Frostpunk Divine Throne-Chapter 22: Below the City

Cyren stood up and tapped the Steel Angel armor, "What do you plan to do with it?"
Aldridge caressed its brass nameplate, "Archangel, responsible for managing other angels, exercising God's sovereignty, the angelic hub on the battlefield. The Red Mercury reservoir is twice that of ordinary angels. Equipped with Soul Edict System, Holy Law Amplification Array, Crystal Observatory, Sacred Blood Wings, Rod of Order, Proverb Guardian System..."
Pride and sorrow flickered in his eyes, "It's the commander, the tactical hub. Its own combat ability is average, but it's the core of the Knights."
"I know the Church's situation in Spessay is poor. There are demonized creatures active outside. Having a Steel Angel will at least make others think twice before moving against us." Aldridge used the term [us] for the first time, "As long as you don't point it at innocents and civilians, I won't interfere with you."
Cyren nodded. Given the current situation, he indeed needed military force.
"But you have no knights, and no Red Mercury." Aldridge delivered a blow.
"Uh..." Cyren scratched his head, remembering he indeed hadn't seen Red Mercury in the Holy Treasury, "Let's set aside Red Mercury for now. What about knights?"
"You think just anyone can pilot a Steel Angel?" Aldridge smiled, "The full set weighs one ton. When the boiler is running, the armor temperature is about 70°C. It's equivalent to being wrapped inside a scalding one-ton iron plate. When moving, every action has power assist. Ordinary people would fracture and sprain just walking in it... Royal Guard Knights can barely wear it. Only Legendary Knights can use it flexibly, and they need special training."
Cyren tapped his own head.
In this world, close-combat professions were collectively called knights. Regardless of whether they used swords, axes, or spears, [Knight] here was a title of honor and rank, not referring to someone who rode horses.
Knights could generally be divided into Apprentice Knights, Regular Knights, Royal Guard Knights, and Legendary Knights. His two guards were both Regular Knights, possessing strength beyond ordinary people, running speed, resistance to blows and recovery ability. They could also perform some small tricks, like [Hemostasis] and [Sword of Holy Light].
He'd heard Rain Hoffman was a Legendary Knight, but Cyren certainly couldn't give the Steel Angel to him.
"For now... lock it here." Cyren said.
He thought of his senior brother, that genius who became a Legendary Knight at twenty-seven, a member of the Steel Angels. If he could find him... this suit of armor would have someone to use it.
Watching the steel plates gradually close, Cyren sighed with some regret.
Suddenly, the squad leader who had been guarding outside ran in and said quietly to Cyren, "Lord Bishop, the Governor's messenger just came by. He said there's a situation outside the city. We're under attack. He's calling us up to help defend."
Cyren raised an eyebrow, his gaze sweeping over the few suits of armor and weapons in the Holy Treasury, "Aldridge, arm them. We're going to the walls."
"Lord Bishop, we..." The soldiers hesitantly rubbed their hands.
"You're my subordinates now." Cyren said.
…
Twenty minutes later, on Spessay's towering walls.
A squad of knights in standard white full-body armor walked onto the battlements, quickly attracting all the soldiers' attention.
They wore knight helmets decorated with white plumes, draped in platinum plate armor. Sacred patterns and runes together constructed bodies that glowed faintly. One could vaguely see flexibility runes, protection runes, warming runes, vitality runes and various other runic arrays, combining with crosses into complex nested emblems.
They wore platinum cross longswords at their waists, clearly forged from magic alloy. The pure white blade was not the color of ordinary metal. On the other side of their waists were ammunition pouches. On their backs they carried breech-loading rifles also painted platinum.
In comparison, although the Governor's soldiers also wore sharp and handsome black long coats, decorated with gleaming golden epaulets and tassels, how could they compare with these fellows who seemed like knights from Heaven?
There were seven knights in total, surrounding the black-robed bishop in the center.
He had medium-length curly black hair. His blue eyes carried calm and compassion. He held a pastoral staff with a curved head. He wore a black robe with purple trim. Those purple edges were made of drawn magic metal, not merely as decoration for a bishop, but sewn with runes one by one, simultaneously serving warming and protective functions, able to slightly deflect bullets and possessing super toughness to prevent cuts from swords.
The three layers of warm cotton clothing underneath made his figure look slightly more robust, at least not as frail as before. Inside the windbreaker he also carried a short-barreled shotgun.
He walked to the edge of the wall and for the first time saw the Governor whom others had mentioned countless times—
Rain Hoffman.
Cyren's attention was immediately drawn to his mechanical right hand, while Rain glanced at five of the seven knights and showed a disgusted expression.
"Spessay Bishop, Cyren Delante." Cyren extended his hand, introducing himself.
But Rain didn't shake hands or acknowledge him. He just turned his head, too lazy to even look at Cyren, gazing down at the area below the wall.
Cyren smiled. He wasn't embarrassed. His gaze turned toward below the city.
There it had already transformed into a bloody field of corpses. All kinds of animals lay dead there. Bodies pierced by bullets flowed with bright red blood, then instantly frozen by ice and snow into red ice blocks. Not even a hint of bloody smell escaped. In such wind and snow, only death itself continued to spread.
Below were bears, deer, tigers, even otters, rabbits, and rats.
Like the wolves they had encountered before, all were creatures from the zoo, though the rats should have come from nearby villages and cities.
"The crystals on their bodies are more numerous than before..." Cyren murmured to himself.
Many animals' bodies were covered with ice-blue transparent crystals that had spread across an entire leg or half a face, indicating deepening demonization.
A small squad of soldiers opened the city gate, holding close-combat weapons to clear out those small animals below the wall. After all, wasting bullets on rats was somewhat inappropriate.
Cyren saw a small four-legged standing mech walk out the city gate. Inside a three-sided transparent cabin similar to an excavator sat a soldier. The mech had a broadsword welded to one hand and a crank machine gun welded to the other. The ammunition belt connected to the ammo box on the back under the protection of side iron plates. The steam boiler was on top, emitting billowing white fog and tremendous noise.
That was a walking mech, the Empire's basic mechanical unit. He watched it frantically chop at demonized rats. Those crazed creatures pounced on the mech's feet, hoping to gnaw them through.
But hidden valves turned. High-speed circular saws beneath the four legs rapidly spun, cutting all the rats into a sky full of blood spray.
Cyren watched that mech with envy, wishing he could immediately go find Aldridge. If he couldn't pilot the Steel Angel, surely he could get two of these things!