A tremendous sound erupted within the dark Church, and a violent explosion suddenly burst forth from the Bone Shield wall. The intense shockwave shattered the Bone Shields, sending them flying and sweeping through the entire space within the Church.
The chairs in the Church were successively overturned, items on the altar were blown away, and bone fragments and stone chips shot out like bullets everywhere. The already damaged main door, previously hacked to pieces, was directly blown apart and shattered by the airwave, allowing the Church's bright moonlight to once again pour in.
After the explosion, the interior of the Church was filled with gray dust. After the dust had settled for a while, Dorothy and Vanya emerged from the secret passage behind the altar.
"Cough, cough, cough…"
Coughing and using her hand to brush away the dust before her eyes, Vanya stepped out of the secret passage onto the Church floor, which was covered in stone chips. Under the moonlight, looking at the messy scene before her, she couldn't help but exclaim in astonishment.
"This, this is…"
"It's dynamite used for mining in the mountains. Since it's for mining, it's perfect for dealing with these two 'Shi' (Stone). After all, it's all used to blow up rocks."
Behind Vanya, Dorothy, who had already removed her mask, walked out, leaning on her cane, with a piece of white cloth wrapped around her mouth and nose serving as a mask.
"Dy-dynamite… you used dynamite for an Extraordinary battle? Miss Dorothea…"
"Yes, don't you think the effect is quite good?" Waving her arm, Dorothy said with a smile, looking at the messy Church before her. After seeing the scene, Vanya, as a member of the clergy, felt a little guilty.
"Miss Dorothea, we blew up the Hui Guang Church like this, won't it displease the Saints…"
"Relax, relax. Weren't we dealing with vicious and evil Extraordinary individuals? The Saints will definitely understand when they know. Don't worry too much." Dorothy waved her hand at Vanya, but Vanya still felt uneasy after hearing her words. She came before the altar, clasped her hands together, and began to silently pray in her heart.
'Lord… please forgive us for damaging the altar… We did this because…'
Listening to the Sister's prayer beside her, Dorothy pursed her lips, shook her head, and ignored it. Instead, she walked towards the center of the explosion in the Church.
There, the ground had been shattered. Not far from the explosion's center lay a figure covered in ash, bloody and mangled, with one arm blown off. This was one of the two Black Rank individuals from earlier. Dorothy used the Corpse Puppet Ring to probe, confirming that he was already dead.
'Heh… the effect is decent. Although I only used half the amount, he couldn't withstand it. Although they are Extraordinary, they are ultimately mortals. Even with hardened skin, they still couldn't withstand such a close-range explosion.'
Looking at the broken body lying on the ground, Dorothy thought that the purpose of luring them into the Church was to use bombs to shatter their defenses.
While dynamite could shatter a Bonecrafter's hardened skin, if the yield wasn't large enough, it had to be detonated at close range. Therefore, the difficulty lay in how to deliver the bomb near the enemy. For this, Dorothy first thought of using a Corpse Puppet to charge over with the bomb, but if it was intercepted midway by their bone weapons, it would be useless. If the bomb exploded outside the Bone Shield wall, the damage caused would be extremely limited.
Dorothy's Corpse Puppet birds were still small birds, with a load capacity far inferior to raptors like eagles, unable to carry heavy objects in flight. Thus, aerial bombing using bird-carried bombs was not feasible.
Therefore, for Dorothy to successfully deliver the bomb inside the enemy's shield wall, she needed a more ingenious method, and this Church was the place where she would execute that method.
Using herself as bait to attract the enemy, sealing the Church's space and turning off the lights to create a dark environment, blocking their vision so they couldn't see where the Corpse Puppet was coming from, and then using a Corpse Puppet performing the bombing operation with a silencing rune to eliminate sound, breaking through the enemy's vibration sense to approach and deliver the bomb, throwing the dynamite into the enemy's defense without them noticing.
To be safe, Dorothy only used half the dynamite this time as Plan A, keeping the other half in reserve. If it failed, she would have another chance to try using other plans.
However, judging by the current situation, a second attempt was unnecessary.
'But… why is there only one body here? Where is the other person?'
Seeing the situation before her, Dorothy thought doubtfully. Then her gaze swept around, and finally, she found another figure lying not far away.
This figure was also lying on the ground, some distance from the center of the explosion. He was intact, and aside from being covered in ash, he didn't seem to have any obvious external injuries. A relatively large fragment of a Bone Shield covered his body.
Seeing that figure, Dorothy used the Corpse Puppet Ring to probe, but found she couldn't control him, which meant he still showed signs of life.
'He's not dead?! Is he lying there pretending to be dead to ambush me?'
Seeing this scene, Dorothy thought this in her heart. Immediately, she controlled a Corpse Puppet nearby that could still barely move to shuffle over and check on the condition of the guy lying on the ground.
After a careful examination, Dorothy found that the other party seemed to have fainted. His body was covered in tiny cracks like shattered stone, with no obvious major external injuries. He was likely stunned by the bomb's shockwave.
'This guy seems to be the one controlling the bone blades. It also looked like he was listening to the ground earlier. Did he sense the vibration of the bomb landing and realize something was wrong, so he quickly ran? It looks like the bomb exploded after he ran out of the shield wall. The shield wall absorbed a wave of the impact for him, plus his own tough skin, so he wasn't blown to death, but he was still knocked unconscious.'
Using the Corpse Puppet to examine the man on the ground, Dorothy analyzed in her mind. Just as she was thinking of finishing him off with a quick blow, another idea came to her.
'Perhaps… this guy could serve some other purpose…'
Thinking this, Dorothy immediately controlled the Corpse Puppet to find ropes and tie up the living guy securely, then threw him into the secret passage behind the altar and locked him up, keeping him away from all bone objects.
After dealing with all of this, Dorothy scanned her surroundings, then ignored Vanya, who was sincerely repenting in front of the damaged altar, and slowly walked out of the Church, looking towards the calm campus ahead.
'I wonder… how is that old man's battle going now?'
Just as Dorothy was thinking this, the ground suddenly trembled violently, like an earthquake, causing the scattered stones inside the Church to rattle. Vanya, who was repenting, was also startled, thinking it was divine punishment.
"This is…"
During the tremor, Dorothy steadied herself and looked ahead. Then, she saw a huge crack open up in the wide open space before her during the earthquake. Following this fissure, a massive body struggled its way out.
It was, astonishingly, a giant bone monster nearly twenty meters tall. It had a massive skull like a male deer's head, and the two antlers on its skull extended and branched like tree limbs. Below the entire male deer skull was a skeletal body like a human's, with hands, feet, and a torso, but these bones were not a single complete piece like the skull. Instead, they were piled up from countless ordinary human bones and skulls, densely packed and utterly terrifying.
A complete monster skull like a giant deer, plus a body piled up from dense, at least tens of thousands of ordinary human bones – these were the basic characteristics of this monster. The moment Dorothy saw this monster, her mind felt a chaotic tingling, her thoughts became sluggish, and at the same time, an uncontrollable strong sense of sorrow welled up in her heart. She couldn't help but cover her head.
At the same time, the system's voice sounded in her mind.
'Detected sighting of a divine creature, partial remains of the Primordial Underworld Deer. Partial relevant information has been collected. Please avoid mental damage beyond the information provided.'
Just as Dorothy felt her mental state was off, the giant deer skull monster let out a roar to the sky, then soared into the air and flew rapidly into the distance. However, before it could fly very far, three huge rock spears suddenly shot out from the ground, piercing it in the air. The bone monster let out a wail.
Then, from the ground fissure, a giant plate-armored knight cast from rock, ten meters tall, stepped forth. Wielding a massive rock sword, he majestically swung at the bone stitched monster, which was pinned in place by the rock spears, completely cleaving it apart. The scattered bones exploded outwards, ordinary human bones fell everywhere, while the giant antlered skull twisted space and disappeared into the night sky.