created a system of divine arts that manipulates corpses—ah, the followers seem to be rushing into the fire almost entirely. They haven't realized what's happening yet, should we begin?"

The little nun winked at Yang Hao, who then looked around before nodding to the black dragon, who was already prepared.

The black dragon leaped off the fence with a sinister grin, and at that moment, Yang Hao gave his orders to Arthur and the others:

"Disarm us to minimize unnecessary mistakes! Immediately launch the thermobaric bombs along their retreat route. All machine guns, prepare for target practice. This is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to test weapon data. Hurry!"

The invisibility spell on the airship has been dispelled.

Before the believers on the ground, focused on fighting the Golem, could even realize what was happening.

With a loud dragon roar, the black dragon made its grand entrance.

Chapter Four: Light? Theresa?!

With a loud dragon roar, the black dragon made its grand entrance.

The black dragon descended from the sky, crushing the first few fanatical priests and cultists with its claws. The Isgardian, who had had enough of the cultists' dirty and despicable methods, began to gather red dragon breath in its throat almost impatiently.

Nia was disgusted by what she had seen and heard in Roman—she had thought that only a very small minority of people in this country were filthy and despicable! But now it seemed that the problem lay with the vast majority, not just a small minority!

...As expected, Isgard's only need from the Roman Empire was land, not people. Even as slaves, the people here might corrupt their own order; rather than wasting money supporting a bunch of useless scoundrels, it was better to simply seize the land and relocate immigrants from within the country...

In this way, not only will our own magic shortage be alleviated to some extent, but our control over the colonies will also increase year by year... The only problem may be the short-term shortage of manpower... but that's not really a problem at all!

After all, Nia was worried that if the population grew too large, they would need to rely on the United Nations for food trade and supplies before the necessary facilities could be built! But then again, she wondered if the United Nations could sell them some of their golems and small golems...

"...Forget it, let's take care of you bunch of idiots first."

Nia grunted, and then, before the stunned and bewildered army of believers, she hurled the mangled corpse of the priest in her claws at the singing angels. Then, with a roar, she unleashed a torrent of dragon breath onto the fire trap made up of countless fallen trees in front of her.

The black dragon's breath possesses extremely high temperatures. However, given the large area of ​​wood that hadn't dried out internally, her breath only managed to ignite all the wood in the northern section of the fire trap.

The moisture-laden wood was being roasted, emitting white smoke. Countless cracks appeared on the wood, from which milky white bubbles and scorching steam oozed out.

The flames spread in the direction of the steam, and for a moment the northern section of the fire trap was filled with white smoke that blotted out the sky—but Nia felt it wasn't enough.

These disgusting bastards should have just watched their angel get killed!

Nia rose from the ground with a cold laugh, and just as she took flight, the angels of the God of Light pounced. Their longswords gleamed with golden light, appearing as if they intended to cleave Nia in two. The angels chanted passages about punishment from the sacred scriptures of the God of Light as they flew towards Nia.

They launched precise attacks on the black dragon's wings and eyes, but the experienced dragon simply rolled to the left to evade the angels' physical attacks. Accompanied by bursts of golden light and deafening screams from the ground, Nia could clearly see the angels unleashing wave after wave of divine light spells upon her.

but--

"You didn't expect that, did you?! That I, as a black dragon, am practically immune to magic?!"

The golden spears of light struck the membrane of the black dragon's wings. The divine power that was originally invincible was of no use against the black dragon, which was almost immune to magic. To Nia, those spears of light were probably not even as good as a toothpick that happened to prick her tongue!

After all, for the black dragons, neither magic nor divine arts have much effect as long as the amount isn't excessive—clearly, the angels here don't possess that much divine power. This is true even if you include the divine power provided by the believers on earth.

"Why don't you fucking send that God of Light himself over here?!"

The black dragon roared and insulted the existence that the followers of the God of Light believed in. Then she suddenly swooped down on one of the angels, but before her claws could even touch the angel, the pressure from the black dragon's swooping down shattered the angel into pieces.

What's going on? What happened?

Nia was a little confused. But just then, she suddenly saw several flashes of light appear from the machine gun position in the distance...

The whistling of bullets came from above. It felt as if a bucket of hot water had been poured over her head—the Black Dragon rolled to the side without hesitation, and the angel who had missed her target was completely caught in the machine gun fire and torn to pieces.

"I owe you guys!" Nia shouted at the machine gun emplacement. "I'll treat you to drinks when we get back—hey?! Hurry up and shoot those cultists! Don't just focus on shooting the angels, angels are worthless, really worthless!"

Nia's sarcasm would surely make every clergy member who heard her speak grit their teeth.

But for the believers trapped deep in the fire pit, no matter how firm their faith, they would still be filled with fear of the flames as the fire closed in on them.

For most living beings, raging fire is the best tranquilizer. Most people don't have the courage to face raging fire, let alone the fanatical followers of the Church of Light, who abhor burning at the stake and cremating corpses.

Faced with the raging fire, they lost their composure. They began searching through the thick smoke for a path that wasn't blocked by the fire, but in the end, they found few paths and many people were trampled to death.

Finally, someone said there was still room to escape on both sides of the fire—but for most people, the sides were far too far away! They had no ability to move through the crowd to the east or west, and even if they could, they couldn't withstand the speed at which the flames were closing in!

Not to mention, the machine gun positions of the United Nations in the distance also began firing at the dense crowd! Under the threat of death and amidst the hail of bullets, the believers turned around with contorted faces, preparing to retreat directly to their rear.

Their courage had crumbled, and their faith was worthless in the face of death.

Even the angels were at a disadvantage in their battle with the black dragon, and the priests were wiped out in the very first shot—under such circumstances, who could guarantee that they would be guided to heaven by angels after death, instead of being burned to ashes by the black dragon? They would even have their own bodies burned to ashes! Under such circumstances, they had absolutely no chance of entering heaven!

They collapsed. The collapsing army naturally began to retreat in the direction they had come from, but just then, two thermobaric bombs launched from a floating ship suddenly appearing from the United Nations blocked their escape route...

Those believers who were closer to the back of the fire were still looking at the things falling from the sky with blank expressions.

They couldn't understand where these things came from—but after looking in the direction they came from, they saw a floating ship gradually taking shape, suspended in mid-air.

"It's the devil's ship! The devil has come to harm us, to harm our country!" the believers screamed in despair, "Devil! Devil! Devil!"

They hurled insults at everyone on the ship, and they ran faster than anyone else, but no one paid any attention to the two thermobaric bombs that were getting closer and closer to the ground.

The thermobaric bomb exploded the instant it hit the ground and killed two believers who couldn't get out of the way. Mr. Joseph, who had placed great hopes on it, had developed the thermobaric bomb.

At first, it was a fireball that suddenly appeared.

Under the scorching heat of the fireball with a radius of over 500 meters, all creatures within its range let out mournful howls. Because although the fireball was hot, it did not have the ability to kill people in a short time. Therefore, Yang Hao and the others on the airship, as well as the black dragon fighting with the angel in the air, could clearly see countless figures dancing in the fireball. After they were stuck together with others and fell to the ground, they continued to struggle.

Accompanied by hoarse screams from within the fireball and the terrified retreat of the remaining believers, the thermobaric bomb entered its second phase—the phase of absorbing oxygen and then exploding directly.

Thanks to Dr. Joseph's improvements, his thermobaric bomb has acquired new functions.

After the first phase of the fireball, the runes inside the thermobaric bomb will activate again, drawing in the surrounding air and causing a more intense combustion reaction. Then, it will forcefully push the burning air outwards.

In this way, not only will the area inside the blast radius of the thermobaric bomb become an oxygen-free space where the oxygen has been burned off, but the high-temperature oxygen pushed out outside the blast radius will also ignite all flammable materials on the road.

In the context of a fire trap, aside from a very small number of lucky individuals who were unaffected or only slightly affected, everyone else was forced back to the center of the fire by the scorching air propelled by the thermobaric explosion. They huddled together, unable to move forward or backward, screaming desperately amidst the smoke and intense heat, all trying to grasp at the last shred of possibility of escape. And it was at this moment that the machine guns on the airship opened fire.

"Don't get too close! There are so many people there, even if we fire a missile, it could hit a lot of them. Let's try to fire from a distance! We need to test the accuracy of our aerial weapons!" Yang Hao was busy directing operations on the deck. "Fire little by little from the edge inwards! One step at a time!"

For the believers trapped in the fire, they were doomed. Yang Hao was naturally happy to use their lives to obtain more weapons for testing, after all, he didn't intend to leave a group of robbers to wreak havoc in his two important mining areas in the future.

For the gunners operating the machine guns, it was their first time launching projectiles from an unstable aerial platform like a floating ship—they were about 200 meters above the ground. At this height, looking at the densely packed crowds in the distant fire and firing at them, they always found that the shells landed closer than they had imagined.

We need better sights!

An elf operator muttered this as he watched the shell he fired land about ten meters away from the fire.

"Furthermore, when firing at the ground from high altitude, we might need to refer to the lead of arrows... And it would be even better if these shells had a tracer effect like rockets! Mr. Arthur?! Can you hurry up?!"

"Even eating should be done one bite at a time! Can't you bunch of beasts just—wait?! How come I didn't think of that?! Why don't we just load thermobaric bombs into artillery and fire them? Wouldn't that allow them to travel farther?!"

"But weren't we talking about machine guns?!"

The elves exchanged glances, but their skills didn't falter in the slightest. They relentlessly blasted the rain of death towards the cultists, while Arthur's sister-in-law calculated the rate at which the machine gun shells were being depleted at the warehouse entrance.

Three minutes later—

"We only have about a minute's worth of shells left for continuous firing!" Hydra shouted to Yang Hao and the others. "The heavy machine guns haven't run out of ammunition yet, but the machine guns are almost out of ammunition! Have we achieved enough results yet?"

“That’s enough.” Yang Hao nodded, holding the wrist of the little nun who was anxiously watching the mess before her. He reassured her while signaling to Finn that the mages could begin their work. “They can’t escape the fire trap—but our ammunition reserves are almost depleted… This was a meaningful weapons test; we can eliminate them now.”

"So, we still have to use magic to finish them off?" Finn glanced at the believers who were being gradually forced into a corner by the flames. "Why can't we just use machine guns?"

"Because we need to keep some shells in case of emergency."

"I understand."

Finn and the archmage chanted incantations, and magic began to gather in their hands. Faced with a group of enemies who were cornered and unable to advance or retreat, they didn't even need to consider the enemies' possible movements; they just needed to unleash all their magic on them.

For the more than 20,000 followers who had risen to power, they were surrounded by overwhelming and relentlessly pressing crowds. Some had already fainted from the pervasive smoke. They were suffering terribly from the high temperature and steam, and their last hope lay with the angels who were battling the black dragon.

"God! Our God! Please give us the courage to escape from this place!" The believers knelt on the ground, praying that the God of Light would show his power for his followers. "Please let us escape from this place, please let us complete the divine revelation! We don't want to die, we don't want to die!"

Their prayers momentarily drowned out the crackling of the flames. More and more believers succumbed to the heat of the fire, and more and more were forced into a corner by the flames, whereupon they could only drag out their comrades and seize their former positions.

The God of Light they prayed to responded, but even Yang Hao found the response to be outrageous.

Then, the angels who were battling the black dragon were suddenly radiated with countless golden lights. Just when the believers thought they were saved, the angels, now rejuvenated and powerful, fled towards St. Petersburg before everyone's eyes.

They ran away?!

The black dragon stared in disbelief, while the army of believers on the ground experienced the despair of falling from hope to hell once again. They had thought that the angels, having gained the power of the God of Light, would save them from their suffering—but they never imagined that the first thing the angels did after regaining their power would be to flee?!

"God! Why did you deceive us!"

The believers screamed in despair. Their faith collapsed so quickly, their hysteria filled with anger at God and pain over their own beliefs. Yang Hao, on the airship, felt the same way and nodded repeatedly.

"If Teresa had saved me and then sold me, perhaps I would have ended up like them."

His remark caused the pale-faced nun to roll her eyes, and almost made Finn, who was casting a spell, cough—after all, Finn had actually intended to have the nun hand Yang Hao over to Gaparia through a transaction...

Thankfully, Theresa didn't agree. Thankfully, Theresa really didn't agree.

Relaxed by Finn's words, Teresa turned around and pinched Yang Hao's cheek, saying, "Anyone might betray you, but I won't." She looked directly into Yang Hao's eyes, but then shyly lowered her face first.

And it was at this moment that the elves unleashed their magic.

Amidst the believers' incessant curses against the God of Light and their desperate pleas for forgiveness from their enemies, vines rising from the ground, laden with flames, bound them completely to death in the center of the inferno.

The burning vines will kill them; they will die pitifully, cursing the god of light and pleading with their own side—but before that, Finn still has a question...

“What should we do about those angels?” She pointed at the angels who were dodging the black dragon’s attacks. “After gaining new power, those angels seem to be planning to run away… Wait, aren’t they like golems? Their escape means the God of Light wants to run away?”

After gaining new power, the angels did not choose to help the believers who were doomed beneath their feet, but instead began to try to escape the black dragon's attacks.

It can't be said that the angels' efforts were futile; at least the black dragon seemed somewhat exasperated after each of its attacks was dodged. Now, the question for Yang Hao and the others was whether to let the angels escape or to find a way to deal with them.

Yang Hao's answer is—

"Perhaps? We don't care if we capture them or break their wings. All we need to do is study the principles behind the divine power emanating from these angels."

Capture these angels, and then find a way to study the power of the God of Light.

Driven by this idea, the airship began to move towards the direction where the angels and the black dragon were locked in battle. Theresa, muttering "What a nuisance," stood at the very front of Class A. This little nun, who hadn't done much from the beginning, finally had her chance to shine. Silver-white light emanated from her hands; if all went well, Theresa could use the genuine, orthodox power of light to dispel the false power of the God of Light.

In other words, she could destroy the God of Light's control over the angels—or at the very least, ensure their capture. But before that, she had to get close enough... and avoid being attacked by the angels.