200: The destroyed holy city after World War I

The fall of Anglieus was like the lighting of the final fuse of destruction.

The viscous, decaying domain that enveloped St. Peter's Square and continuously spread outwards seemed to receive some invisible blessing, and its rate of erosion suddenly accelerated.

Ink-black darkness creeping like a living thing, spreading and greedily devouring all light and heat it touched.

As the domain expanded, the Fallen aura permeating the air instantly became thick and violent, whipping every corner like an invisible lash, eroding the remaining will.

"Ugh ah ah ah!"

"No! Don't come near!"

"Holy Light! Why have you forsaken your children?!"

Despairing wails echoed throughout the city, spreading even faster than the Fallen aura.

The entire Vatican, this holy city that once symbolized faith and sanctity, had now completely become a living hell.

The fall of Anglieus pulled away the last pillar of hope from the hearts of all who resisted.

However, before the holy city completely fell, there were other divine miracles that tried to turn the tide.

Deep within the main hall of St. Peter's Basilica, a cardinal, surrounded by believers, completed his final prayer, offering his life as a sacrifice.

A brilliant pillar of Holy Light descended from the sky, briefly dispelling the defiled dark clouds above the dome!

The phantom of a six-winged Archangel, clad in golden armor and wielding a flaming Holy Sword, descended!

Though his might was not as fervent as Anglieus', he still carried an inviolable divine power.

The Holy Sword swung, and flames surged like a tide, instantly incinerating dozens of Aliens and Fallen creatures that had rushed into the main hall, turning them to ash, as the surviving believers erupted in cries of relief and prayers.

Almost simultaneously, beneath the dome of the Vatican Library, another high-ranking priest completed a divine descent ritual amidst countless ancient texts.

The phantom of a four-winged Cherub appeared, his wings flowing with runes of knowledge, and with a gentle press of his hands, countless pages condensed from pure Holy Light manifested out of thin air, cutting through the invading monsters like a storm of blades, temporarily blocking those defiled creatures attempting to desecrate knowledge from the halls of wisdom.

And near St. Anne's Gate, a Templar Grandmaster in charge of the city's defenses, with his subordinates almost all dead or wounded, used his own soul as a conduit to summon the phantom of a four-winged Power Angel.

This phantom wielded a giant hammer; each strike caused a small localized earthquake, pulverizing swathes of Aliens into paste, temporarily stabilizing a corner of the crumbling defense line.

But these glorious divine descents were like fireflies in the dark, destined not to last.

When Lin Feng tore open the rift in Fallen Space, especially after the terrifying and peerless Fallen Xenomorph descended, a suppression originating from the domain and Fallen Space clamped down on these divine descenders like invisible shackles!

The power from heaven seemed to be repelled and isolated by this defiled land.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica, the flames wielded by the six-winged Archangel visibly dimmed, and the Holy Sword, when striking Fallen creatures, could no longer easily purify them; instead, it was corroded by the surging Fallen aura from their bodies, emitting a sizzling sound of dissolution.

His phantom began to become unstable, flickering like a projection with poor signal.

The cutting power of the Holy Light pages from the Cherub's phantom in the library drastically decreased, and the pages themselves even began to be stained with gray spots by the defiled aura, their rotation becoming sluggish.

The Fallen creatures that poured in, enduring the incomplete pages, roared and lunged at the priest's body, the caster of the ritual.

The Power Angel's phantom at St. Anne's Gate bore the brunt of it; his giant hammer struck, but the ground no longer trembled; instead, it collapsed like mud, eroded by the Fallen domain.

On his massive body, wisps of gray decay began to appear, spreading upwards like maggots on bone, corroding his divine composition!

The Grandmaster himself was bleeding from his nose and mouth, his body trembling violently, clearly at his limit.

"No! My Lord! The passage... it's closing!"

The cardinal in St. Peter's Basilica let out a desperate shriek; he felt the channel of faith maintaining the divine descent being forcibly blocked and twisted by the Fallen aura!

The six-winged Archangel let out an unwilling roar of fury, his phantom fluctuating violently, and finally, under the bites of several Fallen creatures that fearlessly lunged at him and the erosion of the pervasive Fallen aura, he exploded like shattered glass, turning into specks of residual light, instantly swallowed by the darkness.

The cardinal himself was completely engulfed by the aftermath of the explosion and the monsters that immediately surged forward.

The Cherub's phantom in the library, at the moment the pages completely disintegrated, let out a long sigh, and his figure vanished like smoke.

The guarding priest was pierced by several fleshly tentacles that tore through the air and dragged into the depths of the shadows.

The Power Angel's phantom at St. Anne's Gate, with a cry of lament, was torn apart by several monsters that had fused with powerful Fallen beasts, dissolving into a rain of light.

The Grandmaster was pounced upon by a giant Facehugger that emerged from the ground; after a desperate struggle, his body quickly stiffened and mutated... The successive falls of these divine descenders were like a cascade of dominoes, completely signaling the end of the holy city's core resistance.

Despair, like a cold tide, engulfed every corner.

The remaining Templar Knights attempted to form a final defensive formation in the square; their golden Holy Light shields flickered precariously like candles in the wind, under the erosion of the thick Fallen aura and the edge of the decaying domain.

Behind them were terrified civilians and lower-ranking clergy.

However, with the spread of the Fallen Xenomorph's domain power, those various Fallen creatures that were already lurking on the outskirts of the square seemed to be injected with a violent catalyst!

Their bodies visibly swelled, their carapaces gleamed with a dark metallic luster, the flowing viscous fluid shimmered with an even stronger corrosive glow, and their roars were filled with a madness to destroy everything.

A Fallen beast, shaped like a giant lizard with its back covered in pustules, slammed into the crumbling Holy Light shield, and with a "crack," the shield shattered!

Immediately after, several thick tentacles, covered in slimy flesh and secreting corrosive fluid, surged from the square's ground and wrapped around the knights like giant pythons; their sturdy armor twisted and deformed under the terrifying crushing force and corrosion, accompanied by teeth-grinding sounds of bones shattering and shrill screams.

When the tentacles released, all that remained was a shapeless mixture of metal and flesh.

A group of battle-nuns made their last stand, using the ruined buildings for cover.

They chanted hymns, and their chainswords and Holy Light crossbow bolts continuously tore apart the smaller Aliens that lunged at them.

However, as the divine descenders fell one after another, especially after Anglieus's demise, the battle situation rapidly deteriorated.

More Facehuggers surged from the shadows like a black, metallic-glowing tide; they became faster and craftier, even using the remains of destroyed comrades as cover.

A nun had just cut down an Alien when she was pounced on her face by a Facehugger from the side; she struggled in vain, her body convulsing violently for a few seconds, then slumping down.

Soon, a chilling "squelch" sound emanated from her chest, and a mucus-covered Alien infant burst forth, emitting a sharp shriek, instantly pouncing on a nearby comrade.

Even more terrifying, the nuns enveloped by the dense Fallen aura began to undergo horrifying mutations.

Their pristine white skin turned gray and cracked, oozing black pus, the light of faith in their eyes replaced by madness and bloodlust, inhuman roars escaping their mouths, and their weapons turned against their former sisters.

The sacred convent had now become a hatchery and a twisted nest.

Fighting was everywhere, but it was no longer resistance, but desperate survival and one-sided slaughter.

After being enhanced, the Fallen creatures' strength, speed, and regenerative abilities received terrifying boosts.

They easily crashed through the already crumbling ancient walls, dragging out the believers hiding inside.

The tragedy of Facehugger parasitism unfolded in every corner of the city, with new Aliens being born in the defilement.

And many more who couldn't escape or were directly corrupted by the Fallen aura, like those nuns, suffered twisted mutations, becoming mindless Fallen servants bent only on destruction.

The once solemn and majestic churches, libraries, and seminaries were now either destroyed in battle, engulfed in raging fires, or covered in a viscous, foul-smelling, dark-red fungal carpet-like substance, slowly pulsating like a living organism, becoming a breeding ground for more defilement.

The holy city's resistance completely collapsed less than ten minutes after Anglieus's fall.

The streets that once echoed with hymns and prayers now only held the roars of monsters, the screams of humans, the sounds of collapsing buildings, and the sticky sounds of flesh being torn and devoured.

Crosses, symbols of faith, were broken and defiled; statues of saints were toppled and smashed.

The air was thick with the suffocating smell of blood, the stench of burnt protein, and the nauseating Fallen aura that seemed to corrode the soul.

The Vatican, this holy city that had stood for a millennium, now existed in name only.