The mortar shell fired and the cannon has a distinct difference; one is a straight-line trajectory, and the other is a parabolic trajectory.

More noticeable is that the shell fired from the mortar can be observed with the naked eye.

"Boom!"

The fuse burned out and a sound more muffled than before exploded. The huge shell flew into the air, drawing an arc in the air at a speed detectable by the naked eye, making one inexplicably feel the urge to catch it.

But in reality, the speed was extremely fast, and under everyone's gaze, the shell fell into the blasted gap in the blink of an eye.

Bonaparte stared intently until the shell fell into the sentry post and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Yet two seconds of silence passed without any movement, directly raising his fears again.

For safety, the shell's fuse was longer, but failures have occurred during training, quite a few, in fact.

Because the shells are produced by the Hamlet Firearms Research Institute, this leads to a quality that is hard to guarantee.

Could it be that he's encountering this on the first shot...

Inside that sentry post, the Priest used flesh for sacrifice to communicate with some existence, and with the naked eye, one could see the exposed skin and flesh of those corpses twist and merge under a bizarre power.

The heretics knelt in worship upon seeing this, uttering all sorts of chaotic sounds, but mostly praising the gods or yearning for Ascension—a chaotic dance of demons.

And just at this moment, a shell blast occurred, swiftly followed by multiple heavy blows, the shocking sound echoed in this small place.

But these lunatics had absent minds. They did not think it was an enemy's attack; rather, they believed it was god's response to them.

The only somewhat conscious Priest was forced to leave the ritual, only to have the wall collapse before she could react further, crushing some heretics near the wall beneath the bricks.

"Aminos!" The Priest had just started speaking when something shook overhead.

Before she could raise her head, she was struck, falling silent.

This dilapidated place was already in disrepair. The collapse of the wall led to structural damage, causing the higher parts to fall.

Falling rocks!

Once again, a large cloud of dust was stirred up, and in the obscured view, muffled sounds constantly rang—a collision of bricks and flesh.

No wonder no heretics were seen rushing out after the wall collapse; they were all buried alive.

When the dust settled, a hand suddenly extended from the rubble, and then the Priest struggled to push the bricks off herself and stood up, covered in dust, exposing the wound on her head as the blood ran across her face, making her appear particularly battered.

Here, she was the only one not wearing a helmet. The falling stones almost knocked her brains out.

However, the strong self-healing ability of the heretics allowed them to survive, and soon others climbed out of the rubble without any casualties despite their disheveled appearance.

After all, who attends a ritual without wearing a helmet...

But before they could react further, a head-sized iron ball fell from the sky.

These heretics were truly insane. Even the recent upheaval couldn't bring them back to reality.

Like love-brained fools, they were immersed in their fantasy world, finding excuses for everything.

These heretics still believed they were in the ritual; the previous event was merely god's intense response.

Now, seeing the falling iron ball, a bright fool suddenly yelled.

"Sacred Object!"

Only a heaven-sent Sacred Object would cause such a commotion, god responded to them, grant Ascension!

Don't underestimate the twisted logic of a group of lunatics. Those guys actually worshiped the iron ball, even actively gathered around to touch the Sacred Object, seeking the path of Ascension.

But they didn't understand; they needed the Priest to interpret.

Thus, the first understanding bright fool stepped forward, holding the "Sacred Object" and approached the Priest.

The only somewhat normal Priest hesitated seeing something fall inside; confused by the crowd's chaos, she almost got convinced god indeed responded.

But upon seeing the bright fool running towards her holding a pitch-black object, her gaze fell on the rapidly shortening fuse, suddenly twisting her expression and exclaimed.

"Don't come over!"

...

"Boom!"

An internal explosion occurred, reigniting the dust that had slightly settled, seeing this from outside, Bonaparte finally relaxed completely.

Damn, too much fuse was reserved, almost thought it was a mishap.

The explosive power surprised everyone a little, at least equivalent to five grenades' explosive charge. Didn't you see the remnants of the sentry post structure tremble three times?

But why hadn't the heretics in the sentry post moved?

Had they all buried underground?

"We can't delay any longer, now that half the sentry post has collapsed, a few of us should move in from here to check the situation, a flexible squad can retreat anytime."

Balistan hadn't forgotten his mission, his aggressiveness was due to no time left to watch the spectacle here.

His immediate intention was to move forward and ascertain the situation.

"Count me in!" Boudica was the first to express support, she didn't come here to watch others fire shells.