Chapter 39

"Is the railway gun ready for testing?"

Sitting behind the cannon, Vladimir patted the box next to him, making the spoons on it shake.

Of course, that was turned into a spoon.

"Completely OK."

"Be prepared, this is a place where one wrong move could lead to death."

Looking at Mary Shelley, who was already very close to the ground and seemed to have aged a little, Romain Rolland, whose eyes were still blue, saw a bright red ball of light appear on his right hand.

Part Two of "War and Peace": "The Iron and Fire of War"

"Or rather, the kind that gets torn to shreds."

Following Romain Rolland's style, I realized he was making a lame joke. But I couldn't find the humor in it at all, so I gave a couple of dry laughs.

"How come I remember Louis teaching Shelley 'elegantly tearing apart the enemy' so many times, and Shelley still didn't learn it?"

"Shelley's berserk mode was self-taught; she already knew it before Louis taught her."

On the other side, Mary Shelley landed slowly, and suddenly exerted force when half of her foot touched the ground.

The gray ground rippled like liquid, then tore along the direction of the ripples, leaving cracks and raising gravel.

Mary Shelley, meanwhile, rushed through at a pace slightly slower than that of an average person.

Although it seems like a very dangerous scene, the slow playback makes it surprisingly calm.

Vladimir even had the mood to complain.

"So speed can be increased..."

Vladimir glanced at Shelley, whose speed and descent were significantly faster than Shelley's, and tilted his head in confusion.

"Or is it because he's grown a little bigger?"

"That's because Shelley's kinetic energy was already significantly reduced when she rushed in; the outer layer of the deceleration field created by 'False Peace' is the part with the strongest repulsive force."

Extending his left hand, Romain Rolland grasped another gray cube that was halfway generated, and tapped the outer shell with his finger to show Vladimir.

"This outer shell is a repulsive field, while the inside is a stagnant field. Although I don't know the exact principle, that's basically it."

So when Shelley rushed in, much of her kinetic energy had already been neutralized, which is why she appears to be moving faster now.

"I just mentioned it casually, why are you taking it so seriously! Put aside your commentary obsession, Shelley is about to burst out!"

Even if you're not nervous, now's not the time to start explaining your special ability, is it?

"Don't be so nervous."

Raising his right hand, Romain Rolland unleashed a beam of light from the ball of light in his hand, which shot towards the gray field.

Almost simultaneously, Mary Shelley burst out of the gray, stagnant field and saw the bright red beam of light rushing towards her.

Almost without thinking, Mary Shelley raised her hand to block.

The strange and loud noise seemed to indicate that a freshly washed piece of meat had been thrown directly into the oil.

Vladimir sniffed, feeling as if he could smell the burning of proteins.

After considering the possible source of the smell, Vladimir shuddered.

It sounds painful.

Romain Rolland raised the red orb of light in his hand, which had been restored in just seven or eight seconds, and raised an eyebrow at Mary Shelley.

"Temperature 2200 degrees Celsius, the ideal temperature for forging steel."

Mary Shelley lowered her left hand from the parry, grasped her elbow joint with her right hand, and pressed down hard.

With a sickening sound, Shelley twisted the charred forearm off the arm.

Even Frankenstein in berserk mode would be helpless against this temperature, and the only result would be being burned to a crisp.

Romain Rolland twitched the corners of his mouth, as if he wanted to smile.

"Unfortunately, Frankenstein's regeneration ability is a real bug."

Opposite him, Frankenstein's right hand twisted, extending sharp bones and writhing flesh; the arm that had vanished had more than half of its original size restored in just a few seconds.

Vladimir, standing behind Romain Rolland, was stunned.

"There's no way we can fight in this situation!"

Whether it's burning only one arm at over 2,000 degrees Celsius or regenerating an arm in five or six seconds, something doesn't seem right, does it?

"That's not necessarily true..."

Mary Shelley raised her newly regenerated arm and clenched her fists twice, seemingly to check if the arm was working properly.

Before Mary Shelley could make a move, Romain Rolland raised his right hand once more, unleashing a powerful "Iron Fire of War."

Unexpectedly, yet within Romain Rolland's expectations, the shot missed.

Mary Shelley dodged to the side almost the instant Romain Rolland raised his hand to attack. Her terrifying physical abilities and speed allowed her to easily avoid Romain Rolland's attack, and she rushed forward in one step.

"Nabokov!"

With time running out, Romain Rolland fell backward in a rather unorthodox bridge pose.

A huge cannonball swept past Romain Rolland, or rather, over him. The intense speed and the resulting wind pressure made Romain Rolland, who was already lying on the ground, feel a tearing pain.

The pain felt like having your skin ripped off.

This is still a distance of sixty or seventy centimeters.

Mary Shelley, who was charging straight toward Romain Rolland, took the cannonball head-on.

The sound of the arm catching the shell and the shell casing boomed like a heavy drumbeat, filling the eardrums. Blood gushed from the mouth in an almost spurting manner, accompanied by bits of flesh that slammed into the ammunition.

Mary Shelley's entire skeleton seemed to respond to the drumbeat, producing a crisp, percussive harmony in that instant.

It was a chilling ensemble of death and suffering.

However, it must be said that even under these circumstances, Mary Shelley remained standing.

"My God..."

Vladimir's expression no longer carried the maliciously portrayed childishness, but rather an extreme and distorted fear.

“That’s the ‘Master Key’…”

The super-heavy-duty "Master Key" is said to be able to withstand any blow without remaining structurally intact and not being torn apart (opening the door).

Humans would turn into a cloud of blood mist just from being hit head-on, let alone being hit directly.

Even with Romain Rolland's superhuman physical abilities, he felt as if his skin was about to be peeled off by the blast wave from a distance of seventy centimeters.

Even with such terrible injuries, Shelley still managed to take the hit directly.

And it retained its human form even after being struck.

Even with all her bones broken and her internal organs turned to blood, she still withstood the cannonball.

—And it is regenerating at a high speed.

Romain Rolland didn't reply. Instead, he swiftly rushed forward, pressed Mary Shelley's head down with his right hand, and fired a "War of the Irons" directly into Mary Shelley's face.

Mary Shelley, whose internal organs and bones were almost completely shattered, had no ability to fight back and was blasted away by Romain Rolland.

Catch—'The reaction force of the iron fire of war turned in the air, and Romain Rolland delivered a flying kick, sending Mary Shelley flying back into the "false peace" behind her.

Romain Rolland landed calmly, while Vladimir behind him stared in disbelief.

"We gained about half an hour more."

Romain Rolland unconsciously gripped the cube in his hand, which was already about three-quarters full, and turned to raise an eyebrow at Vladimir.

"This is all the fighting I need to do."

After all, their mission was merely to buy time.