**Chapter 713: The Plague of Destruction**
Under the moonlight, in a desolate corner of Busairite, the scene was absolutely chaotic. Once serene sandy dunes were now reflecting countless shards of broken crystals, lit up by the starlight above. Those crystal-like sand dunes, once melted and solidified by extreme heat, had shattered into tiny pieces in the aftermath of cannon fire, mixing with the vast desert sand to create a spectacular and bizarre landscape.
In the center of this crystalline desert was a gigantic pit, nearly a thousand meters in diameter and three to four hundred meters deep. The sand in this area, mingled with transparent crystal fragments, was pouring down into the deep pit like quicksand. The bottom and walls of the pit were streaked with bright red marks, where rocks had melted into molten forms from artillery shells but hadn’t had time to cool. The entire interior of the pit was still shrouded in sweltering heat.
High above, several thousand meters up in the air, the Church’s Holy Steel Ship, the Exterminator Nun, had ceased fire and was quietly hovering. White smoke was still wafting from the many cannons pointing downward, as if to testify to the destruction unleashed below.
“In such a short time, even just using auxiliary weaponry caused this level of destruction… Is this the Church’s cutting-edge war machine? Such firepower is truly impressive…” Dorothy couldn’t help but marvel as she utilized a zombie puppet to observe the scene above.
She had witnessed the destructive capabilities of the Church’s Red Tier in direct combat—especially that of the Heavenly Fire Saints. Although powerful, they paled in comparison to Evi’s recent display; in terms of pure destructive capability, Evi was several times stronger than an ordinary Heavenly Fire Saint. The combat capabilities of the Holy Steel Ship far surpassed typical Red Tier abilities.
While Amayaba’s abilities were indeed extraordinary enough, they were nothing in front of the Holy Steel Ship. Engaging in a direct confrontation was out of the question. Had it not been for the Plague Route’s overly stealthy abilities and its strong escape skills, plus the fact that its mission was limited to capture and extermination, Evi wouldn’t have needed Dorothy’s help to deal with Amayaba.
“Truly, the largest force in the world has such powerful war machines beyond just conventional extraordinary beings. I wonder how many of these Holy Steel Ships the Church has… For Amanda to specifically send one to escort Vania on her promotion, that’s quite the gesture…”
Dorothy thought, feeling a tinge of envy as she gazed at Evi’s incredible firepower. However, these thoughts were impractical at the current stage, so she refocused her attention on her present task.
That task was to catch the weakened Amayaba, cornered and out of options. At that moment, several cloaked zombies had landed on the ground, and Dorothy extended her manifested spiritual threads through them. Using a few remaining worms clinging to life in remote crevices as a springboard, she reached over five hundred meters deep underground and tightly controlled the last escape worm of Amayaba.
After most of her insect swarm was destroyed, Amayaba was in a state of absolute weakness and could barely resist Dorothy’s control. It didn’t take long for her to subdue it completely.
Just then, Evi’s projection suddenly materialized in the desert, appearing beside the zombie puppets under Dorothy’s command. Looking at those few mysterious individuals who had aided her in earlier battles, Evi spoke directly.
“How is it going?”
“We’ve subdued her and are now controlling her to dig her way up. Just a moment…” one of the zombie puppets replied.
After receiving this response, Evi fell silent, allowing her projection to wait quietly.
Finally, a few minutes later, the sand mixed with crystal fragments heaved, and a large worm crawled out after the mound burst open.
This worm was about half a meter long, its body covered in a shell, with its head seamlessly merged with its body. It had scorpion-like appendages and a pair of drill-like pincers, making it obvious that it was excellent at burrowing.
“Here it comes…”
As the massive worm emerged from the sand, one of Dorothy’s zombies remarked casually. Evi, upon hearing this, began to carefully observe the massive worm. It appeared calm and compliant, trembling slightly yet showing no signs of hostility.
“Is it really possible to directly control a living being with spiritual threads? That’s interesting… You managed to draw out a worm hiding that deep! The control ability of ‘Enlightenment’ seems to have some similarities with the soul-binding nature of ‘Silence’…”
Evi assessed while noting Amayaba’s worm quivering occasionally, curious about its condition.
“It’s still trembling, is that a sign of resistance? Can’t you completely suppress it?”
“Yes, it hasn’t fully given up resisting yet, still fighting against our control. If we slacken our grip even a bit, it will break free instantly,” one of the zombie puppets reported to Evi. After he finished speaking, another puppet chimed in.
“It’s not that we can’t fully suppress it at this stage; this creature has a persistent force from outside helping it. It’s currently experiencing an influx of foreign spiritual energy that doesn’t belong to it, allowing it to recover quickly and fight against our control.”
“An endless supply of external energy…” Evi frowned slightly at the revelation, realizing this could be why Amayaba had demonstrated extraordinary combat power during the previous battle.
“If it’s continuously supported by external energy, won’t it quickly reach a point beyond your control?” Evi speculated, and the zombie puppet nodded in agreement.
“Exactly, it’s recovering rapidly, and soon we’ll find it hard to keep it subdued… But that’s okay; we have ways to handle it.”
Dorothy instructed and then directed the worm’s actions, commanding it to claw off all its other limbs with its massive pincers and strip away a large portion of its own body. After the worm screamed in agony and completed the task, Dorothy instructed it to roll aside in pain.
Next, she had the other zombies move away before throwing a church grenade onto the ground where the meat and limbs were discarded. The grenade erupted in a strong blaze, incinerating the writhing mass of worm flesh. After this was done, Dorothy felt Amayaba’s resistance decrease significantly.
“Just like that, as long as we keep stripping away this creature’s flesh and causing it damage, the external spiritual support will only be able to respond to the latest damage,” one zombie remarked. Dorothy then turned to Evi, continuing the explanation.
“We don’t have many means for direct damage on our side, so it’s up to you to handle its recovery. Your supply of spiritual energy and weaponry should still be sufficient, right?”
Listening to the zombies, Evi expressed her interest as she observed Amayaba, which was still struggling but rapidly healing, responding, “I can manage that… I’ll let it dangle from the bottom of my ship and keep burning it. Perfectly, we also need ways to pry info from it—this will serve as a kind of interrogation… Its strong recovery makes it convenient for me to push hard during questioning…”
Evi made it clear that she had enough ammunition stored to slowly wear down Amayaba. Their ultimate goal was to extract information about the Plague of Destruction from it, and having a stronger life force could make the questioning methods more effective, without much concern about accidentally killing it.
After that, the zombie puppets joined in on the interrogation of Amayaba. Dorothy wanted to see if she could accumulate profiling progress through this forced “communication” method. If they could collect enough information over an extended period of questioning, Dorothy believed it wouldn’t be a problem to extract something eventually, as she was determined to profile Amayaba someday.
As Dorothy and Evi discussed the handling of Amayaba, the latter overheard their conversation and began to struggle more violently, frantically waving its severed limbs and emitting a piercing sound.
Although the sounds from Amayaba were far from resembling human speech, they still conveyed a heartrending quality, like a wail, like a cry for help. This haunting scream echoed into the distance, reaching places it shouldn’t reach.
In the oasis of Bastis, countless refugees, still shaken from the recent earthquake, stood in the night sky, gazing toward the direction of the distant booming sounds as they prayed fervently.
At that moment, atop a small hill in the oasis, a shadow clothed in black nun attire stood, joining the refugees as they looked toward the same horizon.
She was the nun who called herself Feith.
“A temple-class Holy Steel Ship, huh… They really value that little nun, Olivia…” Feith murmured, her words floating between existence and absence. After pondering for a moment, she continued, “Vania Chafron, let me see how much foundation the Church and that ancient legacy have prepared for you… Since you truly wish to resolve this plague, I shall allow you to face it directly…”
With that, Feith slightly closed her eyes, and upon opening them again, they glimmered with an eerie green-red light.
“Now, I hand over the entire chain of HU3 Holy Plague to you, along with my blessing. Amayaba, draw upon the lives of three million people and present the trials to the holy light’s new era…”
Feith continued to whisper, smiling as she fell silent. Amid this silence, a massive change was quietly brewing.
…
“——!!!!!!!!”
In the distant desert, the once feeble Amayaba worm suddenly erupted in a shrill, piercing scream, sharp enough to shatter eardrums, resonating loudly in the night sky, sending alert signals to Evi and Dorothy.
“What’s happening?”
“Be careful! There’s an overwhelming spiritual response from that worm’s body all of a sudden!” Vania, still kneeling and praying in the Church’s chapel aboard the ship, suddenly opened her eyes wide in panic and shouted. Just as Vania finished speaking, Dorothy felt an overwhelming force breaking through her control over Amayaba.
“What…”
Dorothy’s eyes widened as she sensed the external spiritual energy flow within Amayaba spike to several dozen times its previous level—turning from a tiny trickle to the scale of a fire hose. The powerful energy gave Amayaba a surge of vitality, and Dorothy found it increasingly difficult to maintain control.
Under the influx of powerful energy, Amayaba’s body began to transform dramatically, rapidly expanding. Its once solid and thick shell burst open, exposing the rapidly growing, plump white flesh beneath. Like an inflating balloon, Amayaba ballooned in size, quickly becoming larger than several people combined.
In that moment, Dorothy felt an explosive increase in the energy flow within Amayaba, nearing a release threshold. With such a colossal influx, Amayaba’s resistance levels soared. Faced with escalating control costs, Dorothy was forced to abandon her grasp, retracting her spiritual threads.
“The external energy injected into this creature has suddenly increased dramatically! It’s beyond our control now!” one of the zombies informed, concurrently propelling grenades towards the rapidly expanding Amayaba. The grenades exploded around Amayaba, engulfing it in flames.
Yet despite this, Amayaba showed no signs of stopping; still burning, it continued to grow. The swollen white flesh quickly expanded to a size larger than an elephant. Its charred body was swiftly replaced by freshly grown tissue, extinguishing the flames in the process.
“d*mn… this regeneration ability is insane?!” Dorothy thought in shock as she witnessed the scene before her, while Evi’s projection coldly stated, “Fall back.”
Upon hearing Evi’s command, Dorothy swiftly manoeuvred her zombies to retreat. Evi mobilized her iron form in the sky, turning several of her cannons towards the expanding Amayaba and fired two shells.
“Boom!!”
With a tremendous explosion, the massive, spherical Amayaba was hit squarely, launching a tidal wave of debris and sand around the blast zone. Upon noticing Amayaba’s condition deteriorating, Evi decisively opted for heavy bombardment, aiming to eliminate it before the situation worsened.
“Life signs still persist! Moreover, they remain substantial! It’s not dead; it’s still regenerating after sustaining damage!” Vania from the ship’s bio radar relayed, and even Evi couldn’t help but display her surprise upon hearing this.
“What…?”
Evi was astonished that a living being could withstand two of her cannon blasts yet remain alive. However, her actions didn’t stall; more cannons aligned for firing as she continued to bombard below. But before the artillery could strike, a shadow shot out from the smoke, dodging the explosions raining down.
It was a giant worm, over ten meters long, equipped with countless pointed appendages along its sides and a grotesque human face at the front—its visage was unmistakably that of Amayaba. It moved rapidly, propelled by its numerous limbs, yelling maniacally with exaggerated expressions.
“Thank you, Cup Mother! Thank you, Lord! Thank you! Thank you for the power! Thank you for this new life! I won’t let you down! Watch me! I will turn these followers of evil light into sacrifices and present them to you and all esteemed beings!”
Amayaba cried out in a mad frenzy while racing across the sandy ground. In the meantime, Evi was not one to hold back. She aligned numerous cannon barrels at the rapidly-moving creature, unleashing a continuous barrage. As cannon fire rained down, waves of mighty explosions ripped through the ground, shaking the earth and even affecting Amayaba, causing its body to be shredded bit by bit.
Each of Evi’s cannon shots inflicted significant damage to Amayaba. In a single volley, she obliterated a large part of its body. Yet, Amayaba, despite the injuries, rapidly regenerated, growing larger from its initial few meters to over thirty. Evi’s rate of destruction struggled to keep pace with Amayaba’s relentless growth and healing.
The fragments of Amayaba, blasted apart by the shelling, would still wriggle and reconstitute into smaller worms. These smaller worms, in turn, would devour one another to form larger ones, eventually sprouting wings and rejoining their original form.
“I won’t fear you anymore, iron harlot!”
Amayaba declared while escaping, and as its body bloated to over forty meters, clusters of bulging cysts sprouted from its back. With a series of eruptions, these cysts released vast quantities of green bacteria mist, enveloping the entire area.
In one fell swoop, Amayaba unleashed a cloud of rust bacteria mist far exceeding its earlier emissions, transforming the desert into an ocean of green fog. All of Evi’s fired projectiles became ineffective upon entering this expansive sea of mist, turning into duds.
With the physical shells rendered useless, Evi swiftly turned to unleash a torrent of energy projectiles upon Amayaba’s position hidden within the mist. However, the use of purely energy-based attacks weakened the firepower significantly, giving Amayaba the opportunity to recuperate and grow even larger, reaching over fifty meters while continuing to evade attacks.
Amayaba unleashed numerous fat flying insects containing rust bacteria from its body toward Evi’s warship in the sky, while simultaneously sprouting circular launch ports from its back to sh**t sharp, solid projectiles toward her. Although Evi easily repelled the incoming insects and projectiles with close-range defenses, her expression turned grave.
“This creature… is evolving… It’s rapidly enhancing and strengthening using powerful external spiritual energy and some kind of power. It’s going to be difficult to resolve it easily now… Where is it getting all this spiritual energy?”
Suspended in the night sky, Evi spoke with furrowed brows—the zombie puppets nearby offered a response, “I think… the vitality lost by the millions suffering from the Plague of Destruction in Busairite is being funneled directly into it…”
Dorothy articulated, framing her suspicion with direct clarity. At that moment in Bastis, her various zombie puppets bore witness to this grim reality.
Currently, in Bastis, whether among city residents or the refugees outside, nearly all lay collapsed on the ground, moaning in pain.
These plague-stricken victims shared an apparent commonality; upon Amayaba’s eruption, their symptoms intensified considerably, signaling a clear connection between the two.
Dorothy firmly believed that all the plague victims in Bastis, throughout Busairite, and in Northern Ufeiga, had their vitality siphoned away, now directly feeding Amayaba. With millions of souls backing it, killing Amayaba seemed like an insurmountable challenge.
