Chapter 259 - 223: Verne Front Line, How a Technician Priest Became a Pragmatist

God of All Machines, protect us...

As Gwen piloted the ship, she frantically prayed for divine protection.

She’d never felt her faith to be so strong.

A huge mass of ship wreckage and asteroids came hurtling toward them. Gwen’s heart leaped into her throat, and she let out a terrified scream.

She had just dodged a massive asteroid, leaving the ship with no room to maneuver.

"AAAAAAH—!"

Just then, an out-of-control ship slammed into them from the side, miraculously clearing the path ahead.

Reinhardt rose and walked over to stand behind Gwen, his eyes fixed on the carnage at the distant Verne Front Line. A colossal Void Storm, a swirling neon sea of blue and purple, was steadily advancing deeper into the star system.

Through the far-reaching gaze of his Angel Vision, he could see its leading edge was already about to touch Verne World.

An endless Demon Army streamed from the mouth of the Void Storm, while the thoroughly corrupted and mutated motherships of the Rebel Legions hung like massive asteroids at the far end of the battlefield.

"Have you contacted front-line command?"

Raphael frowned and shook his head. "The entire star system’s Radiant Channel is under an extremely powerful Spiritual Energy blockade. I can’t reach local command for the time being."

"But I’m still trying..."

As a Mind Mage and the Team Think Tank, he could bypass the Radiant Beacons within a certain range and establish contact directly using Spiritual Energy, but they were currently too far from Verne.

Even though they had entered the star system, without a Net Path route, flying from the outermost asteroid belt to Verne at this civilian vessel’s speed would take at least a year and a half.

Reinhardt slammed his fist against the bulkhead.

"These damned Demons..."

Whether the goal was to ambush reinforcements or simply starve Verne into submission.

Blockading the Net Path was one of the most common—and brutally effective—tactics in large-scale warfare.

But they had already wasted over forty-eight hours getting to Verne. With Albert and the others trapped inside the Void Storm, their fates unknown, how could Reinhardt not be frantic?

Raphael, meanwhile, was sweating profusely.

The Spiritual Power in the Verne Star System was so potent that it amplified the demonic voice in his head, making its corrupting whispers all the more powerful.

Despite this, he managed to find a weakly blockaded Radiant Channel through the chaotic Spiritual Energy interference, one that could reach the front-line command.

The distance was too great for planetary communications, so he had to resort to exchanging messages via Holy Sheepskin Paper.

The moment Raphael established contact with command, a Demon Ship, like a shark smelling blood in the water, caught the "scent" of the transmission and charged straight for them!

Gwen, the "Oil Girl" who’d spent over a decade tightening bolts, had never seen anything like this.

She continued to pray to the God of All Machines, periodically letting out terrified screams.

"A Demon... that Demon Ship is coming right for us!"

Matthias’s brow furrowed, and he jabbed a thick finger in her direction. "Shut your damn mouth, Priest!"

Then he turned to Raphael.

"Can you stop them?"

Before Raphael could answer, three heavy thuds—THUD! THUD! THUD!—resounded from the underside of the ship. An instant later, the enormous, serrated Bone Knife of a Slaughter Demon ripped through the hull and stabbed deep into the cabin!

This wasn’t a planetary atmosphere.

The depressurizing cabin acted like a giant vacuum, trying to suck Reinhardt and the others toward the breach.

Reinhardt drew his Slaughterer’s Weapon.

He ejected the remaining Blood Hand Bullets from the magazine, lest they blast another hole in the bulkhead. Then, consuming his Knight Power, he condensed new Extraordinary Bullets with the Thousand-Change attribute directly into the magazine.

With a thunderous crack, the dark purple, seemingly living bullets rocketed from the 19.5mm barrel.

It shattered the Slaughter Demon’s serrated Bone Knife before burying itself deep in the creature’s flesh.

The Thousand-Change Extraordinary Bullet quickly released its neurotoxins, corroding the Slaughter Demon’s soul and flesh.

Meanwhile, Raphael, splitting his focus, unleashed a Mind Storm to kill the other two Slaughter Demons that had boarded the ship. At the same instant, he reached out and caught the Holy Sheepskin Paper as it materialized from the Radiant Beacon.

"Sir! There’s a Net Path still under our control! Front-line command will lift the blockade in thirty seconds, but it will only stay open for five seconds!"

"We have to find a nearby entrance to the Net Path, now!"

After relaying the report, Raphael roared at Gwen, "Priest! Keep the ship steady! I’ve sent you the coordinates—it’s right where that Demon Ship appeared!"

"We have to get there in thirty seconds! Understand?!"

Everyone has a first time.

For Gwen the Oil Girl, this was her first time on a battlefield—and not safely in the rear providing technical support, but on the terrifying, chaotic front line.

Though she was screaming, she never lost control of the ship or her senses, which already made her braver than most Mortals.

"Thirty seconds?! That’s impossible! This ship..."

She wanted to say that the ship’s speed was regulated by the Mechanical Order. To break the limiters, she’d have to bypass the Order’s permissions... a feat her knowledge and skills were more than capable of accomplishing.

But that was a flagrantly heretical act.

Putting aside whether the God of All Machines would forgive her, if she returned to the Mechanical Order, simply not being tossed into a furnace as fuel would be considered an act of supreme mercy by the high-and-mighty Sages of the Order.

But she couldn’t worry about that now.

’What good is the future if I can’t even survive the present?’

And now, she finally understood why that mysterious VIP, the one respectfully addressed as the Vengeful Angel, had humbled himself to personally seek her opinion.

’You’ve got to be kidding me!’

Before this, she’d imagined the front line would be like something from her history textbooks—a clash of flesh and blood. Not this, where you could be obliterated like a piece of space junk at any given moment.

In that moment, Gwen felt she finally understood why these Imperial Knights were so iron-willed and ruthlessly efficient, never wasting a single word.

’Thirty seconds?’

’Oh no... now it’s probably only twenty-five.’

If she wasted another second with pointless words, they wouldn’t make it to the Net Path entrance, even if she bypassed the Mechanical Order’s permissions.

As she activated the ’Heterodox Technology’ to unlock the ship’s speed limiters, Gwen inwardly begged for forgiveness.

’Praise the God of All Machines...’

’For the sake of our victory, please forgive my blasphemy and heresy.’

As the civilian vessel carrying Reinhardt and his team suddenly accelerated, Manon reacted instantly. He used his own body to plug the breach in the hull, forcibly maintaining the cabin pressure.

Then, a brilliant tail of ghostly blue fire erupted from the ship’s engines. Piloted by Gwen, the vessel moved like a graceful dancer, weaving at high speed past three encircling Demon Ships as it raced toward the entrance to the Net Path!