Once Zhen Liu had managed to confound the ever-living shit out of Patricio, that was when he decided to strike both physically and mentally.

First, he said the following.

^Alright, I'm done entertaining you guys any further. I suggest that you listen to my demands and clear out. If not, I'll show you that hell is real and so are the demons that run it. If any of y'all have friends or family, I would rather not take you away from them in such a fatal manner, so you have until I bury this man to fucking run.^

^B-blasphemer!^ Priest Patricio declared as he realized the threat to his person. ^How dare you invoke such insidious powers before us! You shall burn alongside your heathen whore and the rest of those filthy pagans.^

Soon after making this clear declaration of violence, Priest Patricio attacked.

[Blazing Impact!]

Patricio produced a mace from his side and wrapped it in fire aether before swinging it directly towards Zhen Liu's temple.

The priest's attack was honestly slow enough that Zhen Liu could've opted to dodge out of the way, but he didn't.

Instead, he allowed the mace to slam against the side of his face...

CRUNCH!

^What the fuck?!^

...and have the man witness firsthand how his efforts were useless.

Thanks to the power of [Chaos] and his own innate toughness, Zhen Liu was able to not only dispell the aether flames surrounding the mace but also destroy the mace itself.

Patricio was left speechless when he discovered that his mace had crumpled in on itself, resembling a bronze ball being struck against a steel rod. Ironically, this particular mace was actually made of steel.

"Nice hammer," Zhen Liu mused as Patricio slowly removed his mace in disbelief. "Mine hits harder!"

Zhen Liu whipped around his [Hammer of the Dearly Departed] from his hip after wrapping it in [Ghost Flame] and slammed it directly into Priest Patricio's face in a clear homage to the holy man's previously failed attack. He didn't use [Chaos] in an offensive manner quite yet, because he didn't want to expose that particular card quite yet. Instead, he relied on his superhuman strength.

^Shit!^

To Patricio's credit, he was astute enough to realize that this hammer blow would have undoubtedly caused severe damage to his face, so he promptly activated his [Regalia]. However, the [Regalia] didn't do much to negate the force behind the hammerstrike.

The sound of cracking bones, shattering glass, and tearing metal reverberated through the night air as Zhen Liu's hammer made contact with Patricio's [Regalia]-covered face and sent the poor bastard flying to Zhen Liu's left.

^What the fuck?!^ a soldier shouted in alarm.

^That fast?!^ another shouted.

Priest Patricio may have only been recently promoted, but he was still an Aether Grandmaster. This meant that his defensive capabilities should've been enough for him to take several blows to the face without even flinching. As such, seeing the man get blown away was unsettling…at least for a moment.

The Punishing Hounds Platoon was still a military unit, so they were disciplined enough to understand that now was the time for retaliation. This was especially the case for Bishop Olmen.

^Hmmm. It appears diplomacy has failed,^ Bishop Olmen said as he began to grip the handle of his flail a little tighter. ^Then again, I suppose such a response would come from a heretic. Yucara, punish the boy for his insolence. The rest of you, hold him down^

^By your judgement!^

^By your judgement!^

^By your judgement!^ 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

To Bishop Olmen's immediate right, a lanky warrior with sunken eyes began to take a stance and prepared to fire off a rather insidious aether art that took the form of a giant cloud of mosquitos forming into the vague shape of a horrific monster. At the same time, several of the elite warriors who were of the same rank as Priest Patricio had activated their [Regalia] and were now rushing Zhen Liu in a bid to hold him down long enough for Yucara to fire off his attack.

This aether art, allegedly, imitated a historical disaster that people had long attributed to divine wrath and had been used by Yucara to slay dozens of heretics prior to this moment.

Alas, there was but one flaw to this aether art: it left the user incredibly vulnerable to sneak attacks.

Such vulnerability wasn't usually an issue due to the fact that Yucara would only ever perform this aether art while surrounded by his fellow warriors in the army. However, such protections were only useful against other aether warriors that could be detected via normal methods and not a band of monstrous weirdos that defied common logic.

...

[Are you guys in position?]

[Yes, ma'am!]

[Ready...]

[Let's bring the pain.]

[Alright. Dropping in three, two…]

…

[Apocalyptic-]

[Meteor Elbow Drop!]

^What the-?!^

Before Yucara could finish casting his technique, Nepherage dropped from above like a meteor and slammed a heavy elbow right into the nape of the neck of the offending aether warrior.

At the same time, very similar scenes were playing out over the rest of the battlefield.

[Fiery Judgement!]

[Yin-Yang Curse Cycle Palms!]

[Stellar Guillotine!]

[Hammering Spring!]

[Screech of Madness!]

As the elite warriors of the platoon got within striking distance of Zhen Liu, Blazejudicator, the Doll Twins, Razorstella, Springerdermain, and Screamira all dropped down and attacked them before they could finish the job.

Unlike Yucara, these elite warriors were able to react in time, using defensive moves to absorb the blows or launching counterattacks to reverse the situation. Instead, all they found was that they were at a stalemate.

Well, that, and they realized that Zhen Liu wasn't just some young dumb kid who was running is mouth when he mentioned that he had a direct line of hell.

^By the ashes! These aren't normal aether warriors!,^ a warrior pushing back against Razorstella's blades commented.

^No... they're monsters! Look at their unnatural forms,^ another warned while attempting to push back against Blazejudicator's fiery form. ^It feels as if judgement day has come, and the heaven's seek to punish us all!^

^I don't know, I think some of them look kind of sexy...wait, why did I admit that?!" a soldier commented after looking up and down Screamira's strangely curvy skeleton.

In other words, Zhen Liu's ambush had gone off flawlessly, and the warriors from the Sacred Flame Theocracy were now paying the price.

Due to the unexpected angle of the attack, none of the soldiers were able to form into proper formations in time.

Due to the sheer power behind the attackers, only the elites were able to properly respond.

Due to the monstrous forms of these assaulting warriors, every single defending soldier thought that they were dealing with actual demons.

In reality, the power of [Chaos] radiating off of all of the attacking kaijin, nobody present was able to have a sober thought in regard to figuring out how to properly mount a counter.

And this feeling was going to get a whole lot worse, because the only one who could possibly lead a proper counterattack against this ambush was about to become incredibly preoccupied by the guy who coordinated this ambush in the first place.

...

^What the—Yucara, no!^

Bishop Olmen was shocked at the sudden appearance of the demonic warrior before him, and was more than a little upset over his inability to anticipate such an attack. However, he wasn't going to let this feeling completely cripple his ability to act.

Once it had fully registered that he and his men were under attack by demonic forces, Bishop Olmen immediately sprang into action.

At this point in time, he had already activated his [Regalia], so he decided to go all out and activate his [Astra].

^Come forth, [Executioner's Blaze!]^

An axe-like [Astra] manifested in Olmen's hands, and once it did, Olmen swung it around with the intent of decapitating or at the very least mortally wound the strange demon woman who just took out Yucara.

Unfortunately, his swing wasn't fast enough.

^Die!^

"Denied!^

CLANG!

^Who the fuck—?!^

In the time it took for all of the soldiers present to process and deal with the kaijin ambushing them, Zhen Liu had been left alone long enough to properly power himself up.

To be more precise, it gave him time to turn Hurricroak into a [Stigma] that combined with his [Regalia] and made him look like an electrically-powered warlord with neon highlights, and time to turn Frosttusk into a giant shield-like [Taboo] which he used to block Bishop Olmen's attack.

^Why you filthy heretic!^ Olmen cursed. ^I will make sure that you and your ilk receive a full dose of the furious flames of punishment! I will—^

^Blah, blah, blah! You're ain't going to do shit because you and your lot won't be able to do shit to me or my monsters once I do a little trick that is going to completely blow your minds,^ Zhen Liu taunted from behind his shield.