Love, death, and false man

Chapter 60. The Youth of Fireworks
Inside the Emmanuel Monastery.

Inside the main building, in the central hall, cracks in the stained glass dissipate the sunlight, casting spiderweb-like spots of light on the ground, which are filtered out in a scarlet hue by the rose pattern.

The entire central hall seemed to be the iris of a giant eye, with a circular outline, and the shadows between the stone pillars overlapped and split into multiples in an eerie way.

Andy, who had lost one leg, sat in a wheelchair, pondering the phone call he had just received. The number was untraceable and had used satellite encryption technology.

Excluding internal conflicts within the old church, other churches, even if they wanted to seize power and benefits, would not put so much pressure on the Ascetic Order, resulting in the deaths of three people.

Between the Soul Lord and the Salvation Army, prioritizing the latter is like the approach of terrorists. When recruiting soldiers, the Salvation Army often prioritizes those with more extreme ideologies.

Do you need a mirror?

A female believer asked Andy.

During a battle, Andy's left leg was amputated, and he occasionally experienced phantom limb pain. At this time, he needed mirror therapy, which involved reflecting his still-existing right leg in a mirror to trick his brain into believing that his left leg still existed, thus making the extreme phantom pain disappear.

Of course, a figure like the Patriarch is unnecessary. Those who can survive the ascension ritual have, in a sense, transcended the realm of mortals.

However, when making important decisions, one cannot afford to be distracted by training for the intensity of the Soulfire.

"unnecessary."

Andy waved his hand.

He had two types of subordinates: secret agents sent abroad and personnel stationed at outposts.

Unlike the Salvation Army's top brass and the Pseudo-Summit, those people preferred to have officers from different eras manage soldiers from different eras. To prevent the leakage of top secrets and to avoid changes in the internal structure, they could not directly contact their superiors.

For a religious group, establishing a connection with a vague and ethereal entity will only lead believers into severe spiritual confusion and disorientation. Only a real and visible "religious leader" can solidify this belief.

They are different operating modes.

Soldiers and collaborators need not know anything; their driving force is fear or self-interest.

But faith is different. They need to know the truth, everything except strategic secrets. The driving force for these people is "truth".

Therefore, there must be a tangible object to follow, not some vague ideology; otherwise, the connection with the truth will become increasingly weak. The direct superior must be someone who teaches by example.

[Soulfire Strength: 4538 Joules.]

Peak intensity: 11259 joules.

Once the peak intensity exceeds 10240 joules, not only will conventional base stations be unable to perform mind control, but even future gravitational particle accelerators will have difficulty influencing it.

Of course, as long as the amount is continuously increased, the gravitational particle accelerator can still be used for mind control after exceeding 1 joules, but the cost will increase exponentially, even more exaggerated than compressing a person into the smallest storage unit and sending them back to the past.

Such excessive investment would lead to its abandonment; it would be better to contact someone from the present era and simply kill him.

"The Lord of Souls... has opened Pandora's Box. I thought I would never see the war end in my lifetime, but it may be soon."

Andy had already arranged for reconnaissance and defense, in preparation for the dangers they would face.

"how to say?"

The female follower was puzzled. "We already know that the true meaning of fighting is not to kill the opponent, but to make them submit. However, the cost of fighting is too high. There is a more efficient way to make people submit, and that is to change their minds. Now the war has spread to universities."

Andy himself did not agree with the Council of Missions' decision, but there was no other way; the three parties had to constantly adjust their strategies according to each other's immediate tactics.

"It has spread to universities... but what does that mean? In your time, fourteen years old was already a qualified soldier."

"Mastering the past means mastering the future. The thoughts of young people are crucial; mastering their thoughts means mastering all the discourse power in the future. The sad truth is that when the discourse power can no longer be possessed, new life will wither and cease to grow, just like the entropy of consciousness falling into heat death. This is the last gamble after the three parties have squeezed all available resources to the extreme."

"I still don't understand. Time... it's like a vicious cycle. Logically speaking, the future should already know everything that's happening now, so you should have known it would develop to this point by now."

"I didn't know it would develop to this point. After the gravitational particle accelerator was built, there was no longer a distinction between past and future. It was as if the river of time had been cut into several segments, and everything was happening at the same time. But I do know the reason for this situation, but I can't tell you. It's a strategic secret."

Andy had a premonition that he was getting closer and closer to the closed circle of time.

Just as Andy was thinking this.

boom!
The street outside sounded like a car accident, with the sound of steel objects hitting obstacles. It was very close and deafening, like thunder.

"You go and see."

Andy gave the order: "Should we eliminate everyone just because the enemy is coming?"
10/11—11:09
The speeding oil tanker crashed through the fence of Emmanuel Monastery, with its cab even embedding itself in the wall of the main building, but fortunately the oil tank it was carrying did not rupture.

The believers who went out to check were a little confused. There was no driver in the car. Had they already jumped out?
The effective range of the M32 grenade launcher is 800 meters.

Fortunately, it was on the edge of the city, and because it was a weekday during the day, the streets were eerily quiet, with hardly any pedestrians.

Wearing a black ski hood, Fang Yan knew all too well how loud the explosion would be. He took cover behind a building and pulled the safety on his M32.

The grenade has a terrifying burning effect when it explodes. Hopefully, the aim is good. The M32 can carry six grenades, and it must hit a tank containing 45 tons of gasoline within six grenades.

Some cultists were also searching for enemies who had jumped off the tanker truck near it.

Fang Yan understood that this was the best opportunity. Not a second could be wasted. He couldn't give the people in that building a chance to evacuate. He had to send them all to the sky before they could even react. No matter how powerful they were, even if they were the leader of a sect, they would all die.

They're on! They're on!
Fang Yan picked up the M32 and peeked out from the corner of the building, his face contorted with rage. He aimed at the oil tank, trying to hit it with one shot, and then immediately retreated back into the corner.

With a whoosh, the grenade flew at high speed through the air.

Fang Yan greatly underestimated the power of the grenade launcher. This was a special grenade supplied by the Salvation Army, with a huge kill radius.

The oil tank was successfully detonated with just one shot.

lb!
A deafening explosion shook the heavens and the earth; for a moment, nothing could be seen except for the intense, fiery red light that enveloped everything.

In the instant of the explosion, the oil tank transformed into a collapsing miniature sun. The silver-gray tank was melted into a flowing liquid by the high temperature in a fraction of a second, and instantly torn into tens of thousands of burning fragments by the shockwave. These metal fragments, carrying gasoline, flew backward like a meteor shower, igniting the air within a radius of a hundred meters.

All the walls and structures were as fragile as a house of cards, the steel frames twisting and emitting a shrill whistling sound as they tore through metal, brick fragments and rising flames dancing and breaking apart.

The shockwave melted, rolled, and bubbled the asphalt pavement, shattered all the building windows simultaneously, and glass shards were suspended in the blast wave as a shimmering curtain before being engulfed by a mushroom-shaped cloud of fire.

In the instant Andy was enveloped by the intense light and his vision was filled with fiery red, he tried to say something, but was immediately engulfed by the heat wave, and the cultists around him instantly vaporized.

(End of this chapter)